Johnathan was in a sour mood.

It was beginning to rain, and the passenger window of his LTD leaked, but he didn't care at the moment.

Thoughts of his little Brother, alone and terrified in that dark, rotting place constantly haunted him...followed closely by thoughts of Lonnie telling their Mom to forget about Will, like he was nothing more than yesterday's garbage.

The teenager gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white.

He had been there, briefly. He and Nancy had gone out looking for Will, not realizing just how dire the situation had been...

Flashbacks of rotted trees, giant, floating white spores, and an out of place Deer carcass flashed through his mind, and no amount of distracting music could drown them out.

Especially not the worst of them: the image of a clawed, humanoid monstrosity, gluttonously feasting on the corpse.

Above all, that horrifying moment when he had been trapped between worlds, one hand reaching out to the other side just before Nancy had helped pull him out remained stubbornly stuck in his mind, refusing to let go.

He sighed.

Hopefully, Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler were open to him straight up asking if he could date their Daughter, at least...

Suddenly, a bike rider came out of nowhere, and Johnathan had to swerve to avoid hitting them: and a good thing he had too because Will would never have forgiven him for running his best friend over.

'Shit! Sorry, Mike!' he said, mentally kicking himself for not paying attention.

The younger boy nodded, a deer-in-the-headlights look still prevalent on his face.

'Hey is, uh- is Nancy home?'

'Y-yeah! I think so' he replied, quickly moving his bike over on the sidewalk.

'Cool, thanks, man'

After Mike had taken off, Johnathan sat there for a minute, envying his Brother for having the close friend that he had never had growing up, before pressing down on the accelerator once more, silently thanking God that Will was safe at home now.


The boy who El knew was no longer Will Byers -at least, not entirely- seemed to be yelling at himself, as if in an argument with someone or something else unseen.

Though, of course, the Psychic had a pretty good, if rough idea of what it might be:

An entity from the upside down. An insidious energy-parasite -judging by the sheer amount of raw, psychic power that emanated from it- that undoubtedly had terrible plans for Hawkins.

Worse: it might even be a direct aspect of the master of that horrible place, and if that was indeed the case, she knew she had to somehow kill it, even if it meant the death of Mike's friend.

Even if Mike never forgave her: a thought that hurt deeply.

Aiming to take the monster by surprise, El suddenly blasted its host with a wave of psychic energy, throwing him across the road, and quickly moved to follow it.

As it stood, she was about to attack again but was caught by surprise as it spoke:

'Jane?! But How? HOW?!'

She began to walk purposefully forward again, brushing its words aside as nothing more than a distraction.

'YOU'RE DEAD!'

This time, she stopped cold. It hadn't framed that statement as a threat at all.

'I WATCHED YOU DIE!'

In fact, it acted as if it somehow 'knew' her.

But no: it was just playing mind games.

Just like Papa had.

'ENOUGH!' she yelled, slamming it against a nearby tree. 'NO MORE TRICKS!'

Suddenly, the girl felt herself being lifted up into the air.

'STOP IT, JANE!' the entity commanded, his hand outstretched, but El responded with another knockback blast that sent it tumbling.

As she fell to the ground, a niggling thought in the back of her mind wondered just 'why' it kept calling her Jane...

No matter: she had more important things to focus on. Her power was already beginning to wane, and an unwelcomely familiar light-headedness was returning.

Wiping the blood from her nose, she resolved that she had to end this fight. 'Now'.

'I don't want to hurt you goddammit: Don't make me!'

A look of anger came over her face.

'Where is Will?!' she demanded.

She hadn't expended so much energy and effort to help Will Byers, just to see his mind devoured by a psychic parasite, but she 'would' kill him, were she left with no alternative.

'Will is fine!' it said, fists clenched. 'But stop hurting him!'

Now it was acting protective towards its host. But why?

Why was he so important to it?

And why was 'she'?

'Who are you?' she asked shakily in typical, blunt fashion, her speech having greatly improved under Jim's (and Mike's) tutelage.

A tear inexplicably materialized from his left eye, rolling down his cheek, and his look of anger was replaced with one of...

...hurt?

What the hell was going on?!

'I loved you' it said, closing its eyes, and breathing heavily. It seemed to be just as tired as she was.

El stood there in shock, unable to process what had just been said.

The entity slowly walked back towards Will's bike and stood it up.

'Just...don't follow us. Please' it said, taking off towards Town once again.

The bewildered psychic sat down in the middle of the road, exhausted, and caught in a mental whirlwind.

He didn't want to hurt her?

He loved her?

Her eye twitched.

He had watched her die?!

Suddenly, she jerked herself up onto her feet, teeth clenched, steam all but coming out of her ears.

She couldn't BELIEVE she had let that monster from the upside down manipulate her emotions so easily! Especially with nonsense!

Marching back into the woods, she grabbed her stolen bicycle and began to peddle hard once she made it onto the road.

This entity was far, FAR more dangerous than she had realized. It had thrown her completely for a loop with devious mind games, and had even tricked her into 'letting' it escape.

What its end-goal was, she couldn't say. Who 'could' possibly understand the motives of its terrifying master?

But she knew one thing: she was going to stop it this time. She wasn't going to fall for its lies again.