She ran through the still air, filled with white specks of ash.
Rotten sticks broke under her shoes as she worked her legs up and down. There were many moments before when Eleven had been afraid. Most of them involved experiments and being dragged places against her will – even by people she called her friends. But this was different. This time, she felt the fear trickle through her blood. However, Eleven now found an unfamiliar feeling mingling with the tried and true emotion of fear:
Determination.
Running through the gap in two trees, Eleven made for the tree house ladder. She could see it in the distance, a bright light in the surrounding darkness. Just as everything else did, the shoddily made building looked horrific. But, this was her new home, and she was stuck with it whether she liked it or not. Eleven was growing used to the sick smell of rotting flesh and the dead animal carcasses that frequented the ground. Even the decaying spider webs were beginning to look homey. However, there were many things that made her wish she was out of the Upside Down. Many, many things. She still got her eggos occasionally, left by a mysterious person on the other side. But there was no way to replicate friendship. Friends were people who never lied to you and kept promises, no matter what.
Here, she had no one.
Her breath grew ragged and her body felt like it was going to give out, but she wasn't at the tree house yet. Trees could be heard falling just within her ear shot. They made a sad crunch on the ground, like something not dying so much as already dead. A figure flashed in her mind and she let out a strangled shriek. She covered her mouth and kept running.
Finally, she reached her target: the tree trunk holding her home. Her hands grasped the ladder as she kicked up from the ground. Her legs pumped as one rung after another passed her gaze, hands grabbing onto sticky material. She looked back and saw a figure jumping through the gnarled tree branches. One second it was there; another second it wasn't. She couldn't think about it – she could only think about climbing.
The last rung passed as her hands moved from the sticky substance that was on the ladder rungs to the equally as sticky substance on the base of the building. Eleven pulled herself up, grabbed the knotted door knob and quickly opened and closed the door. She was inside. Finally. All she could do was wait. Breathing in and out calmly, Eleven concentrated with her eye on the door. I
felt as though time had stopped around her. Everything went quiet. All she could hear was her breath, coming in and out. She could hear that and the faint echo of a voice that once told her everything was going to be okay.
And then the door flew open.