It was 2am when they got the call. Usually, everyone would've been asleep at this time, but I (and El, who I wouldn't leave alone and therefore was attached to my hip) had been waiting for it since I got home. "Hello?"
"Mike?" It was Jonathan. "Will's back home. He should be awake in the next hour or- "
"We'll be right there Jonathan!" I shouted, cutting him off and slamming the receiver down before speeding up the stairs to my parents' room. "Mom! Come on! Let's go! Why isn't anyone moving! Will's awake! We need to go!"
"Michael!" My mom cried, switching on her lamp. "It's 2am! I am not driving to hospital right now!"
I sighed frustrated, tapping my foot on the carpet, before an idea popped into my head.
"Fine!" I shouted, rushing out of the bedroom and dragging El back down the stairs. My mom was confused. "Where are you going?"
"To see Will!"
Suddenly, she was fully awake.
"What? Mike! Michael!" But by the time she got down to the front door, I had already pedalled away, El seated behind me.
Pedalling through the dead of night, I felt more alive than I had all week. If not for the cold wind whipping against my face, or the feeling of El digging her knees into my side, I'd have thought it was all a dream. For the most part, I was glad it wasn't. Sure, Will had been kidnapped by an inter-dimensional monster, but he was back now, he was safe. The monster was dead. And El was still here. I kept reminding myself of that as I biked down street after street, occasionally pointing out buildings to her. I couldn't see her face, but I knew she was smiling. Something about that filled my chest with warmth. Making her happy, I thought, was possibly the nicest feeling in the world.
As soon as we reached the hospital, we ran through the entrance up to the reception, where Jonathan was standing, waiting for us. "Where's your parents?" He asked. I just shrugged my shoulders. "Still in bed, I think. Can we see Will?" The older boy chuckled. "Sure. Lucas and Dustin are already in there."
As I walked into the room, El's hand in mine, Dustin cheered and ran up to us, dragging us over to Will. "What took you so long Wheeler?" I grinned.
"We had to bike here. Cut us some slack. Hey Will!" I said, hugging my friend.
"Hi." Will whispered back. He looked over to the girl standing back awkwardly. "Hi El."
"Hello." Her voice was timid, but she stepped closer, as Dustin put an arm around her.
"We've been telling Will all about you." He said, giving his signature toothy smile. I shook my head and rolled my eyes. "I'm sure you guys have." And then we were all engrossed in conversation, re telling the events of the week ("Troy peed himself!" "Yeah, El squeezed his bladder with her mind!") and talking about things that'd happened before that, which intrigued El greatly. It was as if we hadn't just dealt with the supernatural. It was as if we were just 5 friends, talking with each other.
For a while, my life felt… normal. Whole. The guys and I didn't have to fight any monsters, run away from a government agency, or make a sensory deprivation tank in the gym. One thing didn't feel normal, I made a new friend, someone that I couldn't feel better around, someone that I liked, more than a friend.
I didn't know what to call it.
I thought it might be love. I knew kids my age weren't supposed to know what that felt like, but I thought I did. It was the butterflies I got in my stomach when she was around, the way my heart beat outside of my chest when she entwined her fingers into mine. The urge that I felt to protect her from what I thought I couldn't, and at the same time let her be free to explore the world she'd never knew. I thought that was what love felt like.
I didn't want to rush her into a 'relationship', she barely knew what love was. She needed time to be free, to explore the world. But I really, really wanted to hold her hand. To wrap her in warm hugs. To kiss her. The truth was, I wouldn't ever dare kiss her again. She didn't know what a kiss was exactly. Sure, she seemed to like holding hands, and I was the one who received her small smile most frequently, but she didn't know what she was feeling. I knew that. So, I didn't rush her, and instead let her have her space.
It took two weeks before my mom asked about the events of that week, which both Nancy and I thought must be a miracle. Still, we weren't quite prepared for her to just walk in and blatantly demand answers. "Okay." She said, coming into the kitchen and startling us both. "I've given you two weeks. Two weeks to have your space. But there's a little girl living in my house who just appeared out of nowhere, and no one has told me anything. About her, or why the hell the government were looking for my son. Or what happened in the middle school that night. So, someone start talking. Now." For a minute, we just looked at each other, having a silent conversation. Then, I nodded and looked back to my mom. "Let me make a few calls."
10 minutes later, my mom was sat in her living room, accompanied by us, the little girl she'd taken into her home, my friends, one of their moms, her eldest son, and the chief of police. "So," Hopper said, smirking a little "heard you wanted some answers?"
"That week Will went missing…" Joyce began "He was taken. But not by a man. By a… beast. A monster."
"Demogorgon." El mumbled. The older woman nodded her head.
"Yeah. A Demogorgon. He was taken to a different dimension that the kids called- "
"The upside down" Dustin said, cutting her off
"And we went to find him in the woods." I said
"But found someone else." Said Lucas, gesturing at El
"And took her home." I said
"And gave her clothes." Said Dustin, trying to hold it together, remembering the memory
"She slept in the basement." Said Lucas
"In the fort?" Asked My mom
"Yes." Said El
"And we figured out she had powers." I said
"Powers!? What powers?" Asked My mom, a little flustered
"Telepathy, Telekinesis, Et cetera." Said Hopper
"Show her El." Suggested Dustin
"No! She'll get drained" I said, ever the protective one. Dustin rolled his eyes, earning himself an elbow in the ribs.
"Anyways, Barb and I went to a party at Steve's. And she cut herself, attracting the monster, it took her, and- " She cut her self-off, the thought of Barb's death was still a little too much.
"I found them, and took a picture of Barb, which had the monster in the background." Finished Jonathan
"I went back looking for Barb, and saw the monster, but I didn't know what it was." Said Nancy, pulling herself together
"I figured out that the body they found at the quarry was a fake." Said Hopper, leaving out the impromptu interrogation
"And I went to Jonathan, asking about the picture."
"My mom described what was in it, a faceless person basically." Said Jonathan
"And we went to look for El." Said Dustin
"Where did El go?" My mom asked
"El got lost. They couldn't find her after the fact, they had gone too far." Said Lucas, deciding not to bring up El attacking him
"Where were you?"
"I had to stay home, watch my cat."
"Anyways- " I cut in, trying to spare Lucas making even more excuses
"Looking for El, we ran into Troy and his sidekick." Said Dustin
"And El fought them off." I said
"By breaking his arm. That's when we realised that we were looking for her, not Will." Said Hopper
"And looked for information on her, not knowing that she was living in your basement." Said Joyce
"So the government agency figured out that we had her." Said Lucas
"What agency?"
"The CIA? We never really figured that out." Said Dustin
"So we ran." I said
"And that's why they questioned us?"
"Yes." Said El
"You don't talk much, do you sweetie?" Asked My mom
She shook her head
"Anyways, we told the chief where we were." Said Dustin
"And we went back to Joyce's house, then we went to the school and- "
"We made a sensory deprivation tank." Said Dustin, cutting someone off yet again
"A what?"
"Basically a pool, where you seem weightless, see nothing, hear nothing, feel nothing." Said Joyce, quoting Terry Ives' sister
"And El found Will, and Barb." Said Dustin.
El and Nancy seemed to tense at that, Nancy grieving her lost friend and El grimacing at the memory.
But I knew how to comfort El, so I held her hand, squeezing it gently. And Jonathan did the same to Nancy.
"Anyway, after that Mrs Byers and the Chief went to get Will." Said Lucas.
"And Nancy and Jonathan went to kill the monster." Chimed in Dustin.
"At the Byers' house."
"So we were at the school."
"But then the bad men came."
"Bad men?" My mom asked.
"Papa." Whispered El, nuzzling her head into my shoulder. I wrapped an arm around her protectively, dreading the next things they would talk about.
"Wh-Who is papa?" My mom asked, immediately regretting the question once she saw Eleven's slight twitch at the sound of his name
"Dr. Martin Brenner, head of the lab where she was kept." Said Hopper
I looked over to El, she looked discomforted at the mere mention of his name. It made my blood boil, that she's scared of the man who 'raised' her for twelve years. Years of abuse, pain, suffering, loneliness.
"Anyways, they found us, and El killed a lot of them. Had to have been at least ten." Said Dustin
"How about you stop bragging at the death toll, and get back to telling the story." I said, clearly annoyed by the fact that he was making El uncomfortable
"Ok, I'll tell the story. Brenner caught us, and the Demogorgon found us from the blood of the dead agents, and we escaped. And we were cornered into a science classroom, the Demogorgon found us and El killed it, but Mike 'anchored' her to this world, instead of her going who knows where." Said Lucas
"We found Will and brought him home." Said Hopper
"And that's it." Said Nancy
They all knew that they all left out some stuff, each for their own reasons
"Wow, ok." Said My mom
"Just let it sink in." I said
It took her a few minutes, but she caught her bearings
"Ok, well, it's getting late, how about you all go home."
"Oh yeah, well, see you next weekend Karen." Said Joyce
"Bye" I told Joyce
"Bye you guys" Said Dustin, Lucas, and Will
"See you tomorrow." I said, waving to them.
"Hey sweetie, what would you like for dinner?" Mike's mom asked me.
"Eggos." I said
"Umm, ok."
"Here El, why don't we go clean up the living room?" Mike asked
"Ok."
They went into the living room
"I'm sorry." Said Mike
"What?" I asked
"For making you go through that, I should've just left you out of it."
"No, Mike."
I couldn't think of a word to make him sure that I was good.
"Dinner is ready!" Called Mike's mom
I had noticed that we hadn't stopped holding hands, I never wanted to let go, but of course, warm Eggos were at stake, so I did.
We ate dinner, and went upstairs to wash up.
"Hey El?" Said Mike
"Yes?"
"I'm glad your home."
"Me too."