Here's the next chapter! Enjoy!
On the railroad, Dustin and Steve were dropping pieces of meat on there to lure Dart out to a certain place. "Wait, so let me get this straight," the teen told the boy. "You kept something you knew was probably dangerous JUST to impress some girl you just met?"
Dustin scoffed and answered, "Okay, that's REALLY oversimplifying things."
"Well, why'd you think some girl would like some nasty slug anyway?"
He looked back at him. "An inter-dimensional slug? Come on, it's awesome!"
He sighed, now by his side. "Okay, and she didn't think it was cool?"
The curly-haired boy shook his head. "Not from what I've seen, no."
He scoffed at him. "See? You're just trying too hard."
Dustin frowned. "Not everyone can have your perfect hair, alright, Steve?"
"It's not the hair, man. It's..." He trailed off to think about what to tell him. He thought of telling him that he shouldn't act like he cares when it comes to girls to make them crazy, but he wasn't a douchebag anymore, so that was shitty advice to give to a kid.
"'It's...?'"
What else to tell him...what else to tell him... "It's the charm."
The boy gave him a weird look. "Charm?"
"Something that's...y'know, appealing to them."
He grinned a little and dropped more chunks of meat. "Like your hair?"
Again with the hair...he shrugged and dropped a couple chunks of meat. "Sure, but it doesn't stop there. Could be some part of your appearance or even your personality."
"Personality?"
"Yeah."
Dustin sighed and looked at the ground. "I dunno if this girl is gonna like MY personality..."
That bummed the teen out a little, so he told him, "I'm just gonna tell you straight up, kid. Not all girls are the same."
"Well...I know, I'm friends with a girl."
Oh yeah, Jane, Kali's tomboy little sister. He almost forgot he was friends with her. "I know about Jane, but listen to me." Dustin looked up at him. "I'll be honest with you, some girls won't be attracted to your personality."
The boy frowned and looked down. "Okay..."
"But others might."
He looked up at him with a surprised face. "Really?"
Steve nodded. "Yeah, really. I think other girls can find your personality charming." Nerdy girls do exist, so he wasn't lying to him.
The curly-haired boy nodded. "Uh-huh..." He wondered if Max finds his personality charming, but if not... "What about my appearance?"
The jock looked down at him. Blue eyes...curly hair... "Maybe your eyes or your hair, if you do it in a certain style."
"What certain style?"
"Like..." He tried thinking of male celebrities with curly hair like his, theirs styled...similar to his straight brown hair. That's why he pointed at his own. "Like this, but curly."
"Oh." Steve still had that perfect hair while his...not really. He sighed and asked, "So...if this girl finds me charming, somehow, then what do I do?"
What would he do...the teen answered, "You just get to know her better and with time, you'll feel it."
"Feel what?"
"This..." He couldn't come up with better words at the second, so he said, "It's like before it's gonna storm, y'know? You can't see it, but you can feel it. It's this...uh..." He finally came up with the word for it. "Electricity."
The boy thought he got it. "Ah, like the electromagnetic field when the clouds in the atmosphere-"
Yeah, nerdy girls would LOVE him, he knew it. He shook his head and stated, "No, no, no, no, like this...sexual electricity."
He looked a bit surprised, but nodded. "Oh, alright."
He grinned and pointed at him. "You feel THAT, then you make your move."
He smiled a little and asked, "That's when you kiss her?"
That question alone was enough to make him stop. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down, Romeo."
Dustin stopped and frowned. "Sorry."
He sighed and the two continued venturing on forward and dropping their pieces of meat. "Let's go back to all girls not being the same. Some girls like for you to be aggressive, so going in for a kiss isn't that bad for them." The curly-haired boy nodded again. "They like it strong, hot and heavy, like a...a lion. For others though, you'll have to go slow and stealthy, like a...I dunno, a ninja."
This made the boy curious. "So...which type is Kali?"
Kali...at the moment, that name brought Steve the mixed feeling of sadness and joy. She still wasn't around, not to his knowledge, but... "Kali's different, WAY different the types of girls I told you about."
Dustin looked down and said, "Yeah, I guess she's pretty special."
He smiled a little and replied, "Yeah, she is."
This conversation reminded him of before they were dating. After his last breakup with What'sherface, he wanted to change up his love life a little by dating a pretty girl that wasn't white. He knew about Kali, so he tried the "Pretend-you-don't-care" tactic on her to woo her. That tactic had worked on the girls he hooked up with before, like a charm. She kind of reacted to that like any other girl he's dated before, but little did he know that she also used the same tactic on him. How she knew about that was beyond him, but like how he was driving her crazy with it, she was driving him crazy with it too. That was why their first kiss was a make-out session. Thinking about that made him grin.
"...something about her," Dustin continued, Steve unaware of what he just said due to his thoughts.
"Wait, what?" he asked him.
"I'm just saying that there's also something special about this girl, y'know?"
That made him concerned and stop again, the boy doing the same. "Hold on, Henderson."
"What?"
"You're not falling in love with her, are you?"
He asked that with a not-so-accepting face, so that prompted Dustin to shake his head and answer, "No, no, of course not."
He nodded and the two continued walking and dropping the chunks of meat on the tracks. "Good, don't."
"I-I won't..."
"She'll break your heart and you're too young to go through that shit, okay?" Dustin only nodded and the two continued doing what they were doing. The jock saw the look on the boys face, making him feel a little bad. He probably thought he had no chance with this one girl, huh? He was just warning him. Maybe he could cheer him up by...oh God, he'll have to tell him that if it meant cheering him up.
He'll have to tell him the secret to his perfect hair.
Terry and Jim were in his police car, using Morse code to try and connect to Mike. Terry told her daughter that she'll be in the bathroom so that she wouldn't get suspicious. Both looked very forlorn since they've left him alone for a couple days (or so they thought). The man got frustrated and leaned onto the wheel, releasing a deep sigh. The woman sighed as well and gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze. "Jim..." she whispered to him softly. "We can do this. We just need to pull through, like...in those vines."
He looked at her, seeing that she looked just as sad as him right now. Since they were both like parents to the poor kid, it's to be expected. He nodded and straightened up. "Okay...we'll talk to him through the radio," he replied, her nodding back. He pressed the talking button on the speaker he had in his hand and spoke, "Hey, buddy...it's, uh...it's me..."
He hovered the speaker to Terry, who spoke into it, "And me, sweetie. We're both here." He was about to pull it away from her, but she held his wrist, telling him to keep holding it to her. She took a deep breath and continued, "Listen...I know we've been gone for too long and..." She took another deep breath. "It's not because of you or...our fight, okay?"
She gestured Jim and he spoke into it, "She's right, kid. We're not gone because of you or the fight..."
The cabin was completely empty, the words spoken through the radio disturbing the quietness. "...okay? Something came up and got the both of us involved, so...I...we'll explain it once we see you again." There was a pause. "We're not mad, okay? Neither of us are."
Both being near tears, they both said, "We're sorry..." They looked at each other in a bit of surprise, but then exchanged glances and continued, "About everything."
Terry gestured Jim to hold the speaker to her again, him doing so as she said somberly...
"We...we don't want you to get hurt at all, Michael. We don't wanna lose you."
There was another pause before Jim said, "We would never forgive ourselves if anything happened to you, Mike."
The woman wiped her impending tears while the man sniffled. "Just...make sure you heat up some real food, not just Eggos."
Terry got close and said, "No eating ice cream either, okay?"
"Eat all the peas, even if they're gross and mushy, and..." He sighed before she finished for him, "We'll be home soon." He let go of the button and put the speaker back in its place. He wiped away his tears and sniffled again, muttering, "I hope he's doing alright..."
"You and me both..." Terry replied somberly as they both hugged each other once again, trying to comfort one another in this situation.
The doctors were taking so long that Joyce went to get past the guards, them holding her back as well as Bob. Jane frowned at that situation, hoping things will get better soon. She looked at her friend and saw him just staring blankly into space. Though it looked like that, the heart monitor was steadily increasing its beeping, so she thought he was doing more than just staring into space. She nudged him a little and said, "Will? Will?" He tensed back a little before looking at her, trying to hide this feeling that makes him warm whenever he saw her. "What's going on? Are you hurting again?"
He shook his head at her and answered, "I...saw something."
"In your now-memories, right?"
He nodded at her, laying on his side now and shaking just a little. "The shadow monster...I think I know how to stop him." That gave the tomboy more than relief to hear. Everything can end now...
Kali and Jonathan have went all around town, but saw none of their family members anywhere. They haven't given up hope since the idea of using Will's walkie-talkie at home came up. They drove to the Byers home and got out of the car to get inside. Jonathan opened the door and they both got inside. Instantly, they all saw the drawings and looked shocked. "Holy shit..." the auburn-haired guy muttered.
"What the hell is all of this?" the Indian girl asked.
He shook his head and shrugged. "I don't know...this all wasn't here when I left." They continued to explore the entire house before reaching to Will's room, seeing that the weird drawings nearly spanned across the entire house.
When they got inside Will's room, they saw the walkie-talkie on the boy's desk. "There we go..." Kali murmured before she became the first to grab it and pull up the antennae.
Meanwhile, Jonathan spotted a well-drawn, yet creepy-looking shadow monster with red lightning behind it. That made him worried before spotting a piece of a camera on the ground. He recognized it right away. "Polaroid."
His friend looked back at him with a puzzled face. "What?"
He looked at her and waved the piece up a little. "This was on the floor, but I don't shoot Polaroid." He put it in the pocket of his jacket, looking worried as hell. "Someone else was here." Her eyes widened, realizing what could have happened to them...
"Should I...?" She pointed at the walkie-talkie.
He sighed and shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "Let's try. Best case scenario, Jane's hanging out with Lucas and Dustin." She nodded before looking at it again.
In the junkyard, Dustin and Steve have met up with Lucas and Max. Dustin and Lucas talked about what the black-haired boy told the redhead and the curly-haired one conveniently finding Dart, but eventually reached to a truce. As they were getting prepared to intercept Dart before dark, Dustin's backpack, perched on the side of the bus next to Lucas's, made a whirring sound and a muffled voice was heard through it. Unfortunately, everyone was so busy getting prepared that none of them noticed the sounds.
"Hello?" Kali said into the walkie-talkie. "Can anyone hear me? It's Kali. I wanna know where she is." She stopped and listened for an answer, though she and Jonathan got nothing but static.
She handed the walkie-talkie to Jonathan and he said into it, "It's Jonathan. Can anyone hear me? Over?" He got nothing but static. "Kali and I need to know where our siblings are, over." Still nothing but static. "Anyone?" Still nothing. He sighed and shortened the antennae. "Nothing."
She groaned and muttered, "Shit!"
"That only leaves one option..."
She nodded, saying, "We need to go back to the Lab."
In the meeting room with the rest of the doctors, Jane, Jim, Joyce, Terry, Bob, and Will were in there, the auburn-haired boy looking at the photos people from the Lab took last night. One doctor was skeptical of this, saying to the old one, "This is ridiculous, Sam."
"Just give him a moment, will ya?" he replied to him bitterly.
"We don't have time for-"
"Hey, jackass, do us all a favor and shut up, okay?" Jim told him, the doctor thankfully keeping silent. Terry would nag him about swearing in front of the kids, but she'll let it slide since that guy really needed to shut the hell up.
Will stood up and moved around to find one specific set of photos. Dr. Owens followed suit as he saw him point at the set of pictures, all making one large center. "That's it."
Everyone else looked at the photos he was pointing at from where they were before Dr. Owens asked, "That's what, Will? What's...what's there?"
He shook his head a little. "I don't know, but..." He gulped. "I know he doesn't want me to see there. I think...it's important." That gave the personnel all they needed to start up an investigation.
Later, in the lowest bunk, Terry and Jim stood next to Dr. Owens as they saw the personnel in hazmat suits go onto the trolley and lower themselves down. Eventually, the camera on one of them turned on before the rest did, showing the environment of the Upside Down. The radars were on and the sketch of the drawing Will pointed to was in front of one of the workers. "Well, let's see if this kid's right or crazy, doc." The old doctor saw the two adults look worried and do things a worried person would do, Jim rubbing his face and Terry placing her fist on her lower lip. Neither of them were ready to expect the unexpected, but they had to, so that Will can be alright and this "shadow monster" can be defeated.
...
During some time, the three adults looked carefully at the video being shown, though it was beginning to glitch out and hearing the soldiers. They've finally reached to...that place...that place Jim and Terry were at. They both looked shocked and leaned forward to the footage, Terry saying, "Oh my God, that's the place."
Dr. Owens looked at her with a confused face. "What?"
"That's where Terry and I were at," Jim answered. "That damn graveyard..." If that was the place the shadow monster didn't want Will to see...
"There's nothing here, sir," one of the soldiers said through the patch radio.
The scientist in front of the radars looked at the head doctor and told him, "Looks like your kid's full of shit, doc." Before he or the other adults could retort, they all then suddenly heard low growling from the radio. Then in the video, fog began to show up, making them all look closely at the screen.
In the emergency room, Will was laying on his cot, Jane at his side, Bob right next to her, and Joyce at the other side. The boy's face suddenly looked somber as he muttered, "I'm so sorry..."
The tomboy looked up at him, a bit puzzled. "What?"
"H-hold on, what do you mean, sweetie?" Joyce asked him, looking very worried.
He began to shake and stutter out, "H-he made me do it..."
His mom stood up and gently grabbed the side of his arms as his eyes were welling up. "Who made you do what, Will?" Jane was thinking about it, then came a frightful realization.
"I-I told you...they upset him...they shouldn't have done that...they shouldn't have done that."
Jane's eyes were wide and her breathing became uneven as she said, "The spy..." Will was crying and sobbing, breaking both her heart and Joyce's. However, that was just it. She sprung out of her chair and exclaimed, "The spy!" She then ran out of the room before anyone could stop her.
Another scientist in front of another set of radars looked back at the lead one and stated, "We got movement." The radar showed several red dots approaching the soldiers...several, perhaps a dozen.
The lead scientist grabbed his microphone and told the soldiers frantically, "You've got company, guys!"
Jane ran to the guards and yelled, "Let me through!"
The guards prevented her from going through, one of them saying, "You know we can't do that, kid."
"PLEASE, I have to warn them! It's a trap! It's a TRAP!" Suddenly, Bob grabbed her from behind to prevent her from going on through. She struggled though and her eyes began to water. "IT'S A TRAP! IT'S A TRAP!" Her mom was down at the bunk. If anything ever happened to her...
There was overlapping shouts heard from the radio, more and more red dots being very close to them. "They're RIGHT on you!" shouted the lead scientist on the microphone. The overlapping chatter grew louder, the worry everyone in the room had skyrocketing. Then suddenly, a loud growl was heard...and one of the videos turned to static. Gunfire and screams were now heard through the radio as well. Jim and Terry now began to feel terrified.
Jane continued yelling that she needed to tell everyone that it was a trap, but then she heard Will yell, "It's too late!" She and Bob looked back, the girl releasing some tears. Too late...? It couldn't be...that meant that her mom will be...
One by one, the soldiers were mauled, all of the videos turning to static. Now the adults looked horrified. The two looked closely at one radar with the dots. The red ones continued going forward...the dots representing the soldiers not to be seen. "Jesus..." muttered Jim. They both then looked at the hole, running to take a closer look.
Bob and Jane got back into the room, now hearing Will say, "They're almost here."
She sniffled and wiped away her tears, muttering, "Mama..." Bob gave her a gentle hug to comfort her, though her mom and Hopper were in danger.
Everyone in the tech room kept silent, Jim and Terry looking around the outside of the room, expecting whatever were those red dots to appear. They were completely scared, but they had to be ready, just in case.
And then, a hand appeared from the hole and grabbed one of the edges. A creature with the head of a Demogorgon came up from it and released a screech. Everyone couldn't believe it...they were here...
This was the perfect trap they fell into.
Done! What do you guys think of this chapter? Any typos or mistakes I might've missed? This is a more shorter chapter than usual, but that's because there's a little less to change than usual. I still hope you guys enjoyed it nonetheless!
So I changed Steve's advice to Dustin in this one. I did that because he's becoming less of a douchebag, thanks to Kali, so yeah. Hope you guys don't mind that!
Poor Hopper and Terry, worrying about Mike like the parents they are to him...
What will happen to everyone in the Lab...? Well, we'll find out after the Mike-centered chapters coming up next! So, review, follow, favorite, and I'll see you guys in the next chapter!