Stranger Things: Return to Normal?

Chapter 8: Mike

El woke up and Mike was still holding her hand and he was awake. Mike and El both sat up at the same time and El scooted up to him. "Did you sleep Mike?"

"A little bit" Mike lied and he felt bad about it but he didn't want her to worry about him.

"Was the nightmare really that bad?" El asked and leaned her head on his shoulder.

"Yeah but it's ok its just a bad dream, everybody gets them sometimes" Mike said trying to be as reassuring as possible.

El looked up into his eyes and she could see pain. She could tell it was worse than he was letting on. Over the course of her time in isolation with Hopper and the last 6 months of finally being able to socialize she had learned a lot about social cues. Mike had told her friends don't lie but that didn't seem to always be the case sometimes people lie to protect others. El felt like this was what Mike was doing.

"You don't have to protect me Mike, I can handle myself" El said and then leaned in for a kiss. This kiss was a bit different it felt more like she was trying to communicate with him with it. After a few minutes they separated.

"Don't worry El I'm fine I really am, as long as your around I'm happy!" Mike said giving her a quick kiss, and Will woke up just in time to see it.

Will said, "Jez guys does that have to be the first thing I see!"

"Well its better than what you had to see yesterday!" Mike said while laughing. El punched Mike, "Don't make Will embarrassed again!"

"Its ok El, So Mike you doing ok?" Will said.

"Yeah I'm doing fine guys, don't worry about me"

The three of them got up out of the tent as Joyce and Hopper were just about to open the tent. "Breakfast time!" Joyce said, "Bacon, sausage, and scrambled eggs!"

"No eggos?" El said, of course.

"Sorry El we didn't think too bring eggos" Joyce informed her.

El yelled, "5 days of no EGGOS!" and then stormed back into the tent.

"Oh my goodness Hop, you've gone and spoiled her!"

"Hey Mike's the one who got her started on it!" Hopper said getting defensive

"Don't blame me you had her for 353 days, she was with me for 6!" Mike said, "I'll talk her into coming back out"

Mike eventually got her to come out and El apologized to Joyce for yelling at her. The day seemed to go on fairly normally from there. They went hiking in the woods, did some rock climbing, had hamburgers for lunch, and did all the usual camp things. The day went on with nothing weird happening to Mike. He thought to himself maybe it was all just a bad dream.

Later that night before bed Mike decided he would use the outhouse before going to sleep, he thought maybe that weird experience from last night was what caused him to have the nightmare. While inside he looked around, nothing out of the ordinary. Very stinky but no purple light or anything like that. So he got out without incident this time and thought, "See it's all in your head Wheeler, nothing freaky going on."

El, Will, and Mike were all in the tent getting ready to go to sleep.

"Do you want me to hold your hand tonight Mike?" El asked

"Don't push it El!" Will said trying to keep a straight face.

"Don't worry about me El, last night was just a bad dream, no reason to risk the wrath of Hopper or the protective brother" Mike said while punching Will lightly on the shoulder.

"Ok but don't be afraid to wake me up if you need me" El leaned forward to give Mike a kiss and Will looked down and covered his eye's.

"Night El, love you" Mike said while smiling. "Love you too Mike" El replied. "Ugg.. lets just go to sleep guys!" Will said while getting into his sleeping bag

"Night Will, love you!" Mike said laughing. "Yeah love you brother" El said laughing too. Will just sighed, "Good night!"

Mike started having another dream. He dreamed about El again. They were at the snow ball together dancing the night away. He dreamed about some of the more special visits he had with her. Like the first time he broke the rules to go see her, the first time they made out. Then he dreamed about being with her in ways he hadn't been with her yet, all very good dreams for Mike.

Then he woke up he heard a loud bang. He was in the tent alone. "Will?, El? what's going on" He got up he didn't feel like he was in the void or the upside down so he went outside and no one was around. All the other campers were gone, the parking area was empty, he was completely alone. Mike began frantically pinching himself to wake up. Mike thought to himself "This has to be a dream still, come on Mike wake up, wake up!" Then he began to yell out loud "Wake up!" Mike didn't know what to do he was sure he was asleep. There is no way everyone could just disappear!

"Mike" he heard the dark voice again "I see you Mike"

"What? Who are you?" Mike said looking around desperately for where the voice was coming from.

There was no answer only dark and empty silence. Mike sat down on the grass looking around feeling nothing but cold and emptiness. He started sobbing, "Why can't I just wake up! Why can't I wake up!"

Then all of a sudden Mike woke up for real.

He looked around and saw El and Will still asleep. "Good" he thought to himself "If I woke them up again they'd be all over me all the time, Now what the hell is going on! What could that voice be!"

He felt his cheeks they were wet like he had been crying for real. He remembered how the previous night he was running in his dreams and how when he woke up he felt like he had been running for real. Thinking about this sent chills all through his body. He was freaking out!

He stayed up thinking about all the possibilities is it really just a dream? Is it the Mind Flayer? Is it something new? something from the bad men? It could be anything! And it said I can see you! What the heck did that mean?! See me!

Eventually despite his best efforts to stay awake he fell asleep again. But he didn't have any bad dreams this time and he woke up in the morning feeling just fine.