chapter 011,
enemy agent

SOMETHING ABOUT INTERROGATING A BOY AS INNOCENT AS WILL BYERS rubbed Lucy the wrong way, especially when Hopper and Jonathan held his unconscious form up to a chair and tied him down so he couldn't escape. Lucy knew that Will was dangerous, sure, but she couldn't look past the fact that on the outside, he looked the exact same. He looked like Will Byers. And Will Byers was not a kid who was so dangerous that he needed to be tied down and interrogated.

So Lucy sat inside the Byers's house with the rest of the kids save for Leo and Jonathan, who were those arguably closest with Will and therefore had special perks—such as staying at his side as he was examined in the locked-down shed.

Mike, Lucas, Max and Dustin sat in the kitchen, surrounding the breakfast table and leaning back in their seats, none of them uttering a word to each other. Nancy and Steve watched over them from the doorway, both leaning against opposite sides of the frame and gazing at the ground with their arms crossed. Lucy had excused herself for the bathroom, but if anybody took notice of how long she truly had been gone, they didn't seem to think anything of it. Nobody came after her. This was probably for the best, she decided—she didn't want anyone to see her holding back tears.

She had no idea why she was crying. All she knew was all of her emotions from the past twenty-four hours were coming back up in a heap of hot tears. Fear, nervousness, anger, confusion—all of it. She had always been an angry crier, but the only frustration she felt was toward herself. Guilt. All of the liability for her brother fell on her shoulders, and if she had been just a little bit less focused on herself, she would have noticed everything he'd been going through. If she'd just been stronger.

     A knock.

     Somebody was on the other side of the door. It was a short, quiet rasp. One tap. Lucy lifted her head, swallowing back a lump of tears and steadying her voice long enough to call out, "Just a minute—"

     But the person on the other side cut her off with a gentle voice. "Luce, it's me. Can I come in?"

     Lucy paused. She stared at the door for a second, debating within herself as to whether or not she should unlock the door. Finally, she reached out from her spot on the ledge of the bathtub and clicked the lock out of place.

     The doorknob twisted and Steve's head poked through a small opening, his eyes searching the bathroom before realizing Lucy was behind the door. He frowned and slid his whole body into the tight room.

     "Hey," he said quietly, shutting the door behind him. "You okay? I was wondering where you went."

Lucy rested her chin on her fist, gazing in front of her at nothing in particular. She could feel Steve's eyes on her. She didn't reply for a moment, afraid her voice would betray her and show Steve she'd been crying.

"I'm okay," she said, slowly and carefully, trying to control her emotions. "How's it going out there?"

"Same as it was when you left." After a pause, Steve frowned, narrowing his eyes at Lucy. "You sure you're alright?"

She avoided eye contact, giving him a nod. "Yeah. Just kinda.. shaken-up, I guess."

"Do you wanna talk?" Steve asked, tilting his head in. "I'm all ears."

"No, that's okay," she said quickly, lifting her shoulder. "I'm.. I'll be alright. Thanks, Steve."

He muttered an "Of course" in a tone that made Lucy think he wasn't thrilled she wasn't telling him what was on her mind, but altogether nodded his head and made to leave the bathroom. As his hand turned the knob and he pulled open the door, Lucy stood, saying his name.

He turned again. "Yeah?" he asked, looking down at her with hopeful eyes.

She gazed up at him a moment longer, her eyes stung red with hidden tears and cheeks blotchy, before a soft smile settled on her lips and she went up to her tiptoes to give him a quaint kiss. Short and quiet.

"I really will." She whispered the promise against his lips. "Be alright, I mean. You worry too much."

He caught the faint joking tone to her whisper and a smile played at his lips as he gazed into her eyes. He scoffed a quiet laugh. "Yeah, sure. I feel like it's warranted in this situation, though."

"Oh, sure it is," she teased, before pressing another kiss to his lips.

They jumped apart suddenly, as the overhead lamps in the bathroom began to flicker and buzz. Lucy and Steve gazed at the flashing lightbulbs, confusion written on both of their faces, before they tore out into the kitchen to meet up with the rest of them.

"What's going on?" Lucy asked nobody in particular. "Is something wrong?"

     Everybody was staring out the window that looked out onto to the shed, different levels of worry dancing across their faces.

     Nancy shook her head, pressing her lips together. "No, nothing should be wrong.. They said they would tell us if anything happ—"

     Suddenly the door to the shed burst open. Hopper, Joyce, Jonathan and Leo all stormed back into the house, looking determined. Hopper took heavy steps like a man on a mission. When he entered the kitchen, he slammed a piece of paper down onto the breakfast table and fumbled a pen out of his jacket pocket.

     "I think he's talking," he said, as everyone circled around him. "Just not with words."

     Lucy gazed at the paper Hopper was drawing on, a bemused frown on her lips. Four dots, a space, another dot, and then two dots on either side of a long line. Some sort of code—Morse, if Lucy had to guess. But she wasn't a nerd, so she didn't know how to read it.

     Luckily, she was in a room full of nerds.

     "What is that?" Steve asked.

     The words had barely left his lips before Dustin, Lucas, Leo, Mike, Jonathan, and Max all answered: "Morse code."

     "H-e-r-e.." Hopper read aloud, his voice a mumble. "Here."

     He looked up from the paper, staring right at Joyce. "Will's still in there. He's talking to us."

     Jonathan wasted no time in setting up some sort of walkie talkie system, wherein those in the shed could relay the Morse messages back to those in the kitchen, who could decode them and spell out what Will was saying to them. Hopper and Jonathan headed back out to the shed, and only a few moments later, the walkie talkie sitting on the kitchen table began to beep.

     "Dash, dot, dash, dot," Dustin spelled out, peering over Lucas's shoulder as he relayed the letters onto a piece of paper.

     Mike consulted a Morse code translator. "Yeah, got it! C!"

     A few seconds later, more beeps came in from the walkie; Mike's finger slid down the list of letters before stopping halfway down. "L!"

     Lucy and Steve stood behind as the kids spelled out letters they drew from the coded beeps Hopper was sending them. Lucy had long ago understood that she couldn't follow along to everything that was going on, and Morse code had never been her strong suit, so she decided she would have been more of a help if she stayed silent and out of the way. Her and Steve's hands met at their sides, their fingers intertwining and interlocking.

     "C-l-o-s-e," Lucas spelled out finally, looking up. "G-a-t-e. Close gate."

     All of a sudden a shrill ringing sounded out through the house—the phone. It rang loud enough that Lucy figured the sound reached the shed. Dustin cursed loudly and rushed over to shut it off, but it was too late.

     "Do you think he heard that?" Mike asked, gulping and looking around at everyone.

     "It's just a phone," Steve pointed out. "Could be anywhere. Right?"

     Lucy stared out the window, checking for any signals from the shed. Hopper, Leo, Jonathan and Joyce burst out, gazing past the house, looks of alarm on their faces.

     Somewhere in the distance, a roar echoed.

     A chill ran up Lucy's spine. "They're coming."

     "That's... not good," Dustin decided.

     Hopper tore back into the kitchen, this time armed with a loaded gun which he immediately took the safety off of and cocked. He glared heavily at everyone in the room, storming over to the front of the house.

     "Get away from the windows!" he demanded, gesturing for them all to get back. As they stumbled off the couch, Hopper picked up another gun, checking to see if it was loaded. He looked around, holding it out, his eyes landing on Jonathan. "You know how to use this?"

     Jonathan wet his lips. "Wh–what?"

     Hopper's voice was tight—he wasn't messing around. "Can—you—use—this?"

     "I can."

     Lucy surprised everyone—including herself—when she stepped forward, holding out her hands for the gun. Hopper just stared at her blankly.

     All together, everyone else in the room let out a mystified "What?"

     Suddenly defensive, she held up her hands, glancing between everyone. "What? I do!"

"Fair enough." Hopper tossed her the gun and she held it like she had done so a hundred times before—which was sheer luck, probably, because the only experience she had with guns was watching Red Dawn and First Blood. It wasn't real training, but she knew the basics.

She and Hopper cocked their guns and held them towards the front of the house. Everybody else picked up anything they could use to defend themselves from the Demo-dogs—baseball bats, knives, a candlestick. They all aimed their weapons to the front door and window in anticipation of the coming monsters. Every hair on Lucy's body stood up, and she swallowed back the urge to scream when another screech echoed from the distance.

"Where are they?" Leo asked, to nobody in particular.

The growling grew closer.

"Almost here," Hopper replied in a grim mutter. He adjusted his grip on his gun and glanced sideways to Lucy. "You better not have been lying about knowing how to use that."

"I wasn't," she promised, though she didn't know if it was a good time to tell them she only knew how to use guns because she'd watched so many war and action movies.

Another roar startled her and she refocused on the front door. Judging by the noise, the monsters were mere yards away. Their growls grew louder and louder until, suddenly, there came a heavy thud. Everybody jumped.

"What are they doing?" Nancy gripped a chair, holding it out in front of her. Not the best weapon, but probably good for defense, if Lucy had to guess.

Another thud echoed, followed by a screeching snarl. The monsters were groaning. Then, all of a sudden, the growls came to a stop, and a moment of tense silence rolled through the house—before a Demo-dog flew through the front window and almost smacked Lucy to the ground. Steve pulled her out of the way.

She and Hopper aimed their guns down at it, but no movement came from the monster. It didn't lunge for anyone or try to rip anyone's faces off. Hopper nudged it with the barrel of his gun.

Leo's head appeared from behind Hopper. He frowned. "It's dead."

"Holy shit," Dustin muttered. "Holy... shit."

There came a creak from the door that was only heard because of the heavy silence that had fallen over the room. Everyone turned back to face it, tense and anxious for what was going to come through. The first lock clicked open as if of its own accord. The second lock slid out of its chain like by an invisible force. Then, finally, the door slowly began to creak open, and on the other side was.... a little girl.

She was dressed in cuffed blue jeans and an oversized black blouse. She had relatively good style, in Lucy's opinion, and her short brown hair was gelled back, swept out of her heavily-shadowed eyes. She had a solemn expression on her young face.

Nobody said anything, but it was clear by the younger boys' reactions that they knew this girl very well. Mike was the first to move forward—he took slow, hesitant steps toward her; a look of utter disbelief splashed across his distressed face. And judging by the girl's reaction to seeing him, she was more than happy to be reunited with him.

It was clearly a very dear and sentimental moment. Lucy, not realizing this, lowered her gun and cleared her throat. "Your.. um, your nose is bleeding."