𝐩𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐮𝐭

xvii. YOUR MAGE

   

     "We kill everything it controls." Mike says as Charles looks at him. "We win." Dustin said and. "Theoretically." Lucas said causing Charles to look at him right away. "Alright. Great. So how do you kill this thing? Shoot it with Fireballs or something?" Hopper asked as he walked over and grabbed the book from Nancy's hands.

Dustin chuckles, "no. No, no fire— no fireballs." He says it more seriously. "Uh, you summon an undead army, uh, because.. because zombies, you know, they don't have brains, and the mind flayer, it.. it.. it likes brains." Dustin kept stammering. "It's just a game." Charles said as he sighs.

"It's just a game." Dustin repeated and Hopper closes the book, throwing it onto the table. "What the hell are we doing here?" He says, walking away. "I thought we were waiting for your military backup." Dustin said sassily. "We are!" Hopper raised his voice and Charles flinched slightly.

"Even if they come, how are they gonna stop this? You can't just shoot this with guns." Mike also raised his voice and Charles sighs, looking down. "You don't know that! We don't know anything!" Hopper says. "We know it's already killed everyone in that lab." Charles exclaimed loudly.

"And we know the monsters are gonna molt again." Lucas said next. "And we know that it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town." Dustin said, all of them backing up Mike. "They're right." They all look over at Joyce.

"We have to kill it. I want to kill it." She said as Hopper walked over to her, Sarah just standing there and watching. "Me, too." Hopper tells her. "I—" "Me, too, Joyce, okay? But how do we do that? We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here." Hopper said as Charles looked at Will.

"No. But he does." He says and the two look at him as he walks towards where Will was laying on the couch in the livingroom. "If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's Will." He said as they all come to walk to the livingroom where he stood at the entry way of now. "He's connected to it. He'll know its weakness." He explained.

"I thought we couldn't trust him anymore." Max said, now standing at Charles' side. "That he's a spy for the mind flayer now." She adds and he thinks for a moment. "Yeah, but.." He paused. "He can't spy if he doesn't know where he is." He said in sync with Mike who stood on the other side of him.

     Charles helps Hopper empty out the shack in the back before headed inside, helping Mike and Max in the kitchen. Mike takes out the bottle of ammonia as Max and Charles put cardboard all over on of the chairs. It was quiet until Max spoke, "I get why El was your mage now." She said, smiling making Charles look at her instantly but then look away at the mention of the girl from last year, wrapping one of the legs of the chair in cardboard.

     Mike looks over his shoulder at her, "what?" He says in confusion. "Lucas. He told me all about her." She said as she sets down the roll of duct tape. "Yeah, well, he shouldn't have." Mike said and Charles rolls his eyes. "And just because you know the truth, it doesn't mean you're in our party." Mike said and Charles sighs. "You do know that, right?" He said and Max looked away, obviously hurt.

     "Yeah.. I know." She said as she helps take the cardboard with Charles who looked at her again. "I mean, why would you want a stupid zoomer in your party anyway?" She asked and Charles looks at her. "You're not stupid.." He says and she just looks at him, smiling just slightly.

    "I'm just saying, El? She sounds like she was really awesome." Max said and Charles smiled at that. "Yeah, she was.." Mike said. "She really was.." Charles said, still smiling. "Until that thing took her." Mike said. Always the fucking downer. Charles sighed, looking at the boy who took all the supplies he had gathered. "Just like it took Bob." He said before he stood up and walked away.

     Charles sighed again, then noticed Max was looking down again, she looked sort of upset or hurt by Mike's attitude. He reached out towards her, nudging her arm with his hand.

     "Hey, ignore Mike.." Charles said and Max looks at him. "You're totally welcome in our party anytime, okay? Mike is just upset, he was before, a year ago, and he still is because.. he grew a connection with El that was different than mine with her or Lucas' or Dustin's. You know.. they kissed." He says and she smiled slightly at that. At first she didn't realize what he meant, about Mike and Eleven being more romantically bonded than platonically until Charles stated that they kissed.

    "Were they cute together?" She asked as they take cardboard around the other leg of the chair, the last one then they would be done. Charles was thankful for that, he was getting kind of annoyed of this now. "Of course.. Eleven was so adorable, she didn't know much, but Mike welcomed her with open arm, but it did cause some tension between the party, but we worked through it.. Like we always do, and it will be the exact same once Mike will be okay with you joining." He says as he looks at her and she smiled at that right away but it falters.

    "I don't think he ever will be.. I'll just be the girl tagging along because of Dustin and Lucas." She says and Charles sighs. "Guess how El became a party member? Only two of us liked her, the other two didn't want her in the party, but she ended up the party anyway." He says and she smiled widely at his positive and optimistic attitude. "You sure are something, Charles Dumont." She said as they lift up the two chairs to set them upright.

    "Charleston Dumont." He corrects her and she chuckled, punching his arm lightly. "Come on, we better help set up with the others." She said and so the group of eleven set up the shack, covering every inch of it so Will wouldn't recognize it, put up sheets, papers, tarpaulin covers and cardboard.

     Then Joyce brought Will into the shack, setting him down onto the chair that Max brought out. They wrap ropes around him, his wrists and his ankles as Joyce got the tranquilizer ready. Mike and Charles set up the lights which Lucas plugs in and they both turn on, they were bright.

      "Alright, you ready?" Hopper asked Joyce. "Yeah." She said and he walks over, holding the bottle of ammonia which he opens to pour a bit onto a cotton swab which he holds up to Will's nose and the boy gasped loudly, waking up.

   

   

    

     

      

authors note will in morse code: i love charles
dustin: *writes it down*
everyone: *pretends to be shocked*
LMAO JDJSJS i crack myself up😎 *slaps knee*