Will POV
I had stopped asking what Erica was doing hours ago.
Mostly because every time I thought I understood, she did something else.
She had moved furniture.
Raided cupboards.
Dragged things across the floor that looked at least twice her size, until I remembered that physical strength apparently didn't matter much when you could move things with your mind.
Now she was crouched beside one of the windows, tying something together with the same concentration Mike usually reserved for a particularly complicated Dungeons & Dragons campaign.
I watched from where she'd told me to sit.
Not asked.
Ordered.
The house didn't look like Steve Harrington's house anymore.
Well, it did.
Just… if Erica had been inspired by the film Home Alone and decided to remodel the entire house into a fortress.
Which, I supposed, she had.
"What does that one do?" I finally asked.
Outside, some bizarre labyrinth of Christmas lights, extension cords, ropes, bells and alarm clocks stretched between the house and the edge of the woods.
Erica didn't look up.
"Warning."
I looked towards the window.
"For what?"
"If something comes through the woods."
I stared at her.
"And the chairs?"
"Delay."
"The stuff by the door?"
"Also delay."
I hesitated.
"And that?"
I didn't even know how to describe that.
There were knives. Lots of knives. Something that looked suspiciously like spikes. A baseball bat with nails hammered through it, tied to a rope hanging by the door.
I could smell gasoline too.
And what exactly had she done to the TV?
This time, Erica looked up.
"Don't touch that."
I immediately lowered my hand.
I hadn't even realised I'd been reaching towards it.
Erica returned to what she was doing.
I slowly pulled my hand back into my lap.
Right.
Don't touch anything.
That seemed like a good rule.
I watched her work.
There was something strange about it.
Not the traps.
Well, those were strange too.
It was the way she moved between them.
She never seemed to hesitate.
Every chair she dragged into place had a reason. Every object she moved ended up somewhere specific. She'd checked the doors. The windows. The hallway. The stairs.
She'd even made me walk through the route we were supposed to take if something got inside.
Twice.
The first time, I'd gone the wrong way.
I'm pretty sure I would've gotten myself killed if Erica hadn't pulled me back.
After that, Erica made me go through it a second time, just to be safe.
She wasn't trying to make the house impossible to enter.
She was trying to know when something entered and how long it would take to reach us.
And if one of those things got inside…
She wanted to slow it down.
Just for a few seconds.
Long enough for us to run.
Or long enough for her to kill it.
My eyes dropped to her hand.
Telekinesis.
Even thinking the word felt strange.
I'd read about things like that before.
People moving things with their minds. Bending spoons without touching them. Throwing things across rooms.
Comic-book stuff.
Not Erica Sinclair stuff.
Except apparently it was Erica Sinclair stuff now.
I looked at her again.
She was tying something near the bottom of another window.
A couple of months.
She'd been able to do it for a couple of months.
And hadn't told anyone.
Not Lucas.
Not Mike.
Not Dustin.
Not me.
Not even her parents.
I still didn't know how I felt about that.
I understood why she'd been scared.
At least, I thought I did.
But Erica had been sitting across from all of us this entire time knowing she could do something impossible, and none of us had noticed.
I wondered how many times she'd almost told Lucas.
Probably a lot.
They fought sometimes.
Most brothers and sisters did.
But I knew Lucas loved her.
Erica knew it too.
She'd admitted that.
That hadn't been why she'd kept it secret.
Because knowing puts you in danger.
I looked down.
I didn't like that part.
Especially because she had said my name.
Lucas.
Her parents.
You.
She thought someone might hurt me just because I knew what she could do.
And now I did know.
Strangely, that wasn't the part bothering me most.
My eyes moved back to Erica.
She had stood up and was testing one of the windows now, pushing against it before checking whatever she'd attached beside it.
She looked tired.
I hadn't really noticed before.
Well, that wasn't completely true.
I'd noticed things.
Erica always seemed restless, like she needed to be somewhere else or had something she needed to do. Whenever I asked about it, though, she'd brush me off like it was nothing.
I'd tried to be there for her. Quietly, without pushing. I really had. Even if she'd never actually told me what was wrong.
And Lucas had mentioned it once before. How she wasn't sleeping enough anymore.
I could see it now.
The dark circles under her eyes. They'd always been there, if you actually paid attention.
I just hadn't paid enough attention.
Not really.
Looking at her now, I wondered how long she'd been this tired.
Maybe it was because everything since she'd found me had happened so fast.
The library.
Running.
The monsters.
Her powers.
This house.
There hadn't been much time to notice anything.
But she looked exhausted.
And she still hadn't stopped.
"Erica?"
"Hmm?"
"You know you can sit down, right?"
She glanced at me.
"So can the Demogorgons, but I doubt any of them are going to take a break anytime soon. I think I'll pass on sitting down, Will."
I frowned.
"That doesn't even make sense."
"It made perfect sense to me."
She went back to the window.
I stared at her.
Then I almost smiled.
Almost.
Because something she'd said earlier came back to me.
I wish I could just be normal again without the weight of everything on my shoulders.
She'd sounded angry when she said it.
Not at me.
At everything.
Then she'd gone quiet.
And for a moment, she'd looked…
I wasn't sure.
Sad wasn't the right word.
She wasn't scared either.
Just tired.
Really tired.
She had this faraway look in her eyes, as if she were longing for something impossible.
Like whatever she was carrying had been there for much longer than she'd ever admitted.
I didn't understand that.
She'd only had the powers for a couple of months.
At least, that's what she'd told me.
But those months must have been really difficult for her.
Maybe she was thinking about the laboratory.
Or the girl.
Eleven.
I still wasn't sure whether that was actually a name.
Maybe Erica was scared that what had happened to Eleven could happen to her too.
The Erica I remembered had always been loud and sassy. Cheerful. Carefree. The kind of girl who always had something to say.
She was still like that sometimes.
But something had changed.
Now she was always thinking ahead. Watching. Planning. Preparing for something to go wrong before it even happened.
Trained, she'd said.
And knowing Erica, I could believe she'd spent the last few months teaching herself everything she could think of. Anything that might help her survive if something happened.
And with how smart she was, I didn't even know how much she'd managed to learn.
The thought was actually a little terrifying.
Maybe that was what being afraid of the laboratory had done to her.
I didn't know.
I just knew she hadn't always been like this.
She didn't even seem like a kid anymore.
Not really.
She worried about things before they happened. Knew what to do when even an adult probably would've panicked. Even now, she was moving around the house like stopping for five minutes was somehow more dangerous than everything she'd built outside.
And yet, somehow, she still worried about everyone else before herself.
Erica had promised she'd go back for Eleven.
Of course she had.
She'd come into this nightmare looking for me.
I was glad she had. I didn't even want to think about what would've happened if she hadn't.
And Eleven was alone.
If she was anything like what Erica had described, then she needed someone to go back for her too.
I knew that.
I knew Erica was doing the right thing.
But sitting there, watching her move around the house even though she looked like she could barely keep going, I couldn't stop thinking about what doing the right thing was doing to her.
She'd already walked into this nightmare for me.
Now she was going back for someone else.
And after that?
Would there always be someone else?
Someone else she had to save?
Someone else she'd decide was worth risking herself for?
I was proud of her for that. For caring enough to help people even when she didn't have to.
My mum had always taught me that if you could help someone, you should.
I believed that.
But surely that didn't mean you had to get yourself hurt every time.
Because Erica did.
She'd done it for me.
And I had the horrible feeling she'd do it again.
For anyone.
I didn't know how to explain why that scared me.
It just did.
Looking at her now, I wondered how long she could keep doing this.
I looked towards the window.
The dead woods stretched beyond the glass.
I remembered how scared I'd been out there. Alone. Being chased.
Desperately singing my favourite song under my breath, trying to comfort myself while sobbing as quietly as I could.
I remembered waking up in the library.
Erica's face above me.
She was shouting at me to breathe.
I remembered running after her through this place.
I remembered telling her to leave me behind.
And I remembered exactly how she'd looked at me.
Like I'd just said the stupidest thing she'd ever heard.
She could have left me.
That thought had occurred to me before.
It feels different now.
Erica had known what lived here.
The monster had come for her. She could have killed it and stayed safe in Hawkins.
Instead, she'd let it drag her into this place for the tiny possibility that I might still be alive somewhere inside it.
She'd known how dangerous that was.
She'd known she could die.
And she'd come anyway.
For me.
I swallowed.
I didn't know what to do with that.
We hadn't even been that close before.
Not really.
We'd only really become friends a couple of months ago.
It wasn't like with Mike, Lucas and Dustin. I'd known them for years.
Erica had always just been Lucas's little sister.
Before, she was around because Lucas was around.
Sometimes she joined us.
Sometimes she didn't.
And, if I was being completely honest, I'd sometimes thought she was annoying.
Bossy.
Really bossy.
I looked at the barricaded doorway.
Apparently that hadn't changed.
But after actually getting to know her, I'd realised that half the time she was annoying Lucas on purpose just because she thought his reactions were funny.
And somewhere along the way, she'd started looking out for me too.
She'd protected me from bullies.
Now she'd protected me from monsters.
Which was a little embarrassing, considering she was younger than me.
But she'd come for me.
That was the part I couldn't stop thinking about.
We'd only been friends for a couple of months.
And apparently, to Erica, that had been enough.
Enough to walk into this place knowing she might never walk back out.
Not Mike.
Not Lucas.
Not Dustin.
Erica.
And somehow, while I hadn't been paying attention, Lucas's little sister had become someone who could walk into a nightmare and drag me back out of it.
Someone who could kill monsters.
Someone who was basically a superhero.
Someone who apparently spied on the government.
I still couldn't believe that one.
And somehow, she was also still Erica.
That might have been the strangest part.
I'd flinched.
My stomach twisted whenever I thought about it.
I wished I hadn't.
I hadn't meant it the way she'd thought.
I hadn't looked at her and seen a monster.
I'd looked at her and seen Erica raise her hand.
Then something that had been about to kill us had stopped in the air.
Its bones had broken.
One after another.
And my brain simply hadn't known what to do with that.
Then she'd reached towards me.
And I'd hesitated.
For one horrible second, my brain had told me to get away.
Some stupid, terrified part of me had wondered if a monster in this place had somehow tricked me.
If the girl standing in front of me wasn't really Erica anymore.
It didn't make sense.
I know that now.
It lasted maybe a second.
Maybe less.
But she'd seen it.
Of course she'd seen it.
Erica seemed to notice everything.
And after everything she'd done for me, I'd flinched away from her.
I hated that.
I looked at her again.
She was standing on the other side of the room now, studying what she'd done with her hands planted on her hips.
She looked like Erica.
She was bossy like Erica.
She'd refused to leave me behind like Erica.
Because she was Erica.
Powers didn't change that.
I wasn't afraid of her.
I was sure about that.
Confused?
Yes.
A little overwhelmed?
Extremely.
Still trying to understand how Erica Sinclair had apparently been living some secret life right under all our noses?
Absolutely.
But afraid of her?
No.
Maybe I just needed to prove that.
Not by saying it again.
I'd already tried that.
She hadn't believed me.
Or maybe she had.
I wasn't sure.
Erica was difficult like that.
My eyes travelled across the room.
All the traps were arranged according to some plan that apparently existed entirely inside Erica's head.
"What happens if none of this works?"
Erica stopped.
For the first time in several minutes, she didn't immediately answer.
Then she looked at me.
"We run."
I waited.
"That's it?"
"That's it."
"And if it follows us?"
Her expression didn't change.
"Then I make sure it follows me."
My stomach dropped.
"No."
Erica blinked.
"No?"
"No."
"Will—"
"You're not doing that."
A crease appeared between her eyebrows.
"If it comes down to you or me—"
"No."
"Would you stop saying no?"
"No."
"Will, I'm the only one who knows where every trap is and how to use them."
She stared at me.
I stared back.
For once, I didn't look away.
Something almost offended crossed Erica's face.
"I came all the way into this place to keep you alive."
"I know."
"And I'd rather not have to do anything drastic to make sure you stay that way. It would be terribly inconvenient."
"Then don't."
Her mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
I felt the smallest spark of satisfaction.
Finally,
I'd managed to shut Erica Sinclair up.
It lasted about two seconds.
"That's not how this works."
"Why not?"
"Because if something happens, I have these powers. I can actually fight it."
"And I can't."
"Exactly."
I frowned.
"That doesn't mean you get to die."
"I wasn't planning on dying."
"You just said you'd make it follow you!"
"To give you time to get away."
"And then what?"
Erica paused.
I waited.
She looked annoyed now.
Good.
I was annoyed too.
"And then," she said carefully, "I will deal with it and find you. I will be right behind you."
"And if you can't?"
Silence.
There.
That was the part she didn't want to answer.
I knew it.
Erica knew I knew it.
Her eyes narrowed.
"You ask too many questions."
"You told me I could."
"I am beginning to regret that decision."
I held her gaze.
After a moment, Erica looked away.
"I'm not planning on dying, Will."
Her voice was quieter that time.
I believed her.
Or at least, I believed that she meant it.
I wasn't sure that was the same thing.
"Good," I said.
Erica glanced at me.
"Because I'm not explaining to Lucas that his little sister got eaten by a Demogorgon saving me."
She stared at me.
Then, despite everything, a tiny smile appeared on her face.
"Fair."
I smiled back.
For a moment, neither of us said anything.
Then Erica turned towards the window again.
I watched her check the line she'd attached there.
Once.
Twice.
Then she moved towards the next one.
Still preparing.
Still planning.
Still refusing to stop.
I leaned back carefully.
I didn't understand Erica.
Not completely.
Maybe I never had.
But for those few moments, I felt like she'd lowered the walls around herself just enough to let me see a part of her she normally kept hidden from everyone.
And somehow, she'd let me get close enough to see the real her.
Eventually, Erica stopped.
I wasn't entirely sure what had convinced her.
Maybe she'd finally run out of things in Steve Harrington's house to turn into traps.
She stood in the middle of the room for a moment, staring around at everything she'd built.
Her eyes moved from the windows to the doors.
Then towards the hallway.
Then back to the windows.
"Done?" I asked.
Erica narrowed her eyes.
"For now."
I'd expected that answer.
"Good."
She looked at me suspiciously.
"Why do you sound so happy about that?"
"Because now you can sleep."
"No."
Of course.
I sighed.
"Erica."
"Someone needs to keep watch."
"I know."
"And if one of the alarms goes off while we're both asleep, we're dead."
"I know."
"So I'm taking the first watch."
"Not happening."
Erica blinked.
I almost enjoyed that.
Apparently she wasn't the only one who could leave people dumbfounded.
"What do you mean, no?"
"I mean I'm taking the first watch."
"You need to sleep."
"So do you."
"I've been resting for hours."
"You were unconscious."
"After that. You've had me sitting here doing nothing while you turned Steve's entire house into a death trap."
"A fortress."
"Whatever."
Erica folded her arms.
"You're still recovering."
"And you're exhausted."
"I'm fine."
"No, you're not."
Her eyes narrowed.
I didn't care.
Not this time.
"You said you can't use your powers too much, right?"
Erica hesitated.
"Yes."
"And when you use them too much, you get tired."
"That's not exactly—"
"You got a nosebleed."
"That happens every time."
"And you nearly collapsed after fighting those things."
"I did not nearly collapse."
"You stumbled."
"I tripped."
"There was nothing there."
Erica stared at me.
"I've had to fight practically an army of those things since I got here."
"That doesn't make it better."
"It explains the stumbling."
"You said you tripped."
Erica went quiet.
I almost smiled.
Got her.
Erica stared at me.
I stared back.
"So if another Demogorgon comes," I continued, "you're the one who has to fight it."
"Yes."
"And you need energy to use your powers."
"…Yes."
"So how are you supposed to protect me if you don't have enough energy?"
Erica opened her mouth.
Then stopped.
I waited.
Nothing.
I felt another tiny spark of satisfaction.
That was twice.
"You need to recharge them or something," I said.
Erica's expression did something strange.
"Recharge?"
"Like batteries."
"My powers are not batteries."
"Well, they need energy."
"Yes."
"And sleeping gives you energy."
"Yes, but—"
"So sleep."
"Will."
"What?"
"You're being annoying."
"So are you."
Erica looked genuinely offended by that.
I almost smiled.
Then I noticed her trying not to yawn again.
My smile disappeared.
"When was the last time you slept?"
Erica went very still.
I frowned.
"Erica?"
"I sleep."
"That wasn't what I asked."
"I slept recently."
"When?"
She looked towards the window.
I followed her gaze.
There was absolutely nothing there.
I looked back at her.
"When?"
"Before I came here."
"That doesn't answer the question."
"It answers it perfectly well."
"No, it doesn't."
Erica sighed.
"Will—"
"When did you last sleep?"
She was quiet.
Too quiet.
My stomach tightened.
"Erica."
"I don't know."
"What do you mean, you don't know?"
"I mean I don't know exactly."
"How long?"
Another pause.
"Not that long."
"How long?"
Erica suddenly seemed extremely interested in one of the ropes she'd tied across the room.
I sat forward.
"Erica."
"More than a day ago."
My eyes widened.
"What?"
"It's fine."
"No, it's not!"
"Keep your voice down."
"How much more than a day?"
She didn't answer.
I stared at her.
Then something clicked.
"Two days?"
Silence.
"Three days?"
She looked around awkwardly.
My mouth fell open.
"Erica!"
"Probably."
"Probably?!"
"I wasn't exactly keeping track!"
"More than seventy-two hours?"
"I was busy!"
I couldn't believe her.
Actually, no.
That wasn't true.
After everything I'd learned about Erica today, somehow this was completely believable.
"You haven't slept in three days."
"I've had things to do."
"You haven't slept in three days!"
"You already said that."
"Because that's insane!"
"Will—"
"No."
There it was again.
That crease between her eyebrows.
I didn't care.
"You're sleeping."
"I can take the first watch."
"No."
"You don't know what you're watching for."
"You showed me."
"That isn't the same thing."
"You showed me the alarms. You showed me the escape route. You told me not to touch anything. If something makes noise, I will wake you up."
"And if you don't wake me up fast enough?"
"Then all those traps you spent hours making slow it down."
Erica didn't answer.
I pointed towards the windows.
"That's why you made them."
Still nothing.
"And I've been resting," I continued. "You haven't. I'm not even tired anymore."
That wasn't completely true.
I was tired.
But compared with Erica?
I felt wide awake.
"You need your powers more than I need to sleep right now."
Her expression shifted.
I knew I'd got her.
"So I'm taking the first watch," I stated again.
Erica stared at me for a long moment.
Then she sighed.
A long, defeated sigh.
"Fine."
I blinked.
That had been easier than expected.
Then she pointed at me.
"But you stay on the sofa."
"I was planning to."
"You do not go outside."
"I know."
"You do not investigate anything."
"I know."
"If you hear anything—anything—you wake me up."
"I know."
"If one of the alarms goes off—"
"I wake you up."
"If you see something through the window—"
"I wake you up."
"And you don't touch any of the traps."
"I know."
"Especially the one near the television."
I looked towards it.
"What does that one actually do?"
"You don't need to know."
That wasn't reassuring.
At all.
Erica walked towards the sofa.
Then stopped.
She looked back at the windows.
I watched her eyes move over everything again.
Checking.
Always checking.
"Erica."
"I know."
She finally sat down.
I sat beside her.
Erica reached for her bow and placed it across her lap.
"You're supposed to sleep."
"I am."
"You're holding a bow."
"So?"
"So you don't need a bow to sleep."
"You don't know that."
I stared at her.
She stared back.
I decided this wasn't worth another argument.
"Fine."
Erica shifted against the cushions.
For a few moments, she continued staring towards the window.
Then her eyes moved towards the door.
Then the hallway.
Then back to the window.
I waited.
"Are you actually going to sleep?"
"Yes."
"Your eyes are open."
"I'm getting comfortable."
"You've been getting comfortable for five minutes."
"It has not been five minutes."
I sighed.
Then leaned back against the sofa.
The house was silent around us.
Outside, the dead woods stretched into darkness.
Nothing moved.
Nothing rang.
Nothing screamed.
For once, nothing seemed to be coming for us.
I looked sideways.
Erica's eyes were still open.
"You know," I said quietly, "you built all those alarms for a reason."
"I know."
"So maybe trust them."
She didn't answer.
"Just for a little while."
Her eyes finally moved towards me.
I gave her a small smile.
"I've got you."
Something changed in her expression.
I wasn't sure what.
Erica looked away.
Then, finally, she let her head fall back against the sofa.
"Wake me immediately."
"I will."
"I mean it."
"I know."
"Just three hours. Then wake me up and we'll switch."
"It's not enough…"
I stopped when she glared at me.
That look told me everything I needed to know.
She wasn't going to sleep unless I compromised.
"Fine. Three hours."
Erica's expression softened slightly.
I kept the rest of the plan to myself.
I could just let her sleep.
She wouldn't even know.
Every clock in this place was frozen, and the sky never changed. There was no sunrise. No sunset. Nothing to tell us how much time had passed.
If Erica slept for five hours instead of three, how would she know?
Or maybe six.
I glanced at her.
After everything she'd done for me, I figured I was allowed to lie about the time just once.
"And don't—"
"Erica."
She stopped.
I waited.
Her eyes closed.
"Fine."
Silence settled over us.
I kept my eyes on the windows.
A minute passed.
Maybe two.
Then I felt something touch my shoulder.
I looked down.
Erica's head had slipped sideways against me.
I froze.
She didn't move.
Her breathing had already become slow and even.
I stared at her.
That fast?
Then again…
Almost seventy-two hours.
I looked at the dark circles beneath her eyes.
Carefully, without moving her too much, I reached for the blanket beside us and pulled it over her.
Erica shifted closer in her sleep.
I stayed still until she settled again.
Then I looked back towards the windows.
Nothing.
No bells.
No alarms.
No monsters.
Just the dead woods beyond the glass.
I adjusted myself against the sofa, careful not to wake her.
My eyes remained fixed on the windows.
For the first time since Erica had found me, our roles had reversed.
She was sleeping.
I was watching.
I tightened the blanket around her slightly.
She had come into this place for me.
She had fought for me.
She had kept me alive.
For the next few hours, at least, she didn't have to do anything.
I would watch.
And Erica could finally rest.