ACE OF HEARTS ( mike wheeler! )

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

"Yup, that's me!" Bob exclaimed, looking around at the atmosphere. "Say, what is all this hanging up on the walls?"

"Bob, no questions," Mrs. Byers ordered, causing Bob to nod innocently. "We just need you to help us figure out what..."

Walking into the next room, Mrs. Byers glanced back at Bob, waving her hand, "Bob! Bob!"

As the man turned, Mrs. Byers ushered him into the next room. Nodding, Bob handed his belongings to Mike, who had slight trouble keeping them up.

"Here," Cassie spoke, taking the top three items off. "There, that's better."

"Thanks, Cassie," Mike smiled as the two walked over to the kitchen table and set the items down.

Walking back over to the two adults, the kids watched Joyce draw a big red 'X' in the center of the drawing.

"That's the objective," Mike informed the man. "Find the X."

"Yeah?" Bob exclaimed, a smile forming on his lips. "What's at the X? Pirate treasure?"

"No, but there is a pot of leprechaun gold," Cassie joked along, causing Mike to slightly nudge her.

"Bob, no questions," Mrs. Byers' repeated.

As the two adults left privately, Will, Cassie, and Mike took a seat at the kitchen table —dumbfounded.

Shoving his hands into his pockets, Mike spoke, "What if Hopper is already gone? I mean, you've seen the demogorgan. He isn't that friendly."

"Wouldja shut up?" Cassie spoke, raising her eyebrows and cocking her head to the side in Will's direction. "Besides, Hoppers a badass and I know he's smart enough to stay alive."

"How so?" Mike asked.

"I just do," Cassie replied.

"...okay, I get it! That's Lake Jordan!" A voice spoke, coming out of Mrs. Byers' room. "And if that's Lake Jordan, then you can probably find..."

Walking into the room where the three kids stood, Bob searched the walls, snapping his fingers and exclaiming, "Yeah, that's uh, Sattler's quarry!"

"And if you just follow it naturally, it moves to..." Bob trailed off, stopping in the living room. "The Eno River."

Leaning over to Mike, Cassie spoke, "What the hell is he talking about?"

Shrugging, the boy replied, "No idea."

"Okay, so the lines aren't roads," Bob spoke. "But they act like roads. And they act like roads, 'cause when you follow them, you'll see, they don't go over water."

"Don't you get it? It's not a puzzle..." Bob trailed off, lifting his hands up. "It's a map! It's a map of Hawkins!"

Raising her eyebrows, Cassie's eyes shot to Mike's, who held the same expression as her. If Will's drawings were a map of Hawkins, that meant the demogorgan was here.

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Laying out a map on the table, Bob pulled out a pen from his jacket and began to ask for the coordinates. Cassie made her way to the living room as he called out, "All right. I'm 3.6 inches, what do you got?"

"Twenty one feet, four inches," Mrs. Byers called from the hallway.

"What about Tippacanoe to Danford Creek?" Bob asked.

"Danford...where's Danford?"

"Dining room!" Will called.

Mrs. Byers sighed, "Sixteen feet, ten inches."

"What about Danford to Jordan?"

"Oh, come on," Mrs. Byers groaned, jogging over to Bob in the kitchen. "That's gotta be enough."

Bob sighed, "It's not...it's really not."

"Can't you figure it out?"

"I mean, if you were twisting my arm, and you are twisting my arm...I would say that the X is...a half mile southeast of Danford?"

"Thank you!" Mrs. Byers sighed in relief, kissing Bob's cheek in appreciation as she grabbed the map. "Thank you!"

Following Mrs. Byers outside, the three kids left Bob sitting dumfounded, "Wait...are we actually going?"

"You better get ready, Bob," Cassie spoke as the rest filed out to the car. "Things are gonna get weird."

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As the three kids stood at the edge of the hole, a rush of nervousness went through Cassie. If Hopper was down here overnight, he surely had a slim chance of surviving it.

"Did you see anything?" Mike asked, turning to Will. "I mean, in your now-memories?"

Will shook his head.

Suddenly, an abrupt screeching of tires caused the group of friends to turn around. When they did, they were met with multiple headlights driving towards the scene.

"It's them," Cassie spoke, clenching her fists as she watched them grow closer. "The bad men."

As the vans pulled up, multiple men hopped out in what seemed to look like space suits. Her eyebrows furrowing, she walked up to one of them, "Hey, who are you?"

"Don't worry," the man spoke, his voice muffled by the mask. "We'll take it from here."

Breathing heavily, Cassie watched as the men hoisted themselves into the hole. The men seemed to scatter everywhere around the area — flashlights in their hands as they studied the atmosphere.

A sudden gasp turned the heads of Mike and Cassie, only to find Will fallen on the ground — his body shaking violently as his eyes rolled the back of his head.

"Will, Will are you okay?!" Mike spoke, shaking the boy.

Cassie knelt down beside him, "Will, what's wrong?"

The shaking got worse, and suddenly, Will's body flipped over and screamed at the top of his lungs. Grabbing onto Mike's arm, Cassie backed away from the boy, gasping in horror.

"Don't look," Mike spoke, laying Cassie's head on his chest so she faced the opposite direction. "Don't look."