Waiting For The Light

Prologue

My name is Mae. Mae Holland.

You probably haven't heard of me.

I would be very surprised if you had.

I'm sure you know who the others are though.

You know, Max, Mike, Will, Lucas, Dustin, Jonathan, Eleven, Steve, and Nancy?

Those are my best friends.

Well...they are now.

Before all of this, they didn't even know who I was. Let alone take me in and help me.

I'm sure you know the story. The story of "the boy who lived", right?

Good.

Because the story I'm about to tell you is part of Will's.

But mine isn't told as often, if not at all.

I'll start with simple things first.

I am Subject 14, from Hawkin's Lab. Or, my real name, Mae Robert Holland.

Me and my sister, Elizabeth Rae Holland, were taken by the U.S. government during school one day. They told us that our mother had sent us away, and in reality, I had seen that coming, even at the age of seven.

After they took us to the lab, we were treated the same as Eleven was, shut and locked into our own rooms without being allowed to be let out except with supervision.

No one knew about what they did to just me and Elizabeth...

Even Will and Mike can't comprehend the fullness of all of it.

And frankly.

I don't blame them.

See, we were normal kids. Elizabeth and I.

We had a hardworking mom, and we lived semi-normal lives. Our mom didn't truly care about us as much as she led on, but I never cared. I lived my life and Elizabeth cared for me.

I admit, I was a bit of a handful.

Okay...

A big handful.

But Lizzy loved me. Elizabeth loved me.

But what they did to us...

It changed her more than it did me.

They pumped us full of chemicals, stuff that to this day I still don't know what they were.

It only took seven months for Elizabeth to go rampant.

I still don't know what made her crack, but it doesn't matter now.

she became evil, her mind full of fantasies that would have made the villains in Dustin's comic books go crazy for her.

Nothing was ever the same after that, nothing.

They threw her into the Upside Down to save their own asses.

I still resent them for that action.

I escaped months later.

But upon said escape, Will went missing.

I knew in my heart where he was, why he had been taken.

But I was scared to step forward.

I mean, I had just come from there, why would I want to go back?

But something about Will captured my conscience.

I eventually went in and helped rescue him.

He, to this day, credits me for him being alive.

The second attack was the worst yet.

The monsters, the visions, everything.

At that time, I knew nothing about being human.

Nothing about the human world, emotions, way of life, anything.

But Will, he taught me everything.

But then the Mind came for us.

Came for Will...

We almost lost him.

And I almost lost myself in the process.

Saving him was the biggest decision I'd ever made in my life.

Luckily, I'm still alive.

And that's where this story begins.

I'll start from the beginning.

From where it all began.

But you've got to be patient.

Good stories take time to tell, right?