Heartbroken//Mileven

Chapter 24

Mike helps Eleven our if the vines, the group finally walking across to get to the shore. El had told them in whimpering  sentences that Will had been taken by Dr. Brenner. 

Mike felt outraged, not only that they would have to go back to the lab, but that Brenner was trying to exploit what was killing his friend. 

The monster attached to Will, leaching into his body and his strength; slowly taking over through his brain. He could be used as a weapon, Brenner was known for that. 

Just like El, there had been others before her. He gains their trust, and uses them for their powers; he could care less if they were dying.

 El coughs weakly bringing Mike back to earth. He puts his arm around her shoulders and looks at the layout of the lab she had drawn in the mud in the ground. 

Dustin and Lucas were busy debating the best way to escape if they were on the third floor, but Mike had turned to El. 

"Hey, are you okay?" 

She nods but coughs again, more violently this time. Mike hands her the last of the water he had from Dustin's backpack, and she gulps thankfully. 

Mike looks at her thoughtfully,

 "Hey El? If, I mean when we get it if this, you know you can stay with me right? My parents will take care of you, and Nancy and Holly will be like your sisters! You could go to school with me, and-" .

She puts her hand on his face, stopping his speech. She takes a deep breath and tries to speak as she practices.

 "Mike, thank you for everything. You saved me. I saved you. Of course I want to stay wil you."

 Not knowing what to say after, she just pulls Mike into a hug. She knew she wouldn't go back home with him, but she didn't want him to be the hero when she needed to save them all. 

She knew that if opening the portal didn't kill her, Papa certainly would with Will as his new brainwashed slave.

 She knew how that felt. How helpless and hopeless you felt. She knew that if they didn't act now, he would be lost, and not everyone can have a Mike to find them.

The team walks through the woods back the way they came, hoping to find the lab. El was in such a good mood she was skipping down the trail, swinging her arm back and forth, taking Mike's swinging too. 

The scene would have been cute if Dustin and Lucas weren't missing their own Juliet. 

Max had been the girl that moved in directly in between the two. Dustin had met her first, immediately smitten. Lucas had been more hesitant to liking her, coming across as almost shy at first, but eventually longing to hang out with her. 

When Mike would lock them out, they would go over to Max's house to play D&D, amazed that a girl could out need them. Somehow Dustin knew that she could help them. 

He could feel it as soon as him and Lucas both looked stunned as they said "Max!" in unison.

Max was walking home from her tutor, moving to a new town was hard in the middle of the year. As she rounded the bend she could see Dustin, Lucas, The weird kid Mike and a girl with a shaved head.

 She did a double take as Dustin and Lucas both shouted her name, scrunching her eyebrows in confusion. She sprinted over the ask them what was up, but was confronted with another problem, they walked right through her.