You looked at your friends and immediately headed to the elevators, they followed.
"Hey, hey, hey! Two at a time!" the receptionist called out, but you guys didn't listen to her.
The elevators were taking forever to open so you ran up the stairs. When you got to the floor that Nancy and Jonathan went on, you turned and froze. You saw Jonathan was all beaten up and trying to open a locked door.
"Nancy!" he was yelling.
You and the group ran up and El opened the door with her mind. Inside the room, you saw some sort of monster, made by human bones and guys. It was the Mind Flayer.
"What the fuck" your eyes widened as you saw it.
It was about to attack Nancy but Eleven threw it around the room. She made it crash against the walls and then she threw it out of the building, making it fall out of the hospital.
"Go! Go! Go!" Mike shouted.
You all ran back down the stairs and ran outside the hospital to the parking lot. You saw the monster was no on the ground but it seemed destroyed like the guys turned into a goo. The Mind Flayer 'crawled' off into the sewers and it didn't come back out.
"What..the hell" you said panting "was that?"
You all exchanged a look, the Mind Flayer definitely transformed.
(The next day)
You sat on the couch with your face propped on your hands and your knees bouncing. You stared at the ground as you waited. Nancy and Jonathan were looking through a phone book and calling people, everyone else was sitting and waiting but Mike was pacing.
"It can't be good for her to be in there for this long" he said.
El was in her room trying to find the Flayed. She's been in there for a while and you knew she was probably losing a lot of blood. You were at the Chiefs place. You were worried where he was too. Why would he have to go to Illinois?
"Mike, you need to relax, I'm she's fine" you reassured him.
"What if she gets brain damage or something?" he said worrying. You rolled your eyes, he was being over dramatic.
"Oh, shit. Is that, like, a real thing?" Lucas asked.
"No, it's not, he made it up" Max said. "Mike doesn't know what he's talking about"
"Oh, and you do?" Mike shot back at her.
"No, I..." she started to say.
"Then you have no say in what she can or can't do" Mike said.
"Woah Mike, chill alright. What, you think you have a say in her actions?" you got up from the couch and look at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Well I mean, yeah" he said.
"Oh do you?" you crossed your arms.
"I mean .." he stuttered.
"What? Because you're her boyfriend, you tell her what she can and can't do right?"
He stuttered and couldn't find a right answer. You couldn't even believe his behavior.
"She's strong enough to make her own decisions, she doesn't need you to tell her what to do" you told him.
"Okay but, she's been in there for a long time, don't you think she needs to stop? And who is she even looking for, is it really that important?" he said.
"She's looking for the Flayed dipshit, the whole reason for this damn summer" Max stood up beside you.
"Well why don't we ask the 'adults' what they think" he suggested.
You, Mike and Max walked up to Nancy and Jonathan who were at the kitchen counter. Will was with them.
"Okay, can you guys settle an argument
for us?" Max asked them. "Who do you think should decide El's limits? Mike or Eleven?"
"The way that you frame that is such bullshit" Mike said.
"It's not bullshit, Mike, this is your whole problem" you said. "And it's also precisely the reason why she dumped your ass"
"El dumped you?" Nancy asked him.
"Yeah, because she is conspiring against me" he turned to you and Max. "They're corrupting her"
"No, enlightening her" Max corrected him.
"Fact is, she's not yours. She's her own person,
fully capable of making her own decisions" you told him.
"She's risking her life for no reason" he said.
"For no reason?" Nancy told him. "Mike, the flayed are out there doing God knows what. And El's not stupid. She knows her abilities better than any of us"
"Yes, thank you" you told her.
"And she is her own person" Mancy went on.
"Exactly"
"With her own free will"
"Boom"
"El has saved the world twice, and Mike still doesn't trust her" Max said.
"You wanna talk about trust, really? After you made Eleven spy on us?" Mike said.
"Wait, what?" Lucas asked joining in on the conversation.
"Oh, she didn't tell you this?" Mike asked him.
"No"
"Your girlfriend and our best friend used El's powers, to spy on us" he said.
"No, no, no, we did not make her" Max said.
"It was her idea" you explained.
"And why are we even talking about this, seriously?" Max said.
"Yeah, who cares?" Will said.
"I care, I guess girlfriends don't lie, they spy" Mike said.
"We were just joking around" Max said again, rolling her eyes.
"Wouldn't it've been so funny if I was taking a massive shit or something?" Mike said.
"Seriously, Mike?" Nancy said. Even she thought he was being over dramatic.
"I'm just trying to demonstrate how careless Max is with Eleven's powers" he said. "In fact, how careless all of you are. You're treating her like some kind of machine when she's not a machine, and I don't want her to die looking for the flayed when they've obviously vanished off the face of the Earth. So can we please just come up with a new plan because I love her and I can't lose her again"
Your mouth immediately dropped open. Mike loved her. You knew he was crazy about her but not love. He looked at him with widened eyes, everyone did and he realized what he said, but he didn't seem like he regretted it.
"What's going on?"
You all turned and you saw El coming out from her room. You closed your mouth back and tried to act natural.
"Nothing, nothing" Mike said quickly. "Just a family discussion"
"Oh" she looked over at you and you nodded. "I found him"
"Found who?" Max asked.
You looked and El and you knew. She found Billy. She told you guys what she saw and she went to the kitchen to get some water as you guys discussed on the couch.
"That's not normal, right?" Will asked
"Billy staying in his room on the Fourth of July? No, that's not normal" Max said.
"He wants us to find him" you said.
"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of" Max replied.
"If we go to Billy, then the rest of the flayed know where we are" Nancy said.
"It's a trap, I agree. We'll be ambushed" Will said.
"We'll know that they're coming, and we will kick their flayed butts" Lucas
"You mean El will kick their butts" Max told him.
"It's too risky, and unnecessary" Mike said.
"Killing the flayed won't stop the Mind Flayer"
"We have to find out where it's spreading from. We have to find the source" Nancy said.
"Billy knows it" El said coming back in the room. "Billy's been there, to the source"
"Yeah, but..." Mike started to speak against it but El kept talking.
"It's a trap, I know" she told him. "We can't go to Billy, but I think there's another way. A way for me to see where he's been"
El sat in front of the TV that was on a channel that only gave static. Everyone sat around her on the couches. You sat beside her on the floor. You grabbed her hand and squeezed it, you both gave a reassuring smile and nodded. You gave her the blind fold.
"El, I know you think you have to do this,
but you don't" Mike said next to her. You saw Max roll her eyes, you understood he wanted to care for her but she was able to take of herself.
"It's just, you've only done this before once. And your mom, she loved you, and wanted you to know what happened. And Billy's mind is... is sick, diseased. The Mind Flayer is in him"
"He can't hurt me" El told him. "Not in there"
"We don't know that" he told her.
"Mike" she wheezed his hand. "I need you to trust me"
He looked at her with an uneasy expression, but he nodded. "Yeah. Just... be careful"
She tied the black blind fold over her eyes and you all waited. Just a minute passed when her nose started to bleed and she said,
"Billy"
You all looked at each other and grew more anxious. You waited for her to find more.
"Something's wrong" she said. Her breathing grew more fast and she got worried.
"Stop! No!" she cried.
You grasped her hand tighter.
"El, it's okay, I'm right here, you're okay" you reassured her.
"Are you okay?" Mike asked.
"I'm okay" she calmed down, but you didn't let go of her hand.
"What's going on?"
"I'm... on a beach" she said.
You raised an eyebrow and looked at Mike who shared the same expression.
"Okay, I may be dense, but the last I checked,
there weren't any beaches in Hawkins" Lucas said.
"What else do you see?" you asked.
"A woman" she explained. "She's...pretty. I...I think she's looking at me" she kept going. "There's...a boy ... It's Billy"
"It's California" Max said. You looked over at her and saw she looked a bit uneasy. "It's a memory"
It took her a long while until she said, "I think I see it, the source"
You watched her search through her mind, her breathing was still rapid and you kept holding her hand to know that she was still here, she was still safe.
"Where, El? Where are you?" Mike asked.
"Brimborn...Steelworks" she said.
Jonathan got up and grabbed the phone book. He turned pages and found the location.
"Found it. 6522 Cherry Oak Drive" he said.
"That's close" Nancy looked at him.
"El, El, we found it. Get out of there" Mike told her. "Get out"
But she didn't. It was almost as if she couldn't hear him. She was still searching.
"El, El what's going on?"
But she didn't answer. Her breathing was getting super fast and more blood was coming out from both her nostrils. She started to breath super fast.
"El, El get out of there" you grasped her hand.
She was getting super scared and she was breathing way too fast. You looked at everyone else and you were all worried.
"No!" she shouted.
She pulled off her blind fold and screamed. Tears were streaming down from her eyes and she looked panicked. She was searching for something and Mike jumped off from his chair and got beside her. You grasped her hand tightly and wrapped an arm around her.
"Hey, hey it's okay, you're okay" you told her in a calming tone.
She looked at you and cried. She leaned onto your shoulder and just cried. You wrapped your arms around her and held her tightly. What did she see?
You kissed her forehead and looked over at Mike, worried. His eyes were super hurt, he hated to see her in such a state, he hated to see her frightened and in pain.
You handed her over to him and he held her close as she cried. You looked over at Lucas and Max and sighed.