Salutations, purveyors of the interconnected nets!
Well, here's part two, as promised. This is more of an explanatory chapter than others have been, particularly in regard to psychic powers. I've also added quite a few bits of juicy drama, and something you'll all probably hate me for after you read it(I'm sure you'll know where I'm going with it before then). As the chapter title states, there are seven things we're going to learn/find out in this chapter, from Six(Liz) or as a direct result of her, see if you catch what they are. Be careful, though, some things fit a broad category, some are more specific.
Now behold! Several thousand words fueled by ungodly levels of caffeine, intense self-hatred, depression, and an unhealthy love for anything and everything related to Stranger Things!
Wow, now that I write that out, I seem like a really weird person... Oh well, being normal is boring.
My internal monologue aside, here is the chapter...
Needless to say, Joyce has never been more stressed in her life than when her son disappeared, and everything that snowballed after the fact. Her top ten list starts with her son being trapped in another dimension and subsequently being possessed by the Mind Flayer, though admittedly it kind of drops off a little after that to normal people problems.
Then she got a call from Hopper at ten o'clock on a Saturday night, around when Will was supposed to be home from visiting El for the weekend. Her immediate thought was that something bad had happened to her son, again. When Hopper had told her that she needed to come to the cabin right away, and to bring Jonathan and his car as well, she'd assumed the worst, but still gone along with it.
What she got upon her arrival wasn't her son mortally wounded, or afflicted by some extradimensional abnormality, it was a girl. As she takes in the sight in the cabin, her flaming panic turns to confusion, all eyes in the room turning to look at her in the doorway. For some reason the entire door is knocked in, and the front window is shattered with an old tarp duct taped over it
"I think you beat my record," Hopper comments dryly when he sees her, walking over to greet her. "So glad you could come join in the insanity, again."
His tone is one that she knows well. He's about as unhappy about whatever's happening right now as he's been about anything, ever, but there's nothing he can do to change it, so he just has to suck it up and pretend everything is fine. Incidentally, that means that everything must be about as far from fine as it can be without a full scale interdimensional invasion.
Jonathan and Nancy appear behind her, finally catching up from the run through the forest in dim moonlight, panting from the panicked exertion. Both soon have the same confused concern on their faces that Joyce has, taking stock of the room. Nancy has an old hunting rifle in her hands, likely the same one from the Byers' shed.
"Great, you're finally here," Liz says, getting up from her seat against the wall, exuding a confusing cheer despite the palpable tension in the cabin. "We're going back to your house, lots to explain, not a fan of drafts, you understand." She strides over to the door with a smile on her face, getting wary looks from the three newcomers as she stops in front of Joyce
The kids also get up, El slinging a small bag over her shoulder and locking hands with her boyfriend. With the entire party waiting, the three are left with no other option than to let them pass by, trying to make some sense of what they're seeing in front of them. Mike, Will, and El hang toward the back where Jonathan and Nancy wait for them.
"What's going on?" Nancy asks as soon as they're next to each other, stealing her younger brother from his girlfriend long enough to hug him. Jonathan and Will share a similar hug on the other side of El.
"It's complicated," Mike answers with a sigh. "But the short version is that another person who escaped the lab, someone like El, showed up tonight. She's going to give us an actual explanation when we're all at the Byers' house."
Nancy definitely wants to ask more questions, but thinks better of it when she sees the tired circles forming under her brother's eyes, and the exhaustion reflected in the eyes themselves. They walk in silence, listening as Dustin pesters Liz with questions, getting only vague answers back.
Hopper and Joyce bring up the rear, Hopper doing his best to fit the door into place in the frame and tie some rope between it and a post on the porch so it won't blow over in the wind. He has his rifle and shotgun in hand again, ready to go back in the Blazer, or ready to use if he needs to.
The ten of them pile into three cars for the drive back, Hopper adamantly insisting on having the world's most uncomfortable drive with Liz as his passenger. Nobody talks all that much, not even when Dustin and Lucas have to sit next to each other.
To their surprise, though the term doesn't mean so much anymore, Steve is waiting for them on the porch when they get to the Byers', his bat sitting next to him just in case.
"Did you guys call Steve?" Dustin asks when they see him.
"You guys made it sound like someone was dying, it seemed like a good idea for Steve to get ready for anything," Jonathan answers, more than a little awkwardly.
Dustin doesn't comment further, being the first one out of the car once it comes to a full stop. Lucas is slower to follow him, waiting for Max once he gets out.
"What's the big emergency?" Steve calls as they start to pile out of the three cars, using his bat to push himself to his feet.
"That would be me!" Liz shouts back proudly, practically leaping out of the truck. "Apparently I'm concerning, or maybe it was threatening, but either way I'm the big emergency."
Steve seems a bit taken aback by the answer, he gaze shifting from the blonde girl walking toward him to the people behind her that he actually knows.
"Unfortunately she's not kidding," Hopper tells the young man, still carrying his rifle with his shotgun over his shoulder. "But apparently, she's going to explain everything inside."
Steve whistles lowly, choosing not to question or comment further as Jonathan unlocks the door for them to all get inside. Hopper draws all the blinds closed and locks the door behind them, standing by it with his rifle. Joyce, Jonathan, and Nancy take the couch for themselves. Will, Mike, and El sit against the wall opposite the dining room. Max, Lucas, and Dustin sit on the wall opposite them, Steve standing beside them with his bat in hand.
Liz sits on the same side of the room as the tv, though she sits closer to El than anybody else, making herself comfortable where everyone can see her.
"Settle in people, lots to talk about," She announces, cracking her knuckles as she stretches her arms out in front of her. "If anyone needs to use the bathroom, I suggest you do it now, I won't be stopping for your weak bladders."
When she receives silence as a response she sighs.
"Let's run through the list, just for shits and giggles," She starts, looking up at the ceiling to think. "I need to cover who I am and why I'm here. I promised an explanation of psychic powers, so add that to the list. It would probably benefit to explain some more about the lab and how they work, so I'll put that in too. Where to start, though? It's just all so tempting..."
Again, she receives silence as an answer, which probably isn't helpful.
"I'll start with my introduction, then, you bunch of mutes," She says with a huff. "My name is Elizabeth, Liz for short, and I'm number six from the lab." With that she slides up her sleeve to reveal her tattoo. "Beyond that I'm a lot more complicated, but more on that later. As for what I'm doing here, my original plan was to get Jane to leave and go somewhere safe. Since she's refusing to do that, despite how much danger it puts everyone in, my new plan is that I have to stay here and make sure she doesn't get herself killed by the hunter teams."
"I'm sorry, but did you just say hunter teams?" Nancy interrupts, her eyes wide in concern, her knuckles turning white around the old rifle in her hands.
"I did, believe it or not. Those words really did come out of my mouth. There are two teams that I know of, as of five years ago when I escaped," Liz responds calmly, if with her own sarcastic shine. "Four and Five are both monsters, in combat and interrogation respectively. Nine and Ten are a little easier to deal with if they come after you, but that isn't saying much, especially if you have people around you." She pauses for a slight laugh, though her hands curl into fists. "They're teams of attack dogs, and they don't give up. Their only focus is their targets, and they'll get rid of whoever gets in their way."
A nervous cloud descends on the room, terrifying images worming their way through everyone's minds. They've seen what El can do with her powers, and all of that was to help them.
"It's only a matter of time until they send a team here, now that there are two of us in one place. Three if you count him," She continues, gesturing to Will with a tilt of her head. Joyce's eyes widen, but she doesn't get the chance to interrupt. "They know we're here in Hawkins, even if they don't have a precise location. The team will show up with a bunch of agents, scrub the town from top to bottom, and then we're in deep shit." She lets out another half hearted chuckle. "We can only hope that it's Nine and Ten that come, or else we're all fucked to hell."
"What makes them so much better?" Hopper questions, managing to separate his pursed lips long enough to ask. Liz actually laughs this time.
"Both teams have one combat asset and one mental asset, that's how they get structured by whatever shitheads are in charge at the DoE," She explains, fixing a gaze to match her grin on the surly chief. "When it comes to the combat potential, it's between Four and Ten. In terms of raw power, it tips toward Four, but in terms of precision it tends to tip toward Ten. When it comes to mental assets Nine is definitely more versatile than Five, though Five can still be scarily effective."
"Then wouldn't Nine and Ten be worse to deal with?" Lucas asks, trying to piece her information into a full comparison. "If they've got precision and power..."
"You'd think that, but there's one thing I haven't mentioned yet," Liz replies, her laugh turning a little nervous. "Four and Five both have a psychic shield, which makes them infinitely more terrifying to those of us who escaped. Powers like mine won't affect either of them at all, because I have to make contact with and exert influence over another mind. Their shield prevents anyone else from establishing that contact, so if I have to face them I'm fucked." For the first time that night, her air of comedic confidence gives way to real fear, though she does her best to push it back down.
"But El has telekinesis, that doesn't seem like it would be affected, and she's really strong," Dustin interjects, but Liz just shakes her head.
"I'll admit, she's stronger with it than I would have ever thought possible, but her telekinesis is nothing compared to Four's or Ten's," She says, which sends a chill down their spines. "As for why, that requires a more in depth explanation of how psychic powers work." Liz takes a moment to crack her neck before continuing, reestablishing her former confidence. "The most basic part of having powers is having a greater degree of psychic energy in the brain than normal people. Our brains have to work differently to contain that much energy, which is how we develop our powers. The way our brain contains and controls the energy determines which powers we're predisposed to developing."
Despite the chill of dread forming inside them, they all try to soak in the information as she says it. El especially hangs on every word.
"The strongest power we develop is where our brain centers most of the energy we have. The researchers call it our Prime, that being our primary power, which is different for all of us," She continues, closing her eyes to recall information. "For me, it's an ability I call resonance. It's how I can see all the memories another person has, or show them my memories. For Jane, I'm pretty sure it's her ability to scry, which is what she does when she finds people in the void." She pauses again for a breath, but holds up a hand to forstall more questions. "It's entirely possible to develop more than one power naturally, like how I can also read minds instead of resonating, but the Prime is generally the one that you use most often. It's the most reliable and the easiest to use."
"But I needed the bath to use my power for years," El points out, to which Liz just smiles with a knowing look.
"The development of you're Prime was stunted for a while because of the training they put you through," She explains, happily divulging the lab's secrets. "They trained you for telekinesis ten times more often than for your scrying, but telekinesis isn't a power that comes to you naturally. You forced your brain to develop that pathway, which is why your telekinesis is so much more difficult for you to use than your other powers, which your brain developed naturally." El seems taken aback by the information, and then her expression turns thoughtful, as if she's trying to feel her brain. "Forcing a pathway isn't easy, which is why it makes that power so much harder to use. For me, I forced my illusion powers to develop after I found out how Kali escaped. That's why I can't do anything on nearly as large a scale, and why I get a nosebleed so much faster when I use it."
"If she didn't have telekinesis naturally, why would they train her for it?" Mike asks tentatively, his hand and El's tightening their grip on each other.
"Because Doctor McDoucheface wanted her to have telekinesis, and refused to believe that she didn't," Liz snaps with a glare at the boy, though it shifts to the wall pretty quickly. "It took a long time to make it happen, and he had no problems with showing his displeasure."
Mike swallows hard under her glare, short though it may be, switching his gaze to his girlfriend and whispering something in her ear. She smiles a little and squeezes his hand again, though the memories that come up keep a slight grimace on her face despite that.
"If my telekinesis isn't natural, does that mean I have other powers I don't know about?" El questions after a few moments, schooling her features back to neutral. "How does that work?"
"I'm glad you asked!" Liz exclaims, her previous excitement returning. "After I looked at your memories, a few things stood out to me, but I'm going to need a radio. Someone get me a radio!"
Everyone hesitates to move, until El finally reaches over to Mike's backpack and takes out his supercom. He gives her a look, but doesn't protest as she turns it on. Liz closes her eyes as the static starts up.
"This ability is called telepathy," Her voice says, crackling out of the speaker. "It lets you transmit thoughts along radio waves."
"That's not what telepathy is supposed to be, though," Dustin complains, to which Liz's eyes snap open in yet another glare.
"Oh, I'm sorry, let me just change the names they gave to all of our powers," She retorts sarcastically. "I didn't know that there was a standard already set up."
Dustin turns red and stares at his feet in defeat. His normally silver-tongue is tied up in knots today for some reason.
"Think of telepathy as the opposite of scrying," Liz explains, picking up where she left off. "With your scrying, you can see anyone in any place, and you know what they're saying or doing. With telepathy, you become the sender instead of the receiver, as long as you have a radio to transmit through. So long as you have one at both ends, you can theoretically go over any distance."
She cracks a smile as she watches them keep looking back and forth between her and the supercom.
"Are you saying that El can do stuff like that?" Mike inquires hesitantly, not wanting to provoke Liz's wrath once more.
"I do believe I said those words, about five seconds ago. I think you and your sister should get your ears checked," Liz answers, though not fully snapping at him this time. "As for Jane and her other powers, she's done it more than once. Granted, she didn't do it with her own thoughts, she transmitted what somebody was saying at the same time, but same concept."
"That time we heard Will on the supercom!" Lucas exclaims, his eyes going wide. Dustin and Mike make the connection, their eyes going just as wide.
"El, that's amazing!" Mike says excitedly, pulling El into a hug. She doesn't seem quite as enthusiastic about the information, but she still smiles.
"Since I'll be sticking around for a while, I can help you practice with that one," Liz offers once Mike lets her go. "I do kind of know what I'm doing."
El opens her mouth to respond, but Hopper loudly clears his throat to get their attention. As per usual, he doesn't seem happy.
"You keep saying that you're going to stay, but how exactly do you plan to do that?" He questions shortly. "I don't remember offering you a place to stay, and I know for a fact that nobody else has, so what's your plan there?"
El shoots him a glare from across the room, but Liz just laughs.
"Don't worry your pretty, balding, little head, Hop," She replies, much to Hopper's ire. "There's no way I'm staying with any of you, I don't trust people that easily."
"Yet you seem fine inviting yourself into our lives?" Hopper retorts, far past the end of his extremely limited well of patience.
"I'm inviting myself into her life, the rest of you are baggage," Liz shoots back, gesturing pointedly at El. "Last time I tried to do the whole 'family' thing, it didn't turn out well." She puts air quotes around the word family, and practically spits the word out like it leaves a bad taste in her mouth. "Believe it or not, I thought I could finally be happy after they took me in. Three months later, just when everything was starting to seem normal, they called the lab for the reward money..."
The room falls silent after her revelation, even Hopper's previous irritation fading into some small measure of understanding.
"Don't all start talking at once," Liz grumbles, annoyed with herself for letting that out. "I don't need your sympathy, and I want it even less, so keep it to yourselves." With that she looks pointedly around the room, her gaze finally resting on Steve. "Pretty boy, you're dad's a real estate guy, right? Find me somewhere to live."
Steve seems equally confused and taken aback by the sudden order, but given his history of being thrown into these situations, his composure comes back quickly.
"What's your budget?" He responds with a defeated sigh, reluctantly accepting that this is his life now. Third time's the charm, though, right?
"Whatever I can pickpocket from people," Liz answers bluntly. "On a good day I can normally pull a hundred, depending on where I work."
"Something cheap, got it," He mutters to himself, and then sighs again. "I'm probably going to regret this, but I know a place. Rent's cheap because the place is still a craphole. If you help me do the renovations, I won't raise it after."
"You're looking at the girl who resonated with all kinds of contractors," Liz tells him with a proud grin. "Carpentry, masonry, plumbing, electric, you name it, I can do it to a reasonable degree of success."
"Wait, Steve, are you a landlord?" Nancy interjects.
"Oh, yeah, I am," Steve responds sheepishly. "College applications didn't go too well for me, so I'm going to try my hand at real estate. My dad handed me the keys to a little apartment building near the edge of town, only three floors, six apartments a floor. If I can handle getting tenants to live there, he'll bring me in to the full business."
"That shouldn't be too hard, you're great with people," Nancy tells him with a small smile. Steve smiles back at her, until Hopper clears his throat again.
"I'm not going to let you pickpocket your way through Hawkins," He says with a glare. "The whole 'Chief of Police' thing isn't just a title, it's my job."
Liz rolls her eyes back at him, and then reaches into her jacket again. Everyone from the cabin tenses when she does, to which she rolls her eyes again. This time she pulls out a worn yellow envelope.
"This is sixteen hundred bucks, how long does that get me?" She asks, tossing the envelope to Steve. He has to drop his bat with a clatter to catch it, but whistles when he sees the money inside.
"Where'd you get this?" He questions back, thumbing through the bills.
"Kali gave it to me when I left," She answers shortly. "They were skipping town anyway, so they could just hit up another convenience store."
"You keep mentioning this Kali person, who are they?" Hopper interjects as Steve starts trying to do mental math, notably not questioning that she mentioned hitting up a convenience store.
"Jane didn't-?" Liz starts, but cuts herself off. "That's right, she never told you."
"Told me what?" Hopper demands, putting great effort into controlling his temper.
"Jane never told you the full story of what happened before she showed up here last fall," Liz explains, sending a look toward the girl in question. El's eyes go wide, but can't seem to find the words to say anything. "After she left her mama's place, she didn't just come here, she went to find her sister, Kali. Took a bus to Chicago, wandered the city until she found Kali and her gang, joined up with them for a day or two. Got some help with her powers, robbed a convenience store, hunted down one of the men that used to work at the lab, almost killed him, and then left in a hail of gunfire when the police caught up with them."
El turns white as a sheet when the room goes silent, all eyes turning to stare at her. Panic starts to rise in her chest, seeing the mix of different looks from everyone around her.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Mike murmurs from right beside her, cutting into the growing storm of her panic, and she tries to focus solely on the familiar brown orbs of his eyes. This is exactly why she never told them, because she didn't want to see the looks they're giving her, didn't want them to see her differently because of what she did.
"She was scared, and for good reason," Liz answers for her. "At the time, her only goal was getting to see you bunch of shitheads again, though I personally don't see the appeal. After that, she didn't want to jeopardize getting to see everyone, you especially, Lover Boy. If she'd told you guys any of what I just did, Chief McGrump over there would have kept her inside until she finally decided she wanted to run away, at which point the two of you would probably elope." She gestures vaguely over her shoulder at Hopper, but keeps her gaze fixed on Mike.
Her words are met by greater silence, but Mike does manage to get El to look at him, not just at his eyes, but at him. Something unspoken passes between them, but it seems to reassure El. Squeezing Mike's hand for support, she turns to meet Hopper's stony gaze.
"Are you mad?" She asks quietly, her small stature quite evident as she tries to shrink in her seat against the wall. Hopper's gaze holds for several more long seconds, until he finally sighs and shakes his head.
"I'm not mad, just disappointed," He responds. "We don't keep secrets, that's one of our rules. This is something you should have told me."
Liz actually bursts out laughing, drawing all attention back to herself.
"That's actually rich, Hop, coming from you!" She exclaims, laughing all the while. "As if you haven't been keeping a much bigger secret from her, for a lot longer."
"I don't know what you're-"
"Saturday, November 12th, 1983," Liz interrupts before Hopper can finish his retort, her laughter cutting off abruptly, turning into a stone cold stare. The room seems to chill with her loss of mirth, though the occupants perk up at the date, unfortunately seared into their memories. "You and Joyce left the kids at the middle school to get Will out of the Upside Down. You got caught, and they interrogated you. They were going to kill you, until you offered them your deal. Ringing any bells yet?"
"What's she talking about, Hop?" Joyce asks from the couch, trying to get his attention, but Hopper's entire being seems focused on glaring at Liz. She'd been there that night, she'd gone into the Upside Down, and Hopper had explained the deal to her. So long as they never talk about what happened, or how it connects to the lab, nothing bad happens to them.
"That's enou-" Hopper starts, trying and failing to take back control of the room.
"You told them where to find Eleven that night," Liz retorts, cutting him off once again, getting a collective muted gasp. "They gave you hazmat suits, oxygen tanks, and even that fancy rifle you're carrying around right now. They weren't free though, were they? You had to tell them where they could find, how did you put it...?" She pauses for a breath, Hopper both pale and angry as he glares, forcing himself to wait for the inevitable instead of punch this girl in the face. "Oh, that's right, where they could find 'their little science experiment', wasn't it?"
Another silence falls over the room, but this one is different than the last few. This one is cold, somehow draining, as if something unseen had just disappeared. For a while, nobody speaks, nobody even dares to breathe too loudly.
"I did what I had to do to save Will," Hopper says lowly, which confirms Liz's story as true. "If I didn't he would have died in the Upside Down." He dares to look around the room, unsure of what he's expecting. What he finds is varying levels of hurt and confusion written over all of their faces, more so on one than any other. "And I have tried to make up for it every day since then."
He forces himself to look over at El, his gut wrenching and his heart shattering when he sees the look of pure betrayal on her face. Tears are already welling up in her eyes, and the little brown orbs that normally look at him with trust, even affection, are filled with pain.
"El, I-"
His words are cut off when a pressure descends on the room, El's tears spilling over when she scrunches her eyes tight. When they open again they're filled with anger, with an unbridled rage directed at the second person who she'd trusted like a father. The second person to build it on a lie.
"Because you felt guilty?" She asks quietly, though her voice still wavers. She gets unsteadily to her feet, nobody able to move to try to stop her, dropping Mike's hand as she moves. "That's all it was? Not to help me?! Not so I could finally have-!" She cuts herself off when her voice starts to rise, the tears threatening to overwhelm her. When she speaks again, her voice is low and wavering. "So I could finally have a family...?"
She manages to hold her glare a little longer, until pain contorts her face, and she flings the door open with her mind, running out without a second look. When she does, the pressure on the room disappears, and everyone starts gasping for air.
Mike is the first to move, scrambling to his feet and rushing after El, calling her name into the brisk night air. Joyce crosses the room to Hopper when he falls to his knees, leaning on the butt of his rifle, tears streaming down his face.
"We'll figure it out, Hop, everything will be okay," She tells him, trying to be comforting, but she can't even seem to convince herself. She even looks conflicted over just who she should be consoling at this moment in time.
"You should probably start with an apology," Liz suggests, still leaning nonchalantly against the wall in exactly the same spot as before.
Hopper's only response is to growl, starting to get up and adjust his grip on his rifle. Liz moves in a flash, with the ease of practice, reaching into her jacket and pulling a knife out, the blade flicking out against Hopper's neck, making him freeze halfway between kneeling and standing. Joyce steps back in fright when she sees the knife, and Steve's eye flick down to his fallen bat.
"Try it, I dare you," She says coldly, the normal mirth in her tone and her eyes vanishing in an instant. "This one isn't an illusion."
For a few seconds, Hopper is strongly tempted to try, regardless of the cold steel against his neck, but ultimately he lets his rifle sink back to the ground. The knife moves away a few moments after that, and Liz backs away.
"The whole 'big threatening cop' routine might work for your day job, but it means nothing to me," She tells him flatly. "I have the memories of dozens of killers in my head, anyone from assassins, to terrorists, to your plain old psychopaths. I know every possible way to kill you, and I've had the practice of those dozens of lifetimes. I know every way you might come at me, because now I have your memories too. If you come at me, if you so much as threaten me ever again, I will end you."
She says it without a single shred of emotion, the way a person might discuss the weather to pass the time. A shiver runs down everyone's spines, each of them terrified of the girl in front of them. While none of them say anything out loud, they all silently pray that Liz really is on their side.
XxX
"El!" Mike yells for the umpteeth time. He'd lost sight of her as soon as she made it to the treeline, but that hadn't stopped him from running after her. It also hadn't stopped him from getting lost in the woods, but that's a different problem.
Despite the fact that he doesn't know where he is, he knows that El is somewhere nearby. He doesn't know how he knows that, but he knows. He also knows that El isn't in a good place right now, and that letting her be alone is a bad idea. From experience, he knows just what kind of thoughts can run through someone's head when they're in a bad place. Above all, he knows that he needs to find her, to keep her safe, before something bad happens.
It's not until he sees the flag waving a few yards away that he realizes where they are. Despite never having actually visited it in real life, El had found her way to Castle Byers, at least if the sounds of crying coming from inside it are anything to go by. For Mike, that's all he needs.
"El," He says more quietly, tapping on the branches that make up the wall of the fort. The crying stops abruptly.
"Go away," El replies after a few long moments, her voice still choked up.
"I'm not going away, El, I promised you that. I'm never going to leave you again," He responds, wishing he could just go in, but knowing that forcing help on her isn't a good idea. "It doesn't need to be now, but when you're ready, I'll be right here. I'm not leaving without you, and that's a promise."
Despite his words, a familiar train of thought runs through his mind. He does his best to fight it back down, but it's still there, still looming in the recesses of his mind. After what they just found out, El needs him to be strong, not... like that.
Mike doesn't keep track of how long he sits outside the fort, silently wishing he'd decided to bring a jacket with him. El is still wearing the sweatshirt he'd brought with him for the day, but asking for it back is out of the question on every level.
"Mike...?" El finally murmurs, her voice hoarse. "Can you...come in?"
A grin splits his face for an instant before he schools his features back down, slowly pushing the towel covering the doorway aside to go in. The inside is much warmer than outside, and the wind can't get through the tarp. Without a word he sits down next to El on top of the old quilt, wrapping an arm around her when she leans her head against him. A single beam of moonlight makes its way through the canopy of trees to shine into Castle Byers, illuminating the inside pretty well.
"Sorry," She whispers into his shirt, trying to hide her red and puffy eyes.
"What could you possibly be sorry for, El?" Mike asks, having expected quite a few things, but not that. "You didn't do anything wrong."
"Friends don't lie," She answers glumly. "And they don't keep secrets. I kept a big secret from you."
Mike actually grimaces a little when she says that.
"It's okay to keep some secrets, El," He tells her. "There are some things you just don't want anyone else to know about, and that's okay. Everyone keeps some secrets, it's normal."
"But I don't want to keep secrets," El insists, looking up at him tears threatening to spill again. "Especially from you, Mike. It doesn't feel good to keep secrets from you, I don't like it."
Mike grimaces again.
"I know what you mean," He murmurs, holding her a little tighter.
They sit in silence for a little while, listening to the sounds of the forest, and to each other's breathing. For those few precious minutes, everything is peaceful.
"How could he...?" El asks, breaking the silence.
"I don't know," Mike answers honestly, still unable to wrap his brain around it. He should feel angry, especially considering what happened in that year without El, but he just feels confused.
Every interaction with Hopper had shown him as nothing but a caring father for El, even if she isn't his blood. The way he insists on her bedtime, how he wants her to use more of her vocabulary when she speaks, and how he gets so protective of her all the time. Why would he do all of that just to ease a guilty conscience?
"I don't want to go back," She tells him, bringing him back from his thoughts. "To the cabin, I don't want to go back. Not with him."
"I'm sure Mrs. Byers will let you stay," He assures her, gently rubbing her arm. "If not, then you can come stay at my house. Even if I have to hide you from my parents again, I'll do it."
El manages a little smile, snuggling a little closer against Mike's side.
"No secrets...," She murmurs. "No more secrets between us, okay?"
She gingerly holds her pinky out to him, the symbol of their most solemn oath. Mike's pulse starts to race when he sees it, and a familiar itch starts up again.
"El, I..." He starts, not raising his pinky to meet hers. She takes immediate notice of that, shifting away from him slightly so they can look at each other. Despite that, Mike's gaze falls to his feet pretty quickly. "There's something I need to tell you, if we're not going to have any secrets."
He purses his lips, chewing the inside of his cheek as he tries to think of how to phrase this. It's not something anyone talks about everyday, or something they should need to talk about everyday. It's something he never wanted to talk about, with El or anybody else. All he really wants is to leave it in the past, and he's been mostly successful at doing that for months now, but like El said before, it doesn't feel good to keep it from her.
"What is it?" El questions when his silence stretches out.
"It's that...it's really just...it's kind of...," He attempts, groaning in frustration. "Do you know what depression is?"
"De...pression...?" She whispers, trying the word out in her mouth. That answers Mike's question for him, but poses yet another obstacle.
"It's kind of like being sad, except you're really sad, and it lasts for a really long time," He explains, vaguely recalling the definition he'd found in a psychology book in the library. His explanation may not be the most accurate, but it gets the gist. "When you were...gone, I had something like that."
He'd had this conversation in his head a million times, but actually having to say these things out loud makes them seem infinitely worse. Despite the fact that he'd come to terms with it months ago, for the most part, it doesn't get easier to say.
"Sometimes, when you get depressed, you feel like there's nothing worth living for anymore," He says quietly, slowly reaching for his left sleeve. "I felt like that for a while last year." El's eyes are fixed to his arm in terrified anticipation as he pushes the sleeve up. "If it gets really bad, some people try to kill themselves, just so they can't feel it anymore. I tried, once, after the Snowball when you were still gone."
El can't help but gasp a little bit when she sees it, the single blemish on Mike's otherwise smooth skin, an inch or two up from his elbow. Even in the pale moonlight, the white scar across Mike's arm is still visible, thin and straight on one end, wider and slightly curved on the other.
"No more secrets," Mike whispers as El starts to cry. "I promise."
So, *sips coffee* whatcha think?
Yes, I do believe that it is entirely possible that Mike reached that low of a point after El disappeared, especially around the Snowball. People go a lot lower for a lot less, which I wish I could say I didn't know for a fact. That being said, if you or someone you know has ever engaged in self-harm, or had suicidal thoughts or actions, I urge you to speak with someone you trust. There are plenty of people out there that are willing to help you if you need it, and it really can help to talk about it. If you aren't comfortable reaching out to someone you know, the suicide hotline is available 24/7 at 1-800-273-8255 to help you.
Now, on a bit of a lighter note...
Is it likely in the Stranger Things canon? Probably not. Have I really been sticking close to a plausible canon storyline? Definitely not. Is the entire concept of my story now disproven by the information they've released about season 3? For the most part. Will I be discontinuing this story, or changing anything about my approach in response? Absolutely not. I've invested too many mental resources into developing my plan for this, and I still look forward to writing it whenever I have a spare couple minutes, so I will not be discontinuing Number Games. I can't promise that I can update very frequently, or that my updates will be worth the bytes of data they're coded on, but I enjoy writing this story, and that's enough for me.
Can you name the seven things we learned/found out in this chapter(I count some things in the same broad category, so you'll have to think like I do)? If anyone manages to guess all seven things correctly, I'll let you name a character(probably a high school character once I get there). Good luck, and remember, some are specific and some are broad!
As always, love to hear from you guys. Drop a review, shoot me a PM, make a suggestion, compliment my messed up imagination, insult my fashion sense(I'll probably agree with you), do whatever, all is welcome(within reason, I will not be responding to any declarations of war or undying affection).
The list stands at:
Complete- Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's Day, Spring Break, mystery surprise Parts 1 & 2
In Progress- mystery surprise part 3
To Do- summer break(start), 4th of July, something for end of summer, and the start of school
Until next time!
