THE THUNDER RUMBLED as the two girls sit in the boy in the middle basement. Seven stared at the dark skinned boy, her eyes filled with shock and curiosity. But what shocked her the most was that he was staring right back at her, equally curious.
"Is there a number we can call for your parents?"
"Where's your hair?"
"Do you have cancer?"
"Did y'all run away?"
"Are you guys in some kind of trouble?" Sevens attention was turned towards the boy in the middle, away from the dark skinned boy who continues to stare at her. Seven slightly nodded her head, earning a slight nudge from eleven. Seven then shook her head, thinking. "Is that blood?" The dark skinned boy asked eleven, his hand reached out to touch it. Seven turned to elevens shirt, only to see that it was ketchup from the burger.
The boy in the middle slapped the dark skinned boy hands away. "Stop it! Your freaking them out!" The boy in the middle exclaimed at the dark skinned boy who replied with, "They're freaking me out!" Seven narrowed her eyes at him, not liking the words that he spoke. "I bet they're deaf." The boy with curly hair said. Seven stared at him, bewildered. She had never heard that word before. Suddenly he clapped in front of their faces causing eleven to jump back and seven to glare. Why would he do that?
"Not deaf."
"Alright, that's enough, alright? They're just scared and cold." The boy in the middle snaps at the two boys. He walks away and the thunder roars, causing seven and eleven to flinch. The boy came back with clothes in his hand, two sets. One with gray and blue, the other with blue and black. "Here. These are clean. Okay?" The boys hands seven and eleven each. Eleven takes one pair and feels it on her face while seven just stared at them. Touching them with her thumb.
Eleven stands up and grabs the end of her big yellow tee that Benny gave her. Seven clasps onto her white one, not moving but looks down. "No! No! No!" The two boys at the end yell as the boy in the middle stopped eleven. "See over there? That's the bathroom. Privacy. Get it?" The boys directs. Seven just gets up and walks over to the dark skinned boy, turning him around softly. He turns around, shocked. Seven shakes her head. And walks away.
He stared at her with shock and seven shakes off the gesture. She was oblivious to the pale boy behind them with flushed cheeks at the interaction as he made eye contact with Lucas. After seven walked into the smaller room, the boy followed them. He goes to shut them in but eleven stops him as seven stands alarmed. "You don't want it closed?" He asked and seven shakes her head. "No." Eleven speaks. Recognition floods the boys face, "Oh, so you can speak. Okay, well um, how about we just keep the door just like this.." The boy trails off as he has the door cracked so they can't see the girls changing.
"Is that better?"
"Yes."
[][][]
Seven put the blanket on top of herself, eleven had another blanket covering herself. Seven watched as the boy (she still didn't know the name of) kneeled down and gave them more blankets. Seven just wanted to cry, she wanted to let all of her emotions out. It had been a long day. Seven watched the kind boys friends went up the stairs, the dark skinned boy eyes lingered on her for a bit longer than the curly heads did.
"Hey, um, I never asked your guys name." The boy said, eyes glancing between both seven and eleven but his main focus was eleven. Seven narrowed her eyes at him, what did he want with eleven? Seven turned to eleven but it seemed that her attention remained on him too. Seven furrowed her eyebrows. What was happening?
Eleven, instead of replying, lifted up her sleeve, revealing 011. The boy glanced at seven but she just looked away. Eleven nudged her, seven turned to her, but eleven just nodded her head as mike watched the exchange. Seven lifted her sleeve, revealing 007. Seven didn't know why, but eleven trusted the boy and seven didn't understand the trust the boy was giving off.
The boy turned back to eleven, "Is that real?" He went to touch it but eleven jerked her arm back. Seven slid her sleeve back down, glaring at the boy. The boy shrinked back in shame. "Sorry, I've just never seen kids with tattoos before." He say, the smallest smile in his face. Again, directed to eleven. Seven glared harder, starting to feel uneasy around the boy. He was acting weird.
"What do they mean? Eleven? Seven?" He asked, glancing between the two. Eleven pointed to herself and then pointed to seven, who softly put her hand down slowly, not liking her finger near her face. "That's your names? Eleven. Seven. Okay." He nodded to himself. "Um, well my names mike. Short for Michael." He finally introduced himself. Seven sighed, who were the other boys? Would they tell anyone else about her and eleven?
"Maybe we can you el, for eleven. And, uh, sev or Sam?" He asked seven, who took a second to think about it. "Sam." She responded, liking the idea of being called something normal. Mike nodded, "Um, well, okay." He said, starting to get up. "Night el. Night Sam." Mike said, about to put down the tent sheet to cover them so no one would see them. "Night Mike." El said, looking up at him. "Night." Sam said, laying her head away from the two, causing el to glance at her.
Mike put down the sheet and walked away, dimming the lights once he made it up the stairs. El laid down, about to let a tear roll down her cheek. "Night mike." Sam mocked, silently giggling to herself. El nudged her roughly with a small smile on her face, Sam continued to silently giggle but stopped once tears fell down her face and onto the stuffed animal she used for a pillow.
[][][]
Sam stared at el as she fumbled with the radio. Sam knew what she was doing but didn't know how to do what she was doing. She continued to watch her, until someone came down the stairs and lifted up the sheet that was covering them. Mike kneeled down in front of them, looking at the radio in front of el. "Oh, you found my supercomm." Mike exclaimed softly at el, eyes flickering to Sam but back to el.
"I talk to my friends with it." Mike continued, smiling at el. Sev watched him with envy. Envy that he had friends. Sam shook her head softly and focused back on the conversation. "Mostly Lucas though, since he lives so close. Signals pretty weak." Mike said. Sams attention perked at the name 'lucas'. Was that the boy she saw last night?
It was silent and the only thing that was heard was breathing. "Oh, uh, I brought you guys breakfast." Mike pulled out a small pancake and eggo. Sam got the pancake and el got the eggo. Sam bit into it, not making a sound as el's one bite made a crunch noise. Sam let the taste settle in her mouth a little bit before taking another bite, enjoying it. "So, listen, this is gonna sound a little weird but I just need you both to go out there. Then go to the front door and ring the doorbell. My mom will answer and you'll tell her that your lost and that you need help. But don't tell her about last night or that you know me. Understand?" Mike asked, his eyes showing that he was nervous.
Sam glared at him, this was it. The reason that she didn't fully trust him, yet. He was just trying to expose them. Sam shook her head, she looked to eleven and back at him, her eyes softened. He didn't know anything about them. So how would he know that he was in danger with even speaking to them? Sam sighed and realized that they'd have to tell him eventually.
"Really, it's no big deal. Well just pretend to meet each other again. And my mom, she'll know who to call." Mike explained. Seven stared at him through her lashes, "No." Sam says. Mike looks at her, feeling her heart sink, he'd been right. "No?" He asked. "No." El shakes her head. Mike was confused, "No..you don't want my mom to get help?" Mike asked, staring at el, who was holding his gaze.
El shook her head.
"You guys are in trouble, aren't you?" He asked, going back to his conspiracy from last night. "Who..who are you in trouble with?" Mike asked. "Bad." Sam and el say together. Sam feels her heart beat increase if she was caught by the men that were looking for them. "Bad? Bad people?" Mike asked, understanding. El nods, making seven turn towards her slightly.
"They want to hurt you guys? The bad people?" Mike asked, Sam gave him a look. El looked at sam, she pointed a gun to her head then to a gun to el's head and a gun to mikes head. "Understand?" El asked, hoping that he'd take the hint. Suddenly mikes mom called for him, telling him that he was going to be late. Sam glanced worriedly at him.
"All right. I'll be right back. Just stay here, okay? Stay here." Mike reassured them, causing Sam to glance at el and back to him running up the stairs.
[][][]
Mike had come back and told them that he was giving them a tour of his house. "Want anything to drink? We have O.J, skim milk...what else?" Mike trailed off into space, wondering what other drinks he had.
El and Sam walked into the living room, admiring the big box with a screen. "Oh, this is my living room. It's mostly just for watching tv. Nice right? It's a 22inch. That's like ten times bigger than Dustins." Mike explained, caught up in his own explanation, not noticing Sam look at him weirdly. Tv?
Sam walked over to the square things that held pictures of people. Sam glanced at each person, noticing how pretty one was. "Pretty." El said, looking at the middle picture. "Cute." Sam smiled softly at the picture of a baby.
"I guess. That's my sister Nancy. And that's baby holly. And those are my parents. What are your parents like? Do they live close?" Mike said altogether, causing Sam to only catch the parent part. Sam glared at him slightly, she shook her head at him.
El walked over to a seat that looked fluffy. Sam furrowed her eyes at it, she brushed her hand against it, feeling the soft short hairs. "That's our lazy-E-boy. It's where my dad sleeps." Mike chuckled. Sam glanced at him, kneeling down like mike did a while go, next to the chair. El sat on the chair, Mike kneeling down on the other side. "You can try it if you want." Mike looks to Sam, she shakes her head softly, her trust building for the boy slightly.
El nods her head but looks to the boy, unsure. "Yeah. It's fun." He looks at el. "Just trust me okay?" Mike tries to assure her. Sam watches the interaction with interest. Mike pulls something and el leans backwards quickly, startling the girl. El plasterers on a smile while Sam has a small grin on her face. "See? Fun, right?" Mike asked, a small on his face as well. "Now you try." Mike tells el. El glances at Sam who nods, el pulls the the same thing mike pulled and she leans backwards quickly. She smiles and Sam has a grin on her face, as el laughed nervously and mike chuckled.
[][][]
"Ready are you? What knows you of ready?" Mike says in a weird voice that Sam tried to tell him to stop. "Does not work for you." Sam says, shaking her head while el smiles at her. Mike gives her a unbelievable look, "Yes it does!" Mike defends himself. Sam just shook her head, seeming to be laughing under her breath. "Anyway, his name is yoda. He can use the force to move things with his mind, like this..whoosh!" Mike exclaims as he knocks everything of the table. Causing Sam to look at him like he was the most weirdest person she knew, even though she only knew a few people.
Sam gets up, not listening to Mikes rambling anymore. She walks over to the trophies, staring at them intensely causing them to slightly shake under her gaze. El quickly stops her though, scared she might reveal something. "Oh, these are all my science fair trophies. We got first place every year. Except for last year when we got third, Mr. Clarke said it was totally political." Mike rambles again, causing Sam to lightly nudge his shoulder. He nods his head, while pressing his lips into a thin line.
El pointed to Will, causing sam's gaze to fall on the boy. She ignored mikes words, which blended together. She saw a picture of the same two boys she saw last night and mike but she didn't know this one. She closed her eyes momentarily, and voices flooded her mind. Will byers, that was the only name she could find. He's missing. The voices blurred together until she register anything else. Sam nodded, shaking her head roughly to build her wall again. The wall kept the voices put, and keeping the voices out kept her sane.
Suddenly a car approached, causing Sam to turn around and her heart beater faster. Someone was here. Mike glances at the window, his face filled with worry. "We gotta go." He says, grabbing onto el's hand and running down the stairs, hoping Sam was following, which she was. The front door opened, and a women walked in talking to someone. Mike rushes Sam up the stairs and he drags el along, the women calls out another men's name and mike responds back to her, making Sam glare at him slightly.
They run back to mikes room, and towards the door that Sam knew was a closet. She ripped her hand away from mikes (who had grabbed it when she almost tripped up the stairs) and he glanced behind him, towards her. She shook her head. "In here. I'll be back okay? Please you guys have to get in, or my mom, she'll find you guys." Mike explains quickly. Sam shakes her head, along with el.
"Do you understand? I won't tell her about you guys. I promise." Mike reassured. "Promise?" El asked, while Sam looked behind them, to make sure the women wouldn't come up the stairs. "It means something that you can't break. Ever." Mike explains to el, who stared at him.
"Please?" Mike begged, el walked into the closet, and Sam was quickly, softly shoved in. Sam, shocked, as the door closed goes to bang on the door when she feels el's hand in hers. Sam looks around, the darkness overwhelming her completely and she leans back onto the wall, falling back.
[][][]
Seven punches the punching bag, feeling her hands get weaker as she did. Her body was slowly giving out. She feels eyes on her as she trained, Because that's what she was meant to do, To train. So that they could use her as there weapon. Physical weapon. Like a body guard. She hears the door open and she hears his voice. "Harder, Seven. We can feel you weakening. Be strong." Papa tells her, anger laced in his voice.
Seven turns to look at him, before she could another voice came from in front of her. "Punch. Me." The voice tells her, now she looked and saw a big man standing in front of her. She could easily take him down but she was so weak that she couldn't feel her hands. "Punch me!" He yells at her, causing her to wince and hold her head. He shoves her, taunting her as he spoke words that she couldn't hear because her ears were ringing.
She feels him spit on her and she grows angry. She gets up, her vision showing double of him. She jerks her head left and his neck snapped. He fell down effortlessly as blood seeped onto the cold, tile floor. Seven drops to the ground and feels her blood drip from her nose. That was bad. She was in trouble now.
Two man came from in front of her and grabbed her by her arms, out of the room. She immediately tries to resist, but failing as she was too weak. She looks back to see her papa staring at her with disappointment. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! No! Don't take me-" she screams as tears fill her eyes. She feels them turn a corner and the man threw her in the a room, a metal cubical. "No! No! Please, Papa!" She yells, as the door closes. She bangs on it, not noticing another girl in the cubical.
She leans down, tears falling down her face as she sobs, curling into a ball. She feels arms wrap around her and she immediately looked at the girl. She only takes a second before falling into the girls arms and sobbing with the girl as they hold each other in the cold, dark room.
[][][]
The door opens and it reveals mike, who stared at the girls. "Eleven? Seven? Is everything okay?" He asked worriedly. "Mike." El said as she looked at him. Sam glanced at her, realizing she had been crying herself. "Is everything okay?" He asked again. El nods but Sam just wipes her face and looks away. "Are you sure?" He asked, staring at Sam for a second. El nods again, "Promise."
[][][]
Mike had told his two friends to come over, Lucas and Dustin, after school. Which they did, almost immediately. Lucas walked in first, causing sam's heart beat quicken. She didn't know why, but she did know that her hands were clammy now. "Are you out of your mind?" He asked mike, after having a long staring contest with Sam. "Just listen to me." Mike tried to reason. "Your out of your mind!" Lucas exclaims in anger, glaring at el and turned to glare at Sam but his gaze soften.
"She knows about Will." Mike says calmly, pointing to el. "What do you mean she knows about Will?" Dustin asked, glancing at Sam and el. "She pointed to him, at his pictures. She knew he was missing. I could tell." Mike explains, staring at both Dustin and Lucas. "You could tell?" Lucas deadpanned, not believing him. "Just think about it. Do you really think it's a coincidence that we found her on Mirkwood. The exact same place where will disappeared?" Mike tried to reason.
"That is weird." Dustin picked up. "And they said that bad people are after them. I think these bad people are the same ones that took Will. I think she knows what happened to him." Mike continued. "Then why doesn't she tell us?" Lucas snapped his head towards el. "Do you know where Will is?" Lucas asked, in front of her, standing over her as Sam watched wearily. "Do you know where he is?!" Lucas grabbed her shoulders and shook her, a startled el staring up at him.
Bad. Sam jumped up, hit Lucas's arm away and pushed him into Dustin. Her glare specifically on Lucas but easily could be on the other two boys. "Do not touch her. Understand?" Sam glared at him as she felt herself grow angry that he even was that close to el. El hadn't done anything wrong, so she shouldn't be treated as such.
Everything was quite until Lucas shook his head, his shock wearing off. "This is nuts! We have to take them to your mom." Lucas turned to mike again. "No! Eleven and Seven said that telling any adult would put us in danger!" Mike exclaimed at him. "What kind of danger?" Dustin asked. "Their names are eleven and seven?" Lucas asked, still angry. "El and Sam for short." Mike explained. "Mike, What kind of danger?" Dustin exclaimed at him.
"Danger. Danger." Mike snapped, then put his fingers(shaped as a gun) to Dustin's head, Then went to do the same to Lucas but Lucas slapped his hand away. "No! No! No! We're going back to plan A. We're telling your mom." Lucas snapped at him. Lucas stormed to the door, and opened it, but it slammed shut. He opened it again and it slammed shut and locked itself as the toys fell to the floor from how hard the door slammed.
The boys all turned back to the two girls standing. El with a glare directed to all of them, with a bloody nose. While Sam glared directly at Lucas as he cowered back.
"No."
[][][]
Footsteps came down the stairs, causing Sam to turn away, laying down on her side. She had tried to convince el that it wasn't safe here anymore but she didn't listen. So Sam was mad at el and the boys. "El? Sam?" Mike called, stopping for a second as he saw what state Sam was in. Maybe she was sleeping? "No adults. Just us and some meatloaf." Mike said, realizing that Sam was in fact not asleep as he heard her sigh.
"Don't worry. They won't tell anyone, about you two." Mike says to el. Sam sighs again and sits up, looking past mike and directly to Lucas who stared at her. "They promise. Right?" Mike looks back at his friends with a smile, trying to get them to back him up. "We never would have upset you if we knew you had superpowers." Dustin said with a smile, staring at el. Sam just looks at him with a slight glare.
Mike turned around quickly hit Dustin's leg, causing him to wince. "Ow!" Mike ignored him and plastered a smile on his face. "What Dustin is trying to say is that they were just scared earlier. That's all." Mike explained, Sam just nodded, feeling her anger slowly disappear. "We just wanted to find our friend." Lucas speaks up. Sam glanced at him with a confused look, then at el. "Friend?" El asked confused, just like Sam.
"Yeah, friend. Will?"
"What is friend?" El asked. "Is she serious?" Lucas asked before looking at Sam, realizing she was serious. "Um, a friend—" Mike interrupted. "Is someone you'd do anything for." Mike explained. "You lend them your cool stuff like comic books and trading cards," Dustin added. "And they never break a promise." Mike stared at el with a smile. Sam looked at him weirdly but nodded at learning the new word. "Especially when there's spit." Lucas says. El went to ask what spit is but Sam shook her head.
"Spit is saliva. Bad. Does not go on hand or face. Just mouth." Sam explained to her, a weird glance casted toward Lucas. "Yeah. She's right." Mike says, looking back at Lucas with a smirk. "Friends..they tell each other things. Things that parents don't know." Mike explains. Sam nods once again, looking down at her hands.
[][][]
Soon, el had stood up and Sam followed her, wondering what she was doing. "What's the weirdo doing?" Lucas asked, skeptical. Sam gave him a glare, wanting nothing more but to punch him. El sits down at the small table that the boys used for a game, seeming. El picked up a wizard, and lifted it up to her face, staring at it. "Will." El spoke. Sam held a small frown on her face, this was getting dangerous.
"Superpowers." Dustin said, a glare was sent to him. They were not superpowers. "No." Sam glared at him, causing him and Lucas to look at her. Mike sat down, next to her. "Did you see him? On Mirkwood? Do you know where he is?" Mike asked, repeatedly. Sam glared at him, she squatted down next to him, "Stop." She tells him quietly and stood up.
El wipes everything off the board and flips it, sending shivers down sams back. "I don't understand." El sits the wizard in the middle of the board, "Hiding." El says, her concentration focused on the wizard. "Will is hiding?" Mike asked. El nods, not sparing him a glance. "From the bad men?" Mike asked again. El shook her head, glancing at the frozen in fear Sam. "Then from who?" Mike asked. "From What." Sam corrected, the boys glancing at her. El places the monster from the game next to Will as the boys glance at each other.
Sam glanced up at them, then shook her head at el who was staring at her. "They can't handle it." Sam spoke into el's mind, but the girl seemed unfazed. "They don't need too." Sam read her thoughts. "Just need to be..safe." Sam reads her mind again. Sam nods, glancing at the boys, her focus landing on Dustin who seemed scared. She stared at him until he turned to her, her eyes faltering to the ground as she sighed.