~ Hidden Love ~

CH9 - The Gate [PT1]

Mike and Eleven walked closer to each other and hugged. "I never gave up on you." Mike told her. "I called you every night. Every night for–"

"353 days." She said to him. "I heard."

"Why didn't you tell me you were there?" Mike asked her, "That you were okay?"

"Because I wouldn't let her." Hopper said to him. "The hell is this? Where you been?" He asked her. I was completely lost.

"Where have you been?" She asked Hopper as he hugged her.

"You've been hiding her." Mike told him. "You're been hiding her this whole time!" He shouted at him, shoving him.

"Hey! Let's talk." Hopper said, grabbing his shirt. "Alone." He said as they walked to the other room. I started walking to El, and she looked at me. She smiled and gave me a hug, which I returned.

"I've missed you, El." I told her. "I like this style." I told her as she laughed.

"I missed you, too." She said to me as we both pulled away from the hug. I looked over to Lucas and Dustin who ran over to hug her. I chuckled as I walked to the couch to sit down. Max tried to greet her, but El walked away and hugged Mom. They both walked off to Will's room. Not long after, they left and walked to the dining table. We all left the living room to follow them.

I heard Mom ask her, "Do you think if we got you back there, that you could close it?" El looked at her, then nodded yes. We all met back in the living room.

"It's not like it was before. It's grown." Hopper told El. "A lot. And, I mean, that's considering we can get in there. The place is crawling with those dogs."

"Demo-dogs." Dustin corrected.

"I'm sorry, what?" Hopper asked.

"I said, uh, Demo-dogs. Like Demogorgon and dogs. You put them together, it sounds pretty badass–"

"How is this important right now?" Hopper asked him.

"It's not. I'm sorry." Dustin apologized.

"I can do it." El said to Hopper.

"You're not hearing me." He told her.

"I'm hearing you. I can do it." She replied to him.

"Even if El can," Mike started, "there's still another problem. If the brain dies, the body dies."

"I thought that was the whole point." Max asked him.

"It is, but if we're really right about this.. I mean, if El closes the gate and kills the mind flayer's army.." Mike said as Lucas interrupted.

"Will's a part of that army."

"Closing the gate will kill him." I said as I looked at Steve. Mom started walking to Will and we followed.

"He likes it cold." She said to us.

"What?" Hopper asked her.

"It's what Will kept saying to me. He liked it cold." She told us as she walked over to close the window. "We keep giving it what it wants."

"If this is a virus, and Will's the host, then.." Nancy said as Jonathan finished her sentence.

"Then we need to make the host uninhabitable."

"So if he likes it cold." Nancy said.

"We need to burn it out of him." Mom said.

"We have to do it somewhere he doesn't know this time." Mike suggested.

"Yeah, somewhere far away." Dustin replied.

"I have a place." Hopper said as he picked Will up. He started making his way out to the car, with Mom and Jonathan, telling them the direction to his cabin. I decided to stay and watch the kids. Hopper told Nancy, Steve and I to look for heaters. We agreed as we walked out to the pile of junk.