wonder - steve harrington

part seven

She's wearing all black, her hair is slicked back with gel and short. Makeup is under her eyes, and blood trickled down her nose. Everyone's faces are shocked and surprised. Mikes eyes fill with tears as he looks at the girl.

"Eleven."

"Mike." They cry and hold each other.

Max quietly looks to her other two friends, "Is that?" They just nod too speechless to say anything.

"I never gave up on you. I called you every night. Every night for-"

"353 days. I heard."

"Why didn't you tell me you were there? That you were okay?"

"Because I wouldn't let her." Hopper walks towards the pair. Mike steps to the side and Hopper goes dad mode. "What the hell is this? Where have you been?"

"Where have you been?" Eleven shoots back, Hopper pulls her in and hugs her tight.

"You've been hiding her. You've been hiding her this whole time!" Mike shoves Hopper.

"Hey!" Hopper grabs Mike, I quickly get next to them and place a hand on his arm. "Let's talk. Alone." Mike's face is filled with hatred towards Hopper, and I understand why. From what i've heard Mike and his friends did everything to keep her hidden. It just didn't go as planned.

Eleven begins hugging her friends, Max walks up to her. "Eleven? Hey, i'm Max. I've heard a lot about you." Max sticks her hand out and Eleven just walks past her towards Joyce.

I place a hand on Max's back. "Hey, she just got back. And remember what she's gone through, she probably has a hard time trusting people." Max nods but I can tell it got to her.

-

"It's not like it was before. It's grown." Hopper explained as we all were crowded around him. "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?"

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

"How is this important right now?"

"It's not i'm sorry." I chuckled under my breath and gave Dustin a reassuring squeeze.

"I can do it." We all looked at Eleven.

"You're not hearing me."

"I'm hearing you. I can do it."

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

"I thought that was the whole point." Max asks.

"It is but if we're really right about this... I mean if El closes the gate and kills the mind flayer army..."

"Wills apart of that army." Lucas and Max looked at one another.

"Closing the gate will kill him."

We all walked towards Joyce room where the bed was made perfectly and Will laid on top. "He likes it cold." Joyce says.

"What?"

"That's what Will kept saying to me. He likes it cold." Joyce closes the window that was blowing in the frigid air. "We keep giving it what it wants."

"If this is a virus and Wills the host then..." Nancy turned to Johnathan who was knelt down next to his brother.

"Then we need to make the host uninhabitable." Johnathan said.