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Jonathan took a deep breath as he looked up at the old, beat up house in front of him. The rooftop was covered in rust and the walls seemed to be slowly falling apart. He could see mold growing from underneath stairs leading to the porch. The front yard was a mess as the weeds had taken over the entire thing and had started leaking into the neighbor's yard.
The house was a complete and utter mess, much like the man who lived inside of it.
As Jonathan made his way towards the door, he kept repeating one thing in his head. For Will. This is for him. His mind kept conjuring up the worst case scenarios, prompting him to get to the door even faster.
He knocked hard on the door, but he could hear loud music blaring inside. Losing patience, he tried again. This time, a woman he didn't know answered the door.
"Can I help you?" she asked shortly, eyeing him up and down.
"Yeah, is Lonnie around?" he asked, looking past her to see into the house. There wasn't much he could see aside from the TV and a few beer cans laying around.
"Yeah, he's out back." Her tone remained sharp and uncaring. "What do you want?"
"To look around," he answered, not even looking her way as he shoved past her. The front room obviously couldn't hide much, so he quickly went towards the back.
"Hey Will?" he called out, glancing around to find any hints of where he could've gone. "Will, you here? It's me."
The house was so small that there wasn't much to check. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Nothing to indicate someone else was here other than Lonnie and whoever than woman was.
Just was he was headed towards the backyard, Jonathan was shoved against the wall. He let out a grunt of surprise and glared at the person in front of him.
"Get off!" He shoved Lonnie away, glaring at him as he looked Jonathan up and down.
"Damn, you've gotten stronger," he noted, a wry smirk on his face.
There was a thousand things Jonathan wanted to do to show him just how strong he had gotten, but he held himself back to just glaring instead. Picking a fight right now wasn't going to help him find Will. That was his priority.
"Will someone please explain what the hell is going on?!" the woman complained, standing the doorway with her hands on her hips.
Lonnie introduced them and Jonathan ignored the woman's surprised stare as he got Lonnie's attention back. "Where is he?"
He raised an eyebrow, that dumb smirk still on his face. "What?"
Jonathan let out a sigh as he searched around the house once more. "What's out back?"
"Why do you want to know?" he asked, the smile slowly sliding off his face.
Jonathan shook his head. He really didn't have time for this. Will was either here or not, and if he was here, he needed to find him. Fast.
"Will went missing a couple days ago," he explained, watching Lonnie's reaction carefully.
He scoffed. "What? You think the brat came to me?"
"'Came' wasn't exactly what I was thinking," Jonathan replied.
Lonnie narrowed his eyes at him. "What you think I did something to him? Jesus Jonathan, you've really—"
He obviously wasn't going to give him any answers, so Jonathan simply pushed past him and went towards the backyard. He could hear Lonnie following behind him, shouting something he didn't bother paying attention to.
The backyard was just as much of a mess as the front. Weeds were everywhere and several old car parts were scattered about. The only thing that was kept in good condition was the car.
"God Jonathan he's not here, okay?!" Lonnie shouted, pushing past him to stand in front of him again.
"Just let me look around," he responded, trying to move past him.
Lonnie stood his ground and shoved Jonathan back towards the house. "You have looked around and there's nothing."
Jonathan raised an eyebrow. "You seem pretty insistent to get me out of here."
"Well when you storm into my house and accuse me of taking Will, yeah I don't like that!" he screamed, his face turning slightly red as he leaned forward, getting in Jonathan's space.
Jonathan looked him up and down with a critical gaze. "You haven't changed at all," he mumbled, but it was loud enough for Lonnie to hear.
Deciding he was going to have no more of this, Jonathan shoved Lonnie back hard enough to send him stumbling back. It was enough for him to make his way to the car to look inside. Nothing.
"See? You came all the way here for nothing," Lonnie taunted.
Jonathan narrowed his eyes, but couldn't find fault in his statement. There was nothing here. No sign of Will.
He let out a heavy sigh and leaned against the car. He tried to think of where else Will might possibly be when he heard a thump come from the car. More specifically, the trunk of the car. Lonnie must've heard it too because his face went from slightly red to pale.
Jonathan felt his heart drop to his stomach as he scrambled to lift the trunk of the car, thanking whatever deity was out there that it wasn't locked. When light flooded into the trunk, his heart broke at what he saw.
It was Will, laying down in the cramped space with tears streaming down his face. His clothes were dirtied and a few spots of blood could be seen on his shirt, just below his face. There was blood caked underneath his crooked nose and a dark bruise just above his right eye. Looking at the rest of his body, Jonathan could see various other bruises and cigarette burns lining his arms.
"Jon—Jonathan please—" Will sputtered, unable to put together a sentence.
He immediately scooped him up in his arms, hugging him tight against his chest while minding his injuries. "Holy shit Will—oh my god I'm so sorry." He closed his eyes as he relished in the feeling of his brother breathing. He was alive. He was alive. "Oh Will, I'm sorry—god I'm here. I'm right here." Will was sobbing so hard against his chest he could feel it in his entire being.
Jonathan looked up from his brother to see Lonnie standing there, looking stuck between being angry and running away. Jonathan could only see red when he looked at him.
"You bastard!" he yelled, which made Will flinch and hug him harder. Realizing his mistake, Jonathan reeled in his anger into something that wouldn't scare Will. "We're leaving," he declared, lifting Will into his arms.
"Like hell you are," Lonnie growled, stepping in between him and the exit.
Jonathan glared at him, trying to calm the shake in his hands. "Lonnie, move. Now."
Something in his gaze must've scared him, because Lonnie turned tail and ran into the house, cursing and screaming the entire way.
Jonathan watched him like a hawk until he slammed the back door shut. He took a deep breath to try and quell his anger once more before putting all of his attention of getting Will out of there.
"It's okay, you're okay," he reassured as he settled him into his car. "You're safe. He's gone."
By then, Will's tears had subsided and he gave him a barely there nod. Jonathan gave him one more hug before getting into the driver's seat.
The ride home was long and tense, and Will wasn't saying a word. Jonathan kept glancing at him or trying to get some information about what happened, but every time Will opened his mouth to talk, he second guessed himself and closed it quickly.
So Jonathan tried something else. "I'm sorry if I scared you when I was shouting," he said quietly. "I didn't mean to."
Will looked up at him, eyes wide with surprise. "You didn't. You could never scare me."
When they arrived at the hospital, everyone they passed by did a double take and whispered to others around them. The famous missing Will Byers was back.
They quickly got Will situated with painkillers and treated his nose first. They got him his own room and they were thankful to be away from any prying eyes. Once Will was settled and fast asleep, Jonathan went to the nearest phone and dialed his mom's number.
It's only rang once for Joyce to answer. "Hello?"
"Mom, I found him. I found Will."
He heard a clattering noise, as if she dropped the phone. A moments later she spoke again, her voice sounding much thicker. "You found him?! Oh my god Jonathan—is he okay? What happened? Where are you?"
He wasn't sure how to answer the first question. "He's—well, we're at the hospital." He belatedly realized that probably wasn't the best thing to say when Joyce let out a pained gasp.
"He's fine," he added on quickly. "He's not that badly injured. It's just... I found him at Lonnie's place."
"Lonnie?" she whispered. "He... oh my god."
"Yeah," he sighed, closing his eyes and seeing Will in the trunk. "It's wasn't, uh, great when I went." He couldn't get that image to go away. "He was—" His voice cracked. "I found him in the trunk of his car, Mom. He—" His voice cracked again and this time, he couldn't stop the sobs that came through.
"Oh sweetie, I'm coming," his mom said. "I'll be right there."
"Okay," he managed to choke out before hanging up the phone.
It took Joyce only fifteen minutes to burst into the room, even though the hospital was at least a half an hour drive from their house. The moment her eyes landed on Will, she started to cry. "Oh my baby."
"Mom," Will gasped, holding out his arms to her.
She quickly went to his side to hug him, burying her face in his hair. With renewed vigor, Will began to cry and Joyce held him through it, whispering comforting things. She looked up to see her other son sitting nearby with a sad but relieved smile. She held out one hand and brought him into a hug.
"You're here," she cried, as if saying it both to Will and herself. "We're all here. We're right here."