Chapter Fifteen: Very Bad

After about half an hour of us sitting in the station, Joyce and my Dad finally showed up.

"Hey! Jonathan? Geez, what...what happened?" Dad stopped beside me, eyeing the bag of ice I was holding to my hand.

"What did you do?" He asked.

"I punched Steve Harrington."

"Ma'am..." Callaghan started.

"I'm fine."

"Why is he wearing handcuffs?" Joyce questioned.

"Well your boy assaulted a police officer, that's why."

"Take them off."

"I am afraid I cannot do that."

"TAKE THEM OFF!'

"You heard her, take 'em off." Dad agreed.

"Chief, I get everyone's emotional here, but there's something you need to see." Powell interrupted.

Dad followed Powell and Callaghan outside and they came back with the box from the surplus store. I pinched the bridge of my nose as Joyce started going through it.

"What is all this?" She asked.

"Why don't you ask your son? We found it in his car."

"What?"

"Why are you going through my car?" Jonathan demanded.

"Is that really the question you should be asking right now?"

"Dad," I put a hand on his arm, causing him to look at me, I gave him a knowing look.

"I wanna see you in my office."

"You won't believe me." Jonathan insisted.

"Why don't you give me a try?"

~~~

Dad dragged Nancy, Jonathan, Joyce and I into his office and we told him everything, with the picture and the monster, Nancy's theory and our experiment.

"You're saying blood draws this thing?" He asked, the Demogorgan picture in his hand.

"We don't know."

"Its just a theory." Nancy said.

"We need to talk." Joyce grabbed Jonathan's arm, pulling him out into the hallway. I sighed, scratching my head.

"Look Dad...this thing is more complicated than just the monster." I said. He nodded.

"I know. Joyce and I have been looking into Terry Ives and Hawkins Lab." He said. I raised my eyebrows.

"Did you talk to her?" He nodded.

"Her daughter, Jane has been missing for twelve years," He said, "Benny, the guy that owns the burger joint across town? He supposedly committed suicide a few days ago, but before he died, one of the local guys told me that Benny was seen with a kid with a shaved head, and I thought that was Will. This whole time I thought I was chasing Will, when I realized that I was following the clues of this other kid, that I think escaped from Hawkins Lab." I nodded.

"Yeah, um...yeah, she did. That also explains why the lab was lying about the security footage when they showed it to us." He furrowed his eyebrows.

"Wait, why are you bringing this up now?" I bit my lip.

"Well-"

"I want an apology!" My words were cut off by shouting coming from the bullpen.

"An apology for what exactly?" I heard Callaghan ask. Dad opened the door, walking out into the hallway.

"Where's the Chief?! I want to speak to him right this instant!"

"Stay here." He told us. I walked out into the hallway with Joyce and Jonathan, peering around the corner to see Callaghan and Powell standing in front of a blonde woman and a kid with his arm in a sling.

"Ma'am, I need you to calm down."

"What is your name, Deputy?!" 

"Well, I'm an officer, ok-"

"NAME AND BADGE NUMBER, BOTH OF YOU!" 

"What the heck is going on here?" Dad asked.

"Chief-"

"These men are humiliating my son!" 

"No, no, no, ok that's not true."

"Yes!" 

"There was some kind of fight, Chief-" Powell started.

"A psychotic child broke his arm!" My eyes widened and I rushed out into the bullpen, standing beside my father.

"A little girl, Chief. A little one." Callaghan said mockingly.

"That tone! Do you hear that tone?!"

"Honestly, I'm just trying to state a fact, I don't-"

"I don't have time for this." Dad said. I put a hand on his arm, stopping him.

"What'd she look like?" I asked the boy.

"She had no hair, and she was bleeding from her nose like a freak! Her head's shaved. She doesn't even look like a girl. And..."

"And what?" Dad inquired.

"Tell the man, Troy." His Mom prompted.

"She can...do things."

"What kind of things?" He continued.

"Like...make you fly...and pee yourself."

"What?" Powell asked. I held up a hand.

"Was she by herself?" I asked him. He shook his head.

"She always hangs out with those losers."

"Losers?" Dad looked at me. I nodded.

"Dustin Henderson, Mike Wheeler, Lucas Sinclair," I clarified, "And...me." His eyes widened. I grabbed his arm, pulling him away from them. "That's what I was going to tell you...the four of us found her in the woods, the night of the 6th and 7th. She's been in the Wheeler's basement ever since. Mike said yesterday that they got separated, but I guess they found her which...is probably, at this point in time...very bad." He nodded.

"We've gotta get to those kids." I nodded, taking off running down the hallway with Dad trailing behind me.

~~~

We parked up the road from the Wheeler's house, Dad armed with binoculars, and watched as Men in suits carried out boxes of stuff.

"I have to go home." Nancy said from beside us.

"No, you can't."

"My mom...my dad are there." She said.

"They're gonna be ok." She started towards the house, but Dad reached out, grabbing her arm.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey."

"Let go!" She exclaimed. "Let go!"

"Listen to me, listen to me, the last thing in the world we need is them knowing that you and Riley are mixed up in all this."

"Mike is over there-"

"Mike knew them coming was a possibility. He would've run." I said, stepping up beside her. "And not only is that girl more powerful than all of the men they could muster, clearly they haven't found him yet." I gestured towards the helicopter in the sky. 

"For Mike?!" She exclaimed. 

"Come on, get in the car." He forced Nancy and I back into the back seat before he and Joyce turned to face us. "Look, we need to find them before they do. Do either of you have any idea where he might have gone?"

"No, I don't!" She said.

"I need you to think."

"I don't know, we haven't talked alot." My eyes widened.

"I don't know where they are," I said, drawing everyone's gaze to me, "But I think I know how we can find out."

I began riffling around in my bag, pulling out the radio.

"But we need to get back to the Byers' house, the signal will be best from there, because I have a feeling they're in that area." I said.

~~~

We pulled up to the house at lightning speed and ran inside. I pulled up the antenna, beginning to speak.

"Mike? Are you there?" I said. "Mike, this is Riley, do you copy? Mike I need you to copy. Mike? This is an emergency." Dad took it from my hand, speaking into it.

"Listen kid, this is the Chief. If you're there, pick up. We know you're in trouble, and we know about the girl. We can protect you, we can help you, but you gotta pick up. Are you there? Do you copy over."

Static came through as we were met with silence once again. I took the radio back.

"This isn't a trick, ok?" I clarified. "The bad men, they're after us too, we're not being forced to say this, I promise. Do you copy?"

"Yeah, I copy." I let out a sigh of relief. "Its Mike. I'm here. We're here."

"El too?" I asked.

"Yeah, we're all here. We're hiding at the junkyard."

"Ok, just sit tight. We're coming for you. Just hang in there." I looked up at Dad.

"Let's go."

~~~

When we got there, there was two unmarked cars and three men in suits, with guns searching. One such man was opening the door of a rusted old bus, creeping up inside. I got out of the car, running over and slamming the handle of my gun as hard as I could into the base of his skull, knocking him unconscious.

"Hey, what-" I looked up just in time to see Dad punch the second man in the face.

"Hey! Stop-" I whirled around, bringing the gun across the third guy's face, knocking him out as well.

"I'm impressed." Dad said.

"Be impressed later." I climbed up onto the bus, tightening my ponytail as Dustin, Lucas, Mike, and Eleven stood up to greet me. "Hey kiddies. Let's get a move on, shall we?"