❛ MY BOY ❜ ʙɪʟʟʏ ʜᴀʀɢʀᴏᴠᴇ

SIXTEEN ! chief hoppers story

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━ ᵇᶦˡˡʸ ʰᵃʳᵍʳᵒᵛᵉ

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHIEF HOPPERs STORY

"SO YOU'RE NOT COMING?"

Sara asked Steve, her arms crossed and her weight shifted onto one leg. She was stood next to the counter in the kitchen while Steve ate his dinner silently. The only sound he made was purposely scraping his fork on the plate to make her leave him alone.
"I can't believe you, Steve. You've been a real dick lately."

She picked up her flashlight and left the house, clutching her keys in her fist in anger. She didn't understand why Steve was being so weird, he used to join her in the past searches for Will, but the last two times he had strictly refused. Shaking her head, she headed towards the woods where she saw the glimmer of Hopper's police car lights, flashing from red to blue, searching for any evidence of Will.

"Hey Hop," Sara greeted the man, watching him rummage around in the passengers seat of the khaki vehicle, "quiet night?"
He raised his head out of the vehicle, his pointy hat accidentally hitting the door frame and tipping in front of his eyes. He chuckled to himself, his thin smile poking through his tawny beard, and fixed the brim.

"Yeah, just me on the job ─ and you, of course," he replied, smacking his flashlight so it wouldn't blink every minute, "we shouldn't even be looking anymore, a body was found." He revealed, a sigh following his sentence.

"Will Byers?" Sara asked, her face sinking, remorse for Joyce and Jonathan filling up inside her chest.

"Apparently. I'm looking into it," he stuttered, waving the flashlight around the area, "we're out here 'cause Joyce isn't giving up."

Sara sighed, thinking about what Joyce and Jonathan were going through.
"What do you think about it all?"

"That's confidential." He concluded, swaying the flashlight in between the bushes and trees, inspecting the ground carefully. He did want to share all the information he knew to Sara, but he wasn't sure if he would be able to. He decided it was best if he didn't, for now.

"Your opinion is confidential?" Sara laughed, "of course it is." She happily sighed, following Hopper down a dirt path that lead deeper into the woodland.

Hopper looked at the girl, her eyes wide as she examined the shadows around them carefully. Her hair hung softly behind her ears, dancing in the light evening breeze. He thought about his own daughter and how her hair used to look exactly like it.
"Y'know, my daughter's name is Sara."

"Oh, really?" Sara replied smiling, not ever knowing that Hopper had children. She wondered what his wife looked like, and what his family liked to do. She imagined he would take them fishing ─ something dad-like ─ and teach them how to cast a successful line. She huffed silently to herself, thinking how sweet the event would be.

"Yeah. You remind me of her, too." He shrugged, following along a narrow, mud path that took them into the shadowy depths of the trees. They roamed until the sky could no longer be seen for the leaves were thick enough to block out the bright moon and shining stars.
Hopper shivered in the cold temperatures, his breath visible in the air and wondered how Sara was not complaining like any other teenage girl would. But he could hear her teeth chattering and assumed she was the quiet type who would suffer in silence.

"Maybe you should head home, kiddo--"

"Wait! What's that?" Sara jogged over to a tree root that had emerged from the ground. It appeared to have snagged on some kind of clothing. Sara shined the flashlight on the fabric, illuminating the pattern.
"Looks like a torn up hospital gown." She suggested.

Hopper squatted beside her, using his thumb and index finger to pinch the piece of cloth and raise it in front if his eyes to inspect. He then looked into the distance, and not far away was the laboratory that always seemed suspicious in his eyes.

"Nice job, kid," He complimented, "you can head home, I think we're done here for tonight." He said, scowling at the building with a plan looming in his head.

Sara trudged along the dark road, listening to the distant sound of engines and passing birds heading south, as Hopper drove his Chevrolet down a winding lane towards his lakeside trailer.
It was a simple, old thing, covered in dirt markings and growing plants against the walls. But it was his home. It was also quiet. He didn't like being alone, yet unfortunately he had no choice in his family status, and the emptiness of the bedrooms haunted his mind every time he walked through the side door.
The floorboards creaked over the sound of his heavy sigh as he removed his hat from his head, wiping his forehead from it's sweat. He pushed his hair back and placed the kettle onto the stove, allowing the water to boil. He then opened the sliding doors that faced the wide lake. The water was calm, various bugs and moths fluttering over the surface, disrupting it's stillness, creating tiny ripples here and there.

A shrill whistle invaded his peace, forcing him to remove the kettle from the heat and pour it into a cup that he had used that very morning. The coffee was stale and he regretted ever taking a sip. The bitterness lingered in his mouth moments later, as he prepared himself to speak on the telephone.
He listened to the heart racing dialling tone and it's ring and waited for her to pick up. He wanted her to pick up the phone, but then ignore it because he didn't know what to say otherwise.

"Hello?" She answered. Fuck.
"Jim..." her voice faded, a deep sorrow laced within it.

"I just wanna say that ─ um," he paused, wrapping his finger around the telephone chord. He found himself forgetting what he wanted to talk about, in fact he had no idea what to even begin with.
"Even after everything, I don't regret any of it," there was silence as he rambled on, "I'm sorry."

Her voice was shaking.
"Jim, I can't..."

"Just take care of yourself, okay?" He said, a stinging present in his chest, a sensation that he felt almost everyday without her. And with that, he hung up, not wanting to hear what she might've said in case it hurt too much.  He sat on the floor, a blue hair band around his knuckles, squeezing them together the longer that remained there. He stared until his vision went blurry and wondered how he ever let it get so bad ─ the loneliness.
          The bedrooms were just hollow shells of who used to sleep there, the wallpaper stained with crayon drawings of happy families and picnic scenes, even the bed was messy as nobody ever had the time to make it. He didn't dare touch it. Instead he kept it the way it was left the day she went.

AUTHORS NOTE.

HEY. IT'S ME. MOOSE.

be prepared for a huge arGuMenT in the next chapter

i'll try to get it published asap

but pls respect the fact that i am in the middle of my exams nd i'm v stressed haha
also good luck to anyone else who is doing their exams too!!!!

see u soon bbs
xo