Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Jonathan Byers, behind the wheel, sang his heart out to Walk of Life by the Dire Straits, his mother Joyce laughing beside him as she joined the singing. They had been lucky, the road was clear and although slightly wet, not snowy. That was the risk of travelling around Christmas for the holidays in Indiana. As they were planning the trip, they could only hope that the road would be clear. And it was. But Joyce wasn’t sure whether it was such a good thing that Hawkins appeared so eager to welcome them back.

Head against the cold window, her messy, curly hair sticking to the glass, Eleven listened to her own music on her new walkman. It was not that long of a trip but the idea of seeing Mike again for the first time in the flesh since Thanksgiving made the distance insufferable. She kept her eyes peeled for a sign of the talkie-walkie entering within range of Mike’s, but he had explained that it wouldn’t be before they were really close. He couldn’t miss the last day of school to use Cerebro, his mum would have had him grounded and that was most definitely the last thing he wanted right now. So, patience was the key. She straightened her colourful dress as she crossed her legs. Spending the first few months at a school had been some of the weirdest moments of her life, and that was saying something. But before she could tell her old friends, she had to content herself with music and the dying colours of Midwestern winter.

“Chris! No cheating!” Will said, shocked.

Next to her, Will, who forgot to call dibs on the side seats, ended up squished between El and his new friend, Christopher. His parents had accepted to let him spend the holidays with the Byers, not unhappy to be able to spend it on their own. Although, they made it clear that he could just take a bus if something went wrong or if he just wanted to come back. He had the money in his bag, but Chris definitely didn’t think he would come back before he had to. After all, he finally got to see Hawkins, meet “the Party” that Will had been talking so much about.

“I’m not cheatin’! You’re just bad at this game.” He laughed, putting down another card.

“Warning, turn,” Jonathan said, as the two boys put their hands on the display of play cards on the limited space of the travel tray, exchanging an amused look.

Soon enough, after quite a few songs, games and turns, they passed the sign welcoming them to Hawkins. For Chris, it was just a town sign like any other, just slightly more familiar maybe, given all of Will’s stories. But for all the others, being welcomed back to a town they had spent most, if not all their lives in was bizarre, to say the least.

The idea of the trip and the trip had brought the excitement to see all their friends and their old town, and they had mostly tried to avoid thinking about the rest of Hawkins’ implication in their lives. The monsters, the bad guys, the lab, the horror and the pain, the fear, Hopper, Billy and well… nothing really nice. It’s why they left in the first place, and it’s the reason they dreaded to come back. Will had been trying to convince himself that all of that was behind them, forever. Didn’t El losing her power meant that the contact was broken? Hopefully permanently? He hadn’t felt anything on the back of his neck since they closed the gate. Everything pointed to that story being just that, a story.

Yet, that’s what they all thought until Halloween a year prior. And last summer. From where he was standing, he could see El’s scar on her leg. He knew it didn’t hurt anymore, the memory of it did. They often talked about it. About how she still had so many nightmares. About the mushy sound of the Mind Flayer, she still thought she heard sometimes. About being dragged around by its bloody claws. About seeing Billy standing there, sacrificing himself while she was on the ground, unable to do anything. He knows this is what made her pick up karate; so that she didn’t have to be so powerless ever again. Will also shared his own nightmares, that sometimes felt too real. Or when he would wake up, unable to move, his room covered in the same green goo that made up the Upside Down, and sometimes a Demogorgon standing in the corner, ready to attack.

“Earth to Will, do you copy?” Chris asked, giggling at Will’s absent expression.

“Yeah, sorry.”

Maybe one day, Christopher could understand what linked that family, what shared trauma they didn’t want to talk about. After a few months, of course, he couldn’t hope to know everything, but it was sometimes uncomfortable to guess the awkwardness and to stand in the middle of unspoken words. Maybe one day, he told himself. Maybe.

Will finished putting the game back in its box just in time as they parked near one of the local hotels. To be fair, they might not spend a lot of time at the hotel, especially the kids and Jonathan. But Joyce needed a place to be, and she couldn’t think of any place they could stay at.

She almost didn’t come.

She didn’t have any reason to, no one to see, unlike the others. But she hated the idea of being so far away from her boys. Trusting Hawkins to take care of them was too much to ask. She didn’t want to have to drive for several hours in case something bad or weird happened again. And, of course, she acted as some kind insurance for Chris’parents. They couldn’t just leave their son with a 17-year-old they barely knew. Moreover, who wants to spend Christmas alone? Not Joyce. Her boys wouldn’t have let her do that anyway. She barely had the time to sit down on her bed that all the others were gone.

As per usual, the meeting was to take place at the Wheelers' place. It would be nice for all of them to see this familiar place after having to adapt to a totally new one. El even ended up going to school if you can believe it. She barely could, after having to spend so much time either locked up in a lab or in hiding. Things clearly had changed, and it was time to figure out just how much.

Chapter Text

“Are you sure it’s the right place?”
The darkness of the Russian countryside didn’t allow for many sights. The path was barely a path anymore, with fallen branches sinking into the mud. The trucks had broken some of them and their tracks started to disappear due to the ongoing rainstorm. The drop gave the whole scene an eerie white noise background that made it hard to concentrate. The wind gave the trees life of their own; it almost looked they were about to move and take revenge for those broken branches on the floor. It was cold, no one could deny that. Nor be surprised by it. Somewhere lost in Russia, in the middle of the goddamned winter.
“It has to be.”
The gushy sound of the steps on the wet grass was weirdly the only sound that broke the overwhelming noise of the rain. As well as one of the reasons they had to be in the right place. The cold and the snow and the rain did take care of most the animals, but to live in that environment, they had to be used to that. It’s not like Russia was a void wildlife-wise. So why weren’t any animals roaming around? Because it had to be the place. Because they were scared of whatever what going on in the nearby building.
Peaking out from between the trees, a dark grey bulky building stood like it was trying to look like a simple boring warehouse. It could have worked, with the garage doors, the lack of any kind of colour that’s not a shade of grey and the poor stature of the fences, steel grids so thin the wind was enough to make them wiggle. If it wasn’t for the rogue parabol on the roof, the disguise could have worked. They were just too used to people not asking any questions in fear of the answers they could get.
But them… Oh, they were here exactly for answers, pursuing a lead they had gotten some months ago. State prisoners taken into those woods never to be seen again. Report of screams in the dead of night. Overall pretty sketchy activities that went unnoticed for too long.
Without any kind of blueprint or real insight, it seemed insane to want to continue the mission and get inside. Yet, in their Russian uniforms they stole from the guards, soaked to the bone, they had to get in and get as much information as possible for the main team.
At least there were no guards outside. Maybe it was usual or maybe it was thanks to the rain but anyway, they were grateful. Their plan was wonky, they all knew that. But they weren’t professionals, so they did their best with their Russian and fake papers produced in the back of their “base”, or whatever they called it. Just in case.
Best case scenario, they wouldn’t have to interact with anyone. It probably wouldn’t go as smoothly as that but it made them feel better to pretend. Now, all they had to do was wait.
The truck shed a light on the building, which responded by activating the automatic spots.
“You can see the pad, right?”
“Yes, Cal. That’s what the point the binoculars. But focus on your job.”
Cal nodded before adjusting his hood on his dark hair, the water dripping from the few strands that escaped the shelter of the hood. And he ran.
Positioned behind the truck so that the driver couldn’t see him, he easily entered the facility. Fortunately for him, no one was there to wait for the delivery. Cal immediately held the door thanks to the internal commands in order to let his colleague in. They weren’t friends, not yet, even though they had known each other for a while now. They weren’t friends but they had to go on that mission together because they couldn’t afford to send people who didn’t speak Russian and they happened to be the only two who did. Why wasn’t he born literally anywhere else? That was the question, wasn’t it?
Once they were both inside, all they needed to do was get as much information as possible, without getting caught and then leave. Easier said than done. All dressed in black in a building barely lit up, being seen wasn’t so much their concerns. But the sound of their wet shoes on the concrete floor was no help, so they had to be fast, but careful.
After wandering around in empty corridors and avoiding the voices and steps for a while, they wondered if they even had the right place. Nothing seemed really out of the ordinary. It could’ve been an actual warehouse for all they saw.
Until that scream froze them on their feet. Pure fear is what it was. Pleading for his life, the male voice panicked. Cal felt his heart beat faster. At least they would come back with information, and possibly pictures.
An exchanged nod later, they followed the screams to some sort of cage. From the level above, they could see the man, still crying for them to stop, to let him go. Cal knew there was nothing he could do but that didn’t help with the feeling of guilt that they were letting a man die.
None of them knew what to expect exactly. They knew in theory. The monsters. They knew about that. But descriptions couldn’t do it justice. Cal still hoped the monsters that lived in his imagination were more horrible than the real ones.
“Открой дверь!” One of the Russian soldiers yelled.
The door? Open the door? Cal took out his camera. Whatever would come out, whatever would happen, he needed to capture that and show it to the others. But neither he nor his camera was ready for what came out of that door.
At first, Cal thought it was a dog. A big dog, sure, but a dog nonetheless. He wasn’t sure what he saw first. Maybe it was the weird rose-button-like head or the claws or the glistening skin of the creature, but that definitely wasn’t a dog. He snapped some shots, the sound of the camera covered by the screams. The creature stood up and started walking on its two back legs, stretching up to something like seven to eight feet. The loud screeches silenced the man, and he didn’t have time to scream before the deadly flower that was the creature’s head opened to eat him. A deadly flower with a thousand teeth.
And although Cal knew about all that, seeing it actually make the whole thing more real. And scarier.

Chapter Text

He had been pedalling like crazy. So fast that he almost lost his cap as he was going down the hill. Late, he was late. Of course. It had to be today that his mother asked him to clean the front yard so they might be considered for Hawkins’ Christmas lights competition. His mum always took it at heart to have their house perfectly decorated and lit for the holidays; she even won a few times. But last year, she lost to some other family on the other side of town because their front yard was more orderly than hers. Not this year, oh not this year!
Dustin had spent all morning raking what was left of the fallen autumn leaves, hid the rubbish bins and other kinds of stuff to make the lawn look as perfect as he could. All of that exhausted him and now he was late for D&D.
For once that they were able to actually play, it had to be the day his mother cared about lawn mowing. The last time they were able to finish a campaign was before Will left, and that was some months ago. They had tried, several times after Will got a new set for Halloween, even though he didn’t want one and didn’t see why he should get a gift just for having to adapt to a new school.
On the phone, but it was pretty unpractical to have someone stand by the phone. And Karen Wheeler had been upset not to have access to the phone. She mentioned that her friends probably called her several times and she probably missed plans. So no more phone D&D from that point on. Mike just couldn’t fight and deprive his mother from one of her only pastimes.
They almost finished a party one time when they took their game out to Cerebro and talked on talkie-walkies. It was very far from ideal, but it sort of worked. But Hawkins’ unforgiving weather quickly put an end to that solution. Too cold to stay out playing a board game while sitting in the grass.
In the end, they even tried to initiate Max, but she didn’t really see the point. Not when there were arcade games not that far or comics to be read. But also, although she tried, she didn’t understand how they could enjoy pretending to face monsters after they almost died at the hands of a real one. Thank you very much but once a year was enough for her. And she was busy anyway; she didn’t have the time.
So they couldn’t really play D&D. Besides, for some times now, Will had been the glue that held the Party together, especially when it came to D&D and it felt like a betrayal to play without him. Erica had his old game but she refused to admit she actually wanted to play. “Too nerdy”.
Dustin knocked on the door, shivering from the cold. Karen opened the door and she barely had the time the hear a quick “hello Mrs Wheeler” that the basement’s door was already closing behind Dustin’s curly hair.
“Sorry guys, my mom, she wanted me t-.” He stopped in the middle of his sentence as he saw all the chairs on the table full. There always was just enough spaces for their parties. Lucas in front of the stairs. Mike in front of him. Will on his right and then Dustin on his left.
But as he entered the room, Dustin couldn’t help but notice that his seat was taken. Chris was sitting there, looking as angelic as he could with his glasses and curly dark hair. Hm, replace the curly one with another and nobody notices, uh?
“Dustin! Come sit, down, we barely started,” Will said, excitedly.
“What I am supposed to do? Am I a tree now?”
“No, you’re still our bard, we arranged the campaign so you could join after.”
“Is he playing?”
Not to get him wrong, he had nothing against Chris. He seemed actually nice, and he was Will’s friend. But why did have to sit on his chair?
“Yeah, hm, Will showed me a little so I wanna try,” Chris explained in his slight foreign accent that none of them really recognised. “But I can be the tree.”
It made Will chuckle, which earned him a smile from Dustin. He grabbed a chair but Chris stood up and took it from his hand.
“I can be the one sitting on the side, after all, I’m the one who has no clue what he’s doing,” Chris laughed.
Sitting between Will and Mike, he left his designated place to Dustin, who started to find him rather nice. Now that everyone found their place around the table, they could continue. First, they caught up Dustin on the adventure they were on and the new companion they made. Meeting a druid that happened to be Will the Wise’s friend, they took him on their quest with him. And off they were to fight whatever monster stood in their way, as usual. All of that while Max and El were fighting over music choices.

Chapter Text

Music had been Max’s thing lately. So, for her reunion with El, it seemed obvious that she should introduce her to the place she had been spending most of her time, after the school and Lucas’ side.
Eleven had been rather surprised when Max took her to the music store in the centre of the city. Sure, it wouldn’t be the first time Max would give her music recommendation, but she never mentioned that store. And there was a reason for that, Max wasn’t a frequent customer of the disc store before. She got her music from California and the radio and that was enough. Yet, something changed since then.
None of her friends here really understood why she did that, why she spent so much time there.
“How about that one?” El asked as she took out a CD from the box. “Looks good.”
“Yeah, I guess…”
“No? Why not?”
“I’m looking for something specific. And that sure as hell ain’t Phil Collins.”
El definitely looked confused. She couldn’t help Max without knowing what exactly she was looking for and Max didn’t seem to want to explain. In reality, Max had already explained it too many times to Lucas and he didn’t understand. She could see that he tried, but all that effort was too much effort for him.
People bond and grieve in their own ways. Bonding with Billy had always been something so hard that it seemed out of the realm of possibilities. She had tried to remember the few moments when they actually were siblings. That one time Billy tried to teach Max how to surf and it was such a disaster that she decided to stick to skateboard. The few jokes they sometimes exchanged leading to the few times she actually saw him laugh. And of course, they were the times where she tended to his wound after yet another of Neil’s outburst for whatever reason, when she was the only one who was there for him, who dared take care of him.
Those were long nights usually, sneaking water, disinfectant and bandages from the bathroom without making noise before facing Billy’s fake “I’m fine”s and his attempts to hide his pain. In those moments, they couldn’t be more like siblings. Max regretted it had to come to those kinds of times for them to be because those were not happy memories, to say the least. And when you’re trying to mourn someone, happy memories are what you’re trying to hold onto.
So she chooses other moments. The most time she spent with Billy was in his car. He had a few old tapes with the same songs that he would play over and over again. His favourite songs. At first, Max hated them, or at the very least she didn’t care for them. She just had to endure the ride and Billy’s loud singing. However, slowly she realised it was her only way to connect with her brother that didn’t involve him getting beaten up. She started listening.
She listened to the songs, the melody, and tried to understand the lyrics. They say the songs you prefer say a lot about you. This was her chance to try to grasp some of the things he never talked about, to try to understand him. Sometimes, she would look out the window to hide her face and start to mouth the lyrics. She even started to enjoy some of them.
But she never paid attention to the titles of the songs. She never asked for them.
Lately, that's what she'd been doing, trying to find those songs again. Billy's tapes burnt down with the Camaro after the incidents at the mall and with all the teams that cleaned up everything for their little narrative they didn't get to try to salvage anything from it.
To be fair, maybe El would be the one to finally understand her. God knows Lucas didn’t. He tried, even came with her a few times but mourning that asshole was above his capacity for empathy. Sure, it was sad, and he did one, one good thing at the end but that’s it. Honestly, Max didn’t understand her own sadness either at first.
The truth is when someone is right next to you, you can choose to only see the bad, to pick out every single thing that's wrong with that person, to remember only the bad moments. In short, it's easier to pretend not to care, it's easier to tell yourself that that person doesn't matter. And you can tell yourself that over and over again until it’s the truth. Max had been doing that almost ever since she met Billy, almost every time she could hear the whimpering and the sounds of the one-way fight. But it's harder to do that when that person is no longer here she could feel the emptiness of the room next door, the eternal silence.
“That song!” Max exclaimed, grabbing El’s arm. “The one they’re playing right now.”
“The Four Horsemen?”
“How do you know that?!”
“Hop… he liked this song too.”
A sad expression flew over El’s face before she opted for a smile. Hop wouldn’t want her to be so sad. He would want her to laugh while watching T.V. and drinking coffee and eating triple-decker Eggos. Since she didn’t like coffee, she’ll stick with the Eggos.
Another thing that made her smile was seeing Max light up again. She slid to the side to get to another box of tapes like she was on her skateboard, suddenly more upbeat. That’s the Max she left last summer.
“Got it!” She almost jumped of excitement. “I think I got them all now. At least the ones lost in the fire.”
“The fire? Are those Billy’s songs?”
Max nodded and El took her arm. After they paid for the tape, they left the store on Max’s skateboard.
“Hey, since we can’t spy on them anymore, how about we take a look at their DnD thingy?” Max proposed with a laugh.
And with that, their destination was decided.

Chapter Text

“I’m sorry but you can’t rent this one.”

“Why not, stupid?” Erica asked, a hand on her hip. The bright red bow in her hair matched the carpet and yes, this was one of the first things that Steve noticed when she walked up to the counter. To be fair, he did spend quite a lot of time staring at the carpet.

“It’s R-rated. Last time I checked, you’re not 17,” he answered.

“I heard it’s for babies.”

“Well good for those babies, as long as they can show me an ID that says they’re 17.”

He would have never admitted it when they starting working together but God did he miss working with Robin. He was stuck at the movie rental place with Keith and their new coworker. He couldn’t say he was exactly friends with any of them. Keith quickly picked up that Steve was not drawing in as many girls as Robin promised, but “do not help me get girls” is not a valid reason to fire someone. And Steve was a pretty good employee, even with his recent changes in schedule as he was taking evening classes to maybe get into college next year.

As for the other coworker, a guy who took every single rule so seriously that he only sat down for his lunch break. At first, Steve was hopeful that maybe they would end up getting along like it happened with Robin, minus the traumatic events, but he was insufferable.

And then, there was the customers, very different from the ones looking for ice cream. When it comes to ice cream, the choices are limited and people make them quickly even if they don't know when they arrive. Steve had to watch an insane amount of movies he didn't necessarily want to see just so he would be able to advise customers. And there was so much to know about movies. Ice cream was just scoop, put in a cone, sprinkle whatever topping on it and done. But Erica was a constant in this sea of changes. Still here to annoy Steve, especially since the "ice cream for life" deal went cold as the mall burnt down.

“Would you look at that, shitbird. We finally found a friend you can’t seem to be friends with.”

As Steve looked up, Robin walked towards the counter, her dirty blond hair in a top bun and a grin on her lips. Even though she quit when she went back to school, she came to see Steve after her classes. After all, and even though she would probably deny it, he ended up being her best friend. And she was a great teacher in movie knowledge, which she made sure Steve progressed in.

Erica gave up trying to convince Steve to break the law and went on to choose another movie.

"What news from Hawkins High?" Steve asked as Robin leaned on the counter, playing with her necklace.

"Same old, same old, dingus. No one mentioned King Steve if that's what you're wondering."

"It's n-"

"Yes, it was. Don't lie."

"Okay then. Don't complain when I stop asking about your day."

He shrugged before looking at the girl who showed up at the door of the store. Robin turned around to see her long, blond hair disappear behind a shelf. She grabbed a paper and under Steve’s eyes, traced a new ‘you rule, you suck’ board before looking at him with a lifted eyebrow and a daring look. So which one is it going to be? she seemed to ask.

They waited for the girl to finally choose her movie and two customers later, there she was. Her simple khaki vest and blue jeans under the scrutiny of both of them, she handed over the rental copy.

“Altered States?” He asked. “That’s a great choice!”

“There’s just no chance you’ve seen that movie,” Robin commented. His sheer embarrassment made the girl smile, which he couldn’t tell if it was a good or bad thing. Bad, would Robin say, but he tried to convince himself otherwise.

“I haven’t seen it yet either, so you’re good,” she said with a warm smile.

As he was taking notes of her renting, he finally got to ask her name without it appearing too weird.

“Maja, with a j.”

“What’s your last name, Maja with a j?”

Robin could be seen physically cringing as she heard those words pass Steve’s mouth. And he dared think he was smooth. For that, she had to give him a point, he had to know he sucked.

“Lundgren,” she said before spelling it out for him, doing her best to ignore what the joke he just made like she never heard it before. As she handed him the cash, he caught a glimpse of a tattoo but it disappeared before he could make out what it represented.

“Will I see you here again?” He asked her, leaning on the counter as he pushed the tape towards her.

“When I will be bringing this back…?” she said.

And that ended Robin, who hid her head in her arms. Why did he have to say shit like that? The girl left hearing her tell Steve that he just broke his record.

Maja got in her car and drove to a phonebox. It was getting late and she should go back but she needed to call Chicago. They didn’t have a working phone yet where she was staying. Fortunately, her correspondent picked up quickly.

“They’re all fine. And I got the movie you suggested,” she said.

“All of them?” the voice said over the phone.

“Yes! We told you they were and you have to trust me. I went over most of our rules in doing that.”

“I have to come. Why are you the ones who get to go to Hawkins?”

She sighed. “We’ve already had that discussion.”

“Why does she gets to be there? We’re in the same boat.”

“Nobody saw her “boat” sink like yours did,” Maja answered, clearly ready to hang up.

“Stop with your fucking metaphors.”

“Just because you cut your hair doesn’t mean people won’t recognise you, and guess what? We can’t have that.”

“I can stay inside, I don’t fucking care. I just want to be on terrain too.”

“I’ll mention it.”

A slight 'thanks' was mumbled over the phone like it was meant to be heard but with the clear intention to show they didn’t want to say it.

“I have to go to camp, but, Billy? I can’t promise anything.”

Chapter Text

Hair teased into intricate curls, Nancy sat down behind her desk. It was smaller than she had expected and quite honestly a mess. Although the first one had nothing to do with her, she had let herself get swamped before the holidays, which led to the second one. But she had a desk and the possibilities to get swamped by paperwork and documents, which was already more than her old job. Sure, she sometimes was asked to make coffee, as an intern, but it wasn’t the essence of her job.
“So you are Nancy Drew," Jonathan laughed.
"Trying to live up to the nickname."
As a side gig to her senior year, Nancy had stepped up her game. Putting aside her dreams to become a famous journalist for a while, she had taken up a part-time job at the Hawkins police station.
After Hopper's disappearance, the police station had been shaken up. He was the chief, sure, but also, surprisingly, one of the most active members of the station. As well as the best detective. So the department, after mourning Hopper, had to replace him. Some officer got promoted, Chief Dwyer, but no one was there to replace him. So they called for interns, people who could work there until they got back on their feet.
Nancy had jumped on the occasion. The Hawkins Post internship didn't go that well and she needed a better job experience to apply to universities. And it was the chance to learn a new trade. She could still write for other newspapers like her mother suggested, although she never ended up finishing that story, the rat story, for obvious reasons.
She also appreciated the authority that came with it, the fact that people kind of had to answer her questions. The few times she actually was on duty when something happened, always minor, she realised she was a rather good detective. Piecing things together, following a trail, writing about it in a report, that worked for her. Better anyway than serving coffee and burgers to those jerks at the Hawkins Post.
She sat down behind her desk as Jonathan, who had accepted to keep her company on her predictably boring day, sat down on the chair on the other side.
“It’s almost like I’m interrogating you… or taking your report,” she laughed.
“As long as you don’t have to actually do it.” He shrugged, pausing. “Or anyone in the next few days, except maybe… a lost cat or something.”
It wasn’t difficult for Nancy to feel the implications in his words. Hopefully, nothing was to happen while they were here. She could understand that Hawkins didn’t appear to him as home anymore, especially since things seemed to be going fine since they left. Hawkins, even if it was his home town, was only the reminder of the Mind Flayer and the Upside Down, something they were all trying to forget as best as they could.
“What’s that?” he asked, grabbing a document on Nancy’s desk. Loch Nora Mall: security plan.
“They’ve been rebuilding Starcourt, but they renamed it because the name was associated with the Russian operation. They’re trying to get the Hawkins police to officially endorse it and declare it Russian-free and safe.”
“Even after all that happened? All the deaths?”
“Yeah… With all the shops that closed because of the mall, not many of them had enough money to reopen b-”
She stopped talking as someone walked in. Instinctively, almost, she straightened up on her chair, ready to do her job. Jonathan moved a little to the side and noticed that none of the police officers or other secretaries seemed to pay attention to the man that passed through the door. Some of them looked up at his dark short mullet and almost military-looking, khaki outfit, but they were obviously expecting Nancy to take care of him.
As he looked lost, she called him with a polite “what can I do for you, sir?”. With a tight-lipped smile and hands in his jacket’s pockets, he walked over to her desk.
“I need to see the chief for a permit.”
“Sorry, sir, but Magaret,” she said, pointing to a woman hunched over her desk, whitening blond hair grouped into a strict bun, “is in charge of permits, not the chief.”
“I need to see the chief.” His smile disappeared into a thin line, which, after a few months here, Nancy had learned to recognise as a sign of being annoyed.
“What is the permit for?”
“Entering Hawkins Lab.”
The name itself froze both Nancy and Jonathan on the spot. Why would anyone want to go there?
After all the “Russian invasion” thing in Hawkins, all possible locations had been put under some kind of surveillance, which meant that the lab needed a permit to be accessed. And honestly, it did a lot to appease the minds of literally anyone affected by their actions. But someone wanting in wasn’t a good sign in Nancy’s eyes.
“May I ask why?”
Looking away, towards the rest of the station, he shrugged. “A documentary.”
Nancy knew she couldn’t ask for more, he was already too annoyed. She called the chief’s office, who asked who the guy was.
“Caleb Wilson.”
Surprisingly, that name granted him access to the chief’s office. Jonathan and Nancy exchanged an anxious and worried look. A documentary on what they did would be nice. Nancy had already thought about doing that, but it appeared more like an excuse. Why would anyone with good intentions lie about the reason for their permit?

Chapter Text

Billy didn’t remember much. Pieces. His memory was like pieces of a puzzle owned by a careless child who lost the box and was left with a handful of pieces, unable to form the big picture.  Everything was a bit of blur, and although he hated that, he also knew that maybe it was for the better. All he remembered he wished he could forget. 

The steelworks place was the clearest part. He had never been so frightened in his life, even Neil never sacred him that much. He couldn’t even understand what was happening. Monsters? He never believed in the supernatural and now he was being dragged down the basement of an old warehouse by some kind of weird-ass gooey liana before a claw forces itself down his throat. And then, even when he thought he had escaped from this horrible nightmare, he faced what… hallucinations? That felt all too real to be just the products of his mind, no matter how fucked up the later was. 

After everything that happened, he wasn’t able to make sense of it. He had tried to ask for help, call 911 but what could he have said that wouldn’t have either made him seem like a prankster or landed him in a psychiatric hospital? “Hi, yes this is an emergency, some monster just sucked on my face.” Right. 

He didn’t remember how he got home that night nor the inevitable fight with Neil that had to have happened, especially seeing the damages his car had gone through. And from that point on, he didn’t feel totally in control of his body. Billy didn’t really like video games but he went with Max at the arcade once or twice so he knew what controlling a character felt like. This was what being in his body after that night felt like: remotely controlling himself from afar. And sometimes, it would cut to an animation cut scene and he would lose control of the character. Losing that control never meant anything nice for the people around him.

He kept control when Karen came to talk to him, she left without any harm. Because she was right, she did have a family she couldn't leave. That she shouldn't leave. But it had asked for all his strength.  When his dad made him do stuff, he had at least some control of the how. Or it seemed like he did. When he had to make sure Max didn’t get herself into trouble, even if it just was so he wouldn’t get in trouble either most of the times, it felt different. As if he had some control over her, even if it was the result of another kind of control over him. 

It was different, feeling like your body isn’t yours anymore. There were no moments of respite, it was an unswerving control. The monster was always there, somewhere, in a corner of his mind, ready to take control. Like it happened when he attacked Heather. One moment he was fighting against the monster’s commands, the next he was taking her to it and forcing her to undergo the same things he did. It didn’t even feel like he was doing that, but like he was watching someone else do it through their eyes. She was the first he hurt, and the only one he knew. They were friends, or at least what he considered a friend, and it made the whole process ever so much more horrible. He was even scared to go home, more than usual. Although he didn’t care if that happened to Neil, the thought of having to do it to Max was too much, and he wasn’t sure he could stop it. Stop himself. And she would have no idea that he wasn't the one doing it, not really. She would just think "that's it, my fucked up stepbrother finally lost his fucking mind."

There had been one moment when he saw a way out, when he thought that maybe this could have an end. That maybe he didn’t have to hurt anyone anymore. They said they were here to help after all, they clearly knew more than he thought anyone did. Maybe even more than he did. He took all that was left of the little control he had over himself and confessed. He remembered seeing Max’s face through the window, crying. So he thought that maybe they’d help him, but they didn’t. It didn’t even seem like they tried. They just wanted to stop him, which he understood. But after that moment, he was never truly able to have any kind of control, as if the monster decided it was too dangerous to have him wandering around. 

Trapped in his own mind, he just watched the monster use him to hurt many, many people, to hunt down a girl he had never met but that the monster clearly hated. The most the was able to do was warn them, to hold back and give them time to hide when they were at the mall.  

And he died. 

He remembered that clearly. How it didn't feel like dying, or at least not what he thought dying should feel like. How one memory brought him back, made him decide to fight back one last time. And it was the last time, as far as he knew. 

Until he woke up. It was all black, all around. He couldn’t move a muscle, nor could he knew if his eyes were open or closed, but he could think. Purgatory, that’s where his mind went. Billy had never been a religious person, if only for the fact that no decent God would have given him a life like this, but he had to acknowledge that he had died and was still conscious. It was too calm for hell, and although he never imagined himself going to heaven or any kind of good afterlife, that wasn’t it either. So he just assumed he was stuck in between. 

How long did that last? He had no idea. Time wasn’t a concept he concerned himself with in those moments. Trying to know when he was awake and when he just lost consciousness was more of concern, as well as all the thinking he had time to do. 

And then… there was light. 

He remembered wondering if he was dying again before realising it was just the light, actual light. Which appeared somehow weirder to him. Was he alive?

“He’s wakin’ up!” 

Once his eyes got used to the bright light, he was able to see the white ceiling above him following by what seemed like a hospital room. A display screen full of numbers and lines he didn’t understand, an empty side table, an IV whose tube went into his right wrist, some kind of peg on his finger and a few bandages on his arms. On his left, in another bed, he noticed another person. Who? He couldn’t tell but they weren’t moving. 

“William?” It was a woman’s voice.

“It’s…It’s…” he started. Speaking was hard, almost as much as moving, which he couldn’t really do. “Billy…”

“Okay, Billy. You’ve been out for a little while so it’s normal if things feel odd right now.”

She continued talking for some time, about his vitals or whatever but he zoned out a little. He didn’t recognize her, or her voice or the place and he was live, apparently. And that was a lot to take on in like 5 minutes.

“Fuck…” he muttered as he tried to lift his arm. Yeah, this was going to be a long recovery.

But he got through it in the end. He was actually pretty soon able to walk around, although he was forbidden to go outside. So he spent most of his time trying to find out exactly what was going on. He met Maja, on the team who helped him, and she told him about the Monster, about that other world he didn’t fully understand, about the gate and the operations at Hawkins Lab as well as all the Russian stuff that went down when he was possessed, even if he wasn’t exactly sure that was what happened anymore. 

But the part that interested him the most, as well as the one that seemed to affect Maja the most, was the experiments made on people, mostly children, who had “powers”. After all, one of those experiments, El, or as he knew now Eleven, was the one who helped him snap out of the monster’s control. But there was something else about that part of the story, something that seemed like it should concern him more and that something just kept becoming clearer and clearer. 

Until recently, he was fine with staying inside, researching and doing experiments and stuff and just trying to figure what his life was going to be like now that he was free of Neil, and how he was going to become now that he had the choice. If ha had the choice. But that was until part of the team moved to Hawkins. Hawkins of all places and he hadn’t been able to follow, no matter how much he had insisted. 

However, he knew this was the time to explore the strange things that had started to happen to him since he “came back” as he called it. Very strange things, that barely started to make sense. And then he would force his way back to Hawkins, no matter what those shitheads said.