Break and Mend | "Lost and Found" Sequel

Chapter Eight: Gator Bait

Will nodded as he averted his eyes away. "Yeah."

"How do you know that?"

"I just... know."

Hopper continued to stare at the drawings. "Does he talk to you?"

"No. It's like... I don't have to think. I just know things now. Things I never did before."

Standing up, Hopper let his mind run as he paced the small distance from the bed to the desk, taking a seat in Will's chair. "And, uh... what else do you know?"

Will thought for a moment. "It's hard to explain. It's like... old memories in the back of my head, only... they're not my memories."

"Okay." He nodded as Joyce looked between the Chief and her teary-eyed son.

"I mean," Will continued with a shaky voice. "I don't think they're old memories at all. They're... they're now-memories, happening all at once, now."

"Can you describe these now-memories?" Hopper asked. The three sat in silence for a few moments as Will stared forward, seemingly in thought.

"I don't know. It's... it's hard to explain."

Joyce quickly seated herself beside her son and placed a hand on his back. "I know it's hard, but can you just... Can you try? For us?" She gently asked.

Will went into another couple beats of silence as his eyes became more and more glossy. "It's like... They're growing and spreading... killing."

"The memories?"

"I don't know..." He cried, Joyce staring at him as a single tear fell from his eye before he turned into her embrace. "I'm sorry."

She immediately wrapped her arms around him. "No, no, no. It's okay, sweetie." She whispered as she and Hopper shared a look full of pity. From behind the Chief on Will's bulletin board were one of his very detailed drawings of his D&D character, and that was when an idea hatched in her brain. Turning back to Will, she slowly pulled away enough to look into his broken eyes. "Hey, hey, sweetie... what if you didn't have to use words?"

Within less than a couple of minutes, Joyce and Hopper stood off to the side as Will emptied his crayon box onto his desk beside a small stack of papers. He picked up a crayon and began to wildly color onto the paper, dropping the crayon on the desk and picking up another, continuing on like this.

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"Hey, you've reached the Byers. We're sorry-"

Mike harshly hung up the public phone, turning to his sister with a huff and a shake of the head. "Nothing." He informed before gently taking hold of her wrist. "Let's go." He quickly led his sister to the front of the school where Lucas, Max and Dustin sat on the steps to the entrance. Seeing the siblings return, Lucas raised his head.

"Anything?"

"We need to talk. AV room. Right now."

The four hurried up the steps after him without a word. When Mike noticed Max heading up behind Dustin, he turned to her with a harsh look. "Party members only." At that, they all stopped, everyone but Mike staring with a look of shock.

"Mike..." Doc whispered, slowly shaking her head. Her eyes held a look of desperation. She would know more than anyone how Max might have been feeling right about now. There was once a time when Mike would treat her the exact same way. She had never really forgotten what that pit of loneliness felt like, the not being wanted, the outcasting. She truly felt for Max and didn't want her to feel the wrath of her brother that she had gone through.