Chicago was pretty. It had lots of lights, lots of sounds, lots of people. Sometimes, there had been lots of people at the lab, but they always looked at her, no matter where she went. In Chicago, none of the people looked at her. Eleven liked that.

The warehouse was pretty too, but a different pretty. "Pretty inside." There were lots of colors and drawings on the walls, some she could read, others she couldn't. It was cold, but there was a fire downstairs and lots of blankets on her bed. Her room had bright lights in different shapes, a hand and an eye, and there was a desk in the corner, just like at home.

Eleven closed her eyes, holding her flannel shirt tight. That was not home. This was home now. Home was with her sister, Kali, and her new friends. They were like her: different. Out-casts, Kali said. Some people thought they were scary and dangerous, but some people thought she was scary and dangerous too. That was okay. She was scary and dangerous because she was a fighter, and that was a good thing to be. That meant she was strong.

Eleven had thought she was strong. But after fighting the Bad Men with Kali, she wasn't sure.

Kali said that both of them had wounds, places the Bad Men had hurt them that hadn't gone away. Killing made Kali feel better, because she was punishing the Bad Men for what they did to her, to Eleven, to Mama. Eleven wanted to feel better too.

She'd gone with Kali and her friends to find one of the Bad Men, Ray, and at first, she did feel better. She liked that he was scared of her. She liked throwing him into the wall. She liked hurting him, because she was angry, and hurting him made the anger go away. But then she saw that picture on the floor: Ray and two little girls, smaller than she was.

Eleven was angry because he hurt Mama. Would they be angry that she hurt their Papa?

She stopped hurting Ray. Then Kali tried to hurt him, and Eleven stopped her too. That had been a mistake. She knew when she threw the gun out the window, and Kali looked at her with big, angry eyes. Those were the same eyes Hopper had when Eleven used her powers, before he yelled at her, before he took away the TV. Those eyes meant that Kali was mad and Eleven did something wrong.

They'd had to run after that. The man with the crazy hair, Axel, yelled something about the police and everyone ran back to the van. Eleven could feel her heart making her chest hurt from running so fast, but it got worse when Kali yelled at her.

"If you wanted to show mercy, that is your choice, but don't you ever take away mine. Ever. Do you understand? Do you understand?!"

Eleven said nothing. She knew this feeling too, something else that made her chest hurt: fear. She didn't want to be scared of Kali. She didn't want to be scared of her sister.

When they got back to the warehouse, Eleven hid in her room. She went into her bag and pulled out her flannel shirt, the one Hopper gave her. It was warm, and it smelled like trees, and it made her feel like she was home—the home that wasn't home anymore.

Tap tap.

Eleven looked up to see Kali in the doorway. She was colorful too, just like the rest of the warehouse. Her skin was dark, her eyes darker from all the makeup, and her hair was bright purple. It made Eleven think of the pretty butterfly Kali had showed her, the one that hadn't been scary, the one that hadn't been real.

"May I sit?" asked Kali.

Eleven shrugged. Kali walked in and sat down on the bed across from her. She put her hands together and sighed, looking at the floor. She didn't look angry anymore, just sad.

"I was once just like you, you know that?" she told Eleven. "But that's why I'm hard on you, because I see in you my past mistakes."

Eleven frowned, shaking her head. "They were kids."

"Does that excuse that man's sins?" asked Kali. "Were we not also children?"

Eleven turned away. They were children, and they were scared. She didn't like that feeling. She didn't want to make other kids scared. That didn't make her feel strong. That made her feel bad.

"Why would you do that? What's wrong with you? What is wrong with you?!"

Mike had yelled at her when she hurt Lucas. It had been an accident, but he was still mad. Lucas was scared, Dustin was scared, even Chrissy was scared. She was trying not to be, but Eleven could still tell. That was why she ran from them. She didn't want to scare them. No one should be scared of their friends.

"I remember the day I came to the rainbow room and you were gone." Kali was looking at the floor again, her eyes shiny and wet. "So, when my gifts were strong enough, I used them to escape. And I ran. I ran away as far as I could. And it was there, far away, that I found a place to hide. A family. A home. Just like you and your policeman. But they couldn't help me…so…eventually I lost them too."

Eleven's chest hurt again, and she held the soft shirt even tighter as Kali continued.

"So, I decided to play the part. To stop hiding. To use my gifts against those who hurt us." She lifted her gaze to look at Eleven. "You're now faced with the same choice, Jane: go back into hiding and hope they don't find you, or fight, and face them again."

"Face who?" Eleven asked quietly.

"The man who calls himself our father."

She shook her head, scared but sure. "Papa is dead."

"That man tonight disagreed."

Eleven went cold. She spun around in her chair, more scared than ever before, to see the worst thing possible.

Papa.

He was standing in the doorway, his hands behind his back. His hair was bright white and he was wearing a dark suit. He always wore a suit, but it looked strange in the pretty warehouse. Eleven stared at the writing on the walls to remember where she was.

"You're not real."

She knew that. Papa wasn't real, just like the butterfly wasn't real. She stood up and walked toward him, holding her shirt tight in her hands, even though she knew Papa wasn't there.

"All this time," he said, looking down at her, "and you haven't looked for me? Why? Because you thought I was dead? Or because you were afraid of what you might find?"

Eleven felt her whole body shaking. She was breathing faster and she could feel water in her eyes.

"Go away."

But Papa didn't go away. He walked toward her, and with every step he took, Eleven took a step back. He spoke in a calm voice, the same voice he used to tell her what to do before she got in the bathtub, or before he put on her special hat, before he hurt her…

"You have to confront your pain," he said, moving closer. "You have a wound, Eleven. A terrible wound. And it's festering. Do you remember what that means? Festering?"

Eleven fell back into her chair, but Papa still came closer. He kneeled down in front of her with one hand on either side of the chair.

"It means a rot. And it will grow, spread…"

"Get out of my head."

"And, eventually, it will kill you."

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"

She screamed, and all the pretty lights in the pretty warehouse turned on and off. Papa disappeared, but Eleven didn't feel any better. Tears were spilling over her cheeks, her arms were trembling, and her legs felt like the mushy peas from the TV dinners Hopper always made her. She couldn't run. She couldn't fight. She wasn't strong enough to do anything.

Eleven ducked her head, trying not to make a sound as Kali walked around to kneel in front of her.

"This isn't a prison, Jane," she said with a soft smile. "You're always free to return to your policeman. Or stay, and avenge your mother. Let us heal our wounds…together."

Kali stood and walked through the door where Papa had been, going down the stairs and joining her friends without another glance back at her sister, leaving her alone.

Eleven whimpered but tried to stifle the sound. She didn't want to think about Papa. She didn't want to think about the Bad Men. She wanted her anger to go away, her pain to go away, her sadness to go away. She wanted to stop crying. She wanted to stop being weak.

"Eleven, you are stronger than every single person in this house. Probably stronger than all of us combined. Crying is just one more thing you can do, okay? It does not make you weak. Everyone cries."

The memory made her tears fall faster, but this time, Eleven didn't fight it. She summoned the strength to stand up and move to her bed, then curled up on her side and pulled the covers up over her head. One hand snuck out from under the blanket and reached for the nightstand, blindly grabbing until her fingers brushed something soft, which she grabbed and pulled under the covers with her.

It was a bowtie, black and red with a clip on the back so it never needed to be tied. Eleven had taken it from the gym last year and kept it in her pocket for months, even after Hopper found her. She twirled the bow between her fingers, remembering.

"Joyce said…like sisters."

"Yeah. Yeah, she did."

Chrissy closed Eleven's fingers around the bowtie and rubbed the back of her hand. She smiled. Eleven knew she was still sad, but it made her look pretty.

"You remember when I showed you that picture of me and Dustin?" Chrissy asked. "And I said he was like my annoying little brother? It's like that. Sometimes, when you spend a lot of time with people, they become like your family. And that's great, because you can be super close, closer than friends, and it's the family you choose for yourself. So it's not about who your parents are. It's about who you care about, and who your family is here."

Chrissy raised a hand and patted her chest. Eleven watched her curiously.

"So…sisters?"

She copied Chrissy, patting her own chest. She was sure she did it right, because Chrissy smiled really big, and Eleven felt like her chest was warmer inside.

"Yeah. Sisters. Definitely."

Eleven hugged the bowtie to her chest as she cried harder.

She was glad that she found Kali. Kali was like her and so were her friends. They were Kali's friends, but they were also her family, like Chrissy said. Eleven was glad the she found Kali, but she missed her own friends: Dustin, who was loud and funny and tried to make her smile; Lucas, who was loyal and brave, like a knight; Mike, who was…everything. He was her favorite person, and Chrissy had said that Eleven was his.

Eleven missed Chrissy. Chrissy who built her a fort to sleep in and gave her waffles every morning. Chrissy who taught her about music and how to look at a clock. Chrissy who protected her from the Bad Men and the monsters. Chrissy, who, even when she was scared, shouted at anyone who upset Eleven. Chrissy who hugged her when she cried and stayed to wipe the tears from her face. She stayed.

It was hard to stop crying. Eleven's hands were covered in black where she had rubbed her eyes. She wiped them off on her black coat and forced herself to sit up. She held the bowtie tight in her hand and closed her eyes with determination. She wanted to see Chrissy.

Eleven liked to use a TV when she looked for people. The fuzzy sound made it easy to focus, but she'd been practicing without it. She hummed to block out the voices downstairs, testing different notes as she tried to find the tune she wanted. She could never remember the name of the song—and even after listening to it for months, she didn't know all of the words—but it made her feel like she was at Chrissy's house, sitting in front of the radio, watching the tape wheels go round and round.

"Oh, she takes care of herself, she can wait if she wants, she's ahead of her time…"

Eleven opened her eyes. She was in the Empty Place, where she always went when she looked for people. Everything around her was black, gone, except for a small figure in the distance. Eleven would have recognized her pretty blonde hair anywhere.

Chrissy was sitting on the ground, wearing a flannel shirt that looked just like Eleven's. She had a tiny radio in her lap, a different tape spinning inside, and if Eleven focused, she could just hear the music coming from the headpiece around Chrissy's neck. Wherever she was, she looked annoyed. She rubbed at her head and pulled the headpiece off as Eleven walked closer.

"Okay. I know this is gonna sound like shitty advice, but the best thing you can do is to be yourself."

Slowly, Eleven sat down in front of her. She shifted back and forth until it felt like Chrissy was looking right at her. Chrissy smiled, and it made Eleven smile too.

"I get it," Chrissy continued, "but seriously. You're…an incredibly annoying, incredibly smart kid, and the right person will see that. But in the meantime, if you're trying to get a girl's attention? The best way to do that is just to show that you notice her."

Eleven scrunched her nose. "A girl?"

She didn't like that. She'd seen a girl when she went to the school. That girl had pretty red hair and was making Mike laugh. That made her angry.

Eleven looked around the Empty Space, trying to look for the other person, but Chrissy started talking again.

"It depends on the person. It could be, 'Hey, I noticed you seem down. What's wrong?' Or 'I noticed you weren't in class, so I copied the notes.' Or 'I watched that movie you love, can we talk about it?' Or 'I made you a mixtape of songs you might like.' Just…listen to her when she talks. And if she mentions something about herself, remember it. Show her that you remember the joke that she made, or that thing she said without thinking, or the story she told, because…because at the end of the day, all anyone really wants is to be noticed. Not shoved aside, or put up on a pedestal, just…someone who's their friend. And all of that will be easy if you honestly like her, because—because you already think she's interesting and you want to talk to her and she wants to talk to you so…that's when a girl will fall for you. Okay?"

"Friend," Eleven repeated, and Chrissy smiled.

Eleven reached out and ghosted her fingers over Chrissy's radio. She'd left Hawkins to look for Mama, to find Kali, but Chrissy was her family too. So was Mike—Hopper, Dustin, Lucas. They were her family because she chose them, and they chose her too.

Chrissy jumped to her feet, her legs briefly turning to smoke as they moved through Eleven's hand. She ran a few feet away and stretched her neck, eyes wide; Dustin called that her "giraffe face." Chrissy only made that face when she was worried.

"Chrissy?"

She watched anxiously as Chrissy argued with someone, but with only half the conversation, Eleven wasn't sure what was going on. She followed as Chrissy started running again, her giraffe face getting worse.

"No! Steve, no. You can't—Steve, if you go out there it could be Barb all over again!"

"Barb…?"

Eleven stumbled back, her legs feeling cold and mushy again. Barb was Chrissy's friend. Barb was gone. Who was going to be gone like Barb?

Chrissy was running again, but her radio was gone. Now she had a gun like the Bad Men at the lab had always carried.

Eleven broke into a sprint, running in the opposite direction through the Empty Space. She needed to focus. If Chrissy was in trouble, she needed to do something. She needed to find help.

"Hopper?! Hop!"

It took her a while to find him. Just like Chrissy, he started off as a small speck in the distance, and Eleven had to push herself harder to reach him.

"Hop!"

Already, Eleven could tell that it wasn't good. Hopper was rubbing his head with both hands, just like Chrissy had. He was dressed all in green, breathing heavy, and standing next to a big, beeping machine. Eleven had only seen machines like that in one place.

"That's where I was," he said, looking at the buttons. "It's that damn graveyard."

"I need to get through! I need to get through!"

Eleven whirled around. Mike was running toward her, screaming as loudly as she had been. He hit something she couldn't see, something that made him stop running, but he was still screaming.

"I need to warn them! It's a trap! I have to get through! I need to tell them it's a TRAP!"

"Mike!"

In her fear, she forgot where she was. She ran forward, jumping for Mike and throwing her arms around him, but as soon as she touched him, he disappeared into smoke. Eleven turned on the spot, looking in every direction, her eyes filling with more tears.

"Mike?! Mike! Mike, where are you?! MIKE!"

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Eleven froze when she heard the sound. Her first thought was that the Demogorgon was back. It found her in the Empty Place, and it was going to kill her. But when she turned around, there was nothing there. The sound wasn't coming from the Empty Place. It was coming from the warehouse.

Eleven opened her eyes and jumped off the bed. The colorful warehouse made her dizzy after all the black in the Empty Place, but she hurried to the window to look at the floor below, where a dozen strangers were storming across the room. They were dressed all in black and had big guns, just like the Bad Men.

Someone grabbed her shoulder, making her jump, but it was only Kali behind her.

"Let's go."

They ran.

They ran until Eleven's chest hurt again, but it was for different reasons. She knew she should be focused. She should be scared of the police surrounding them, walking through the room as Kali used her powers. She should have been marveling at the way Kali had made all her friends invisible, hiding in plain sight while the officers searched around them.

Instead, most of Eleven's thoughts were back in the Empty Place, with her friends. She wanted to know if they were okay, but she also knew they weren't. If they were okay, Chrissy wouldn't be holding a gun. If they were okay, Hopper wouldn't be at the lab. If they were okay, Mike wouldn't have said the word trap. The Demogorgon was dead. Papa was dead. Who else would be going after her friends?

Her mind was scrambled when the group made it into the back alley, dodging bullets and hiding behind the van. Kali clenched her fist as she used her powers again, and while Eleven couldn't see it this time, the police stopped following them. Everyone jumped into the van, but Eleven kept her feet on the ground.

"Jane," said Kali, "get in."

Eleven didn't move, the feeling of need getting bigger and bigger inside of her.

"I'm sorry," she said, shaking her head. "I'm sorry, but I have to go back. My friends—my friends are in danger."

"This isn't time for a talk," snapped Axel, his crazy hair poking up over Kali's head. "We gotta go right now!"

"Y-your mother sent you here for a reason, remember?" Kali reached out her hand. "We belong together. There's nothing for you back there. They cannot save you, Jane!"

"No," Eleven agreed. She swallowed hard. "But I can save them."

Kali's eyes were wet again. That made Eleven's chest hurt even more, but she couldn't stay, not when the party needed her. Kali would be safe. She had her friends, her family. They would protect each other.

Eleven looked at her sister one last time before she ran, hiding in a dark alley. It was time to go back to her family. It was time to go home.