November 12th, 1983

Hawkins Police Station

Once the cuffs had been put on Jonathan's wrist, he fell silent. It was like they had turned him into a shell of the person he once was. He had calmed down drastically since he had been pulled away from Steve and thrown into the back of a police cruiser, but then again, who wouldn't? Nancy couldn't begin to understand what happened, or half of the reason why Jonathan had grown mute throughout the ride to the station. But I knew... Jonathan and I could read each other like an open book; it's a twin thing. He was upset with himself. Even though it felt right in the moment, he shouldn't have acted like that. If he hadn't done that, we wouldn't be here.

Once the cops had gotten us to the station, they only uncuffed Jonathan for a moment before locking him down to one of their desks so that he could be questioned on what had happened and why he had seemingly started the fight.

Releasing an annoyed sigh, I rested my hands against the officer's desk as he continued to take notes on his pad. "Can you please just let him go? I mean, come on it was just a stupid fight." I complained from my place beside Jonathan as he sat silently in his place, he hadn't even tried once to plead his case; just waited for the sentence.

"It was a stupid fight. But your brother made it serious once he assaulted a police officer." Holding back my scoff and resisting the serious urge to glare at the officer in front of me, I leaned back into my chair quietly as the man continued to question Jonathan who, of course, remained silent.

After the officer had heard all he wanted, he left Jonathan and me sitting at the desk, while Nancy left to find ice for the developing bruise on Jonathan's cheek. "You know, out of all of us, you were the last person I expected to be put in cuffs," I mumbled from beside Jonathan as he rested his chin against the desk. "Will's a sweet kid and all... But he's always been too passionate about everything. You, on the other hand... you've always been the collected and mature one out of us."

"That isn't funny..." Jonathan mumbled, speaking to me for the first time since he had been arrested. "No, it's not funny. None of this is, you know why? Cause, you've always said that you'd be the one to change the way everyone thought about the Byers' name. And instead-- Instead we just keep giving them what they want. What they expect of us."

Jonathan released a heavy sigh before barely turning his head to the side to look at me from the corner of his eye. "And what if I can't? I can't change anything... Maybe I am just like Lonnie... A screw-up." I shook my head and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "You are a lot of things Jonathan, but you are far from a screw-up. I can promise you that the people that care about you, like really care, would agree with me."

The two of us sat quietly, Jonathan's mood rising only slightly until Nancy walked back into the room with an ice pack in hand. "Found some ice..." As she took back her place next to Jonathan and held it out to him, while he awkwardly shot a look down to his shackled hands. "Right, here..." She mumbled under her breath and held the ice against his cheek for him.

Though others would view Jonathan's slight movement as only leaning towards her for the ice pack, I knew the tell-tale sign of that shift, he wanted to be closer to Nancy. And even though Nancy seemed to only view Jonathan as a friend, I could tell by his gaze that he completely adored her. I think Jonathan has always had some sort of feelings for Nancy in the past, but she never really talked to him and he wasn't the type of person to just strike up conversations with people.

"Eleanor? Jonathan? What the hell happened?" The voice of our mother had caused Jonathan and I's heads to snap towards the front door of the station where our mother stood confused next to a very annoyed and impatient-looking Chief Hopper. "Why is he wearing handcuffs?" She asked the officer sitting at the other desk; who just so happened to be the officer that Jonathan had 'assaulted'. "Well, your boy assaulted a police officer. That's why." He responded stiffly.

Rolling my eyes at the way they phrased the accident, I could help but point out yet again that, "It wasn't even like that." I scoffed turning towards the officer who just shook his head. "Take them off." Mom stated, growing annoyed with the officer. "I am afraid I cannot do that."

"Take them off!" She yelled while Hopper nodded in agreement. "You heard her. Take 'em off." He mumbled, his voice sounding drained and devoid of any real emotion. "Chief... I get everyone's emotional here, but there's something you need to see." The other officer joined in and nodded towards the back door for Hopper to follow him outside.

Turning to face the others, our expressions matched one of worry. As we knew exactly what the officer could have been referring to, cause all that rested outside the station was Jonathan's car, and what was in the trunk? Well, only one of the biggest red flags.

After following the officer outside, a few minutes later Hopper emerged back into the station with a scowl and carrying the box from Harvey's hunting store. "What is this?" Mom asked as she went through the box after Hop had dropped it on the desk in front of us with a loud bang.

"Why don't you ask your son? We found it in his car." The officer quickly informed her while Jonathan quickly shifted in his seat. "Why are you going through my car?" Jonathan asked, confused but mostly annoyed by the unnecessary search. "Is that really a question you should be asking right now? I wanna see the three of you in my office. Now." Hopper stated sternly.

"You won't believe us." Jonathan replied abruptly, with a worried expression quickly spreading over his face. Releasing a tired sigh, Hopper rested his hands against the desk before leaning to look down at us. "Why don't you give me a try?" He mumbled softly before walking down the hall that led to his office.

Once we were inside the office, Hopper shut the door behind the three of us and Mom, gesturing for us to sit in front of his desk, while they took their seats in front of us. "You. Explain yourself." Hopper stared directly at Jonathan, his gaze intense.

"There's this thing that we think took Will. I spotted it a few nights ago after Will's disappearance... I caught a photo of it." Jonathan spoke quietly and reached for his bag out that rested in the box in front of us to pull out the photo before quickly handing it to Hopper.

While the two adults looked over the photograph Nancy tried to explain the rest of the situation in Jonathan's place, "We have this theory about what it is, why it attacks when it does and where it does." Nancy paused, waiting to gauge their reaction to the idea of a monster in Hawkins.

Nodding, Hopper waited for us to continue explaining the theory. "It's attracted to blood, it senses it like a shark would and Jonathan found where it might live or hide in the woods. So last night we went out to find it." Nancy continued, causing Mom's head to snap up, and turn her attention away from the picture onto Jonathan and me. "You did what?" She asked and passed the picture back to Hopper. "We wanted to see if we could find it, and we thought it'd be better to do it sooner than later." I tried but Mom only shook her head in disappointment at the two of us.

"But you found something? Last night, Nell, you said the game got intense. What happened, really?" Hopper asked and leaned towards me over the edge of his desk. Shrugging, I awkwardly looked down at my hands. "We found it, we also found where it lives... It was like-- Like something out of a nightmare." Hopper looked back down at the photo, seeming to understand what I meant about the place we had found.

"You guys said blood attracts this thing?" Was his only question, even after all the craziness we had just spewed to them, but Nancy nodded nonetheless. "But, it's just a theory." She mumbled but the theory was quickly put to the side as Mom shifted in her seat. "Hopper, can I talk to them outside?" Mom pointed at the two of us but before Hopper could even respond she had stood from her chair and nodded for us to follow her out of the room.

Back out in the hall, Mom quickly shut Hoppers' door behind her before slowly turning to face the two of us with what we called the 'Joyce stare'. "I'm sorry, Mom." Jonathan apologized first and I nodded while I played with the ring on my finger, scared of how she would react without the Chief near.

"What, you're sorry? You're sorry? That's not good enough, Jonathan. Not even in the ballpark." She tried to keep her voice down but the anger in her tone was enough to make it feel like she was yelling at us. "Nellie, you promised me you would stop digging? I mean you could have gotten seriously injured or worse." She turned her gaze towards me, her eyes watering at the thought of her other two kids getting hurt, causing guilt to instantly rush over me. "We wanted to tell you..." "-We were waiting for the right time." Jonathan finished for me but she continued to shake her head at us. "And what if it took you guys too? I mean, you risked not just your lives, but Nancy's too."

"I thought we could find him... save him at least." I whispered, the thought of Will still being trapped in that place with that monster flashed through my mind. I could barely outrun that thing, what were the chances he could? "We still do..." I mumbled more to reassure myself than anyone else.

"This is not yours to do alone! You act like you are all alone out there in the world, but you're not. You're not alone." She pushed Jonathan lightly on the shoulder and turned to do the same to me but instead pulled the two of us in for a hug to stop herself from crying. "We know mom, we know." I whispered, holding on to her tightly.

The bonding moment was short-lived though, as a nasally voice broke through the air, "I want an apology!" A woman from the front of the building had raised her voice at the two officers that brought us in. "Where is the Chief? I want to speak to him." The woman continued until Hopper opened the door to his office with an annoyed expression. Rolling his eyes at the bickering between the woman and the officers he slowly made his way towards the front.

Wondering what the commotion was about, I followed behind Hopper while Mom and Jonathan went back into his office. "I want both of your names and badge numbers!" The woman continued to complain while a young boy with a cast stood by her side, looking distressed by the whole situation.

"What the hell is going on here?" Hopper yelled, causing the woman to turn around and drop the attitude she once had with the two officers. "These officers are humiliating my son." She stated while the cops shook their heads at her overreaction. "There was some kind of fight Chief-" One of the men tried to explain, only to be cut off by the woman again. "A psychotic child broke his arm!"

"It was a little girl Chief, I mean-" "That tone! Did you hear that tone?" The woman continued to talk over the officer. "We seriously do not have time for this. Will you please take a statement... and get her out." Hopper waved towards the door and whispered the last part while the woman turned back towards the officers.

"Fine... What did the girl look like?" One of the men asked, annoyed with the situation while Hopper turned to leave, catching me listening in on the argument from the hall. Waving for me to go back to his office, the boy slowly answered the officer's question. "She has no hair... And was bleeding from her nose... Like a freak." The boy stated and ignoring Hopper's demand, I couldn't stop myself from questioning the boy. "What did you just say?" I mumbled at the mention of her hair.

"I said she's a freak." He stated again, confused about why I was speaking to him. "No... Before that, about her hair?" I asked again and Hopper gave me a look as if he had known exactly what I was getting at. Maybe even who I was thinking about.

"Her head's shaved. She doesn't even look like a girl and..." The boy stopped and stared down at the ground while Hopper turned back to question him. "And what?" He pushed for the boy to continue. "She can do... things." He mumbled but that wasn't enough proof for Hop. "What kind of things?"

"Like make you fly, and piss yourself..." he mumbled the last part while one of the officers tried to hold in their laughter. "Was she alone?" Hopper asked, ignoring the last statement. "She always hangs out with those losers." "Losers? What losers?" Hopper asked but instead of answering him, the boy turned his gaze in my direction, "She knows them."

Hopper's back stiffened before he slowly turned to face me just as I moved to hide behind a corner in an attempt to avoid his gaze. "Back in my office. Now." He mumbled as he walked past me and back towards his office, my nerves quickly growing uneasy yet again.

"So you've known about this girl?" Hopper questioned me as soon as the door had shut behind me, taking a set back down behind his desk while Jonathan, Mom, and Nancy looked between the two of us confused about what exactly he was talking about. "I mean, I was there when they found her..." I said as Hopper moved on to continue his questioning. "When was this, exactly?" "The night after Will's disappearance, the first night of the search party."

"And you, I'm assuming the adult of the group, didn't think to, I don't know, send this girl to the proper authorities." Hopper furrowed his eyebrows. Thinking back on it that would probably have been a smart thing to do. "It was just that... she was scared and alone. I mean she was barely able to talk. I guess I thought that if she was scared of a bunch of kids her age I couldn't imagine how she'd feel with a bunch of adults questioning her."

Ignoring what I had said, he continued. "Who else knows about her, the other kids?" Hopper quickly pulled his notepad from his while I awkwardly looked towards a very confused Nancy. "Mike, Dustin, and Lucas. All Will's friends."

Standing from his seat abruptly, he made his way towards the door of his office, "We need to get to them right now." "-What? Why?" Nancy asked as she stood from her seat also and soon the four of us had begun to follow Hopper out of the office. "They could be in danger."