𝔸𝕥 𝕊𝕚𝕩𝕖𝕤 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕊𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕟𝕤

ʙᴀʀɢᴀɪɴ ⑫

Saturday, November 12, 1983, Hawkins Indiana

Tyler was the first to jump out of Hopper's truck, followed by the police chief himself. It was his first visit to Hawkins Middle, and he hoped the next would be under better circumstances.

"How much salt do we need again?" he asked Jonathan, who'd climbed out of Joyce's Ford Pinto, parked next to them.

"1,500 pounds," the older boy answered.

The big order came from El, and, more specifically, Dustin and Mike. The two had sat everyone down in the Byers' home, explaining the gate underneath Hawkin's Lab. It turned out that Hopper had seen it before, which helped to unfold the next step in their plan: El using her powers to find Will.

Tyler had absorbed all the information easily, already knowing most of it, and eager to set to work. But one sentence from Nancy halted his train of thought.

"And my friend, Barbara?"

The confusion on his face was noticed first by Jonathan, who turned to him as Nancy asked El if she could find her friend, too.

"Who's Barbara?" Tyler had inquired, though a slow, rising voice in the back of his mind told him that he already knew.

"Nancy's best friend," Jonathan had responded quietly. "We think she got taken by the monster, too."

Memories of the pool he and Will had visited, the glasses laid in an empty grave, and a girl's voice desperately screaming, "NANCY!" ran through Tyler's mind. He realized, finally, that he knew the identity of the person who had been trapped there with them, alone and afraid in her final moments.

I could've saved her, he thought suddenly. He bent down on the couch, hands shaking as he stared at the carpeted floor. If I'd just run a little bit faster...

How could he break the news to Nancy? He wondered why she hadn't asked him about Barbara before, the night he'd spent at her house. Maybe she hadn't thought it was the right thing to do at the time.

Tyler stayed seated as the others moved around the room, gathering at Joyce's kitchen table, staring at El, her eyes shut as static from a walkie-talkie crackled in her ears. She was looking for the two people, and neither would be found.

Will was hiding, far away from the monster, and, in turn, anyone looking to find him. The Blank, Tyler had decided to call it, was a place that would house him, and keep him safe.

Barbara was dead, with no chance to return to the regular world, torn from the Earth, another innocent life lost.

But before he could speak up, the light in the kitchen flashed, dimming once before reverting to normal. Then, El's voice, soft and melancholic, confirmed his fears.

"I'm sorry. I can't find them."

Hope didn't leave Tyler, not like previous times. Another setback only left him more determined to figure out another way. And El provided it. She'd called it "the bath", which Dustin had quickly deciphered to be a sensory deprivation tank, capable of heightening El's powers. She wasn't strong enough with just the walkie and closed eyes. She needed more, and Tyler wanted to help.

Salt was one of the key components needed for the tank, which bags and bags were housed in the storage room next to the Hawkins Middle gym, sprinkled over the sidewalks during the winter months to prevent ice from forming.

The other was, of course, water, and a kiddie pool from Mike's house to hold it all. They rolled it out into the middle of the gym, filled it up, and dumped the salt into it, adjusting the temperature to be just right.