𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐢𝐱𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧: 𝐬𝐡𝐞'𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤

❝ᴅᴏᴏᴍsᴅᴀʏ.❞

𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐄 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐆𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐍 𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐊𝐒 to help up convert the shed in the backyard into an unknown location for will, arlo was told to sit back and relax. not only was she told this by the adults, but by all of the teens as well. everyone was getting things ready for the shed; dustin, percy, and lucas was digging through the garbage to gather old news papers, mike and max were in the kitchen doing whatever, all of the teens were in the shed, hanging up tarps, and arlo had no idea where the adults were. she could hear mike and max talking in the kitchen max bringing up eleven. arlo frowned when she heard mike tell her that just because she knew the truth didn't mean she was in the party.

"i mean, why would you want a stupid boomer in your party anyway?" max asked jokingly, but arlo could hear the slight hurt in her tone.

"little harrington!" the voice of apollo appeared, making arlo look up at him with raised eyebrows. the high school boy had discarded his leather jacket, showing off the many tattoos that scattered his arms. arlo smiled slightly. "how you holding up? you need anything?"

"no, i'm good. thanks." she told him as he sat down next to her on the couch. "shouldn't you be helping nancy and jonathan in the shed?"

"they kicked me out because i kept making jokes." apollo shrugged, bringing a hand up to comb his dirty blonde hair out of his face. "this whole situation is just completely. . . bizarre and i make jokes when i'm uncomfortable."

"so. . . you're always uncomfortable?" arlo questioned, earning a nudge from the older boy. "hey, i got a question."

"shoot." apollo mumbled, starting to pick away at his chipped nail polish.

"why did you believe us so easily when we told you and percy everything on the bus?" arlo asked, her eyes landing on will, who was on the couch across from them, before she turned to look at apollo.

apollo let his hands drop into his lap, deciding that he could pick at his black nail polish later. "because it wasn't that hard to believe. i mean, if i was any other person than yeah, i wouldn't have believe you until i got some kind of proof. but luckily. . . i'm not any any other person."

"what's that suppose to mean?"

"just that. . . everyone has their secrets and everyone has a past." apollo shrugged, taking out his zippo lighter from his jeans. he flicked it open, a flame automatically appearing before he flicked it closed. he repeated his actions a few times, arlo watching closely.

"hey, how do you do that?" she asked.

"do what?"

"whenever you flick your lighter open, a flame is already there. but that's not how lighters work. you have to turn that little wheel thingy to create a spark." arlo explained, her eyebrows furrowed slightly.

apollo smiled, the harrington girl being the first person to ever notice that besides percy. he knew why he was able to do it, but he only percy and their mother knew about it, so he decided not to reveal the reason. "a magician never reveals his secrets, little harrington."

arlo opened her mouth to ask what he had meant by that, but a familiar voice appeared. "hey." both apollo and arlo turned to see that it was max.

apollo smiled, noticing the way the two girls were looking at each other. he quickly put his lighter back into his jeans pocket before he got up from the couch. "i gotta take another leak, anyway." he mumbled as he walked past max. "mayfield."

max nodded awkwardly, waiting for apollo to leave the living room before she sat down in his previous spot. "aren't you supposed to be trying to sleep or something?"

"there's no point in trying." arlo shrugged. "i am a lot relaxed now that you're here though." she quickly added, placing her head onto max's shoulder. "do you need to go do something else or can you sit here with me?"

"uh, i can - i can sit here with you. i can 100% sit here with you." max nodded, her voice soft. she shifted slightly so that arlo could be comfortable. silence fell over the two girls, the both of them listening to everyone enter and leave the house as they got the shed ready.

about five minutes into the silence, max had heard little snores start to leave arlo's mouth, making her look down. she smiled when she saw arlo's calm and peaceful face. the strawberry blonde moved arlo without waking her, bringing her head down to her lap. arlo didn't even stir in her sleep, only snuggling more into max. the taller girl smiled once again, gently tucking some strands behind arlo's ear. she then felt like she had won some kind of reward as she looked down at the harrington girl. not only because the amazing girl wanted to be her friend. . . possibly more, but because she now knew that she was able to make arlo feel safe enough to sleep.

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𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐀𝐍 𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑, 𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐎 𝐖𝐀𝐒 now wide awake. she hadn't even remembered going to sleep, but when hopper had shaken her awake she realized that she did. when she realized who she had fell asleep on, her face heated up. she can't believed that she had fallen asleep on max. and what was even more surprising was that she didn't have one nightmare while she was asleep. the shed was now set up, will, joyce, hopper, jonathan, and mike being inside while everyone else was sat waiting inside the house. arlo had practically begged hopper to let her go out there, but he told her that he needed her inside just incase anything happened. which led to her sitting on the floor in the hall with max next to her and lucas across from them. arlo had been opening and closing her hand, making a small amount of shadows flare around her hand. max and lucas watched her carefully, the latter smiling since he knew that she wasn't able to do that when she first got her powers. she was gaining more control.

"if he finds out where we are. . . will he send those dogs after us?" max questioned, breaking the silence that had fallen over the trio. arlo had closed her hand, making the shadows that were dancing around it disappear.

"he won't find out." lucas assured, his smile vanishing as he was reminded of the situation that everyone was currently in.

"yeah, but, if he does. . ." max repeated, turning to look at arlo. the harrington girl and lucas shared a knowing look, not wanting to think about the what if.

"doomsday." arlo mumbled, looking away from lucas and at max.

suddenly, the lights started to flicker throughout the house, everyone except the williams brothers and max knowing what that had meant. arlo and lucas shot up from the floor, the former pulling max up before they all went into the kitchen. the trio joined nancy, dustin, steve, apollo, and percy at the window, looking out at the shed with worried eyes. the flickering slowly came to a stop, making everyone look up at the lights before they looked back out the window. arlo clenched her jaw, wanting to be out there so bad. she could feel that the mind flayer was angry, that same feeling reappearing. it made her clench her jaw and glare out the window, but she was still in control. she had calmed down when she felt max interlock their hands together, squeezing arlo's in a reassuring manner. arlo squeezed back, her eyes never leaving the window.

she had finally looked away from the window when she had seen hopper, joyce, jonathan, and mike coming back to the house. her, along with everyone else in the kitchen, turned to the back door once hopper had barged through it. he grabbed a pen and an envelope before he sat down at the dining table.

"what happened?" dustin asked as everyone surrounded the chief. arlo's eyebrows furrowed when she realized that he was drawing dots and dashes.

"i think he's talking, just not with words." hopper answered.

"hey, what is that?" steve questioned.

"morse code." arlo, dustin, mike, lucas, and percy answered in unison. hell, even apollo answered, earning a confused look from steve.

"h - e - r - e." hopper spelled out, the kids saying the word in unison. hopper looked down at the envelope as he placed the pen on the dining table. "will's still in there. he's talking to us."

"okay, well, what's the plan?" apollo asked, looking between the chief and joyce.

"we're gonna get things that will loves, and the four of us are gonna go back out there and continue bringing up memories and stories." hopper explained, looking around at the group. "any of you have your walkies" he then asked, making lucas, arlo, and dustin raise their hands. "give me one so that i can give you the code that he's saying when he does it. do any of you know morse code?" dustin, mike, lucas, and percy all turned to look at arlo, knowing that the umbra-kinetic girl did. hopper picked up on this, turning to look at arlo as well. "you know morse code?"

"yeah, i know morse code." arlo nodded, looking down at the older man with furrowed eyebrows.

"how the hell do you know morse code by heart?" hopper asked.

"i read a lot." arlo shrugged, almost as if it was obvious. hopper continued to look at the harrington girl, eyebrows raised.

"okay, yeah. whatever." he finally mumbled, standing up from his seat. "let's go."

with that, jonathan went into his room to get his stereo along with the many mixtapes that he had made. lucas had given hopper his supercomm while arlo had gotten her own from out of her book bag. the chief, joyce, jonathan, and mike all went back out to the shed while arlo set her supercomm up on the dining table. nancy had given her a finished notepad, telling her to use the back of it and one of will's crayons to write out what hopper would send through. and that's exactly what she did. for over thirty minutes, arlo placed all of her attention on her walkie to listen to the codes that hopper would send through. max was sat next to arlo, looking at her in amazement. she had never met anyone that had known morse code. and she felt some part of her be proud of arlo since none of the boys knew it.

when hopper had stopped sending the codes through arlo held the cardboard up so that she could see what she had written. the party and teens quickly surrounded her to see what she had written out, all of them saying it aloud. "close gate."

suddenly, the phone started to ring, making everyone jump at the sudden sound. dustin let out a few curses as he ran over to the phone. he quickly took it off the receiver before he slammed it back down, making the ringing stop. arlo's hand reached for max's as she felt her stomach churn and goosebumps dot her skin. the phone started to ring again, making nancy quickly pull it off the nail that was holding it before she threw it to the floor. arlo gulped as her stomach continued to churn.

"do you think he heard that?" max questioned, looking down at arlo.

"it's just a phone. it could be anywhere. right?" steve tried, looking down at his sister as well. she was the only one who was attached to the mind flayer but was still in control.

"he heard it." arlo mumbled, feeling her heart start to beat faster in her chest as she stood up from the dining table. "he definitely heard it. he knows where we are."

"well, isn't that great." apollo muttered sarcastically. on cue, a screech appeared in the distant, making everyone enter the living room and look at the front door. "fucking fantastic." apollo spat, running his fingers through his greasy hair in frustration.

jonathan entered the house with an unconscious will over his shoulder, joyce and mike following him inside. jonathan made a b-line to will's room to set the boy down while the others joined the group. arlo watched as mike, max, and lucas went over to the window, leaning on to the couch to see if they could see any of those stupid demo-dogs. hopper barged into the house, making the harrington girl turn to him, seeing that he had two guns in his hands.

"hey. hey, get away from the windows!" he ordered the three kids, all of them doing as told. he then held up the shot gun as he looked at jonathan, the byers boy returning from will's room. "do you know how to use this?"

"what?" jonathan asked, taken aback from the question.

"can you use this?" hopper repeated, urgency and panic dripping from his tongue. jonathan stumbled over his words as he looked at the gun.

"i can." nancy admitted, stepping forward. hopper nodded, throwing the shot gun towards the wheeler girl. apollo watched her with raised eyebrows as she cocked the gun before she held it up towards the door.

hopper, nancy, steve, and arlo all stood at the front of the group. the first three had their weapons ready, nancy and hopper holding their guns up so that they could shoot when needed while steve held his bat full of nails up. arlo on the other hand was glaring at the windows as she held her hands out, ready to blast shadows at anything if she needed to. lucas stood behind the four of them, his wrist rocket out, ready to shoot a rock at anything. mike held up a candle holder for defense. joyce and jonathan held onto one another as they stood behind the first four. apollo and percy was between the two byers and max, apollo having the latter behind him in a protective manner. max was stood behind arlo, watching as shadows started to flare around the harrington girl's hands and arms.

"where are they?" the mayfield girl questioned. no one replied, too focused on the windows and doors. they could hear the demo-dogs growling and screeching as they got closer and closer to the house, only making more and more nerves crawl up their spines.

the sound of a growl being closer and something hitting the window made the group exclaim, all of them quickly turning towards the kitchen. the wheeler siblings were now in the front, nancy still holding the shot gun up as she aimed it at the window. "what are they doing?" she asked as the bushes outside of the kitchen window shook.

suddenly, a demo-dog jumped through the window, making everyone let out screams. nancy started to shoot at it without a second thought, the noise bouncing off the walls. the demo-dog let out a screech as one of the bullets hit it. nancy's shooting came to a halt when the gun ran out of ammo. she quickly moved to the back as she tried to reload, hopper handing her the box of bullets. he stepped forward to stop shooting, but apollo beat him to it. everyone watched as the williams boy flicked his hand out, making a huge flame surround it before he lunged his hand forward. a huge fireball shot out of his hand and at the inter-dimensional creature, making it start screeching. it started to hop around in an attempt to get the fire out but it wasn't working. it was about to lunge towards apollo, but hopper stepped in front of him, pulling the trigger. the demo-dog dropped the floor with a thud, still surrounded by flames. steve looked at apollo with his mouth opened, wondering how no one else was questioning how he was able to do that.

another growl came appeared, making the group turn back the windows and front door. arlo's honey brown eyes got darker as she glared at the windows, holding her hands out protectively. the growls and snarling continued outside, having everyone on edge. arlo felt her jaw clench as she waited for another demo-dog to jump through the window. and when one did, everyone jumped back. arlo made sure that she kept herself in front of max, just in case the creature decided to attack. but when it didn't move and just lied there on the floor, everyone stared at it.

"holy shit." dustin cursed as all of them started to slowly walk towards it.

"is it dead?" max asked, asking what everyone was thinking. . . and hoping. hopper continued to walk forward, using his foot to move the creature's head. when it didn't react, everyone physically relaxed.

but then the sound of creaking appeared from outside the front door, making everyone turn towards it. arlo stepped in front again, shoving lucas and max behind her. she held her hands back up when the top locked turned, meaning it was unlocked. this made everyone ready themselves for another attack, nancy and hopper holding their guns up again while steve and lucas held up their weapons. apollo flicked his hands out again, making flames surround them. the door slowly creaked opened as someone stepped into the house, arlo dropping her hands when she realized who it was. everyone did the same thing, dropping their weapons when they realized who it was.

eleven.

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daij speaks!
heyyyy. so i wrote this chapter two nights ago and i went to post it last night, only to see that it was deleted 🥲. so have this crappier version of it :). it was revealed that apollo has fire abilities, and i'm excited. omg.

but i hope u guys enjoyed 🫶🏼