14.
El scrambles to her feet but 001 throws her backwards almost immediately. Her head knocks against the wall, hard, and for a moment there are black spots in front of her eyes. While she's recovering, 001 uses his powers to drag her across the floor towards him. She lays in a heap at his feet feeling small and useless.
"Did you think you had won, 011?" he taunts.
She lifts her head and glares at him. "I stopped you using Will."
"He was weak. But he served his purpose. He bought me some time to remember a vital lesson I learnt long ago. I am better, stronger, more powerful than those humans. I can achieve everything I want on my own."
"I'm not going to let that happen."
From her position on the floor, she takes him by surprise, thrusting both her arms forwards and sending him flying across the room. There's a thud as he hits the floor.
El jogs forwards, ready to pick him up and throw him again, but she feels a force take hold of her and she's suddenly frozen to the spot. She can do nothing but watch as 001 climbs to his feet and walks towards her. The slow pace of his steps is somehow worse than if he ran. Her heart pounds so heavily against her ribcage, it feels as though he's restricting her lungs as well as the rest of her body.
"Do you know what it is I want, 011?" he growls. "I want to kill you."
El is thrust upwards this time. She slams into the roof and feels herself pinned there, her back pushing against the ceiling, arms and legs splayed like one of the starfish they saw on the California beach. She gathers her energy and pushes, screaming through pursed lips, trying to use her own powers to break free. But nothing happens. He's got her held firm, immobile in the air.
001 walks beneath, looking up at her, head tilted to one side as if he's deciding what to do. It makes El feel exposed, like she's the prey in one of those animal documentaries Hop used to watch. She wonders how he's going to kill her, whether he's going to snap her bones and tear out her eyes or whether he has something else planned. Something he's saved just for her.
"And I want you to know," he continues, "your friends are next. Little Will and Maxine and Michael. And then, those people you think are your parents." He says the word with malice. "Hopper. Joyce."
No! El thinks. She fights again, trying even harder this time to get her powers to overcome 001's. She doesn't care how she does it, whether she breaks free, throws him across the room, squeezes his neck until he can no longer breathe, anything to stop him talking. But at that happens is that blood from her nose drips to the floor, leaving a red mark where it hit.
"People like you and I don't have parents, 011. Not really. They didn't make us. We are better than them. Or at least I am. You could have been."
He twists his hand, making her move. She's still flat against the ceiling but he spins her so she's looking directly into his face. It draws her attention to the door in the background, steadily pulsing, as if someone is throwing themselves against it from the other side. She realises that 001 is keeping it shut, preventing Hop from breaking in. But it's better than the alternative, Hop trying to come to her rescue and getting killed instantly.
"Yes," 001 says. "Fairly soon, Hawkins will be purged of its people. It will be a blank canvas for me to remodel, to make the way it always should have been. And once I have Hawkins, I have access to the rest of America. To the world."
El tries to shake her head but it's still frozen. Her vision is blurry with tears.
001 raises his claw-like hand. "And it's all thanks to you," he says.
El braces herself for pain. But just at the moment she thought her bones were about to snap, the pressure around her disappears and she hurtles towards the floor, hitting it hard. The pain arrives, albeit in a different way to what she had expected. But it's better, because she's still alive to feel it. To fight. But for a moment it hurts so much that she can do nothing but lay there, shocked, waiting for 001 to make his move.
When nothing happens, she lifts her head. 001's not far away, arm held out in action, but she recognises the look of confusion and frustration on his face from her own, not many months ago. He can't get his powers to work. She doesn't understand how, but wastes no time, throwing him across the room.
He crashes through the tiers of seating and El's reminded of when she piggybacked and fought him from inside Max's head. She's not going to let this end the same. Rather than allowing him to make his own way out of the collapsed wood like she had then, she drags him out with her powers, hoping he hits as much of the rubble as possible on his way.
She holds him in the air, finally getting her chance to respond to his earlier words. "I want to kill you too," she says.
Then she throws him.
He manages to retaliate a little, pushing her so she trips over, but the next time she sees him fling out his arm nothing happens. It's as if there's something inside him affecting his powers, a bit like her trauma did to her. But it's not the complete block like she'd had, it's just making him inconsistent and weak. Like whatever it is that's turning off his powers is having to fight too. And it's that which makes her realise. It's not something affecting his powers, but someone. And it's got to be someone who has a connection to 001. It's Will. It's got to be.
Revitalised by that knowledge, El lifts 001 into the air with ease. Keeping him elevated with one hand, she uses her other to gather energy from anything she can find in the room, chair, tables, the collection of soccer balls in the far cupboard. She focuses on her power until everything that's not screwed down vibrates with her.
She concentrates that energy into one spot and with a yell, directs it straight at 001. Her force hits him in the chest. He lets out his own shout and his head falls back and she can see a silver strip zigzag through his middle. She screams, continuing to direct her powers straight into his chest. She can feel the blood pouring from her nose running over her mouth and dripping off her chin. She can hear her own pulse, feel her ears throb with each heartbeat. There's wet on her cheeks that doesn't quite feel like tears. Yet she keeps going, keeps pushing everything she's got at 001, and that cut in his chest keeps growing larger.
001 screams too. As he opens his mouth, black smoke rushes out of it, and then it's coming out of the split in his chest as well. She feels the smoke push at her as though it's trying to knock her away but she fights against it, driven by determination, she's not giving up now. Then, all at once, the smoke vanishes and the force pushing against her disappears and in shock, she loses grip of 001 and he crashes to the floor. He hits it face down, with a smack.
El walks forward hesitantly, her arm still held out in front of her, prepared for another attack. With a flick of her wrist, she turns him over. His eyes are open, mouth ajar but he's not moving. She stands above him and sees the black liquid that has trickled down his chin. His eyes are all black. The vines that twist around his skin are a dirty grey as if they've rotted. Decayed.
Something inside her hurts. He was just a child once. A child like her, taken, abused and made into a weapon. Once, he was her brother. But now she had a different brother and family and friends who had taught her how to love. And he'd hurt that friends and family too many times. She didn't regret killing him. She couldn't. But she regretted that she'd had to.
Her knees buckle but someone catches her before she hits the floor.
She looks up into his face.
"Dad," she whispers.
"I've got you, kid. I've got you."
She buries her head into Hop's chest. She realises she'll be getting blood and tears all over his shirt but she knows he won't mind.
"I killed him," she says. Her voice comes out all muffled.
Hop neither flinches nor jumps up to celebrate, just keeps on stroking her blood and sweat matted hair. "I know," he says, softly.
"We're so proud of you, sweetheart."
El lifts her head to see Joyce, cheeks tearstained but smiling at her.
"Will," El asks, "is he okay?"
"He's gone to the hospital," Joyce tells her.
El fights the heaviness behind her eyes. "He helped me," she tells Joyce. "Will. He did something. I don't know how, but I could feel it. He helped."
El's woken by the sound of someone knocking on the front door. She opens her eyes and recognises that she's in Hop's cabin. For a moment, she's thrown back to years ago, living here in secret with Hop, only allowed to answer the door if it was in their secret code, the special sequence of knocks. These knocks are not.
Her body aches. Her neck throbs. But she doesn't think she's hurt badly, there are no holes in her leg like her fight last summer, no broken bones like Max. But she's tired. It was back here in Hop's cabin she was first taught the basics of human biology, and she thinks now of the blood flowing through her veins and how it feels as if the soreness is in her blood, travelling all over her, even the parts that have no obvious injury.
The voices bring her back to reality. She sits up, ignoring the stiffness in her hips as she swings her legs over the side of the bed.
"I couldn't sleep," a familiar voice is saying. "And it's too early to go to the hospital, so I thought I'd come here instead, see El."
"Oh, you did, did you? You didn't think it might be too early for that here too, huh?"
There's a pause and she imagines Mike squirming nervously in front of Hop.
"Is she okay?" he asks.
"She will be."
El gets out of bed. She's wearing an old shirt of Hop's that far too big for her, even now, almost reaching her knees. The wooden floor is cold against her bare feet. She knows from listening in on conversations between the girls at school, that she shouldn't allow Mike to see her like this. She knows that she's meant to dress nice and do her hair and make-up before seeing her boyfriend, but she just can't understand why. Mike's seen her covered in blood and crying enough times to deal with her half-dressed and bald.
She opens the door to the bedroom using her hand rather than her powers. Neither of them sees her at first, they're too busy staring at each other fiercely.
"Mike," she says.
He turns. "Oh, hey. I, uh," he slides his backpack off his shoulder, "I brought you some cookies. The store wasn't open so I couldn't get Eggos but my mom had these in the cupboard already."
"You didn't have to get me anything," she says.
Hopper plucks the pack of cookies out of Mike's hand. "But seeing as you have… Thanks Wheeler, that's my breakfast sorted."
Mike's expression turns from surprise to objection in two seconds flat.
"Let's talk," El says, before he has chance to complain about his stolen gift. "In here."
"Three inches open!" Hop calls, mid-cookie.
"What, even though I brought you breakfast?!"
El takes Mike by the wrist and pulls him into the bedroom. She pushes the door but leaves it three inches open as per Hop's instruction. She has no urge to disobey him these days. They sit on the edge of the bed, side by side.
"You were awesome yesterday," he says. His eyes are wide. "You were a real superhero."
"No," she says, softly. It never quite fits right when Mike calls her that. She was raised to be a weapon, not a superhero. Maybe she had become somewhere between the two. "I did what I needed to."
"Yeah, and saved the world!" Mike says. "Vecna is dead, right? Will said he was."
"He's dead," El confirms.
"But I don't understand what happened." Mike rubs at his forehead just like he always does when he's confused and frustrated about it. "Will said he'd been inside Vecna's head!"
From the look on Mike's face, he expects her to be surprised by the news. But El just blinks, considering. She'd known Will had done something to help her from the inside, it kind of makes sense that's what it was.
"So does that mean he has powers too?" Mike asks. He sounds almost hopeful. "Like you?"
"The connection with 001. I think Will-" she tries to remember a phrase, "-used that to our advantage."
"Oh." Mike's mouth twitches. "Like a spy. I get it now."
"Is Will okay?" she asks.
"I think so. He was still out of it when they made me leave the hospital last night but I heard them say to Joyce that he was, uh, stable." His mouth twitches as if he'd tried to make a smile but couldn't quite managed it. "Kinda freaked me out though when he passed out after that thing with Max."
El frowns. "Thing with Max?"
"When- Wait, you don't know?" Mike's half up out of his seat, the most alert she's seen him since he arrived. "El, has nobody told you?"
"Told me what?"
"Max woke up," Mike says.
It feels like someone has tugged on her heart. She stares at him, trying to speak but no words will come out. Her eyes fill with tears. "What?" she eventually manages to choke out.
"She woke up," he repeats. "Will went inside her head too and it, like, brought her back somehow."
"Is she… okay?"
"Yeah. I mean, sort of. She's hurt and stuff still. But she's, you know, she's Max. She'll be okay."
"I- I need to go see her," El says. She stands. It feels like the room is spinning.
"The hospital isn't open for visitors yet," Mike reminds her.
"We'll make it open."
"I don't think it works that way."
El shakes her head. She knows that it doesn't work that way, she's not that naïve anymore, but saying it as if she believes it makes her feel better. She's about to snap at Mike, but his arm links through hers, steading her, and he suggests they go speak to Hop, so she forgives him.
In the end, the compromise they reach with Hop is that they will leave in time to reach the hospital the exact moment they're allowed in. She's not happy about it, but know there's not much she can do to get her own way.
Hop makes Mike wait away from her bedroom while she changes, but once she's dressed, she calls him back through. She sits on the bed, uncomfortable. The jeans she's put on are old ones left here from before they went to California and they're both tight and too short, but she couldn't bring herself to put the dirty ones on from yesterday. Her shirt is the same one she slept in, but she's tucked it in the best she can, making it look a little better fit.
Mike sits beside her. His fingers awkwardly thrum against the mattress. It reminds her of their argument back before she was arrested.
"You keep saying I'm a superhero," she says. "Now and… before. When I piggybacked. You said I was your superhero."
His face perks up. "You heard that?"
"Yes."
"Did you… hear everything I said?"
"Yes," she repeats.
He pushes himself a little further back on the bed. "So you heard when I told you that I lo-?"
"I'm not your superhero," she says, cutting him off. "I'm your girlfriend."
"Well, yeah," he splutters. "You're both, El. Both."
"You see me as a superhero more than just… me."
"That's not true!"
"You say… I can fly, I can move mountains." Her face scrunches up in disgust. "But you don't say I'm kind or I tell good jokes or I kiss nice or I make really good icing for birthday cakes."
"I've never tried your birthday cakes- El, what?!"
"You see my powers and think they're cool. But you don't think I'm cool."
"El, what are you talking about? I think you're the coolest person I know."
"Why?" she demands.
"Well, because you're…" he breaks off. His hand starts rubbing his head again, so firmly this time it looks like it might hurt. "You just are."
She turns her head so they're looking each other dead in the eyes. Hers are damp. His too.
"Mike," she says. "I dump you."
"No, El!" His hands frantically pat across the mattress until they reach hers, and he takes them, squeezing tight. She lets him. "El, no, please, don't- don't dump me. You've just saved the world! Everything's going to be okay now. We will be okay now. Please!"
She shakes her head. A tear slips down her cheek. "You're right, we will be okay. It's better this way."
"What if I'm a better boyfriend?" he asks. "I can be, I promise."
"Not to me." She gently slides her hand out of his grip and wipes at her tears. She knows what she wants, and surprisingly she finds she's okay with it. "You can be a better boyfriend to Will."
"What?" Mike jumps. He looks around hastily, worried someone might have overheard, even though it's only Hop who's in the cabin and he doesn't count. "Why would you say that?"
"You have kissed him."
Mike splutters. "Who-? Did Will-?"
"001 told me."
"And you believe what he-?"
She only has to raise her eyebrows for Mike to trail off mid-sentence. He knows she knows it's true.
"You can't tell anyone, El, please."
"Friends don't lie."
"No, but." His hands are in his hair now and he looks as if he's about to start crying some more. "El, you don't get it. We're not- we can't…" He takes a deep breath. "Me and Will, we're both boys. It's not something that is allowed."
She frowns. "Then why did you?"
Mike shrugs. "I don't know really. I just- it just happened, okay? And I'm sorry I hurt you. I really did like you- do like you. But I-"
"You like Will too."
"Yeah. And-" He breaks off suddenly and she can tell from his face that something's just occurred to him. "Hang on, El, did you commission Will to paint something for me?"
"Comm-ish?"
"Commission. Like, did you ask him to make me a painting?"
El doesn't understand why Mike's asking this. "No," she says.
Mike frowns. "Then- then I think… I think Will might like me too."
El nods. She thinks so too. Suddenly the hurt inside her chest from splitting up with Mike, starts to ease. "Then screw not allowed," she says. "We make our own rules."
El's excitement to see Max completely vanishes when they reach the hospital, replaced instead by nerves. She can't shake the image of Max in Lucas's arms, bent in the wrong directions, beautiful face scarred, crying and begging, terrified in a way she never thought Max could be. She hopes she hasn't woken to the same pain and fear.
El walks the familiar corridors towards Max's room and even though Hop's one side of her and Mike's on the other, she feels like she's all alone. She's borrowed Mike's hoodie so she's able to hide beneath the too-big hood, and he, in turn, borrowed a jacket from Hop which makes him look funny. She thinks back to that new word Hop taught her, just days ago, even though it feels like months, conspicuous, and how she's not meant to be, and yet the three of them, all in too-big clothing, would draw attention if it were later in the day and the hospital not so quiet.
They come to a join in the corridor where Mike has to go one way to see Will, and she goes the other to see Max. They pause, waiting to see where Hop will go.
"I'm not leaving you, kid," he says to her.
She frowns. "I need to talk to Max. Alone."
"Then I will wait outside the door. No further away than that." He turns to Mike. "Wheeler, you tell Joyce where to find me."
Mike nods.
"And tell Will-" El breaks off, unsure what she wants to say. "Tell him hi. And that I love him and I'm sorry and I will be there soon. Have you got that?"
"I've got it," Mike says. "But El, you have nothing to be sorry for. Not to Will, not to anyone, okay?"
She understands the hidden message. "Okay," she says.
Her and Hop close the distance to Max's room. At the door, she pauses. Hop wraps an arm around her and gives her far shoulder a squeeze.
"I'll be right here if you need me," he reminds her. "Go see your friend."
With a final, teary glance up at him, she nods. She takes a deep breath and pushes the door open.
Max is propped upright in bed. She still has the casts around her arms and legs and there are still wires going into her arm and up her nose. But her eyes are open and she turns her head in El's direction. It's both one of the best and worst things El has ever seen.
"Hi," she manages.
"El?"
"Yeah, I'm here." She rushes forwards and takes a seat by Max's side. Max's hand is held in an outstretched position by the cast and El fits her own within it. She watches as Max's fingers curl around hers, and then she looks back to her face. To her eyes. The cloudy whiteness she'd witnessed back in Creel House is still covering Max's eyes. "Can you… see?"
"I… not really. There's, like, shapes and shit." She blinks. "Not really."
"I didn't save you in time," El says.
Max shrugs. "Shit happens."
"I brought you back."
"And I'm meant to say thanks?"
El watches her friend. She sees the flare of her nostrils, the downward angle of her head, and knows Max is trying not to cry.
"I don't know how I'm meant to live like this," Max says. "Not being able to see? And fucked up arms and legs too?"
"The doctor said your bones should heal."
"But what do they know? It's not like they have actual experience with psycho monster attacks!"
El squeezes Max's fingers a little tighter. She hopes she's not hurting her. "It will be okay."
"And Lucas, he's making all these plans for when I get out of here…" She shakes her head. "He needs to understand it might not be possible."
"He missed you," El says. "We all did. We will make it possible."
Max blinks back the tears in her eyes and her face seems to reset itself. "Yeah?"
"Yes," El says fiercely.
"I…" There's a glimmer of hope in Max's voice. "I did promise him a movie date. You know, before."
"A movie date?" El smiles. "You told me never promise a boyfriend anything."
"Yeah, well, turns out I may not always have the best advice," Max says. She manages a faint smile. "So, if you and Mike-"
"I dumped his ass," El says. "Again."
"Seriously? And now I'm going to have to put up with Wheeler moping around? Again?"
"He doesn't love me," she explains. "It's okay. We're still friends."
"Hang on, I've had to put up with his sad face ever since you guys moved to Cali, and you're telling me he doesn't love you?"
El presses her lips together even though Max can't see her. She's not giving Mike's secret away. "Yes," she says.
"Okay, El, there's clearly a whole load of gossip there that you're not telling me. And I'm gonna get bored fairly quickly stuck in here, I need entertainment."
El laughs. It surprises her. "There is better entertainment than Mike," she replies.
This time Max laughs. That surprises El even more. "Oh my god, I've been telling you that for ages. I can't believe it takes me nearly getting murdered for you to listen to me."
"Max!"
"What? I'm joking! Not gonna let that asshole take my sense of humour alongside everything else."
El suddenly feels tears spring to her eyes. She blinks them back, fearful that Max will be able to tell even without her vision. "I really missed you," she says.
"Yeah? I really missed you too."
"Max." El puts her second hand on top of Max's. "I'm sorry I let you down."
"Are you kidding me? You killed the asshole, didn't you? Lucas said you did and I- I'm guessing that's why I woke up? That, or something to do with whatever the fuck Will was doing inside my head."
"I think both," El tells her. "But yes, 001 is dead. I killed the asshole."