Nineteen: Fragile

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The waiting was the worst part

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The waiting was the worst part. They sat in the house as the minutes ticked by, no one saying anything. Sloane was driving herself crazy as her thoughts about what was happening in the shed were running rampant. Thankfully, it wasn't long before Hopper burst back into the house, clearly looking for something.

"What happened? Did it work?" Sloane asked while Hopper began searching for something.

"What happened?" Dustin repeated as they watched the police chief carefully.

The man nodded, grabbing an envelope and a pencil as he began scratching something out while everyone else surrounded him and the table. It was a series of dots and dashes -- Morse Code. Sloane recognized it, but she had no idea what any of it meant.

"I think he's talking, just not with words," Hopper explained as he did his best to recount the message.

"What is that?" Steve asked, not recognizing the pattern.

"Morse code," the young boys answered in unison. Sloane had a feeling these boys weren't too popular in school considering how much they knew about morse code and Dungeons and Dragons. However, it was helping more than hurting so it wasn't like she cared about such a thing right now.

"H-E-R-E," Hopper spelled out as he translated.

Max sighed, "Here."

"What the hell does that mean?" Sloane asked, "Like this house? Where else could he mean?"

Hopper shook his head, "No, I don't think he means a location. I think he's trying to say that he's still in there. Will's still in there, he's talking to us in the only way he can."

"So, we need to figure out a way to bring him back, put him back in power, right?" Sloane figured out, immensely uncomfortable by the number of eyes on her as she spoke. She didn't know enough about the situation to garner such attention, yet everyone was looking at her. "So, how can we do that?"

Jonathan perked up, clearly, he had an idea, "What if we surrounded him with things that remind him of us? Of family?"

"So, put him in the house?" Max suggested, but Hopper shook his head right away.

"Can't do that," the man disagreed, "The Mind Flayer will get our location regardless of whether or not Will's in control."

"I think I know a start," Jonathan spoke before running to a room in the house, presumably to grab whatever he thought could help. Moments later he came back with a stereo and a tape. "This is a start, right? Let's go."

Joyce, Hopper, Mike, and Jonathan disappeared back into the shed, leaving them in the house once again. Sloane grabbed onto Nancy, holding her close. Something about all of this gave her a bad feeling so she wanted to keep the girl as close and safe as possible.

"I don't know, Nance, I have a bad feeling about this, something just doesn't feel right," Sloane said with a sigh. She watched as the kids deciphered the morse code Hopper was sending them via a walkie talkie and a chart with the direct translations. "If we end up having to fight something, I don't know if I have the gall for that. I'm not... I'm not brave like you guys. I'm fragile and a coward, I'm a liability."

BUBBLEGUM ━ Nancy Wheeler ✓Where stories live. Discover now