Healing ||mileven||

The reunion

General POV

Mike, Dustin, and Lucas hung back at the edge of the clearing, just by the secret path, and were slightly out of sight of the cabin. Max walked up to the cabin and knocked on the door. It opened slightly just as Max was used to, as the girl checked who was at the door, she smiled and opened the door further and Max was unsurprised to see her in the same clothes as she'd worn every day they'd met, weird.

"Do you want to come in?" she said.

"Er, no" replied Max, taking a few deep breaths to get the courage to continue.

"A walk?"

"Actually" said Max "I was thinking I could introduce you to some friends of mine..."

The girl immediately started shaking her head, "No, no, I can't, I'm not allowed, you should go", she started retreating back inside and tried to shut the door.

Max put her foot in the door, "Please, they're just by the path, they're really nice like me and just wanted to say hi, please?" She was still shaking her head when Max had an idea, "we'll all leave as soon as they say hi, promise".

The girl suddenly looked conflicted, "promise?"

Hell, that's like some magic word with her thought Max, "yeah, absolutely!"

"Guys!" Max called, "come on over".

Max watched the girl's face as the boys came into sight, she looked curious at first, but then something changed, her expression, her mouth parted slightly in shock, her eyes opened wider, she could even tell that her breathing sped up. She took a step forward, but then stopped herself, she was clearly battling something inside. Max looked over at the boys, they'd all stopped walking, Dustin and Lucas were stood either side of Mike dumbfounded, Mike was staring at the girl with the same expression she had. Max looked between them, Mike started walking towards her, "El?"

She started shaking her head, trying to hold back tears, but she was also backing away, "no, no, no, no, no", she backed into the door. El hated herself for doing it, but she'd been told to hide, to keep them all safe, and she'd let someone in and looked what had happened, it was all her fault, she stared at them all, slowly raising her hand. Mike stopped walking, knowing full well what El was doing, why would she do this? El started pushing them all backwards, it wasn't painful, she was being so careful not to hurt anyone, but they all had to leave, for their own safety.

"What the hell is happening?!" Max yelled out as she tried to keep her balance. Her feet were scrapping tracks in the leaf and mud covered ground, she leant forwards trying to resist the invisible force pushing her back, trying to claw her way forwards, but it was no use, they were all being pushed right back to the edge of the cabin's clearing.

"Go" pleaded El, her nose was starting to bleed, her skin was paler with blue veins starting to show through.

"No" pleaded Mike, "no, El, let us in, please, please, El, don't shut me out, El, please..." Max looked over at Mike, he was actually making some forward progress, like he was fighting it, it was slow but he was getting closer to her. Looking at El, Max could see her fighting back tears, she doesn't want to push him away, not really, not deep down. She saw El regain some composure and felt her push harder, again Mike pushed back with his words and his presence, he was so close to her now, he reached out his hand with all his might and locked his fingers in her outstretched hand, and with that Lucas and Dustin fell face first into the mud as the pushing stopped immediately. El collapsed onto her knees, clutching Mike's hand and his shirt, her face was buried in his chest and she was in tears. Max thought she'd never seen someone cry so much. Mike put his arms around her and held her so tightly, as if he was afraid of letting her go, he was trying to hold back the tears, but he couldn't.

...........................

Hopper, Nancy, Jonathan, Will, and Joyce entered the clearing just as El released her power, and walked towards El and Mike. Dustin and Lucas followed. Hopper sighed loudly, knowing things were about to get a lot more complicated, but at least he and Joyce had some sort of plan in place. El slowly raised her eyes towards Hopper and stood up, "I'm sorry" she said quietly, and gave him a submissive look, "I didn't mean to, I'm sorry, I'm sorry", and she started crying again, almost afraid of what he'd do.

Mike looked at them, not understanding, but also not liking what was being said, he started to look angry. Standing, he said "you knew she was here, you'd better tell me why the hell you kept her here", no answer came, "TELL ME!"

...........................