The Next-Door Down

No

And with that noise, your suspicions were confirmed.

You gulp, slowly moving your eyes across the room and towards the girl who was glaring at the door.

The others knew she'd done it, you could tell by the look in their eyes, they just didn't know how.

But you did.

Your mouth begins to dry as you notice the trickle of red escaping from 011's nose.

She was stood up now, she looked so determined and serious that it was hard not to feel afraid.

"No." A single word that was more powerful than ever resonated around the room, bouncing back and forth in your head.

You look at Mike, Lucas and Dustin, the three of them were too stunned to speak, their eyes fixated on the blood slowly dripping down her face.

Dustin looked bewildered, Lucas looked more scared and Mike looked surprised probably about how she hadn't shown him earlier.

Dustin opened his mouth to speak but before the words came out he was interrupted by Mike's mum yelling up to let the four of you that it was dinner time.

You slowly filed out of the room but Mike had a quick word with eleven, whispering something about 'staying quiet' whilst you were gone and that he'd bring back leftovers.

You stomp down the stairs after Lucas and Dustin, walking into the dinning room.

You noticed Mike's older sister and Steve Harrington's new girlfriend, Nancy avoiding your eye contact, probably because she was too busy trying not to look at your scar.

You place your hand over it subconsciously as you move to sit down beside Lucas and Mike's younger sister in her high chair.

A healthy roast was laid out before you but with nauseating news about the girl you found it hard to even think about eating.

Nevertheless, you managed to sit through the meal, even making an effort to reply to the small talk that Mike's parents kept creating.

They were clearly quite interested in the fact that Mike finally had a friend that was a girl.

Even though you'd say that you weren't exactly friends... at least not yet.

The meal finishes and Lucas, Mike and Dustin go back up stairs but you make an excuse to leave early.

You didn't particularly want to face 011 again so you found yourself pedalling away in the dark.

Your light illuminated a very small part of the road and the trees seemed to jump out at you as you rode past them.

Each one looked slender and menacing, reminding you of that monster from the lab.

You were shivering from fear and the cold and we're grateful to arrive at your house.

However, you weren't grateful for noticing the police car that was pulled up just in front of your drive.