February 14, 1984.
El sucked in a deep breath as she walked through the darkness, following after the voice she so wished to hear in real life. His soft words ringing out around her in echoes.
"Hey El, it's day 94. Valentine's day...I don't know if you know what that is but it's a stupid holiday where people give each other candy and cards and sweet shit like that. I got a lot of them, even one from that girl Jennifer Hayes, she was at Will's funeral I guess she's moved on to me now that he's alive and everything."
El smiled as she walked through the cold water until she stopped and knelt in front of the fort where he sat. The same one he had made all those days ago for her.
"But you know… it's weird, most Valentine days are super fun, we get candy and cards... but I didn't have a lot of fun this time...it just didn't feel right. Dustin said it's because I've been moody since you disappeared and maybe he's right…. "
El felt her heart fall with sadness as his eyes filled with something she couldn't place as he looked down. She followed his gaze and saw a red folded piece of paper in his hand.
He turned it over and she saw the front was of a colorful bear with a rainbow on its tummy. Above it read "Friends like you…."
El wondered what it said in the inside and as if he could read her mind he opened it.
To El.
Friends like you make my heart happy.
From Mike.
Under that she saw that he had written something else.
"I miss you El, I miss you every day and I don't know what to do about it."
El reached out to touch the card but as always her hand only slipped through it and a second later he was gone in a blink of an eye, turning to smoke leaving her alone in that cold dark world.
El took off the blindfold and threw it across her room, wiping at her nose.
She got up and went into the living room, the cabin quiet since Hopper was still out at work. She let out a sound of frustration. She wanted so badly to go to Mike and see him, tell him she was fine and hear the relief in his voice.
She started for the front door and with a simple flick of her head the locks were undone and she was outside trying to think of the way to Mike's house.
With her breathing fogging up around her she had decided to just walk until she found it even if she had to wonder around in the dark all night.
But a sound stopped her. El looked around herself trying to place it and her eyes stopped on a tree, the small sound coming from the roots. She walked over to it slowly the ground still wet from the newly melted snow.
She looked around for only a moment then found where the noise was coming from.
A small baby bird lay on the ground. El went to her knees and reached out to touch it but stopped herself. She didn't want to hurt it, it seemed so small with its fluffy little feathers and too small body.
She looked up at the trees just now getting new green leaves as spring was just around the corner. And there, in one of the taller trees was a nest, it's siblings singing.
El bit her lip, thinking of how to help it get back up to it's family. Sure she could use her powers but she had never used her powers on something so fragile. She remembered when Papa had asked her to kill that white cat and she couldn't do it even when she had killed those bad men without a second thought.
But she didn't want to hurt it, she just wanted to put it back… No, she couldn't risk it. She still didn't have the best grip on just how strong her powers could be.
"Just wait here," El told it and ran back inside. She ran to her room and found what she was looking for.
She came back out a moment later a brown bag in hand that she would later take with her when she went to find Mama.
As carefully as she could she wrapped the little bird in a thin scarf and placed it in the bag. It gave only a quiet chirp as she closed the top so it wouldn't fall out.
She looked up at the tall tree. She had never climbed a tree…. hell she had never really seen a tree until last year but she could figure it out, kids did it all the time.
It would take her a few tries to find her footing but after she made it to the first few branches she was set.
She grabbed branch after branch until she reached the nest.
El braced herself against the tree so she was able to pick the baby bird up as gently as she could and placed it back with its siblings.
El smiled at them as they chirped happily. Finally, she looked up and saw just how far up she really was. She could see the top of the cabin from up here. even the tops of the houses so far from where she was...Mike was in one of those houses so was Will and Lucas and Dustin... Suddenly she flinched as birds flue passed her and she almost fell, her foot slipping and she started to tip backwards.
But she caught herself on the branch and watched after them. They landed on another tree not too far from her and she watched as three red and black ones seemingly talked to a little yellow one that sat next to them.
El had no idea that birds could be so colorful, so...pretty.
She had stood in that tree for hours watching them fly through the trees, free to do as they pleased so unlike herself at that time. Finally the sun started to set and she knew Hopper would be home soon.
She had climbed down and heated the TV dinners she and Hopper always had. She watched the clock until it read five, one five and she heard him pull up outside.
She had asked him that night for a book.
"Really and what kind of book would that be?" Hopper asked.
"One about birds," El said.
Hopper gave her a confused look but nodded all the same, "Sure kid, whatever you want."
The next day he had come back from the library with a bag full of books. For the next week she had been distracted on watching and learning what kind of birds lived in that tree-lined world with her. It would turn out that bird she had helped was a crossbill. She would watch from their back porch as the red-tailed hawks and kestrels flue around freer then herself, able to see the world when all she could do was look from afar in her head.