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C H A P T E R N I N E T E E N
" JUST ONE TOUCH "
･ ｡ﾟ ⋆✩⋆ ･ ｡ﾟ
| D E C E M B E R 25th , 1986 |
H a w k i n s , I n d i a n a
"OKAY, EVERYONE KNOWS WHAT THEY'RE GETTING?"
Mike asked the small group of older teens after going over the plan to acquire the needed items before they go to the Starcourt gate.
"Yeah, we go to the lab with you guys in Starcourt for the hazmat suits." Jonathan answered for him and Nancy, everyone stood and was ready to go.
"We'll need oxygen tanks too, that way we can stay in the upside down longer if we need to." Dustin added, checking the batteries in his walkies before shoving them into his bag.
"And some weapons for protection in case some things slip through the gate while we're on the outside." Will mentioned.
Mike nodded, looking over to Joyce and Murray to be sure they understood where this entire plan was heading.
Joyce understood, and she knew that she would have to be one of the people to enter through the gate, because there was no way she was going to let any of the kids go through.
"Alright," Mike started, "Let's get going then, come on."
It was finally time.
It was time to see Y/N and Hopper again. It was time to see Y/N again.
The car ride in the stillness of the dark before the light seemed to drag on for years as Mike, Joyce, Murray, Billy, and the kids drove to the mall in bustling conversation.
They only had one shot. One way ticket.
Mike was spending this time to get himself out of his head, knowing that he would be going against Y/N's wishes in doing what he planned.
They arrived at the mall, all locked and shut out with chains to keep trespassers out, as well as signs like, 'WHAT MORE ARE THEY HIDING?'
Every since the battle a couple months ago, the public never forgot about it. They never forgot about the mind flayer's physical body made up of human flesh. They never forgot about the government cover ups.
Mike shuttered as they approached the entrance, flashbacks of the battle flew through his mind. His hands grew cold as his forehead broke out in a cold sweat.
He hadn't been to Starcourt Mall since that day on July 4th.
He looked behind him into the parking lot of the mall, where all the ambulances and military personal were when the battle of Starcourt was over.
His breathing shuttered as he remembered that night vividly.
Mike sat in the back of the ambulance, a blanket around him and Eleven as they recovered from their interaction with the mind flayer.
Mike looked around, seeing Joyce and Murray finally emerge from the chaotic bunches of soldiers and medics swarming the parking lot.
He watched while Will hugged Joyce as her eyes were red from left over tears. He kept looking around, waiting for Y/N to finally walk up to him.
Was she avoiding him because of what he said? Why wasn't she coming out of the mall?
Eleven saw that Joyce returned, and got up to await Hopper and Y/N's arrival. She began walking aimlessly, looking for either of them, but she couldn't.
Where were they? Mike's heart beat with an underlying fear that he would refuse to believe to be true.
Mike watched as Eleven looked to Joyce with a confused head tilt, earning a saddened look.
Joyce shook her head as she buried her face in Will's shoulder, crying at the loss of Hopper and Y/N.
Eleven shook her head, tears streaming from her face as realized that Hopper and Y/N were gone.
"No.." Mike muttered to himself, realizing too that if Hopper was gone, then so was Y/N.
It hit him like a ton of bricks. He felt like the wind got knocked out of him.
"No.." He kept whispering to himself wrapping himself in his arms as he felt tears well in his eyes. They left off on such horrible terms, and it was his fault.
He buried his face in his hands, completely breaking down as his tears flowed with agonizing pain of loss in his chest.
The sirens and flashing lights were drowned out as he finally focused on the most heartbreaking news he's ever received.
His best friend Y/N, was dead.
"Mike?" Joyce interrupted Mike's intense thoughts as he stared at the now empty mall parking lot underneath the veil of night.
"Y-Yeah? Yeah, sorry." He stuttered, refocusing as he turned to see that Billy had clipped the locks and chains holding the door closed.
"Got it." Billy announced, the chains and locks falling from the door handle to the ground with a sharp pang of an echo.
"How does he even know how to do that?" Dustin asked, turning to Max who seemed to think that this was a regular thing.
"Don't ask." She shrugged, knowing how Billy used to do this kind of thing all the time.
The small group watched as Billy pushed open the mall entrance doors, walking in to hold the door open as Joyce and the rest walked in as well.
The building was dark, there was no electric use at all ever since July 4th.
The group brought flashlights, luckily all of their flashlights combined created a bright enough glow to illuminate their surroundings.
They made their way towards what they assumed to be the main center complex of the mall. They turned their flashlights all around and up to see the still broken glass ceiling allowing night air inside and the dangling neon sign that used to flash 'STARCOURT MALL'.
Nobody said a word.
They stood there, their shoes crunching upon the mostly cleaned up shards of glass from the ceiling. Everything seemed so dark and desolate, when just months ago, it was the busiest place to hang out.
The liveliness was lost, and it was hard to be back in the mall for the group.
Mike shined his flashlight to illuminate the broken shards littering the ground of the center complex, looking around him as he remembered the last time he saw Y/N.
The Starcourt Mall's broken ceiling and bright neon lights illuminated the group as they stood in the mall's center complex and said their goodbyes before they initiated the plan to close the gate.
Mike didn't like the plan that they were going with, but he didn't have much say in doing so.
He didn't like that Y/N was going to go with Hopper and Joyce and Murray to the underground base, but what could he do?
Mike knew Y/N well enough to know that when she set her mind on something, it was hard to deter her.
"Hey, Mike?" Mike had heard Y/N call out to him as he helped El wobble away, but he instantly turned to respond.
He walked over to meet Y/N as she stood, a deeply conflicted look on her face. Her face was bruised, a few cuts and scratches along her chest and arms.
"Hey, N/N, I was just about to come wish you luck—.." Mike began to say before he noticed Y/N's eyes tearing up. He hated it when Y/N cried, because she never cried unless it was over something really important.
"Hey, what's wrong?" He asked, touching his hand to her shoulder. He knew that calmed her down sometimes, ever since they were little.
"I..I just can't hold these feelings in anymore. It hurts, it hurts too much, I-I can't.."
It pained Mike greatly to see Y/N in such a vulnerable and saddened state, wanting to do anything to make her feel better.
"W-What do you mean? What's wrong?" Mike's voice was soft and soothing, trying to ease Y/N's nerves as his hand softly stroked her shoulder to help steady her breathing.
It was a technique that Y/N performed on Mike whenever he had a panic attack, and only she knew how to do so.
"Mike, I-I like you. Hell, I love you."
Mike's heart dropped a thousand leagues upon hearing Y/N say those words that for the longest time he felt for Y/N before he met Eleven.
Hearing those words come from his best friend since forever scared Mike. It scared him because he thought that he finally got over Y/N, he thought that he finally found happiness in another relationship, one with Eleven.
He always loved Y/N, he just never admitted it to himself. He always loved her, he just never understood how truly he really did love her.
He didn't know. He didn't know just how badly he was in love with his best friend.
And he would live to regret his next decision.
"Y/N, no. I-I don't like you that way. I love El, and I don't really like you like I love her."
Lies.
But Mike didn't know that. He didn't know how to navigate his feelings.
He was internally confused.
Mike will never forget the look of absolute heartbreak that soon followed his brutal statement. It will forever be etched into his mind. The way her eyes seemed to pour her now pained soul into his own, and the way her face blanked.
He broke her heart into a million pieces. He stepped on her heart, he crushed it, he shattered it.
And when he saw Y/N walk away from Mike after their intense confrontation, he ignored the pang in his chest that told him it was the wrong thing to do.
He didn't see the tears streaming down Y/N's face as she walked away. He didn't see just how badly he broke her.
It was the worst decision he'd ever make, but he didn't know that.
And when she disappeared that night, when she died in the Battle of Starcourt, his own heart shattered, much like he did to Y/N's.
It took Y/N's assumed death to realize how much he had lost.
"The entrance we found to the lab was through the Scoops Ahoy, then through the hall to get to the back of the mall where the loading docks were, so it's this way." Dustin announced, waving his flashlight in everyone's faces to get them to follow him.
Mike's blank and intense stare at the complex made him relive the most painful of memories. He was doing this for Y/N. He was doing this to save her.
He hadn't noticed that his eyes were watering with tears, threatening to fall to the ground below him before he stopped the fall. This was his fault.
But he would make it right.
He followed the group as they blindly made their way to the Scoops Ahoy small outlet, the nostalgia of the summer before hit the kids hard.
This was harder than they originally thought.
"Alright," Murray exhaled, irritated by the kids' hesitance as they remembered everything from last summer. "Let's continue moving, please."
Just as Joyce and Murray did months ago, they found themselves at the loading docks and pressed the green button in hopes that the elevators still worked.
The elevator doors opened, granting access of entry to go down to the secret lab, memories resurfacing to the group as they entered and found themselves being transported down to the lab.
Mike leaned against the wall of the elevator, along with everyone else as they awaited the transport to stop its descent. He leaned his head against the wall, looking up at the bright ceiling.
His heart beat at rates he couldn't keep up with, hoping that this plan was enough to save Y/N.
After what seemed like years, the elevator finally stopped its descent to open the doors and reveal the long corridor, completely dark with no light.
"Well, this isn't terrifying at all." Lucas joked, earning a humored scoff from Mike.
He instantly began the trek through the long winding hallway, the lack of lights and electricity not fazing him at all.
So when the crew finally made it to the underground lab where the gate stood, they shined their flashlights, and there it was.
"The gate." Eleven muttered, having not seen the gate since the last time she closed it a year and a half ago.
It was a solid dark wall once again, the wound from where it was opened months ago was still visible, but not with as bright of a hue as it once had.
It made El shutter at the thought of being so close to it, but Mike only got closer.
He walked out of the door of the control room, making his way through the ramp that led to the turbines and down to the ladder that allowed access to a lower level that was even closer to the gate.
Joyce followed Mike with a hustle, looking curiously at the ladder that Mike used to get down and eye level with the gate.
"This must've been what Hop used to get to the gate entrance when I closed it." Joyce concluded, shining her flashlight as the metal shined back at her. Clever.
Mike stared up at the gate, it's vast wall was intimidating, but he knew what lay just beyond this gateway. He was ready.
Eleven followed behind Max and Billy as they also climbed down the later that led toward the gate's dormant wall. She felt her heart race faster with each step closer she took to the wall.
Time seemed to slow and everyone's voices drowned out as she strayed away from them and walked to the gate, feeling a strange pull towards it.
Seeing it closed like this was terrifying, but she couldn't help but keep walking until she was met face to face with it.
Her breath seemed to grow heavier, until it was all she could hear as her own breaths echoed in her mind.
She lifted a shaky hand upwards, watching it hover over the cemented substance from the upside down.
Just one touch..
Her heart beat into her ears until it was the only thing she could hear anymore, the loud thumps of her own rhythmic life force.
The sound got louder the closer she found her hand to the wall.
Her fingers just barely grazed the surface of the gate's wall, until she fully placed her palm flat on the wall.
Flashbacks of her first entering the void to touch the demogorgon years ago to open the gate flew through her mind, as well as when she first closed the gate about a year ago.
Flashes of him flew through her mind, like shutters from a broken movie reel.
His shadowy essence clawed at her mind, her breathing hiccuped with fear.
"No!" She shouted with a scream in fear of what she saw.
A sudden gust of energy and adrenaline coursed through her body, her eyes closing for a moment a the feeling surged through her hand up her arm and traveled up her neck and body.
She groaned in pain as it spread like electricity, tiny flashes shooting up her arm like daggers.
A newfound source of power seemed to spread inside her, she could feel it. The power.
She hadn't felt anything even close to this since the battle at Starcourt.
She found herself now yelling in pain, not being able endure the painful sensation any longer, it was too much.
She wasn't able to hear the group's concerned shouts of her name as she opened her eyes with a sudden jolt.
And just like that, the mall's power came back on.
⋆
Authors Note :
GUYS. what just happened, uhhh WHAT.
are you confused yet?
i can't wait to keep writing, its getting ME hyped.
thoughts? predictions?
let me know, i love reading your comments! some of you guys are actually psychic so.
HERE WE GO.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END.. or is it?
.
what do you think about all this ??
any theories ? any predictions?
thanks for reading.. stay tuned !!
.2706 words.