[ 𝙶𝚘𝚕𝚍 & 𝚂𝚝𝚘𝚗𝚎 ] ~ 𝙱𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝙷𝚊𝚛𝚐𝚛𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚡 𝙾𝙲

XXII - It's Okay

"I think I found it." Eleven panted out. "The source."

"Where, El? Where are you?" Max asked rather pointedly. 

Eleven stayed quiet for a moment, as if looking around the scene. "Brimboard. . .Steelworks." 

"Shit." Rylie whispered. Brimboard was right on the way from Billy's house to hers, practically in the middle. Billy had been on his way to her house. On his way to see Rylie. It was her idea. Which meant Billy getting infected by whatever this. . .thing was. It was her fault. 

Jonathan jumped up, running to the counter to grab the newspaper that he, Nancy, and. . .sort of Justin were calling people from earlier. Justin and Nancy walked over to him, both looking over his shoulder. "Here. Okay, uh, steelworks, steelworks. . .Uh-" 

Justin grabbed his hand with a sharp roll of her eye and flipped it back to pages, tapping on the top. "Steelworks. Dumbass." 

"Found it." Jonathan called. 

"Oh yeah, you found it." Justin scoffed. 

Jonathan let out a light, almost nonexistent laugh at that. "Six-five-two-two Cherry Oak Drive." 

"That's close." Nancy said. 

"El, El, we found it. Get out of there." Mike yelled toward her. "Get out!" 

She didn't respond, sitting still and silent. 

"Eleven?" Rylie questioned, walking over to the girl and sitting beside her. She didn't want to touch her, scared it would break her out of the daze and mess something up. Scared it would hurt Eleven. She didn't want that. She'd already hurt one person she cared about. . .she didn't need to hurt another one. So she just sat there, softly saying Eleven's name. The girl was shaking slightly, her breaths heavy and shallow. "Hey. . .El, we're here. You're alright." Rylie whispered, noticing Mike start to come closer. "Don't touch her-" Rylie sharply shook her head. 

"Why not?" 

"It might hurt her-" Rylie sighed out. "We don't really know how this works." 

Mike scoffed, but listened. He sat right next to Rylie, not touching Eleven but watching very closely. Suddenly, El screamed, ripping the bandana off her eyes. 

"El! You're okay. It's okay!" Mike assured as Eleven turned and held onto both him and Rylie. Rylie decided not to think about it too much. She was close, that was all. "El-"

"Hey. . .We've got you." Rylie whispered as Eleven started to cry. "You're alright, we're all here, El. Hey. . ." Rylie didn't say anything else as she let Eleven cry into her shirt, simply sitting there and comforting the girl however she could. 

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Word Count - 411

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Published - May 2, 2024

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{Author's Note}

Hullo!! Just two short chapters today to finish off episode 6! (Petals & Thorns has the other chapter) I'm hoping to get one or two more chapters out for all four stories in the next seven days but I can't make any promises. I hope you enjoyed the short filler-type chapter!

<3 - Ghosty