Once More Into Hell
Eleven Hopper was knelt on the floor, her boyfriends chest ripped to pieces by an invisible force. Her scream tore through Hawkins, her despair so great that in a five mile radius glass shattered into a million fragments, several bushes instantly were set aflame, the once clear night was now full of thunderous lightning, the manifestation of anger and grief.
Eleven could still sense the invisible presence of the Hell-hound in the room, without a second thought she raised her hand and she heard a pitiful yelp as her powers tore the Mutt's head off, both body and head fell with a wet thud.
Her tear stricken face slowly revolved to look at Mike, she felt the resolve to continue every second quickly escape her being, Mike was her world and here he lay, dead at her feet. Flashing Blue and Red lights began to illuminate the room, the sound of an engine more prominent through the broken window.
Hopper burst into the room, revolver drawn, it swayed this way and that as Hopper scanned the room before settling on the two in the middle of the room, one alive, one dead. Hopper quickly holstered his weapon and hastened to the girls side, she wept into his shoulder as Hopper took in the damage.
Mike's eyes remained open, lifeless, staring up at the ceiling, Hopper knew something had happened the moment his car windows along with every window in the street suddenly shattered into pieces, only El had the raw power to do it.
Hoppers eyes closed in silent sorrow, as he realised he would have to tell Karen that her boy had been ripped to shreds, Mike had been one of the pillars in El's life and now that he was gone, he feared for her state of mind. Feared for what would happen now.
El tearfully, through heart-wrenching sobs explained what had happened, the window, the wounds suddenly ripping themselves into Mike's chest and everything else that happened after including ripping an invisible forces head off. Hopper leaned forward to where El had pointed and felt the mass that was invisible, it would need to be burned if possible.
A MONTH LATER…
Everyone had been devastated, no more than Eleven, she retreated into her previously mute state, she would not talk only gesture with nods or shakes of her head. She didn't cry after that night, her eyes held a haunted and anguished look to them, her soul was being eaten away by grief. Her powers were all over the place and they would spike at times causing different things to happen, once she was walking down the road when suddenly lights burst, the ground beneath her would crack, the weather would rapidly change and glass would yet again shatter.
The funeral was beautiful, they buried him with his supercomm and his D&D campaign book, Eleven's brown eyes never left his coffin during the entire service, practically everyone in the small town turned out for it, Mike was known to everyone, Mike was liked by everyone and Mike was loved by everyone.
The boys stood with El the entire time, for that she was grateful but she couldn't speak, because if she did she would spill her tears and she would never stop, her grief would end up destroying all of Hawkins.
The coffin was lowered, flowers were thrown atop and finally the dirt was placed upon it. The Gravestone read
Michael James Wheeler
Born August 15th 1971
Died July 8th 1994
A Beloved Son, Friend and Dungeon Master
And cherished Boyfriend
Eleven's gaze broke from the headstone and she could sense something not entirely human, her head rose to see a man from across the way to see a tall man, in his thirties, dressed in a suit, the tie, however was loose and inside out, a tan trench coat was drawn around him.
Eleven could sense something odd as he stared back her unblinking before he slowly turned and walked away from her, she could sense he was mostly human but there was a great power within him, barely contained inside the human, the others shouted after her as she broke into a run, chasing the man down, she was mere metres from him when he turned out of the cemetery and out of sight, there was a small flutter of wings as she rounded the corner to find the man was no where to be seen, her brow frowned in confusion as her head turned this way and that searching for him but he was long gone.
She wandered back to the grave and she sat down with her legs crossed, the sun set and night befell Hawkins and Eleven kept her silent vigil over his grave, she suddenly stood up and turned away and marched off home, a new emotion had taken over. Determination.
Eleven then spent the next several months in Hawkins Library looking up creatures that could be invisible which is pretty much all she had to go on, hours upon hours of fruitless searching but everyday from dawn till dusk she would come and read every book that could have the information that she was looking for.
Two weeks later she was browsing the stacks when from behind her a book began to move of its own accord from behind her, it inched its way off the shelf and it fell to the floor with a heavy thud, Eleven jumped and turned to look at the book titled "Lore of Perdition"
Unseen to her a man in a tan trench coat vanished in a flutter of wings.
Eleven sat down with the very heavy book and began to read and what she read began to fill her with many emotions, one of which was stomach-wrenching hole in the pit of her stomach, particularly the bit she read.
"and upon making a deal with a demon that person has ten years before the hellhounds come to collect, a hellhound is a demonic dog, trained by their demonic handlers to fetch the souls of the damned when their time is up, upon retrieval their contract is fulfilled and the soul is dragged to hell to be turned into a demon themselves through torture and the fires which strip their soul of light until it becomes a blackened, Sulfur covered husk, no longer human and stripped of everything, Demons are ruthless and take joy in the torture and murder of others.
Hellhounds themselves are invisible to everyone apart from other supernatural entities and the people that they have been sent to collect…"
Eleven slammed the book shut as she fought to stop the bile from rising in her throat, so was that what Mike had done? Made a deal to save her, it was highly suspicious as to how she ended up in his basement that night that she had returned, Mike's explanation seemed convincing enough but now the pieces were starting to make sense, it was ten years since she got back, even the date was the same, she took a deep breath and reopened the book.
"One month on Earth is ten years in Hell, time passes differently…"
Had Mike really been in Hell for sixty years? As it was now January, her eyes welled up, after everything she had read he could be a demon by now, stripped of his humanity and now nothing but black smoke. She refused to believe that Mike was a demon, she flat out refused in her mind and so she kept reading and the book began to talk about another dimension, Purgatory.
"Purgatory, like Earth has different biomes and weather systems, even though monsters there prey upon each other there are certain areas in which even Leviathan stay clear from, the dark zone"
A chill found itself making its way up Elevens spine as she continued to read about the Dark Zone
"A place of Eternal Night, compared to the rest of purgatory, the dark zone is where the nastiest of creatures reside, not much is known expect for the fact only the stronger Leviathan choose to hunt there and that demons fear the place as well, its creatures easily able to kill demons"
Eleven slammed the book shut for one final time, she carefully looked around before placing the book in her backpack and leaving.
Later that night she stood in the backyard of her home, it now seemed lifeless and soulless without Mike there. Eleven stared at the shed, ready to do what needed to be done, her hand stretched forth, the ground began to rumble in protest as her power began to rip through the fabric of reality, Lightning started to flash against the sky, illuminating the tear that she was now making, a voice from behind ripped out of her concentration.
"I really wouldn't do that if I were you"
Eleven spun round and out of instinct she threw a wave of power at the figure now in front of her, he stood completely untouched as her power washed through him the only indicator was his clothes reacting to the rush of energy.
There stood a man with a gaunt face, dressed like a funeral director with a long black cane, his hair black, she could sense the sheer power radiating off the man like a waterfall and it was drowning her senses
"Why not?" she asked, it was one of the first times she spoke in months and it showed, her voice was almost hoarse from non use.
The man smiled "your tearing a hole in the fabric of reality, there are not many that can do such a thing and do it safely" he said "well I can" he added amusement in his tone.
"I could sense the echo of your power from the future and since I was locked away under the Earth I could not do anything, however, I am here now, you must not open the door"
"and why not" she growled, she was losing her patience, every second she spent here was a second wasted
"I take it you read that book, that blasted book, if you open that door you risk this world falling prey to the Leviathan, I personally found them fun to watch but they were locked away to keep them from eating everything in sight and now you risk that again by opening the door"
She turned away to face the shed where she was determined to open the gate.
"I need to do this, I need to save Mike"
The man in black huffed in annoyance "Humans and your bravado, you are just as bad as Dean, always trying to save others at the expense of the natural order, very well don't say I didn't warn you" and like that he was gone
Eleven stretched out her hand and the portal began to open, with a final grunt of effort the gate had been made, however, it was not like the gate at the lab, it was a great black gaping hole, it was sucking the air into it, the noise was like that of a waterfall, with a deep breath she stepped through and into the world on the other side.
Eleven stepped into Purgatory, the gate immediately closed behind her, trapping her, but what surprised her the most was that purgatory was similar to earth, there were trees and hell it was even a sunny day, she needed to find the dark zone however. She stretched out her senses to locate the dark zone. Even in a land of abominations there were places even they feared to tread.
But her eyes shot open as she felt something rapidly closing in on her position, her eyes darted everywhere but she could not see anything, that was until two black shapes impacted the ground metres from where she stood, the black goo within shifted until it became two human males, also dressed in plain black clothing
"Human!" one of them hissed at Eleven
El took a cautious step back, not knowing what these things were, one of them ran forward tackling her to ground with surprising speed, it raised its head, but its jaw opened up impossibly wide as a set of razor sharp teeth and two reptile like tongues revealed themselves. Before it could take a bite however El summoned her powers and threw the creature as far back as she could, the creature found itself impaled on a tree branch, black goo oozed from the wound.
To her surprise the creature began laughing. She sprang back to her feet as blood began to slowly drip from her nose
"Takes more than that to kill Leviathan sweetheart" it sneered at her
El watched in horror as the Leviathan slid off the tree branch and landed back on the ground, it didn't seem at all perturbed at the hole in its chest. He grinned maliciously.
"its been so long since we tasted human flesh, the other things here make me want to heave, I can smell her flesh from here, so succulent" the other Leviathan said
Then they both charged the stunned El, instinctively her arms shot up to defend herself, but she powers strained to push the two Leviathan back, but they stumbled forward step by step like they were tracking through sludge.
"Now, now we don't want to make a mess now do we in front of this fine lady?"
A beefy middle-aged man stepped into the clearing, in each hand was a makeshift blade made of bone and his face was unshaven and he held a smile as he stood beside El. He nodded at her and held out one of the blades to her.
"chop the head off darling" he said turning his attention back to the Leviathan
"Vampire!" the impaled vampire spat
The Leviathan sprinted to the both of them, the vamp managed to grapple his one and throw him to the floor. El panicked and fell over as she stumbled backwards, the blade fell several feet away from her, the Leviathan was on top of her in an instant, its jaw line expanded, about to devour her.
But it couldn't. it let out a frustrated growl as it found its head held in place by an invisible force, El's face was contorted in pain as blood began to pour from her nose and ears, she began to scream as the Leviathans head slowly began to separated from it's body, black ooze was going everywhere.
Finally the head rolled off to the side and the body collapsed on top of her, she pushed it off in disgust, she looked over to see the Vampire had taken care of his Leviathan and now was stood above her, hand held out.
She slowly and cautiously took it as he easily hauled her small frame to her feet.
"Who are you?" she asked
"Names Benny and you?"
"El" she said simply
Benny nodded thoughtfully
"and what's a human like you doing in a place like this?
"I'm looking for the Darkzone"
Benny's face instantly darkened "you don't want to go to that place, that's suicide, even those Leviathan go nowhere near it" he paused for a moment "why do u even want to go there?" he asked
"I have unfinished business with the monsters there" she glanced over her shoulder before looking back "and I'm trying to save someone"
Benny nodded in understanding "this someone must be important to you to risk death there"
"Life without him is meaningless, he was everything to me and now he's gone and I can think of nothing else but getting him back"
Benny again nodded in understanding "I too loved someone long ago, one of the reasons I died was because of the love I had for her" Benny said with regret evident in his voice.
"Will you help me?" she asked
"Yes I can, but I can only show you where, I cannot enter that place myself however"
"Is there anything you can tell me about the darkzone?" she asked as they began walking alongside a river.
Benny was silent for a moment, gathering his thoughts before speaking "there is more than one darkzone, Purgatory is like Earth, the whole place is identical, its also identical in the fact that exact replicas of cities and towns from earth reside in the dark zone's"
El nodded in understanding
"as far as I know the monsters that reside there feast upon humans who slip through the barriers that separate Earth and Purgatory, those specific monsters never leave the Darkzone and us regular monsters don't go near it either and like I said before the Leviathan even fear that place, only the strongest of their kind go there to hunt humans"
"where is the nearest darkzone?" she asked
"About an hours walk that way" Benny said raising his arm in the direction that they were travelling. For most of that hour they stayed silent, twice they came across a small group of Vampires that were easily dispatched by the duo, El noted that Benny liked to whistle as he fought. El used her power to make their presence invisible to all but the Leviathan who were immune to that particular magic.
Soon the sky began to grow dark, but not because the sun was setting. The small white flakes that fell from the sky began to increase in number as approached the Darkzone.
Benny came to a halt.
"this is as far as I can go, this environment is poisonous to my kind"
El turned around with a smile
"thank you Benny" she said
"don't thank me, I'm sending you to die showing you where one of these places are"
"I can handle them" she said determinedly "I was trapped here for ten months ten years ago, it didn't destroy then and it wont destroy me now"
Benny approached and kissed her hand politely, before turning around and walking away, El watched him leave, before he turned back on his heel"
"I hope you find that boy you were talking about, I really do"
She gave a small smile in response, he tipped his cap to her before walking off and out of sight.
El turned her attention back to the darkzone, or as she knew it, the upside down.
She stepped into the toxic mist knowing what must be done, but whether it could be done was a different matter entirely, but if she failed Mike would be lost to her forever.