The Next-Door Down

011

You stand awkwardly at Mike's front door as he stands in front of you with the door wide open and a disgusted and confused look plastered onto his face.

"Lucas.. Dustin.. a quick word please." Mike quickly says, dragging the other two into his house and practically slamming the door in your face.

Even though the door was shut you couldn't hear their muffled voices through the glazed wood.

"I thought I told you not to bring her."

You couldn't match the sound to the voice but you could easily guess that was Mike.

"But she's our friend."

"She's.. she's-"

"Weird. We know. So are we.

"Yeah and she's actually quite funny you know."

"El says she's bad."

"How could she be bad? She's helping us! How many times do we have to discus this come on guys."

"Alright. But mark my words, if anything goes wrong it's your fault for trusting her. Not mine."

The red door suddenly freaks open, revealing three flustered looking boys.

You roll your eyes at their awkward expressions, "So what exactly does El say about me?"

Mike turns a bright shade of red before quickly muttering something along the lines of, "Err. You can come in now Y/n."

The four of you shuffle downs the stairs and to the basement where a crazed looking girl rocked back and forth in the den that Mike had made.

El.

She tilted her head up anxiously, looking a little afraid.

And, as expected, her expression coiled into a frown at the sight of you.

You plonk yourself onto the sofa in frustration.

You hadn't done anything to her! She had no reason to look at you with disgust, despise you or say you were 'bad.'

"So.. what was this thing that you had to tell us?" Lucas asks, sitting beside you.

"About Will." Dustin adds.

"Well," Mike looks at you unsurely for a minute, "El says that she knows where he is."

"Will?" You ask, raising your eyebrows, guessing that the four of you were about to fall in one of the most obvious traps ever.

This girl could be dangerous, you needed to be cautious.

"Well duh." Mike says patronisingly to you before continuing with the conversation.

"And how do you know this?" Lucas says, clearly not believing a word that he was saying.

"El told me." He says, making the girl playing with the kids toys look sheepishly to the floor.

"So that's her actual name? El?" Dustin questions.

"Well, it's short for eleven actually." Mike admits.

"Eleven?" Lucas asks.

"Yeah it's written on her arm." Mike casually says.

You gulp as you look towards the girl and catch a glimpse of a number tattooed on the poor girl.

011

A million thoughts flash through your mind.

No.

That was a rumour.

It can't be real.

There was no way that she..

That she had..

That she had abilities.

Superpowers.