Mike woke up to someone banging on the front door. Confused, he put on a pair of pants and walked to the front door. He opened the door, and standing there was El, dressed in the usual black leather jacket and jeans, with light makeup and curly hair. "El? What the hell are you doing here?" Mike said with as much indignation as his groggy voice could muster.

"I came to apologize. Not just for the last couple of days, but everything. I know I've been a bitchy brat to you, and I'm sorry." El replied. "I also have a confession to make. You might want to sit down. I have neither cheated nor gotten pregnant, so don't worry too much." She added quickly before he could ask.

Once he sat down, she began, "I haven't been fair to you, Mike. I wanted to tell you, but couldn't find a good way to say it. I still haven't. I just need to tell you. I… don't feel as strongly about you as you do about me. I enjoy being around you, you're funny, you're nice, you're my first friend, you're sweet, you're attractive, but I don't feel like you're my boyfriend per se. Just a friend that I am attracted to, and care about a little more. I've only felt a romantic connection between us two times. One was the backpacking trip that you snuck along on, the other was the opening ceremony of Kill Bonzo the Clown!. I didn't say anything for two reasons. One, I didn't want to hurt you. Two, it felt nice to be complimented by you every day. You always had a kind word or gift for me. You were a calming presence for me. I loved being around you and didn't want anything to change." (El is saying that her end of the relationship didn't progress beyond the middle-school boyfriend/crush stage, while (although I won't say this elsewhere, and El doesn't know) Mike was thinking about what he needed to have to be able to get Hopper's blessing to propose) El finished looking at her feet, expecting Mike to yell. When she didn't hear a thing, she looked up to find him opening the gun safe.

"What the fuck are you doing Mike?" She shouted.

"Something I should have done a while ago. Three years ago, to be exact. Moving permanently to a place nowhere on this piece of shitty dirt will ever find me." Mike said, with a steely glint of anger, and a dangerous glint of an unstable mind in his eye. El, thinking he meant suicide, begged him not to kill himself. "Oh no! I'm not giving you the satisfaction of ruining my life forever, plus disrupting everyone else's lives, while still managing to make it all about you. Although, it'd be great to see you have to deal with the guilt and pain you caused everyone else and me every morning. Yeah, think that's the plan. Thanks for helping me decide. Goodbye. See you… NEVER." He said, smiling insanely as he slammed and locked the door in her face. (Your Deep Rest by The Hotelier starts playing) She looked in the window to see him load the gun and head upstairs to his room. He then wrote something down, went into another room for 2 minutes, and went into his room, turned away from his window, placed the gun to his temple, and pulled the trigger. A gush of red sprayed all over the walls, window, and ceiling of his room, as a loud bang filled the air. (Mike went out of the room to fill a water balloon with Kool-Aid and Ketchup, which he held in his teeth, put the gun to the balloon, which would be in front of his head, and shot that. he's not dead, just being a HUUUUUUUGGGEEE prick.) El covered her mouth, and sank to her knees, sobbing. She heaved up the contents of her stomach, as she realized that all that was left of the kind, nice, handsome boy she used to know was currently splattered all over his room. She then heard the basement door open. Filled with hope that he might not be dead, she sprinted toward the door to find a mess of red boot prints and droplets leading into the forest beyond Mike's house. El's heart sank as she realized they weren't small enough to be Mike's, but they were a perfect match for Billy's. That did not bode well for Mike, based on what she had heard from Max.

2 hours later,

Hopper walked up to El, who's been sitting staring at the same spot on the walls for 2 hours. "They found a second round casing in the room. You only heard one shot?" Hopper asked, adding "Shit!" when El nodded in response to his query. "This means he's probably not dead. YET. You said that Billy was responsible, and while the shoes match, that's not enough to get a warrant for his arrest. Sorry, El. We just don't know where to even start looking. I'll put out an APB, but that and general search parties are all we can do at this point." Hopper said, rising to his feet. "Just try to not do anything crazy, okay? Some of the people at the precinct think I should put you in a psychiatric facility for a little. They're saying you might've faked the evidence to fuel a delusion, then hid his body. So, don't be searching for him, okay? You don't know anything more than we do, and you are SIGNIFICANTLY less equipped." Hopper then walked off, leaving El to struggle through her personal hell.

2 days later, El steals Hopper's shotgun, the Byers's rifle, and Hopper's sidearm (not wanting to touch the weapon Mike faked his suicide with), and hunts the wilderness for him, before being caught by Hopper after 4 hours.

4 days after Mike disappears, a group of teenagers see a silhouette of a man in farmer clothing flipping them off. They go to tell him off, before realizing that it was a scarecrow with a finger-like attachment. They investigated further, and to their horror, found it was indeed a real finger. They called the police, and Hopper identified it as Mike's left pinkie, from the knife scar on it. (Mike and El played with Hopper's hunting knife when they were little, and when Hopper saw them, Mike dropped the knife on his finger, cutting down to the bone.) At this point, having found no other trace of him, people assume he was murdered after attempting the faking of his death. 6 days after his disappearance, a funeral is held for Mike. El attends, sobbing, but in denial as to his death. She leaves the funeral, driving away in her truck, as she reaches into the passenger side and checks that all her guns and equipment are still there. She drives for about 30 minutes before pulling over and doing a more detailed once over of her weapons and equipment. She checks the guns are loaded, the blades are sharp, and that the binoculars and compass are in perfect working order. Seeing that all is right with her equipment, she continues into the forest. She knows it was Billy who took Mike, maybe sensing an opportunity or executing a plan, but with that information, she narrows the search to an area of the woods around Hawkins that Billy would have easy access to in the hours that Max said he is not seen by anyone. It's still a good 20-mile wide zone, but that's better than the whole tristate area, which is where everyone else is searching. She sticks to structures since Mike would want either long pants and shirt (which he didn't take anything, and was in no shirt and jeans when he left) or shelter if he was a willing companion, in which case he would forfeit his instruments of procreation, El vowed, or Billy would need to keep him captive. She searched all day and managed to rule out a good 5 square miles. She was about to head home, as it was getting late, when she spotted a trail of blood. (She's on foot, off-trail) She hurried to follow it and discovered a hideaway with an emaciated Mike inside. (He hasn't eaten much since his disappearance) El hurried to his side and shook him awake. "Mike! I knew you weren't dead!" El shouted, throwing her arms around him.

"Of everyone in Hawkins who could've found me, it just had to be fucking you didn't it?" Mike groggily responded (geez Mike, she just probably saved you, chill out and be grateful) At that, El promptly shoved him away and slapped him soundly across the face. "THAT'S for leaving, and…" she started, before Mike, leaning forward in anticipation of what was about to happen, fell on his face. "Oh! You thought I was about to kiss you? After you put me through all that pain by faking your death? No SIR! Your reward for coming back this soon is not getting your balls removed with a rusty knife. Count yourself lucky, asshat!" El laughed at Mike and helped him stumble to the truck. They were about to leave when someone in a sackcloth mask showed up (Billy), yelling death threats. "That's the guy who took me!" Mike said, "Fucking DRIVE!" El, taking the hint, sped off.

End Ch. 14