𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐘 𝐈𝐍 𝐇𝐀𝐖𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐒

twenty-one

"he's back." sam said. immediately looking over to all of the kids. she quickly yanked mike in for a hug. "thanks for saving my life." she whispered. leaning down to hug el too. "you need to stop risking your life all the time." she mumbled. el began to laugh, and then winced.

"let's get out of here." sam said, ushering everyone out of the same hole in the wall billy made. mike and lucas helping carry el to the car, as everyone else ran to it.

"el are you okay?" max asked, as sam quickly sped out of the parking lot.

the girl just nodded, wiping her nose. sam within minutes had whipped into mike's driveway. everyone piling out, and heading into his basement.

they immediately hopped on the phone to call hop. no answer. they tried again. no answer. "damn it!" mike cursed.

"hop. i need to find him." el stated, as she sat down in the recliner. "absolutely not. if you are drained, you are going to hurt yourself." sam refused. "sam. i can do it." el reassured the girl.

"i found him." el spoke, as sam went upstairs to grab ice and some water bottles.

"where is he?" max asked. "woods." el mumbled. "woods?" lucas repeated. "he's with...will's mom." she continued. "my...my mom?" will questioned. "what are they doing?" max asked. "illinois...they're going to illinois." she said.

sam came back down in minutes, throwing waters to everyone. "alright. come on. get out." sam ordered, switching the t.v off and setting the ice on her lap.

then in an instant, mrs. wheeler began knocking on the door. snapping everyone's attention from el, to the basement door.
"mike! breakfast!" she called.

mike groaned, looking up at the stairs. "not now mom!" he yelled. el began to take her blindfold off, at sam's request. "illinois? illinois, like the state? the state of illinois?" mike asked.

everyone could see that el didn't know much about what hopper could possibly be babbling about and that he didn't give much information. "ill-illinois." el shrugged.

as sam and max took el into the bathroom, the sound of the sputtering sink filled the room. max was wiping the blood off of her nose. as sam was examining her neck, seeing that a lined bruise was set just under her chin. el was examining it too, touching it gently.

"does it still hurt?" max asked. "only when i talk." el rasped out. "well, it's a good thing you're not mike, then. blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. and you'd be in constant pain." max said, trying to make light of the situation making all three girls chuckle.

"here, take these. it'll help with the pain. along with...holding this cold compress against your neck. firmly on the bruise okay?" sam instructed, holding pain medicine and water in one hand, and the ice soaked cloth in the other.

she couldn't help but regret her decision to go along with the plan. she could've told them no, and prevented them all from going in there and fighting billy off. it killed her to see el in pain.

"i'll go check on the others okay. i'm gonna leave you two to it." sam said, walking out of the bathroom and into the main part of the basement.
*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

"something's not right. i can't get hopper off my back all summer, now all of a sudden, he's hiking with will's mom to illinois? and dustin's mia, too? i mean, this can't be a coincidence." mike paced, as sam sat in the recliner.

lucas, clearly annoyed with mike's constant worrying spoke. "what does it matter? the bottom line is, they're not here. it's up to us."

"up to us to do what exactly?" mike asked. "find billy and stop him." lucas said like it was obvious. sam rolled her eyes at the two bickering. "okay, yeah, that's a really nice sentiment, but even if el could find him again, and that's a pretty big if, then what?" mike spat out. "we burn the shit out of him and make sure he doesn't escape this time."

mike was determined to be right about this. "okay, then what?"

"then we win." lucas said. "no, see, that's the problem. we don't. we don't win. we got the mind flayer out of will before and he just came right back. we don't just have to stop billy, we have to stop the mind flayer." he stopped pacing to face lucas. "how in the hell do we do that?" lucas asked, setting the cereal box down. "i don't know." mike sighed. "what the actual hell." sam sighed, making all three boys turn to her. "you understand that you were just arguing over how to defeat the same thing we have already tried to. we need dustin, or nancy, or anybody other than the six of us to come up with a plan." sam explained.

"maybe el knows how to defeat him." will said. everyone turned to look at the bathroom door, but sam. she picked up a comic and started flipping through the pages.

"what are they still doing in there?" mike asked aloud, "i don't know. girls just like hanging out in bathrooms." lucas spoke. "you guys are so dumb." sam sighed. "why?" mike asked, ignoring sam's statement. "i mean, i don't know." lucas crunched on his cocoa puffs. "they're conspiring against me." mike said. "that's what you're concerned about now?" will snapped. "it's not my main concern. it's just a sub-concern." mike replied.

after listening to the boys endless bickering, sam decided to use the phone. she called steve's house again. no answer. to no surprise. where the hell was he? she made her way over to the boys, reaching into the cereal box, taking a handful to munch on.

"i thought it was already over." will said. "it's not over, okay? we're just taking a break." mike snapped. "she said she dumped your ass. that doesn't sound like a break." will responded equally as aggressive.

"it wasn't!" max called. "you guys do realize we can still hear everything you're saying, right?" max asked. as they laughed, sam joined in. quickly suppressing it after earning a glare from mike.

"conspiring." mike repeated, causing will to scoff and walk away. "i told you, they're conspiring." a knock being heard.

"not now, mom!" mike yelled up at the door again.

"mike, open the door." nancy ordered. sam immediately rushing up to the door, unlocking it and letting nancy and surprisingly jonathan in. finally someone other than herself to help keep the kids alive.