Jude🦎

Have you seen my beautiful boy? Tell him I miss him.

Word count: 2.1k

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Bakugo katsuki x male reader

Summary: beautiful boy AU as the son of touya and keigo and the situationship of katsuki all while being a drug addict.

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A/N: hey if you somehow know me irl just turn a blind eye to this okay. Let me indulge and live my 2020 wattpad dreams please?

TW: This work does contain triggering topics such as drug use and drug addiction, depression, and certain idestions

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“Have you seen my beautiful boy? Tell him I miss him.”

27 days, 4 hours and 52 minutes.

That's how long it's been since y/n hasn't been home. No warning, no text, he just vanished in the middle of the night. Touya would be a liar if he said that he wasn't beating himself up over it. He thought that y/n had gotten better, he was doing so well last time Touya saw him. y/n had come home from college, after just having finished his masters in social work and psychology, they had been laughing and everything felt fine. For a while Touya and Keigo had known that y/n had his struggles, even though y/n had always been someone who never spoke up about his emotions until they were practically bubbling over.

During high school, in his third year he had an episode in the parking lot of his high school, his parents only found out because it showed on his attendance that he wasn't in class. After that y/n was put into therapy and then later prescribed mood stabilizers. Somehow, unknown to both Touya and Keigo, y/n had been on drugs during most of his second and third year of highschool. It only got worse when y/n went to college, being away from his family and having harder classes with less peer support took a serious toll on y/n’s mental and Physical wellbeing. The issue with this was that y/n was too good at hiding it, every question got deflected with practised ease, every look of concern was waved off.

y/n knew that he had a problem during college, he knew that it would eat him alive if he didn't tell someone and get help, and yet he couldn't find it in himself to care. He didn't know why he felt like this, he had a perfectly fine homelife with both of his dads, his friends were fine, and he was doing a job he loved.

So what was his problem?

He knew that other kids had it way worse than him, and maybe that is why y/n never told his dads, afraid of their judgement and disappointment. He didn't want to be seen as an addict or a junkie, because an addict or a junkie couldn't do what he did. They didn't socialize with their friends, they didn't hook up with people, they didn't graduate top of their class. y/n was aware that he was playing in fate's face, he wasn't just smoking weed like he did in high school, he was doing anything he could get his hands on. Weed, LSD, Cocaine, Ecstacy, Narcotics, it didn't matter what the name was anymore, all that mattered was that it dulled the thoughts and worries in y/n's mind a little bit more.

y/n thought that he hid his problem well, no one knew about it except the dealers he saw and he planned to keep it that way. He had a really bad day one week during his first year back at university, and had ended up calling up someone he knew for a small thing of meth. It was early at night when y/n got it, he knew his roommate would be home and he didn't want to risk it. He decided to go to the corner store a few blocks away from the dorms instead. Everything was fine, all up until the injection. y/n knew something was wrong as he slid down to sit on the gross floor of the dinner bathroom, but all he felt was guilt as he realized he was losing feeling in his limbs. He silently prayed that no one would find him as his eyes closed and his head slammed into the tile floor.

There aren't enough words in any language to describe the feeling evey/nne who knew y/n had when Touya and Keigo had explained that they had gotten a call from the university hospital that their son was unconscious and under the hospital's care after being found the night before unresponsive in a bathroom stall at a corner store.Touya remembers the panic in his voice as he ran to tell Keigo, and remembers how quickly they drove over to the hospital both on the brink of tears at the thought of their son being seriously hurt. He remembers how hard he held on to his son, grasping both of his shoulders and pressing his face into the top of y/n's head. He remembers how firm of a grip Keigo had on y/n's hand no matter what was happening around them. They had been so horribly stupid three years ago, so naive to think that y/n would never hurt again.

Now Touya sits against the headboard of his and Keigos shared bed, he hasn't been able to sleep well the last few nights. He thinks about how much closer he and y/n used to be, they were practically the same person. He thinks about all of y/n's friends who have stopped by of have called daily ever since y/n was declared missing by the police, he thinks of Roy's professor who stopped by to talk with him and Keigo about how much of a good student y/n was and how he hopes that he comes home soon. A part of Touya blames himself heavily for how y/n is, having had his own issues with substance abuse he had a small feeling that it would somehow weed its way into his son's life.

Touya is roused out of his thoughts when he hears a knock at the front door. His eyes drift to the door of their bedroom as he feels Keigo stirs awake next to him, raising his head to look at Touya. His eyes slide from Touya to the door as Keigo registers what he just heard considering how late it is at night.

“Do you think..” Keigo quietly trails off, now fully sitting up to be eye level with Touya. They were both thinking it.

Touya swallows harshly as he worries his bottom lip between his teeth.

“I don't know,” he whispers.

There's a second knock as both men finally pull the blankets off of them to pad to the front door of their apartment. Touya takes a deep breath before he unlocks the front door and pulls it open.

What he does not see is his missing son. But a man who looks around the same age, angry red skin surrounding his eyes as if he'd been crying and his blonde hair sticking up in multiple different directions. His clothes are wrinkled and his chest is heaving, like he'd been running. He scans both of the men from head to toe, his eyes clearly searching for something in their faces.

“He’s not here, is he?” It's a statement more than a question, like he already knows the answer.

Touya can feel the sorrow and pain coming from the boy. His shoulders deflate slightly as he realizes how he has to break the news that the boy obviously knows.

“He hasn't been for a while” the silence is thick like molasses, dark and heavy as it curled around the three men in the doorway.

The blonde staggers back a bit, hanging his head and pressing the heels of his palms to eyes. His face is shadowed by his hair and arms but Touya can tell just how much those six simple words tore the boy apart. Touya watches as the boy's shoulders shake violently. He shares a look of concern with Keigo.

“I'm sorry I should’ve known– I should've realized!” It's almost unintelligible with how much the kid is crying. Touya’s stunned for a moment, frozen in place before he feels Keigo move past him. He watches as his husband steps out of their apartment and into the hallway. Pulling the unknown man closer into a fatherly embrace. Keigo and Touya may not know the blond personally but he obviously knew their son very closely. It takes a few rough minutes for Keigo to ease the stranger back inside their apartment and sit him on their couch.

“I'm sorry for coming so late.. I-I just couldn't sleep and I needed to see for myself.” The blonde explains.

“Dont be, its understandable” Touya murmurs, coming over to sit next to keigo in the small loveseat that was next to the couch.

“Kid, I don't think we ever caught your name?” Keigo said as he made room for Touya to sit down next to him.

The blonde grimaces slightly, recognizing his ignorance.

“I'm Katsuki Bakugo, y/n’s Roommate. We uhm, had plans last week and when he didn't show up I got worried. I had planned to call him but my calls never went through.” he swallows the lump in his throat as he keeps speaking.

“But today, when I went to check my mail. I had an unmarked letter in my box”. He reaches into the pocket of his sweatpants and pulls out a folded piece of paper. He passes it over to the couple across from him.

“I needed to see it for myself,” he whispers weakly.

Touya looks at Katsuki with barely concealed concern as he unfolds the letter, holding it open so both him and Keigo can read it.

“ Dear kat,

I'm sorry. I know that I shouldn't start off this letter with those words but they're true, and I know you never liked liars. I don't want you to think that any of this is your fault, or our friends or even my parents. It's just my own. Please dont try to find me, you wont like what you see and i care for you too much to allow you that. I don't want this to be the last memory you have of me so please think of something nice for me okay?

I want you to know that if you got this letter that I am no longer in Tokyo, I don't even know if I will still be in Japan by the time you read this. I can't stay here anymore. I know that's not what you want to hear, but I cant do it anymore kat.

I know you know that I use, and know that it's not because it's not your problem. Please make sure that you let our friends in, don't freeze them out just because I'm gone. If you see my parents please don't tell them about this letter. I can't burden them anymore.

I'm really gonna miss you kat, youre teasing, youre snappy comments, your hair that never seems to stay down no matter how much product i see you use. I wish I wasn't such a coward, and I wish I could've admitted it to you and evey/nne else that I had an issue.

I've left all my banking information at the bottom of this letter, it's evenly split between you and both of my dads. It might be best to anonymously mail them the money so they don't realise what ive done. Don't try to contact any of my dealers, friends, teachers, or even my sponsor. I've cut contact with all of them and made sure no one can find me.

You're my best friend and I couldn't have asked for better. I just wished I was better for you.

I love you,

y/n Takami”

The letter falls to the ground through Touya's fingers as he feels his chest tighten and his vision blur. It can't be true. He can't be gone. Touya's face crumples as he hangs his head, and weeps. He feels Keigo wrap his arms around his shoulders, his face pressed against his collar bone. His hands tremble as he reaches up to grasp his lover, holding him close as they both cry over their beautiful boy. Time melts in those moments, Touya doesn't know how long they stayed like that, limbs tangled and tears shed. Touya finally lets go eventually, another wave of tears threatening to overtake his body. He takes a shuddering breath as he looks at Katsuki once again, the poor kid looks devastated.

“Look, stay here for the night, take y/n’s room. And we can figure this all out in the morning, okay” Touya rasps. Katsuki blinks, stunned that Touya would offer such a thing.

“Are you sure?” He asks clearly not wanting to impose

Touya nods, “it's the second door on the left when you walk down the hall.”

All Katsuki gives is a small nod before standing up and quietly walking to y/n’s room. Once Touya sees Katsuki shut the door he silently stands up, pulling keigo with him as they walk to their own room. As they settle back down, grief hangs heavy over their heads while they hold each other a little tighter than normal. They pointedly ignore the sounds of muffled crying coming from down the hall.

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“Fandom so small we fit on a bus”

Only then I am human (Only then I am clean)

By Apr1cotsss

A/N: hey guys… so I decided to repost my first chapter on here because, idk I just wanted to. This is on Ao3 and I’ll post chaper 2 tomorrow

Word count: 3k

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Summary: Will Byers was pronounced dead at the quarry three years ago, despite his mother’s claims that his body that had been retrieved wasn’t his the town moved on; but mike never did.

Or

A will Byers never found au

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Chapter 1: save a prayer.

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Will knows he shouldn’t be here, every bone in his body knows he should stay away from the star court mall. Curiosity killed the cat and all that jazz. But he can help it, he feels like something is pulling him in, like it sunk its teeth into him and didn’t plant on letting go anytime soon.

He sighs as he gets closer, careful to avoid the vines that litter the ground, careful to be quiet and keep the scrap of fabric acting as a mask over his nose.

There’s thunder in the distance and it’s colder here than where Will normally hangs out. After being in this place for so long he’s learned a thing or two about how it behaves, how to get around unscathed.

Will walks through the deserted parking lot and past the entrance knowing that he can’t get through that way at all. He tried once but something is holding the door locked from the inside.

He walks around to the back of the mall scanning around for a door not completely swallowed by vines so he can go inside. He rarely goes inside of the mall but something tells him he should. He finds one near the back of the mall, prying it open only a little bit before slipping through the crack.

Instantly he’s on edge, the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and his heart leaps into his throat. He takes a tentative step into the room the door leads to, the axe he carries in his bag and the gun in his pocket serves as a comfort as he silently walks out of the storage room that the door led into.

Will feels it before he sees it, the restless buzzing under his skin, his stomach unsure on if it’s about to empty itself or not right then and there. He swallows the feeling and reaches behind him, finding the head of the axe and pulling it out of his bag, the weight of it in his hands soothes his nerves a little bit.

The axe handle is worn by time but the blade itself is still sharp. Will made sure of that before he left his house today.

He walks past the dingy ice cream shop, past the outdated clothing store and then he sees it, a faint red glow coming from around the corner. The light isn’t the scary thing about it, no.

It was the sound.

It was like an animal was eating, except it sounded worse, it sounded human.

Will stood there behind the wall, not being able to see what the red glow led to. He swallowed harshly and slowly peeked around the corner to see what it was.

There was what looked like a hole on the side of the wall, vines covered it as its rotting slime covered the ground before it, but the middle of it was red, a deep violent red that almost felt…alive.

Will tore his gaze away from the rift in the wall and looked further down the hall from where it was, following the trail of blood and dirt before he saw it,

There was a teenage boy kneeling on the ground, his jeans and letterman jacket were covered in blood and dirt, his blond hair was disheveled and matted.

He hovered over a girl on his knees next to her who lay on the floor, her pink blouse now red and soaked through with blood. But that wasn’t the worst part of what Will saw.

The boy with the letterman jacket leaned down closer and closer to the girl's face and neck he began opening his mouth before he proceeded to bite down on the side of her jaw with a sickening crack of the boy's teeth crunching her jaw as he bit down, his own jaw looked unnaturally wide for a normal person it looked like he had opened his mouth way beyond capacity or he had unhinged his jaw.

The blonde pulled back, blood spilling from his mouth before putting a hand on the girls blood stained chest, he pressed his fingers in, sinking through the flesh like it was sand, cracking her ribs with a wet pop as he tore open her chest to open her up ribs up wide and out from her body, he reached into the cavity of her chest pulling out her lungs as he held them up to his mouth before ripping them open with his teeth.

Will couldn’t watch anymore, the sound of the boy eating her, tearing her apart was too much and the smell was putrid and sulfuric. Will backed up slowly, careful not to make a sound. Once he was far enough away from the scene he quickly bolted and made his way out of the mall through the back door.

When he was back outside he collapsed against the wall of the mall, pulling his knees to his chest as he tried to get his heartbeat to calm down. He willed himself not to get ahead of himself and completely freak out, he needed to get somewhere safe.

So for now he steeled his expression, put away the axe back in his bag and grabbed the gun instead before quickly setting off across town to get back to the place he had to call home.

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It was a friday when Mike got the call.

He had been at home in his room finishing some of his history homework he forgot to do earlier in the week when he heard the phone ring loudly downstairs. He sighed and stood up from his desk, quietly walking downstairs with sock covered feet as he reached the phone.

“Hello? Wheelers residen-”

“Mike are you there!? It's a code red! I repeat it is a code red!!”

Mike winced at the loud voice coming through the phone he recognized as Dustin. It felt like cold water had been dumped on his head, shocking him out of whatever funk he was in just a few seconds earlier.

“Holy shit hold on” Mike began to say, cutting Dustin off as he grabbed his keys from table under the phone

“What the hell happened? Wait, where are you even at?” Mike asked, a slight panic bubbling in his chest as his mind unhelpfully supplied him with every worst case scenario.

“Come to family video! And hurry, we don't have a lot of time!!” Is all Dustin said before the line went dead

“Shit” Mike whispered under his breath as he grabbed a thick brown coat from the closet by the door that smelled like mikes old cologne and Eddies cigarettes from when he would smoke during the breaks in their campaigns or when he would take Mike home sometimes in that beat up, dingy van.

Mike rushed out of the house, not bothering to leave a note, not that anyone would notice if he did. He rushed down the driveway to where his black Acura Integra and slid into the driver's seat, he didn’t bother with the radio and barely remembered to put on a seatbelt before he was pulling out of the driveway and booking it out of the culdesac

Mike probably broke at least three laws as he sped down Main Street to get to family video. In the lot he saw Jonathan’s tan Audi Quattro and Steve’s red BMW. Mike sighed as he pulled into the parking lot, anxiety blooming under his skin, he knew this was going to be a long night.

He grabbed his keys and got out then locked his car before quickly walking inside the family video well past its closing hours. It was complete chaos.

Robin, Steve, Nancy, and Jonathon all stood by the register quietly talking, a tense air surrounding them. Meanwhile, Lucas, Max, Dustin, and Jane were all by the door waiting for Mike while loudly talking over one another.

“Mike! What the hell took so long man?!” Dustin said, his head immediately turning when he heard the door open

Mike glared weakly at Dustin though it had no heat behind it.

“I think I broke like three laws driving, plus not all of us live near here” he grumbled as he moved to stand near Jane.

He had dated her around a year ago but his heart and mind weren’t in the right place for her, and it showed. Regretfully, he was a shit boyfriend to her and he’s currently trying to make up for it even though she’s forgiven him more times than he can count. Now, he'd been sad of course when they ended things but they’ve been good friends since.

“Why is everyone freaking out” he sighed softly and turned to Jane, her brown wavy hair was pinned away from her face in a half up half down kind of hairstyle, her dark purple sweater was lit by the harsh overhead light of the family video store, making it lighter than it was.

She grimaced slightly, she had never been very expressive but Mike had picked up on a few things while spending so much time with her.

“You did not hear about Chrissy did you?” She asks quietly, he shakes his head, his brows furrowed in confusion

“She was found dead in Eddie's trailer a few hours ago, now Eddie, Chrissy’s boyfriend Jason, and a girl from robins calc class, Tammy Thompson, are missing” she explains with a tired sigh.

Mikes jaw goes slack his eyebrows raised in surprise

“Chrissy, like Chrissy Cunningham the cheerleader?” He asks in shock, Jane just nods her head.

“Shit” he murmurs, looking at his friends who are still talking over each other “and I'm guessing it’s upside down related and not just some crazy guy in our town?” He asks tiredly even though he knows the answer

She chuckles a little at his exasperation

“You are correct”

Mike sighs heavily and sits down on one of the stools by register, Jane taking the one next to him.

Mike hated the upside down, it rubbed him the wrong way every time he was near it even though he’d never actually been to the upside down, he’s certainly been around the creatures that haunt the upside down. However, despite that, the real reason he hates it? Because that god forsaken place took the only person who truly knew Mike, who Mike trusted with his whole heart.

Will Byers.

Will had disappeared three years ago, after going home on his bike alone at night after a DnD session at Mike’s place. Will had been taken that night, at first everyone thought he ran away, then people thought it was foul play, even Lonnie, Will's dad was suspected of taking Will. But that all changed when Will's body was dragged out of the quarry.

Mike remembers standing by the ambulance, its flashing light reflecting on the water as paramedics dragged something out of the water. His breath had been cut short when they pulled out a body. Mike, foolishly, had gotten closer even as his friends called his name, he needed to make sure it wasn’t who he thought it was.

But as he got closer he got less and less assured that this was just some random kid. He remembers getting yelled at and being told to move, get away from the water, but he couldn’t stop staring at the wet body that lay on the stretcher, the face mangled, completely distorting one half of the face by cause of the injury.

Mike knew only a demogorgon could do that but that wasn’t what shocked Mike, it was the red puffer vest, and the wet plaid flannel shirt, and that god awful bowl cut that made Mike's heart stop. He remembers pleading to no one, maybe god, that it wasn’t Will, that his best friend wasn’t dead in front of him.

He remembers his friends pulling him away from the scene as he was hysterical at what he saw. He needed will, that was his best friend and now he was gone? That didn’t seem right to Mike then and it doesn’t now, despite that he won’t ever forget what he saw that night, his best friend, dead in the arms of paramedics half mauled to death.

Joyce was convinced that it wasn’t Will, but Mike thinks she just couldn’t come to terms with his death and the state his body was in when he was found. After three years she’s been better, she still gets sad around November or nervous when Jonathon goes into the Upside Down but she’s got this look in her eye that Mike sees sometimes, something distant and melancholic.

Then Mike had met Jane, who he had learned was connected to all of this and had been hidden by chief hopper due to all the government activity going on in Hawkins at the time of Wills disappearance. At first he was angry, angry that she didn’t help Will, and that hopper had hidden her when she could've helped. But then he’d been sad, because he’d never see his best friend ever again. It wasn’t Jane’s fault at all, she never knew Will and in order to find someone who is in upside down she’d need a picture, but by the time Mike had met her, Will was already dead.

Mike shook himself from his thoughts when Jane touched his arm lightly to get his attention, Mike looked up from his lap and at her, everyone was lookin at him.

shit were they talking to me.

He looked at Nancy, she sighed softly.

“We need to find Eddie, to find out what happened. You are going to drive with Steve, Dustin, Max, and Robin. Dustin and Steve think that Eddie is hiding out at that shack a mile down from lovers lake. Take the back roads, bring your walkie and a flashlight, got it?” She explains carefully, her tone firm and steady as she explained to the group

“Me, Jonathan and Jane are going to go and grab supplies, there’s no way in hell I’m going to the upside down without it.” She says grabbing her keys.

Mike nods and gets off the stool.

“Got it, but what if we find Jason?” He asks.

Nancy’s gaze hardens ever so slightly, her distaste for him evident.

“Then we handle him.”

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Unlocking the door to the house he used to call home, Will walked inside. He dropped his bag on the couch and walked to the bathroom. He lit a candle for his light and turned to look in the mirror.

Gone were the boyish features he used to possess, his nose had a prominent curve to it, his jaw was sharp and so were his collarbones that peaked out from his shirt. His hair touched the nape of his neck, cut in some sort of shag, however the most prominent change that Will had grown to despise when he looked in the mirror was his right eye.

A jagged, ugly, faded pink almost white scar crawled across Wills face and through his eye, it happened a year of two ago, he had gotten spooked by what he thought looked like another person in the upside down and ran in the other direction, accidentally running into a demobat in the process, it was clawed and chewed its way through Will's right side of his temple and eye, rendering him blind.

Not that him being blind stopped the visions.

Will frowns as he looks into the grimy mirror, the candle he lit casting an orange hue on the normally gray bathroom. He sighs and opens the medicine cabinet grabbing Tylenol he had taken from Melvalds god knows how long ago. He swallows the two pills dry before stumbling to his room.

As he changes out of his gross clothes he can’t help the overwhelming sense of loneliness that washes over him. He shoves it down as he pulls an old grey long sleeve over his head, he thinks it might’ve been Jonathan’s.

He crawls into bed and sighs, he knows he won’t be able to sleep, not after what he saw today, but maybe he will. Tomorrow he’ll go back, and he’ll see whatever the hell that thing was in the wall.

But tonight, he lays in his bed alone like he has for the past three years, shoving down the part of him that screams out in loneliness.

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The car is silent with a wave of tension covering them. Mike has both hands on the wheel and Robin sits in the passenger seat biting at her nail nervously as Mike speeds through Hawkins on the way to lovers lake.

“Take the first left,” Robin says as shifts in her seat a little, her nervousness obvious.

Mike nods a little and slows down to take the first left, immediately coming upon what looks like an old boat shack or a small house

Steve and Jonathan pull in behind Mike, once Mike parks everyone immediately scrambles out, Mike sighs quietly and gets out of his car, pocketing the flashlight he keeps in the glovebox.

The air smelled thick with mildew and rain, as they got closer to the house, Mike got more convinced that they were too late. A cold sense of dread washed over him. Steve walked over to where one of the old boats was and grabbed an oar as he walked through the room.

Mike turned away looking out the window silently, before he knew it however there was something coming out from under the tarp that laid on the group springing up and pinning Steve to one of the posts that held the roof up.

It was Eddie

Eddie stood pressed up against Steve, holding a broken beer bottle to Steve’s throat, his eyes wide with panic. Dustin tried to explain to Eddie that they weren’t here to harm him or turn him in, but it wasn’t until Steve whispered something to Eddie that Mike couldn’t figure out what, that Eddie backed up slowly.

“Eddie, please man just let us explain” Dustin pleaded with a sigh

Eddie clenched his jaw and gave a barely noticeable nod before sitting on the edge of the boat

“Explain.” He said trying to cover the fear in his voice with annoyance

Dustin then proceeded to go on a rant for 15 minutes about government experiments and cover up’s and how there is a complete other dimension that is currently feeding into Hawkins and that Jane is sort of the key to this whole issue.

Once Dustin stopped talking Eddie just stared at the younger boy in bewilderment

“Jesus…so your saying that our town is connected to an alternate dimension that she-” he pointed at Jane “- opened with her mind…”

Dustin just nodded, completely unbothered

“Yeah exactly ” he said, max had hit him upside the head for it, Dustin whined a complaint to max but was quickly cut off by Eddie

“Watch it smartass” Eddie scoffed as he ran a hand through his hair, his eyes flicked over to Steve silently communicating something Mike didn’t understand.

Steve gave a barely noticeable nod before straightening up and speaking.

“Look, it’s late and we need to figure out a plan.” Steve grabbed his keys from his pocket as a wave of protests erupted

“No. Shut up, this isn’t up to discussion.” Steve quickly cut off their moaning

“But what about Eddie?” Dustin asked, his annoyance barely covering his poorly disguised worry.

Steve turned and looked at Eddie, they had their weird moment of silent communication before Steve turned back to Dustin and the group.

“He’ll be fine, no one knows where this place is. We’ll come back first thing tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll have a plan by then and we can figure out this mess” Steve explains.

“We’ll meet up with Nance, Jonathan and Jane and see what they think”

The group nodded

“We should get going” Robin pointed out “we still have two people missing and we need to figure out what to do”

Steve swallowed thickly before nodding

“Robins right. let’s go, in the car come on” he says as he begins to wave the teenagers out the boathouse despite their complaints.

They all shuffled into the red BMW parked in the trees and waited for Steve to come from the boathouse. A few minutes later Steve came back, Robin looked at him worriedly but he didn’t meet her gaze.

They drove in a heavy silence as they drove past lovers lake and into town then to Steve’s house which had informally become a ‘home base’ for the party, when they got to Loch Nora Max spoke up, breaking the silence.

“Do you think they’re all connected? Jason, Chrissy, Tammy and the upside down?” she asked Steve, her voice quiet as she picked at the fuzz on her sweatshirt sleeve.

Steve grips the wheel a little tighter and nods stiffly