A/N: So! I didn't think I would write anything for Stranger Things, but that idea didn't stick around for long. I binge watched the entire series in one night, and I couldn't stand the idea that it would end any other way then with El going to live with Joyce Byers and becoming a normal girl. And this was born.
Darkness. It's all that Eleven could see.
She stood in the middle of a dilapidated school, overgrown with strange vines and slime. She spun in a quick circle, trying to get her bearings. Directly behind her was a doorway, crumbling under the weight of a seemingly unending plant.
"Mike?" She called, her voice breaking. "Hello? Is anyone here? Mike?"
When no one responded, she decided to go and investigate. As soon as she took a step, her vision blurred. She slumped to her knees, feeling the dried blood on her upper lip for the first time. As she moved her hands to her head, she felt it below her ears as well. What happened? Where was she?
"The Demogorgon," she whispered, remembering. Where was it? Did she kill it? She had thrown everything there was at it, but was that enough? El shook herself, and got to her feet again, this time ignoring the accompanying nausea.
Stepping into the hallway, the world grew a bit lighter, glowing in strange shades of blue. With a start, El realized where she is.
"No…" She said quietly. Not here; anywhere but here. The Upside Down, this pathetic excuse for a place, couldn't be her new home. It just couldn't. There had to be a way out. She walked down the hallway, slowly at first, but began to gather speed. She was running by the time that she reached the end, and tore around corners at random until she sees the exit.
She threw open the door, and looked around, heart pounding. But there was no exit, only the cold, unforgiving landscape of the Upside Down. She looked around, breathing heavily, and ran again. Bolting down the road, El headed to the last place she felt at home: Mike's basement.
Reaching his house, she ran to the basement steps. Halfway down, she tripped over a particularly slippery vine and tumbled down the remaining stairs. Her blanket fort was still standing, and she dove inside. El clutched at the blankets on the floor, torn and slimy and gross, but familiar.
Curling up into a ball, she pulled the blankets over herself and folded all of her limbs into her dress, the only thing not coated in the goop. She tucked her head to her chest, and cried. For Mike, for Dustin and Lucas, for Will, Joyce, and Nancy, and for herself. After an hour or so, she fell into a fitful sleep, the only glowing light in an eternal darkness.
...
El sat in the woods on a box, eating a frozen waffle. They kept appearing in the box, every day, and were her only food source. She didn't know where they came from, or how they got to her, but she didn't really care.
Occasionally something else appeared in the box as well. A piece of paper with odd markings on it, or a pair of socks, or a small trinket. Once there was a band like the one that Mike had worn on his wrist, the one that had changing numbers on it.
Her hair was longer now, about an inch. It hung limp and unflattering on her head, but she loved the feeling of warmth. She had no idea how long it's been since the confrontation in the school; the days began to blur together long ago.
El sighed as she finished her waffle. Standing up, she closed the box and began her long walk back to Mike's house. When she got there, she could immediately tell that something was different. She could feel a strange hum in the air, almost as if it was charged.
Eyes darting around the room, El felt a presence beside her. She reached out, but there was nothing there for her to feel. At least with her hands, because she knew that there was something there in her heart.
After a moment, she heard a voice to her left. She couldn't tell what it was saying, but she recognized it. It was Mike.
For the first time since the Demogorgon, El allowed herself to hope.
...
Mike Wheeler wasn't sure what normal is anymore. Four months ago, normal was going to school, doing homework, annoying Nancy, and making up campaigns with his friends in the basement. Three months ago, normal was searching for Will, running from the government, protecting Eleven, and dealing with a plethora of weirdos in the form of all his friends' families. Two months ago, normal was ditching school to look for Eleven, avoiding everyone to deal with her being gone, and trying to convince his mom that she wasn't a monster, wasn't a criminal, that she was just a girl.
Now, normal was going to school again, shoveling snow in his front yard, avoiding talking about Eleven to anyone, and messing around with his friends again. Except, he often blew them off to go into the woods to look for any clues about where El may be.
On this particular Saturday, he had decided early on that he would find her. Feeling energized, he had left at the crack of dawn to search around the fence of Hawkins lab. It was the only gate he knew of, and he knew that Eleven was still out there, so he walked the entire circumference of the fence, before giving up on that and returning to Will's hideout to think.
And that's where he was now: Sitting on the floor of Castle Byers with his Supercomm, trying to think of anywhere that El may be. He sighed, reaching for his water bottle and taking a long drink. He stood up, climbed onto his bike and hit the road again.
A few minutes later, he reached the end of the road. After hiding his bike under a bridge, Mike trekked into the woods to where they first saw her.
"Come with us," Mike said to the strange girl, "You can't stay out here. We can call your parents, just please come on."
She looked at him, not moving except for the heavy breaths that rocked her whole body. Her eyes were wide, staring at them in fear, and she began to back away slowly.
"No, wait," Mike said, "We're not gonna hurt you, right guys?"
Lucas shrugged and Dustin made a small noise noncommittedly.
"Some friends you are," Mike muttered, turning back to the girl. "Okay, look. You can stay at my place. We can get you food, water, whatever you need, but you gotta come with us. Please"
She shook her head, backing away faster, and tripped over a root, falling onto her back with a little cry.
"Woah!" Mike yelled, running forward to help her up. He held his hand out for her to take. When she didn't, he said, "Come on. Let me help you up. Please?"
She looked at him for another minute before finally taking his hand and allowing him to pull her up. Once she was standing, he kept his hold on her and slowly led her over to his bike.
"Here, climb on," He said, gesturing to the seat, and she stared at him for another moment before awkwardly mounting the seat, and he began to push her towards his house, flanked by Lucas and Dustin.
Mike was shaken from his memories as he bonked his head on the branch of an oak tree. He swore, rubbing his forehead, and continued walking. If El was out there, and he was sure she was, he would find her, if it was the last thing he would do.
Five hours later, Mike had achieved nothing but scraping his knee and drinking a lot of water. He sighed, noting how the sun was about to set, and began walking back to his bike. He had been so sure he would find her, going so far as to fix up the blanket fort before leaving his house. He had made waffles, set out one of his old sweatshirts for her, and told Nancy not to take too long of a shower so that their temperamental water heater could draw a warm bath for her when they got home.
But it appeared that it wasn't worth it. She wasn't here, she wasn't anywhere, because he would have found her. He promised that he would find her, and he would never go back on that promise.
...
"Dammit!" Mike shouted, punching a tree, which definitely hurt him more than it did the tree. "El, where are you? Why won't you let me find you? Do you not like me anymore? Cause that's fine, just please come home, I just want to see your face. Is it because I said there was something wrong with you? I didn't mean it, El, I was just mad! I'm sorry, I'm sorry I said that, I'm sorry about the bad men, and I'm sorry you had to live in my basement. If you come back, you can have my room! Doesn't that sound good? And I brought waffles for you; Got them right here, and if you come back I'll give them to you. Just… please come back… please?"
Mike finished his rant and collapsed by a tree, worn out. With a start, he remembered what Nancy had said about climbing through a tree, and how the Demogorgon had chased her there. It must be another gate to the Upside Down!
He ripped at the bark, feeling it coming off in his hands, not caring about the splinters. He tore and peeled and yanked all of the bark off of the tree until he could see the soft inside.
There was no door, no gate, none of those weird vines. It was just a tree.
"Dammit!" Mike shouted again, and angrily got to his feet. He ran back to his bike, pulling it out from under the bridge, and pedaled back to his house as fast as he could.
...
"So, how was your day?" Karen Wheeler asked over dinner, glancing over to Mike, who was brooding in his chair by the wall.
"Fine," Mike said monotonously, picking at his meatloaf.
"Well, where did you go? I didn't see you all day."
Mike glared at his mom. "I went to the woods." His mom was incapable of letting him have his privacy, especially after the events of three months ago.
"Mike," she began accusingly, "You know I don't like you going out on your own. You know how that ended for Will…"
How that ended for Will? Mike thought angrily. I don't think you know that happened with Will. You don't know where he was, you don't know what happened to him, and you don't know that he's barfing up slugs in the bathroom every day.
She was looking at him, still waiting for a response.
"Mom, I've told you before, I'm never out past dark. And…" He trailed off, not wanting to talk about why he was out there.
"And?" His mom prompted. He looked to Nancy, his eyes begging for her to cover for him.
"Um, actually," Nancy said awkwardly, "Mike lost something, a while ago, and he told me this morning he was gonna go find it."
Mike sent her a small smile. What she had said was only a partial lie, and he still felt bad about lying to his mom about El.
"Oh, what'd you lose?" His mom asked casually, serving herself more asparagus.
"Um." Mike looked at his mom, who was obviously waiting for an answer. What, exactly, had he lost? A friend, that was obvious, but maybe something more?
"Well, you see, I… I had this awesome… well…"
"Mike." She was looking at him more pointedly now. "Tell me why you were in the woods, on your own, without telling anyone."
"I... I'm having a bit of a pronoun problem…" He said, because he couldn't call El an "it", because she was a person, but if he called her a "she" then his mom would catch on to what he was looking for.
"Mike, for God's sake, tell me what you lost!" His mom was angry now, and his dad seemed to notice the conflict for the first time.
"Listen to your mother," he said before turning his attention back to the TV in the living room.
Mike sighed, and turned to his mom, trying to convey what he was feeling to her.
"I-" He was interrupted by a sudden crash from the basement.
Everyone froze.
"Ted, get the axe." Karen said, pulling Holly to her. Mike looked at Nancy, both thinking the same thing.
"Do you think…" Nancy trailed off, looking at him pointedly.
"It's possible…" Mike replied, glancing at his mom.
"What? What is it?" Karen looked at them suspiciously.
Mike ignored her and gave a small nod to Nancy. She nodded back, and without another word, they both got up and ran to the basement steps. They jostled each other on their way down, and Nancy stopped about five stairs from the bottom, letting Mike investigate on his own.
Mike stepped slowly into the basement, and froze. There, sitting dazed in the middle of the floor, was Eleven.
"El!" He shouted, and ran over to her, pulling her into his arms. "El, where have you been? How did you get back? I missed you so much!"
He looked at her again, and his gaze was drawn to the goop and blood that was covering her.
"El, are you okay?" He asked, concerned. She looked up at him, eyes wide and trusting.
"Yes," she said softly, and he pulled her into a hug again.
"El!" Nancy shouted, running to the pair and wrapping her arms around both of them.
"What is going on down here!?" Mike's mom said accusingly as she walked down the stairs. She froze as not two, but three heads turned up to her. Nancy and Mike, whose eyes were shining, and another child, whose face was covered in grime and whose eyes were wide.
"Who is this?" She asked, looking from Mike to Nancy to the child again.
"Oh," Mike said, glancing at the child and pulling her to him. "Mom, this is Eleven. She's… Can you help her get cleaned up?"
Mike looked to Karen, who looked to Nancy, who looked back to El.
"Maybe I should help her," Nancy said slowly, and El nodded. "Okay then. Mom, can you go make some food for El?"
Karen looked taken aback, but recovered quickly. "Um, yes. Of course. What should I make?"
El looked up at her, and gave her a small, hopeful smile.
"Eggos?"
A/N: This was a little angsty, but it didn't feel right to just rush into El being back in town. That said, if it did feel rushed, that's because I physically CANNOT STAND the idea of these kids not being reunited. SO, anyway, there will be more chapters. Stay tuned.