THE ILLUSION OF HOPE ━ stranger things

𝟬𝟬𝟱 ━ what is a friend?

ioh! chapter five
━ what is a friend?

After school had finished Dustin and Lucas returned to the Wheeler household as planned.

They looked shocked that Eleven was not, in fact, in the basement, but instead sat on Mike's single bed, cross-legged. As soon as the pair stepped into the room, the looks on their faces gave away what they were thinking to Jules.

Julianna had a guilty look on her face━although before the boys arrived, her mother had stormed Mike's room, where Eleven was hiding in his closet.

They were lucky that she was quiet enough to go unnoticed.

"Are you out of your mind?" Lucas yelled, looking at all three of them like they were crazy.

Pietro turned his head towards Lucas, he was not listening to anything anyone was saying prior to this moment. His attention span sucked.

"Just listen to me." Mike tried to convince them, he held his hands forward, but was quickly turned down.

"You are out of your mind!" Lucas repeated, throwing his arms into the air.

"She knows about Will." Mike and Jules spoke together, trying to defuse the tension created, and try to get Lucas to calm down, slightly.

Dustin furrowed his eyebrows, "What do you mean she knows about Will?" He questioned.

Lucas scoffed at Mike, shaking his head before looking at Jules. Lucas knew Jules wouldn't lie to him, but this was risky.

Mike picked up an old picture of the group, Will included, off his desktop, and showed it to the boys, "She pointed at him, at his picture. She knew he was missing, I could tell."

"You could tell?"

"Just think about it. Do you really think it was a coincidence that we found her on Mirkwood?" Mike reasoned with them.

Pietro lifted his hand into the air, "That is where Will disappeared."

"That is weird."

Mike didn't pay any mind to the comment,  he continued, "And she said bad people are after her. I think maybe these bad people are the same ones who took Will. I think she knows what happened to him."

"The why doesn't she tell us?" Lucas questioned still in disbelief with Mike.

He turned to look at El and quickly walked over to her, his face hardened, "Do you know where he is?"

Lucas grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her slightly, "Do you know where Will is!?"

Jules shoved Lucas off the scared girl and glared at him. "Lucas!"

The boy looked down as if he had been scolded by a mother, his head shot up as his body was pulled away further. "Stop it you're scaring her!" Mike added.

Lucas scoffed, and pulled his arm from Mike's grasp, "She should be scared! If you know where he is, tell us. This is nuts. We have to take her to your mom."

"No!" Mike yelled rather loud, "Eleven said telling an adult would put us all in danger."

"What kind of danger?" Dustin asked but no one listened to his, apart from Jules.

"Her name is Eleven?"

"El for short." Mike sent Eleven a small smile at her nickname.

Pietro cleared his throat, his hands clamped onto Mike's shoulders, "Everyone needs to calm down."