The large group had just finished emptying and masking the storage room in the Byers backyard. Mike thought that it would be a good idea to cover it all in cardboard, aluminum and black paper so Will doesn't recognize the place. They placed a chair in the middle of the room, another chair right across of it, and two lights in front of it. Jonathan sat Will on one of the chairs. The boy was still sleeping so they all had time to tie him on the chair, just incase he tries escaping.
Everything was ready now and they were just waiting for Will to wake up. They planned to remind Will of his good memories and somehow get him back.
Hopper ordered that all teens should go wait in the living room, except for Mike, Jonathan and Alex, since they were close with Will and they shared a lot of memories with him.
"What? What? What is this?" Will looks around the room, his eyes furrowed in confusion. "Why am I tied up?" He shakes trying to break free of the ropes.
"Will we just wanna talk to you." Joyce reaches for the boys hands. "We're not gonna hurt you." She assures.
"Where am I?" He repeats in a louder tone.
"You recognize this?" Hopper holds out the drawing of the Mind Flayer, showing it to Will.
The boy shakes his head no.
"Do you recognize this?" Hopper repeats his question, but Will shakes his head once again.
"Hey." Joyce catches his attention. "We wanna help you. But to do that, we have to understand how to kill it."
"Why am I tied up?" He shouts. "Why am I tied up? Why am I tied up?" His voice getting louder and harsher with every sentence.
"Hey!" Hopper holds him still.
"Let me go! Let me go!" The boy yells. His voice didn't even sound like his anymore. It was now sort of distorted and harsh. "Let me go! Let me go!" The lights start flickering.
After yelling and yelling, the boy got tired and finally calmed down. The lights stopped flickering, and Joyce started to speak.
"Do you know what March 22 is?" She looks at the boy. "It's your birthday. Your birthday. When you turned 8, I gave you that huge box of crayons. Do you remember that?" She forms a small smile on her face. "It was 120 colors. And all your friends, they got you Star Wars toys, but all you wanted to do was draw with your new colors." She reaches for his hand once again. "And you drew this big spaceship, but it wasn't from a movie. It was your spaceship. A rainbow ship is what you called it."
"Do you remember the day dad left?" Jonathan speaks up. "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 chuckles. "You missed the nail every time. And then it started raining, but we stayed out there anyway. We were both sick for like a week after that. But we just had to finish it, didn't we?"
"Do you remember the first day we met?" Mike now speaks. "It was... it was the first day of kindergarten." He says. "Alex wasn't here. I had nobody. I just felt so scared and alone, but then I saw you. I saw you on the swings and you were alone too. And I just walked up to you and, I asked." He smiles. "I asked if you wanted to be my friend. "
"I- I remember, a few years ago on Halloween. We were in your house, the three of us." Alex points to herself then Will and then Mike. "We were having a sleepover and it was pretty late. Mike was the first one to fall asleep." She chuckles brushing off her tears. "Then you came up with an idea, to prank him. We put some white sheets over our heads and then we asked Jonathan to play some scary music to scare him." She says, causing both Mike and Jonathan laugh. "And it worked. We scared the shit- I mean, we scared Mike. It was probably the stupidest prank we ever came up with, but it was fun." She smiles.
"Will, baby. If you're in there, just please, please talk to us." Joyce begs. "Please honey. Can you do that for me?"
"Let me go." Will breathes out.
Joyce sighs.
The plan didn't work. But just then, Hopper exits the room, confusing the four, however, they eventually ended up following him.
They all enter the house, and Hopper immediately grabs a piece of paper, placing it on the kitchen table.
"What happened?" Dustin asks, the rest of the group gathering around the table.
"I think he's talking." Hopper speaks. "just not with words" He draws a pattern on the of paper.
.... . .--. .
"What is it?" Steve asks.
"Morse code." The kids all speak in unison.
.... . .--. .
H-e-r-e
"Here." Lucas reads out.
"Will's still there. He's talking to us." Hopper drops his pen, facing Joyce.
-
Jonathan places his radio on the ground and sits down on the chair across Will. He plays Will's favorite song, "Should I Stay or Should I Go" by The Clash.
"Do you remember the first time I played you this?" He asks. "Mom and Dad were both arguing in the next room. So I played you the mix tape I made you, and it was the first time you got into music. Real music."
The group had planned to talk to Will, remind him of more happy memories and that would cause him to talk, but in Morse code.
Hopper would see the movements that he makes with his fingers and tell them to the group in the house, who were supposed to translate it.
"And then the party escaped into the sewers, and there were those big insects, and you guys were still on level one." Mike looks at the boy.
"Then you cast Fog Cloud and you saved us." Alex adds. "You saved the whole party."
"You saw that little girl and she was in that sandbox and she was crying." It was now Joyce's turn. "You gave her your Tonka Truck and I told you we couldn't afford to buy another one. But you said she should have it because she's sad."
The sound of a phone ringing then catches everyone's attention.
"Shit." Alex whispers turning to Jonathan who was next to her. Will has now closed his eyes, his eyeballs turning all around, searching for something.
"Hey. Can you hear me?" Joyce looks at the boy.
"I think it knows where we are." Alex says.
"It knows." Hopper nods.
"Oh, shit." Joyce curses, getting a needle and putting Will to sleep.
Jonathan, Hopper, Mike and Alex then exit the storage room and they hear some screeching sounds coming from the distance.
"They're coming." Jonathan turns to the group and runs back into the storage room. "They're coming!" He tells his mother.
"What?" She panics.
"Come on. Come on." Hopper starts untying Will from the chair, the four helping, and once they untied him, Jonathan placed him on his shoulder and they all rushed into the house.
Will was placed on the couch now and the party members were all watching outside of the window to see if theres anything or anyone outside.
"Hey. Hey! get away from the windows!" Hopper commands and they all back away.
"Do you know how to use this?" He then turns to Jonathan holding a gun in his hands.
"What?" Jonathan furrows his eyebrows.
"Can you use this?" Hopper repeats.
"I can." Nancy speaks from beside Jonathan. Hopper then throws her the gun, and they all turn to the window, almost everyone holding a weapon.
Hopper and Nancy had a gun, Steve had his infamous nail bat, and they stood in front of everyone. Alex had her powers and she stood in front of the party members, ready to protect them. Mike had some sort of decoration in his hands and Lucas had his wrist rocket.
A demogorgon then flies through the window, scaring everyone for a moment, but then they all start attacking it until they were assured that it's dead.
"Holy shit." Dustin curses.
"Is it dead?" Max asks.
"Yeah." Alex nods.
Hopper then walks up to it and shakes it with his foot. It was dead.
But the door then creaks open, catching everyone's attention. They point their weapons to the door, ready to attack, but instead of a monster walking into the house, it was a girl.
It was El.