8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

By the time Jessica got to the Byers' house, Nancy and Jonathan had already checked all the strands of Christmas lights to make sure they worked, and Jonathan had nailed the bear trap to the floor.

"Um, sorry, but what's with the lights again?"

"They flicker when it's around, or when Will is trying to communicate," Jonathan answered.

"Is that why there are letters painted on the wall?"

"Yeah. Mom painted them there. Put a light over each letter so –"

"So Will could spell things out," Jessica said, catching on. "Smart."

She remembered the first time she'd seen all the Christmas lights and the black paint on the wall, the day she and Nancy had come looking for Jonathan and he hadn't been there. She hadn't known what to think, that maybe Joyce had been cracking up. Jessica would have understood if that had been the case; her child was missing.

Now she knew what the lights and the paint were about and it all made sense – as long as you believed what was going on was real.

Nancy was in charge of the gun and was now loading it while Jonathan got to work on the baseball bat. He hammered the long nails into the edge of it so that the sharp ends stuck out. It was basically a manmade mace, something that probably hadn't been used as a weapon since the Middle Ages. Jessica liked it.

She also liked her machete, which at the moment was still in its sheath.

"Forgive me for being unrealistic, but I'm kind of hoping this thing just runs over the bear trap and we can shoot it and beat the crap out of it until it dies," Jessica said.

"That's . . . not a bad plan, actually," Jonathan said. "If we can lure it to the trap so that it triggers right . . ."

Jonathan showed them both of the places where most of the activity had happened – the living room, which had a hole that had been boarded up on the wall near the front door, and then Will's room.

"What happened to the wall?" Jessica asked.

"Mom. She saw Will there and tried to get to him, but I guess the gate had closed by the time . . . it was too late."

"That might mean the gateway could open there tonight."

"Maybe."

Jessica didn't know how to feel about that.

"Maybe . . . maybe Will is close and we can get him that way. Maybe the creature won't even come."

At some point, Jonathan had filled the gas can he'd bought with gasoline because Jessica was told to make a trail of it from the living room back towards the bedrooms. She poured a good amount around the trap that had been set. If the thing came, the plan was to lead it to Will's room, where the bear trap had been nailed to the floor in front of the door – and not trigger the trap on the way themselves. Jonathan, who had a lighter, would set the thing on fire and, if that didn't kill it, then Nancy would shoot it. If that didn't work, Jessica would chop it to pieces.

It sounded simple enough, but they knew it was going to be anything but.

Then, of course, there was the blood they needed to lure the creature there. They would each cut one palm so that they wouldn't have to lose much blood. Nancy had mentioned that when Barb had cut her hand it wasn't a big gash or anything, but the wound had been bad enough to have blood drip from it. A lot of blood wasn't needed.

When it came down to it, Nancy had to slice Jessica's hand because she couldn't do it on her own. It wasn't the blood and it wasn't the pain, not by itself. She just had a thing against hurting herself.

After everything was set up and their wounds were bandaged, they had nothing to do but wait. It was almost one o'clock in the morning and nothing was happening. Maybe the thing really wasn't going to come.

They were all quiet, their weapons in front of them on the coffee table. Nancy's gun, Jonathan's bat, and Jessica's machete. Jessica saw Nancy sort of playing with Jonathan's hand once. She'd been rubbing her fingers over the bandage on his wounded hand. Jessica did not approve – even though Steve had seriously messed up, Nancy hadn't broken up with him, not clearly or officially, so she shouldn't have been playing with another boy's hands. Though to be fair . . . Steve shouldn't have been buying other girls milkshakes when he should have been trying to make thing right with his girlfriend.

At around one-thirty somebody banged on the front door. It was Steve. Why was he banging on Jonathan's door at one-thirty in the morning? Why was he there at all?

"Jessica!" he called. "Open up!"

Jessica looked at Nancy and Jonathan and shrugged her shoulders. It was up to Jonathan whether or not Steve could come in, because it was his house, but she still needed to talk to Steve. He had to go. Jessica didn't want him there if that thing decided to show up.

"I got it," Nancy said and got up. She didn't seem upset that Steve was there, not for her but for Jessica.

"Maybe you shouldn't –" Jessica broke off and got up with her. Steve didn't know Nancy was there, and she didn't know how he knew she was there either, but she did know that the reason he'd done what he'd done was because of his jealousy about Nancy being around Jonathan.

He'd seen the wrongness of it, but what would he think if Nancy opened the door? They opened the door together, and Steve was surprised but not angry that Nancy was there. After all, what exactly could Nancy and Jonathan be doing while Jessica was there?

"Steve, you need to leave," Nancy said.

"I'm not trying to start anything, okay?"

"I don't care about that. You need to leave."

Steve's eyes focused on Nancy's hand then, the bandage and the small amount of blood that had seeped through. Jessica saw his brown eyes soften as concern filled them.

"Hey, what happened to your hand?" he asked, and grabbed it. "Is that blood? What's going on?"

"Nothing. It was an accident." Nancy drew her hand back.

"Wait a sec. Did he do this to you?"

Steve basically forced his way into the living room even though Nancy tried to stop him. Jessica didn't blame him – he thought Jonathan had hurt Nancy – but he stopped once he saw the letters on the wall and the Christmas lights strung everywhere.

"What is – what the –"

"You need to get out of here," Jonathan said, and grabbed Steve to move him back out the door.

"What is all this? What's that smell? Is that gasoline?"

"Look, I'm not asking you. I'm telling you, get outta here."

"Just wait!" Steve yelled. "I'm here for Jess."

That stopped the confrontation for a few seconds, and everyone looked her way.

"Why?" Then, "How did you know I was here?"

"Your mom called me fifteen minutes ago. Asked if you were with me. Told me you were supposed to call –"

"If I was gonna be out past midnight. Right. I . . . was busy."

Steve looked around the living room, spotted the weapons on the table and said, "What with exactly?"

She cringed inwardly. She had to tell him, but she didn't know how the other two would take it. She wouldn't just outright lie to him anymore. It would push him away.

"Steve, I can't leave. But you should. Remember what we talked about – about what happened last night? Well –"

Out of nowhere Nancy had the gun off the table and pointed at Steve.

"You need to leave," she shouted at Steve. "It's for your own good. You have five seconds."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Steve exclaimed. "What the hell, Nancy!"

Jessica moved in front of Steve and stared at Nancy. "Yeah. What the hell, Nancy?"

"We need him to leave."

"And if he doesn't, you're just gonna shoot him? Put the gun down."

As Jessica and Nancy argued back and forth, and Steve freaked out over the gun, the lights began flickering until they went out completely. Jonathan had to get their attention. Jessica stopped arguing first.

"It's here!" Jonathan said.

"What's here?" Steve asked.

Jonathan grabbed the bat, and Nancy pointed her gun at something that wasn't Steve. Jessica grabbed the machete off the table, pulled it from its sheath, and put the sheath back on the table.

"Jess?" Steve questioned, staring at the blade. "What are you doing?"

She looked at Nancy and shrugged. "Monster hunting."

The next minute or so was basically everyone turning in circles, hoping the thing wouldn't catch them off guard. Except for Steve. He was just confused and freaking out – mostly about the weapons.

"Hello! Will someone please explain to me what the hell is going on?"

That was when the creature appeared. It came tearing through the roof, over the spot Joyce had axed through, and Nancy began shooting at it. It did no good. That part of the roof collapsed and the creature landed on the floor.

"Run!" Jonathan screamed, pushing Nancy's gun hand down since shooting the thing didn't seem to have any effect on it. "Go! Go! Go!"

They all ran down the hallway, Jessica grabbing Steve's arm on the way, and Jonathan reminding them to jump over the trap. That was mostly for Steve's benefit because he'd had no way of knowing it was there.

They ended up in Will's room like they'd planned, and Jonathan closed the door.

"What the hell was that?"

"Shut up!" Nancy and Jonathan screamed as Jonathan lit the lighter.

"It's the thing Nancy told you about," Jessica said breathlessly. "Do you believe her now?"

The lights began flickering again. There was no sound coming from the other side of the door, though, so they stayed put for a few minutes. What if the thing had gone back out the living room opening and was trying to circle around to the bedroom?

"What's it doing?" Nancy asked.

No one knew. The lights stopped flickering shortly after that. Maybe the creature had actually left, gone somewhere else. Why hadn't it just busted the door open? It probably could have, right?

Jessica basically fell onto Will's bed. She'd backed up far enough to have hit it with the backs of her knees and had lost her balance. It wasn't until that moment that she realized she was shaking and that her heart was racing. What had she been thinking? Even though she had a weapon this time . . . this thing was still a monster from another dimension. What if their weapons hadn't worked against it? Maybe it had regenerative powers or something and couldn't be killed anyway.

"Is it gone?"

Jonathan was the one who checked. He opened the door, stepped out with the bat in position in case he needed it, and Nancy followed. Steve was next, and this time he had to grab Jessica to get her to follow. She did so, mechanically.

She was at the point where nothing that was happening or that had already happened felt real at all. The only thing that was grounding her at all was the machete in her right hand. She couldn't make a mistake with that. She could hurt herself or someone else.

She barely even felt Steve's hand on her arm, she just followed where he went.

Once in the living room again Jessica came back to herself a little bit, enough to notice the huge hole that the thing had torn into the roof.

"This is crazy! This is crazy! This is crazy! This is crazy!" Steve said, each exclamation getting louder, and then headed for the phone.

Nancy followed him and snatched the phone from his hand and smashed it on the floor.

"It's going to come back," Nancy said. "So you need to leave. Right. Now."

Jessica wanted to go home. She wanted to go pick Dustin up from the school and go home. But she couldn't go home, not if the government people were still after Dustin and his friends. Until this was over, she couldn't go home.

She couldn't go to her house, but . . . she could go to Steve's. They all could. She could leave – because, really, what good was she doing there? She could just go get the kids and take them to Steve's house. Nancy and Jonathan could stay and be heroes if they wanted to. She'd made a promise to her brother that she would come back alive, and she desperately wanted to keep it.

The lights started flickering again, only this time it was worse because it would go completely dark for a few seconds before the lights would come back on. Everyone gathered in the center of the room, backs to each other. With the four of them watching out every corner of the room could be seen . . . until the lights went out again.

An animalistic growl filled the room and Jonathan was thrown to the floor, the bat flinging to the floor along with him, far enough away that he couldn't reach it. The creature wasted no time in climbing on top of him. It opened its mouth and a long stream of saliva fell into Jonathan's face. Or maybe it was some sort of paralyzing venom because Jonathan didn't seem able to move. Or maybe he'd hit his head. Either way, Jonathan was in trouble.

Nancy let loose with the gun, using every bullet in the thing, but the creature barely flinched. It just turned its attention to Nancy. The gun clicked as she continued pulling the trigger. She was out of ammo.

Jessica guessed that meant it was her turn. She wasn't sure how exactly she was supposed to use the machete. She'd only seen one used in movies when someone was trying to cut through tall grass or a jungle area. This was not that, so she ended up bringing the blade down like she would if she were trying to beat someone in the head with a club.

The blow landed on the demogorgan's shoulder and got stuck, so she lost her grip on the handle of the blade. She didn't think about it at the time, but she'd made a mistake when she'd decided to use the machete as a club rather than a blade; she'd left her entire midsection open to attack. The demogorgan swung at her, and she felt its claws tear across her belly

She screamed as it swung at her again, but she was quick enough to back away even if she did fall to her knees afterwards, and then Steve came out of nowhere with the nail-bat. He must have found it, wherever it had fallen.

Steve was . . . amazing! He hit the thing right in its stomach, which made it move back a few steps towards the hallway. The blow actually seemed to have hurt it, so it's belly was obviously a weak spot. If Nancy had shot it there, it probably would have done more than just flinch.

Steve hit it again, this time in the face – or the mouth, since it didn't seem to have a face – and it stumbled back again, this time right into the bear trap. It shrieked as its leg was bitten into by the metal teeth of the trap.

Without stopping to check that the creature was truly trapped, Steve dropped to where Jessica was still on her knees.

"Let me see," he said. He didn't wait for permission, he just moved her hands and lifted her shirt high enough to see the marks the creature had left.

"Steve –"

Jessica knew that it was bad, but not as bad as it could have been. There were four claw marks there, the skin open but blood wasn't gushing out of the wounds. It was, however, trickling out. It was enough to have leaked onto her shirt, but considering the alternative . . . she was lucky.

"He's stuck!" Jonathan said, up and moving again.

He quickly lit the lighter and threw it at the creature. Once the flame hit the spot around the trap they had doused with gasoline it caught fire. The walls were made of wood and the floor was carpeted, so the fire spread quickly. The only thing they could do now was contain the fire and wait for the thing to die.

The noises it was making were horrible, loud and screechy, but they only lasted for about a minute. Then there was the smell of burnt flesh. It was enough to make Jessica want to vomit.

Once they were sure the thing was dead, Jonathan went to the kitchen and came back with a fire extinguisher that had "Property of Hawkins Police" on it, white letters over red paint.

The smoke from the fire filled the hallway even after the flames had been extinguished. Jessica pulled her shirt over her mouth and nose, and then she used Steve to help herself up even though he tried to keep her from moving too much. He was probably right. The wounds opened up more and she felt fresh blood trail down her skin towards her pants. She mostly ignored it. The marks burned more than anything else.

She began walking down the hall, and someone grabbed the back of her shirt. She looked back and saw that Steve had decided to follow her. She was completely okay with that. She had to see that this thing was dead or she would never believe that it was.

When she reached the bear trap all she saw was a big pile of slime where the thing had been, some inside the trap and a little on top of it, but there was nowhere near enough to have been the remains of the creature. There were no bones either – assuming bone would have been left over. And her machete had disappeared as well.

"Uh . . . where did it go?"

Taking a closer look, Jessica noticed that there was enough slime to have belonged to the one leg that had been trapped, but where had the rest of the creature gone? Was it really gone from there? Had it come to think of them as a threat? As far as Jessica knew, none of the others had hurt it. Will couldn't have, and Barb had been caught off guard. It had never had someone fight it, so it had never really come up against a human before.

The Christmas lights began blinking off and on, but it wasn't like before. This was more like one would come on and then the one after that, almost like they were leading them somewhere.

"Jonathan?" Jessica questioned. "What's going on?"

"It's . . . that's what Mom said happened when Will was talking to her – or trying to."

Steve's eyebrows shot up, as if he couldn't believe what Jonathan was saying. After what he'd just seen, hearing about Will speaking through lights shouldn't have come as too much of a shock.

The lights led them outside to a lamp post near the shed.

"Where's it going?" Nancy asked.

"I don't think that's the monster," Jonathan answered.

"I don't think it's the monster either. It feels different . . . like, non-threatening. Not scary."

Then the light stabilized and they were alone, outside on the porch. Jessica didn't know what they were going to do now. Just wait for that thing to come back? And what were they going to do if it did? Nothing seemed to hurt it for real. The thing had just disappeared after having been trapped and burned, and Steve couldn't fight the thing off with the nail-bat forever.

Speaking of Steve, she grabbed his arm, and he lowered the bat from the swinging position. Had he had it that way the whole time? She couldn't blame him if that were the case.

"The kids are at the school. I never should have left them there alone."

It occurred to her then that her mother would be worried about Dustin too. She probably would've called Mrs. Wheeler to see about whether or not Dustin was there. When she found out Dustin wasn't there and that Mike wasn't home either, she would have called Lucas's mom and then there really would've been a problem because Lucas wouldn't have been home either.

They were all going to be in so much trouble.

"You want to go get them?" Steve asked her.

"Yes."

He placed his hand on her back and turned her back towards the front door.

"Let me take care of you first. Your wounds didn't look too good."

Steve didn't know what was going on exactly but he did know that he wanted to get himself and Jessica away from the Byers' house.

He'd been asleep when Ms. Henderson had called him to tell him that Jessica wasn't home and that she hadn't called like she'd said she would. Mostly she just wanted to know whether or not Jessica was with him. Why she'd thought Jessica would be with him at one in the morning was still a mystery to him, but it had worried him to know that Jessica was out that late because she was never out that late. He'd agreed to check on her once he found out where she was and, sure enough, there she was at the Byers' house.

He'd wondered if this was the something that had come up that had made her decide to ditch him. If that was the case then ouch because she'd made the decision before he'd messed up earlier.

Then when he'd forced his way past Nancy and the door and taken in all the weapons and the smell of gasoline . . . he hadn't known what to think at first. He'd remembered his conversation with Jessica about the creature she, Jonathan, and Nancy had claimed to have seen, but he hadn't believed her. Sure, he'd believed they had seen something, but not whatever no-face thing Nancy and Jessica had described. And he hadn't believed they had gone after it, either, but after seeing the weapons . . .

Then the thing had appeared and he couldn't not believe, not when it was right there. Instinct had taken over then and they all ran down the hallway where a bear trap had been nailed to the floor. If Byers hadn't shouted for them to jump, Steve might have very well triggered it himself and that would have been it for him.

When the monster had disappeared the first time, Steve had hoped it was gone for good but no such luck. It had come back and attacked Jonathan.

Nancy had distracted it by shooting it, and Jessica had done the same by shoving her blade into the thing's shoulder. Steve had been frozen until he'd seen Jessica go down after having been clawed. Then all Steve could think about was protecting all of them. No matter how he felt about Byers, he didn't want him to die. So he picked up the bat and started swinging. He'd led it right to the bear trap, where it snapped shut over the thing's leg. The howl it had let loose was unlike anything Steve had ever heard and he never wanted to hear it again. After Jonathan set the thing on fire, it didn't take long for them to think it had died.

It had only disappeared again, but this time they thought it was for good, at least for the night, and the lights had led them outside. Steve didn't know why or how, but he was just going with the flow at that point. They were still outside when Jessica said something about having to go get the others from the school. He didn't know what that was about either, but that didn't matter.

What mattered at the moment was that Jessica had been hurt and Steve needed to clean her wounds so they wouldn't get infected. Who knew what kind of germs that thing had been carrying?

"I need to call my mom," she said.

"Nancy smashed the phone," he reminded her.

"Right."

Jessica's eyes held some distance in them, as if she were shutting down. Steve knew it wasn't from blood loss because the wounds weren't that bad, so it had to be from shock. If he hadn't had something to focus on – helping Jess – he probably would have been going into shock himself.

Steve led Jess through the ruin of the living room to the couch. The first aid kit was already on the table – they must have used it when they'd cut their hands; he'd noticed that all three of them had matching bandages on their right hands.

"What's with the hands?"

"We lured it here with our blood."

Steve didn't say anything to that because the only thing he could think was that they had been extremely stupid in doing what they had done. He just made sure Jessica was as comfortable as she could be and went to get some warm water and a clean washcloth.

Jessica's work shirt was torn to shreds over the spot where the thing had taken a swipe at her, but she kept it on and just held it up for him when he began cleaning her off. Steve noticed that she stopped breathing as the water touched her wounds – it probably stung. They really needed some peroxide or something because he didn't know if just water was going to cut it.

"Jess? You have to breathe."

He stopped until she calmed down. He wanted to turn away when he noticed the tears in her eyes. He felt awful because he was the one causing it at the moment.

"Hurts," she said. She sounded pitiful.

"I know, but you can do it. You took that thing on with a machete. That's kind of a big deal."

Jessica tried to smile but grimaced instead. "It stings . . . the water."

"I'll try to be gentler."

The wounds were red and angry and the skin was almost puckered where it had been torn, and she really needed a doctor. He told her that as he wrapped a bandage around her middle. He thought she needed better anti-bacteria than they had there.

"I have to go to the school," she said. "I promised Dustin I'd come back."

"Well, let me come with you," he said.

"You should stay with Nancy."

"I think Nancy's okay on her own. I mean . . . with Byers."

Jessica looked towards the front door, where Nancy and Jonathan were still standing outside on the porch. They weren't doing anything inappropriate or anything, but Steve noticed that Nancy seemed more comfortable with Jonathan than she ever had with him.

Steve took her bandaged hand, careful not to hurt her, and said, "Let's go. You can't drive right now, anyway."

So Jessica grabbed her jacket, which Steve had to help her put on, and they went. They took Steve's car. He'd bring her back to get hers later. Jonathan and Nancy stayed behind because Hopper and Joyce were supposed to come back with Will, which . . . Steve didn't understand that either, because Will was supposed to be dead.

"I'll explain everything on the way," Jessica said. "You're part of it now, so I guess you can know."

They took off, Steve wondering why he couldn't have known to begin with.

Jessica started from the beginning, which was the disappearance of Will Byers, and then explained about finding El when she'd discovered Dustin, Mike, and Lucas out in the woods looking for Will. She even told him about El's powers and that government people were looking for her, which meant they were also looking for whoever was helping her.

"That's why I didn't tell you," Jessica said. "Or part of the reason. I didn't want you to be in danger. Also why I waited so long to tell you about that thing."

"I still don't understand about Will."

"He's . . . That thing isn't from here. This is the weirdest part. There are rifts in the universe, where that thing can get through. It leads to another dimension. We call it the Upside Down. Everything is dark over there, and ashy."

Jessica ran a finger over one of the nails in the bat Steve had used earlier. She didn't know if he'd meant to, but he'd brought it with him, and she'd been holding it the whole time they'd been in the car.

"But the police found Will's body," Steve said.

"It wasn't Will. According to Hopper, it wasn't even a real body. It was a stuffed mannequin or something. I mean, whoever is covering this up is going to some serious extremes. Whoever it is works with the Department of Energy."

The rest of the story Steve basically knew, so she skipped it. She spent the rest of the ride to the school playing with the bat and trying not to let the fight get to her. The thing was still out there, though, and she didn't feel safe at all. There was no way to tell when or where that thing would appear because there was no way to tell when a rift would appear. Sure, blood could lure it, but from what she knew blood hadn't been in the picture when Will had been taken, so blood didn't have to be a factor.

On the way to the school, Steve had been very careful not to hit too many bumps, and Jessica was grateful, but he couldn't not hit the speed bump that ran across the entrance to the school parking lot. Crazy fact about the middle and high schools in Hawkins is that they were right across the street from each other. The middle school parking lot was mostly just a dirt road that led to a field, whereas the high school parking lot was actually asphalt. They went into the high school parking lot because that's where everyone else was. It was a nightmare. They'd seen the police car lights before they reached the school, and if Dustin hadn't been waiting for her she would have told Steve to turn back around. But there were ambulances there too, so what if one of her boys was hurt – or El.

As it was, she held her stomach and cursed as the bounce from the speed bump shook her. Steve had been going as slow as he could, but it still hurt. He cursed too and apologized as he looked her way.

"I'm okay."

"Okay. What is going on here?" Steve wondered out loud.

"I don't know. You should go, though. Just drop me off."

"No way."

"Steve –"

"No. You said I'm part of this, so let me be a part of it."

"Fine. Just . . . don't tell Dustin about what happened. Okay?"

He agreed and then parked in a free spot. They got out of the car together, Jessica more slowly, of course. She was surprised at how much it hurt just to stand up straight, and she imagined she might have caused her wounds to bleed again, assuming they had ever stopped.

"You really should see a doctor," Steve said. "You might need stitches or something."

She shook her head and began looking for Dustin through the crowd of cops. She didn't find him, but she found Mike easily enough, though, because he was seated in the back of an ambulance. His mother was there with him, so that proved that their parents had been called. Mr. Wheeler was close by. Her own mother was probably there somewhere too, with Dustin, unless she'd already come and gone.

"Mike," she said when she reached him. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I . . . banged my head."

Mrs. Wheeler looked at her then. "Will you stay with him for a minute? I need to talk to the EMT."

Jessica nodded, and Mrs. Wheeler stepped away toward the EMT. Her husband was there too.

"What happened?" she asked.

Mike seemed more upset than he would be if he'd just hit his head.

"Uh –" he glanced at Steve.

"I told him. He showed up tonight, so I kinda had to."

"El is gone," Mike said, and that was all he said.

"Gone?"

Had the 'bad men' gotten to her? After everything, had they failed to protect her? Well, Hopper was a part of this now, so maybe he could tell someone higher up and they could get El back and maybe even shut down the whole organization. But then she noticed that Mike was fighting back tears and she knew that El wasn't just gone. She was dead.

"Mike? What happened?"

"The demogorgan came."

Oh God. It had left them to come to the school. She never should have left them alone.

Mike told her about the government people coming to the school and trapping them in the hallway. El had taken care of them, though. She'd . . . killed them, and then the creature had been drawn to them because of the blood. She vaguely wondered how El had caused the people to bleed and then realized she didn't really want to know. It didn't matter anyway. El had been protecting herself and the others, so she'd done what she'd had to, and the hallways in the building were basically a blood bath.

El had done something to the creature when it cornered them in a classroom and it had turned to ash. She had disappeared with it.

Mike had been closer to El than anyone else, but Jessica still felt a sense of loss even after the few days she'd known El. She would have liked to see El free to grow and blossom as a free girl. She would have liked to see her make friends – Jessica would have liked to have been her friend.

"Mike, I'm sorry."

She wanted to hug him but didn't know if he'd accept it.

"Where are the others?"

"Lucas's parents took him home already. Your mom showed up a few minutes before you did. Dustin's talking to one of Hopper's officers."

"What exactly is he saying?"

"The truth mostly. Sensory deprivation and all that. It was an experiment."

"Okay. Well, I'm gonna go find him once your mom comes back." She touched his shoulder, hoping to bring him comfort. "Help anytime, remember?"

He nodded once. "Nancy?"

"She's fine. She's still at the Byers' house waiting for Joyce and Hopper to come back."

Jessica did as she'd said she was going to and waited for Mrs. Wheeler to come back before going to look for her brother. She found Dustin a few minutes later talking to an officer like Mike said he would be. The cop didn't seem to know what was going on and they couldn't tell him without the go-ahead from Hopper.

"Dustin!" she shouted for him and quickly went to him when he saw her. She learned that both of those things were not good to do with cuts on her stomach. She almost cursed again, but she didn't want Steve or Dustin to know how much she was hurting. Steve would probably tell her she needed a doctor.

She hugged Dustin, and her mom too when she saw her. That hurt too, but she dealt with it. She apologized to her mom for not calling. She wasn't lying when she said she'd forgotten.

"Never mind. What happened to your hand? Every time you hang out with Nancy and Jonathan, you come home dirty or hurt."

Her mom couldn't tell exactly how hurt she was because her jacket was zipped up, covering her torn shirt and bandaged belly. It covered the blood too.

"I'm fine. I cut my hand."

"It bled through the bandage. Maybe you need stitches."

"I'm fine."

"The EMT is back over there," Steve said, pointing back the way they had just come from. He gave her a pointed look, so she glared at him. He wasn't helping the situation at all.

"Hush."

All in all, they were there for over an hour, meaning it was almost four in the morning. Whatever had been keeping Jessica awake and alert had almost completely left her system and she felt as if she could just fall down and sleep where she stood. She didn't know why they couldn't just go to the station the next day and give their statements then. It was so late.

But it wasn't like they could go home anyway. Jessica didn't know if they were off the hook just yet.

Hopper showed up and pretty much broke everything up a little after four. The medical people had already left, but the crime scene crew were still inside, coming and going with the bodies of the government people.

Nancy was with Hopper when he arrived, and they pulled Dustin and Jessica away from the others.

"Where's Joyce?" Jessica asked. "And Jonathan."

"She's fine. She's at the hospital. We found Will. He's gonna be okay."

Jessica let out a breath of relief she hadn't even known she'd been holding – she may have been holding it all week. She grabbed onto Dustin – or maybe he grabbed onto her. Either way, they were holding onto each other, and Dustin was grinning while Jessica was grimacing. She'd been trying to grin, but . . . Her wounds were the kind that she couldn't even feel them until she moved wrong and then the pain came back, stronger each time it felt like. But that didn't matter. Will had been found and was going to be okay.

"Mike! Mike!" Dustin pulled away to go find his friend. "They found Will!"

Jessica turned to go back to her mom, and to Steve, who had been so strong for her when he had to have been freaking out, and so patient with her the past few hours, but was stopped by Hopper grabbing her wounded hand.

She jerked away because even though he hadn't grabbed her roughly at all, it still hurt. And pulling her hand away had jarred her other injuries more than anything else had that night. It was even worse than the stupid speed bump they'd gone over coming into the parking lot. She ended up slumped over, clutching her belly with both hands.

"What's wrong? What happened to your hand?"

"Nothing, I cut it."

"Uh-huh. Like Nancy cut hers, and Jonathan?"

"Well . . . yeah."

"Cut the crap. I know you guys lured that thing to the house. You all could have been killed."

"But we weren't, so . . ."

Hopper looked as if she'd just plucked his last nerve, so she gave him a very sheepish smile.

"Sorry. I know it was stupid, but you guys were looking for Will, and no other adults knew about it – or none that would help."

Hopper ran a hand over his face, seeming exhausted, and she felt a sudden surge of affection for the older man. He'd actually given them all a chance and hadn't just written them all off as crazy, and he'd helped get Will back. He had a right and a reason to be tired.

"Just . . . go to the hospital. Get someone to look at your hand. Make sure Nancy and Jonathan do the same."

"Okay."

"Nancy told me what happened with the . . . thing. How it got you. Get that checked too." Hopper looked around at all the chaos. "I've gotta stay here and get the story straight, but I'll be there soon. We've all gotta talk. Don't leave the hospital until I get there. Got it?"

"Yeah. I'll play watch dog, but, uh . . . Lucas went home already."

"He's already at the hospital. We got him right as they turned into the driveway."

"Okay. Is it safe for my mom to go home? She doesn't know anything."

"She'll be fine. That's . . . you're safe. That's what we need to talk about." He pointed at Steve. "What's Harrington doing here? Isn't he the one that was causing all the problems earlier?"

Jessica explained what had happened earlier and how Steve had basically saved their lives.

"So, he knows everything?"

"Basically."

"A'right. Get him to drive you guys to the hospital. Don't tell anyone else. And wait for me there."

She nodded, but then, "Are we in trouble?"

"No." He patted her shoulder. "Now go get yourself checked out."