Time Sensitive ~Eddie Munson~

017

Two Days Pass

I walk out and see El lifting NINA. I looked surprised and clapped after she was done. At this point we hadn't seen each other since I lifted NINA. We both were lifting her effortlessly by now. She turns back to look at me and her color fades. I go up to her and hug her, "Maddy," She says.

"El, I knew you could do it!" I said smiling.

She started tearing up, "Maddy, I made your dad go away."

I looked at her while pulling away from the hug. "Y- You did what?"

Brenner looked, "Maddy, watch."

I went and watched the tape and saw what my father did. I started to cry. "What, why?"

I ran to my room and stayed for a few hours. El knocked on my door. "We are leaving."

I looked, "What?"

She looks at me, "Dr. Owens said that I can leave. I am ready to fight, so are you. We are leaving for good. We are going back to Hawkins, to stop Henry."

I looked at her, "My father? I'm confused."
"I will explain later. Let's go," She said.

I got my jeans, sneakers and Eddies Hellfire T-shirt on. Her and I both go to find Owens and we go to see NINA. The door closes behind her and I and we get locked in. She runs for the door while I stand not understanding what's happening. While she stands in the doorway beating on the door, I look up to find Brenner, "You cannot leave Nine, Eleven."

Eleven walks towards him, "Where is Dr. Owens?" She asked.

"Dr. Owens had a change of hearts," Said El.

I looked at her and furrowed my brows scoffing, I looked at Brenner, "Bastard!" I yelled.

He looked between us two, "I know you wish to go to him, and there's nothing I can do to stop either of you from forcing open that door. But if my men hear you coming, they will kill him," I looked at El, "And alone you will never find your way out of this desert to your friends."

I looked back at him hoping that she knew something, because alone I couldn't destroy this man. "Here's what we're going to do," Brenner goes on, "You two and I are going to complete our work together. And when I decide that you two are ready, we will return to Hawkins, together. Papa, and daughters," He said pacing.

El watched him, "Why are you doing this?"

He looked at El, "Because there's no other choice."
I looked at him, "There is a choice," I said.

He looked at me, "Only one that is right."

El looked at him, "And you make the right choices?"

He looked at her, "I try."

She began to raise her voice, "Did you make the right choice with Mama?"

I looked at her with confusion. I didn't know he hurt her mother. What if he did something to mine too?

He stayed looking at her, "Your mother was sick, Eleven. She was a danger to herself and to others. SHe brought a gun into the hospital. She killed a man."

I looked at him, "Hospital? No, A prison."

He looked at El, "Everything I have done was for your own good, for your own protection," He switched his gaze toward me, "I would have saved you Nine, had your father kept you in a place you were safe. Your mother never kept you safe."

El looked at me, "And Henry," She looked at Brenner, "You kept Henry in that lab, with the children. Was that for our good? Was that a right choice?"

Brenner locked eyes with El, "I had no idea what Henry would do. I cared for you, I loved you. I loved all of you."

I stopped him, "Even ones that weren't yours? You let my father get away with giving me away. You let him go unreprimanded, thinking it was a bad choice, huh?"

El Looked at him, "Even Henry."

His gaze went from one of us to the other, "Even you, even Henry. I was trying to help Henry, to understand him. Yes. Yes, I cared for him."
El becomes more emotional, "Even after what... What he did?"

Brenner nods, "Yes. Because I knew I had failed him."

She looks down, "So this morning," She began to pace, "You said you believed he was always alive in the darkness. Is that why I was searching the darkness? Was I looking for him? For Henry?"

I began to tear up. "You made her look for a man you failed?"

He looked at me, "No," Then at El, "No, we were focused on the Soviets. You knew that."

She looked at me, "'Papa does not tell the truth'. Henry said that," She said.

He looked at her, "And now you trust Henry? Henry, who has manipulated you like some puppet? You are the one who released him from his prison. You. And now you are angry with yourself and you're taking your anger out on me and you're risking everything."
She shook her head, "No. No, you. You have risked everything! You have lied! You made me look for him! For her father! The gate. The mind flayer. So many dead. And all because of you! Because you could not stop! You could not let him go! I came here to try to understand who I was. To see if I- If I was the monster. Now I know the truth. It is not me. It is you. You are the monster."

I looked at El, grabbing her hand for reassurance, "I am going to open that door, and we are going to leave, with Dr. Owens. If you try to stop us, we will kill you," El says.

El and I walk up to the door, She lets go of my hand, she puts it up and forces the large, heavy, metal door open. I look back to Brenner, seeing him ready to inject El with something, "El! Watch Out!," I scream. I fall as El accidentally pushes me down. I watch her, with her mind, push Brenner against NINA. I couldn't stand because I fell on my leg. Brenner falls to the ground and looks at El and I, "You will soon see the truth."

Eleven pushes him up onto NINA and holds him there. I am crying because my ankle hurts so bad. I hear him scream, before they both fall over. I hope Brenner is dead. I crawl over to El to shake her, when I see Brenner move.