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"what is that?!" erica asks, making a grossed out face and leaning closer towards el's ankle.
"there's something in there." mike says, holding onto eleven's hand tightly.
"jesus christ." dustin said.
"keep her talking." jonathan stands up quickly. "keep her awake, okay?"
he runs off towards the other side of the food court. i watch as he hops the counter and goes to the back of one of the restaurants.
there wasn't much i could do. so, i just sat there next to eleven. i watched as she continued wailing, her eyes shut. mike looked like he was about to cry.
"hey, hey, hey. stay awake, stay awake." mike says, shaking her a little. "let's get her on this side."
he starts to move her but steve stops him. "easy, easy, easy." he says, helping mike and i start to sit eleven up slowly.
"it's, uh," robin holds el's ankle. "y'know, it's not actually that bad. there was a...the goalie on my soccer team, beth wildfire, this other girl slid into her leg and the whole bone came out of her knee, six inches or something, it was insane." she rambles as we all look up at her, grossed out enough as it was.
"robin." steve stops her.
"yeah?"
"you're not helping."
robin frowns. "i'm sorry."
finally, jonathan ran back to us with a knife in his hand. "okay. alright, el? this is gonna hurt like hell, okay?"
"okay." el sobs.
"i need you to stay real still." he starts to put a glove on before handing mike a wooden spoon. "here, you're gonna wanna bite down on this, okay?"
"jesus christ." dustin says again, his hands in his hair.
eleven takes the wooden spoon in her mouth and closes her eyes again. she starts whimpering as jonathan holds the knife up to her wound.
"holy shit. holy shit." dustin looks up at jonathan.
jonathan pauses.
"do it." mike says.
jonathan nods before slicing into eleven's leg slowly. my jaw drops and eleven starts screaming through her gritted teeth.
i turned my head, kind of scared but mostly just grossed out. the blood was gushing out of her leg.
i hear jonathan set the knife down and i turn back. he starts digging his fingers into eleven's open wound and we all groan.
"oh my god." i gag.
eleven starts to scream even louder, still biting down on the wooden spoon.
"jonathan!" nancy yells.
"stop talking!" jonathan yells back, still looking for whatever was inside el's leg. "goddamn it!"
"no! stop it!" eleven shakes her head aggressively, dropping the spoon. "stop! stop!"
nancy pushes jonathan away. "stop!"
jonathan backs away and eleven starts to sit up. "i can do it." she cries.
"are you sure?" i say, scared that she might be too weak.
"i can do it." she repeats, pushing mike off of her and sitting up on her own.
i look over at max, who was already looking at me. she gives me a worried look before looking back at el.
eleven pants before holding her hand up to her leg. she starts screaming in pain as the thing inside moves around even faster.
she screams so loud, in fact, that the glass window from the store behind us completely shattered.
steve jumped over towards dustin and i, covering us with his body. max yelped, scooting away from the broken glass, and eleven's screaming continued.
the thing inside her leg flies out and she throws it, still using her powers. it lands about 20 feet away from us.
i watch as the tiny creature screeches, attempting to bounce away. however, someone stomps on it, completely crushing and killing it.
i look up and see joyce, hopper, and murray bauman.