…

"Do you still remember El? It's Mike, you stayed at my house under the blanket fort for a week!"

"… Yes. Eggos and Yoda."

From the normal world Mike was grinning with delight and he wished he could see her in real life. "Yeah El, Eggos and Yoda. And snowball, remember? They're waiting here for you, when you come back!"

"And so are we El! It's Dustin!"

"Dustin… Hello…"

"And Lucas…"

"Lucas…"

"You just… you just wait, okay? El." Mike felt his voice crack and pushed the supercom away to be immediately taken by Dustin. He didn't know what else they could do right now, but they'd made so much progress in finding her already and he was just… just so happy, to know she was still alive out there. "Mike?" he heard across the line. Her voice sounded different now, not shaky… too serious. "Yeah El?" he called out holding the device to his ear again like a lifeline. There was an audible gulp before she spoke again. "I saw… there's something… Will…"

Will spoke up too, wondering what she could be talking about. "What about me, Eleven?"

"I saw… monster…"

Her voice was shaky again, with both emotion and the signal trying its best to fade. Will tried to focus on keeping the connection alive but it felt he was holding a strand of hair by two ends in his mind that was slowly slipping, breaking away from him. "Where's the monster El? In your world? Are you safe?" Mike almost screamed into the intercom and stopped pacing around the room.

"Monster… wants Will… with you…"

The signal once again faded into black and the supercom shut off. Mike turned to Lucas, whose eyes were wide and pain-filled, to Dustin who shared the same expression but was more directed at Will. The boy who's travelled to the upside down and found El even further out was now waking up with blood running down his nose and his skin as pale as a corpse. A knock at the door sounded before Jonathan pushed it open. "Hey guys! Dinner is- Will!"

"I'm okay Jonathan, really!" Will pushed himself up weakly and wiped the blood with his sleeve. His older brother pushed him back down and felt his forehead. "Your temperature's okay… what happened?"

"Nothing! I just dozed off and woke up like this…" He pushed Jonathan away and followed his guilty looking friends down the hallway, leaving him alone.

After dinner in front of the TV (homemade meatball subs) Will looked a lot better and relaxed against Jonathan's side, easing the older boys fears in turn. Nothing much was spoken between them but Jonathan noticed the glances between the four boys, and the way they all seemed to be staring through the box at something else entirely. It didn't help that the signal was getting so messed up from the howling forces of nature outside. A heavy bolt of lightning flashed at the window right behind Dustin and he jumped out of his skin into Lucas's arms, said boy pushing him away instantly. The lights flickered on and off for a moment and all four of them stiffened, looking up at the ceiling expectantly.

"You guys are acting stranger than usual… I mean, you know this isn't anything to do with…" Jonathan couldn't find it in himself to mention the name of the young girl that Nancy said they all held dear to their hearts, save for Will who hadn't known her. When they looked at him though, it more than confirmed his fears of what they thought. "Yeah, of course not." Will replied, standing up. "Can we turn the radio on and play cards instead guys? It's too late to start a campaign…"

"Sounds good!" Lucas agreed, jumping up and following him to the little shelf where the games were. Dustin went back to Will's room to grab the snacks he'd packed and that left Mike and Jonathan in the living room. "Seriously Mike, do you guys think that this weather has anything to do with…?"

He turned to the older boy with a blank expression. "Umm, no. I think it's just a freak storm… But maybe, who knows right?"

He left as well, and Jonathan was once again alone with more questions than answers.

…

"This is an emergency! I repeat, we are experiencing the extreme sustained winds of a minor hurricane and lightning clouds now close enough to make human contact! Do not under any circumstances leave your house or shelter, take cover away from flooding zones…" The storm-warning announcement droned on and on behind Nancy as she stared out the window with a fearful expression. The warning switched back to the swanky news-hosts who all looked as jovial as can be in the face of such extreme natural hazards.

"What we expected was Hurricane Ike aint got nothing on this!" one of them said, throwing his papers to the howling wind behind him and trying to keep his plastic yellow hood from blowing away too. Nancy jumped as lightning struck her lawn, leaving a tiny flaming scorch mark in the almost pitch black that was instantly put out by the sheets of falling water behind it. 'I should call Jonathan…' she thought, closing the curtains behind her and going for the telephone. Just as she picked it up though the lights flickered, in and out, before shutting down completely. "Shit!" she muttered, slamming the now dead phone down and extending her arms out in the pitch-black looking for the kitchen where they kept the candles. It was almost 11pm and that meant her parents were sound asleep in bed, never staying up past 10pm a day in their marital lives.

She found the matches and lit one, scrambling to get to the drawer where she knew the candles were. Once those were lit she shakily made her way to the basement and pushed boxes around until she saw the heavy-duty torch. She stopped for a moment, spying the little blanket fort near the back door that served as a reminder to all of them of everything that had happened.

"I'll leave a light up there for Mom..."

Nancy made her way back up to her parents' bedroom, where the door was open and the sounds of her mom's soft breathing and dads light snoring could be heard within.

She left two candles and matches next to them, then went to Holly's room and left a torch for her too. The little girl knew how to use them now and it was just in case.

Outside the rain still poured and the ground quaked slightly. She felt it beneath her feet, the slow, gentle thump that made her little glass ornament wind chime rattle against the window. Seriously, what was that?

When Nancy threw open her curtains a bolt of lightning lit up the world outside and she almost screamed, launching herself backwards as the huge black shadow of an unknown something came into view for a split second near the mountainside.

"Oh god... Mike!"

Panic mode set in and she didn't have time to think about anything else. She grabbed the revolver out from under her bed in the locked case and loaded it with the few rounds she had left. A second trip to the basement and she found the monster-hunting tools they'd used last year. She stuffed her pillows and a wig in her bed to look like she was sleeping and grabbed a second jacket and her folded up storm weather gear before leaving quietly through the front door and braving the harsh elements. "Don't worry Mike, I'll be there!"

...

"Shit shit shit!"

Joyce cursed as she floored it down the straight of the farmer's road before slowing slightly at the corner. "That son of a bitch is back isn't he? He wants my son? Not without killing me first..."

Hopper was silent beside her, eyes searching in the dark with his sniper rifle cocked back, the end pointing out the half open window. "Just focus on getting us there alive Joyce."

"And that tree just had to fall down our street? Jesus Christ Hop the world's got it out for my family..."

"I know... I know Joyce, you guys have had it rough. But you've survived so far and it won't be any different this time. Not while I'm here."

She followed the winding path that took them on a wide loop around the outskirts of town before it would taper off to the back of the Byers' house. It was the farmers track, very rarely used because it took a twenty minute detour to get to her house. But a huge tree had fallen down on their usual road and the flooding reached a point where stepping out of the truck would likely lead to them being swept away. Plus, Hopper had some heavy equipment sitting on the rare seat that they'd need, guns and ammo cleared from the small weapons vault at the station. They'd gunned it back this way and now were travelling down what would be the most harrowing drive of their lives to date. Hopper had let her take the wheel since she was more familiar with the roads. And while she drove at maniacal speeds he hadn't felt the verge of life and death gripping at his seatbelt... much.

'I know I saw something, it wasn't just a trick of the light...'

Joyce balked when he pulled out the rifle and pointed it out, but he explained the huge shadow he'd seen and she shut up quickly, nudging the gas pedal a little harder.

"Another five minutes and we should be- SHIT!"

Hopper almost fired a shot as she plugged the brakes and their top halves lashed forward. "What the hell Joyce?!"

"Oh god Hop there! Look!"

She threw the door open and pointed into the distance. He followed her actions and peered into the darkness, before gulping. "This isn't the same monster..."

It cleared the height of the trees easily, the neck of said beast trailing across the sky like a swaying branch, only much too distinct. Its' back turned to the pair, it cut a path with trees bending and falling from its cleared path like they were grass. It was heading straight for the Byers' home.

"Floor it!" Hop shouted as he threw himself back in, Joyce not far behind ready to kick it into top-speed again.

...

The lights cut out with another sizzling crack of lightning and cards dropped out of everyone's hands as they all jumped in their seats. "J-Jonathan?" Will cried, looking around in the darkness. "Just stay there Will! I've got the flashlight in my room..."

"Shit this is bad, this is sooo bad..."

"Yeah it is. Anyone bring their torches?"

"I did, hang on..."

Mike got up and left too, cursing as he kicked the coffee table and tried to find his bag in the living room. A spotlight appeared behind him as Jonathan returned to rummage through a closet for more lights, the older boy first stopping for a second to help him find his own torch.

"Eww gross, Dustin you asshole!"

"Hey I didn't do that on purpose!"

While Lucas and Dustin bickered, because Dustin had left his half-eaten sub too close to Lucas and the boy had jabbed it and got stuff on his arm, Will felt his other senses heighten as he stared into the darkness ahead. He could feel the strange rhythmic vibration of the table beneath his fingers, not in time with the thunder but something all its own. He felt fear strike his heart deeply. "Mike..." he called out with his eyes shut tight.

Said boy came over to him and shined the light over his friend's face. "Will?"

His eyes were still closed and he slumped in his seat, forehead down in deep focus. It brought up painful memories of when they'd brought El to school to tap into the Heath kit Ham shack's signals. "Guys, guys!"

They looked to him and where he spotlighted, before everyone surrounded Will, though no-one shook him. "Why's he going there now?" Dustin whispered, prodding his shoulder. The boy didn't wake up but they heard his supercom crackle to life. Jonathan came in with a pack of candles and one lit, casting a dim light across the room. "What the hell's going on?"

"Mike come in! Over."

"Will, what are you doing?"

Jonathan almost threw the candle down on the table leaving Lucas to carefully keep it from toppling over and dropped to his knees next to Will. "He's not... moving. He's not moving! But he's talking... how?"

"Long-story short Jonathan, Will's got superpowers like Eleven. He can go to the upside down and talk to us there through his radio..." Dustin shrugged but it did nothing to quell Jonathan, who stood up with shaking hands gripping his scalp.

"Oh no... Oh no no no he... he needs to come back now!"

Just as he reached out to shake his little brother awake and Lucas and Dustin stood in front of him and all three younger boys cried out "NO!"

"NO? YOU GUYS ARE INSANE!"

"You can't do that to Will Jonathan! He left for a reason..."

The second supercom in his hand crackled to life again as Will spoke. "They're right Jonathan. I've been coming here long enough that it doesn't scare me. Don't worry, I know what I'm doing!"

Jonathan didn't stop staring at Will's physical body that grew paler, the drop of blood almost ready to fall. "No you don't Will. No you don't! You're so sick still..."

"Coming here... it gets rid of the nightmares. Don't you see Jonathan? I don't need you and Mom sheltering me so much, I need to face my fears!"

…