The consistent yelling outside of my house had stopped, which meant one thing. The search party for Will had halted for the night, but I knew they would be back at it in the early morning.
I throw on my kicks and my jacket, slinging my bag on my shoulder before running to the kitchen to fetch a flashlight in one of the drawers.
"Where are you off to?" My mom asks as her and my dad sat in the living room.
"Just gonna hang out with my friends, I'll be back home later." I inform.
"Alright, but don't be out to late. Don't want you to be fussy in the morning." My dad says, throwing an m&m in his mouth.
"Okay!" I say, stuffing a few water bottles in my backpack before rushing out the door.
I open the garage, turning on the flashlight so I could see my old bike. It was red and dusty, and a little creaky. But it worked just fine. I wiped the dust off of the seat with my hand, sitting on it and pedaling into the night.
I made it to the intersection a few minutes later, and immediately saw the headlights of the boys bikes. It had started to rain, but I continued anyway.
"Hey!" I shouted out to them, careful not to shine the flashlight in their eyes.
"You came!" Mike pointed out in disbelief.
"Don't act so surprised." I reply as we approach the edge of the woods.
Dustin was rethinking his choices but I ushered him into the woods, both of us running to catch up with the other two.
"Will!" We all shouted as we searched through the foggy woods. It had started to rain down hard, and my jacket was soaked, but luckily not on the inside.
"What are we gonna do that the huge search party couldn't?" I ask out of nowhere as I peer through the trees.
"Maybe he's scared." Lucas suggests, "But, we're his best friends, he'll come out if we're here."
"Yeah, and we need to help." Mike adds, "Because he is our best friend, we need to help look for him as best we can."
"Guys, I really think we should turn back." Dustin shouts over the pouring rain.
"Seriously, Dustin?" Lucas yells, "You wanna be a baby, then go home already!"
"I'm just being realistic, Lucas!" Dustin bites back.
"No, you're just being a big sissy." Lucas bickers.
"I mean, Elizabeth said she saw some creature, and if we're thinking that's the thing that took Will, we should be scared." Dustin sighs, "We're in the exact same spot where he was last seen, and we have no weapons or anything!"
"Dustin, shut up!" Mike says bluntly.
"I'm just saying, does that seem smart to you?" Dustin asks.
"Shut up. Shut up." Mike repeats, "Did you guys hear that?"
There was a rustle in the bushes, and all of our flashlights turned to it, awaiting for what was going to come out. The sound of branches being crushed came from a different direction, and we all turned to face it. This happened again, but this time a shivering girl with buzzed hair and a long yellow t-shirt was standing there, scared.
We all stood there, frozen in place for a moment, before I snapped back into reality, "Mike let me see your coat."
"Huh?" He asks, dumbfounded.
"Your coat, let me see it!" I exclaim. Mike quickly shrugs off his coat, handing it to me. I slowly approach the girl, putting the coat around her, "We need to help her."
"I agree." Mike nods, "We can take her back to my house."
"What! Are you guys crazy? We can't bring some random girl to your house, Mike. Your parents will flip." Lucas retorts.
"My parents won't know," Mike responds, "Lets just get her back to my house then we can call her mom or something, okay?"
Mike starts to lead the girl to our bikes, Dustin and Lucas following close behind. I was about to follow too, but a ruffling of leaves and a soft, "Eleven?" Made me stay in my place. I turn, trailing my flashlight through the trees when I see another girl, her hair was also buzzed and she was in a long t-shirt.
"Hey, guys." I shout.
"Come on, Elizabeth!" Mike yells back, "You're coming with us to my house!"
I take off my coat, holding it out to the girl, "Here."
She looks confused, so I gently put the coat on her, buttoning it up. I then lead her to the bikes, where the boys were waiting.
When they saw the other girl, their eyes turned to saucers.
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We were now in Mike's basement, looking down at the two soaked girls who were sitting nervously on the couch.
"Is there a number we can call? For your parents?" Mike questions.
"Where's your hair? Do you guys have cancer?" Dustin asks, and I smack him.
"Don't ask that!" I scold.
"Did you run away?"
"Are you two in some kind of trouble?"
"Is that blood?"
Lucas puts his hand out to touch the stain on one of the girls shirts, but Mike smacks his hand, making them jump, "Stop it! You're freaking them out!"
"Their freaking me out!" Lucas shoots back.
"Hey, can you guys just calm down." I sigh.
"I bet they're deaf." Dustin suggests. He claps his hands and they both jump back, "Not deaf."
"All right, that's enough, all right?" Mike announces, "They're just scared and cold, okay?"
"I don't have any other clothes, and I'm not stripping mine." I shrug.
"Ew." Lucas rolls his eyes.
"I have some." Mike says as he walks away.
The thunder rumbles and they both shake in fear, "Here, these are clean. Okay?"
He hands them each an outfit, and one of the girls rub their face with it while the other slowly takes off their coat. At the same time, they stand up, peeling up the end of their shirts.
"No! No! No!" We all exclaim as I rush to stop them.
The boys turn around, yelling, as I try to explain to them they need to get changed in the bathroom. Mike points them to the bathroom, and I watch as they slowly walk inside. Mike goes to close the door but one of them stops him, holding it open.
"You don't want it closed?" Mike asks.
"No." She quietly says.
"Oh, so you can speak." Mike states.
"We'll just leave it open a crack." I compromise, appearing next to Mike, "Is that okay?"
"Yes." The other girl next to her replies.
We then join the two other boys while the girls change.
"This is mental." Dustin claims.
"At least they can talk." Mike says.
"One said, 'no' and the other said, 'yes'," Lucas grumbles, "Your three-year-old sister says more."
"They tried to get naked," Dustin says bluntly.
"There's something seriously wrong with them," Lucas begins, "Like, wrong in the head."
"They both just went like..." Dustin re-enacts what happened, pretending to take off invisible clothes.
"I bet they escaped from Pennhurst." Lucas tells us.
"What's that?" I ask.
"The nuthouse in Kerley County." Lucas answers.
"You got a lot of family there?" Dustin jokes, making me snort.
"Bite me." Lucas snapped, "Seriously though, think about it. That would explain their shaved hair and why their so crazy."
"At least we can say we talked to girls." Dustin shrugs.
"Hey! What about me?" I throw my hands up.
"Wait, you're a girl!?" Dustin says, wide-eyed. I showcase my middle finger.
"They're escapee's, is the point." Lucas starts, "They're probably psycho's, thinking up a plan as we speak."
"Like Michael Myers." Dustin compares.
"Exactly!" Lucas shouts.
I roll my eyes, "They're not psycho, they're probably just afraid. I mean, I would be to. What if something was happening at home, so they ran away?"
"No. Psycho." Lucas shakes his head, "We should have never brought them here! Mike, Elizabeth, what were you thinking?"
"So you just wanted to leave them out in that storm?" Mike exclaims.
"Yes! We went out to find Will, not more problems." Lucas yells.
"I think we should tell your mom." Dustin says to Mike.
"I second that." Lucas adds.
"No! No way, we can't." I turn to Mike, "We can't tell anyone!"
"Yeah!" Mike agrees, "Who's crazy now?"
Mike begins to persuade the two, and soon they agree. The plan was, the two girls will sleep at Mike's house, in the morning they will sneak to the front and ring the doorbell, and Mike's mom will take it from there.
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It was time to leave, and Lucas and Dustin were going upstairs as I was going to sneak out the backdoor. Mike was tending to one of the girls, but the other one was sitting on the couch, staring at me. I furrow my eyebrows when she stands up, pointing to herself, "T-t-ten."
"You're ten?" I ask, "You don't look ten. You look 13."
"Ten." She shakes her head, pointing again to herself again, before pulling down her sleeve. There was ink marked in her skin that read '010'.
"Woah." I stare in awe at her wrist before snapping out of it, "I have to go."
She grabs my wrist, "No."
"What?" I whisper.
"No."
I notice the boys were staring at El, but then they glanced to me, who was trying to yank myself from her grasp.
"Hey, leave her alone!" Mike shouts.
Both girls jump in place, and Ten lets go.
"Are you okay?" Lucas asks from his spot on the stairs.
"Yeah, i'm fine. She didn't hurt me." I nod.
I look to Ten, and her eyes were pleading with me.
"Do not go." She begs.
"I-I have to go home," I tell her, "Unless you come with me."
"Yes!" A small smile appears.
"It'll ruin the plan!" Lucas shakes his head furiously.
"It's fine, I'll do the same thing at my house," I assure, "Goodnight guys."
I hand Ten my coat before we sneak outside, hopping on my bike and riding away.