The waiting was the worst part. They sat in the house as the minutes ticked by, no one saying anything. Sloane was driving herself crazy as her thoughts about what was happening in the shed were running rampant. Thankfully, it wasn't long before Hopper burst back into the house, clearly looking for something.

"What happened? Did it work?" Sloane asked while Hopper began searching for something.

"What happened?" Dustin repeated as they watched the police chief carefully.

The man nodded, grabbing an envelope and a pencil as he began scratching something out while everyone else surrounded him and the table. It was a series of dots and dashes -- Morse Code. Sloane recognized it, but she had no idea what any of it meant.

"I think he's talking, just not with words," Hopper explained as he did his best to recount the message.

"What is that?" Steve asked, not recognizing the pattern.

"Morse code," the young boys answered in unison. Sloane had a feeling these boys weren't too popular in school considering how much they knew about morse code and Dungeons and Dragons. However, it was helping more than hurting so it wasn't like she cared about such a thing right now.

"H-E-R-E," Hopper spelled out as he translated.

Max sighed, "Here."

"What the hell does that mean?" Sloane asked, "Like this house? Where else could he mean?"

Hopper shook his head, "No, I don't think he means a location. I think he's trying to say that he's still in there. Will's still in there, he's talking to us in the only way he can."

"So, we need to figure out a way to bring him back, put him back in power, right?" Sloane figured out, immensely uncomfortable by the number of eyes on her as she spoke. She didn't know enough about the situation to garner such attention, yet everyone was looking at her. "So, how can we do that?"

Jonathan perked up, clearly, he had an idea, "What if we surrounded him with things that remind him of us? Of family?"

"So, put him in the house?" Max suggested, but Hopper shook his head right away.

"Can't do that," the man disagreed, "The Mind Flayer will get our location regardless of whether or not Will's in control."

"I think I know a start," Jonathan spoke before running to a room in the house, presumably to grab whatever he thought could help. Moments later he came back with a stereo and a tape. "This is a start, right? Let's go."

Joyce, Hopper, Mike, and Jonathan disappeared back into the shed, leaving them in the house once again. Sloane grabbed onto Nancy, holding her close. Something about all of this gave her a bad feeling so she wanted to keep the girl as close and safe as possible.

"I don't know, Nance, I have a bad feeling about this, something just doesn't feel right," Sloane said with a sigh. She watched as the kids deciphered the morse code Hopper was sending them via a walkie talkie and a chart with the direct translations. "If we end up having to fight something, I don't know if I have the gall for that. I'm not... I'm not brave like you guys. I'm fragile and a coward, I'm a liability."

"Sloane, that's not true. I mean, you jumped headfirst into this shit with Jonathan and me without even stopping to think if it was worth it.  You have been by my side this whole time and put yourself in danger just to support me. That's not cowardly or fragile at all. Besides, it's not like you're supposed to be prepared or skilled at fighting monsters or things that go bump in the night."

"But you are," Sloane argued with a small pout, not sure at this point if that was a joke or not. "Everyone here knows so much more than I do about all of this. I stick out like a sore thumb."

Nancy sighed, intertwining their fingers and meeting the girl's eyes, "Babe, like I said, no one is supposed to be good at this. We've just, unfortunately, been through this before. Hopefully, we won't have to go through this again. I don't care about how much you know or how good you are at fighting interdimensional creatures, I just care that you're by my side and that you're safe."

"You called me babe," the blonde teased with a smile.

The girl chuckled softly, rolling her eyes, "I give you a whole speech and that's what you pick on? One misstep, babe and I'll feed you to the Demodogs."

"You wouldn't!" she exclaimed with a gasp, her and Nancy bursting into a fit of giggles. It felt strange to be laughing at a time like this, but at the same time, it was strangely relieving. She needed a good laugh, all this stress was definitely going to be bad for her skin. The two quieted down, walking over to where they were deciphering the message in morse code. Steve was writing down the letters while the kids listened and translated.

"C-L-O-S," Lucas translated, while Dustin scratched out the dots and dashes. The next letter came through, "E! G! A-T-E!"

"Close gate?" Sloane suggested, looking at the message Steve had written out. "What gate?"

The phone rang and everyone at the table jumped. Dustin ran to hang it up, muttering curse words under his breath. It rang again, Nancy grunted and ripped it off the wall. Sloane raised an eyebrow but refrained from commenting as she threw the phone to the floor.

"Do you think he heard that?" Max dared to ask, but none of them wanted to know the answer.

"It's just a phone, could be anywhere, right?" Steve suggested, but there was no hope in his tone. The bad feeling Sloane had earlier amplified.

They got their answer as they heard the screech of the creatures getting closer. Sloane clutched Nancy's hand probably tight enough to break it as they anticipated the worst.

"That's not good," Dustin muttered.

Scoffing, Sloane exclaimed, "Yeah, no shit. The phone gave us away, they know we're here."

Everyone re-entered the house, but they were sitting ducks. The creatures were on their way and they had no real means of defense except for a rifle Hopper had. He found another gun he must have taken from the lab, but that was the extent of their weaponry.

"Hey, hey!" he exclaimed, "Get away from the windows! Do you know how to use this?"

The gun was held out towards Jonathan, who was audibly flustered, "W-What?"

"Can you use this?" Hopper's voice escalated as he held out the gun.

"I can," Nancy cut in, taking the gun from Hopper while the rest of them scrambled for weapons. So, it seemed Sloane still had a bit more to learn about Nancy Wheeler, but she just needed to make sure they didn't die first. The sound of screeching rang through their ears once again.

"Where are they?" Max asked, her voice shaky. As she spoke, Sloane reached for the phone Nancy had tossed to the ground, figuring she could use it to bash something's head in if she had to. However, if she could avoid getting any blood on her that would be fantastic. The sinister growls could be heard and they knew the creatures had them surrounded. Sloane was shaking as she stood behind Nancy, but being behind a girl with a big gun gave her at least a little bit of comfort considering the circumstances.

The noise came from a different direction, so everyone shifted. Nancy asked nervously, "What are they doing?"

"They've got us surrounded," Sloane's voice was shakier than she thought it would be, giving away how terrified she was. However, they heard a noise that was different from the snarls and growling; almost like a whimper. All of sudden, the screeching and growls came to a complete halt.

The window shattered as a figure fell through it. Upon further inspection, it looked to be the corpse of one of the Demodogs. They all screamed, waiting for the creature to jump out at them. However, it never did.

"Holy shit," Dustin muttered.

"My thoughts exactly," said Sloane.

As they all approached the creature, the redheaded girl asked, "Is it dead?"

The sound of the door creaking caught their attention. Sloane kept her white-knuckled grip on the telephone, ill-prepared for whatever was about to walk through that door. If something could do that to the Demodogs, there was no telling what was going to walk through that door. The door appeared to unlock itself as if began to open. All of them prepared their weapons, ready to attack whatever was about to cross the threshold. However, it was no monster. It was a young girl who looked to be about Mike's age. Everyone else seemed to recognize her, save for Max.

Everyone was silent, except for Sloane who exclaimed, "Jesus, there's another kid?"

AHHH this marks the end of episode 8 and there's only about one or two chapters left of part one! then y'all get a little break and we move into part two which will take course over season three! I'm so excited for these characters in season three y'all have no idea! also, yes, i completely forgot to include Eliot in this chapter but he's THERE i swear