ᵖᵃʳᵗ ³ - ғɪɴᴅɪɴɢ ᴡɪʟʟ
❛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴀᴍᴜsᴇ ᴍᴇ. ❜
Seven and Eleven were sitting on the couch. Both bored as they listened to the boys talking about the plan.
The boy was lucky since the conversation was slightly muffled from the headphones on his ears, but poor El had to suffer from their voices, Seven sympathized watching the girl fiddle with the radio that the boy had become accustomed to seeing.
"That'll give us at least a few hours for Operation Mirkwood," Mike said.
"You seriously think that those weirdos know where Will is?" Lucas raised a brow, leaning on the table they surrounded.
"Just trust me on this, okay?" Mike rolled his eyes, tired of Lucas doubting him. "Did you get the supplies?"
Lucas grinned excitedly, shrugging the bag off his back, opening it and setting the things on the table with each item he said. "Binoculars... from 'Nam. Army knife... also from 'Nam. Hammer, camouflage bandana... and the wrist rocket."
Seven leaned forward, elbows on his knees, his eyes narrowed in curiosity, what damage could he do with a freaking slingshot?
"You're gonna take out the Demogorgon with a slingshot?" Dustin voiced his thoughts, furrowing his brows at his friend as Seven bit his lip to keep from laughing at Lucas' face.
"First of all, it's a wristrocket. And second of all, the Demogorgon's not real. It's made up. But if there is something out there, I'm gonna shoot it in the eye...and blind it.
Mike looks between his two friends before shaking his head with a sigh, "Dustin, what did you get?"
Dustin eagerly opened his bag, dumping all the contents onto the table, making Eleven snap her head up to look since it was loud and also cause she heard Seven snort.
"Alrighty, we've got... Nutty Bars, Bazooka, Pez, Smarties, Pringles, Nilla Wafers, apple, banana, and trail mix." Dustin listed off, looking up to see Mike's and Lucas' unimpressed faces.
"Seriously?" Lucas grumbled.
"We need energy for our travels. For stamina. And besides, why do we even need weapons anyway? We have her." Dustin exclaimed, gesturing to El who looked at them with wide eyes.
"She shut one door!" Lucas shouted.
"With her mind! That's insane! Imagine all the other cool stuff she could do. What if Seven has superpowers too?" Dustin stopped, thinking over his words before quickly spinning to stare at Seven, "Do you have superpowers?"
Seven arched a brow at Dustin's eagerness but just smirked and didn't answer, opting to ignore the boys' conversation and stare at Lucas once again, just to see the boy squirm.
"Boys! Time for school!"
Karen, Mike's mother's voice shouted from upstairs. Lucas and Dustin hurriedly ran up the stairs, Seven's lip quirking when Dustin almost pushed Lucas over.
When the boys were out of his sight, his eyes trailing to Mike who crouched down in front of them, "Just stay down here. Don't make any noise, and don't leave. If you get hungry, eat Dustin's snacks, okay?"
Eleven just stared at him in curiosity while Seven nodded at Mike's words, both of them flinching when Karen shouted once again.
"Michael!"
Mike turned, shouting, "Coming!" the boy turned back to the two, his expression softening drastically making Ven narrow his eyes.
"You know those power lines?" Mike asked, his question was towards both of them yet his eyes were trained on El making Ven scoot closer to the girl.
Eleven glanced at the boy next to her before her attention returned to Mike, "Power lines?"
"Yeah, the ones behind my house?"
"Yes." Seven answered.
"Meet us there, after school."
"After school?" Eleven questioned, her brows furrowed.
"Yeah, 3:15."
Mike glanced at Seven's unimpressed face before realization hit him, the raven-haired boy took his watch off, clasping it around El's wrist. "When the numbers read three-one-five, meet us there."
"Three-one-five," El repeated, the number engraved in her head as she looked at the thing on her wrist in amazement.
"Three-one-five." Mike smiled softly at the girl before saying bye to both of them and leaving up the stairs, leaving the two alone.
Seven fiddled with the walkman on his lap, glancing at the girl by his side. "Is Will really there?"
Eleven's eyes snapped to the boy, swallowing thickly as she took in the glare on Ven's face, shrugging her shoulders.
Seven sighed, leaning his head against the back of the couch, "You know this is dangerous, right?"
El just nodded a sad smile on her face.
The two sat in silence for a while, the only noise was from the people upstairs finally leaving the house, leaving the two in the house completely alone.
Eleven was sitting on the floor making one of Mike's toys float with her mind while Seven lied on the couch, music blasting in his ears as he quietly sang along to the words that were already stuck in his head.
"I will be king. And you, you will be queen. Though nothing will drive them away. We can be heroes, just for one day. We can be us--"
El nudges him, bored and fed up with his singing. Ven gazes at the girl in concern while taking his headphones off slowly.
The girl just shook her head and stood up, grabbing onto his hand and pulling him up with all her strength, not that she had to use it since the boy was small for his age.
Seven confusedly followed the girl as she led them upstairs, the boy wanted to pull her back and tell her to listen to Mike but he knew she wouldn't listen anyway.
She let go of his hand when they made it upstairs, her feet dragging to the living room, looking at random things, her fingers trailing gently over the objects.
Seven put the headphones around his neck, looking around also his sad eyes going over to the family photos, no matter how much it hurt to look at the smiling faces of the happy family his eyes couldn't be taken off of them.
The boy winced when his head began to pound, black spots clouding his vision before clearing.
Ven turned to El, noticing she was in a trance-like state most likely remembering her traumatizing stay at the lab, his eyes trailing to the T.V. seeing a Coke commercial on T.V that must have triggered her.
The boy walked closer to her slowly to not scare her, carefully helping her off the floor and leading her downstairs again, trying to block out her thoughts since he knows the girl doesn't like him prying around in her head unless she gave him permission.
──
"--It's the terror of knowing what the world is about.
Watching some good friends screaming 'Let me out'"
"Do you have to sing?" Eleven questioned in a monotone voice, raising her brows at the boy once she snatched the headphones off his ears.
Seven blinked, a fake offended look on his face. "Are you saying my singing is bad?"
Eleven rolled her eyes, looking down at her lap to hide the smile pulling on her lips, her eyes catching on the watch, her breath hitching when she saw it was time.
"Three-one-five." El breathed out, nudging Ven harshly making him rub the place she hit.
Seven helped Eleven put the sweater Mike gave her on before putting his on by himself, the boy grabbed the girls hand and dragged her to the basement door that led to outside, each step bringing them closer to the power lines.
Eleven started pacing, her eyes latched on the watch, muttering the numbers under breath as Seven just leaned against the fence, both waiting for the boys to show up.
Seven had his headphones on, not noticing El having a flashback as she stared at the fat orange cat next to Ven.
The boy saw movement in the corner of his eye making him look up from the grass, turning off the music so he could hear them but mute their thoughts.
"Hop on. We only have a few hours." Mike stated, patting the back of his bike, looking at El.
Seven crossed his arms, raising a brow when El got on, the boy looked towards Dustin, knowing Lucas won't want him on his bike.
The curly-haired boy glanced at Lucas a sly grin on her face. "You could ride with Lucas."
Lucas glanced at Dustin with a scoff before connecting eyes with Ven, both boys rolling their eyes while Seven walked up to Lucas and climbed on the back, hesitantly holding onto Lucas' jacket before they all rode off.
──
The group of kids all walked on the train tracks that were tucked in the woods.
Mike and El were leading, talking quietly among themselves as the other threes were walking behind, Ven in between the boys who were rolling their bikes alongside them.
Lucas sighed, watching Eleven and Mike who were smiling at each other before glancing towards Ven who was staring at his -well Mike's shoes, bobbing his head to whatever was playing through the speakers on his ears.
Seven stopped the music, looking up when he felt piercing eyes staring at him, catching Lucas' gaze. The small boy took one of the headphone speakers off his ear, "hmm?"
"Do you know where we're going?" Lucas asked, raising his brows, the boy was growing tired, it was almost dark out and his legs were aching from walking, no doubt about the other's hurting as well.
Seven gulped, staring up at the boy who was a few inches taller, well everyone was taller than him really, "No, sorry."
The boy left the speaker off his ear, the other one listening to the faint music.
"Why do you speak normally?"
"What do you mean?" Ven furrowed his brows.
"Eleven, she only knows a few words, you, you speak complete sentences." Lucas pointed out, the conversation catching Dustin's attention who stared at Ven with curiosity too.
Seven glanced between the two, nervously chuckling, "Um... I'm smarter...?"
Lucas rolled his eyes, "How?"
"I learn from people's thoughts."
"Are you a mind reader?!" When Ven doesn't respond, Dustin's eyes widened, excitedly looking at the small boy. "Seriously!? What am I thinking about?"
Seven took the headphones off completely letting them sit on his neck, staring at the curly-haired boy, sucking in a breath at the pain invading him. "You're thinking about how cool this is, and what else I could do."
"Anybody could guess that." Lucas scoffed, suspicion seeping through his voice, "What number am I thinking about?"
Seven raised a brow at the boy in amusement, "Trick question, you're not thinking of a number, you're just saying 'I don't believe him' and 'he's lying'"
Lucas narrowed his eyes at the boy, swallowing thickly as his heart fluttered when he saw Ven's growing smile.
"You amuse me," Ven said with no emotion in his voice as he takes in the battle in Lucas' head.
Seven walked towards El and Mike when he heard Lucas cursing over and over in his head, the boy going back to blasting music in his ears to block Lucas' thoughts that confuse him.
──
"Here," Eleven stated.
The group stopped in front of a house, it was dark, no light other than the street lights nearby barely lighting up their figures. Seven noticed the recognition in the boys' eyes as they stared at the house.
"Yeah, this is where Will lives," Mike said.
"Hiding."
Mike sighed, shaking his head at the girl who stood there looking clueless. "No, this is where he lives. He's missing from here, understand?"
"What are we going here?" Lucas groaned, throwing his bike down making Ven jump and glare at the boy who appeared at his side.
"She said he's hiding here."
"Um...no--"
"I swear if we walked all the way here for nothing!" Dustin exclaimed, running a hand over his face.
"That's exactly what we did. I told you she didn't know what the hell she was talking about!" Lucas shouted, anger filling his veins.
"Why did you bring us here?" Mike asked Eleven softly.
El was frozen, glancing at Ven who just shrugged not knowing what to do also, making her sigh and stare back at Mike who was determined to find out what was going on.
"Don't waste your time with her, Mike," Lucas grumbled, ignoring the scowl Ven sent his way.
"What do you want to do then?" Mike threw his hands up, yelling towards the boy.
Seven massaged his temples trying to relieve some of the pain, a soft groan leaving him, growing confused as he heard something over the ruckus.
Sirens, very loud ones.
Dustin heard them too, the two boys looking to where they were coming from, seeing red and blue lights. "Guys?"
No one acknowledges Dustin making the boy shout, his voice cracking as he did so. "Hey, Guys?!"
Lucas and Mike stop arguing, turning to Dustin.
Lucas' forehead creased when he saw Ven in pain, but the concern stopped when he saw the firetrucks, ambulance, and cop cars speed past the house.
"Will..."
Everyone scrambled onto the bikes, Lucas, Mike, and Dustin speeding off, following the loud sirens and blinding lights.
When they got to the location at the bottom of the quarry, they all got off the bikes that crashed behind the group who all hid behind a firetruck.
The headphones barely blocked the thoughts of all the workers making Ven bite his lip to hold back a whimper.
When his vision cleared he was able to see the small body of a boy around his age, being carried out of the water, limp and pale, and most importantly, not breathing.
"It's not Will. It can't be." Mike breathed out, his eyes blurring with tears.
Lucas shook his head, staring at the body that was wearing the same clothes Will was the last time they saw him. "It's Will. It's really Will."
Seven's mouth dropped open, though the boy still believed Will was out there somewhere. The group backed away all in a state of shock.
"Mike..." El trailed off, going out to touch the boy's shoulder, flinching when Mike slapped her hand away.
"Mike? Mike, what?" He glared at the girl, making Ven take a step towards the boy when he saw the fear in El's eyes but was pulled back by Lucas, who just shook his head.
"You were supposed to help us find him alive. You said he was alive! Why did you lie to us? What's wrong with you? What is wrong with you?"
"Mike."
"What?" Mike snapped, leaning closer to the girl making her lean back and not say anything.
Mike scoffed, going over to his bike, getting on it and riding off, ignoring the shouts of his friends calling for him.
Lucas sniffled, wiping his own tears that fell, "Let go."
El got on the back of Dustin's bike, Ven on Lucas. The ride was silent, other than the sniffles coming from Dustin and Lucas and the hum of music coming from the headphones.
"Bye," Dustin smiled sadly at El as they stood outside the basement door.
El glanced at Ven before walking through the open door.
Ven stayed, staring between the heartbroken boys.
"What do you want?" Lucas harshly asked, his hands clenched around the handles of his bike.
Seven didn't flinch at the anger Lucas showed, he just pursed his lips awkwardly before saying, "I'm sorry about Will."
Neither of the boys said anything, Lucas just stared at the boy, keeping eye contact with the boy, who could practically feel the pain Lucas was in.
'Please stop crying.' Seven silently begged as he took in the tears falling from Lucas' eyes, Ven's heart slightly aching at the view, though he pushed that feeling down.
His wish was granted when Lucas' eyes glossed over before he stopped crying, wiping his cheeks from the tear, making him slightly confused at the sudden safe feeling he felt, connecting eyes once again with Ven who looked surprised.
"Goodnight, Ven," Dustin said.
Both the boys got on their bikes. Dustin rode off.
Lucas looked over his shoulder clenching his hand around the handle as Ven smiled and waved at him. Lucas waved back before driving off with a shake of his head, that safe feeling he felt slowly going away as he got farther.
──