-8-
However, before anybody could ask any questions, little Holly Wheeler let out a small whimper. "It hurts mummy," she whimpered.
Karen turned to her youngest child and examined her head injury. She frowned when she saw something in her injury.
"Ooh, baby, that looks nasty," she said, "Ted," she turned around and looked for her useless husband, "can you find a doctor? There's something in Holly's injury!" She demanded desperately.
"Okay, I'll look," Ted gave his daughter a concerned look, and he was about to look for the local doctor, but before he could, Eleven, who'd heard the whimpers from the youngest Wheeler, came over.
"Is everything alright?" Eleven asked, gazing at Mike and Nancy's little sister, feeling her heart wrench.
Karen and Ted turned to her. Neither of them was truly sure what to make of the girl their children had kept in the basement of their house for only a few days.
"Stay away from my daughter," Ted said, making the girl recoil slightly at his tone.
"Dad-!" Nancy snapped.
"Mum, what's wrong with Holly?" Mike cut in, gazing at his mother pleadingly, begging her to trust El.
"One of those things slashed at her, but it backed off when I pulled away and Ted shot it," Karen replied.
Nancy was now close enough to see a very small, solid thing buried in her sister's forehead. "El, do you think you could get it out?" Nancy asked.
"No," Ted interrupted. "Keep her away. She could hurt Holly."
Eleven had recoiled away from the Wheelers, seeing that despite everything she had said, they regarded her with fear, fear of what she could do. They had seen her using her powers to threaten that boy, even if he deserved it. But they hadn't listened to her, had they, about how he and his friend threatened Mike and Dustin?
She had always known Kali had a point about how everyone would fear them, for their powers and what they could, that they would never be one of them.
The Lab and Papa had locked her up, trapping her in a dark, small room whenever she did something wrong.
Papa had just experimented on her, using her. Sometimes she wondered if she had exchanged one master for another, especially since she was in this mess. A part of her resented the fact she had even come back; while she owed Mike, Joyce, Hopper, and her friends, what did she owe the people of Hawkins?
The Bad Men had chased after her the moment she had gotten out after opening the gate into the Upside Down, killing Benny, and forcing her to run again before she was even prepared for the outside world. Even now, Eleven didn't know how Kali managed to get out of Hawkins beyond using her power nor how long she had to do it; she didn't know if Kali had explored the town for a bit, or if she had gotten lucky enough to find someone kind enough to help her get further away. It was one of those things she hadn't thought to ask her sister at the time. But now she wished she had. Thinking of her sister made her yearn for Kali's safety and company, and Eleven wondered if she could reunite with Kali despite leaving her.
She didn't want to be here anymore, just like she knew full well that even if things were these evil things the Lab and Papa had done were being exposed, that didn't mean she could finally be free. What was to stop Hopper from putting her back in that cabin?
Now she was here, listening to all of this, Eleven had no intention of ever, ever, ever letting herself be locked up again. She didn't need her sister to tell her the Lab couldn't be trusted, she'd never really had any doubt of that. Even if the current head of the lab was more reasonable than Papa, she still didn't trust him, and if Hopper was convinced he could make a deal with them, then he was stupid. Eleven knew she shouldn't have stayed that long, but she would never have discovered that box in the cabin, letting her know who she really was, and giving her clues to her mother, her aunt, and to Kali.
But Holly Wheeler was still in pain, and if there was one thing, just one thing, that never failed to upset her, it was children being upset because it always reminded her of her own sad life story.
"God, you're unbelievable, Ted," Joyce spat in disgust, staring daggers at Ted, who gazed back in shock, "this girl," she stood and wrapped her arms around El's shoulders, "is one of the most amazing, sweetest, and kindest girls I've ever met. She will not hurt Holly; she helped me, and she also discovered what happened to Barb. For Chrissakes' Ted, I know you can be short-sighted, and you believe the lies of the government, but El has just saved our lives. How long do you think it'll take to find a doctor, and one who's got the tools to help Holly?"
"Ted," Karen, who'd been listening to her elder children and her friend, lost in thought. Logically, she knew Joyce was right, and after seeing how precise El was decided that it was a good idea. "I'm going to try. For Holly's sake," she turned to El and did her best to put on a brave, kind face. The mother in her was horrified by the look of fear on the face of someone so young, and she realised her children and Joyce had a point.
This was no monster, the sight of that tattoo had driven that in, but this merely hammered it in.
This was a girl, a young beautiful girl, who was hurt, scared. "Please, do you think you can help my daughter?" Karen asked desperately.
Eleven let out a breath, and she walked over, ignoring Ted and Karen and studied Holly's injury. "I think so," she said, and without asking for permission, she lifted her hand.
"El, don't you think you should tell Holly what you're doing?" Mike asked.
Eleven lowered her hand, blinking a little. She wasn't good at speaking to other people, she always stumbled across words she hadn't looked up in the dictionary, and while Hopper, Mike, Joyce, and Kali had taught her quite a bit, she was still lacking. But how could it be?
She studied the crying little girl, the sounds piercing through her heart, and she racked her brain for everything she knew of Holly.
"Hello," she said, waving at the child to get her attention.
Karen, seeing El was making the effort, nudged Holly, who stopped crying for the moment, and turned and looked at the stranger speaking to her.
"'Lo," she muttered.
Eleven smiled at her Kindly and sweetly. "It's Holly, isn't it? I saw pictures of you a year ago, and you've got some amazing toys at your house. Which one's your favourite?"
Holly blinked, "My teddy," she replied.
It took Eleven a moment to remember the teddy bear she'd seen on Holly's bed when she'd been hiding there. "It's a cutie, isn't it?" She asked before she became more serious. "I'm a friend of your brother and sister. And you're….not feeling well, right?" She asked awkwardly, cursing the Lab once again for caring more about experimenting on her brain, rather than teaching her how to have a decent conversation where she didn't have to ask what a word, or phrase, meant.
Fresh tears welled up in Holly's eyes. "Oh, I'm sorry, Holly," Eleven said, hoping she hadn't made the little girl cry.
"It hurts!" Holly sobbed.
"I can help you. There's something in your head. I can get it out, but you have to trust me, can you do that? We can play with your toys later?" Eleven wasn't sure if she should have said that, or if that was the right thing to say or do, but it was all she had and besides she would love a chance to play with Holly.
Holly nodded a little bit, fresh tears rolling down her face.
Taking that as a Yes, Eleven turned to Karen. "You'd better hold her," she said, taking a deep breath and lifting her hand. "Keep her still."
Karen nodded, not sure what this girl was going to do. She turned to Nancy and Mike, uncertainly. She felt sorry for the girl, who'd suffered so much pain and grief, but her maternal protectiveness made her uncertain.
"Trust her, mum," Nancy urged her.
"Holly will be okay; El's amazing," Mike had complete faith in Eleven.
Karen looked between her kids, then to Eleven and nodded.
Eleven smiled, knowing that this was a big step for Karen Wheeler. She lifted her hand slowly, concentrating her telekinetic powers on Holly; with her mind, it was easy for her to see the little thing in the cut. All she had to do now was pluck it out.
Karen gasped as she saw what was lodged in the wound start to move, and she turned to the girl, seeing fresh blood trickling down from her nose.
Eleven gently took hold of the thing in the cut and tugged. Holly whimpered a little, but Eleven quickly used her telepathy to soothe the girl, and then she pulled the thing out. It flew slowly over to her, and she took it.
She wasn't sure what it was, but she violently flinched when she felt some of Holly's blood on her fingers. She dropped it to the ground, and she smiled at Holly.
"Thank you," Karen said gratefully, gazing at the girl gratefully.
Ted, not being very eloquent, nodded as well.
"You're welcome," Eleven said quietly before she turned to Hopper and Joyce. Both of them were gazing at her proudly for what she'd done. "Okay, I need to know exactly what's happened; I know there's a Gate in Hawkins, but what's been going on?"
Hopper sighed and ran a hand through his short hair. "It all started when the pumpkin crops began to rot; there are tunnels leading from the Lab's Gate to the Upside Down. I went down there into the tunnels after I dug a hole when Will began drawing pictures of what he was seeing and it looked like the vines you'd find out in a field or a garden, which is why I couldn't get back. I was caught by the Lab."
"You were caught by the Lab?" Jonathan said. "What happened then?"
"They decontaminated me, I don't know if it did much good, and then I found out the Lab had known the tunnels were spreading from the Gate."
"The tunnels leading from the Gate were exactly like the drawings Will sketched; he's been having fits, seeing the thing inside his head standing over the whole of Hawkins," Joyce added, running her hands gently through Wills' hair. "We've been taking him to the Lab; all they've been doing is making a load of tests, but nothing's helped."
"I'm not surprised by that, Joyce; the Lab's interest in Will is just what he knows about the Upside Down. They don't care about anything else," Eleven replied.
Joyce said nothing because she agreed with the girl. While Dr Owen's had been fairly nice, her mistrust in the Lab after the last year had soured her view of the place. Joyce, before Will vanished, hadn't given the Lab much thought; discovering they were kidnapping kids at various ages, lobotomising and killing anyone who got in their way, faking dead bodies…well, she had no faith in them and she had always done her best to keep her visits there to a minimum. And now Bob was dead. Her heart ached further at the reminder.
"The Demodogs are coming from the Upside Down," Dustin went on, not even planning on mentioning Dart, the Demodog he'd foolishly kept before its savagery made it kill his family's cat and then escaped, and he hoped Lucas and Max and Steve kept their mouths shut, too, "if these tunnels are spreading out from the Gate to the Upside Down, there could be other holes."
"We tried to lure one to the scrapyard," Lucas added, glancing at his friend and realising he didn't even want to mention his mistake, "we tried bloodied meat, but we attracted more. We nearly got killed until they were called off."
"Called off? Why?"
Hopper sighed, "They were called off because they found out the Lab had sent people into the tunnels."
"That thing in Will is making him spy on us, it made him give us information that got those people in the tunnels killed," Mike said.
"What?" A few people began muttering, making Mike look worried at what he'd just revealed, but he stared at Eleven.
"Do you think there's anything you can do, to help Will, I mean, El?" Mike asked.
Eleven glanced down at Will, trying not to look at Joyce, who was gazing up at her with so much hope. "I don't know," she admitted. "I've never tried to tear something like this out, and I don't know what it could do to him. I need to close the Gate like I should have done before, and then there could be other Gates leading into the Upside Down."
"What is this Upside Down? Aren't any of you gonna say?" Someone demanded impatiently.
"The Upside Down's a different dimension," Dustin explained.
Eleven had just seen a clipboard and she picked it up before anyone could scoff. "Imagine this side," she pointed at the side with a sheet of paper on it, "is our world," she flipped it over, "This is the Upside Down; it's like our world, but different. Darker. Evil. We," she gestured around the room, "are not there. They are; the Demogorgons and the others. But we're not there. They want to come into our world."
Was that what happened?
Had she sent something into the Upside Down without meaning to?
It made some sense, but why couldn't she remember it?
"How did this happen, sweetie?" Karen asked, staring at El and seeing the haunted look in her eyes.
"I was being experimented on. I remember waking up. But something had changed. In the lab everything was routine, but then it wasn't. Something had changed. Papa and the other scientists put me in a bath and forced me to enter the Void where I could touch the minds of others. I touched a Demogorgon in the Void, and it created the Gate," El explained.
"So you're behind all of this?" An angry voice demanded.
Eleven nodded. "Yes," she replied, not even bothering to deny it.
"Then how can we trust you?" Someone demanded, while most of the mob looked like they wanted to tear her apart.
"Hey, leave her alone-!" Lucas snapped.
Someone shoved Lucas away.
"Lucas!" Mrs Sinclair shouted, but it was too late.
Tired and agitated by the mob, who were merely only proving how right Kali was by the minute, Eleven banished them back and they were thrown against the wall and held there.
"El," Joyce whispered, but Eleven ignored her as she walked slowly towards the foolish mob. Blood was trickling down her nose as she continued holding the mob back. For a second she didn't say a word, listening to the whimpers.
"I am the most powerful telekinetic Papa had in the Lab, but I don't know who this One is. I can close the Gate. When I opened it I thought I was a monster, that I deserved to be hunted by the Bad Men," Eleven lifted her fingers and mimed a gun, pointing it at her head. "But I saved my friends," she sent a glance at Mike, Lucas, Dustin, Joyce, and all the others last year, "I stopped the Demogorgon. I will stop this now. I don't know who this One is, or what he wants. But I can find out."
Eleven sighed when she realised that no matter what she said, or did, these people were just too frightened.
Suddenly, Eleven just…gave up.
On her dreams of being normal.
What was the point?
There was no point trying to make a normal life; the shadow of the Bad Men and the things Papa had done to her; the way she was kidnapped from her mother, Terri Ives' brain being fried, the endless experiments, the way she had grown up unable to speak properly - for God's sake, she had been so used to taking off her smock in front of people she had thought it was normal until she'd been given fresh clothes - and there were so many gaps in her knowledge that Eleven doubted she could ever attend school without problems.
She had no place with them.
She had no place with Mike, Joyce, or Hopper, and that hurt even more since she could never have a normal life.
In her head, she was already making her plan; she would close the Gate, and then head out to find Kali and say she was right. Even if the Gate was closed off, people like Brenner would still be out there, hunting her down. Maybe her sister was right, and the only way to survive was to fight back.
No. It wasn't a good enough plan. There was still this One to deal with, and Eleven was concerned with the implications that she had done something and had forgotten it.
Eleven sighed and let the mob go, backing away so they wouldn't rush her. Her mind was racing as she tried to come up with a way of stopping this and learning more about the One. Suddenly she remembered how she'd opened the Gate in the first place before finding Barb and Will in the Upside Down.
She turned to Hopper and Joyce slowly, afraid to see if they were scared of her. To her relief, they were looking supportively at her.
"I'm going to have to get back in the Bath," Eleven told them.