Opposites attract (Mike W.)

CHAPTER FORTY TWO

Act 3~Chapter 10: El's vision

El was sat on the bed in her room, looking for the known Flayed. A TV that was playing static noises on a cardboard box was in front of her, along with a family picture of the Holloway family, a poster for 'Senior Bingo night' with Mrs. Driscoll, a newspaper article of another one of Nancy and Johnathan's workers that joined with Heather's dad to be the giant flesh monster, and a yearbook photo of Billy. The rest of them were all sat in the main room, waiting for El to join them after (hopefully) finding the Flayed.
"It can't be good for her to be in there for this long," Mike said, pacing around.
"Mike, you need to relax," Max told him.
"What if she gets brain damage or something?" Mike asked.
"Oh, shit," Lucas began, "Is that, like, a real thing?"
"No, it's not. He made it up," Avery told him, comfortingly.
"Mike doesn't know what he's talking about," Max continued.
"Oh, and you do?" he questioned.
"No, I..." she started, "I just know that El knows her limits. She won't let Billy or any of the other Flayed hurt her."
"But what if they do?" Mike asked.
"They won't! El's strong, she already beat the shit out of that monster once," Avery added.
Mike continued arguing with Max when they walked over to Nancy, Jonathan and Will.
"Can you guys settle an argument for us?" Avery asked, leaning on the table.
"Who do you think should decide El's limits?" Max began, "Mike or Eleven?"
"The way that you frame that is such bullshit!" he scoffed.
"It's not bullshit, Mike!" Max laughed.
"What if Billy like found her, and just killed her in there whilst she was defenceless or something!" Mike shouted.
"You know what! She has been in there a while, I'll just go check on her!" Avery sighed, pushing herself up and walking towards the bedroom before anyone could object.

Avery walked in, seeing a large pile of bloody tissues next to El, who was beginning to take the blindfold off.
"Hey! You okay?" Avery asked, walking over, turning the TV off.
"I found Billy," she said.
"That's great!" Avery said picking up the clean bits of the large tissue pile, putting them in the bin.
They were about to walk out when they heard Mike shout, "In fact, how careless all of you are! Ava just walked straight into that room with El, who is in huge danger right now and none of you even tried to stop her! She is trying so hard to take care of El and none of you are giving her any credit for it. What if this makes El reach her limit? We all know that if El uses too much power she gets drained. What if thats now? What if we lose El? So can we please think of a new plan because I love Ava and I can't see her hurt again!"
Avery felt her eyes widen and cheeks grow a very deep shade of red. Mike loved her? She didn't know what to think. So she walked out, ignoring the odd fluttering in her stomach.
"What's going on?" Avery asked, acting as if she didn't know what was going on.
"Nothing. Nothing," Mike lied.
"Just a family discussion," Lucas added.
"How's El?" Max asked.
"Oh, she found him!" Avery said, walking towards.
"Found who?" Nancy questioned.

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The group were all sat on the couches, El sat on the floor, in front of the TV that was once again playing the static sounds, with the blindfold on and her nose slowly dripping with blood. The other seven were watching, waiting for her to take the blindfold off. After a few minutes, El began heavily breathing, and ripped her blindfold off.
"What's he doing now?" Max asked. El explained that Billy was sat in his room, all alone. She went to grab a glass of water whilst the others waited.
"And that's not normal right?" Nancy asked.
"Billy staying in his room on the Fourth of July? No, that's not normal," Max explained.
"He wants us to find him," Will said.
"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of," Nancy began, "If we go to Billy, then the rest of the flayed know where we are."
"It's a trap, I agree. We'll be ambushed," Mike agreed.
"We won't be surprised. We'll know that they're coming, and we will kick their flayed butts," Lucas told them.
"You mean El will kick their butts," Max corrected.
"It's too risky," Mike said.
"Yeah, and unnecessary," Avery added.
"Killing the flayed won't stop the Mind Flayer," Nancy told them, "We have to find out where it's spreading from. We have to find the source."
"Billy knows it," El said, walking over to them," Billy's been there. To the source."
"Yeah, but-"
"It's a trap. I know," El interrupted Mike, "We can't go to Billy, but I think there's another way. A way for me to see where he's been."

El walked over to the TV, turning it to static whilst Avery grabbed the blindfold from the couch they were sat on previously, giving it to Eleven. She sat down in front of the TV, going to put the blindfold on when Mike ducked down next to her.
"El, I know you think you have to do this, but you don't. It's just, you've only done this before once. And your mom, she loved you, and wanted you to know what happened," he explained, "And Billy's mind is- is sick, diseased. The Mind Flayer is in him."
"He can't hurt me," El said, "Not in there."
"We don't know that," Mike said.
Avery saw what was happening and ducked down next to him, putting a hand on top of his on his knee.
"Mike, trust her," she explained, "she will be ok."
The two stood up, moving back to give El a little bit more space as she put the black fabric over her eyes.
The party saw El's nose slowly begin to drip with blood. She was in Billy's mind. In the blink of an eye, Eleven began to hyperventilate.
"Something's wrong," Avery said.
El quickly got back to her normal breathing speed, signalling to them all that she was okay.
"El, are you okay?" Mike asked, "Are you okay?"
El sighed, telling them all that she was okay.
"What's going on?" Avery asked.
"I'm... on a beach," she said.
"Okay, I may be dense," Lucas began, "but the last I checked, there weren't any beaches in Hawkins."
"What else do you see?" Max joined in.
"A woman," El said, "She's... pretty. I think she's looking at me. There's a boy. It's Billy."
"It's California," Max remembered, "It's a memory."
"I think I see it," El told them, "The source."

The room was silent for another few minutes, waiting for El to tell them about Billy or the source. They were all staring at her as her nose dripped with the bright red substance.
"I think I found it," she said after a while, "The source."
"Where El? Where are you?" Avery asked.
El stayed quiet for a second, making the others presume she was looking around for a sign or something to tell them the name.
"Brimborn Steelworks," she told them. Johnathan ran over to the address book, looking for the name.
"Here. Okay, uh, steelworks, steelworks..." he muttered, "Here, steel. Found it. 6522 Cherry Oak Drive."
"That's close," Nancy realised.
"El, El, we found it. Get out of there. Get out," Avery demanded.
Despite the demand, El didn't move for another minute or so. The party looked around at each other, wondering what was taking her so long when after a few minutes, she yanked the blindfold off of her eyes, breathing heavier than before, her eyes welling up with tears, both of her nostrils coated in blood shouting no at the top of her lungs.
"El, you're okay. It's- It's okay!" Avery said, dropping down from the chair she was on, taking her into a hug, whilst she cried in her arms, looking around panicked at all of her friends.

(A/N: Oh! Next chapter is gonna be so good to write! I have been getting very, very into writing now that I can write pretty much whenever I want, so expect a lot of chapters like one after the other or like in the space of a week. I have like six or seven chapters left of season three which seems like a lot but will probably be done quite quickly. If you enjoyed this chapter, make sure to vote and comment and make sure to eat enough and drink enough. I love you and I hope you have a good day/good night! :D)