Tʜᴇ Sᴇᴄʀᴇᴛ Sʜᴇ's Kᴇᴘᴛ | Mɪʟᴇᴠᴇɴ (Sᴛʀᴀɴɢᴇʀ Tʜɪɴɢs)

◇Chapter 006◇

A week later...

A week: that's how long it took for El to start feeling weird.

Mike and El laid together in his bedroom, their arms wrapped around eachother tightly as if they were about to lose eachother again.

Her head rested on his chest, listening to the soothing beating of his heart while his fingers played with her curls and his chin was rested on the top of her head.

Mike still felt as if being with her right now was a dream. He continously had dreamt of the moment when he would be reunited with the girl he loved again.

El was glad she was free. Free of Brenner's experiments and abuse and the lab. She had a home and a family and a boyfriend who loved her to death and was willing to die for her.

Everything felt perfect... A little too perfect.

Slight pain racked through El's head; though she wouldn't admit it, she felt as if something was wrong. The events in the lab were slightly fuzzy; yet she would keep what she knew to herself, not wanting to scare Mike in any way that she might be in danger. She wasn't sure if what she was feeling was real or all in her head.

"El?" Mike whispered as she snuggled into his chest. "What happened in the lab?" He had been trying to get her to tell him, but every time he tried, she denied that anything happened.

"Nothing happened Mike," El said. Fear crept into her voice as she remembered what had happened before she was sent through the gate. "Papa tried to do an experiment, then sent me to the Upside Down."

"Are you sure?" He took her arm gently and rolled up the sleeve of her hoodie, revealing her slightly dark veins and a scar surrounded by a faint bruise on her forearm. "How did this happen?" He pressed his lips against the scar and bruise gently.

The needle. The one that had pierced her arm and had injected her with something that had to do with that place; the place of death and killing and evil and monsters.

The memories of the experiment flooded her thoughts, making her headache worse. She groaned and buried her face in his chest.

"El?" Mike rubbed her back gently and tilted her head up so he could look at her. His loving eyes met her pained ones. "Whats wrong?"

"I have a headache," El said, trying to keep her voice calm. "I'm okay," El told herself. "It's okay."

"How about I get you some water and aspirin?" he asked as he pulled away from her and got up. El nodded and he kissed her forehead quickly before leaving the room and walking downstairs.

El layed down on the bed again, staring up at the white ceiling. She made the mistake of closing her eyes; flickers and flashbacks of the Upside Down filled her vision. Running. The shadow in the sky. Hiding. The red sky. Monsters. Running. Running. Running.

The young girl sat up, her eyes wide with shock. The room around her flickered. "Just a flashback, just a memory," El thought, soon realizing that her eyes were open. She began breathing rapidly. " No! No! Not a flashback, not a memory!"

All the light in the room faded, leaving her in darkness. El's eyes scanned the room, looking at the vines that covered the walls and the white particles that made the air toxic.

She jumped up, ignoring the pain in her head that had began to grow stronger. Like an automaton, she walked to the window and looked at the sky. The shadow filled the sky above the house, making El gasp and hide underneath the window frame.

She pulled her knees into her chest and shut her eyes tight, praying that this was just a dream, but no; the vines looked real and the air felt toxic in her lungs and the shadow was just as frightening as when she first saw it. She was there, in the Upside Down.

The monster's "arm" broke through the window and stabbed into her chest. She gasped as she was brought to her feet, panic and fear ran through her. Coldness swept through her body. It had found her again. It had her frozen and vulnerable. It could control her, do whatever it wanted her to do. And she was now helpless against it.

El.

El.

Mike's voice rang through her head.

Eleven!

"El!" Mike had his hands on her shoulders, a worried look on his face. El looked around the room to see the vines and particles gone.

No monster had possessed her.

She wasn't in the Upside Down.

She was okay.

But, why did fear and panic and a strange coldness still consume her body?

Mike was speechless. He had never seen her in that state before. Her eyes had been closed and her body had been shaking slightly, like she was having a nightmare. The only time he had seen someone in that state was when... Will had been having episodes?

"D-did you have an episode? Did you see the Upside Down?" Mike asked shakily.

El shook her head slightly as tears formed in her eyes. "I-I think it was j-just a memory." She was still trying to deny that it was real.

"Well, what was your, um, "memory" of?"

"The Shadow Monster," El whispered. "It was angry with me."

"Why, El?"

"B-because I closed the gate," El whispered, her voice shaking. She was still trying to mentally grasp why she knew that information.

Mike pulled her into a tight hug, comforting his shaking girlfriend. He didnt understand why or what was happening to her. She said nothing had happened in the lab or in the Upside Down. "But Will said nothing had happened to him, either," Mike thought but shook that thought aside.

"It's okay El. We should talk to Hopper and tell him what happened. Maybe we should ask Will too, since he, y'know, experienced something that was similar to... what just happened." He rubbed her back soothingly. She pulled away slightly and nodded as she looked at him, fear still lingered in her eyes.

Mike had some doubts but he was quite sure he had seen it. Her eyes. El's dark eyes looked a shade lighter than usual. The warmth in her eyes looked as if to be fading, and replaced by coldness. If what he had seen was real or not, Mike still had to figure that out.