Beep. Beep. Beep.
Everything was moving so slowly. All he could see was a blur of white coats as a crowd of doctors swarmed around the hospital bed like a hive of bees. He watched their mouths move but he couldn't hear a word. All he could hear was...
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Like a wave, they parted, revealing to him a glimpse of his daughter; still, lifeless. Her closed lids were sunken and her pale skin clung to her bones. It was still a terrible surprise every time he saw her like this.
Tears poured down his cheeks. He didn't notice. His heart was racing. He didn't notice. He could hardly breathe. He didn't notice.
All he noticed was her. And that incessant beeping.
Beep. Beep. Beeeeeeeeeeep.
The flurry of doctors began to move frantically, blocking his daughter from his view again. He tried to push towards them to see her but he felt something holding him back and looked down to see the tear-stained face of his wife. Her eyes hollowed his body out, devouring all thought and feeling until the only thing he knew was emptiness. And what that last beep meant.
"I'm sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Hopper." One of the doctors approached him and his wife. "She's gone. Sarah has passed."
"Oh, come on!" Dustin shouted and threw his hands up in the air. "I was this close!"
He angrily slammed his hands against the buttons on the Tron arcade game, receiving a sharp look from Keith, who had his feet up on the prize counter.
"Sorry, Keith," Dustin apologized sheepishly, flashing his toothless smile. Keith rolled his eyes until they returned back to the comic he was reading.
"Give me a try," Lucas said, shoving Dustin aside and grabbing the joystick.
"Nuh-uh," Dustin argued, shoving him back. "I've been working at this game all day, go find another one."
"Like what?" Lucas pushed his body against Dustin, trying to maintain his hold on the joystick.
"I don't know, go play Frogger or something!" Dustin wrestled Lucas for control of the joystick and they were soon entangled in a mess of arms and legs.
"Absolutely not, that game is for little kids!"
They both felt an arm on their shoulder, and within moments they were pulled apart and yanked away from the game.
"Right now you're both acting like little kids," Max snapped, crossing her arms and blocking them from the arcade game. The two were stunned silent. "I think it's my turn to play."
Max dropped a quarter into the machine and began jabbing at buttons and moving the joystick at impressive speeds. After a shared glance, Dustin and Lucas resolved to set aside their differences for the sake of watching Max play.
Watching from the corner booth was Will, who sat with his back to the wall and his knees tucked into his chest. Will sighed as he looked across the booth to the rest of their party: Mike and Eleven locking lips. Between the squabbling and the kissing, he didn't know which was worse.
He had been trying to convince his friends to play his new D&D campaign all day, but they couldn't seem to agree on what to do anymore after everyone had started "coupling up". He had only agreed to come to the arcade because then Mike, Eleven, Max, and Lucas would have to act somewhat normal. Or at least that's what he had thought.
A tingling sensation crept across the back of Will's neck and he anxiously wiped it away. That feeling only came when there was something bad about to happen, and there couldn't be something bad about to happen. They had closed the gate. The Upside Down was locked away. He was just cold, or something...
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She stood atop the hill, staring down at the quaint town before her. The dim lights of various houses and businesses lit up the darkness around her, even from far away. The sign to her right read, "Welcome to Hawkins". She didn't know where she was or why she was there, but something deep down told her to keep walking.
A crackle of blue electricity ran between her fingers like a web, illuminating the tattoo on her left wrist: 001.
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