𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝒩𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉 𝒲𝑒 𝑀𝑒𝓉

20. 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔪𝔦𝔫𝔡 𝔣𝔩𝔞𝔶𝔢𝔯 𝔭𝔞𝔯𝔱 𝔱𝔴𝔬

Hopper joined Joyce's side, breathing in heavily, "You recognize this?" Jim asked, moving his hand up to reveal Will's drawing of the Mind Flayer. When Will stayed silent, his eyes glaring into the photo, Hopper repeated himself in a louder voice, "Do you recognize this?" He shook the drawing slightly as Will shook his head, lightly, not looking away from it.

"Hey. We wanna help you." Joyce piped up, her voice remaining in the calm voice as Will's eyes darted up to hers, "But to do that, we have to understand how to kill it."

"Why am I tied up?" Will shouted out right in her face, struggling against the ropes and the tape, "Why am I tied up? Why am I tied up? Why am I tied up?" He yelled over and over again, his voice getting more and more shrill with every sentence.

Will kicked and shimmied, screaming the same sentence continuously. The light flickered a little, getting dimmer as Hopper and Joyce tried calming him down. "Let me go! Let me go! Let me go! Let me go!" Will's voice grew a bit deeper as he continued shrieking and kicking at the chair.

After a moment, Will's voice fell into a pant, still muttering the same words over again until he fell silent, the light returning to its usual brightness. Will glared at Joyce, breathing heavily. She composed herself, sitting up fully.

"Do you know what March 22nd is?" The boy stayed still, taking in his mother's hushed words, "It's your birthday." She paused for a second, "When you and Y/n turned eight, I gave you that huge box of crayons. Do you remember that? It was 120 colors. And all your friends, they got you Star Wars toys but all you wanted to do was draw with all your new colors. And you drew this big spaceship, but it wasn't from a movie."

Joyce sniffled a little bit, wiping the forming tears in her eyes as her voice bounced a little bit. "I-I-It was your spaceship. A rainbow ship; that was what you called it. And you... you must have used every color in the box. I-I took that with me to Melvald's and I put it up and I told everyone who came in, 'My son drew this'. And you were so embarrassed. But I was so proud. I was so, so proud."

All went silent in the shed as Will just glowered to his mother, that was until Jonathan spoke up with, "Do you remember the day that Dad left?" Will averted his eyes up to Jonathan who stood just behind the light, the light illuminating a red hue onto his face.

Jonathan took a knee right next to his mother as everyone in the shed watched on, curiously, "You, me, and Y/n... we stayed up all night building Castle Byers... just the way you drew it. And it took so long because you were so bad at hammering." He chuckled, breathily, Joyce smiling tearfully at her sons. "You'd miss the nail everytime." He laughed. Y/n could've sworn she had see him stifle a little smile.

"And then it started raining but we all stayed out there anyway. The three of us we all sick for like a week after that. But we just had to finish it, didn't we?" A little tear glimmered in Jonathan's left eye as he sniffled a little with his words. Will taped the side of his chair a little, gaining a few of their attention yet they all didn't pay much kind to it.

"Remember when Jonathan taught us how to play chess?" Y/n chimes in, everyone looking to her, "We had to be like seven years old and we both were so bad at it." She laughed, quietly, "We used to play for hours and hours after school every single day. We both knew we sucked at it but w-we didn't even care. Do you remember when we would play in Castle Byers when it was nice out and Mom always had to drag us out?"

Joyce chuckled a little, Y/n joining in, "It really feels like yesterday." She breathed out, Will's eyes softening a little as he looked from one of his family members to the next.