Hello everyone! Welcome to chapter four of "Destiny of the Chosen" (still working on that title)! Before we begin I wanted to apologize. It's been brought to my attention that I've been saying "Mind Frayer," when it's actually "Mind Flayer." Oops. Everyone makes mistakes, right? I'll just go back and fix that. I'm just surprised none of y'all have corrected me yet! Well, please enjoy this chapter anyway!

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"Turn right here," Kali instructed, her eyes glued to the road. She was in the passenger's seat of Hopper's truck with the chief driving and Joyce and Michael sitting with the two unconscious children in the back. "Now another left." This was the most secure place she could think of where Eleven and Will would be safe, somewhere Brenner and his goons would never think to find them.

"Are we almost there?" Hopper asked irritably. They had been on the road for a little over an hour and he was getting anxious.

Kali ignored his question. "Right," she ordered. The car soon pulled up to a big, dark abandoned warehouse, not unlike the one El found her in. This part of town was so rundown and dirty that Brenner's people wouldn't dare sully their hands by searching around this neighborhood. She rolled her eyes at the thought; mouth breathers. She blinked, where did that come from? "This is it."

Hopper looked at the building skeptically before glancing back at the teenager. "And you're sure it's safe?"

Kali's eyes were downcast and instead of replying in her normally sarcastic and blunt manner, she said softly, "After I escaped, I hid from Brenner for weeks here. He'll never find us."

Hopper didn't know what it was, but the way she talked with such sincerity and emotion in her voice made him believe her. "Joyce," he called to the woman, cranking his neck to face her. "We're here." Joyce looked up at him, her expression rather frazzled, before nodding. She gently lifted Will out of the truck while Hopper did the same to Eleven. They carried both children inside the warehouse and laid them down on a nearby mat.

Michael sat next to his friends, gazing at them with concern evident in his eyes. "Now what?" he asked.

"We wait," answered Hopper.

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Max rolled her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose in annoyance. "Lucas, sit the hell down," she snapped. He had been pacing around the living room for the last half hour and it was driving her insane. She was worried about them too, but he really needed to calm down before he gave himself a heart attack. "They're going to be fine. So take a fucking chill pill."

Lucas stopped pacing and glared at her. "No, Max," he refused. "I won't 'take a fucking chill pill.' Will and El could die." He paused before adding, "Again." There were about a thousand different scenarios running through his head at what could happen and each and everyone of them ended horribly.

Max matched his glare, closing the distance between them and getting in his face. "You pacing around like a maniac isn't going to help them, dumbass," she retorted.

"Yeah, well-"

"Are you two gonna fight or make out?" Dustin chimed in.

Max and Lucas instantly separated from each other, the former's face turning almost as red as her hair and the latter looking just as embarrassed. "Dustin!" the redhead practically screeched. She then proceeded to sputter incoherent threats and accusations.

Dustin shrugged. "Hey, Lucas' shit-eating grin after the Snow Ball was enough of a hint," he joked.

"Really, shitheads? This is so not the time to be talking about relationships." The three young teenagers turned to see Steve, Nancy, and Jonathan standing in the doorway. Steve had his trusty bat in one hand and Nancy carried a small gun in hers.

"Steve!" exclaimed Dustin a little too enthusiastically. At his friends' questioning looks, he just shrugged in response. "What?"

Lucas rolled his eyes. "Nothing," he answered. He turned to the older teenagers. "I'm just glad you guys got my voicemail."

Jonathan nodded, his eyebrows creasing with concern. "How are they?" he asked. He had told his mother that he would stay with her and Will, but Joyce had insisted he take Nancy on the date they had planned, assuring him that she could handle it.

Max frowned. "Not good," she answered. "The chief took them out of the city to break their connection with the Mind Flayer. Kali, El's sister, took them somewhere she thinks those bastards won't find them."

Nancy looked around. "Where's Mike?" she asked, though she had a feeling she knew the answer.

"He went with them, duh," Dustin said. He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. "You know he's never letting her out of his sight again."

Lucas once again rolled his eyes and lightly shoved him. "Dude, not the time."

"So, why am I here?" asked Steve, his fingers caressing the bat nervously. He was only part of this little group because of Nancy and now that they were broken up, what was he good for? You know, besides being pretty good with a bat.

"Well, the chief figured that those two would be too engrossed with each other to watch us properly," Max explained, gesturing to Jonathan and Nancy who both turned bright red. "and you did a pretty okay job being a mom last time, so why not?" She gazed at the weapons two out of the three teens were holding. "Jesus, why the fuck did you bring those things?"

Steve shrugged. "We didn't know what the hell we were doing," he pointed out. He gestured to Lucas. "This dumbass only said that it was an emergency and that Jonathan needed to bring me and Nancy with him over here."

Dustin cocked an eyebrow in Lucas' direction. "Really?" he asked incredulously. "You couldn't mention that Hop only needed them to be our goddamn babysitters? You are a dumbass."

Lucas flipped him off. "Fuck off, I was panicking," he said, as if that clarified everything.

"Okay, then you should have just asked for Steve," Max replied, hitting him over the head. "Why did you bring all three of them here? Too many people at once exposes the cabin."

"Well, if more Demodogs show up, you'll be glad for them, won't you?"

"El closed the gate, idiot!"

"There could be a few left over!"

"Don't you think we'd notice them by now?"

"Not if the Mind Flayer doesn't want us to!"

"Bullshit!"

"Enough," snapped Steve, his voice strangely stern. Well, strange for Nancy and Jonathan. The other three, however, immediately looked up to him, waiting for him to say something. "Everyone's stressed right now, but you two at each others' throats isn't doing shit. So cut it out." Max and Lucas lowered their heads in shame while Nancy and Jonathan just looked at each other, the same thought running through their minds:

What the hell just happened?

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Eleven opened her eyes to total and utter darkness. There was nothing but black everywhere she turned. She knew where she was; she was in the Void. Next to her was a small boy who she immediately recognized. "Will," she spoke softly, shaking him gently. "Will, wake up." She was thoroughly reminded of when she contacted him for the first time last year. She hadn't known him, had never even seen him in person, but she had instantly formed a connection with him.

Not like the one she had with Mike. No, that was a completely different feeling entirely. Mike made her feel safe and cared for, but Will was the only one who understood what it was like to be the odd one out, even among friends. He was the only one in the world besides Kali who had an idea about what it was like to be her.

Will slowly opened his eyes. "El?" He sat up, looking around. "Where are we?" He might have been scared if not for the fact that she looked completely calm. It must be something of a natural occurrence for her.

"The Void," answered Eleven, helping him to his feet. She then realized something. The young girl poked Will's cheek, then ran her fingers through his hair before finally touching his arm.

Will's eyes shifted awkwardly, a barely visible blush forming on his cheeks. "Uh, El?"

"Hmm?"

"What are you doing?"

El stopped touching him and looked him in the eye. "You didn't go away," she observed.

Will looked thoroughly puzzled. "Why would I?" he asked.

"Everyone does when I touch them here," she told him, her eyebrows were scrunched together in confusion. "but not you."

Will remembered her explaining the Void to him and the others a few days ago. She could see anyone she wanted to there, but tried to touch someone, they disappeared in front of her. "Does that mean... I'm here with you? You think it has something to do with what the Mind Flayer's been doing to us?"

El shrugged. "Maybe."

"But why are we here?" asked Will. "I thought you could only enter the Void when you had a radio or TV or something like that and when you were blindfolded. Did they blindfold you or something?"

"Don't think so," responded El. She looked like she wanted to say something more when big, angry red storm clouds appeared in front of the through the darkness. In them formed a strange shape.

Well, to an outside it would be strange. But both El and Will knew exactly what it was. "The Mind Flayer," they whispered in unison, instinctively backing away in fear.

Will tugged on Eleven's sleeve, attempting to pull her away. "El, come on!" he urged, but the girl stayed where she was. "El!"

"Can't hurt us," El insisted, walking closer to it. She ignored Will's desperate pleas for her to stop. "What do you want?" She spoke slowly but evenly, making sure her voice was strong. The Mind Flayer seemed to look down at her, before touching one of its large tentacles to her forehead. She closed her eyes at the touch, allowing it to make contact with her mind.

"EL!" shouted Will, endless scenarios going through his head of what could happen. Mike and Hopper were both going to murder him if anything happened to her. Then, she turned around to face him, her eyes glowing bright red. Shit, he thought. That can't be good. The darkness that surrounded them suddenly began to change.

They were in the Upside Down. Well, not really there. He would be able to tell if they were. It was more like a projection of a memory. It was nothing like during on of his episodes. They were only there mentally, not physically. "Lonely," whispered Eleven. Will looked around and realized that it was indeed quite lonely. The only real company was the Demogorgon species and they weren't really conversationalists.

Will looked to the Mind Flayer. "What do you want?" he repeated his friend's question from earlier.

But it was El who answered, "A clean slate." She turned around to face him, her eyes no longer glowing. "Our world."

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Kali, Joyce, Michael, and Hopper all jumped back a bit when both children's eyes snapped open and they sat up in unison. Joyce was immediately at her son's side. "Will," she spoke. "Will, baby, are you alright?"

"I-I'm fine," Will assured his mother. "I-" He shared a glance with El who looked just as lost as he felt. What had they just seen?

"How are you doing, kid?" Hopper asked her, feeling her forehead.

El shrugged, looking around the unfamiliar place. "Where are we?" she asked, gently pushing away his hand.

"Somewhere the bed men won't get us," answered Kali.

"What did you guys see?" asked Michael, earning surprised looks from the two of them. "You both look like you've seen a ghost. What happened?"

Will and Eleven once again looked at each other. "The Void," answered the latter.

"The Mind Flayer was there," continued Will. At Joyce, Hopper, and Mike's panicked looks, he quickly added, "It didn't hurt us, El said it couldn't even if it wanted to. It just... showed us something."

"What was it?" questioned Kali, interested in all this other dimension weirdness.

"It wants this world," said El. She didn't want to, but she felt empathy for the monster. She had been alone for the majority of her life too. She knew how bad it felt. Of course, it wasn't any less of a monster, but she understood the pain it felt. "because it's... alone."

Kali was incredulous. "You mean it's been terrorizing this world, killing anyone it pleases because it's... lonely?" Of course, she realized she wasn't much better. But she killed for justice. She inflicted pain on those who inflicted pain on her. It was only fair. What could this world possibly have done to deserve the wrath of this monster?

Will nodded. "That's about right..."

Eleven tensed as she heard the sound of cars pulling up. "Hide," she hissed, startling everyone. "Bad men are here."

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Ew. That's all I have to say about this chapter. It feels rushed and poorly written to me, but I had no other way of wording it. Poor Mike, I only gave him two freaking lines here. Please, feel free to tell me how much it sucked with a review! Bye!