003 ➳ stranger things [1]

Chapter 3: Memories

Erin was pacing in the basement. Max, Lucas, Dustin, and Will all biked over to the Wheelers, after Erin found out.

"Do any of you have powers?" Erin paused to look at them, concerned. Will hesitantly nodded, making Erin pace again. "Are you a number."

"No I just made it to the upside down, and then got possessed." Will explained.

"Possessed? You should be dead." Erin narrowed her eyes. "I-I-I remember this lab worker uh he started having these seizures and they thought I could do something but I couldn't and, and he died a few days later."

"Will lasted a few days. But he had these visions-" Lucas started explaining.

"Does he have them now?" Erin started to panic.

"Sometimes, but it's not of the upside down." Will shrugged.

"Okay, okay that's good. Because I get these visions sometimes, but they're like giant monsters with about five tentacles and like dog like creatures-" Erin explained.

"Dog like creatures?" Max turned towards the group.

"Demodogs." Dustin nodded.

"Demodogs? That's like the craziest- wait does that mean you've seen them before?" Erin asked.

"We fought them once." Dustin shrugged.

"When did you have the visions?" Will spoke up.

"I had the demodog vision a couple of days after halloween, and I had the giant one December fifteenth of last year." Erin explained.

"When the demodogs attacked and-" Lucas sighed,

"The snowball." Mike finished.

"What the hell is a snowball?" Erin questioned.

"A middle school dance. We have one this year but it's called the Winter Formal." Mike answered.

"Have you had any recently?" Will changed the subject. Erin remembered every night since December, the large tentacle creature literally haunting her.

"No." She lied.

"That's good, right?" Max asked, looking around.

"That means we can enjoy our summer and go to the pool. Which will be tomorrow." Lucas suggested,

"You guys can sleep over, I'm not sure about the girls." Mike suggested.

"Max and El can stay over at my house. My mom would be ecstatic." Erin chuckled.

"And then we meet at the pool at eleven." Lucas nodded.

"Or arcade." Dustin looked over at Erin, who had softened up.

"Yeah." Erin nodded. 

After the group said their goodbyes, Erin, Max, and El all made their way to Erin's house, where Erin showed them the rooms. She has a basement as well, with a bed, bookshelves, and a game system. She had boxes left in the basement.

"Who's bed is this?" Max asked, plopping down on it.

"Uh my sister's." Erin smiled, getting out a book.

"Oh uh sorry." Max immediately got off the bed.

"It's fine it hasn't been used and," Erin sighed, digging through the bookshelf. "Probably won't."

"You have an Atari?" Max exclaimed, noticing the game system.

"Yeah. You can play PAC-MAN if you'd like." Erin shrugged, putting the book back.

While Erin gave the rundown on how to use the Atari, Eleven kept on exploring. She pulled out the same book that Erin had grabbed, from the bookshelf. She dug through it, finding notes on pages. She recognized names, such as Brenner and one number. 008. 

"Is this yours?" El turned towards her.

"Yeah it was from when I was in- from when I was kidnapped." Erin turned around, facing El.

"Where were you taken?" Eleven continued flipping through the pages.

"This lab, outside of Boston." Erin shrugged.

"What was it like?" Eleven asked, closing the book and walked over to the couch.

"It wasn't cold temperature wise, but it just gave you a cold feeling. The lights always flickered, not one day there wasn't a light flickering," Erin continued. El felt bad memories come back, making her drown out Erin's voice. She remembered getting wheeled down the hall after being overloaded with medicine, and Brenner attempting to calm her down. It's going to be alright Eleven. You're going to be just fine. She heard Brenner's voice echoing, like a memory. 

"Eleven, are you alright?" Max's words pulled her out of the trance.

"Yeah, I'm fine." El swallowed the lump in her throat.

"Do you want me to stop?" Erin asked.

"Who kept you captive?" El asked, ignoring her question.

"A doctor named Brenner. He said he wanted to restart the trials, and kept on saying it when they didn't realize I was listening.

"You can hear from that far?" Max was now facing El, and turned away from the Atari.

"Along the line, my senses got heightened. I can hear, smell, and see from far away." Erin explained.

"Girls! Cookies are done!" Erin's mom, Betty, called.

"Your mom made cookies?" Max asked in excitement.

"Told you my mom would be ecstatic." Erin smiled.