I am SO sorry about the long wait.
This chapter is a little longer than chapter 4. I wanted it to be longer, but oh, well. I can't wait to get to season 2! That's where most of the action will be.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
"Would you please stop that?" Mike asked, almost growling the sentence.
Eleven swallowed as he fiddled with the dials on the walkie talkie. The crackles and static were the only sounds present in the room.
Eleven looked away from Mike, not wanting to meet his eyes.
"Are you deaf?" Mike demanded.
Eleven felt as though a knife had been thrust into his chest with Mike's angry tone. Lucas already hated him. Eleven didn't know what he'd do if Mike started to hate him, too, and he certainly wouldn't know what to do if Mike kicked him out, which Eleven was just waiting for that to happen.
"I thought we were friends," Mike continued. "Friends tell each other the truth. They don't lie to each other. You made me believe that Will was out there, that he was alive! And he wasn't!"
Eleven flinched as a headache came on, and he felt a trickle of blood begin to seep out of his nose, but despite the pain and the nose bleed and the exhaustion, he managed to smile. It worked. Now, if he just pushed himself a little more, he could prove to Mike that Will was still alive.
"Why did you lie to me?" Mike demanded, and he actually sounded close to crying.
A soft click sounded, and the crackle and static of the walkie talkie became words. Words spoken by a voice that was all familiar to Mike. A voice he thought he'd never hear again.
"Should I stay or should I go?" Will's weak voice filtered over the radio.
Mike froze.
"Should I stay or should I go now?" Will sang.
Mike crossed the room and knelt by Eleven's side to hear better.
"If I go, there will be trouble," Will rasped. He obviously hadn't had much to drink since he'd disappeared. "If I stay, there will be double."
Eleven handed Mike the walkie talkie, and Mike hit one of the buttons.
"Will? Will, it's Mike! Do you copy?" Mike asked, his words rushed and almost blurring together.
A crackle sounded as the radio fuzzed in and out, but Will's voice didn't return.
"Was that…" Mike murmured, unable to complete the sentence.
Eleven managed a small smile.
"Will," Eleven confirmed.
A weak whimper sounded over the radio, followed by the crackle of static, as Eleven twisted the knobs and pressed the buttons, reaching out with his powers. He could feel Will… just out of his reach, but every time he thought his powers would just barely brush against the boy, he was yanked back by something. It took a lot of power to reach out that far, and the crummy radio signal wasn't helping. With the right equipment, Eleven could make it stronger, but that would take time, and time was something they didn't have.
"Did you hear that?" Mike asked Lucas and Dustin.
"Yeah," Lucas replied. "I heard a baby."
"What?" Mike asked.
"Mike, you obviously tapped into a baby monitor. It's probably the people next door," Lucas pointed out.
"No, Lucas. You don't understand. He spoke last night. Words!" Mike exclaimed. "He was singing that weird song he loves. Even Evan heard him!"
The radio crackled and crinkled and buzzed in Eleven's hands.
"Well, if the weirdo heard him, it must be true," Lucas muttered, sarcastically.
"Are you sure you have the right channel?" Dustin asked. The boy was skeptical, but he was also hopeful.
"I don't think that matters," Mike suggested. "I think… somehow… he's channeling Will."
"Are you actually believing this?" Lucas asked Dustin.
"Well…" Dustin began. "Remember when Will fell off his bike and broke his finger?"
Lucas nodded in confusion, not understanding what that had to do with anything.
"He sounded a lot like that," Dustin remembered.
The radio buzzed louder before quieting down, and Eleven sighed in exhaustion. His powers weren't nearly strong enough to reach out to Will with this signal. He knew that, but he had to keep trying.
Luckily for him, Mike also saw his dilemma.
"This isn't going to work," he realized. "We need to get Evan to a stronger radio signal."
"Like the radio Mr. Clarke has!" Dustin suggested.
Mike nodded.
"But there's that assembly," Lucas pointed out. "Somebody is bound to notice the weirdo! Especially with the scar and the long hair."
"Well, that's easily fixed," Mike responded. "Dustin, go into my dad's office and get me a pair of scissors. Lucas, go into my room and get Evan a change of clothes. Meet me in Nancy's room."
The two of them hurried off to do as Mike told them, and Mike led Eleven up the stairs and into his sister's room.
"First step," he explained as they sat on the window seat, and Mike rested a small, pink box between them, "hiding that scar."
Mike lightly brushed a make up brush over Eleven's skin, covering the thick white tissue of the scar with some concealer. By the time he finished, Dustin and Lucas had arrived, and Mike accepted the scissors from Dustin, motioning for Eleven to face away from him.
Eleven heard the small snips as Mike cut his curls to a shorter length before the three boys left Eleven to get changed.
Eleven did so, and when he exited the room, he found the three boys waiting for him, and they stared at him in surprise.
"He looks… almost normal," Lucas murmured.
"He looks great!" Mike exclaimed.
Eleven glanced at his reflection in a nearby mirror, and his eyes widened.
He was wearing a white T-shirt- with no designs or writing or anything- with a pair of blue jeans, and Lucas had given him an army jacket to complete the look. His curls were still unruly, but now they only touched his chin instead of his shoulders. The scar had vanished under a few layers of concealer, and Lucas had given him sneakers.
The new look… it looked so familiar, but Eleven couldn't quite place where he'd seen it before. Then again, he couldn't really place anything, considering his memory was in shambles, if some fragments even remained at all.
"What do you think?" Mike asked.
Eleven swallowed.
"Familiar," he responded, much to their confusion. "But… good familiar."
"Remember: If anyone sees us, look sad," Mike reminded them as they walked into the school. The hallways were empty aside from them.
Mike wrapped his fingers around the door knob and pulled, but it didn't budge.
"It's locked," Mike grumbled.
"What?" Lucas asked, pulling on the doorknob himself.
"Do you think you can open it? With your powers," Dustin asked.
Eleven shook his head. "Haven't learned how to unlock doors yet."
The boys sighed in disappointment.
"But I can do it with this," Eleven continued, pulling a Bobby pin out of the pocket of the army jacket he was wearing.
"Where did you get that?" Lucas asked.
"Mike's sister's room. I had a feeling we were going to need it eventually," Eleven explained before inserting the Bobby pin into the lock and beginning to jiggle it around. "Almost got it…"
Right before a click would've sounded as the door unlocked, a person rounded the corner.
"Boys," a man with a mustache said, and Eleven jumped, jamming the Bobby pin back into his pocket. "The assembly's about to start."
"Yeah. We're just… sad," Mike said, plastering a depressed expression on his face.
"About Will," Lucas added. "And we needed some alone time."
"To cry," Dustin added.
"I get it," the man assured them, "but let's just be there for Will, okay? And then after that, the Heathkit is yours for the rest of the day," he said, tossing Mike a key.
His eyes landed on Eleven.
"Oh," he said. "I don't believe we've met. I'm Mr. Clarke. What's your name?"
"Evan," Eleven said, slowly.
"Where are you from?" Mr. Clarke asked. "I can't quite place your accent."
The words were out of Eleven's mouth before he could register them.
"Texas, originally," Eleven answered. "I moved around a lot, though."
Mr. Clarke nodded before the four boys began to follow the teacher.
"You're a quick thinker," Mike complimented in a whisper voice.
"Not quick thinking," Eleven replied. "It's true… I think, anyway."
"So your memory is coming back?" Mike asked.
Eleven nodded, slowly. "In pieces," he added.
Dustin banged open the doors to the auditorium, and heads swiveled around to look at the five people standing in the doorway.
"Abort," Dustin hissed.
"Abort," Eleven agreed, but before either of them could leave, Lucas and Mike pulled them back.
The four boys found seats as the man at the front of the room continued his speech.
"Will was an exceptional student and a wonderful friend to all of us," he announced. "I can't even begin to explain the hole he will leave in our community. I'd like to introduce you to Sandy Sloan."
"Look at these fakers," Mike muttered.
"They probably didn't even know his name until today," Lucas agreed.
The four of them turned their heads as someone chuckled, and Eleven's eyes landed on two boys laughing. Laughing at the death of a young boy.
"Death is no laughing matter," Eleven muttered.
Mike nodded, and while Eleven wasn't particularly good at reading expressions, considering he'd been living with cold and distant scientists for as long as he could remember (which wasn't long), but he read Mike's easily enough.
"Mouth breather," Eleven realized, thinking back on their earlier conversation about the boy that had shoved Mike at recess.
Mike nodded.
Feet pounded against the wooden bleachers as the students climbed down onto the floor of the auditorium after the assembly was finished.
"Hey! Hey! Hey, Troy!" Mike yelled, and Troy and his buddy stopped at the sound of his name. "You think this is funny? I saw you two laughing, and I think that's a really messed up thing to do."
All of the other students stopped in their tracks as Mike and Troy glared at each other.
"You heard the principal," Troy said. "Grief shows itself in funny ways."
"Death is no laughing matter," Eleven growled.
"Ooh, the newbie is feisty," Troy mocked. "But hey, it's okay! Will is happy now. He's in fairyland, where everyone is so happy and gay!"
Troy turned his back, and Mike, in a burst of uncharacteristic anger, lunged and shoved Troy, causing the boy to stumble.
"Oh, it's on, Wheeler!" Troy declared before raising his fist and racing towards Mike.
Eleven didn't think. He just acted.
Seeing his friend in danger caused the instinct to step in front of Mike to rear up within Eleven, and the boy jumped in front of Mike. His hand wrapped around Troy's before he could tell it to do so, and he judo flipped Troy, causing the boy to cry out as he hit the gym floor.
"Leave my friends alone," Eleven murmured, getting in Troy's face, before he straightened up and led an astonished Mike away.
"How did he do that?" Lucas whispered in awe as they walked out of the auditorium.
"I don't know, but it was awesome!" Dustin exclaimed, quietly.
"Come on," Mike instructed as he led Eleven into a small room filled with radios of various shapes and sizes.
"What now?" Lucas asked.
"He'll find him," Mike replied. "Right, Evan?"
Eleven didn't respond as he sat in front of the radios and began to twiddle with the knobs and buttons until he had them in the right positions. Then, he closed his eyes and reached out with his powers.
It wasn't long before he felt himself slipping into another flashback.
"Eleven, are you listening?" Papa asked as he rested a glass of water in front of him.
Eleven nodded.
"Good," Papa replied as he sat beside the small boy. He pushed a photograph towards Eleven, and Eleven examined the middle aged man in the photograph. "I need you to find this man and repeat his words back to me. Can you do that?"
Eleven swallowed and reached out with his mind and his powers, but it wasn't long before he found himself somewhere. Somewhere outside of the lab.
He was standing in a room covered with vines and filled with games, like in an arcade. There was a sofa and a leopard above the mantel of the fireplace. Eleven jumped when it smacked its jaws. The thing was alive.
"We can't just give up!"
Eleven turned and saw a dark haired, pale boy facing a blonde kid. They were both so familiar, but Eleven couldn't remember his actual name, much less who these kids were.
"Nico," the blonde boy sighed, "I know you hope that he is still alive-"
"He is. He's not in the Underworld. How do you explain that, Jason?" the dark haired boy asked.
"I don't know."
Back at the lab, Dr. Bruner glanced up in shock as the PA crackled.
"I don't know," a male voice filtered through the speakers.
"Who is he listening into?" another scientist asked.
"I have no idea," Dr. Bruner admitted.
"But there is no way he can be alive," the blonde boy continued. "He was involved in a fiery explosion. Even he couldn't survive that."
"Why can't you accept that there might be a possibility that he is alive?"
"Don't you think I want to hope?" the blonde boy yelled. "But I can't because it hurts too much. It's easier to accept his death and try to move on than hope that he might still be alive and be disappointed."
"Jason-"
"No. He is dead. That is final. Do you understand, Nico? He is dead. Le-"
Eleven jolted as his powers hit a road block, and he would've collapsed onto the metal table he was sitting at if Papa hadn't caught him.
Dr. Bruner stared at the speakers.
"Extraordinary," he murmured.
"He's doing it!" Mike exclaimed as the lights abruptly shut off.
"Wow," Dustin whispered.
"Calm down. He just closed his eyes," Lucas pointed out.
The radio began to crackle, and murmurs crossed over the static.
"Do you ever miss him?" a female voice murmured.
"Of course I do," another voice replied- the blonde boy's voice from the flashback.
Eleven reached forward and twisted the knob a little to the left, a little to the right, and farther to the left.
The three boys behind Eleven jumped as a loud yell came over the radio.
"Mom! Mom!"
"Will!" Lucas shouted.
"Will!" a female voice shouted over the radio.
"Will's mom?" Dustin murmured.
A crack sounded, and Eleven could no longer channel Will, but he did end up channeling someone else.
"Nico, this is a wild goose chase," a female voice said.
"Hazel, you felt the same thing I did. He is alive somewhere, and I won't give up until I find him. The others may not believe me, but you have to, Hazel."
"Maybe I do know that, but neither of us even know where to start looking."
"I know, but I found Percy. I can find Repair Boy. I just need to find a good place to start."
"And how are you going to do that?"
"By starting at his roots. After running away from camp when I was ten, I started to reclaim lost memories by looking for my roots. Italy. Wouldn't it make sense if he returned to his roots like I returned to mine. It's like an instinct."
"Well, where are his roots?"
"Where he was born and raised for eight years of his life. Texas."
A loud pop sounded as the radio fizzed out.
"Repair Boy," Eleven repeated before his head dropped onto the table. Blood poured out of his nose and dripped onto some papers beside him.
The three boys cried out in shock. They knew he'd be exhausted after using his powers, but they hadn't expected him to be on the verge of fainting.
Dustin, Mike, and Lucas lifted the scrawny boy onto a cart and rolled him into the hallway.
"Who was that at the end?" Lucas asked as they ran out of the school. "He acted like he knew the people who were talking."
Mike shrugged. "He said his memory was coming back in pieces. Maybe he accidentally tapped into someone from his forgotten past or something."
"Either way," Dustin muttered, "something tells me we'll find out eventually."
Not as good as some of the other chapters, but I didn't think it was bad either.
Nico's looking for Leo... how will this turn out?
I know I cut out some really funny parts. I wanted to add them in, but I also needed to think of what would work best to move the plot line along. I will try to add some humor in. Leo handles serious situations with humor, so as the situations get more dangerous and more serious, I'm hoping to add in some more famous Valdez humor.
See you next time! I hope the wait will be shorter, and I will try to get more chapters up soon because I want to get to season 2 (season 2 starts in chapter 10, I think) as soon as possible.
Thanks for reading! Please leave a review! Goodbye, everyone!