A Decade

The Other Sister

A black strip of cloth over her brown eyes. Her brows furrowed in concentration as she loses herself, Eleven whispers to herself the same word over and over again- Ten.

Mike looks at her in part fascination and part apprehension. It was all Nancy's idea, and a smart one he's got to admit. If there is an Eleven and an Eight, there must be nine more children. It is a smart plan.....but he hates it all the same. The visions El has seen to date terrified her to the core, children lying in ditches, dying slow deaths by the hands of her father; he just doesn't want to see her hurt.

"She's going to be all right, Mike," his friend Lucas whispers in his ear. "Jane's done it before, you know. That's how she found us." Oh, and they all call her Jane now, not him though, she will always be beautiful, smart and powerful El to him.

In Chief Hopper's house, they all sit around her, waiting to hear about another dead number.

"Ten ten ten ten ten," Eleven's whispers become louder by the second, and Mike feels his heart beat faster. What is going on here? he wonders, nothing like this has ever happened before.

El lets out a short, high pitched scream. Mike starts towards her, but Lucas and Will hold him, they never try to interrupt El's visions, it disorients her. Chief Hopper though, falls down beside her, and fumbles with the black cloth, wiping her sweaty face with his big hands.

El swallows and stares at them all with feverish eyes. Mike wants to be near her, comfort her, but she holds up her hands ands hugs herself. "I saw her," she whispers, after what seems like forever.

"Whom did you see, love?" Mrs. Byers holds her face in her hands, with the tenderness only a mother has, and presses her lips to Eleven's forehead. "Who was it?"
"I saw her," El looks at Mike as she speaks, and her eyes sparkle with joy, "Sister, she......she is coming home."