(A/N) Dream sequences are in italics
"El, I can't be that thing again" Mike had said to her less than minute ago, Eleven had starred at his retreating back as he made his way to the bathroom to clean up. El was to say the very least still shaken from the whole ordeal, in no circumstances had she ever imagined that Mike's hands would have been around her neck in an attempt to kill her in untameable anger.
She lifted her hand to her neck to feel where she could still feel his hands wrapped around her throat. She shuddered. In that moment she thought that Mike was going to kill her and she would have let him simply because she couldn't bare the thought of Harming Mike regardless whether he was a Demon or not.
His offer had been even more tempting, to give in to her own Demons and commit bloodshed across the world with him even if it had only been for a fleeting moment, it had been a moment nonetheless and the very fact of that terrified her, knowing she had the potential to become what the Demonic version of her soul mate had wanted her to become.
A Murderer.
To become Lovers bound through Murder and the spent blood of countless slaughtered innocents. To make love through all that pain, destruction and misery that they would bring upon the world and upon those they used to love.
And she had wanted it for the briefest of moments. She nearly succumbed to the darkest of desires that festered In her heart.
Just because it would be easier and because she would be with him regardless of what they would be known for and what they would become in the eyes of the world.
That is if the world survived the wrath of Eleven and Mike.
"You have a wound Eleven, A terrible wound" The taunting words of Kali's hallucination of Brenner echoed within her mind.
She found this moment of solace to cry to herself, wrapping her arms around herself as she shed the emotion from the trails and tribulation of the last ten hours. Having to find the strength within herself to save Mike. Because Mike was her strength, her own Power meant nothing without Mike. Only problem was the Demon hadn't wanted to be saved. She knew that but she had forced the cure upon him anyway because she knew that the real Mike didn't want to be that thing. To be the Killer that the Mark had wanted him to be. To wander the Earth for the rest of time, First Blade in hand with the death of thousands and thousands of innocents.
Of course she had Hidden the First Blade. The damn thing had only ever seemed to make things worse. She found herself being ripped apart as the realization of how close she had been to losing Mike, maybe forever. All because Mike had made the rash decision to take the Mark from Cain so that he could protect her.
It was ironic.
Mike came walking back in slowly although El's eyes were squeezed shut tight as tears made their way down her delicate features, crying quietly. Mike stood transfixed for a moment before he slowly made his way to her and enveloped her in a tight embrace which she reciprocated, the tears started to fall harder and faster. All the while Mike was whispering in her ear he wept with her. "I'm so, so, so sorry, El" and they just held the other closely, the only sound was of sniffles and whimpers within the ever growing darkness of the bedroom in the fading evening Sun.
His fingers were now soft and gentle and she found herself being lulled away under the spell of Mike's calming presence, the familiar scent of Mike's apple shampoo hung heavy in the air. It was everything El had come to associate with safety, love and acceptance but was now tainted by the memory of the abomination that was no less than an hour ago a Demon. A Demon that was once Mike, twisted and mutilated into a creature that only wanted to kill and wanted El to join him in his bloodbath.
Her head was tucked underneath his chin as the two began to doze off still fully clothed. The toll of the day was finally weighing upon their minds, emotions high and confusing. The presence of the other soothed them like an aura that would heal everything if it could.
And as the evening sun dipped below the horizon Mike and El found themselves falling into a restless, haunted sleep. Of things that were, things that are and things that were yet to come.
Neither Noticed as The Mark of Cain glowed red faintly upon the boy's arm as they slipped into the world of Dreams and the underworld of Nightmares.
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Mike found himself within a blackened void that stretched into the depths of infinite nothings but Empty. Mike furrowed his brow as looked around him in confusion, the hairs on the back of his head began to rise one by one as he felt himself being watched. He swallowed heavily and slowly turned around to face his Demons.
Quite Literally.
Mike had discarded what the Demon had been wearing in exchange for one of his pair's of jeans that were a darker shade and baby blue coloured shirt.
His Demonic self stood nought but three metres away from him wearing the same red attire as he did along with his eyes being purely black.
"I think this conversation is long overdue, wouldn't you say Mikey?" The Demon taunted with a smirk.
"You shouldn't be here, El cured me of you" Mike said immediately his weight shifting from one though from another.
Demon!Mike just laughed humourlessly.
"You See Mikey, I will never be truly gone, I will be always there lurking within in you. As long as you have this" He said gesturing towards the Mark that was branded upon both of their arms "Then I will always be here lurking beneath the surface"
Mike closed his eyes tightly before letting them snap open.
"You think I want to be like you?" Mike asked disgusted.
"No but you know that this…" Demon!Mike said pointing towards himself "is simply a inevitable eventuality"
"No… I won't let that happen again, I can't let that happen ever again" Mike said with determination.
Demon!Mike just laughed again.
"Do you not listen? This will happen, no matter how hard you fight or how hard you try, I will be your eventual ending. You can't escape me Mikey, one way or another this is what you will become" Demon!Mike said seriously all traces of humour and sadistic mocking gone.
"You lie" Mike said simply.
"I have no need to lie because the truth is that evermore painful"
Mike simply could not respond even though he did not want to believe his Demonic counterpart's words he could sense the truth that was laced upon them, one day he will turn into that thing again and thousands would die by his hand. Perhaps millions.
"And hopefully I won't be alone" Demon!Mike said with the trademark wink he had been using. It made Mike cringe and he knew exactly who he was referring to.
"She would never join you" Mike said defiantly.
"Us" The Demon corrected, the Demon was Mike and it would always be Mike. His soul twisted beyond recognition into a black smoke that would reek of Sulfur.
"You really believe that?"
Mike found himself unable to answer as the Demon laughed before vanishing in a puff of smoke.
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El Hopper had found herself somewhere completely different, she found herself watching a scene unfold before her, where she could not interact with it in anyway and what she was seeing was sending continuous chills throughout her body as she bore witness to the most surreal situation that she had ever seen, it was bone chilling.
And Frightening.
Because in front of her was herself and Mike.
They looked happy and worry free but it wasn't what made her want to turn away whether it was due to revulsion or because of the lingering strands of temptation she felt in her heart she simply did not have the capacity to know.
Because she was watching herself and Mike murdering everyone that came upon their path. Massacre was too simple to describe it. Mike had the attire he wore as a Demon. But El? She was wearing her punk style clothes from Chicago where she had nearly given into temptation going Darth Vader upon one of the lab workers. This no longer seemed the case at the moment, she had truly gone off the reservation and gave into the temptations murder and revenge
She noticed that she had the Mark of Cain branded upon her arm just like Mike did.
They were smiling as they slaughtered one person after another. They were in a Lab that looked closely similar to the Hawkins Lab and the doors were held closed by their combined telekinetic power. They threw the first blade to one another as they took turns gutting anyone that was within reach.
And they were dancing.
Mike twirled her around merrily after slicing through the stomach of one guard who had raised his weapon, his guts spilling out onto the floor, she giggled as she handed the blade to him, The Marks of Cain glowing upon their arms every time the blade had been encased within their grasp.
The First blade was exactly what it's namesake claimed to be. The First Blade in existence, fashioned from the jawbone of a donkey and the very blade that Cain had used to kill his younger Brother Abel.
Mike suddenly twirled her into and pressed his lips hungrily and lustfully to hers. Her slicked back and Mike cupped the back of her head softly even though his fingers were caked in blood, some dry, some not. He bit the bottom of her lips softly eliciting something that was neither a whimper or a moan from the back of her throat. She held onto the front of his shirt, gripping fistfuls of it as they kissed hungrily, their eyes closed blissfully. As they pulled apart both of theirs eyes had become Demonic Black.
"I have a present for you" Mike said quietly stroking her cheek delicately with his fingers.
"Hmm I wonder what?" She replied with a smirk. His fingers traced her arm, tracing his fingertips on her delicate flesh. Trailing over the Mark and down to her own petite fingertips.
The Real watched the scene unfold before her with morbid interest, finding it odd that the Demonic versions of themselves still loved the other deeply from what she could see.
As he tore his arm away from hers "Wait here for me?" he asked, her evil counterpart nodded before Mike stalked off swinging the first blade round as he turned the corner. Both El's listened intently as there was a crashing sound of a door being kicked in and the sound of a scream and several gunshots ringing out in the slaughtered remnants of the lab
Mike came round the corner with a triumphant smile upon his lips as he dragged a man with aging silver-grey hair.
"Surprise!" he shouted cheerfully.
Dr Martin Brenner was upon his knee's at the feet of Mike, his nose bloody from what appeared to be a broken nose. His icy eyes starred up at Eleven. She looked back up to Mike.
"Mike…" she uttered quietly.
He held out the first blade to her which she gratefully took. The Mark instantly lit up a rage inducing red as did the veins beneath her skin as it travelled down her arm into her fingertips, powering the blade. Feeling something akin to ecstasy as she felt the power course through every atom of her body and withered husk of a soul.
"Eleven…" Brenner uttered weakly. It was a silent plea for mercy. A mercy that he wasn't going to have. There were no monologues or final epic words. No just a brutal plunge with the blade through Brenner's Lung on the right side of his chest. El closed her eyes in bliss as she listened to her tormentor choke upon his own blood, it was rather poetic.
Brenner fell to the floor dead. A pool of blood seeping from underneath him.
El turned to see Mike looking at her with heart eyes.
"That is seriously the hottest thing that I have ever seen" He said completely enthralled with her. Next thing anyone knew the First Blade was tumbling from El's grip as the two collided with each other, lips engaging the other in a desperate battle of domination and lust.
The Real El could not bare to watch as the clothing had begun being removed with random pieces flung in any random direction. Lucky enough for her the dream began to evaporate around her before everything went black as she found herself being rapidly pulled towards the surface of consciousness.
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El awoke with a start.
Mike was still asleep although his brow was furrowed on his head, frowning in his sleep. El's forehead was awash with cold sweat, she looked to Mike's face which was reflecting the moonlight that was now pouring through the window, she glanced down to see the Mark still adorning his arm.
She glared at it hatefully. Nothing had gone right since Mike had been branded with the Mark. Nothing at all but she did not realize that from this point onward things were only going to get worse and Mike would fall ever deeper into the darkness that threatened to engulf him and take her down with him.
The dream that she had haunted her. Seeing this possible future was terrifying as it was chilling and it was like it looming over them like a oppressive shadow. She looked back to Mike, the scatted pattern of freckles still lay upon him, she liked to count them whenever she could, she didn't even know why.
But as she sat and gazed at him she found herself coming to a resolution.
And that was her making a promise to herself. To Mike.
She wouldn't let him become that thing again.
She Promised.
El didn't know that there was an old saying as she drifted back off to sleep.
Promises are made to be broken.
(A/N) boom… lol well there we are guys I had a bit of writers block whilst writing this chapter but It's all good now and I can't wait to hear what you guys think! Next chapter will be about How Mike managed to obtain the Mark in the first place
As always guys review! And until next time, peace!