Bound By Shadows 3 | Will Byers x Reader (Fem)

~ 24 ~

The car ride back from the hospital was silent at first. Too silent. The kind of silence that hummed, heavy and suffocating. We'd all just stood there and watched that... thing slide into the sewers like it had a plan, like it was mocking us.

My hair still smelled faintly of smoke. My clothes were gritty with dust and sweat. Everyone looked the same — grimy, pale, blood and plaster streaked across their skin.

Nancy gripped the steering wheel tighter than usual, knuckles white. Jonathan sat stiff in the passenger seat, staring blankly through the windshield. In the back, the rest of us were crammed shoulder-to-shoulder, sagging into the seats, the weight of failure pressing down.

"We'll regroup tomorrow," Nancy said finally, voice quiet but edged, like she was forcing herself to sound steady. "Showers. Sleep. Then... we'll figure out what's next."

"Yeah," Jonathan added, glancing back at us. "We can't do anything else tonight."

No one argued. We couldn't.

Mike slumped against the window, his voice flat. "We need to swing by our house anyway. Everyone's bikes are still there."

"Right," Nancy murmured. 

That broke the silence enough for the rest of us to start mumbling logistics.

"I'll stick with El," Max said quickly, cutting off whatever Mike had been about to suggest. "She can ride on the back of mine."

El didn't look at Mike, just gave Max a small nod. The tension between them was thick, unspoken but sharp.

Jonathan glanced back again. "And me and Will'll just head home."

I stayed quiet until I felt Will's shoulder brush mine, almost nudging me forward. "What about you?" he asked softly.

I shrugged. "I'll just go home." The words came out without thought, but the second I said them, it hit me. My chest lurched.

"Oh my god." My hands flew up to my face, pressing hard. "I haven't been home in—" I counted, lips moving faintly, "—three days."

Everyone looked at me.

I groaned into my palms. "Seriously, Steve hasn't hunted me down yet? That's... weird. Where even is he? He knows me, I don't just disappear like this."

"Hey," Nancy said quickly, glancing at me in the rearview. "I'm sure he's fine. You've been busy."

"Busy?" I gave a shaky laugh. "We've been dodging monsters, and Steve's out there... what, working at scoops? No. Something's off. He'd have called. Or shown up. Or both."

"Maybe he's with Dustin," Will offered gently. "He could know something we don't."

That thought didn't comfort me as much as it should have.

Jonathan's eyes flicked up in the rearview mirror, steady and careful. "I'll drive you," he said. "We'll check your place, make sure he's there. And if not... we'll figure it out."

I exhaled slowly, nodding. It wasn't just Steve. It was the way my nerves screamed not to be alone, not tonight. And Jonathan clearly knew Will wasn't about to let me out of his sight either.

The car fell quiet again, only the low hum of the engine filling the space as Nancy turned us toward Maple Street. Out the window, Hawkins blurred past in streaks of orange streetlights and shadows. The town looked the same as it always did, quiet and empty. But I couldn't shake the thought that everything had shifted — that underneath it all, something monstrous was moving just out of sight.

******

Nancy pulled into the Wheelers' driveway, headlights washing the familiar white siding in a pale glow. The car rolled to a stop, the hum of the engine cutting out. For a second no one moved — the silence inside heavier than the quiet street outside.