Hello everyone!
This is my first Stranger Things fanfic, written before Volume 2 came out. I basically wrote this whole thing in the space of three weeks but I made sure to re-read and edit as much as I could to ensure it was as well written as I could manage.
Obviously this is an AU so I have changed some things here and there (apart from the obvious addition of an OC) such as Vecna's backstory. A few things have also changed due to my OC's presence during events earlier than season 4 (which will be detailed in the prologue below).
SPOILER FOR THOSE THAT HAVE NOT SEEN VOLUME 2!
I was actually in the middle of writing the epilogue for this when episodes 8 and 9 came out and I must say, I am not satisfied at all lol. I would much rather live in denial and so as far as I am concerned everyone is happy and alive and having the time of their lives. When I began writing this story, I wasn't expecting it to become my comfort fic after Volume 2 lol.
Anyway, enjoy, please review and share your thoughts!
The distinctive growling of the monsters had become easily recognisable over the years. There were no animals in this place, no people other than her, and it hadn't taken long for her to learn to arm herself as soon as she heard any sound other than the wind blowing through the leaves.
A low pitched snarl was the only warning she had before a large figure burst from the bushes surrounding the yard, leaping straight for her. It seemed the monsters had learnt too over the years as they no longer howled a challenge before attacking, instead staying as silent as they could to get as close to her as they could before announcing their presence, in the hopes that they would defeat the prey that so many of their kind had fallen to since her arrival in this hellish place.
But the woman had more up her sleeve than just the trusty axe she had pilfered from an abandoned cabin in the woods. Her reflexes were honed to perfection, her senses were always on alert and ready to pick up incoming danger, and she had grown to be ruthless and efficient in her fighting, but that was not all...
Dropping into a roll, she managed to evade the Two Leg's first assault. It landed on all fours exactly where she had been just moments ago and turned its head towards her, opening its face in a grim imitation of a blooming flower to screech its displeasure at her. Crouched low, the woman snarled back before throwing a hand out before her, her sleeve riding up slightly as she did so, displaying the tattoo on her wrist.
Orange flames flew out of her hand, straight towards the creature, who yelped in pain and leapt to the side. It pounced towards her again, only to be thrown off course by another column of fire. Again and again, the Two Leg was pushed back, but it would not give up, she knew that. They never did. These creatures never gave up on their prey once they caught the scent, going so far as to track it for days, running for miles over town until it was cornered. There was only one way to get rid of these, she knew, and though fire was one of their only weaknesses, it was never enough to kill a Two Leg.
It paced the far side of the garden, watching the woman warily, and she took advantage of the distance to lower her hands and grab the axe that lay on the ground near the back door to the house she had commandeered. The two stared at each other for a moment, the Two Leg standing squarely, legs apart and facing her head on with its open face, showcasing its razor sharp teeth, while the woman twisted her body to the side with the axe held tightly in both hands, ready to swing with her whole body and cut the thing in half.
That's what would have happened if the Two Leg attacked, as she had come to expect after so many years. But it didn't.
As if responding to some unseen signal, the Two Leg perked up and snapped its head to the side, staring off into the distance. The woman didn't loosen her grip on her weapon but she shifted slightly, frowning at the unexpected action. Then it screeched, long and hard, and promptly bounded away, over the garden hedge and out of sight.
The woman stayed where she was for another few moments, wracking her brains for an explanation. The monsters never gave up on prey. If they did, it was because they had been called away by the Shadow. The only other time that had happened was last year when...
"People!"
Dropping her axe on the ground, the woman rushed back inside the house, climbing the stairs three at a time and bursting into the room she had claimed as her own. In the closet lay two back packs: the smallest held a length of rope, food, water, a map of Hawkins and a multitude of knives for whenever she ventured out of the safety of her home, but it was the larger one that she was interested in in that moment. The one she had made when she had followed after the monsters last year for the third time and found the second dead body of a person; an actual human person. If they had found a way in, then there had to be a way out.
So she had planned. She had made the second, larger back pack, and she had stuck it in her closet for when she finally found the gate out of this place. It held clothes that she had pilfered from the empty shops around town, books, food, water, a single knife and more importantly, money. Huge stacks of money. She knew enough from having overheard the scientists and soldiers that no one could go on in the real world without money, so she had broken into the bank in town and taken as many stacks of the paper money as could fit in her bag.
Rushing out of the house and into the street, she immediately turned in the same direction as the Two Leg had gone, and began running as fast as she could. If another person had made it in, she had to make it in time to save them from the monsters so that they could lead her out again. She could do it, the Two Leg only had a thirty second head start on her, and after spending the past six years running for her life, she had gotten quite fast.
As she got further and further down the street, faint screeching could be heard far away. Like hundreds of monsters, all converging to the same point. With a curse, the woman pushed herself harder, pelting down the empty roads towards the noise. It was only when she broke through the trees that she came across her first monster. It was a Four Leg, smaller and weaker than its humanoid brethren, running straight towards her. Panting hard, she let out a startled yelp and fumbled for the axe that she had the presence of mind of fetching before she left and had attached to the side of her bag, but the creature didn't attack. It didn't even turn her way, it was as if she wasn't even there. It just ran straight past her, continuing on deeper into the woods.
She only paused for a second to stare at it dumbfounded before she remembered her mission and set off after the Four Leg, trusting it to lead her to where she needed to go.
The further she went, the more monsters joined the chase, all of them ignoring her. The vast majority were Four Legs, but she could see the occasional Two Leg ahead of her. Whoever had made it into this place must have been dangerous, she thought, as she had never seen such a large agglomeration of monsters in one area. Not even she warranted such a horde, and she could summon fire!
Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity of running, they made it to a fence in the woods, and the sight before her made her stumble to a stop due to its sheer ridiculousness. There was a hole in the fence, only a few feet wide, only large enough for a few Four Legs to fit through at once. And there was a queue. A line of monsters, waiting for their turn to pass through, huffing and shuffling with impatience. Despite the frankly mind boggling picture that it presented, the woman withdrew her axe from its sheath on her bag and stepped forward slowly. When that garnered no reaction from the creatures, she came closer, walking slowly towards the hole they were frantically shoving themselves through, and shoved herself into the line.
When one of them growled at her for jostling it and taking its place, she beheaded it with a single swipe of her weapon before pushing herself through to fence and continuing her mad dash through the forest, following the monsters before her.
The trees ended suddenly to reveal a large building, several stories high with no windows excluding the ground floor. She didn't stop, stumbling down the grassy hill and climbing through a broken window. It was only when she was a few corridors down that she slowed to a stop, horror dawning slightly in the back of her mind.
She knew these walls. The white tile, the uniformity of every corridor and every room, the doors with plaques on them. She knew that a few floors above her, the plaques would not hold the names of the people that worked here, but rather numbers. One number for each child that lived here. Or rather did live here, before they died. Before she abandoned her last sister to suffer the wrath of their oldest brother. She could see it so clearly.
Dr Brenner, who had not been Papa to her for many years now, walking into the Rainbow Room with a benevolent smile on his face, greeting them all good morning.
Number 7, her best friend in the whole world falling of his chair laughing as she pouted, having lost their game.
Soldiers watching her as she was led into a containment chamber, wires sticking to her every surface. Dr Brenner's voice over the intercom telling her to do her best.
Number 11, only six years old watching them from the ground, her gown stained with the blood of their siblings as Number 7 grabbed her hand and whisked them away. Away from Number 1, away from the blood and gore of the lab, leaving Number 11 to die by herself.
Tears were running down her face as she forced the memories away. She didn't know how much time had passed, how many monsters had run past her while she was stuck in her head, but she had to get moving if she had any hope of saving whoever was down here and getting out of this monster infested hell. Continuing down the halls, stumbling as the occasional Four Leg ran between her legs, she followed their lead down the stairs, further and further underground until she reached a control room of some sort.
And before her, on the other side of the glass, was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen in her life.
There was no person to be saved. The Shadow was not leading its minions to prey.
There, on the wall in front of her was a huge split in the crawling vines, glowing orange and pulsing ominously. And the creatures were running straight into it. They had led her to the gate.
Rushing out of the control room, she swung her axe back and forth, ignoring the pained cries of the Four Legs she dispatched as she made her way over to the wall. They were monsters of hell, they belonged here, in this place of death and misery and emptiness, not in the real world were there sun shone bright and the vines stayed where they were and people roamed the streets, just like in the books she had when she was little, back in the lab. And now that they had led her to her goal, she could dispatch them with as much prejudice as she had for the past six years.
Finally, the gate was before her. Reaching out a hand to touch the pulsing orange light, she pushed slightly, testing the substance. It was like a skin that had been pulled tight. All she had to do was punch through and come out on the other side.
And then freedom.
"It's - it's polycarbonate, it can't get through." Dr Owens stuttered as the dog-like creature flung itself at the glass repeatedly.
It was a nice thought, but if Hopper had learned anything over the past year it was that anything was possible. As if reading his mind, the thing stepped back from the control room, lifted its head into the air and howled. Less than a second later, a second monster appeared from the hole in the ground, and a third, and a fourth... to the horror of everyone behind the glass, Hopper included, dozens of the things appeared, summoned by the howl to aid in breaking the polycarbonate that separated them.
They watched in horror, taking fearful steps back as they threw themselves at the window again and again, until cracks appeared.
Owens smashed his hand onto the alarm button, yellow lights began flashing and the ringing of the alarm that Hopper knew was sounding all over the building. The creatures were unperturbed though, and continued smashing against the barrier even as the scientists in the room began herding towards the door, shaking like leaves and emitting low whimpers, until -
"Wait!" called Hopper, freezing everyone in the room.
He hadn't moved, he was still stood close to the cracked window, watching in curiosity as the horde of monsters before them suddenly stopped what they were doing and turned back towards the hole. The things stayed there for a moment, their weird clicking growls disturbing the silence, before they howled in unison and leapt back into the abyss they had come from.
"What's going on?" Dr Owen's asked quietly, as if his voice might summon them back. "Where are they going?"
"I don't know."
The half dozen scientists slowly crept closer until they were level with the Chief, all of them staring intently at the darkness of the hole, waiting silently for something to happen, only to all gasp and jump back in unison as an orange flash of light illuminated the walls. It was only brief, perhaps a second or so before the walls of the hole turned dark again, but it came back. Hopper took another step towards the glass, frowning as he stared intently at the orange light that periodically lit up the walls of the cave, some flashes lasting longer than others. The screeching of monsters could be heard, causing Hopper to shiver at the memory of the Demogorgon they had faced the year before, but the light didn't stop.
"Can you see what's happening down there?" He asked urgently, turning back towards Dr Owens. "Do you have cameras or something?"
The scientist jolted, looking back at Hopper as if not understanding the words he had heard before jumping into action. "Yes! Yes, Jameson! Get me eyes. Now!"
Jameson - the fat nerdy looking one - rushed back to his seat at the control panel and began typing furiously on his keyboard, eyes flicking up towards the screen above him.
"Come on, come on." He muttered, still typing frantically as the others conglomerated around him to stare at the screen, Owens and Hopper at the front.
Finally, the TV static disappeared to show a grainy image. It took a few seconds to stabilise, but before long they were watching a live feed of what was going on below, in front of the gate.
There were dozens of those dog-like things milling around the bottom of the cave like ants, snarling and growling, rushing back and forth towards a figure that stood in the middle, and Hopper gasped at the sight of the girl.
The image wasn't the best, but it was enough to see clearly. A girl, no more than twenty, stood in the middle of the cave, axe in hand and bag on her back. She dodged and rolled and jumped, swinging her weapon with lethality, dispatching one monster with each swipe. If they listened closely, they could hear through the glass her grunts of effort and cries of pain as one of the creatures latched on to her leg, and then...
Fire.
Every occupant of the room gasped, Owen placing a hand over his mouth as they stared, transfixed, as the girl on the screen pushed her hand out towards an oncoming wave and fire erupted from her palm. With her other hand, she swung her axe and dislodged the thing attacking her leg and jumped away. Already, after watching just thirty seconds of the video, they had watched her kill perhaps ten of the monsters, but more were coming from the gate behind her and those that had previously been banging against the window of the control room were making their way down the hole, crawling along the walls like the demons they were.
But the girl was prepared, and dropping the axe at her feet, she took a great heaving breath and flung her arms up high with a war cry, her fire bursting free once again. This time, it engulfed both of her arms up to the elbow and lit up the entire cave, both above and below. Monsters fell from the walls, screeching in pain as the flames hit them, but as her attention was trained above her, it opened the way for the creatures still on the floor with her to attack.
"What the hell are you waiting for!" Hopper screamed to the others, finally breaking his attention away from the girl on the screen. "Get the soldiers, let's get down there!"
There was a sudden flurry of movement as Owens and Hopper, accompanied by two of the other scientists that he had never bothered to learnt the names of, ran out the door and down the corridor to where they knew a dozen soldiers awaited, guarding Will, Mike, Joyce and her boyfriend. Two waited at the door, coming to attention and clenching their hands around their weapons as the group turned the corner.
"Get to the control room now!" Owens shouted as he pushed past them. "Suit up, we're being invaded!"
The scientists that had accompanied them continued down the corridor to alert the other soldiers, while Hopper and Owens burst into the room where the civilians waited. As soon as they rushed through the door, panting hard, Mike was on them.
"What's happening? Are they here? It's a trap!"
"We know, we know -"
"No! The Mind Flayer used Will, it's a trap!"
"Kid!" Hopper yelled, silencing the boy. "We know! You have to go, they're being held off but she can't hold them for long, you have to go!"
"What? But what about you?" Joyce asked, and Hopper would have been softened by the concern in her voice if Bob's arms weren't wrapped around her. As it was, he didn't even get the chance to answer before Mike was interrupting again.
"She? Who's she? It is Eleven?"
"What - no, kid. It's not Eleven but... similar, I think. I have no clue where she came from but - that's not the point!" The chief lifted a hand to silence the boy once again, trying to clear his head of all the implications of what that girl in the cave meant. "You all need to leave. Now!"
Without waiting for a response, Hopper had turned away and was rushing down the corridor, leaving Owens behind to lead them all out. All he could think of as he ran back to the control room was how it had been at least two minutes since he had last seen the girl, and how she surely couldn't last much longer with all those monsters coming at her on all sides, no matter how badass she looked with her axe and her fire. He counted the seconds as he was outfitted in a hazmat suit, fighting the urge to just grab a gun and jump down there, radiation be damned.
It took another two minutes for everyone to finally be kitted out with their suits and their guns, and then they were on their way, grappling down the sides of the tunnel. The snarling was louder than ever and Hopper could only thank God as he continued his descent. If they were still there, that meant they were still fighting her. She was still holding on. Occasionally, they would hear a pained scream and his heart would clench. She sounded young, so young, and tired. He couldn't imagine holding his own against so many of those creatures.
Finally, they were close enough to see the bottom, and what a sight it was.
She was still there, covered in blood, holding her axe in one had as the other continuously blasted scorching fire at her attackers. She was limping backwards, away from the clump of growling dog-like monsters who had all herded together, creating one singular target that the girl could focus on rather than the chaotic mess that had been shown by the cameras. Occasionally, two or three would jump out at her and she would quickly dispatch them with her axe, spraying blood all over herself.
Hopper didn't hesitate.
Pausing in his descent, he aimed his rifle and fired right into the middle of the horde, the other soldiers following suit. The girl yelped and fell back at the sudden influx of noise from the guns, but the monsters were no longer focused on her. All of them had looked up and screeched at the sight of the men and began climbing the walls to get to them. But they were all well trained, Hopper included, and monster after monster fell to the ground, filled with bullets.
The girl stared at them all slack jawed for a few moments before picking herself up off the ground, wincing as she did so, and re-joining the fight. She was definitely strong, Hopper thought as he caught a glimpse of her wounds in the light of her fire.
Her calf was torn from where the dog had clamped down when they were watching the cameras, and she had since accumulated scratch marks on her shoulder and opposite thigh, as well as a small bite on her side. Her clothes were torn and bloody and the long sleeves of her flannel shirt had disappeared, probably burnt to dust from when she had directed her fire upward. And there was the familiar trail of blood running from her nose, visible despite the dirt, sweat and fleeting lighting. He didn't think he'd ever not recognize such a nosebleed, no matter the state of the rest of her.
It didn't take long for the fight to be over. The ground was covered in the corpses of the vile creatures, and though some had managed to run away through the network of tunnels, the important part was that they were no longer there, threatening the girl.
Hopper once again leading the way, the soldiers lowered themselves down to the ground where the girl waited, panting and moments from collapse. Yet she stood there, staring at them all with defiance and well hidden fear, bloody and broken axe at her feet and flames engulfing both her hands.
"Hey." Hopper said, trying for a soothing voice, his hands raised slightly as he stepped forward. The girl shifted to face him more directly, still so obviously ready for a fight. "You're ok. We're not gonna hurt you."
She watched him warily for a moment before licking her lips, and it occurred to him that she maybe didn't know how to speak, just like Eleven when she had escaped the lab.
"Are you soldiers?"
The man smiled slightly as she assuaged his fears, and took another step forward.
"No - well they are," he said, indicating the others behind him. "but I'm not."
The flames around her hands turned a lighter colour - growing hotter, Hopper knew. "Scientist?" She snarled.
"No, I'm not a scientist, either." He chuckled. "I'm the Chief of Police in Hawkins. The town just near here."
The girl paused, her head cocking to the side as the fire returned to it's original orange colour. She seemed to consider him for a moment before turning her eyes behind him, to the other soldiers who seemed content in following his lead. Perhaps it was their relaxed stances, or the guns that laid innocently at their sides, but the girl soon returned her gaze upon Hopper, her fire slowly dying down to nothing.
"Where is Dr Brenner?" She asked.
Without the light from her hands it was difficult to see, but the waver in her voice made it clear how intimately she knew him. Only Eleven ever spoke of him with that tone of voice, and Hopper took pleasure in delivering the news to another one of his victims.
"He's dead. He died last year."
Her choked breath was like music to his ears and he smiled as he heard her ragged sigh of relief. When a few moments had passed and she still had not responded, he took another step forward.
"What number are you?"
That was the wrong thing to say. He barely finished his sentence before the fire was back, white hot and engulfing both her hands. Shying away and covered his eyes from the sudden light, Hopper struggled to keep his cool, moving his arms back to his sides to show that he was no threat.
"How do you know about our numbers?" She demanded. "Do you work for the lab?"
"No! No!" He cried. He didn't want to say this here, in front of witnesses, but he had no choice if he wanted the girl to trust him. "I know - I know Eleven! She escaped from the lab a year ago. I've been taking care of her."
The girl gasped again and as he had hoped, the fire dulled to a low orange again as tears sprang to her eyes.
"You're - you're lying. Eleven's dead. They're all - all of them are dead."
Her broken whisper made his heart clench, and he didn't want to think about what had been going on in this lab for her to say that. He had known, logically, that there had to be more kids like Eleven - after all, wouldn't they start at 1 and go up? Meaning there had to be at least ten other kids that had lived and been experimented on in the lab, but he had never seen a single one. They had all died? All of them except Eleven and this girl here.
"No." He repeated, softer, more soothing as he took another step forward. He was right in front of the girl now and she looked up at him with wide and hopeful eyes. He gave her a soft smile through the window of his helmet. "I promise, she's alive. I've been looking after her. I can take you to her, and you can stay with us, if you'd like?"
He had no clue what he was doing, his mouth had a mind of its own. He could barely handle one traumatized and super-powered kid, and now he wanted to take on another one? Although, by the looks of the girl, she wasn't really a kid anymore, rather a young adult or close enough, but she was still vulnerable. She still had nowhere to go and if she was anything like Eleven then she had no clue how the world worked.
"You can take me to her?" She whispered.
"I can. What's your name?"
"Eleanor." She responded, still holding his gaze intently. "Number 6."
"Eleanor." He smiled and reached for her hand, grin widening as the fire diminished to nothing and she allowed the contact. "Do you mind if I call you Nora? We call Eleven El for short, so it might get a little confusing."
Letting out a sob, she nodded and threw herself into his arms, clutching tightly as she collapsed, crying into his shoulder.
All he could do was follow her to the ground and stroke her hair as the soldiers around them watched.
"How do I get a job?"
Hopper and El both looked up from their Eggo Extravaganzas to stare at their newest addition.
Three weeks had passed since Hopper had found Nora in front of the gate and a lot had happened since then. Although, mainly it all happened that night. He had introduced her to everyone, he had found out that El had decided to break every single rule they had to go looking for her mother, there were many tears and arguments - from the Party as they realized El was alive and had been hiding with him and from El and Nora as they reunited - before they had gone off to fight what remained of the Demodog army and close the gate.
He had then brought Nora home, and began introducing the young woman to life in the real world.
The poor girl had been free of the lab for the past six years, but living in the Upside Down didn't offer much in terms of socialising or schooling. He had never been as confused as when he had first brought her back to the cabin and she had asked where Bill was so that she could pay him. It took an embarrassing amount of time for him to realise she was talking about bills and not Bill and she had had to explain that she had often heard the people from the lab complaining about bills and mortgages and the like. Then they had to have a discussion about how and why she had so much money stashed in her backpack.
But they carried on, he answered all of her questions, and considering she hadn't been accused of being a Russian spy by the government, he allowed her out of the cabin for a few hours every day to look around town.
"Hopper?" Nora called, bringing his attention back to the present.
"Uh, well..." He began, wiping his hands on the napkin as he thought. "It depends on what you want to do, I suppose. I mean we have fake schooling papers for you but you'll probably still have to take some lessons or people will realize you have no clue what you're talking about. What kind of job do you want?"
"What kind of jobs are there?"
Sighing, Hopper threw his napkin back onto the table and sat back in his seat. "All sorts, kid. If you can think of something that needs doing then there's probably a job for it somewhere. What do you like doing? Is there anything you're good at?"
"She's good at making things." El piped up, smiling up shyly at her older sister.
The child had really calmed down since Nora's arrival. Having company during the day while he was at work was a great distraction for her, and with Nora going out often and visiting the Party members, she often relayed messages and letters and brought back gifts for her younger sister.
"I do like making things."
"Yeah? Like what?" Hopper asked, smiling softly at his girls.
"All sorts." Nora shrugged. "In the Upside Down I had to make a filter so I could have clean water. I also made shelters when I had to leave the house for long periods. I'm good with wood, I used to make furniture sometimes."
"And she made me little statues! Look!" Eleven added, squeezing out of her chair and rushing over to her room.
She was back before long, holding a multitude of wooden figurines in her arms that she dumped on the table right in front of Hopper.
"Jesus, Nora."
Gently picking one of the sculptures up, he turned it around in his hands, taking in all the details. It was an incredibly detailed rendition of a wolf, sat on its haunches with its head held back into a howl. There were even slight scratchings for the fur. There were almost ten sculptures just like it: a dragon, a giraffe, an elephant, a boat, a simple block with a hole the shape of a face in the middle, a bowl with beautiful swirling etchings around the sides... it went on.
"You made these yourself?" Hopper asked, barely managing to take his eyes off the delicate artwork.
Nora nodded, piercing a strawberry with her fork as she smiled over at him. "I saw the tools in an arts and craft shop in town last week."
"You did all this in one week?" He took another look at the pieces before him, eyeing them carefully. "Well damn kid. These are... these are really good. And you like doing this? Making these?"
Nodding once again, Nora responded as El gathered her gifts back up to put them back in her room. "And other stuff too, bigger things like furniture. Or I saw some garden decorations in the Upside Down, I like those too, though I've never tried."
"You can sell them." El said, retaking her seat at the table. "Mike said, in his letters. You gave him one and his mama liked it a lot. Wanted to know where he had it from."
"Where he got it." Hopper corrected absentmindedly. "And she's right, Nora, you could sell these. I can help you with anything you need to set up a shop if you want?"
"Yeah?"
"Absolutely."
And that was that. Nora and El chattered all night, excited at the prospect of the new business venture. He could hear them in Nora's room, planning and making lists of all different things that she could make and sell, how they would raise interest and attract customers. He himself was making his own plans for the next day. They would need to visit the bank, open up and account for Nora now that Dr Owens had provided them with fake papers, they would need to scout out venues and get a real estate agent. The money she had taken from the bank in the Upside Down was more than enough to buy the place and materials and still have money left over, so there was no worry on the financial side.
Over the next few weeks, Hopper took Nora with him after work every day. Opening a bank account was a piece of cake, Hopper doing all the talking and Nora watching carefully. The same with the real estate agent though Nora did provide ideas and preferences on what the place would need to have. And every night, they came home with more wood in all shapes, sizes and types for Nora to begin experimenting on under El's watchful eye. Any item that came out good - which was most of them - was put in the shed out back to be part of the stock when the shop finally opened.
Finally, three months later they were ready to open. The shop was clean, decorated and stocked, the back held a workshop where Nora could work on new pieces when there were no customers, and a bright green sign with golden lettering announced the name: Eleven Woods. Named after her sister, though if anyone not in the know asked, 11 was the number of different types of woods that Nora used in her work.
The Party had all told their families of the shop their friend owned that was opening in town, and all had promised that they would visit on opening day, but Nora and Eleven had made sure that word would spread throughout the entire town. That morning, when the citizens of Hawkins began making their way to work, they found seven beautiful wooden carvings placed in strategic locations: a waist high version of El's wolf in the centre square, a hexagonal gazebo that El had helped transport in the children's park, a faceless woman dancing by the fountains, a tall pillar with an hourglass shaped hole in the centre of the largest roundabout in town, a pair of intricate angel wings at each end of the main street and finally a small cherub opposite the police station.
Each of the sculptures stood on a wooden pedestal that Hopper knew Nora had seared the name and address of her knew shop into with her hands.
Needless to say, opening day was busy. In fact, Will and Dustin came to help tend to customers after school, once the work day had finished and the shop got busier. Not everyone bought something, but by closing time the till was full and Nora's face hurt from smiling too much.
Hopper couldn't have been prouder.
It didn't take long for shit to hit the fan again.
It began when El and Max were playing around, using El's powers to spy on people they knew, leading to her watching Billy hurting someone. They had immediately gone to Nora and begun investigating, falling deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole until they no longer knew which way was up.
Part of the Mind Flayer that had been possessing Will that winter had moved on and was possessing dozens of citizens of Hawkins, Billy was onto them and trying to kill them all (but specifically El and Nora) and there were Russians under the new mall that had opened who were trying to reopen the Gate. The whole Party was split into groups, all of them having only part of the story and Nora herself felt like she was being pulled into multiple directions.
Of course, Nora only discovered the whole Russian part of it after they found themselves stranded in Starcourt Mall where she had had to burn a gruesome slug-like creature out of her sister's leg.
After, she had insisted on accompanying Hopper, Joyce and a man named Murray to close the Gate once and for all, leaving the children under Steve and Robin's watchful eye. It took what felt like an eternity to get there, but they made it to the control room finally, only to be attacked by a large Russian man. Hopper and Nora both tag teamed him, pushing him out of the room and onto the metal walkway, only his grip on Nora was too tight, and she fell after him.
They fought, Nora using every advantage she had learnt during her time in the Upside down. He wouldn't let her get far enough to hit him with fire at a safe distance, so she dodged, rolled and ducked, kicked out against his knees to bring him down, blasting him with fire or grabbing him with scorching hands whenever he got too close. He gave as good as he got, smashing his fist against her face, slamming her head against the metal bars, suffering burn after burn as he drew more blood, until eventually she gave up on the idea of outright winning, and just screamed at Hopper and Joyce to close the Gate.
Electricity burst from the whirring machine as it slowed when the pair turned their keys, bursting free and obliterating anything in its path. The air seemed charged until finally, a heatwave exploded from the metal contraption, turning everything around it to cinders. It blew completely through the Russian, and even Nora cried out at the intensity of it, collapsing to the ground as for the first time in her life, something was hot enough to cause her pain.
But the Gate was closed, the Russian was dead and all that was left this side of the control room glass was a naked red skinned woman lying on a ruin of a walkway.
And they survived. They all survived, even Billy who had overcome his possession and stood by El as she held the Mind Flayer back. They all survived, and eventually El made it to November, when Hopper deemed it safe enough for her to come out of hiding.
She joined the younger members of the Party for their first year of High School, passing the entrance tests with flying colours as the entire Party had spent their free time tutoring her and Nora, catching them up on their education, and with El's new freedom, Nora finally allowed herself to buy a house. Funnily enough it was the same house she had stayed in in the Upside Down, and it was everything she had ever wanted.
Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large kitchen and living room. It had all the space she could want, as well as a basement where she could work on her woodcarving and it was just down the road from Steve's house and within a five minute drive of Mike, Nancy, Dustin, and Lucas' houses. She decorated it like she had always wanted to, with earthy tones and soft carpets, furniture she had made herself with Mahogany, with plenty of bookshelves filled to the brim with her favourite books and small figurines, and white walls covered in photos of the Party and her new found family.
With a steady income and Hopper's refusal to accept any rent from her for the past eight months, on top of what was left over from the money she had taken from the Upside Down, Nora was definitely financially comfortable to say the least, and she let herself go wild while outfitting her dream home. After all those years, she finally had a home. It seemed her entire life had been just experiments and danger and constant discomfort or pain or solitude, but now she had a place to call hers, she had a family and she had friends that visited her. El stayed over multiple times a week, they had a designated girls night once a week where Nora, El, Nancy, Robin and Max would stay up late having makeovers and watching the most ridiculous films Robin could find at the movie store, and a family night at the cabin where Nora would come for dinner with El and Hopper, as well as a D&D night for the boys as she didn't impose a bedtime for the kids, unlike Mrs Wheeler.
Despite moving out and getting her own place, Nora was rarely alone. The whole Party were always around her.
She loved it.