white rose & apple blossom - A Mileven Story

eighteen

Mike's POV

I keep having nightmares about what could have happened to El. I dream about her being captured and locked in that awful lab she told me about. I dream about her being afraid and anxious, having those telekinetic attacks every hour, people running away from her. I dream about her, dead, in the middle of nowhere.
Every night I wake up, drenched in sweat, crying and with panic attacks.
My parents are starting to get really worried about me and saying I need to see a doctor of some kind. Well, my mom is worried. My dad still thinks I'm a "coward for acting this way", in his own words.

It was the 14th of January. Nancy was still home from college because of the snow blizzard that ruled in Hawkins. She asked me multiple times what happened with me over the time she had been home but I couldn't get it out of my mouth. Until today.

- Mike? - Nancy knocked on my bedroom door. I was laying in my bed, staring at the ceilling. - Can I come in? - she asked, softly.
- Sure. - I said, not really caring if she came in or not.
- Are you feeling any better?
- Not really.
- What's wrong, dude? I miss that stupid little brother of mine, who I used to fight with all the time...
- I don't... - I couldn't get any word out of my mouth. - I can't tell you.
- Why? You know I'm here through good and bad times, you can tell me anything.
- It's El... - I started feeling the tears coming in my eyes. - She's gone...
- I know about that... Mom told me you were really sad that she moved away...
- But... She didn't move away... I think... - I gulped and stuttered.
- What?
- What if it happened the same it happened with Barb?... - I asked her, quietly.
- Barb died, Mike. - Nancy said, cold-heartedly.
- We both know that didn't happen like that.
- Mike, shut up. - she said in the most serious way. - I'm warning you.
- She disappeared Nancy! They took her too! - I screamed.
- Don't you ever talk about that again! - Nancy screamed, picking my lamp up from my night stand and slamming it against the floor.
- What the hell Nancy?! - I asked her, still shaking from the scare.
- She's dead. And that is the end of it.

Nancy walked out of my bedroom and slammed the door. I laid back in my bed, glaring the ceilling until I felt the tears coming back. Everything was falling apart in my head.

Nancy's POV ~ Summer of 83

I needed to tell Barb everything. Steve had just told me he wanted to get back together and I didn't know what to say. I really needed to hear some advise from my best friend, she always knew what to say.
I called her house and told her I'd be there in 5 minutes.

- I can't believe it! - Barb screamed and laughed. - Steve Harrington is an actual sweet-heart?
- I guess he is... I feel so bad, and I'd really like to try again with him. He seems different...
- Nancy. - Barb said, assertively.
- What?
- Don't forget why you guys broke up!
- I don't actually remember why...
- Oh, don't act dumb! It starts with a 'J' and it ends with a 'oan Ferris'.
- Right. Ugh, why did he have to cheat on me? - I said, pouting.
- Because he's a jerk! You deserve so much better! Like Jonathan Byers...
- Barb!
- What?
- He's just a friend...
- A friend who gets you all blushed!
- He does not!
- Look at yourself! - Barb handed me a mirror and I couldn't stop laughing at how red I was. She always knew.

~

It was a really hot day in Hawkins. We were in the middle of July and all I could think about was going to the lake. I stopped by Barb's house and she came with me.

We were now lying on our towels in the grass when I noticed something that always bugged me out.

- Why do you always wear so many bracelets? - I asked Barb.
- We've been friends for almost 7 years. I think it's time you know.
- Know what? - I asked, deeply confused. Barb took all of her bracelets out of her left arm and showed me her skin. There were the numbers '004' tattoed on her arm. - I don't... I don't understand...
- I was in a lab when I was a child. I was tested and drugged and God knows what for many years. Me and other kids were experiments.
- Are you pranking me? This is not funny.
- It's not a prank, Nancy. I was the 4th experiment and there were many more after me. And... I kind of have powers too.
- You have powers? C'mon Barb! - I really thought it was a prank.
- You need to see them in order to believe.

Barb opened her hand, making her palm direct to the sky. In a matter of two seconds, I started to smell smoke. Her eyes were closed and her nose was starting to bleed. I touched her hand to make her open her eyes to clean the blood dripping onto her lip. But, as soon as I touched it, I burned my hand. Her fingers and her palm were on fire. I couldn't believe my eyes.

- Barb, what the hell is happening?!
- I told you I had powers. - she closed her hand and the fire was put out.
- You have blood...
- I know. - she interrupted me, closing her still-red knuckle to wipe the blood out of her nostril.

~

It was August 24th of 1983. Mike's birthday was in a week and eventhough he didn't want to have a party, I thought a present wouldn't hurt him. I told Barb I needed her help picking it up so she was going to meet me downtown.

- What have you thought of already? - Barb asked me, looking at the store fronts.
- Something nerdy. Like comic books or a really cool toy.
- Let's go in this one! - Barb said, gripping my hand and pulling me inside this huge comic-book store we passed by.

The store was filled with magazines, books, movie posters and action figures. You could see all types of Hawkins' nerds here. There were the fat oily ones, who had a bag of chip on one hand and a pile of comic books on the other. There were the really skinny ones with big chunky glasses, who only bought X-Men comics or one of those magazines with Japanese-style drawn girls who always wore revealing clothes to show off their unrealistic bodies who got all of these geeks with their panties in a twist. There were the young nerds, just like my brother and his friends, who stopped by just to make fun of Larry, the cashier.

Barb was kind of a nerd too. She had the outfit of a nerd, with those huge glasses and those buttoned up shirts. She was always reading the most random sci-fi books with the most random storylines about robots and space and aliens. But after that July afternoon on the beach her interest in science made much more sense.

- I found it! - I screamed, making Barb come all the way from the other point of the store to meet me in front of the Millenium Falcon replica.

- Oh my God! It's so awesome!

We ended up buying it and returning home. Barb had dinner with us and we hid the present somewhere Mike would never go through - right next to the laundry basket in my bathroom. 

It was 10PM now and mom offered Barb a ride home but she refused, saying she "always enjoys night jogs around town". 
Little did I know it would be the last time I would see her.

Next morning I woke up to my mom telling me Barb's mom, Mrs. Holland was on the phone, worried sick about her daughter.
We talked for about 5 minutes until I drifted away in my thoughts, wondering if Barb was found by the lab people.

Weeks after that night, after the police searches were put to an end, after not finding her body, I knew she had been caught. 
I never told anyone about it. Not even my mom. Not even her parents. They had fought through so much pain with her adoption and now her loss and I didn't want to cause anymore trouble.
I watched the Hollands bury an empty coffin and I couldn't shed a single tear. People thought it was from the shock - but I knew she wasn't there, I knew she was being tortured in that lab in that exact moment.