Act I: Inferno

'Silence.'

It was the first word that crashed into Hopper's subconscious as he steadied himself on the platform which was swaying hundreds of feet up in the air. His ears were still ringing from the explosion that rocked the void a moment ago. He couldn't remember where he was, but it was a strange place indeed. All around him, he saw tiny white flakes fluttering in the wind as a slight updraft carried them spiraling to the top. It was eerily tranquil compared to a moment before when hundreds of raging abominations were charging the platform from all directions.

'It's too quiet,' Hopper thought as he weighed the weapon in his hand. The shotgun in his hand was spewing pungent smoke as the barrel slowly cooled down. He glanced at the gun and grimaced as he saw the empty chamber. The last projectile had taken a beast in the mouth and had thrown it across the chasm where it screamed as it fell to its death. Its brethren followed shortly. Maybe the threat was over since the gate was finally closed for good, but he still wouldn't take chances. He instinctively looked around for shotgun shells to reload his gun. There wasn't enough light to see clearly, so he studied the wall in front of him. It had gone dark now, but a moment ago it was glowing fiercely with a red...

'THE GATE!'

Suddenly he was pulled back into reality, and he felt a small frame clutched tightly to his sweat-soaked shirt. He took a deep breath and looked at the angel lying in his arms. Hopper didn't believe in God since Sarah went away, but his lack of faith was questioned today when he saw the most magnificent sight any man could ever hope to see in his entire lifetime. He saw an angel from heaven, arms spread out like those in Roman paintings, blocking the monstrous tentacle of a Titan, while at the same time, closing a massive gate from hell, all with only her mind. He felt a shiver running down his spine.

After all, Hopper's daughter, with all her powers and rage, was a mere 'Human.'

After spending nearly six months with Eleven in a locked-up cabin, Hopper was becoming frustrated with a curious problem. He had already started thinking of Eleven as his daughter. Maybe not by blood, but he still loved her as a part of his own soul. Oh, she was a handful all right, while during tantrums most kids would toss toys and break dolls, Eleven would break bookshelves and throw sofas. It wasn't that big of a challenge, he was well aware of the risks of adopting a telekinetic girl with heavenly endowments who was reaching into her puberty. And to worsen it further, she was craving the propinquity of a boy named Mike Wheeler, and that threw a wrench into an already complicated situation. Hopper had noticed that Eleven would start blushing furiously whenever Mike came into the casual conversation. He didn't know what Mike did to her, but he respected the boy nonetheless because he had managed to break down a wall which was beyond the reach of mortal beings. Mike Wheeler had brought life into the decaying heart of Eleven, who was being forged into a soulless weapon in the dark corridors of Hawkins National Laboratory.

As of a result of this bond, Eleven nurtured a limitless affection towards Mike and any harm to him would hurl her into wrath that threatened to destroy the very house in which they were living. During one such incident, Eleven tried to escape to save Mike from two bullies that were beating him up. Jim captured her, and in a fit of rage, she uprooted a gigantic tree and flung it a hundred meter away. Then she passed out as blood came rushing through her nose and ears. Even her eyes were leaking tears of blood. Jim was scared shitless that day because he didn't know what to do and whom to call for help. But she recovered, somehow. This peculiar phenomenon was repeating itself quite often, and that scared the life out of Hopper.

The very next day after the incident with the tree, Hopper called up John, who served with him in the army medical corps back in Vietnam. He didn't tell the exact truth of course, but he gave enough information so that John could diagnose the problem. John said that whenever any human became stressed or enraged or was engaged in physical activity, their blood pressure would rise as the heart beat faster to pump more blood throughout their body. It was required to carry more oxygen which would then be combusted to produce more energy.

"Think of it like a Nitrous boost in a jacked-up car," John sounded serious. Because of this increased pressure, the veins and arteries throughout the body would swell. The phenomenon was normal and happened with not just humans but every animal out there. But the problem with Hopper's daughter was that her veins and arteries were a little delicate compared to others and couldn't handle the increased pressure. So, sometimes they would rupture.

"Think of this like the gasket blowing up due to increased pressure from the Nitro boost." John was entirely serious, Hopper could tell.

Not every vein or artery would rupture, only the thin ones that couldn't take the stress would give way to the pressure. The human head was riddled with such thin arteries and veins, especially the nose, ears, and BRAIN. John said that the nose and ear bleed could be managed somehow, but if veins and arteries ruptured in her brain, she could die from intracranial hemorrhage.

"Please ensure that she isn't put under a lot of stress or physical activity. Protect her, Jim," John was the father of two girls himself. Hopper didn't understand a single word of the scientific mumbo-jumbo, but he heard the words that he needed to hear. Next day, Hopper requested Eleven to never use her powers when she was in the house. He had also decided to control his temper around her. He hated hemorrhages.

Back in the elevator shaft, Hopper hugged Eleven tightly in his arms and kept muttering softly, "It's over, you did good kid, you did really good."

In reality, he was assuring himself. The void was utterly dark so he couldn't see Eleven's face anymore. But he could feel her as he softly ran his palms over her face. But a moment later, he rapidly jerked his hand back as if he had touched venom. He felt the sticky, warm liquid that was smeared all over her face.

'Shit, how much blood did she lose this time?' Hopper almost panicked. It was all over her face and neck, and even her eyes felt swollen. Suddenly she went limp and collapsed in his arms. He tried to check her vitals as best he could, but the blasted shotgun light flickered and abruptly went off as soon as Eleven closed the gate. He felt a faint pulse as it was slowly getting weaker.

"DAMN IT," he growled in his throat and stood up. The power was gone, but the elevator had a backup. He pressed the up button, but it didn't work.

"FUCK," he shouted and smashed the stock of his shotgun on the button. The large motor came to life and then it took them forever to reach to the top.

Once they reached upside, Hopper finally witnessed the real magnitude of the devastation caused by those atrocities from hell. The disfigured bodies of those four-legged monsters laid all around him, twitching in odd ways. He could hear them breathing their last breath through their strange-looking mouths. Here and there lied human bodies, some half-eaten, some worse. He didn't have the time to check for survivors because he had a life to save. Hopper started moving ahead while gently carrying Eleven in his arms. He was afraid of tripping because she might not survive the fall. He reached the control room and carefully laid Eleven down on a table.

Fortunately, the lights were working here. Hopper swiveled the desk lamp on her face and cursed breathlessly as he saw the extent of the damage. She looked like an abomination herself. Her face was bloodied and veins popped around her temple. The skin was pale while blood poured out of her eyes and masked her beautiful face. This never happened before, 'Not as much as this.' Suddenly a wave of nausea hit him, she looked like his daughter Sarah taking her last breath as the doctors tried to resuscitate her. He wanted to break down the wall in front of him and carry her someplace safe and save her. He had already decided to give his life up to protect her, but he knew that the appetite of the black hole would not be satisfied so quickly. His heart started beating faster.

Eleven breathed slowly and whispered, "Mike...," and proceeded to cough up blood. She kept whispering his name in a raspy voice. Hopper wished that the Wheeler kid was here, maybe he could do something to save her. But the fact was that Hopper didn't know what to do. His worst nightmare had come back to play a game of chess with him, and this time he was losing again. He ravaged through the cabinets. He needed blood and first aid, though he had no idea what could be used to stop the intracranial bleeding. He glanced at Eleven and winced in pain. She looked like the fake body that was discovered while searching for Will. Blood dripped from her nose and ears and slowly pooled into a dark shape at the feet of the table.

"Shit, hold on kid, HOLD ON," Hopper screamed as he broke the lock to the industrial refrigerator with a plus sign. It was mil-spec, so it was supposed to contain blood. He kicked the door open and saw torn blood packs lying everywhere. Two monsters laid motionless, apparently enjoying the free meal until the very last minute. There was a gigantic hole in the wall that led to the office beside the refrigerator, and it looked like a slaughterhouse. Hopper came running back to Eleven.

'Fuck it,' he decided to take her to the Hospital, then let her get captured by the Military if it came to that. But for now, she needed to live. Hopper was a grungy war veteran and a small-town cop, he didn't have the necessary medical skills to save his daughter.

Hopper carefully picked her up in his arms and cried in alarm as her head lolled over his arms. Eleven spoke faintly, "Mike..., Promise..., Please..." Hopper stopped dead in his tracks as he remembered the day he made that promise to her.

'You would get to see Mike one day,' he had promised her. To be honest, he never intended to keep the promise in the first place until the coast was clear. But he never planned to bury his second daughter in the same lifetime. It was amazing that how a little change in perspective could turn men from benefactors into malefactors.

Hopper steeled his jaw and decided to do something that he never imagined having to do in a million years. He chose to let faith overrule his judgment. Hopper had seen plenty of wounds back in Vietnam. He had seen wounds that bled out and realized that it was too late to take her to the hospital. But the promise! If it meant that much to her, then maybe it could save her life. It was scientifically impossible, but he had heard Mike Wheeler's words before, "I've seen many impossibilities turning into possibilities in those ten days, I choose to believe..."

So, he believed. At long last he accepted faith, and he hoped it was not too late.

"Mike!" Eleven opened her eyes for a brief moment, "Will... you... take me to the Snowball?" The words drove a cold knife in his heart. Hopper didn't believe in God since Sarah had died but standing there with the limp and bloodied body in his hands, he couldn't help but pray to the almighty to save Eleven. He reached the van in a hurry and gently placed her on the front seat. Then as he was trying to put the seatbelt on Eleven, she threw up a large volume of blood. 'Shit, it's getting too late.' Hopper winced in pain as he reached the driver seat. Then for the first time since Vietnam, drove a car without touching the brake at all.

The road was utterly devoid of any signs of life. The power lines had already given way, and the only source of light remaining was the twin high beams that sliced the darkness in front of the car. Hopper wasn't paying much attention to his driving because his mind kept pulling him back to the past. A voice echoed in his mind, 'Frame these moments Jim. She's going away forever. It's time to wake up.'

Tears came streaming down his cheeks as Hopper tried his best to navigate the car through a narrow bend. The rear of the vehicle crashed into a battered signpost and flung it away. But he didn't give a fuck. He was not driving in the present anymore.

It was a cold afternoon, a week after the girl named Eleven had disappeared into a shade of black mist when Hopper finally felt something strange was going on. Until that moment he had never cared much about the lab-rat that had taken shelter in Mike Wheeler's house for ten days. Of course, he felt a tinge of guilt for turning her in, but now that she was gone, he wasn't in a hurry to look for her. In reality, he was scared of her powers and believed that the lab would be the best place to keep her safe and to keep the world safe from her abilities. But he knew that she was alive, he had received strict instructions from the lab to keep his eyes open for strange activities. The scientists were sure that Eleven had not died during Event Zero, the term they had given to her final battle against the abomination.

"Subject Eleven is too powerful to die from something as simple as that," the new lead scientist named Dr. Sam Owens had confirmed multiple times. But now that she was finally gone, Hopper prayed that she remained out of their lives as long as possible.

On that fateful afternoon, Hopper was sleeping peacefully in his cabin after filling his stomach with leftover pizzas and a bottle of jack. His nightmares welcomed him as he gently opened the door to the room where his daughter was fighting her fate. The vision kept repeating in different forms whenever he closed his eyes, but they all had the same outcome. At the end of the nightmare, Hopper would always find himself standing in front of a tombstone that had his daughter's name carved on it with blood. They used to keep him awake for days in the beginning, but he had gotten used to them now. Hopper moved closed to the bed where Sarah was trying her best to take a few last breaths through her weak and tired lungs. An indistinct form stood beside her bed. He was sure that it belonged to his wife, but she had no place in his nightmare. Sarah's eyes were closed, and her chest moved abnormally. Hopper looked away and waited for it to get over. But then his eyes fell on a bed with a new patient. It was odd, Hopper had never seen that patient before in his dreams. He slowly walked to the bed but stopped dead in his tracks as he looked at the face.

The body belonged to the strange girl named Eleven who had disappeared into the void weeks ago. She looked pale and sick with fever. Hopper had no idea what to do so he did the only thing that a father was supposed to do. He moved closer to the bed and laid his hand on her forehead. It was cold as ice, and she was apparently dead. He jerked his hand back as if had touched fire. Someone screamed inside him, "She's dead too. You killed her!"

Hopper grabbed the clunky machine beside the bed and threw it across the room. He screamed in agony, "What was I supposed to do? They were going to kill me. I needed to save Will."

The voice calmly responded, "What if she was your daughter? What if she was Sarah?"

Hopper fell down beside the bed as his knees finally gave away. The world disappeared around him as he found himself kneeling in front of his daughter's tombstone. He had a sinking feeling inside his stomach. Towards his left, he noticed another new structure. He knew what it was and turned his face away. A moment later he heard a faint scream.

Hopper jerked his head towards the other tombstone as his ears picked up a faint sound. He rushed towards the other grave and placed his ears against the ground. The sound repeated itself. Someone was knocking against the wood with small and feeble hands.

"HOLD ON!" Hopper shouted as he dug his fingers in the ground. A terrible pain spread from his fingers towards his arm as he tried desperately to dig through the thick soil with his bare hands.

Hopper didn't remember for how long he had dug the grave, but sometime later he woke up in his couch, facing the ceiling. He was completely drenched in sweat; furthermore, his right hand was stuck behind his back and had already gone numb. Now, pinpricks of pain were radiating from the paralyzed tissue. The visions kept playing in his mind as if he was watching a movie. Ordinary people would often forget their dreams as soon as they had woken up. But Hopper could never forget his nightmares without drowning himself in alcohol. This time, another knot was added to the noose that strangled him every time he closed his eyes. Hopper got up from his bed and went to the cupboard to find some booze but came up empty. He cursed his fortune and made his way to the door to pick up some poison to survive the night. He opened the door and went outside to absolute darkness. A soft crunching sound came from where he landed his right shoe. Hopper looked down in surprise and found an old yellow file beneath his feet. He picked it up, dusted the cover and read the title illuminated by the faint light coming from the open doors of the cabin.

It read; 'Subject 11.'