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Harry thought that they really might find Will Byers in the woods. He had a strong feeling about it, a feeling that there was someone in the woods - someone who shouldn't be there.
Not one of Them, it didn't feel like that. It felt different, friendlier.
Everyone had divided up in the woods, which Harry hadn't been thrilled about. It wasn't dark when they met at the park where Jonathan wanted to enter the woods, but Harry knew it would be once they were surrounded by trees.
It was probably embarrassing, Harry was too old for it, but he didn't like the dark, didn't like the idea of wandering in the dark woods without Siri with him. Anything could happen in the dark, anything could happen if they weren't together.
"We'll cover more ground if we split up," Billy had suggested. There were five of them… Harry didn't want to split up.
"Figures," Steve scoffed, kicking a rock and sending it sailing across the lot.
"What's that mean, Harrington?" Billy asked.
"You're not here to help find Will! You're just here to be a dick!"
"No, no, you're right. I forgot that you're here out of the goodness of your soft little heart."
"How about everyone shuts the hell up and we just look for my brother?" Jonathan yelled over the two that were arguing.
Billy said they should split up and Harry already knew what was going to happen. Siri would want to go with Billy and —
"Unless you'd rather be a third-wheel?"
Harry had stopped listening after Jonathan yelled until someone pushed his shoulder. Nudged it. Steve had nudged Harry's shoulder with his and looked at him like Harry was meant to say something.
"Okay," Harry said. It was an easy answer, as much of a lie as Siri's ‘fine' was.
It made Steve grin and Harry tried it out briefly, then Siri left with Billy and Jonathan was already in the woods and Harry didn't warn any of them that there was definitely someone - something - in the woods.
The dark woods.
Just as Harry had suspected, it seemed as if the large trees blocked out the light almost immediately. Steve steered them to the left and Harry shook his head, trusting his own magic than he did Steve.
"This way," Harry said, pointing directly ahead of them. The last time he had been in the woods he accidentally ended up in Steve's back lawn, but he had felt something. It wasn't Will Byers, but it had been something.
Steve didn't seem to have a problem with Harry taking the lead even though Harry's direction took them deeper in the woods until all they could hear were each others footsteps.
Harry felt hot, he was burning with a deep want to hide from the dark, hide from Siri's absence. She rode in Billy's car, she wanted to walk with Billy. Harry wanted to see her, grab her hand, keep his eye on her.
All he had was magic, magic he spread out in the woods. It flowed so easily, a drop of water in an ocean, until he could feel everyone in the woods.
There were the warm sparks that were Steve, Billy, and Jonathan. A spark that warmed the corner of Harry's chest where Siri stayed. Then another spark - sharper, hotter. It felt like magic, that was all he was sure of.
They weren't sharp and hot, they were cold, like ice driving itself in Harry's throat. The person - thing? - in the woods behind Steve's house had been entirely different. Harry didn't have a good comparison for it, he thought it was magic, but not human.
A creature of some sort? Something else created in the labs where Harry had been? He didn't know.
Harry knew he had to pay attention, be alert. It didn't matter if it was dark, there was someone in the woods. It didn't matter if Siri was with Billy and Harry thought everything was falling apart too quickly to save.
Everything was slipping away and Harry wanted to go with it, couldn't.
"You play basketball," Harry said to Steve, trying to stay alert, awake, present. It wasn't the time to slip away, not yet. Not in the dark woods when Harry could sense the thrum of someone who didn't belong.
Steve talked about basketball a lot, sometimes Harry listened. Harry would listen if he would talk then, give Harry some noise to force him away from the comfort of his own mind.
"I - yeah, I play," Steve said, staring at Harry again. "I don't think it's going to help us find clues or Will?"
Harry thought it might. Harry was more useful awake, more dangerous, and he needed to stay alert. He needed to keep following the steady thrum.
Then he could leave the woods, never enter them again.
"What position do you play?" Harry asked, thinking of quidditch. Harry didn't know if basketball would be the same at all, but it looked similar.
Two teams, two hoops to put a ball through. There was a timer for the game, no broomsticks. It seemed safer, less interesting.
Steve was good at it, Harry thought. He played during gym with the others on the basketball team while Harry, Jonathan, and a few others had to walk laps around the gym. It was boring, easy, and Harry had seen Steve with the basketball.
He was good at it, maybe not better than Billy, Harry couldn't be sure. Siri was a great seeker, Harry was a better flier. Maybe Billy was a great basketball thrower and Steve was a better basketball bouncer.
Dribbler?
Basketball didn't make as much sense as quidditch.
"I'm a point guard," Steve said. There was something in his voice when he talked about basketball, an energy that matched his always moving hands. "I'll be captain next year too, Coach already promised it to me. Hargrove keeps going on about being captain, but the guy has been suspended twice and it's only November…"
Harry had to listen, really listen, to Steve talk about the different positions on a basketball team while they walked. It still didn't make any sense to Harry, but it was enough to use Steve's voice like he would have used Siri's hand if he wasn't slowly losing his sister again.
It hadn't hurt so much at Hogwarts, Harry didn't appreciate Siri as much then. Harry always loved her, she was his forever best friend, but Theo had been his best friend too and Siri had her own friends and things to do.
Harry was alone in Hawkins, watching from a distance he couldn't cross as Siri began to be Siri again and everyone loved her. People liked Siri, she was funny and kind and knew what to say to make people like her.
Harry wanted Siri to be happy again, to smile and laugh and have a sparkle in her eyes. It - Harry wished they were more alike. That was all.
"We should have brought a flashlight, I can't see a damn thing," Steve said when they were close - so close - to the thing Harry could feel.
Harry thought about the note in his pocket, the way his feet kept catching roots and sticks on the ground.
"Me either," he agreed. Harry could sense something, something close, but it was dark and Harry could barely see Steve right beside him. And Steve was right beside Harry.
Right beside him.
"Are we friends?" Harry asked, forcing himself to take another step toward the thrumming. He was so close to whatever he was searching for… He hoped it was Will, he imagined that Will was scared and alone and wanted his brother. He didn't think it was though, he had met Will before, he didn't cause a tingle that felt like magic and danger rolled together.
Harry was dangerous, the person he searched for was dangerous, powerful.
"I… yeah, I think so." Steve bumped his shoulder against Harry's again - he did that, bumped Harry. It wasn't awful, it was better in the daylight when Harry saw it coming. Even when he didn't, it wasn't awful.
"Why?" Steve asked. "Or was that like your way of saying we aren't?"
"If I wanted to say we aren't friends, I would say it," Harry said instead of trying to explain the unexplainable. It was because he had been thinking of Theo a lot through the day, probably. Harry had been thinking of Theo and Siri was making friends and Harry - sometimes it was lonely, inside his head.
Sometimes Harry wanted to be a part of something else, not be Harry. That was all.
But even Harry knew better than to say that. So it was nice of Steve to say they were friends.
"Right, okay, cool." Steve ran his hand through his hair and when he dropped it his hand brushed Harry's. It wasn't awful, for the second it lasted.
It was dark though.
Harry needed a light, something. He could feel it, he was in the right place. Harry was exactly where he needed to be, but he couldn't see.
"Do you know how to start a fire?" Harry asked Steve.
"Yeah! I can do that!" Steve bounced on his feet and laughed, a strange and short laugh. "Fire. Yes! I'm on it!"
Harry squinted to watch Steve drop down and began searching around on the ground for whatever muggles used to start fires. As soon as Steve turned around, Harry bent down and grabbed a thick branch, one that wouldn't burn out too quickly.
It was easy to catch the end on fire, Harry hardly had to think of what he wanted to happen before the flame flared up and shed a glowing light around him. Finally able to see, Harry waved the torch, scanning the area closely for…
"How did you do that?!" Steve cried. He jumped to his feet and held up a rock and a stick in his hands. "I didn't even get a spark yet!"
"Er… lucky try," Harry said, distracted. "You've got a…" Harry held the torch out and slowly reached out to take a crisp leaf from Steve's hair.
And there - just past Steve, behind a tree - Harry saw something move.
Someone.
Something.
No, definitely someone.
"Don't move," Harry breathed. It was a warning, needless really since Harry walked past Steve and made sure he couldn't follow. It wasn't severe, Harry didn't want to hurt him, it was only a mild compulsion so Steve wouldn't want to follow him.
Siri wasn't in pain, she was okay. Jonathan was still in the woods somewhere, Billy too.
It was the quick thrum of sparks in Harry's water that didn't belong.
"I'm not going to hurt you," Harry said quietly, waiting to see if the shadow behind the tree would shift again. "Will?"
The shadow shifted, Harry took another soft step.
"Hey, Harry? You think we should head back? Find the others?" Steve said, his voice too loud and shrinking the shadow.
"You're okay," Harry whispered, stepping up to the tree. "I won't hurt you."
Harry's promise was lost to the sudden wind that blew through the woods, cold and wild. It nearly knocked Harry to the ground as it seemed to center on the torch, extinguishing the only real light in the woods.
Not before the shadow stepped out from behind the tree and Harry saw it - them - for the first time.
They were not Will Byers. They were not Them.
They were powerful, dangerous.
Harry wasn't scared.
The ride back to town was a blur of people talking, music playing.
"Bubby?" Siri tried to take Harry's hand and he let her, if only because she seemed sad. "Are you okay?"
Yes.
No.
Yes. No. Yes. No. Yesnoyesnoyesno.
Harry nodded and when he blinked - he was in a car.
When he blinked again - Siri was opening the door.
Blink - Hop's house.
"You need to eat," Siri said, pulling Harry inside the house by his hand and waving goodbye at someone behind him. Harry didn't turn and look, didn't care. It wasn't dark and Siri was there and Harry couldn't stay, couldn't.
Harry opened his mouth - he needed to tell Siri. He had to. It was Siri.
He closed his mouth. Hop was inside the house, hanging a belt up by the door.
There was static in Harry's ear, wind rushing and extinguishing everything.
Hop pointed. Siri dragged.
Harry blinked and there was a sandwich and he was choking on everything he wanted to tell Siri. She was right there, looking at him with big eyes and he needed to tell her.
"You're tired," Siri said, holding a sandwich up like Harry was a small child. "Eat and then you can sleep, okay? You can sleep in the bed."
Harry's stomach flipped inside out and he needed to tell her because it was Siri, his Siri, and he should tell her.
"I'll sleep on the couch and nothing is going to get you, okay?" Siri said, a promise - a promise - that Harry didn't want. "I swear."
Everything was slipping away and Harry needed to go too.
He nodded and pulled away - blinked and Siri was closing the bedroom door behind him, she loved him, get some sleep, everything was okay.
Harry hated to do it, but he had to leave.
The window was easy to open, easy to climb out of. Harry's feet touched the ground and he was silent, fast enough. He ran through town, trusting himself to find that place in the woods and the person that wasn't Will and needed Harry anyway.
Harry was winded, sweating, and more awake than ever before when he reached the woods and began retracing his steps. There wasn't a path, only a tugging in Harry's chest to keep going. There was someone and they were waiting for him, they must have known he was going to return.
It seemed like they were waiting for him, as curious about Harry as Harry was about them.
Harry didn't have to go as far in the woods as he did earlier and the darkness didn't press as heavily on him, not with his mind focused on who he was going to find.
"Hello?" Harry called out when he knew he was in the right spot. He sat down slowly, he wasn't dangerous. "My name is Harry. I'm not going to hurt you."
There were too many shadows around Harry so he crossed his legs and waited. Nobody was waiting for him - Siri was sleeping, she went to sleep on the couch - and Harry didn't have anywhere to be.
In the whole world, he didn't have anywhere to be.
There was a crunch of a leaf on the ground, the brush of cool wind crossed Harry's face.
They weren't one of Them. They walked out from behind the tree and Harry saw their guarded steps, the curl of their shoulder, half-dunked head. They were young, young enough that Harry was in pain.
"That one cannot be replaced!" One of Them pointed at Harry while he screamed at the one who stood above Harry. Harry's chest was caving in, he couldn't breathe. He wanted his sister, wanted his Siri.
"I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE OTHER ONES! UNTIL OPERATION ECHO IS COMPLETED, YOU WILL USE ANOTHER SUBJECT!"
Harry was taken back to his cage - his cell - his sister. He had to be levitated, he couldn't walk. Everything felt sleepy in his body and Harry might have been dreaming when his head lolled in the air and he saw another child.
It wasn't Siri, Harry was sure of it. They were smaller than Siri, young, with shorter hair. They turned their head for a second and Harry saw green eyes that cut him to the core.
Not Siri, it wasn't. It was a boy in the baggy grey clothes that Harry and Siri wore, a boy that Harry saw enter the experimentation room and then never saw again.
"Hello," Harry said again, looking up at the… girl… maybe. Harry couldn't be sure, they had awfully short hair, but there was something in the curve of their neck and their eyes that made Harry think girl. "I'm going to make a fire, but it won't hurt you. I can't see and I don't like the dark."
The girl said nothing, Harry didn't mind. He scooped up some nearby sticks and leaves into a pile in front of himself, held his hands over it, and lit it on fire.
The girl made a strangled sound and Harry waited to see if she would run or not. Harry hoped she wouldn't, she didn't.
"Do you know your name?" Harry asked her. With the fire glowing to shine light on her, Harry was even more sure that she was a girl. A young girl, skinny and scared.
She looked so scared.
The girl shook her head then started to pull up the left sleeve of her oversized grey sweater. Harry knew, he knew, what he would see when she reached her elbow. Maybe the girl knew when she twisted her arm, flashed the tiny tattoo at Harry that he would understand.
"Eleven?" Harry asked, squinting at her arm. She nodded and Harry pulled his sleeve up until he could turn it, showing her that he wasn't one of Them. "I'm Seven."
The girl looked at Harry's arm for a very long time, he didn't mind. Harry didn't want people to see the tattoo, it made him sick and dizzy to look at, but the girl could see it.
"Seven," she said. She had a soft voice, Harry didn't think she used it much. She probably liked to stay quiet, she probably stayed quiet so long that it was hard to speak. She smiled and Harry wondered if she felt a need to smile in her brain or if it was only a stretching of facial muscles like an exercise for her too.
"Subject zero seven," Harry told her. His stomach coiled up hearing even the words come out of his own mouth. "I'm Harry."
Harry was a person, not a subject. A person.
The girl sat down, close enough to Harry that he could turn and they were face to face - she must have been eleven, maybe twelve. She had brown eyes, brown hair.
She was still a mirror, a mirror of a boy who had been playing hopscotch with his sister the day his life stopped being his own.
Harry didn't know if it was her fear or his that he saw in her eyes.
"Do you remember your name?" Harry asked her patiently. Maybe she didn't, she didn't have a sister with her who said her name and stroked her forehead and reminded her that she was a person before she was a subject.
She shook her head and pointed at her arm again.
"Eleven," she said.
"That's what They called you," Harry explained. "That's not who you are."
Maybe the girl didn't care, Harry did. They called her eleven, they made her a number, they made her not matter. She did matter though - to someone, somewhere, she had to matter.
"Can I call you Ellie?" Harry asked. It wasn't a great name, Harry didn't know any Ellies, but he couldn't call her Eleven. Harry wouldn't call her eleven, not ever. It - that was what They did. They made Harry dangerous, they couldn't make him one of Them.
"El?" the girl asked.
Harry didn't grimace, he only nodded shortly. Maybe the girl - El - needed time. When she was eleven or twelve, she escaped from Them. She hadn't escaped all the way yet, it would take longer than a week for her to stop waking up and thinking They had her - she was back in a cage and about to be taken away.
They would still lurk in her mind, ready to attack, but Harry could call her El until she remembered her real name.
"Did you escape?" Harry asked her. "Are you free now?"
El looked around them slowly, maybe searching the area like Harry still did.
"Escaped," she told him.
"That's good," Harry told her, meaning it. "I escaped too, with my sister."
"Sister?" El tilted her head at Harry with big eyes.
"Yeah, her name is Siri," Harry said. "She's my sister. We both escaped Them too."
"Siri…" El said slowly, bobbing her head in a nod. "Sister."
"Good job," Harry said. It wasn't a chore to be patient with El, not when Harry knew how hard it was to speak when someone didn't want to make noise. "Do you have a brother or sister?"
El looked at Harry's arm and he shook his head.
"I'm not your brother," he said, guessing what he thought she wanted to say. "I'm another subject."
"No brother," El said, whispering it like it was too sad to say loudly.
"That's okay," Harry told her. "You did good to escape. Are you hurt now?"
El was slower to shake her head and Harry could feel her eyes looking him over.
"Harry hurt?"
"No, Harry's not hurt." Harry touched his cheek where the last mark They left had healed. "See? Not hurt."
"Not hurt," El said, an echo of Harry. "Tired."
"Yeah, I'm tired too," he said. Harry didn't know what to do with El, how to keep her safe. Was she safe to have around Siri? Was Hop safe to have around her? She was a kid, only a kid.
There were two places Harry could think of… one a little better than the other.
"I have a friend," Harry told her. "Do you want to go with me to see him? You can sleep and I'll get you food."
"Friend?" El tilted her head and looked at Harry's arm again.
"He's not like us, but he's nice," Harry said. "And he keeps inviting me over, so I - I don't think he'll mind."
If he did then Harry could take El to Benny's house. It was empty, quiet. Harry didn't want to go there, he didn't want to remember how happy Siri had been there. And Steve had offered to have Harry over… for - basketball practice? Harry wasn't sure on the why, he only remembered the offer.
El scrambled to her feet and grabbed a small bag from behind the tree. Harry extinguished the fire he made and held a hand out for El - if she wanted it.
"It's hard to walk by yourself," Harry said. "I - you can hold my hand, if you want."
El took Harry's hand and squeezed his fingers gently, testing his grip maybe. Maybe she wanted to be sure she couldn't hurt him, be sure that Harry wouldn't let go at the first sign of discomfort.
"Want to," she said. "Brother."
Harry wasn't her brother, she knew that. She just needed someone, it didn't hurt anything to let her say that Harry was her brother. It might make things easier to explain when they made it to Steve's.
"My friend is a muggle," Harry explained to El while they walked. It was dark, but Harry wasn't afraid, couldn't be. El needed Harry to guide her. "You can't do magic in front of him, okay? No magic."
"No magic," El echoed. "Powers?" she asked.
Harry frowned and let his magic flow through him, flow through his fingertips until he listened to El with all his senses.
"That's magic," Harry told her once he was sure again of what El was. "You're like me," he said.
"Like Harry."
"Yes."
El must not have gone to Hogwarts or any other school for magic. They must have taken her before she bought a wand, made friends. Harry didn't know if that was better or worse… El didn't know what she was missing, but what memories did she have to hold on to when everything else was too much?
"We're getting closer," Harry told El when he was sure that they were. It was too dark for anything to be recognizable, but Harry - Harry could do that, when he made himself. It wasn't hard to find places, it was hard to make himself use magic.
"Friend, no magic," El said.
Harry nodded. "Right, no magic in front of my friend, okay? His name is Steve and he's a muggle."
"Muggle." El tilted her face up and the trees were thinning, Harry could see her big eyes full of curiosity. "Friend muggle?"
"It means not magical, he doesn't have powers," Harry explained. "We can't tell him we do, okay? It's supposed to be a secret."
"Secret," El agreed.
"Good job." Harry looked down at her and made himself smile, made sure she knew that she was doing a good job. It was hard, everything was too much, but El was doing the best she could and Harry knew that.
"Okay, this is Steve's house…" Harry could see the reflection of Steve's pool through the thinning trees, he could even see all the house lights were turned on. "If he says we can't come in, there's another place we can go, okay? And when I can I'll tell you more about magic."
Harry had millions of questions when Hagrid arrived in his life and told him and Siri about magic and wizards and witches. If El never got to experience that then she would be full of questions that were too hard to ask, questions she would want answered. Harry could do that. He could answer her questions.
El made a quiet sound when Harry pulled her around the house, they should knock on the front door.
"Don't be scared," Harry said. "Well, actually, it's okay if you're scared. But we have to do things anyway."
"Okay," El said.
"Good." Harry squeezed El's hand and took a deep breath before he knocked on the door - two quick knocks.
"You don't have to talk," Harry told El when they could hear footsteps jogging toward the door. "It's - I know it's hard. You don't have to, not with me."
El let out a tiny breath and leaned over on Harry, resting her head on his arm. She was tired, scared. Everything was new and different and too much and she was alone.
Harry understood.
"Hello? Oh! Hey! Harry." Steve opened the door and Harry blinked several times - he didn't have a shirt on. Which… it was his house. It was Steve's house and he didn't have to wear a shirt.
Harry looked at Steve's hair instead of his chest, wondered why it was flat until he realized it was wet too. Steve might have been swimming or showering or any reason why his hair would be flat and he wouldn't be wearing a shirt.
"Who is this?" Steve leaned in the doorway and crossed his arms over his shirtless chest. "This isn't Will, is it?"
El made a sound again, a quiet squeak in her throat.
"No, this is El, my sister," Harry said. He didn't like lying to Steve, Steve said they were friends and Harry wouldn't want his friend to lie to him. But Harry didn't know how else to explain who El was or why she was with him.
"Will?" El whispered to Harry. "Them."
Will wasn't one of Them, Harry couldn't explain that to El yet either.
"You have another sister?" Steve asked. He didn't seem to buy the story Harry was selling. "Did she come for the funeral or something?"
"Er… yes," Harry said. Lied. Harry was lying. He didn't want to be. "And Hop doesn't have any extra beds…"
Steve seemed to need a second, a second where Harry's stomach flipped and he wanted to cross his fingers but El was holding his hand and Harry didn't believe in luck anyway.
"Oh! Hey! You guys could crash here!" Steve offered, smiling widely at Harry and settling the flips happening in his stomach. "Good timing, really, I just made a crap ton of food and Rocky is gonna be on in like five minutes."
You guys.
Harry - Harry didn't actually want to stay there. Harry wanted to get back to Siri.
El looked up at Harry when they followed Steve inside and her eyes were so big and scared and she was all alone. She was alone and everything was too much and she was scared. Harry escaped and was free from Them, but everything was too much and he was alone in his head and scared.
"I'll stay," Harry told her in a whisper, said it again silently with the squeeze of her hand.
Hop could protect Siri, he said he would, Harry needed to stay with El.
And… Steve. Steve who had food and every light in his house turned on and no shirt.
Harry thought it was going to be a bad day when he woke up that morning, and it hadn't been great. It was more… incredibly strange and exhausting than anything else though.