GLORY DAYS ｡STEVE HARRINGTON

CHAPTER THIRTY ; THE INTERROGATION OF WILL BYERS

"No," Mike stepped up beside the Chief, glancing over at Will, who was still lying on the couch, unconscious. "But he does. If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's Will. He's connected to it, he'll know its weakness."

"I thought we couldn't trust him anymore," Max wondered aloud. The rest of the group had moved so that they were behind Mike, all of them staring down at Will suspiciously. "That he's a spy for the mind flayer now.

"Yeah, but he can't spy if he doesn't know where he is," Mike's voice trailed off, and a light seemed to flicker on in Stella's mind, and she gasped. Everyone turned to face her, and she had a hopeful expression on her face.

Turning to Joyce, she felt her mind spinning. "The shed. Do you think we can take stuff out, maybe make it unfamiliar to him? Then he's separated from us, and you can get the information you need out of him in an environment he doesn't know."

"Yes, that's good," Hopper muttered, moving to the side and marching towards the backdoor. He swung it open and disappeared outside, Stella and Mike in pursuit. They followed him to the wooden shack several feet from the house, faint memories from the argument before in their minds. Hopper grabbed the door of the shed and opened it, peering inside and humming in approval. "This'll work."

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Stella's sneaker tapped impatiently against the ground, her eyes focused on an empty space in the wall. Her face was blank but her heart was racing, as was her mind. The house had returned to silence, everyone but Mike, Hopper, Joyce and Jonathan scattered across the main rooms. They had spent the last forty five minutes putting up newspapers across the shed, making it unrecognisable for Will. Then, he would be woken up and interrogated by those closest to him.

Every few seconds, Stella would hear Steve's bat swing, but she'd pay no mind to it. She was full of worry and uncertainty for what could happen next. What if Will figured out where he was? Would the Mind Flayer send all its Demodogs to the house? 

For some reason, Stella ended up thinking about her parents. They had no idea where she was, and she had been gone for two days. She had called them when she was at Dustin's, but now they were completely oblivious to her current location. There was nothing she could do but wait the night out, hoping that they wouldn't be too angry when she showed up with her broken hand and an unexplainable story to hide. 

An overwhelming amount of guilt began to cloud her being once she realised that she had left them on a sour note. What if she didn't survive this? What if she died never having come to peace with those that had raised her? She still planned to leave home, but after the argument that had ensued in their household (besides her brief settle with her mother in the emergency room), she would leave without saying goodbye, or I love you. 

That hurt to think.

But Stella didn't have much time to dwell on her problems, as the lights above her began flickering like mad. She was brought back to the lights in the Byers home the previous, year, and her stomach flipped inside out. 

Shooting up and grabbing her croquet mallet on the way, she joined the group of teenagers who stared out into the backyard, the gaps between the wood shining briefly. Muted yells crept across the grass and made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, but from the lack of action following, she knew it was nothing extreme. 

Ten minutes later, she found herself at the kitchen table, circling her finger around the rim of her water glass, her lips pursed as she anticipated what was coming next. There was nothing she could predict after what had happened to her that week, and so many things bombarded her mind she felt she was going crazy.