The Upside Down~Stranger Things

One

November 1st, 1983, Hawkins, Indiana

I sat in the plastic chair, staring down the puppy in front of me in greif. They wanted me to do it. They wanted me to kill it. Me and my sister were 2 of many other girls who were experimented on. About 10 wires, which were connected to eachother, framed the top of my head like a helmet, as I was forced to lock eyes with the puzzled puppy.

She squirmed around the tight space, searching for something to ease the soreness in her gums. She had been a one month old, with teeth slowly, and painfully, growing into her mouth. With no bone, or chew toy for her to teeth on, she turned to the wooden bars of the cage. It must've felt awkward for her, barely being able to fit her head through the gaps to wrap her mouth aound the bar.

My heart felt empty, feeling my papa's eyes on me. I didn't want to disappoint him, nor the other adults he worked with. But I didn't want to kill this innocent pitbull, who hadn't done anything wrong in her life. I felt as if the whole world had been resting upon my shoulders, nothing for me to do to pull away from it. I felt as if there was a hole in my heart, the numbness of the empty space rushing through my veins.

I whimpered each time the puppy barked softly, waiting for someone, someone like me to let it out of the cage. Tears welled up in the corner of my eyes as my palm started to heat up, the fire burning up from inside of me. I knew if I didn't stop now, I would end up killing the poor thing.

I finally grabbed ahold of the wires on my head, tossing them to the floor as my heart sunk, the heat in my palm fading away back to normal. Tears spilled down my cheeks, dripping down onto my white and blue gown. The beeping from the monitor came to a stop, Papa who had been watching me through the clear window, shook his head in disappointment. 

My heart started to race as two men entered through the iron door, pulling me up by the arms as they rushed me out of the room. The puppy started to let out soft barks, confused by what had been happening. 

I squirmed around in the mens grasps, kicking my legs as hard as I could. "Papa!" I couldn't understand why he just stood there, a blank expression on his face as he watched the men drag me down the hall. There were iron doors on each side, small glass windows next to each door, but of which were covered with curtains on the inside. Other girls slept in those rooms if they failed their tests, while the hallway on the oppisite side belonged to the girls who aced their tests.

The two men brought me to the end of the hallway, before tossing my inside of the dark room without hesitation. I quickly picked myself up, anger boiling inside of me as I pushed my hand out in front of me. The first man fell to the floor, flames burning him alive, as the other man pulled out a taser. He was dead within seconds after being electrocuted to death. I lowered both of my hands, the flicker of the flame from my right hand dying out, while the electricty from my left hand faded away into a small amount of smoke.

Blood dripped down from my nose, as well as my mouth as I leaned up against the wall, hearing my fathers footsteps heading towards the front of the door. I started to cry, not wanting to, but because I couldn't help it. All I felt at the moment was alone and helpless. I had no clue as to where my sister was, and my father thought of me as a failure.

I stared at my Papa weakly as he examined the men on the floor, before stepping over them to face me. I stayed leaned up against the wall, peering down at my bare feet as he strolled over towards me slowly. I breathed in deeply, my lip quivering as he placed his fingers beaneath my chin, lifting my eyes to meet his.

"You did well," He told me, staring at me with a look of amazement. I parted my mouth slightly, staring at him in puzzlement. He..was proud of me? For killing those men?  I stayed quiet as he took my small hand in his, slowly leading me away from the scene I had caused. My legs continued to fall beneath me, resulting in my father carrying me to where he wanted us to go.

We finally reached the room which belonged to me and my sister, making my heart quicken, thinking he was gonna leave me in there by myself. I gripped his lab coat tightly in my between my palms, sobbing harder as he pushed the door open.

"Look," He whispered, gently pulling me away from his chest. I spun my head around, studying the room around me. It had been dark, like always, with only two plastic chairs and a stand with two apples. I gasped quietly, a grin replacing my frown when recognizing my sister sleeping in the corner. I pulled away from Papa, hustling over to Eleven in joy. I found her. My joy was cut short when the door slammed shut, engulfing me in complete darkness as I inhaled and exhaled deeply.

"Papa!" I screamed, forgetting that my older sister had been asleep. But, still, I continued to scream for him, banging my fists against the iron door. I thought he had been proud of me? I thought he was taking me to the good place, but instead, he brought me to the bad place.

"Twelve.." A small voice spoke, their voice cracking. I spun around from the door, a small light forming in front of me after placing my palm out. My body temp was up to about 140, which would have killed a normal human being. But I had been a test subject, along with my sister, which meant we hadn't been normal. We were special.

"Eleven," I muttered, rushing over to her as she opened her sleepy eyes. They were red and puffy, making me realise she had been crying. My heart started to ache as I gently pulled her into my arms, making sure my hand didn't get too close to her cold body, but close enough to warm her up. She sobbed into my shoulder, making me sigh out in sadness. They had made Eleven cry..we needed to leave. Papa had done us wrong too many times..this was enough.

"Eleven," I spoke out, pulling away from her quickly. She stared up into my eyes in concern, her thin lips parted as she simply said my name back. "Escape."

She started at me with a questionable look, not the look which would say "What do you mean by escape?" but the look that would say, "how?" I shook my head, showing her that I would figure it out for myself. She didn't question it, slowly wrapping her arms around me again. I had a plan to escape, and it was gonna happen tommorow.