Chapter two: Promises

A couple of weeks had passed and Hawkins seemed to have settled, the town recovered so quickly, school resumed and all was back to normal except of course for the fact that everyone always talked about what had happened, and the guys were now famous in a strange way, this used to be a dull town, not too many things happened there before, and It wasn't every day that a kid comes back from the dead or a couple a dozen military and government guys die at your school with kids being involved in it all, talks of monsters, kidnappings, disappearances, and a girl that broke Troy's arm, everything was different, no one bullied the guys anymore, Will was kind of a bad ass now, he's been to upside down and came back alive so of course it changed him a little, Lucas enjoyed the attention except for when people talked about Eleven, especially if they talked of her like she was a freak, he felt bad because of those times he yelled at her and those things he said, but mostly because he felt bad for Mike having to hear that, All the guys felt the same and everyone tiptoed around even the mention of her, except for Dustin of course, he knew how to cheer Mike up if El was brought up, no one knew he had secretly promised himself to be more brave for everyone, especially for the party, Mike, Will, Lucas, and Eleven; even though she was gone; He hadn't forgotten how Mike jumped off that cliff to save him, or how Eleven sacrificed herself for all of them.

Mike spent most of his time alone, he hadn't gone to school for a week after it all happened, nor had he seen the guys much in that week either, almost three weeks have passed now and the party didn't feel back together yet, they haven't even played Dungeons & Dragons since the events, the guys told Mike they should play next weekend but Mike just wasn't all there yet, at school he acted like nothing was wrong, he seemed unchanged to the guys, except for Dustin who saw right through all that.

There were a lot of birds in the sky that day, or at least that's what it seemed like to Mike as he looked up almost all the way back from school on his bike, the guys didn't talk much and seemed like every time someone started a conversation it would pass or die at Mike's, he didn't do it intentionally, he was just thinking about that time they took Eleven out in broad day light, she looked pretty in that dress and in the sun, it was fun having her outside with them and not hiding her, he knew things are changed now and she's gone but he doesn't want to forget about those times, he promised her to himself he wouldn't, and he will never break that promise, he didn't want to, but even though he knew she was gone he didn't feel it, it felt a little like how it felt when Will was gone.

It was almost 4 in the afternoon when they got around to Mikes, flipped upside down it was as dark as midnight, there was a perpetual night on the other side, the air was thick with decay and toxins, the sky void of stars and everything was dead, nothing grew there but evil, all of it cut off, all but for that one house on Maple street where a glimmer of light shone amidst it all, there was life there, something good, it came from the window of Mikes room, she was there, Eleven, against all odds she was there; curled next to the bed, her back to the wall, her hair grown a bit but was still so short you couldn't mistake who she was, her cloth were a mess, especially the dress, it lost its pink color and acquired a grey shade, only Hopper's shirt had its vibrant colors intact, her face was slightly covered in dirt stains, and her skin looked a bit pale compared to once before, Will barely survived a week in the upside down, she's been there for almost a month, but she was as strong as she needed to be; She had found a wrist watch there somehow and it was her only means of telling the time, she only needed it to know when to go out to get food, she pulled herself up took a shaky breath and went downstairs and out of the house; The streets were always empty and looked haunting, she braved through them and into Mirkwood, she always got scared going back there, she once ran as fast she could to get away from there, it was too near those horrible memories, and even though Eleven was strangely strong she was literally living in her worst nightmare, she feared the dark and no place was darker than this, she was scared of being alone, and now she was the only person in an entire planet, an entire dimension, she hated hurting anyone or anything and yet she was left with no choice but to kill that monster, it seemed like this upside down was a dark reflection of all her worst fears combined and now she was stuck there, even being stuck was one of her fears; Eleven arrived at a wooden box in the woods, she summoned her strength then opened the box and reached inside where her hand disappeared, she grabbed something then pulled her hand out with a lunch box , it was red and had some animals drawn on it, this was not from this world, she opened it and a half a faint smile came and went on her face as she reached in, grabbed some eggos and started eating.

Hopper had promised her he'll tell no one, keep her a secret, and told her he'll get her food every day, sometimes he left cookies and other sweets with the meals, but he always got her eggos, it was before he went to save Will that they made this deal, it was Eleven's plan to distract the Demogorgon using the bad men, so Hop could get in and get Will out, getting rid of all the monsters from both dimensions at the same time; this was all after she realized it was the only way to protect them all, to protect Mike.

"And you can eat as many eggos as you want" Mike's voice was in her mind while she ate the eggos, remembering his voice was a way to pass the time, a good way, she remembered the first time he gave her an eggo, it felt like the first time anyone gave her food that tasted good, Benny Hammond was the first, but the bad men came and killed him, killed this memory, she couldn't remember how the food tasted, only what had happened, she blamed herself for it, she wished he didn't catch her in the kitchen, but she was hungry, and didn't know how far the bad men's reach went, or to what extreme would they go to take her back, she remembered crying "sorry..sorry..sorry" she said as she ran from there through those dark woods, but it lead her to them, to Mike, she remembered how it felt like having someone care about her, giving her his jacket, papa never did that, only giving her anything when he wanted something, and what he gave wasn't much, a meal, a glass of water, a plant, rarely anything she wanted, and never without a price attached to it and could just as easily take any of it away if she upset him, she remembered Mike again, he wasn't like that, Mike cared about her, gave her a jacket when she was cold, gave her a home when was lost, but most of all he comforted her without even trying, just by being nice to her, Eleven didn't understand much about this new world she escaped to but she knew what Mike was doing was a more than what others usually did, "friend but more" she thought, Dustin and Lucas were friends too, but Mike was more than that, she wished Mike would have told her a word for it, he always had no trouble explaining things to her, except for this, she remembered how Mike struggled to explain that one thing, the only thing she saw him have any trouble explaining, but his kiss changed that, sometimes words aren't enough she learned, not that she knew or spoke many herself; she remembered the day Mike and Dustin got her back home, she remembered when Mike was cleaning her face in the bathroom, how he didn't care about her hair, only about her, and how she felt that pull towards him, that's it, the feeling that has no word for it, "someone you like" she thought, she remembered his promise and promised herself she would see him again, "Promise" she said out loud.