Whoops sorry it's been so long since I uploaded! (even though I feel like I say that every time I actually do upload). This chapter is a bit different from all the rest and I'm sure you'll figure out why. Enjoy!

"Can you stop pacing? They'll be hear any second just chill out."

Mike Wheeler stopped mid step and turned to face the girl sitting at his kitchen table. Charlie had on a pair of jeans borrowed from Nancy and Steve's varsity jacket. Her feet, wearing combat boots, were propped up on the chair next to her. She looked up from the plate in front of her when Mike turned to face her, one of her eyebrows disappearing underneath her bangs. Most of the time, when she was drowning in Steve's clothes, she looked much younger. Other times she looked too old to be hanging out with middle schoolers.

"I'm nervous." Mike shot back. "This is a big deal."

"I know that." She replied, setting her fork down next to her now empty plate. "Your anxiety fills up the whole room. I'm suffocating."

After dropping Charlie off at the Wheeler house Steve set out to get Eleven from the cabin in the woods. Though she likely never voiced it to her Eleven was elated to have Charlie around. Mike knew she was disappointed that things with Kali hadn't worked out the way she wanted to. She felt like she was getting a second chance at having a family with Charlie in town. There was only so much about the lab that Mike could understand. It helped to have someone around who truly knew what she had gone through.

Eleven decided that, witch Charlie's help, she was finally ready to search for Dr. Brenner in the void in hopes of getting justice for herself and the other experiments he had tortured. Mike and Steve would be there for emotional support no matter what happened. As he crossed the room to sit at the table parallel to her Mike wondered how Charlie wasn't nearly as nervous as he was. Maybe she was just better at hiding it than he was. Or maybe she really was as stone cold as she sometimes seemed.

"Have you ever tried looking for him before?" Mike asked her, hoping she would say yes and give him an idea of what to expect.

Instead she shook her head. "No, not really." She said. "I've always been too scared." There was a beat of silence before she spoke again. "Has Eleven ever tried?"

"No, I don't think so." Mike told her.

"What about when you guys were separated?"

Mike felt his stomach drop even at the mention of one of the most difficult times in his short life. Most people didn't dare to bring it up in front of him so hearing someone talk about it so openly was a bit shocking to his system. His eyes fell down to his hands in his lap, unable to meet Charlie's intense gaze.

She spoke again before he got the chance to. "She never really talks about it, you know."

"It's hard." He answered simply.

In his peripheral vision he saw her pick her feet up off the chair and sit leaning over the table. "How can you stand to be around Hopper after he did that to you guys?" she asked him. "If someone did that to me I wouldn't able to be around them without punching them right in the face."

Mike felt his pulse starting to pound in his ears, his mind overwhelming at both what he was thinking and hearing. Flashes of unpleasant memories went through his mind at the speed of light. Had he not seen them a million times before he wouldn't have been able to tell what they were. "I don't want to talk about this."

"Do you ever worry that he's going to separate you guys again?"

He snapped his head up, his eyes meeting with hers. "I don't want to talk about it." He said sharply.

For a moment she was still, not a single muscle in her body moving. He was ready to apologize when she leaned back in her chair and held her hands up. "Alright." She said, letting her hands fall into her lap. "I'm sorry. I won't ask again."

xXx

"I don't want to talk about it."

Mike's thoughts were pushing up against her own, begging to be read. Charlie had been making a point recently to not invade the privacy of people's mind every chance she got. But how could she not be tempted by Mike's reaction to a few simple questions? Steve had told her that talking about things was a way to heal. How were Mike and Eleven supposed to heal if they completely shut down every time someone brought it up.

Just this once, she told herself, for his own good.

She leaned back in her chair, holding her hands up in surrender. "Alright." She told him. "I'm sorry. I won't ask again."

She really was sorry. And she technically wasn't asking again. So it wasn't a lie.

Mike's defensive posture deflated slightly. "It's alright." He said, pushing his chair out and getting to his feet. "Want something to drink?"

"Sure."

He crossed the room towards the sink, opening the cabinets and grabbing two glasses before turning on the faucet. Charlie waited until his back was to her before she invaded his mind.

Her vision went black for a split second, just long enough for animalistic panic to fill her body. She blinked once and suddenly she was no longer in the kitchen of the Wheeler house. The room was large with rectangular tables and the lights were off, giving the room a dark blue glow. It was uncommon that someone's memories were so intense that she quite literally got sucked into them, but not impossible. For a moment she was too disoriented to realize what was going on around her. Charlie covered her eyes with her hand while she steadied herself and waited for her head to stop spinning.

"Promise?"

"Promise."

Familiar voices brought Charlie back to a past reality. She dropped her hand while her eyes landed on the source. A group of kids a year and a half younger and missing two members. The sight of Eleven, bald and weak as she lay on the table, was jarring. Charlie made her way over to the kids, none of them noticing her approach since she wasn't really there. The closer she got the more she felt as if a strong hand were squeezing on her heart. It took her a moment to realize what the source of the feeling was. She wasn't just living Mike's memory, she was feeling his emotions as if they were her own.

By the time she reached the kids tears started pooling in her eyes, and when she got close enough she saw Mike's doing the same. She reached out for him in attempt to comfort him but stopped herself when she remembered she wouldn't be able to touch him. She was forced to watch helplessly.

Behind them the door swung open, crashing against the wall, and a monster stormed in letting out an unworldly screech. She and the others whirled around to face it, fear paralyzing her as her eyes took in the ghastly creature. Charlie was unable to move while Dustin and Lucas attempted to use their rocket launchers to keep it at bay. But it was no use. The Demogorgon continued towards them.

It was only a few feet away from them when the monster went rigid a split second before it was propelled to the other side of the room, pinned to the blackboard by an invisible force. Charlie realized what it was only a moment before the boys did, turning in time to see Eleven jump down from the table. A dangerously determined expression was etched in her face.

Though she knew her actions wouldn't help anything Charlie stepped in her path in an attempt to stop her. "Eleven don't." she said to someone who couldn't hear her. "Please don't."

Eleven walked through her as if she were a ghost and continued towards her target. Still facing where she had once been she watched Mike attempt to stop her before Eleven threw him back against the wall. Panic started taking over, the icy feeling of helplessness creeping over every inch of her body. She ran the short distance to Mike before dropping on her knees in front of him, tears spilling down her cheeks the same time they did on his.

"It's going to be okay, Mike." She said, attempting to reach out to him. Her hands went right through him until they were pressed against the wood of the cabinets he leaned against. Though she knew the emotions she was feeling weren't her own they still felt just as real. A deadly cocktail of panic, desperation, and helplessness made her body ache with the need to do something and the knowledge that she couldn't.

Charlie looked over at her shoulder, knowing she had no choice but to watch the events before her unfold.

"Goodbye Mike."

Mike and Charlie's hearts broke simultaneously.

Both Eleven and the Demogorgon let out ear piercing screeches, one of pain and the other of power. Charlie clapped her hands over her ears and turned back to face Mike, another scream harmonizing with the other two. Though she couldn't feel herself do it she knew it was her. The lights above her started to flicker rapidly and she shut her eyes before placing her forehead between her knees. She promised out loud to never invade someone's mind ever again if she could just wake the hell up.

"Get me out!" she screamed as loud as she could. "Mike let me out! Mike!"

"Charlie!"

A pair of hands landing on her shoulders startled her and when she picked her head up she was no longer in the Hawkins middle school. She was sitting on the kitchen floor of where she had been only minutes before, her hands still over her ears and her throat raw from screaming. Mike was knelt down in front of her, a similar look of panic she had just seen only on an older face. She didn't think she had ever been so glad to see someone in her life.

Charlie threw her hands around his neck and let out a desperate sob. She felt his arms wrap around her waist, rubbing her back in attempt to comfort her. Charlie heard the front door open over her repeated apologizes and seconds later Steve and Eleven ran into the room. Worry crossed over both their faces at the sight before them. Eleven stood frozen in the doorway while Steve came over and knelt down next to them, brushing his hand through her hair.

"You're okay." He said as Mike let go of her and let her crawl into Steve's arms. He held her tightly against his chest while she calmed herself down, never once asking what had happened. Only telling her that she was okay. Charlie knew if she wasn't so traumatized by what she had just experienced she might have fallen in love with Steve Harrington right then and there.

xXx

"Are you sure you're okay to do this?"

"I said I was fine."

She wasn't really. But her and Eleven had important business to take care of and she couldn't let her emotions get in the way of finding the man that had ruined their lives. She could tell Steve didn't believe her by the way he looked at her but he chose not to say anything, instead turning towards the television and messing with it until it turned to static. Eleven and Mike embraced, the blindfold clutched tightly in her hand. Steve returned to Charlie's side, his hand finding the small of her back.

"Promise you won't push yourself too hard?" he asked her. "That if it's too scary you'll come out?"

She nodded her head though she knew she was lying to him. "I will."

He seemed only slightly convinced. "Mike and I will be here the whole time, alright?"

Charlie forced herself to smile. "I know."

Eleven pulled away from Mike and turned towards her, finally ready to do what they'd both been avoiding. They sat on the floor facing each other, Steve and Mike on the couch only two feet away. Eleven flashed her an uncertain smile before they tied the blindfolds over their eyes. Charlie could feel her heart pounding in her chest and she reached for Eleven's hand for both heir reassurance.

It only took a few moments for both of them to enter the void. When Charlie opened her eyes again it was just her, Eleven, and total blackness. Charlie held Steve's varsity jacket close to her, the familiar scent of his cologne somewhat calming her nerves. Eleven had borrowed Mike's sweater for the very same reason.

"You guys remind me of me and Mike." Eleven told her, still holding onto her hand.

Charlie felt her cheeks catch on fire. She knew that she wasn't the only one that heard Eleven's comment. She didn't dare say anything about how she felt about him, knowing he would be able to hear her too. "Mike and I." she said instead.

Eleven rolled her eyes at her. "Whatever."

There was an echoed noise in the distance that silenced them both. They shared a nervous look before heading forwards, their footsteps making small splashes in the shallow water beneath them. Charlie's eyes struggled to make anything out in the void, a world entirely of black.

"Do you feel him?" Eleven asked her, inching closer to her side.

"I feel someone." She answered. "I just don't know if it's him."

It was a similar feeling to the one when she knew someone was looking at her. Eyes on the back of her head. Watching her every move. It was an evil presence, which definitely fit Papa, but it was different somehow. Older. Bigger. Inhuman. Charlie didn't understand it so she kept her mouth shut as they continued forward.

It felt like they'd been walking forever but she knew it had only been a few minutes. Time in the void was messy, just like everything else. All of a sudden she spotted something darker and blacker against the rest of the void, sensing it's movement more with her instincts than her vision.

Charlie stopped mid step and Eleven quickly turned to her. "What is it?" she asked, the panic clear in her voice.

"Something's here."

"Something?"

"Not Papa."

Eleven glanced over her shoulder before looking back at Charlie. "Read its mind." She told her. "I don't feel anything."

Charlie's gaze moved behind her sister and she had to squint her eyes to make the form out again. Even from far away she could tell it was tall. She could feel blood start to trickle out of her nose as she struggled to penetrate the creature's thoughts.

"You can do this."

Only moments later Charlie knew she had made it in and that she had been correct. Whatever was with them in the void wasn't human. Human's thoughts played like a recording in her head. But the thoughts she read from what was with them were different. She felt them in her, like intuition. She couldn't have explained it if she tried.

"It knows you." Charlie told her, meeting her eyes for a moment before looking at the creature once more. "It's mad. You… hurt it."

"The Demogorgon?"

Charlie shook her head. "The Demogorgon you hurt is dead. This is something else." She shut her eyes, attempting to strengthen the connection. "Last year. It was about to be free but you closed the gate."

"The Mind Flayer."

She opened her eyes again, feeling the creatures recognition at its name. Charlie nodded her head. "Yeah, that." She said. "The gate is weak. It's going to come back. Soon."

"It can't."

Images started flashing through Charlie's mind. Demogorgons running freely around Hawkins. The ground collapsing until where Hawkins ended and the Upside Down began were no different. Dead and rotting bodies littered through the streets and serving no other purpose than food for other worldly monsters. The sky red and fiery. And the Mind Flayer in total control of both worlds.

"It will."