What Lies Beneath || Stranger Things

three || the foul

And without direction, it was one of the worst requests he had ever made.

All three boys broke out into specific recountings of the night not only at top speed, but over one another without care of who was being heard.

Hopper's brows lifted mildly, sighing as he waved a hand. "Okay, okay, okay. One at a time, alright?" He made direct eye contact with Mike. "You. You said he takes what?"

"He takes Mirkwood."

"Mirkwood?" Jim glanced to Callahan, his officer taking down what notes he could. "Have you ever heard of Mirkwood?"

Callahan shook his head lightly. "I have not. That sounds made up to me."

"No, it's from Lord of the Rings," Lucas replied.

"Well," countered Dustin, "The Hobbit."

Lucas' nose scrunched, turning in. "It doesn't matter."

"He asked!" Dustin stressed.

"He asked," he mocked bitterly.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Hopper shouted over the growing argument. "What'd I just say? One at a damn time. You."

"Mirkwood," Mike spoke up, "it's a real road. It's just the name that's made up. It's where Cornwallis and Kerley meet."

Hopper leaned back in the chair, looking to Callahan. "Yeah, all right, I think I know –"

"We can show you, if you want," Mike offered.

"I said that I know it," Hop interrupted flatly.

"We can help look," he defiantly replied, backed by Dustin and Lucas.

"No. No. After school, you are all to go home. Immediately. That means no biking around looking for you friend, no investigating, no nonsense. This isn't some Lord of the Rings book."

"The Hobbit," Dustin bit back.

Lucas groaned, smacking Dustin over Mike. "Shut up!"

Mike's lips pursed as the others hit each other with him crammed in the middle, the fighting only ceasing as Hopper lowered his voice.

"Do I make myself clear?" He stood from his chair, striking fear into their hearts of being arrested and never getting to play another video game again. "Do I make myself clear?"

The boys nodded, following with hesitant and quiet 'yes sir's as their hearts pounded in their chests.

Although they were scared, the boys were unsettled to think that Chief Hopper, former big city cop and now angry chief, seemed to have no interest in the curious case of Will Byers.

||

THE UPSIDE DOWN

Unlike home, there was no distinction between morning and evening.

There was only dark.

Will flipped over a sheathed bowie knife he'd been given in place of his rifle, turning it incessantly between his fingers as he followed in close pursuit next to whom he could respectively call 'Ten'.

If not for his watch, he wouldn't have been able to know what time it was.

And as it was nearing on two in the afternoon, there were still several unanswered questions. Questions of which Will had no idea how to ask.

Ten, wearing the same clothes she had been in when rescuing Will the night before, walked with a pure kind of confidence that Will had never seen before. Her backpack was re-racked with the matching set of tomahawks she seemed to favor and her impossibly long hair was tied up in a ponytail.