mike looked very happy, he was about to cry. "eleven?"
"mike!"
the two kids went into a hug.
it was so adorable.
"is that?-" max asked dustin and lucas.
they both nodded.
"i never gave up on you. we called you every night for-"
"353 days."
mike gasped.
"i heard."
"why didn't you tell me you were there? that you were ok?"
"because i wouldn't let her." hopper stepped forward toward the two. "what the hell is this, where have you been?"
"where have YOU been?" eleven snapped back.
hopper brought her into a small hug.
"you've been hiding her! YOU'VE BEEN HIDING HER THIS WHOLE TIME!" mike screamed at hopper.
"hey! let's talk, alone." hopper took mike into a room, and shut the door.
eleven grabbed dustin and lucas into a hug.
"we missed you." lucas said.
"i missed you too."
"we talked about you pretty much everyday." dustin added.
the trio broke their hug.
"teeth-"
"what?"
"you have teeth." eleven put her finger in dustin's mouth touching his fake teeth.
"oh? these pearls?" he said. then he purred like a lion.
oh the embarrassment.
max stepped up toward el. "eleven? hey, i'm max. i've heard a lot about you." max held her hand out, but el ignored it, and walked right past her toward me and steve.
"hi, i'm kat and this is steve." i said.
el pulled me into a hug.
she is so fucking sweet.
next, she walked to joyce.
"hey sweetheart."
they went into a hug.
"can i see him?" eleven asked. after el saw will, we all gathered back at the table and el was looking at the piece of paper that read "CLOSE GATE."
"you've opened this, right?" joyce asked.
el looked at her. "yes." she answered quietly.
"if we got you back to it, could you close it?"
★。／｜＼。★
☆。*。☆。
"it's not like it was before. it's grown, a lot. i mean, we can probably get in, but the place is swarming with dogs-"
"demodogs." dustin interrupted hopper.
"i'm sorry, what?"
"demodogs. like demogorgan and dogs and you put them together, it's like really badass-"
"how is this important right now?!" hopper yelled.
dustin backed down. "it's not i'm sorry-"
"i can do it." el blurted out.
"you're not hearing me." hopper calmed down a bit, but he still was a little aggravated.
"i am hearing you. i can do it." she responded.
"you can't, there's still another problem: if the brain dies, the body dies." mike jumped in, and put his arm around el.
"i thought that was the whole point?" max questioned.
"it is, but if we're really right about this: if el closes the gate and kills the mind flayer's army-"
"will is a part of that army..." i said. my heart began to beat faster. i didn't want to see will die.
"closing the gate will kill him." mike concluded.
"he likes it cold..." joyce pointed out.
"what?" hopper asked.
we followed joyce into to will's room.
"that's what he kept saying to me, he likes it cold! we keep giving it what it wants!" joyce explained as she shut the bedroom window.
"if this is a virus, and will's the host, then-" nancy looked at jonathan.
"then we need to make the host inhabitable." he finished.
"so if he likes it cold-" i started.
"we need to burn it out of him." joyce looked like she was smack will to get that monster out of him.
"somewhere he doesn't know this time."
"somewhere far away." dustin finished.
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☆。*。☆。
dustin took everything out of the refrigerator.
the only ones home were me, steve, and the kids.
everyone else left to help burn the shadow monster out of will.
"alright, it should fit now."
"is this really necessary?" i asked.
steve and i were holding the dead demodog, and it was really cold and slippery.
"yes it is ok, this is a scientific discovery, we can't just burry it like some common mammal ok? it's not a dog!" dustin shouted at me.
"alright alright." steve stepped in.
we both carried the dead demon to the fridge.
"but you're explaining this to mrs. byers alright?"
we both tried to shove the demodog in, and it was really hard.
"help us out!"
"what?" dustin started helping us.
"the door man, get the door!" steve shouted.
we managed to get the creature in the fridge.
"ew!"
"jesus christ!"
"goddamn!"
we shut the door, and felt relieved.
steve rubbed his head on top of dustin's hat. he turned to me. "nice work." he held up his hand and I gave him a high-five.
the kids were talking in the other room, and then dustin joined their conversation.
"demodogs!"
"she needs protection." max was referring to el.
"listen dude, it's like when playing in a game. bottom line is you execute the play." steve said as he wiped his hands with a towel. then he passed it to me so i could wipe mine.
"first of all, this isn't some stupid sports game, and second, we aren't even in the game, we are on the bench." mike said.
"yea so my point is..."
we looked at steve for the answer.
"... right yea, we're on the bench so uh, there's nothing we can do."
"that's not entirely true." dustin pointed out. "i mean, these demodogs have a hive mind. when they ran away from the bus, they were called away."
"maybe if we get their attention-" lucas stepped in.
"maybe we can draw them away from the lab-" i pulled together.
"to make a clear path to the gate!" mike finished.
"yea, then we all DIE!" steve shouted.
"well that's one point of view." dustin mumbled.
"no, that's a fact." steve snapped back.
mike pushed through the group into the kitchen. "i got it! this is the deepest hole! this is our way into the tunnels!" he ran back to the living room, and sat next to the tunnel drawing. "here! right here! this is like a hub. all of the tunnels feed into here!" he pointed to all of the different tunnels. "maybe if we set this on fire-"
"no yea! that's a no!" steve shouted, and he pointed his finger down.
"the mind flayer will call away his army-"
"they would all come to stop us-"
"hey!" steve shouted again.
"we circle back to the exit-"
"guys!" he tried to stop the plan.
"by the time they realize that we're gone-" i said.
"el would be at the gate!" max finished the plan.
steve clapped his hands so we could get his attention. "hey hey hey hey! it's not happening." he said.
"but-" i started-
"no no no no no. no 'buts.' kat and i promised to keep you shitheads safe and that's exactly what we plan on doing!"
we all rolled our eyes.
"we're staying here, on the bench, and we wait for the starting team to do their jobs. does everyone understand that?" steve put his hands on his hips, and he was acting like a mom.
"this isn't some stupid sports game!" mike snapped back.
"i said does everybody understand that?! i need a yes."
outside, we heard the roaring of a car.
max and lucas ran to the window.
"it's my brother." she panicked. "he can't know i'm here, he'll kill me." she turned to us. "he'll kill us."
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steve and i stood on the porch.
billy got out of his car, and a bunch of smoke was released. "am i dreaming, or is that you harrington?"
"yea it's me, don't cream your pants." steve responded.
billy's eyes darted in my direction. "oh, and ackerman is with you too?" he smirked.
"fuck off billy." after i said that, billy shut the car door, and slowly walked toward us.
"what are you doing here amigos?"
there was a small pause.
"we could ask you the same thing... amigo." steve answered.
i could tell he couldn't find anything else to say.
"looking for my step sister. a little birdy told me she was here."
"weird. we don't know her." i lied. i was always a good liar.
"about this tall, red head, bit of a bitch." billy was describing max.
"doesn't ring a bell, sorry buddy." steve said.
billy stepped forward even more.
i gripped steve's hand, and he stepped a little bit in front of me, making sure billy didn't try and hurt me.
"i don't know, this whole situation, it's giving me the heebee jeebees."
"oh yea, why is that?" i asked.
billy took another puff of his cigarette. "my 13 year old sister goes missing all day, and then i find her here, with you guys, in a stranger's house, and you lie to me about it." billy tried to act innocent.
"man, we're you dropped too much as a child or what? i don't know what you don't understand about what we just said. she's not here." steve said.
billy took another puff, and pointed to the house. "then who is that?"
we both turned around, and saw the kids lower their heads.
they were watching us.
"aw shi-"
billy shoved me out of the way, and onto the ground.
i lost steve's grip.
billy then punched steve right in the gut, and steve fell to the ground. "i told you to plant your feet." then billy kicked steve in the same spot, and stomped into the house.
i crawled to steve to check on him. "steve?! are you ok?!"
he was grunting and moaning in pain. "go help... the kids." after he said that, i into the house and billy was cornering lucas.
he was about to beat him up.
i ran and jumped onto billy's back, trying to tackle him.
the kids were cheering for me.
billy managed to grab me, and he slammed me against the bookshelf, while lucas got away. "you're so dead ackerman! you're dead." billy held his fist up, and was about to punch me. billy's body turned and steve was there.
"no. you are!" steve then punched billy in the nose. again, and again, constant punches until they both were in the kitchen.
billy then started laughing. "looks like you've got some fire in you after all, huh! i've been waiting for this 'king steve' everybody was telling me so much about!"
steve grabbed billy's collar. "get out." he ordered.
billy stood there for about three seconds, before throwing another punch.
steve ducked, and then hit billy in the same spot as before.
blood was all over steve's knuckles.
"get em steve!" dustin screamed.
billy picked up a plate, and smashed it against steve's head.
"holy shit!"
everyone was shocked.
steve was now about to lose a fight, again.
billy punched and punched and he kicked steve in the balls. billy then grabbed steve's jacket collar. "no one, tells me what to do." he threw steve onto the ground, and started punching him again.
i ran toward billy, and jumped on his back again.
billy grabbed me, slammed me against the ground, and punched me in the face.
my vision and hearing was blurry. once i managed to focus, steve was knocked out, and billy was too.
there was a needle in his neck.
max was going through billy's pockets.
i looked at steve. "hey?! steve?!" i was shaking him to wake him up, but he didn't. i looked at max, and she pulled out billy's car keys.
"let's get out of here."