"Eleven?" Mike called, taking a step in the darkness. "Eleven, where are you?"

Then he was in the woods. And in front of him was a mangled body.

"No," he whimpered, stepping closer to it. It couldn't be- should so recently spoken to him!

Then he turned and vomited in the grass.

It was unmistakably Eleven's body.

Her skin was torn and pale, grossly ripped flesh hanging off and blood leaking out. He could see inside her body, which would scar him for life. Even when he closed his eyes, the picture of her body would flash in his eyelids.

"No!" he screamed, down on all fours. "No! No! No!" he clutched his head as if to forcefully remove the image from his brain.

"NO!"

The last bellowed protest shattered the scene.

Then Mike was back in the school, and Eleven was killing the demogorgon. Instead of her being sucked away, she collapsed to the ground.

"Eleven!" Mike screamed. He half-crawled, half-ran to her crumpled form. She was breathing shallowly but she was still alive.

She smiled up at him.

Then he was at school, and he's turned a corner into a deserted hallway. Well, deserted except for a couple making out. He was about to ignore them when he realized it was 11 and some other dude.

His heart was in his chest but he turned away anyway, avoiding a his heart was in his chest but he turned away anyway, avoiding a confrontation.

The next day he walked into the same hallway and the boy and El were always there. it wasn't until the 5th day did he summon the courage to approach them.

"El, what are you doing?" he asked, trying to mask the hurt in his voice but failing miserably.

Eleven jerked her head around to look at him, a smirk on her lips that was identical to the ones on the popular bitches' face when caught doing something 'naughty'.

"Sorry Mike," she said with a flirty laugh. "But you're just kinda too nerdy, you know?"

Then he was sucked back into a different scene. This time it was what would have happened if Elle had never escaped and this one scared him most of all.

He saw Will running blindly in the Upside Down before being caught by the demogorgon. He saw Joyce going out of her mind with worry before eventually committing suicide after a month of his absence. Hopper was found dead in his home, apparently having overdosed on pills.

He saw Will dying in the Upside Down and Jonathan moving as far away across the country as he could. He saw Steve dumping dumping Nancy after a year or two and her being unable to find anyone that would date her because of the whole 'slut' thing. She moved away, never speak to her family again.

He, Lucas, and Dustin started fighting more and more until one day they agreed that they were better off not friends. They never spoke more than a few words to each other after that.

Lucas eventually started dating different girls, never spending more than a week with them and never going to more than second base with them.

Dustin went on to be a science teacher in New York but wasn't that interested in dating at all. At 35 years old he was mugged and shot in an Alleyway.

Mike went on to marry a peppy Suburban girl with fluffy blonde hair and blue eyes and she wouldn't stop talking. She couldn't be less like Eleven and neither of them loved each other but he had a comfy job at a computer store and she liked that.

Many more people were taken, and by the time Mike was 23 the town of Hawkins was deserted, believed to be haunted.

But worst of all, he saw the rest of Eleven's miserably short life. She was eventually shocked to death two months after Will died as a punishment because she refused to save the life of one of the workers after the demogorgon mauled him.

By now Mike was begging for the agony to be over, to just be done with the test. He wanted to go back and go on the light trail so he wouldn't have to go through this torture.

Then he saw the last, most terrifying scene.

The day after Eleven died, he woke up.

And then suddenly he was in his own body again.

"So that was the truth?" Mike screamed, disregarding his surroundings. "I made it up?"

There was no reply.

"I'm insane," Mike muttered, rubbing his forehead. "I'm in love with a figment of my imagination!"

The girl watched with teary eyes as the boy fell for the trick.

He was in the darkness with her, the Inbetween, but he couldn't see her. She tried to lay a hand on his arm, but her hand passed right through him. As she began to dissolve again, she didn't bother to call out for him.

Because she could feel the other one. She had curled tightly inside his mind, gripping it with an iron fist. She wouldn't let go easily, and in the girl's half-dead, half-alive state, she was no match for the other girl. Manipulating your appearance and others' emotions could definitely come in handy sometimes.

But that didn't stop the hurt that blasted through her when the boy convinced himself she wasn't real.

She disappeared again with a whoosh of air that sounded almost like a sigh of relief.

"Lilith," Thirteen said, pronouncing the name carefully.

The teacher smiled at her. "Okay, Lilith. Nice to meet you."

She smiled back like an angel, tilting her head a bit. Underneath her desk, her hands twisted.

Twisting the teacher's emotions, of course.

Mike wasn't really paying attention when he walked into class the next day. "Dude," Lucas said at his shoulder but he waved him away.

"I'm fine," he mumbled.

"Oof!" a girl with blond curls and wide blue eyes tripped and fell straight into him. "Sorry!" she exclaimed immediately when his books fell to the ground.

"It's okay," Mike said automatically, picking up her books. As he handed them back to her, their eyes met. She made a weird motion with her hand.

He felt a swooping sensation in his stomach.

"What's your name?" he asked, stuttering a bit.

The girl smiled. "Lilith."

"Oh—well, I'm sorry, Lilith," Mike said, stumbling over his words.

Lucas watched him in amazement.

"What's your name?" Lilith asked, tilting her head a bit but maintaining perfect eye contact. Lucas found it unsettling that she didn't even blink, but Mike didn't even notice.

"Mike," he said, stuttering again.

Then the bell rang and Lucas jerked Mike into his seat.

"What the fuck was that, man?" he hissed into Mike's ear.

Mike looked dazed and confused. "What?"

"I thought you were going to keep looking for Eleven, not throw yourself at any girl that looked at you!" Lucas whispered heatedly.

Mike gave him a funny look. "Look, it was fun at first, but not anymore, okay?"

"What?" Lucas was stunned.

Mike leaned towards him a bit as Mr. Clarke started talking.

"Stop playing that game," Mike sighed, rolling his eyes. "It was a fun make-believe game, but it's over now."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Lucas whisper-shouted. The people next to them gave them disgruntled looks but they both disregarded them.

Mike kept his eyes glued to Mr. Clarke as he replied.

"Come on, we both know that Eleven doesn't exist. I can't believe you think that a figment of our imagination is real, but that's just you, I guess."

Lucas stared at him in horror. "What the fuck happened to you, man?"

Mike stared at him for a second. "What do you mean?" he looked back at Mr. Clarke. "I haven't changed at all."

"So the Demogorgon was just make-believe too, huh?" Lucas was furious.

Mike looked at him strangely. "Uh, duh."

Lucas looked at Dustin, who was next to him and had been listening in on the conversation the entire time. Dustin passed him a note that read, The fuck?!

This cannot be right, Lucas wrote. Just yesterday he was going on and on about how we couldn't leave El in the Upside Down.

Holy shit, Dustin responded. Look at the girl's wrist right now.

Lucas snuck a glance at Lilith, who was grabbing a book out of her desk. A black mark on the inside of her wrist glinted darkly in the fluorescent lights.

A tattoo.

'013'

"She's definitely from the lab," Lucas said, pacing.

"But then why is she trying to make Mike forget about the Upside Down? El was good," Dustin pointed out.

Lucas shook his head. "I have no idea."

"Maybe she's supposed to be the one who comes and 'cleans up'," Dustin suggested.

"What do you mean?" Lucas asked.

"Like, there's still a lot of evidence that points straight to Hawkins lab," Dustin said thoughtfully. "Maybe they're still trying to skirt around prison."

Lucas nodded slowly, thoughtfully. "You know, I wouldn't be surprised if that is true."

"See, this is why you all should listen to me more," Dustin muttered, trying (and failing) to look angry.

Lucas punched him softly. "We listen to you plenty."

"Not enough," Dustin grumbled, but he was smiling.

Mike looked at two of his three best friends with barely concealed disgust.

"Didn't you see the tattoo on her wrist?" Dustin pressed.

"There was no tattoo on her wrist!" Mike argued.

"Yes, there was!" Lucas shot back. "We both saw it!"

"You're crazy," Mike said with disgust, sitting back in his couch.

"And what about her not blinking at all?" Dustin intervened. "That's pretty creepy, you gotta admit."

"I have no idea what the fuck you're talking about," Mike folded his arms with defiance.

"Just because she's a girl doesn't mean she's innocent!" Lucas leaned closer, and the two boys could tell it was not a good idea to mess with him. "El was a girl and she opened the gate! She could have told us what was going on the second she found out Will was missing!"

Joyce was sitting at her table, anxious, with her phone pressed to her ear. "I don't get what's so confusing about that, Hop," she snapped.

He said something and she growled. "I know what I heard!"

She waited a beat, her lips pressed together, before sighing. "Um, hello, remember when my son went missing and everyone called me crazy when I said he was still alive? And then he turned out to be alive? I know I'm right again, Hop."

When he said something else to her, she slammed her fist down onto the table. "Fine! When it's a good time for you, call me back!"

Hopper pulled the phone away from his ear with a sigh. "Good job," Brenner said approvingly.

Hopper bit back his reply—that he didn't care about his opinion on how well he deceived his allies—and nodded, sitting back in the chair.

"I think that's it for today, though," Brenner said, standing up.

Hopper nodded and lit a cigarette. As he stepped out of the building, a car pulled up. A girl—Mike's age—stepped out with a dainty gait that reminded Hopper of one of the sluts he had—let's just say met—shortly after his divorce.

"Good afternoon, Thirteen," one of the guards said to her with a nod of respect.

Hopper bit back a gasp of surprise.

The girl tucked a strand of fluffy blond hair behind her ear and looked up at the guard with a flirtatious smile. Hopper didn't miss the conveniently low-cut top she was wearing or how she led with her chest as she walked into the building.

With a shudder, he ducked into the car.

An evil Eleven. Just what they needed.

Nancy was climbing into her bedroom when her shirt caught on something. It ripped surprisingly loudly and she glanced down at it in exasperation. Great. A jagged hole marred her only black shirt. She would have to buy a new one. She tumbled into her room and stood up just in time to see Jonathan peel away in his car.

She frowned, her hand half-raised in farewell. It was unusual for him to just leave like that.

Huh.

Mike stood up, and even though he was scrawny and not that athletic, the anger radiating from his body was enough to make the two boys cringe.

"I don't want to hear any more of that shit!" he growled. "She's—not—real!" With every word, he jabbed his finger to the ground as if an important piece of evidence was lying there.

"I don't know what the fuck happened to you, man," Lucas said, shaking his head, "and you can chase that Lilith girl all you want, but we're gonna get to the bottom of this."

"You have fun chasing imaginary girls and monsters, then," Mike snorted, crossing his arms. "I won't be joining you."

Lucas leaned closer, jabbing his finger into Mike's chest. He slapped it away. "She's probably listening right now, you asshole! And when we get her out of the Upside Down, who knows? Maybe she won't like you anymore."

"Screw you!" Mike shouted.

"No, screw you!" Lucas shouted. "I don't know what the fuck's wrong with you, man. I don't know who you are." He gave his former friend a disgusted look. "This isn't you, Mike."

"I don't—"

Lucas threw the first punch this time.

Mike staggered a bit but regained his footing just in time for Lucas to throw him to the ground.

"Open your eyes, man," Lucas growled, leaning over the boy. "Open your eyes the hell up!"

"Get out," Mike snarled. "Get the hell out of my house!"

Later, Lucas and Dustin were in front of Will's house when Dustin brought up the million-dollar subject. "You—"

"I don't give a shit if I get banned from the party," Lucas interrupted. "What matters is that we get El back."

Dustin gave Lucas a peculiar look. "You sure you aren't trying to get her back for any other reason? You—"

Lucas sighed. "Mike's being an asshole right now, but I wouldn't do that to him. Frankly, 'bald' isn't really my type of girl anyway."

Dustin grinned. "Plus, we need her to get rid of Thirteen and the Demogorgon."

"That too."

"Trust me."

"Seriously, how would you—"

"I don't know!" Will said impatiently, leaning back in his chair. Lucas lounged on his bed and Dustin hung halfway off it, staring upside-down at the boy.

"Have you even met her?"

"Well, yeah. She tried to use her powers on me, but eye contact is crucial for her."

"That would explain the—" Dustin sat up and pointed to Lucas. "The eye thing!"

"Yeah," Lucas nodded. "But what are her powers?"

"She can alter how she looks," Will said. "And control the emotions of others."

"How do you know all that?" Dustin asked, his lisp even more prominent whenever he was anxious.

"Trust me, when someone's hair turns black, then pink, then back to blonde, you know something's up," Will said with a shrug.

"And the emotions thing?" Lucas prompted.

"Well, it's highly unusual for every boy in the entire school to suddenly like a creepy, not-that-pretty new girl the second she walks by and then suddenly lose interest when she's gone but when she comes back again they're all over her. Trust me. Plus I was eating my lunch, I looked up, and…"

Will had just taken a bite of his sandwich when the wriggling feeling at the back of his throat appeared. In that split second of being in the Upside Down, everyone disappeared.

Except Lilith.

"And what?"

"Nothing."

"Will—"

"And—" Will spoke loudly, drowning out Dustin's voice. "Have either of you looked up what her name means?"

Blank stares.

"In Hebrew, Lilith was the first female demon or something like that. The name 'Lilith' is also associated with water monsters and other monsters like that."

"So?"

"So I'm just saying, maybe it's a clue."

"Come on!" Lucas shot down the suggestion. "You think someone's name defines who they are?"

Will swiped his hand across the air like dealing a winning deck of cards in poker. "Her real name is Thirteen. She's a bitch. She probably picked out her fake name."

Dustin's face dawned with comprehension. "Maybe she picked out the name of a demon—"

"—On purpose," Lucas interrupted, finally catching on. "Or maybe she wants us to figure out. Maybe she's just playing with us."

Max casually walked back inside her house as if it was no big deal, like she wasn't actually secretly scared to see her brother and his unpredictable anger.

"Where were you?" Billy growled the moment she walked through. It was obvious he hadn't slept—he had bags under his eyes and his hair was all over the place.

"Why do you care?" Max coolly brushed him away.

"You're my sister!" he exclaimed impatiently.

Max whirled around to meet his eyes squarely. "No I'm not," she said quietly. Dangerously. "You're not my brother until you prove it."