Flames//Mike Wheeler

PROMISE?

You woke up in the morning to the sound of El playing with some type of machine, it was really noisy and annoying.

"C-can you s-stop" El turned around and saw you staring at her. You heard the door open and looked up to the top of the stairs, El saw you looking in a different direction and turned her head towards where you were looking.

"Hey, you found my supercom." he smiled. "Pretty cool huh? I talk to my friends with it, mostly Lucas 'cause he lives so close, the signal's pretty weak," he said with a light laugh at the end. You shuffled next to El and Mike looked at you "Hey Tia" you smiled in response then Mike took two waffles out of his pocket. "Got you some breakfast" he handed one to you and one to El, you sniffed it and it smelt good so you took a bite.

"So listen, this is gonna sound a little weird, but I need you both to go out there. Then go to the front door and ring the doorbell. My Mum will answer it and you'll tell her you're lost and that you need help, whatever you do, you can't tell her about last night or that you know me. Understand?" You stopped eating your food and looked up.

"Really, it's no big deal. We'll just pretend to meet each other again. And my Mum, she'll know who to call" he said with ease. Eleven looked up as well and stared at him for a few seconds. "No." Mike looked at her confused "No?" Eleven looked back at her food and continued to eat.

"No? No you don't want my Mum to get any help?" he asked, a bit confused. You looked at El and she shook her head. He looked at you and you shook your head, you didn't want him to get help. "You're in trouble, aren't you?" you kept watching him then turned to El, she nodded her head slightly letting you know that you can tell him.

"B-bad..." you whispered looking down. "Bad? Bad people?" he asked, a bit worried. You looked up at him and nodded. "They wanna hurt you? The bad people?" you lifted your hand and bent your fingers so your hand was in a gun shape, you put it up at the side of your head then leaned forward to put the gun at his face. He looked at you in shock as you put your hand down, "y-you understand?" you asked, making him nod his head.

Suddenly his mum called out to him, scaring El as she jumped and held your arm.

"Alright, I'll be back, just stay here" he quickly said as he pulled the blanket down.

You sat there next to El and asked her about her wrist "w-wrist, o-okay?" you asked as you pointed at her wrist. She smiled then nodded, touching it, showing you that it didn't hurt.

Mike came back down the stairs and bent down, lifting the blanket.

"Come with me, my parents are at work. It's just us three here." he reached out both of his hands for us each to grab, he saw El's hand. "Hey, what happened to your hand? Did you hurt it while you were at Mirkwood?" He sounded concerned and wanted to help her.

El looked at her wrist and then back at Mike. "F-fell" she whispered.

"Is it sore?" he asked while he took a look at it. She shook her hand and stood up, you stood up with El and followed Mike up the stairs.

You got to the top of the stairs and into the kitchen, you and El went into the living room and looked around. "You want anything to drink? We've got OJ, milk, what else? Um, we have.."

He stopped talking and noticed El looking at the TV.

"Oh, this is my living room. It's mostly just used for watching TV. nice right? It's 22 inch, that's like ten times bigger than Dustin's."

"Dustin?" El asked with a confused frown.

"Yeah, the boy you met last night, curly hair and a cap." El just looked at him and got bored so she went to another part of the room and looked around.

Mike noticed you looking at a few of his family pictures. "Pretty" you said with a smile as you pointed at one of the girls.

"I guess. That's my sister Nancy, and that's baby Hollie, and those are my parents. What are you parents like? Did they live close?"

You walked away from the pictures and looked for more stuff to look at. You saw a big chair and your eyes widened, you reached out and squished the top of it while smiling.

"That's where my dad sleeps," he said with a little giggle. "You can try it if you want" you looked up and he walked over towards the chair.

"It's fun," you slowly sat down in the chair and watched Mike, he was smiling at you. "Just trust me, okay?" you nodded and watched as he pulled a lever on the side, making the chair fold out into something like a bed. It was super comfortable and you loved it. You saw El watch you from the other side of the room and waved your hand telling her to come over.

You hopped out of the seat while El came over.

"Y-you try" you said as she slowly sat down. El looked at you and smiled then Mike pulled the lever. "See fun right" Mike pushed the chair back into a normal chair again. El giggled which made you smile, you liked it here and so did El.

Mike took you and El to his room and showed you everything. He started playing with one of his toys and making funny voices making you laugh. Mike blushed when you laughed, making him put down his toy and smile at you.

El got bored of it and stood up to look at the other stuff he had laying around in his room. You looked at El to see what she was doing but looked back at Mike when he started talking.

"His name is Yoda, he can use the force to move things with his mind. Like this" he pushed all his toys off the desk making you laugh.

He picked another one of the toys. "And this is my dinosaur Rory, look he has a speaker in his mouth so he can roar." you laughed at the dinosaur and started to make sounds like a dinosaur. He laughed with you and started to do the same.

You looked up to see what El was doing, she was looking at some trophies. You stood up to go to El and Mike followed you. "These are all my science fair trophies, we got first every year, except for last year when we got third. Mr Clarke said it was totally political."

Both you and El saw one of the boys that were in one of the pictures, El pointed at the boy.

"You know Will? Did you see him, last night, on the road?" Mike was desperate to know. There was the sound of a car and the three of you turned around looking out the window.

Mike ran to the window to see who it was then quickly ran towards you "We gotta go" he grabbed your hand and you grabbed on to El's as Mike pulled the both of you out of his room.

You were following close behind when he suddenly stopped, making you run into the back of him. El stopped herself from running into you and stopped next to you.

"Sorry Tia" he quietly whispered as you ran back to his room. He led us to a cupboard and opened the door "In here, I'll be right back okay?" El went in and stood in the corner waiting for you, you looked in the cupboard and it was really small and dark, you were too scared to go in. "Please Tia, you have to get in, or my Mum, she'll find you. Do you understand? I won't tell her about you, I promise."

"Promise?" You looked up at him a bit confused. He then thought for a second, "It means something you can't break. Ever." You heard his Mum call out his name then quickly went inside the cupboard next to El. He shut the door and it went pitch black, you started to panic and your breathing sped up. Bad memories were coming to your head and it only made you panic more.

You sat on the floor and started crying. El heard your small sobs and sat down next to you, putting her arm around you. She rubbed your back softly to try and calm you down. You sat there for a few minutes crying until you heard Mike's bedroom door open. "Tia? El? Is everything okay?" He opened the cupboard and saw you crying and instantly sat down in front of you.

"Is everything okay? Did something happen?" He said, as he put his hand on your shoulder. You looked up at him and gave him a sad smile. "J-just b-bad mem-memories" he leaned forward and gave you a hug, it was unexpected and you didn't know what to do so you just sat there and waited until he pulled away. You gave him a happy smile and stood up with El.