Chapter 45 – The Visit
The three boys nodded, half understanding Gideon's advice.
Just then, the bushes rustled, and Emma emerged, leaves tangled in her hair.
"All done."
She tossed a wooden cross onto the ground, her face dark with annoyance.
A few minutes earlier, the infuriating priest had sent her off alone to set up the holy relics—under the excuse of "learning the basics of exorcism." She'd ended up scratched by branches and covered in dirt.
The boys froze for half a beat when they saw her face.
So cute! they screamed inwardly in unison.
"You'll have to collect them again," Gideon said casually. "That creature's already been purified."
He then introduced the three boys to Emma, who blushed faintly and stumbled over their words. Emma, however, paid them no mind.
When she heard she'd have to pick everything back up, her fists clenched, and her grudge against Gideon deepened another notch. She ducked back into the bushes. The boys made to follow her, but Gideon stopped them.
By then, he had already examined the demobat's corpse. The signs suggested it had been drawn here by blood.
As for the hollow tree, he'd probed it as well. There were traces of some kind of energy, but the passage was now sealed. His tests confirmed—holy relics could purify that energy, but they couldn't open a path to the Upside Down.
Gideon rubbed his chin.
If he wanted to find Will, he'd have to enter the Upside Down. In Hawkins, there were only two ways to do that.
"It seems I'll have to find that person… or go to the lab."
He turned to the three boys, asking about their progress in finding Will.
Mike explained that Sheriff Hopper had begun a full-scale search, with many volunteers joining in, but there were still no leads. Will's mother—Joyce Byers—had been tirelessly scouring the town every day.
"I saw her yesterday," Lucas said with a shrug. "She was handing out flyers. Compared to a week ago, she looks… worn out."
Divorced, raising two sons on her own, and now her youngest had vanished without a trace. Gideon could hardly imagine how she'd endured these past days.
"Take me to Will's house," he said.
If he remembered correctly, Will had often lingered near his home in the Upside Down. It was worth trying to make contact. Besides, he and Emma would need a place to stay tonight.
---
The forest path ended at a small clearing, a short distance from town. Only one weathered wooden cabin stood there, roof sagging, weeds overgrown.
Will's house.
As they arrived, a car sat parked in the yard.
"Aunt Joyce is home!" Mike pointed out to Emma.
The whole walk, the boys had been trying to make small talk with her. Emma was unfailingly polite but, inside, utterly uninterested.
Gideon scanned the surroundings. With his Ethereal Sight, he saw traces—energies like those at the hollow tree.
One set of footprints caught his eye: small, child-sized. Will's, most likely.
But the other… was huge, nearly thirty centimeters long. At times, there were four imprints at once.
Demogorgon.
He tensed immediately. These prints glowed a dull red—not visible in the real world, only as lingering energy—and only he could see them.
---
Inside, Joyce took a long drag from her cigarette.
She emptied her wallet onto the bed. Just enough change left to print more flyers tomorrow—she'd already handed out two hundred today.
Her hair was a mess, her face lined with exhaustion. She hadn't slept through the night in days. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw her son's face, woke up in a panic, and couldn't drift off again.
She had searched every place Will might go, spoken to every neighbor. It was as if he had vanished from the earth.
And now the house itself had begun acting strangely—lightbulbs flickering, the radio hissing with static.
For reasons she couldn't explain, Joyce felt certain… it was Will.
She'd searched every corner of the home for a sign, but found nothing.
She'd told the police, but they brushed it off as stress-induced hallucinations.
The helplessness gnawed at her. Her eyes filled again with tears. She crushed her cigarette out hard, buried her face in her hands, and let the pain wash over her.
Knock. Knock.
She jolted upright and ran to the door. Jonathan had a key—he wouldn't knock. Which meant… maybe a clue about Will?
She flung the door open—only to find three of her son's friends standing there.
Her face fell. "What are you doing here?"
"Any news about Will?" Mike asked.
She shook her head, turned back inside.
"Um…" Mike hesitated, glancing at Dustin.
Dustin stepped forward. "Mrs. Byers, we brought someone to help find Will!"
Joyce turned, managing a faint, weary smile. "Alright… thank you."
She assumed they'd brought another classmate.
But Dustin added brightly, "Father Gideon is amazing! He's an exorcist!"
Joyce blinked. "A priest? An exorcist?"
She stepped back to the doorway and peered outside—where a man in a black cassock stood beside a little girl, setting a wooden cross into the earth.
"Hello?"
Gideon looked up from his work. "You're Will's mother, I presume?"
Joyce nodded, studying him with wary curiosity.
Joyce had been to the church in Hawkins before, but she had never seen an...Asian priest.
"Dustin says you're… an exorcist?" she asked, uncertain.
Gideon nodded, explaining why he had come.
"May I look inside your house?" he asked.
He had already scouted the area around the property and found no signs of creatures from the Upside Down nearby.
Joyce almost laughed at how absurd it sounded—what did exorcism have to do with Will's disappearance?
She was ready to refuse… until she remembered the strange things that had been happening in her home lately.
What if…?
Against her better judgment, a small, irrational spark of hope lit inside her.
She stepped aside and invited the priest—and the kids—inside.
---
Once in the house, Gideon began his inspection.
Joyce trailed after him, one arm folded across her chest, the other hand pressed to her chin, nervous.
Gideon narrowed his eyes.
The ceiling beams, the doorknobs, the walls—
All carried traces of the Upside Down's energy.
In the hallway, faint "footprints" lingered—evidence the Demogorgon had been here.
He turned to her. "Has anything… unusual happened lately?"
Joyce's heart jolted. She had expected him to find nothing, yet his question cut straight to what she had been experiencing.
"Like flickering lights, doorknobs moving on their own," he added.
It was like a drowning person grabbing a lifeline.
Her eyes went wide. "How did you know?" she gasped, nodding rapidly.
"Come with me," Gideon said.
He led her through the hallway and out to the backyard.
On the grass, a dog stood rigid, growling at the shed.
Gideon followed its gaze.
The shed door was ajar—and inside, a translucent figure crouched low to the ground.
Through Ethereal Sight, Gideon recognized it: a projection from the Upside Down into the real world.
"Will?" he called.
The shadowy figure lifted its head and slowly rose to its feet.
Joyce's eyes darted frantically around. "Where? Where is he?"
The kids hurried over.
Keeping a cautious distance from the shed, Gideon gripped his cross and spoke again.
"If it's really you… give us a sign."
At once, the figure raised a hand toward the lightbulb overhead.
The bulb flared to life—glowing brighter, and brighter still.
The children stared, mouths agape.
Joyce clamped both hands over her mouth, her eyes brimming.