Chapter Text
Before we start, Ethan is deaf, but can read lips well, but the guys do sign to accommodate him. we aren't gonna put "signed" after every sentence but his deafness is still existent. the boys are good at signing and remembering to face ethan when he speaks, so the only times its really a problem is when its actually written out and shown to be a problem. (ive gone back and revised over the years so hopefully it flows this final time but ugh) also this is the only chapter written in first person because valen / meirdforme wrote it when we were both collabing on this book so i dont wanna change their work lol (also u should totally check them out on ao3 or tumblr where they also go by meirdforme! Theyre so sweet and cool, mostly into kpop now but shoutout to them :D)
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HAWKINS, INDIANA ; 02/26/1978
"003, Get back here, boy" I see Papa using his hands to sign my name along with something else. He's telling me to come back to him but I don't wanna, It gives me shivers down my spine, uncomfortable. I look at his face and see that he has a...sort of smile? I just know it's not a good one so I decided to turn away and look to my left. There I can see 3 men trying to block me from going that way and escaping. These people...are..confusing?
I think I know what to do...I'm tired of being in this place. They take care of me so badly and hardly feed me, I can tell they don't care about me, they just want to use me as something that's called a "weapon". From my time living here in this..building? I have learned many things, such as how to use my powers, words with their meanings, and sign language. Sign language is something that helps me talk with people around the building I live in since I was born not being able to hear anything.
Now you're probably thinking, did you just say powers? Yeah, I was born with them but...I don't know how, when I always asked, Papa would say whoever gave birth to me passed them down. I don't think he was...telling the truth, because when some of the other kids get left for a long time their powers fade away. But, about my powers, Papa said I have 3 of them.
The first one is called "Pyrokinetics." With that, I can only control fire when it's close to me. It's like picking something up and throwing it at your opponent. Papa said if I use too much I would fall asleep and bleed from my nose. I think he said I could also create it someday.
The second one is named "Teleportation." Papa explained that I can only teleport up to 3 people and do it so often every 10 to 15 minutes...what does "minutes" mean? If I teleport more than 3 people, Papa said I will pass out and bleed from somewhere, I can't remember what he said about that part.
The last one is "Invisibility." I can make many people and myself invisible, but we can only be invisible for 10 minutes. Again, what is the word "minutes"?
I walk towards the men trying to block me and standstill. They look at me like they're confused but...mad. Their faces turn into horror and worry, heh, now as you see, I turned myself invisible so I could go past them. Those...goofy..people? Anyways, they should have known that I could use my powers against them. Thanks for teaching me, Papa.
I began to run through the dark, white tile hallways with the red alarms flashing on and off. I think they got turned on cause I'm escaping and papa needs help finding me, that seems...pathetic. I think I only have a few moments left with my invisibility so I need to find the main doors fast. I'm starting to get all...s-stressed? Many of the people who watch us and train us are running around searching for me and also making sure no other kids leave the place.
Us? Kids? Yes, there are a few others in this building, I wish I could save them but it's too...not safe. I have gotten along with 2 of them; they are like me, and before me. 002 and 001, Oh, well you look at that, I think I found the doors to the main doors! Now, If I go through the doors and if someone is on the other side, they're gonna know that I'm there. I just need someone to open the doors for me, but I see no one around. I guess...I'm gonna have to make a run for my escape.
I press my hands on the door to open it and push....huh? There is no one here- Oh no, I see a woman from the corner staring at the doors where I came from. She is yelling something out loud but I can't tell what she's saying, maybe it's telling the others that I'm in the main doors. That doesn't...worry? I needed to run, and so I did.
The ground hurts my feet so badly, cold, rocks, and hard. I turn around and see Papa standing outside the building along with men standing by his side. I Don't care, I just need to get into the trees and find someplace to hide. From where I go, I could be safe from Papa and the bad men. I look in front of me and run away somewhere, into trees, into a home, into an...animal? What it is, it will be safer than staying with Papa.
Soon I feel sticks under my feet, letting me know that I'm in the trees. I look around me and see trees from every side, so I decide to climb up one and sleep until the sky turns light again. By the next time the sky turned light, I climbed down the tree to see a squirrel running off the ground onto another tree. I might need to start looking again for a place to live in. Oh, I see smoke in the air, fire? Food? I am looking to have food anyways. I pick up my feet and begin to walk my way towards where the smoke was coming from.
A building? I see a building on fire and some lady trying to escape from the window of the building. I look down at my hand and close my eyes, from that I can bring the fire to me, which is my hands, and make it disappear or use it as something else. The look on her face is...amazed? She looks my way and sees me with fire in my hands. Oops, maybe I should put that away.
I put out the fire in my hand, waved at her, and then turned invisible to run away. Now half of the building is broken down, how is she gonna explain that to people? Not my...answer? I soon find a place filled with buildings, it looks like people live in each one. Papa said if I need to open a door or enter somewhere, I should always hit the door 3 times, which is called "Knocking."
Which one should I go into? Well, now is not the...time? I just need some building to keep me away from Papa if he ever goes here looking for me. I step out of the trees and walk on this black flooring with large colorful bugs going back and forth. Someone grabs my shoulder and turns me around to face them. I'm now facing an old man yelling at me but I can't tell what he's saying. He points towards the buildings, I think he's asking me to go over there, so I just nod at him and walk over there.
The steps are sounding as I walk on each one to knock on the door to the building. I soon saw a pretty lady that answered the door. I pointed to my ears and made an "X" with my fingers, letting her know that I can't hear what she is saying to me. Papa tried to teach me how to speak since he got...mad at me for not being able to hear. I would say words and use my mouth how they would sound like and Papa would tell me if it's yes or no.
"I can't hear you...I was born not hearing, sorry" I said to her, my voice might sound a little weird since I don't know how to say the word "Hearing." Papa never taught me that word, I don't know why though. She gives me a sad look on her face and signs something towards me. I'm glad she knows sign language though. What she said to me was "I'm so sorry, do you need any help?" I gave her a smile and signed "Papa and bad men" which gave her a...worried face.
She lets me inside of her place and asks me if I wanted something to eat, I sign "anything" back to her and she nods. Once I got my food (meat and string in colored water), she tapped my shoulder and said to me "Did something happen to you?" I put down the item (She called it a "Spoon") I was using to eat the food and said, "I'm in danger, I ran away from a big building and need a place to be." I saw her face was shocked and she signed that I should stay with her but I have to tell her what happened in the big building, so I did.
I told her about the kids, superpowers, Papa, the bad men, using us as "weapons", and how they took care of us. By the end of it, she got up from the table and put her arms around me. "What are you doing?" I asked her, she took her arms off of me and told me what she did was called a "Hug." It is when you feel happy, sad, or worried for someone. Then she said something about the word "Love" but didn't sign the rest of what she was saying, maybe it's something she doesn't want me to hear or know about.
She soon leads me to an empty room and signs that this is where I will be sleeping for the rest of my life. It feels nice having someone to care for you, she hugs me one more time and signs to me that she will be in the room 2 doors down the hallway. Once she left, I looked around the room and saw that it had pretty flowers all over the walls and a nice white bed in the corner. I walk over to the white bed and lay down, feeling...comfortable, I think I'm gonna like it here. I close my eyes and relax so I can finally go to sleep.
HAWKINS, INDIANA 04/04/1981
"The strawberries have some green color and fur on them, Nicole," I told her and she got all sad. After I escaped from the building where I was from (which is called Hawkins Lab), I learned her name and she learned mine since we never got the time to introduce ourselves right away when we met. I see Nicole saying something about her getting them a few days ago since I read her lips. Ever since she let me into her house, I have been learning new words to put in my vocabulary. I also finally learned what the word "minutes" means! I've learned so much in the past few years, but I worry about the others sometimes.
Nicole takes my plate with strawberries and throws them away, along with the plastic box of furry strawberries. She signs to me that she's sorry and she'll make us something called "Waffles" instead, I smiled at her and nodded. When she finished making the waffles, she brought them to the table and sat down in a chair. They kind of look like pancakes but with squares on them. I grabbed my fork, picked a piece, took a bite out of the waffle, and oh my- THESE TASTE SO GOOD! I WANT THIS FOREVER NOW!
From the corner of my eye, I can see Nicole giggling at something. "Why are you laughing?" I sign to her, she looks at me and signs that my facial expression is funny from how I ate the waffles for the first time. Well, she got that right, I could tell that my face lit up like it was some cartoon. I giggled from thinking about my reaction in my mind and continued to eat the waffles. After a few moments of silence, Nicole decides to tap my hand and sign a sentence to me, something about a place called "School."
I give her a confused face, letting her know that I don't know what "School" is. She puts her fork down, sighs, and starts signing what school is. From what she told me, it's a place where some kids go to learn and educate themselves about languages, problems, history, and other things. Along with it, you can play sports, which are games, but you're playing...with a ball? Wow, the lab had more fun games than playing with a different shaped ball and calling it a whole other name.
Yeah, no. I will not be going cause, first of all, it sounds dumb. Second, other kids will be there and third, I'm pretty sure they will make fun of me for not being able to hear. Of course, I'm not gonna say all of that to Nicole, it's just hard to explain why I feel like this. "I don't wanna go, seems dumb" I sign to her, which causes her to be shocked and asks why I don't wanna go. I don't answer and she gets up from the table to grab my plate and her plate to put in the sink, "Too bad, you are going to go and learn" she signs to m- wait what-
HAWKINS, INDIANA 04/18/1981
Ugh, do I have to do this? What if I accidentally show my powers in front of everyone? I'm feeling so..nervous, I turned to my side and saw Nicole smiling at me. "Aren't you excited?" she signs towards me, uh no, I'm not. I gave her a blank expression and signed that I didn't want to go, that something bad is going to happen. She doesn't believe me and tells me to get out of the car before I'm late for my class.
I open the car door and get out, now there I am just standing outside of the car and looking at the building, like a complete weirdo. "Bye, Nicole," I said as I started to walk inside the school entrance, now I just have to find my class. Why didn't they give me a tour before my first day? As I walk down the halls I see kids staring at me...I don't like this at all. Someone suddenly taps me on my shoulder and it causes me to jump.
I turn around and see a tall woman signaling to me that I need to follow her, so I did. She leads me to this room that seems like the main place where the people in charge are. "Name?" She signed to me as she was sitting in the chair in front of me, "Ethan" I replied back, which took her by surprise; It's pretty awkward whenever I speak, I can't tell if the person is judging me or not. She asks me something with her mouth, leaving me confused. I signed to her that I can't hear but I can still speak.
"I'm so sorry, my apologies, Ethan" she signed. The blonde hair woman looked at her papers then started writing something down. The woman looked back up at me and gave me a paper with a map of the school on it and the class numbers and what time they end. "These are your classes, every time your teacher says "it's time to go to your next class" you go to the next class under the current one you're in" She explained to me. I nodded to her, this school seemed a bit...weird?
I walk out of the room that I was in and look down at my schedule. Room...
"Uh- hi, my name is Will" A brunette boy with a bowl cut signed to me.
"You can sign?" I signed back, curious.
He quickly ripped a piece of paper out of his notebook and wrote down "I only really know how to sign my name. What's yours?"
I was guessing he didn't know how to read sign language that much. I decided to take a pencil and write on paper for him.
"My name's Ethan :)"
HAWKINS, INDIANA 05/24/1982
A sleepover between Mike Wheeler, Lucas Sinclair, Dustin Henderson, Will Byers, and Ethan Boise was never your standard sleepover.
The party was in the basement of Mike's residence, they had built a fort out of chairs, sheets, blankets, and pillows.
"Dustin! Stop moving, you're gonna knock the chair down!" Lucas scolded
"Sorry" He apologized, laughing
"Ethan, come sit over here, you'll have more room" Will chirped, Ethan read his lips, and signed to him, "Beats being smacked by Mike every four seconds" and rolled his eyes, moving over next to Will.
"Pass the popcorn, jesus" Mike complained
Dustin passed Mike the popcorn, who took a handful and shoved it into his mouth as he hit 'play' on the projector.
"Wait, Eth, have you ever watched 'The Evil Dead' before?" Lucas signed
"Nope" He replied back
"Man, get ready because this movie is amazing!" He grinned
The movie's intro started playing as Dustin started loudly shushing the group.
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The movie had ended and Dustin and Lucas had gotten out of the fort to use the bathroom and get some more snacks and juice, Mike had gotten out to try and look for one of his horror movie posters.
"Hey E? Can you grab my blanket from my backpack please?" Will asked him
"Yeah sure, be right back" He replied, teleporting across the room to his backpack to grab the nicely folded, yellow blanket.
"What the hell?!" Dustin shouted
"I'm dreaming right?" Mike asked to no one in particular
"Oh shit.." Ethan mumbled
"I'm not the only one who saw that right?-" Will asked sleepily, crawling out of the fort.
"Uhm, no.. I uh-" He signed, giving up after a few words and trying to start again
"You can TELEPO-" Dustin shouted, but got cut off by a teleporting Ethan, covering his mouth."Yeah I can teleport, I dunno why but.. I just can" He explained, lying a bit.
"Okay, this never happened okay?" Mike announced, looking back over to Lucas and Dustin in the corner, then at Will standing next to the fort.
"I second that" Ethan agreed
"I third that"
"Uhm- let's just.. go to bed.. it's what?...." Ethan started, looking over to the clock, "1:30am, so uh-" he finished, throwing the yellow blanket to Will and teleporting back into the fort and cuddling into his blanket.
The other four crawled in and laid down in their respective spots and went to sleep. Trying to fathom what just happened with their friend. Mike was buried in his burgundy blanket that smelt like an old person's house, being the first to drift off. Lucas and Dustin were forced to share a large, grey blanket, and they quietly snickered throughout the night about it. Will on the other hand, drifted to sleep around an hour after they all got snuggled up in the fort, he didn't know whether to be excited or scared, the nine going on ten year old kids all didn't really know how to react.
Hopefully it wouldn't put them in danger, right?