Feelings, Max Mayfield ¹ ✓

xiii. the mind flayer

They all hurried to get into the truck and Steve waited behind until all of the kids got in before he did. Liz sat beside Max and her eyes softened once she saw an unconscious Will in Joyce's arms. She was wearing a nurses scrubs that had some blood on them and Will was wearing a hospital gown. Liz's eyes widened but Joyce was quick to shake her head and put an arm on the girl's leg, "We gave him a sedative. He's okay."

"Why were you there?" Lucas questioned. "What happened to Will?"

"It's... it's a long story," Hopper answers for Joyce, who looked like she had just seen a ghost. "We'll explain when we get to Joyce's."

No one spoke another word as Hopper sped through Hawkins.

◌ ◌ ◌

As soon as they arrived at the Byers household, Hopper placed Will, who was still unconscious, on the couch. Jonathan and Nancy, who had arrived at about the same time as Hopper and the others, were kneeled down beside Will, holding his hand as Jonathan apologized to him. In the hallway, Hopper was standing by the phone on the wall, one hand held the phone up to his ear while the other was running through his hair in frustration. He was arguing with someone who clearly wasn't believing what had happened at Hawkins Lab not even an hour ago. Everything that happened had gotten explained to them the minute the arrived at that Byers household. Liz was sat at the table in the kitchen with the rest of the party, right beside Max, while Steve was leaning against one of the kitchen counters, while his infamous bat was next to him.

Eventually, Hopper hung up the phone, slamming it into the receiver with a sharp clash, alerting everyone that the people on the other line didn't believe him.

"They didn't believe you, did they?" Dustin questions, the only member of the party actually standing up, along with Steve who had now started pacing.

"We'll see."

Liz jumped slightly as Mike slammed his hands on the table, "We'll see? We can't just sit here while those things are loose!"

"We stay here," Hopper states sternly, "and we wait for help!" He left the room, going to find Joyce who was grieving in one of the bedrooms over her boyfriend, Bob. He had been killed trying to protect her. Liz had never met him but Will had talked about him before and she knew he was nice.

Liz toyed with her fingers in her lap and looked around at the house that was covered with drawings that were all apparently a part of the underground tunnels the Mind Flayer had created. She had nothing else to do besides study them and be disturbed at the fact that Will was only able to draw them, because of the thing inside him. Despite the threat of that, there was nothing they could do right now and they all knew that, but none of them liked it.

   Liz watched as Mike stood up, and picked up a small blue box, bringing it over to the table, "Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV? He petitioned the school to start it and everything. And then, he had a fundraiser for equipment. Mister Clarke learned everything from him. Pretty awesome, right?"

"Yeah." Liz, Dustin, and Lucas smiled in unison.

"We can't let him die in vain," Mike states.

"Well, what do you wanna do, Mike?" Dustin yells. "The Chief's right on this. We can't stop those Demodogs on our own."