El

I cannot quantify the pain I am feeling, knowing I am all the way over here and he's all the way over there. I want to be next to him, holding his hand, forcing the evil that has plagued us for so many years to just give up, go away and I can live my life with him in peace. I know why Joyce moved us here, so that we could finally be safe and that she could provide a safe and loving environment to raise her ever growing compliment of children. Jonathan had been very reserved ever since the move, missing Nancy just as much as I miss Mike, it has been a hard adjustment for all of us, and the events of tonight have made it so much harder. A force that I could not identify had removed my ability to help Mike. And that scared me. It felt familiar to me, like I had encountered this being before. It evoked the same kind of familiarity that only one man had ever been able to make me feel, Papa. Not my real papa, he was alive and well back in Hawkins.

I do not know how, I do not know where, but Brenner is not dead and he is doing this to Mike, and I will not let him do it anymore. I must get back. I must save him. I must be by his side, it hurts too much knowing that I cannot be there with him, when I so desperately want to be. I want to be able to get Sophie's attention, and try and get her to get me and our family back to Hawkins where we belong, but I don't know how to get her attention, and if I do, what happens if I encounter Brenner again, I could potentially get my family into a lot of trouble, and even killed, and I can't let that happen, so I have to do it the long way, I need to leave, tonight. After a discussion about what I saw, most of it anyway. just going over what I saw, with Joyce having a tough time getting used to the fact that Hopper is alive again, and he is there with them right now, so that is a source of comfort for me and the people around me.

I do not know how I am going to get back to Hawkins, but I know someone who does. I pack a bag, and I pretend to read while Joyce checks in on me every few minutes to make sure I am all good. Of course, she does not know that I'm gonna go, so I decide to write her a note explaining that I'm going home and that I don't wanna hurt Will, Jonathan or her anymore so I'm leaving them behind. I also want to be with Mike and not get Will caught up in anymore of that shit so that's part of my reasoning as well as my bag is packed, and I wait for people to go to sleep. An hour or two passes and I hear Joyce slip off to bed. I wait 15 more minutes to be sure and I start to slip out of my room, trying to be as quiet as I can. I want to draw as little attention to myself as possible, and I try and be as quiet as I can, but I get the shock of my life as I come downstairs and I see Will and Jonathan sitting down, staring at me like they've never seen me before.

'Where do you think you're going?' Jonathan asks.

'Nowhere' I reply.

'Bullshit' says Will. 'Tell us.'

'I hope you don't kiss your mother with that mouth' I say back to Will with a smirk.

'We're not joking El' says Jonathan. 'Why have you got a bag and what's that paper in your hand?' he asked while gesturing to my bag and my note to Joyce.

'I'm going back to Hawkins' I say to them. 'Alone.'

'Like hell you are' Jonathan says. 'We won't let you go.'

'Yeah' Will says, albeit a bit shakily.

'I can't let you stop me.' I say back to them. 'I need to go, I need to be there with them, with him. If something bad was happening with Nancy, wouldn't you wanna be there with her, by her side, helping her overcome it and get through it.'

'Well, yes I would' says Jonathan, pausing to self-reflect. 'But that's beside the point. I wouldn't go alone, in the middle of the night.'

'Point taken' I say, looking at him.

'And with Brenner back' Will starts. 'You're much safer being with people who know where they're going and who can protect you. More people might slow you down a little bit, but Jonathan knows how to drive so you more than make up that time back.'

'I guess you guys are right' I reply, admitting defeat to them and to myself.

'There is no I guess, we are right' Jonathan says back. 'Now, let us pack and we'll get going.'

'What about Joyce' I say.

'Yeah, what about her' says a voice from behind us.

'Shit' I think, and I have a pretty good mind that's what we were all thinking as I turn around and see Joyce looking at us.

'You're dressed up like you're ready to go out El' she says. 'Might I ask where?'

'Well, actually I was just-' I begin.

'Don't bullshit me' she says, cutting me off. 'I know you're planning to go back, and whether your intentions are pure or not, and I'm sure they are, sneaking off in the middle of the night, by yourself no less with all the revelations that have been made today is not the way to do it.' She turns to the boys behind me.

'As for you two' she says. 'Jonathan you're free to do as you please, but don't involve these two. If you think I would have let you three go anywhere without me alongside you, especially after learning Hopper was alive, you are greatly misguided. I had planned to take us all back in the morning to go and help, but it looks as if the process has accelerated without my knowledge, so let me go and pack my stuff, get dressed and we'll hit the road back to Hawkins, Indiana. We leave in half an hour.' And with that she heads back to her room, and not another word is said among us (sus) as we disperse and make sure we have everything we need.

I can't help but feel bad as I realise how bad of an idea it would have been to go without them. I would have made them worry, and after everything we've all been through, I'm almost glad I got caught. Of course, Joyce coming along presents its own challenges, but I'm drawn out of these thoughts as we are all declared fit and ready for the journey back to the place it all began. Hawkins, Indiana.

Mike

It's dark in here. It's pitch black yet I can see in front of me. I can breathe okay, I seem to be okay, I can't feel pain. As my eyes explore my new surroundings, I realise something. I know this place. It's unfamiliar but I know it. I don't know how but I know it. It's silent in here and I can hear my own heart beating, it's so quiet that I can hear the blood pumping in my head. I've never felt like this before, I don't like it. It's then that I remember the events preceding me waking up, if you can call it that, in here.

'Sophie' I think to myself. 'Why did I touch her?'

'Because I told you to' says a voice, a voice that sounded exactly like my own. 'I told you to touch it, I made you touch the black stuff. It was so I could be here with you Mike. You've been my target from the start.'

'I don't know what you mean' I say.

'You know exactly what I mean Mike' the voice says, a soothing quality to it, an air of trust accompanying it.

'I do?' I ask, my voice not really my own anymore.

'Yes' it says. 'I've always wanted you, to get to her'

'Who?' I ask, my voice becoming a thin trail of noise.

'Eleven' it whispers.

I turn around and see nothing. Whatever is talking to me is either inside my head or away from me in a place that I can't see it. AT the mention of her name, I snap out of my trance that I had begun to be sucked in to. It wants me, so it can get to her. 'Yes' says the voice again. 'Very good Mike. Now we can do this the easy way, with you letting me in, or the hard way where I make you experience intense pain and ultimately kill you but not before I make you watch as I kill her. And don't even think about doing anything funny. I'm in your head, remember? I hear every thought you have before you even register it. I'm always listening.'

'Fuck' I think. 'How can I stop something I can't get away from?'

'I don't know' says the voice. 'How can you? If you can't think about it without me, how are you gonna get rid of me?'

'I don't know' I say aloud. 'I'll probably just fight you as hard as I can.'

'That won't do anything and you know it' says the voice. 'Now turn around.'

Even if I hadn't have wanted to turn around my body swivels anyway and I see standing before me, the Demogorgon, or at least something that has the general appearance of it. But something is different. I can vaguely make out a human shape, but I don't know who.

'Let me help you with that' says the voice, and the slimy skin of the monster starts to peel back it's head to reveal hair, white skin and eventually my own face is staring back at me, I gasp and reel back in shock, and my face/the Demogorgon does the same.

'This is what you are now' it says. 'And we will destroy Eleven, one way or another.'

I look down expecting to see my own skin but I don't, I see that I'm covered in Demogorgon slimy skin. I start to rip it off me, and at first it feels like I'm succeeding with little bits of skin flying off the body from where I've ripped them, but no sooner have I started making progress than the skin has started regenerating and replenishing itself. 'Fuck' I think to myself again.

'You can try as you wish but you will not be able to escape' it says. 'Now, I believe I offered you a choice earlier. Will you let me take over, or will you make me destroy you? Think about it, you could have power like no other, you could destroy those who upset you in the blink of an eye, your friends have never done anything for you, you could take your revenge out on them, and Eleven. She abandoned you when you needed her the most. Don't you want to make her feel what you felt when she left?'

'I'll be able to make all of them pay?' I ask.

'Yes Mike' it says. 'Just let me in.'

That's when I choose my moment. Up until this point, I had forgotten a technique El and I had been practising. While I didn't have her telepathic abilities, I could strengthen my mind against people trying to infiltrate it, like Will had been. She taught me how to open up another side of my mind, to be able to think outside of the 'box.' While this entity had been trying to convince me to join him, he had made the mistake of already encompassing me with the Demogorgon body. And now was my time to react. I will my skin to close up, and it does.

'Good choice' says the entity.

'Thank you' I say back. 'How's this?'

With that question, I act. I know the Demogorgon has teeth the size of small knives, so why not put that to good use, on myself/itself. It's not me but it's not not me either. Anyway, since I have command of this, I make it start to eat its own skin. The squelch of it is a horrible sound, but if it means that I can get out of this, it's worth it.

Finally, the voice kicks in. 'How?' it asks.

'Because I can' I say and, from inside this fleshy prison, I see the light of day, a few more seconds and I'm out of the body. I look back at the body, torn to shreds.

'Take that' I think to myself, knowing that it can still hear me. There is no reply, not inside my head at least. I turn around and I see Dr Brenner standing in front of me.

'What do you want?' I ask.

'Submit Mike' he says. 'It'll make this whole thing easier.'

'No!' I say trying to sound as confident as possible.

'Do it or she dies' he says and El pops up out of nowhere, packing a bag. 'She can't hear you, but if you know what's good for you, you'll let this happen.'

I hesitate for a minute and that hesitation allows the skin to latch onto me, and my consciousness is pushed aside as someone, or something, else has control of my body. I can only hope I get back in control before it's too late.

Cal

The confused look of Sophie as she wakes up is quickly replaced by one of worry as she starts to take in the world around her, including me. She jumps up and attaches herself to me. After the events of the last few hours, I'm never letting her out of my sight again. Now that I have her again, I'm not gonna let her go. She looks at Hopper with a puzzled look, and my intuition tells me they have a lot to talk about, but not before we have to deal with Mike, who is still lying motionless in front of me.

'It's all my fault' says a voice that I recognise as Sophie's.

'What did you say?' I ask Sophie.

'I didn't say anything' she replies, looking confused.

'I swear I just heard you say it's all your fault' I respond.

'I didn't' she says, although it's clear she's hiding something. Well to me it is, to about anyone else it wouldn't be.

'Did he hear me?' I hear her ask, but this time I'm looking at her. So, either I'm going crazy or I can hear her thoughts.

'Sophie' I say in my mind.

She doesn't react.

'Sophie!' I say louder in my mind, almost like I'm mentally shouting.

Sophie

'Did he hear me?' I think to myself. He can't have done and yet I mentally said it's my fault and he knew that I said that.

'Sophie' I hear my name, but I don't know from where, or who.

'Sophie!' it's said again, but this time much louder and I know exactly who said it, Cal. But I was looking at him, he didn't say anything. Could it be that I could hear him inside my head somehow, like a telepathic connection. Usually something like this would surprise me, but after everything I've seen and done over the past few months, I wouldn't rule it out. I decide to try it out as well.

'Cal' I say in my head.

'Sophie' comes the response. 'Can you hear me?'

'Yes' I say back. 'Yes I can'

'This is interesting' he says back.

'Interesting?' I say. 'This is ground-breaking. We have to tell the others'

'No' is his response.

'Why not?' I ask.

'Because' he says. 'We have Mike to worry about and also it's not best to spring a revelation like this now.'

He's right as usual, and so I decide to keep it to myself, but this is such a huge deal. I can't believe me and Cal can hear each other's thoughts, it only brings us closer and if we can literally talk to each other without words, we'll be able to do so many more things together.

'Good decision' says Hopper's voice…