Saving a friend

The dimly lit room has enough light for the group to see their friend, Hopper laying on the metal table. A small and thin blanket was covering most of his body, not like that would do anything for him though.

There was a small creaking noise from behind them and then a voice spoke, "Piper hows he looking? is he maybe getting any better?"

"Worse..."

Jinx carefully shut the door and then walked over to where her friend lay. "My gosh, he almost looks like a vampire" she spoke in a half-whisper once she spotted him.

At first glance, at least a bit far away, he would have looked normal and he had. Though once she had gotten over to the bed, she saw that his skin was as pale and white as the moon.

Jinx's older brother, Binx then spoke "Yes we know that...don't say that in front of him though."

Binx began to look over her friend again, besides his skin she couldn't really see anything else wrong with him. She could see him sweating, though she wasn't sure if that was from whatever was going or if it was from the heat in the room.

Piper then spoke up, "Why don't we try to take him to a hospital? wouldn't they know what was wrong with him?"

"Wait, yeah! why haven't we done that? I'm sure that they'd be able to help with whatever is going on." Piper's ideas were usually terrible, though Jinx couldn't help but agree with this.

Binx only stared at his friend in silence as the seconds went by, how long did he even have? Hopper had never explained any of this to them, he probably never would. "He...isn't like us."

"Well, what do we do then? we can't just let him die." Jinx and Piper seemed to ask the question in unison.

They watched as Binx began to pace back and forth in the room, the only noises now were the faint beeping of the monitor and the small squeaks of Binx's shoes.

"Do you possibly remember that contest that's been talked about for a while? I checked some of the stuff for it after I got curious...the prize can save him."

"What do you mean?" Jinx asked.

"Listen, I can't fully remember but a few months Hopper and me had been talking about a few things...I guess about him and his people. We came across a few things and I suppose he wanted me to see all of it, there was a thing that looked like the prize that was shown to be able to do great things," he explained as he paced faster.

Everyone remained silent after that, the only noise being the beeping from the monitor again. Piper cleared her throat after the awkward pause and she asked, "So, you think the prize could be the same thing you and Hopper saw?"

Binx shook his head, "I don't think so, I know so."

Everyone looked back at Hopper who's skin somehow seemed to be even more white than the last time they checked, it was worse. Who knew how long Hopper would have? "Fine, let's do it."

"Though which one of us should join the contest?" Jinx asked, "we can't all join, some of us or one of us will still need to stay here with Hopper."

"I could go and do it, I think I'd be the best for it anyway." Binx was already on his way out of the room.

Jinx or Piper decided not to argue with him, if they did then they'd end up wasting a lot of time. They'd be wasting Hoppers time here, they needed to get the prize.

On his way out of the room, Binx had given the two of them a walkie-talkie so that during the contest he'd be able to talk to them. He was sure that they were going to be asking a lot of things and at least would want to know if he would win.

"Do you think he'll win?" Jinx sat down on a chair next to the metal table so she could be next to Hopper.

"I'm honestly not that sure.."

Piper decided to also sit next to Hopper and Jinx, if they didn't manage to win and get the prize, the least they could do is stay with Hopper until he passed. He probably would have done the same...

A few moments passed until they could hear some static from the walkie-talkie and then Binx's voice, "Alright so I think the contest is about to start now."

"Who's there at the contest? Is it a bad one or something, maybe it's just some younger children and you'll easily win it?" Jinx suggested with a small laugh.

"Um well no, There's an older dude along with a girl that's a bit younger than me and then there's a..." Binx seems to trail off by talking about how he thinks each contestant will do and how they'll act.

"Binx!" Jinx shouted into the walkie-talkie to get his attention, "How many people exactly are there?"

"There are about four other people here besides me, or maybe there are six other people.." It sounded like he was about to trail off again about something, though the two of them somehow managed to hear a blow horn go off.

That must have been the signal for the contest, whatever it was about, to start. The contest had been up on posters and on tv as well for a few weeks, though they had never fully learned what it was about. Maybe Binx would tell them later.

"What are we even gonna do if he wins the contest though? I don't think we know how the thing is supposed to save Hopper from certain death.."

Piper sighed as she looked out one of the windows and then she spoke, "I don't know Jinx, maybe he knows how it works and he just didn't have time to tell us."

"Like how Hopper didn't have time to tell us what was wrong before this happened..?"

Piper didn't say anything after that, neither did Jinx. They remained silent for what seemed like several hours, though it must have only been about thirty whole minutes.

Piper had been trying to find the right words to speak until she heard something coming from the walkie-talkie. She had forgotten why they had it until they then heard Binx speak, "Guys! I got it."