~El's POV~
I woke up in bed. Had it all been a bad dream?
The room was cold. I noticed the window was open. I carefully got up out of bed and closed it. As I made my way back to my bed, I heard the door open. I quickly turned around.
"Eleven, we need to have a talk," Hopper said, walking in.
I looked at him, confused.
"Please, just take a seat on your bed," he said.
I did as I was told. Hopper pulled up a chair across from me.
"Where were you last night? Joyce came by and said she found you passed out on Mirkwood. Why were you out there at that time?" Hopper asked me.
"I don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know? I was really worried about you!"
Then, a sudden realization kicked in. That wasn't a bad dream. I really had gone to the laboratory last night. Mike really was gone.
"El, what's wrong?" Hopper asked me, concerned.
I hadn't realized I now had tears streaming down my face.
"He's g-gone," I managed to say between sobs.
"Who's gone? The bad men?" Hopper asked. He came up and sat next to me on the bed, putting one arm around me and pulling me into a side hug.
"No, M-Mike," I cried. Then, I buried my face into his chest and cried some more.
"What do you mean he's gone?" Hopper asked, his voice sounding a little nervous.
"I-I was at the lab, a-and so was Mike. He w-was helping me escape," I tried to tell Hopper, but it was hard to make sense of what I was saying because I was crying so much.
"They took you two to the lab?" Hopper asked, sounding a little angry.
"Yes," I said.
"But I thought they would leave you guys alone from now on! Anyways, continue."
"We were a-almost out of the building, when-" I just stopped mid-sentence and started crying.
I hugged Hopper even tighter and he comforted me.
I started to continue to explain.
"They hurt him! I tried to help him, but-" I stopped, choking down a sob, "he wasn't breathing!" I cried.
Hopper was wide-eyed with worry.
"Eleven-" He started, but I cut him off.
"Mike's dead! He's gone!" I cried and hugged Hopper super tightly.
"It's alright kid, everything will be ok. It will just take some time, but things will get better. I promise."
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Thank you so much for almost 4k reads! This is the end of part one of this series. I will have a sequel out! I am almost done with chapter one of the sequel! I am so glad so many of you like the story! Thank you so much for all fo the positive feedback, comments, views, and support! I will have more coming soon! ~Rocky