They hurried back into the house, and the others all gathered at their arrival. Hopper snatched up a pen and paper and sat at the table.
"You're bleeding again," Max said, frowning at Ross. Ross shook her head, leaning agaisnt the table to watch what Hopper was doing.
"What happened?" Dustin asked.
"I think he's talking," Hopper explained," Just not with words." Ross watched as he wrote out the rhythm Will'd been tapping, and then began deciphering the letters.
"What is that?" Steve asked, leaning over his shoulder.
"Morse code," all of the kids said.
"H-E-R-E," Hopper read off from the sheet of paper.
"Here."
Ross sighed, rubbing her forehead.
"Will's still in there," Hopper said. "He's talking to us."
They formed a plan. Hopper, Jonathan, Joyce, and Mike would go back into the shed to continue talking to Will. One of them would have a Walkie Talkie, and would relay Will's tapping back to everyone in the kitchen, where they would draw it out and write down the letters.
Ross would've gone back into the shed, but Hopper told her to stay inside. Something about her nosebleeds reacting when Will got worked up.
So they sat in the kitchen now, all waiting for the signal to come over the walkie talkie. Dustin, Max, and Lucas were huddled around the radio, and Ross and Richie were on the other side of the table. Richie was currently trying to scrub the trails of blood from the side of her head, where it'd leaked from her ear. She already managed to clean up her nose. Steve and Nancy sat on either side of them, Nancy with a crayon and paper to write down the letters
Richie paused as the radio beeped a few times. "Dash, dot, dash, dot," they all said aloud. Dustin wrote it down, while Lucas scoured the small guide for the letter.
"Okay, I got it," he said, pointing to it.
"C," Lucas and Max said.
Nancy quickly wrote it down.
They continued to wait for the beeps, writing down the letters as they came in, until it eventually formed out two words. They all got up and gathered behind Nancy as she held up the paper.
"Close Gate," they read.
Suddenly, the phone began to ring.
Dustin hurried over, picked up the phone, and slammed it back into the receiver. A second later, it started ringing again.
He went to grab it again, but Nancy beat him to it, snatching the phone mount and tearing it from the wall all together. Ross raised her eyebrows.
"Jesus," Richie muttered from beside her.
"Do you think he heard that?" Max asked in concern.
"It's just a phone," Steve reasoned. "It could be anywhere. Right?"
"I think so," Ross said, standing up. "I mean, hopefully."
"God dammit, we're all gonna fucking die!" Richie exclaimed, throwing the dirty rag onto the table.
"No one's dying," Nancy said, shaking her head.
They heard a loud roar from somewhere outside.
"Yeah?" Richie asked. "Tell that to them."
They all moved to the living room, eyes on the doors and windows.
"That's not good," Dustin said.
Ross raced to the windows, jumping onto the back of the couch to look through the glass. The other kids followed, and not a second later Mike came in and joined them.
"Hey! Get away from the windows!" Hopper demanded, entering through the kitchen with two guns in his hands.
They followed orders, and lined up agaisnt the opposite wall. Hopper took a quick glance through the glass and turned to Jonathan, holding up a rifle.
"Do you know how to use this?"
"What?" Jonathan asked.
"Can you use this?" Hopper asked frantically, shaking the weapon for emphasis.
"Um-"
"I can," Nancy said, stepping forward. Hopper tossed her the gun and she caught it, cocking it before holding it up. Hopper presumed the same stance, and Steve stepped in between them with his Nail Bat.
Lucas pulled his slingshot out of his back pocket, and Ross looked around for some sort of weapon. There were none. The closest thing to one was a candle stick, which Mike already held in his hands. So she settled for standing directly behind Lucas, and stared towards the door with bated breath.
"Where are they?" Max asked.
Ross could hear a low rumbling, which quickly turned into a roar on the right side of the house. They all turned towards the sound, and Richie grabbed Ross's elbow.
"What are they doing?" Nancy asked.
There were more growls and snarls at the front of the house, and they all turned again.
"Fucking shit," Richie muttered, tightening his grip on Ross. The monster outside continued to screech, until it stopped abruptly. Ross took a timid step forward, peering through the window. What happened?
Suddenly, a demodog came flying in through the window, shattering the glass and sliding across the floor. Ross screamed, as did everyone else, and someone grabbed the back of her hospital gown, pulling her back.
"What the fuck!" Richie exclaimed, and Ross reached out behind her to grab his arm.
The creature was completely limp, laying in an awkward angle ontop of some knocked over furniture. Hopper took a tentative step towards it, gun still up.
"Holy shit," Dustin said.
"Is it dead?" Max asked.
Hopper was directly in front of it, and Ross squeezed Richie wrist, wincing.
"He's gonna kick it."
And he did. He nudged it with his boot, checking to see if it would react in anyway at all. Slowly, he lowered his gun. Then the door creaked.
They all spun around, and the lock flipped by itself. Ross nearly choked. Hopper and Nancy held up their guns once more, Lucas and Steve, their weapons.
The sliding lock slid off, dropping to hang uselessly. Ross's hand slid down into Richie's and she squeezed. This couldn't be happening. The door swung opened, and everything slowed down.
Eleven.
And there she stood, dressed in jeans and a leather jacket, hair slicked back and some sort of make-up lining her brown eyes. Blood dripped out of her nose, and Ross's chest constricted.
She was squeezing Richie's hand so hard she wouldn't be surprised if she cut off circulation, because El was there. She was finally back.
Mike stepped forward, and all the memories hit her like a train. Mike and El sitting in his basement, riding his bike, sitting close together in the school gym, running from the demogorgon with locked hands, staring at eachother in a last goodbye as Eleven sacrificed herself, Mike radioing her every day since.
Ross loved Eleven and they were close. But Mike loved her in a different way, and they all knew it. They were closer, so close it had effected Mike drastically when she'd disappeared. He'd hoped every day for her return, and now he was finally getting it.
"Eleven."
They met in the middle, and she gasped, pulling him into a hug. "Mike."
Ross felt Richie squeeze her hand, and she turned to him for a moment. The question was burning in his eyes, and she gave a wordless nod.
"I never gave up on you," Mike told El, pulling away. "I called you every night. Every night for-"
"353 days," Eleven finished. Ross's eyes widened. She'd been listening. Mike had been right. "I heard."
"Why didn't you tell me you were there?" Mike asked. "That you were okay?"
"Because I wouldn't let her." Ross looked over to see Hopper take a step forward.
What?
"The hell is this?" he asked quietly, stepping directly in front of El. "Where you been?"
"Where have you been?" El asked back. Ross's eyebrows rose. Was that a coherent sentence?
Hopper pulled Eleven into a hug, just as Mike came to a realization. "You've been hiding her."
Ross glanced between the two. This would not be good.
"You've been hiding her this whole time!" Mike stepped forward and pushed Hopper.
"Hey!" Hopper exclaimed, turning around to grab Mike by the front of the shirt. "Let's talk. Alone." He quickly led Mike down the hall, and Ross let go of Richie's hand.
She rushed forward and eveloped El in a hug with some much force that she stumbled back.
"Roslyn," Eleven said, wrapping her arms around Ross. She felt the girl bury her face into her hair, and Ross hugged her even tighter.
"God, I missed you," she mumbled into El's jacket. "You've got no idea."
"I missed you, too," Eleven responded. Ross pulled away, holding El out at arms length, and gave a laugh.
"Shit, look at your hair," she said, eyeing the slicked back locks. What had it looked like before, when it wasn't done up? "It's long now."
Eleven gave her a small smile, "Bitchin'."
Ross laughed again, then noticed as Eleven's eyes shifted to something behind her. El frowned. Ross glanced behind her to see Richie standing a few feet away, adjusting his glasses.
"Mike?" El asked quietly, looking back to Ross.
"No," Ross told her, shaking her head. "Richie. Just looks like Mike." She turned slightly, reaching out to grab Richie's wrist and pull him forward.
She considered something for a second, then said," he's basically Mike, but Rated R." Richie snorted, but El stared at her blankly. She realized that El probably didn't know what that even meant.
"Richie, this is El," she introduced, moving on before El could question it. "El, this is Richie." Eleven stared, and Richie stared back, before he gave her a small wave. El considered it for a moment before she gave a short nod.
Then Lucas and Dustin came up, both hugging her at the same time. Ross took a step back, wanting to give them room, and Richie followed, actually pulling her aside.
"That's really her?" he whispered, nodding towards her. Ross nodded.
"That's really her," she confirmed, giving a small laugh. "I can't believe it."
"Okay, but why did she show up all goth? And I thought she had no hair," he said. Ross rolled her eyes.
"For one, I don't rally cared how she showed up, just that she did. And second, hair grows back, Richie."
"I know, I know," Richie said, nodding. "It's just...I never thought I'd meet her. The way you guys talked to her made it seem like..."
"She was never coming back?" Ross asked. "That's what we'd thought. Clearly we were wrong."
"Clearly," Richie repeated, nodding. "And...and what if she acts weird around me?"
Ross raised an eyebrow.
"Because I look like Mike?"
She glanced back over to El, who was swiftly walking past Max's outstretched hand into Joyce' arm.
"She'll get used to it," Ross assured him. "She adjusts quickly, albeit in her own way, but still." She looked back to him, giving him a smile.
"I'm sure she'll like you."
"Yeah, okay," Steve butted in, stepping up next to the two. "But who is she anyway?" Ross and Richie looked up to the older boy, raising their eyebrows.
"You don't know?" Ross asked. Steve shook his head, giving them exasperated looks.
"Uh, no," he said.
Ross had figured that maybe Nancy had told Steve about Eleven. He knew about the demogorgon, and the two had started dating. Why hadn't she told him?
"It's a long story," Ross told him.
"Basically, she's from that lab and has freaky but cool mind powers," Richie said bluntly. Ross stepped on his toes.
She finally noticed the others heading to the kitchen, and went to follow.
"Do you think if we got you back there," Joyce was asking El, "that you could close it?"
The Gate. Eleven had been the one to open it in the first place. Wouldn't it only make sense that she could close it, too?
"It's not like it was before," Hopper said, letting lose a sigh. "It's grown. A lot. And, I mean, that's considering we can get in there. The place is crawling with those dogs."
"Demodogs," Dustin spoke up, turning to correct the older man.
"I'm sorry, what?" Hopper asked. Ross gave a loud groan, shaking her head.
"I said, uh, Demo-dogs," Dustin repeated. "Like demogorgon and dog. You put them together, it sounds pretty badass-"
"How is this important right now?"
"It's not," Dustin agreed, turning back to the table. "I'm sorry."
"I can do it," El spoke up, catching everyones attention. She was looking at Hopper, however, who shook his head.
"You're not hearing me."
"I'm hearing you," Eleven told him stubbornly. "I can do it."
"Even if El can, there's still another problem," Mike spoke up. "If the brain dies, the body dies."
"I thought that was the whole point," Max said.
"It is," Mike confirmed," but if we're really right about this, I mean, if El closes the gate and kills the mind flayer's army-"
"Will's a part of that army," Lucas said aloud.
"She closes the gate, she kills Will," Ross concluded.
"Well," Richie said, standing up from his slumped position. "How do we un-army-fy him?"
They all followed Joyce back to Will's room, after she gave them a look that practically screamed she was forming a plan.
"He likes it cold," Joyce said once they'd gotten to his room, looking towards the open window.
"What?" Hopper asked, raising an eyebrow.
"It's what Will kept saying to me," Joyce told them. "He likes it cold." She shut the window and turned around.
"We keep giving it what it wants," she said.
"If this is a virus," Nancy started," and Will's the host, then..."
"Then we need to make the host uninhabitable," Jonathan said.
"So if he likes it cold," Nancy continued.
"We need to burn it out of him," Joyce finished.
"We have to do it somewhere he doesn't know this time," Mike said.
"That way he can't bring the demodogs back to us," Richie added.
"Some where far away," Dustin suggested.
El was leaving again. Only this time, it was with Hopper, and he was supposed to bring her back. Ross was talking to him about it at that very moment, as she followed him to his truck.
"You promise you'll bring her back?" she asked once more, pausing as he stopped at the door to the drivers's side.
"I told you, kid, I promise," he groaned. "What, will a pinky promise make you feel any better?"
She remembered Dr. Owens, and his pinky promise. He was still in that lab. Ross didn't know if he was alive.
"Owens," she said, catching Hopper's full attention. "He's still in the lab."
She watched his eyebrows draw together, as he frowned.
"Find him," she told him," and bring him back, too."
"I will," he agreed. "I promise."
"Pinky?" she held up her pinky, and Hopper gave an exasperated sigh. Nonetheless, he still locked pinkies with her.
"Pinky."
Ross gave a small smile, which quickly diminished when Hopper pulled out a cigarette and lit it. He looked over Ross to El and Mike, calling out," El...Come on, let's go. It's time."
Ross screwed up her face. "You're really gonna smoke at a time like this?" she asked. While she had nothing agaisnt smoking, she wasn't exactly sure where smoking fit into the situation.
Hopper rolled his eyes and nudged her shoulder. "Beat it, kid." She retreated back to Mike, and watched with him as El climbed into the cop car. Nancy was getting into Jonathan's car, as well, and they quickly headed off.
Everyone else stood behind them on the porch, watching as they departed.
She heard Richie give a loud sigh.
"What now?
Disclaimer: I don't own the ideas, characters, or plot of Stranger Thing or It.
candy95: Thanks! I'm happy to say that the real real action starts next chapter.
LIsa: Thank you sooo much! I hope you liked this one!
JustCrazy: Thanks for the review! And as for your theory, be as bold as you want!;) I love to hear feedback and what you guys think of things!
A/N: Yay another chapter! Sad to say there's only three left, but I am currently working on an epilogue I think you'll all enjoy! Among other good news, at my last art show all my pieces got awards! I know that's not related to this in anyway, but I'm superr proud. Wish me luck for tomorrow's and thursday's shows! Sorry for any grammatical/spelling errors, and I hope you like this chapter!
-blockthewriter