Sitting around the Wheeler's dining room table, the four were lost in their thoughts, not eating.
"Something wrong with the meatloaf?" Karen asks the kids.
"Ah no, I had two bologna sandwiches for lunch..." Dustin forms a fake smile. "I don't know why."
"Me too." Lucas says with an awkward tone.
"It's delicious mommy." Nancy smiles at her mother, obviously faking it.
"Thank you sweetie."
"So, there's this special assembly thing tonight for Will at the school field. Barb's driving." Nancy tells her mom.
"Why am i just hearing about this?" Karen asks.
"I thought you knew." Nancy replies.
"I told you. I don't want you out after dark until Will is found."
"I know, I know, but it'd be super weird if I'm not there. I mean, everyone's going."
Karen sighs. "Just be back by ten. Why don't you take the boys and Alex with you?"
"No!" The four yell, Alex taking a sip of her milk.
"Don't you think you should be there? for Will?" Karen asks the four.
Just then, Alex looks behind Karen and sees El walking down the stairs.
She spits out her milk, causing the other four to look at her, then look at El.
Karen turns to see whats behind her, then Dustin pounds on the table twice, causing Karen to turn right back.
"Sorry. Spasm." He says awkwardly.
The four look at each other, with a 'what do we do' expression on their face.
"Nice." Nancy says looking at them.
—
El was now sitting in her fort, flicking the switches on Mike's intercom.
"El?" Alex walks up to her with the boys behind her.
"No adults. Just us and some meatloaf." Mike says.
El says nothing, but looks up at Lucas and Dustin. She was wary of them.
"Don't worry. They won't tell anyone about you. They promise. Right?" The brunette tries reassuring El.
"We would never have upset you if we knew you have superpowers." Dustin speaks. Alex immediately slaps him.
"Right, right." Lucas says. "Lets get to the point. We just want to find our friend."
"Friend?" El asks not knowing what that means.
"Yeah, friend. Will?" Lucas looks at the girl.
"What is friend?"
"Is she serious?" Lucas now looks at the others.
Dustin shrugs.
"A friend is someone..." Lucas tries to explain.
"Is someone that you'd do anything for." Alex finishes.
"You lend them your cool stuff, like comic books and trading stuff." Dustin tells El.
"And they never break a promise." Mike adds.
"Especially when theres spit." Lucas smiles.
"Spit?" The girl asks.
"A spit swear means..." Lucas spits in his hand. "You never break your word." He then goes up to shake Alex's hand but she shakes her head "Disgusting" she scoffs. Lucas shakes Dustins hand instead. "It's a bond."
Dustin now looks at his hand, grossed out.
"Thats super important, because friends..." Mike says looking at El then at Alex. "They tell each other things. Things that parents don't know."
—
"I thought maybe..." Mike and Alex sit on the stairs in the basement having their own conversation. "Maybe theres more people with the same tattoo" He whispers. "I mean 011, 013, theres gotta be a 12 too. And maybe a 010?"
"There is." Alex looks at the boy. "I had this weird dream. I was in a lab, and there was many kids with lab gowns and shaved heads, they probably had numbers on their wrists too."
Mike looks at the girl.
"And there was this man. I think he was papa."
"Papa?" Mike asks.
"Yeah. His guards then took me away."
"That's crazy..."
The two sit in silence for a moment.
"Whats the weirdo doing?" Lucas says looking at El who was playing with the DnD board. She puts her hands on the board and closes her eyes.
"El?" Alex asks.
After a moment she opens her eyes and picks up the wizard figure on the board. "Will." She says inspecting the figure.
"Superpowers." Dustin looks at the girl. Lucas then rolls his eyes. The four surround the girl.
"Did you see him? On Mirkwood? Do you know where he is?" Mike asks.
El stays quiet. She sweeps the board clearing the other figures off of it. She then flips the board upside down, grabbing the wizard figure, representing Will and placing it on the center of the upside down board.
"Hiding." She says.
"I don't understand Mike says.
"Will is hiding?" Alex asks the girl.
El nods in response.
"From the bad men?" Mike asks.
She shakes her head. She then picks up another figure, placing it on the board.
The Demogorgon.
—
Alex has just arrived home. She sees no one in the living room so she decides to check Steve's room to see if he's there. No one there either.
She walks back into her room placing her bag on her bed then walking over to the window.
Outside in the backyard she sees her brother, his two friends Tommy and Carol, Nancy who was once again lying to her mother to spend some time with Steve and Nancy's quiet friend Barbara.
Alex lies on her bed thinking about El. Her tattoo, the fact that El has some sort of telekinetic powers, just like her.
She then grabs an empty bottle from her desk and places it in front of her. She stares at the bottle for a few seconds and then places her hand in front of the bottle. Staying like that for a couple of seconds, the bottle got crashed. She then moves her hand over and throws the bottle in the trash can.
Alex then wiped her nose off, and sat on her chair for a few seconds wondering what to do. She would go downstairs, but she didn't really like Steve's friends so she just stayed in her room.
She grabs her notebook, lays on her bed and starts scribbling some random things.
After a few seconds the door swings open, revealing Steve and Nancy soaking wet.
"Oh you're back." Steve chuckles then closes the door.
"Yeah no shit." Alex mutters, then stares at the door to lock it, but then it opens again. "Do you have an extra towel? For Carol?" Her brother asks.
She goes over to the bathroom and grabs two towels. She gives one of them to Steve and then wipes the floor with the other one.
"Thanks." He closes the door, Alex then locking it with her mind.
She wipes the blood off her nose and lies back on her bed continuing to draw in her notebook.
After a few minutes, Alex looks out of her window and sees the pool lights flickering. Barbara sitting on the edge of the pool. She stares at her sitting there all lonely.
But then some sort of creature with a human body and a flower heard appears right behind Barbara, the pool lights completely going out.
"Barb!" Alex yells standing up.
When the lights came back on Barb was gone along with the creature.
Alex rushes downstairs to see if she could find the creature and take a better look at it, or Barbara, but she saw nothing.
She makes her way to the pool and sees nothing but a drop of blood in it.
The lights start flickering again. Alex quickly rushes back inside.
"Steve!" She freaks.
No answer. He was probably too busy with Nancy.
Alex runs back to her room and grabs her intercom calling Mike.
"Mike. The monster, I-I saw it."