October 16th, 1984

Hawkins, Indiana

It was 5:34 on a cold Tuesday evening. I paced around the basement, planning ways to break in in my head. This is stupid, it's a government facility, and I'm an unarmed, 120 pound thirteen year old boy. That hasn't really stopped me before, to be fair. How could I find her? Wait... there's only one person who has experienced basically the same thing she went through, with the upside down. I walked upstairs, picking up the chunky phone and dialing the number for the Byers residence.

"Hello?" Mrs. Byers said, a dog barking in the background.

"Hi Mrs. Byers, this is Mike, can you send Will over for a bit? It's important."

"Sure thing, I'll tell him to go now. Jonathan will drive him over!"

"Thank you." I hung up, walking back into the basement. I sat down on the couch, avoiding looking in the direction of the fort I kept up. I don't know why I kept it up. It hurt too much to take down. It was like I accepted that she was gone, if I took it down. Soon enough, Will ran down the stairs, giving me a confused look.

"Why did you call me? And why just me?" he said, confusion coating his words.

"Because Dustin and Lucas don't think there's hope for Eleven, Max doesn't really even know who Eleven is, and you're the only one who takes me seriously with this stuff."

"Oh. Well, what do you need?"

"Okay, while you were gone, we tried to contact you with the walkie-talkies. It only really worked when El tried it. Well... I was thinking, you were in the same place she was, so you might have a connection to her." I explained, as he looked at me with a perplexed expression. He nodded, trying to comprehend my slight madness.

"So... do you think you can try to contact her over the walkie-talkie?"

"Mike... I don't know, it probably won't work." Will sighed, scratching his head.

"Please."

"I'll try, but don't get your hopes up, dude."

I handed Will the walkie-talkie, with my fingers crossed behind my back.

Will pressed the button, "Eleven? Hello? El-", but static cut him off, and the lights went out. We sat in the darkness for a few minutes. I released the tension from my shoulders, loosening my grip on the blanket I didn't even realize I was grasping.

And then, a voice followed.

"Mike?" a soft, feminine voice croaked, in obvious pain. My heart dropped. It was her. That was her fucking voice. I grabbed the walkie-talkie from Will's hands, holding down the button and holding my breath.

"El? It's me, Mike. Eleven? Where are you?" I yelled into the device, clutching it like my life depended on it. More static ensued. She definitely had a connection to Will.

"Lab. Bad men..."

"We'll get you El, I promise. We'll get you tonight." I was shaking, and Will was obviously shocked.

"Promis-" It cut off and sparked before she could finish her sentence.

"I'm calling the others. We need to do this tonight."

a/n GUYSSSS ITS HAPPENING K THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE SOOO LONG AND SAPPY AND MILEVEN AND IM GONNA CRY BYEE