brutal ━ mike wheeler

eight. in the dark of night

EIGHT━━━━
IN THE DARK OF NIGHT

stranger things;
season 3    ep 6

THE GROUP OF SHAKEN teenagers had all decided to go to El's house instead of anyone else's because it was in the middle of the woods. They had agreed that it would be safer if they were farther away from town. When they had got into the house, El grabbed onto Adrian's hand and started to drag him into her bedroom. El sat in front of her TV, looking down at the pictures she had collected before tying a bandana around her eyes. Adrian shuffled on his feet as he watched her occasionally grab a tissue to wipe the blood from her nose.

The static coming from the TV in front of her was sort of driving him crazy, but he didn't move or say a thing. "Wait, wait, wait. Adrian and El are related?" He heard someone ask from outside the room. Adrian could only assume that the others were filling Nancy and Jonathan in. "Yeah. Apparently." Max's voice was heard, as well as some shuffling. "Apparently?"

"El says they are but Adrian has no recollection of ever even being in the lab." Adrian nodded along with that. That was true. In fact, he guessed his earlier memories were replaced with other ones. "So. . . El has someone to help her now?" He heard the quick dismissal of Mike and felt a bit relieved. As much as he would love to help El, he had no idea how to use his. . . abilities. "Absolutely not. No way. He didn't even know he had them until yesterday so how the hell is he supposed to use them? It's bullshit."

He heard Max scoff, only knowing it was her because she scoffed quite often. "It's not bullshit, Mike." Adrian adores the redhead but he just wished she would've stopped talking there. "This is why he got so mad at you in the first place. You're always keeping him from doing shit. You're no better than a possessive girlfriend." Adrian took in a sharp breath at the metaphor she used, hoping and praying no one took it too seriously. "Hold on, pause. What?" He heard the shakiness in Mike's voice.

"I didn't mean it like that." Max was suddenly quieter once she released what she had said, trying to make it seem like something else to make sure no one else figured it out. "I still think we should let Adrian help El." Max spoke, changing to topic quickly to divert the attention away. "For what? So he could risk his life for no reason?"

"For no reason? Mike, the flayed are out there doing who knows what." Nancy butted in. "Killing, flaying. . ." She trailed off. "Transforming into monsters." Will added. He heard someone hum in agreement and then he heard Nancy speaking once again. "And Adrian's not stupid, neither is El. I'll bet they know their abilities better than any of us."

Adrian felt his mouth fall open as he heard those words, eyebrows being pushed together before he heard Mike once again butting in. "No they don't! Do I need to remind you again that Adrian had no idea about these abilities until last night? He does not know how to use them."

" I agree with that, but they are their own people." Adrian could basically hear Mike rolling his eyes, even he himself getting fed up. "With their own free will." Adrian really did appreciate the fact that they believed in him that much, but it didn't do much if he didn't know what he was doing. "Exactly. Mike you need to understand that Adrian can do it." No, he cannot. "He has El to help him, who might I remind you has saved the world twice. You need to trust her."

"You wanna talk about trust, really? After you made Eleven spy on us?" Adrian pressed his lips in a thin line as he held in a laugh. "Wait, what?" He heard Lucas but in and the. the shuffle of some feet. "Oh, she didn't tell you this?" Mike was getting real petty and Adrian had to let out a quiet laugh, silently commending him. "No."