Chapter Text
Jim Hopper
Like a bad penny, Lonnie Byers showed up back in Hawkins just when we thought things were going to be normal for a little while. He didn’t get the inheritance he’d been hoping for, but he did suddenly recollect that the terms of his divorce settlement required Will to spend one weekend a month with him, and the judge refused to alter the settlement no matter how much I, Joyce, Jonathan, or Karen Wheeler testified that he’d been abusive. Jonathan and I took turns dropping Will off. I figured it would be a good idea to remind Lonnie that the chief of police was keeping an eye on his kid, and it would go a little easier for Will if he had El to talk to on the ride over. I had El wait in the car while I walked Will up to the door of Lonnie’s trailer and informed him that I would be back to pick Will up Sunday at 5:00.
Will had come home the month before with bruises on his arms that he admitted were from Lonnie grabbing him. It wasn’t severe enough to press charges or get the visitation agreement altered, but I didn’t want Will to be alone in the trailer when it got worse. Instead of going home, I parked behind a vacant trailer and tuned the car radio to static.
“El, do you think you can listen in on Will and his Dad?”
“Mike said I shouldn’t listen to people without telling them, because it could be something private.”
“In general, he’s right, but you know how Will talked about how his dad used to…”
“…Mouthbreather.” For some reason that was the greatest insult in El’s vocabulary. I took it as a win, given that some of the language she picked up from Mike was much more colorful.
“I just want to make sure he’s not hurting Will.”
El nodded. “I understand.”
She closed her eyes and within a few seconds, I could hear Lonnie’s voice through the car radio.
“Gene Blackburn’s paying me five bucks to have you clear some brush from his property. So that’s what you’ll be doing tomorrow.”
I rolled my eyes. Leave it to Lonnie to turn visitation into an opportunity to mooch off his son. On the bright side, it meant that Will would be under Blackburn’s supervision for most of the day.
Lonnie instructed Will to make dinner and then started berating Will about his hair.
“I ought to make you get it cut, but the barbershop’s not open on Sunday.”
“I’m trying to grow it out.”
“You look like a damn faggot. You and Jonathan both. I don’t know why Joyce lets the two of you…”
It sounded like Lonnie was just going to bitch all night without actually doing anything indictable, but I decided to wait it out until one or the other of them was asleep to call it a night. It was starting to get late when there was a sharp crackle of static, and the radio switched to somewhere other than the Byers’ trailer. An ominous voice called out a name.
“Chrissy…” there were no more words for a few seconds, only heavy breathing until El’s eyes flew open.
“It’s the trailer across from Will. Hurry!”
I looked across from Will’s trailer. Sure enough, the lights were flickering unnaturally. I ran towards the trailer, joined unexpectedly by Will.
“Hopper, it’s back!”
“Get back inside! Tell your dad, shit!” Lonnie had followed his son out of the trailer, and he looked pissed.
“I might be better off with you.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
I opened the door of the trailer to find a girl in a cheerleader’s uniform standing in the middle of a living room in some kind of trance. Eddie Munson, who I’d had a couple of run-ins with over the years, was trying to snap her out of it. If this was his uncle’s trailer, Lonnie’d picked a hell of a place to move. Munson senior was doing 15 years for car theft after Lonnie’d flipped on him to get out of charges for running a chop shop.
“Chrissy! Wake up. I don’t like this, Chrissy. Wake up!”
I looked behind me. El and Will were both standing in the doorway. “El, do you know what the hell is going on?”
“One has her.”
“One what.”
“One who. I can stop this.” She closed her eyes, and both she and Chrissy started to levitate. I could tell from the lights that something weird was going on, and then a hole started opening up in the ceiling. It looked like a much smaller version of the holes I’d had El close under the lab and the mall. I realized that I was going to need to call Kelley and Owens.
The girl opened her eyes and fell sobbing to the floor. Some kind of monster fell through the hole in the ceiling. It was more human than the ones I’d fought previously, and resembled a skeletal figure covered in some sort of vines. I emptied my service pistol into it, which seemed to wound it, and Eleven used her powers to slam it against the wall. It struggled, and I could tell they’d reached a stalemate. El couldn’t quite kill it, but it couldn’t break free of her grasp. I knew that her powers would weaken the longer she used them, and she’d already used some of them spying on Will and Lonnie.
“Anything I can do to help?”
“Try fire.”
“I don’t know if I have anything flammable.”
“I might have something.” Will ran out the door, and the monster changed tactics. Instead of trying to break free of El’s grasp, he started taunting her. It sounded like they’d met before, and it’d given her the chance to join it in taking over the world, but she’d refused.
“And now, you think you have won,” it finished, “but you…will…lose.”
“No,” El responded, “You will.”
Just at that moment, Will ran up behind her with two unopened bottles of Old Crow. He flung them at the monster and they shattered on impact, dousing it with alcohol. Realizing what Will was aiming at, I flicked my lighter and threw it at the monster. The alcohol ignited, and the vine-like tendrils on its body caught. Over the next few minutes it burned out into a charred mess on the Munson’s trailer.
El collapsed to the ground, panting heavily. I decided that I needed to tend to her before worrying about anything else.
“Hey, kiddo. You okay?”
“Yeah, just tired.”
“We’ll get you to bed soon. I just have to take care of a few things first.”
The few things I had to take care of were radioing Kelley and Owens.
“This is Jim Hopper, I’ve got a Code Red at the Forest Hills Trailer Park.” I was afraid that neither of them would be awake at this time of night, but Owens’ voice came over the line.
“Is the situation contained?”
“For the moment. We have what looks like a gate opening, but El’s too drained to close it.”
“Any casualties?”
“It wouldn’t appear so.”
“Witnesses?”
“Affirmative.”
“Who were they?”
“A Hawkins High School cheerleader, a low-level drug dealer, and Will Byers’ father.”
“Shit. I’ll be there in a couple of hours. Make sure they don’t interact with anyone else until I get there. Kelley, are you there?”
“Affirmative.”
“Can you come over and watch them until Owens gets here?” I asked. “I really want to get El to bed.”
“I’ll be about ten minutes.”