Cold air rushed in with Elias as he stepped into the Wheeler house, jacket half-zipped, a folded magazine tucked under his arm definetly stolen it from a waiting room.. He shut the door with his heel like he'd done it a hundred times before.
"Miss me?"
Karen Wheeler looked up from the counter and visibly stiffened.
"…You're late."
"Emotionally or chronologically?" he asked. "Because I'm guilty on both counts."
Her eyes moved over him despite herself quick, controlled, like she hated that her body answered faster than her judgment.
"They're downstairs."
"Good," he said lightly. "Because if I accidentally end up in your kitchen again alone, we're gonna have to pretend we're both mature adults. And I just ate gas station jerky. I'm not in the right headspace for growth."
"You're impossible," she muttered.
He smiled like that was the nicest thing anyone had said to him all day.
"I know. It's tragic."
For a second, neither of them moved, like they'd both hit the same memory at the same time.
Well Several memories to be exact.
Elias broke it first with a crooked half-smile.
"Anyway," he said lightly, tapping the magazine against his arm, "I'm here to retrieve my annoying younger brother before he becomes a warlock or whatever phase he's in this week."
Karen exhaled through her nose, a sound halfway between a sigh and a warning. "Dustin's downstairs. Where he's supposed to be."
"Shocking." He angled toward the hallway, then paused. "You doing okay?"
The question slipped out before he could dress it up as a joke.
She hesitated. Just a flicker. "I'm fine."
Elias studied her for half a second longer than he should have. Not smiling now. Not joking either.
"Yeah," he said finally. "You always are."
Her jaw tightened. "Don't start"
He lifted one hand in lazy surrender."That wasn't me starting anything," he said softly.
"I know," she said quickly. "And that's where it stays."
He raised two fingers like a lazy salute. "Scout's honor. Which I was never a part of. So legally meaningless, but emotionally sincere."
She didn't smile. "don't rile them up," she said.
Elias grinned like he absolutely planned to do exactly that.
"No promises"
He turned and headed for the basement.
"Oh and Elias," she added.
He glanced back.
"Don't stay long."
He grinned, again "I never do."
He turned with a lazy grin and took the stairs and didn't look back when he started up the stairs. That somehow made it worse for her.
His boots hit the steps in quick, careless rhythmm
"Wow," Elias said immediately. "You guys waited for me. I'm touched."
He grabbed the last slice and flopped onto the couch like he'd been there the whole night.
"ELIAS!" Dustin shouted, startled and thrilled at the same time.
"Hey, Dust-bucket."
Dustin beamed like he'd just leveled up in real life. "You made it!"
"Please," Elias said. "This is the highlight of my week."
"On tonight's episode of My Brother Makes Bad Life Choices," he said, glancing at the board, "what fresh mistake are we witnessing?"
"Will's about to get annihilated," Dustin said solemnly.
"Ah," Elias nodded. "A classic."
The dice bounced and skittered across the table.
Dustin leaned forward like his whole spine was invested in the outcome.
Will didn't breathe.
Mike stared at the number.
"…That's a two."
Dustin slammed both hands on the table. "NO. That's statistically illegal."
Lucas snorted. "It's called consequences."
Will swallowed. "What does that mean."
Mike hesitated just a fraction too long.
"The Demogorgon gets you."
Silence dropped into the basement.
Dustin looked at Will. Then at Mike. "You're just saying that because he didn't let you borrow his Ghostbusters tape."
Mike opened his mouth to argue
Elias spoke first.
"Hold on." He leaned forward from the couch, elbows on his knees. "Before we emotionally bury Will, I'd like to point out that this campaign already killed Dustin twice and Lucas once."
"That was different," Mike said.
"Was it, though?" Elias tilted his head. "Because from where I'm sitting, this seems like a targeted attack on Byers family morale."
Will forced a smile. It didn't quite stick.
Mike cleared his throat. "Your character is unconscious. Bleeding out."
Dustin exhaled slowly. "So...not dead?"
Elias snapped his fingers. "See? Optimism. The real superpower."
Upstairs, a voice called out that it was late.
The spell broke.
Chairs scraped. Dice were gathered. Jackets pulled on.
As Will packed his bag, Elias watched him quietly.
"You want a ride?" Elias asked.
Will blinked. "You don't usually drive us."
"Yeah, well," Elias said lightly, "I got a bad feeling and an even worse sleep schedule."
Dustin's head snapped up. "Shotgun."
Elias didn't argue.
Outside, the cold hit them all at once.
Lucas zipped his jacket up to his chin. "I hate Indiana."
"You hate Indiana because Indiana hates joy," Dustin said, already jogging toward the car.
Elias fished his keys out lazily. "False. Indiana loves joy. Indiana only hates us specifically. It's personal you'll get it when you're older."
The Charger unlocked with a soft click.
Mike stood on the porch waving halfheartedly while Lucas and Will followed Dustin down the steps. Elias clicked the Charger open and Dustin lunged for the front seat like it was a prize.
"I CALLED IT," Dustin shouted, slamming the door shut.
"You called it inside," Lucas said. "Which doesn't count."
Elias leaned over the roof. "It absolutely counts. This is a lawless society."
Lucas shook his head and climbed into the back beside Will.
Elias waited until the doors were shut, then turned the key. The engine growled to life. He flicked the radio on out of habit, and after a second of static, the opening riff of You Shook Me All Night Long blasted through the speakers.
"YES," Dustin said instantly. "Good song."
"I raised you right," Elias said, one hand on the wheel.
Lucas leaned back with a long, suffering sigh. "I hate it here."
Will flinched a little at the volume, then relaxed when Elias turned it down just a notch. He kept watching the dark slide past the window.
"My brother used to play this really loud," Will said quietly.
Elias smirked at the rearview mirror.
"He learned from the best"
Will actually looked up at that. Just for a second.
Dustin gasped. "WAIT pyou corrupted Jonathan too?!"
"Educated," Elias corrected. "There's a difference."
Lucas muttered, "Debatable."
For a moment, the laughter lingered in the car.
Elias drummed his fingers against the wheel in time with the music. The road unspooled ahead of them in narrow yellow lines, streetlights blinking past like tired eyes.
Dustin leaned his elbow on the window. "So, what'd I miss while I was saving the kingdom tonight?"
Lucas snorted. "Besides getting absolutely wrecked?"
"Besides heroically struggling," Dustin corrected.
Elias nodded. "Ah yes. While you fought monsters, I battled grease, dishes, and the crushing weight of adulthood. I lost on all fronts."
For a few seconds after that, nobody spoke.
The song kept playing. The engine kept humming. Houses slid past in quiet rows, windows dark, lawns pale under the streetlights.
Lucas leaned forward between the seats. "You're taking the long way again."
Elias tilted his head. "You saying you don't trust me?"
"Yes," Lucas said immediately.
Elias laughed. "Fair."
Will's breath fogged the glass beside him.
Lucas shifted in his seat. "It's weird how quiet it gets out here."
"It's nighttime," Dustin said. "That's how night works."
"No, I mean," Lucas said, glancing out, "it's like… quiet-quiet."
Elias flicked his eyes to the side mirror, then the rearview.
"Relax," he said. "If the dark was gonna get us, it would've done it by now."
The radio crackled once just a burst of static then the song snapped back in.
Will flinched at the sound.
Elias turned the volume down without looking.
A few streets later, Lucas's house came into view, porch light glowing like a checkpoint.
Elias slowed.
"Your stop," he said.
Lucas grabbed his bag. "Try not to kill each other."
"No promises," Dustin said.
Lucas paused at the door. "And Will"
Will looked up.
"…See you tomorrow," Lucas said.
Will nodded. "Yeah."
The door shut. Footsteps faded.
Now there were only three.
until Elias smacked his ankle back down.
"So, Will's next," Dustin said.
"Yeah," Elias answered.
Will had gone quiet again. He sat with his bag in his lap, fingers curled tight around the strap, eyes on the strip of road in front of them like it was something he had to get through, not just over.
The song on the radio rolled into the next verse. Elias turned it down a notch, just enough that they could hear each other without shouting.
"You good back there, Byers?" Elias asked, lighter than the question really was.
Will nodded automatically. "Yeah. Just tired."
"You always say that," Dustin said.
"I'm always tired," Will replied.
That got a small snort out of Elias. "Mood."
They took the turn onto Will's street. Fewer houses. More trees. The Byers place sat near the end, porch light already on, a little circle of yellow in all the dark.
Elias eased the car to the curb and let it idle.
"Alright," he said. "Home sweet home."
Will didn't move right away. Then he unbuckled, shifting his bag onto his shoulder.
"Thanks for the ride," he said.
"Anytime," Elias replied.
Dustin twisted in his seat. "See you tomorrow. And if anything tries to eat you, yell really loud."
Will actually smiled at that. Small, but real. "Yeah. Okay."
He pushed the door open. Cold air slid in, sharp on their faces. Will stepped out, shut the door gently behind him, and started across the yard.
Halfway to the porch, he glanced back.
Elias lifted two fingers off the wheel in a lazy little salute.
Will nodded once, then went up the steps. The door opened. Light from inside spilled out for a second, then vanished as it closed again.
The porch light stayed on.
Elias watched it. Just a beat too long.
Dustin cleared his throat. "You spacing out or...?"
Elias blinked, like he'd snapped back into his body. "Neither. Your turn, gremlin."
He pulled the car away from the curb. The Byers house slipped out of the mirror like it had never been there.
By the time they rolled into their own driveway, the song had ended and another had started, something quieter, mostly lost under the engine.
The headlights washed over the Henderson porch just in time to catch the front door swinging open.
"DUSTIN HENDERSON!"
Dustin flinched. "Oh no."
"And ELIAS JAMES HENDERSON!"
Elias winced. "There it is. Full government name."
Their mom stood in the doorway in her robe, arms folded, hair pinned up like she'd tried to go to bed and failed.
"Out," she said. "Now."
Dustin slid out of the car like he was stepping into enemy fire. Elias took his time, closing the door with exaggerated care.
"In our defense," he started.
"There is no defense," she snapped. "Do you know what time it is?"
"Late?" Elias guessed.
"Too late," she said. "You said ten. It is almost midnight. I called Mike's house. Twice."
Dustin shrank a little. "We were just finishing the campaign…"
"I don't care if you were finishing the Bible," she said. "You tell me where you are. You come home when you say you're coming home. I am not going to bed wondering if you're in a ditch."
She looked between both of them, anger and relief twisted together.
"Understood?"
"Yes, ma'am," Elias said.
"Yeah," Dustin added quickly. "Sorry, Mom."
She sighed, some of the fight leaving her shoulders. "Go inside. Brushing teeth. Bed. We'll talk about this tomorrow."
Dustin didn't need to be told twice. He darted past her.
Elias moved slower, stepping up onto the porch.
Their mom lowered her voice. "You're older. He follows you. You know that."
Elias met her eyes for a second, all the jokes gone. "I know."
"Then act like it," she said, but softer now.
He nodded and went inside.
The front door shut behind Elias.
Inside the house, voices kept going Dustin arguing with their mom about toothpaste, the TV clicking on in the living room, normal stuff.
Across town, a motorcycle cut through the dark.
The rider rode low over the handlebars, jacket zipped to the throat, hair tucked back under her helmet. A guitar case was strapped tight against her back. The bike wasn't new, but it was solid. She liked it that way.
She passed the Hawkins town sign without slowing.
The roads felt smaller here than she remembered. Too many trees. Too many houses packed close together. The kind of place where everybody noticed everybody else.
She didn't like that.
She rolled off the throttle a few blocks from the police station and let the bike coast in quiet. Killed the engine at the corner. Took the helmet off and shook her hair loose.
Old brick building. Two cruisers out front.
Same place.
She walked the bike to the curb and locked it. Slung the guitar case higher on her shoulder and headed for the door.
Inside, the station was quiet except for the buzz of the lights and the scrape of a chair somewhere in the back. the station looked exactly how she expected it to...just smaller than she remembered.
She stood just past the doorway and waited for someone to notice.
Jim Hopper was standing at the counter with a mug in his hand, half-listening to a dispatcher talk. He looked tired.
He glanced up.
The mug stopped halfway to his mouth.
For a second, he just stared.
"You've got to be kidding me."
She tilted her head. "That bad?"
He set the mug down slowly. "What are you doing here."
"Passing through," she said.
"That's a lie."
She almost smiled.
He looked her over boots, jacket, helmet in her hand, the guitar case on her back. Not judging. Checking.
"How long?"
She shrugged. "Depends..."