Together Again

Chapter 8 - The Takedown (part two)

Back to the main group of characters.

Eleven froze. The cloud was staring straight at her. For the first time in her life she felt...frozen. She stumbled backward. The cloud inched towards her slowly.

She didn't even think to use her powers, her mind was blanking. The tip of the cloud touched her. She prepared for imminent death. But it never came, for a few seconds, it was all black surrounding her, but then...the cloud disappeared into the hallway. It was as if it forgot they were there.

As the black smoke from the cloud faded, and a dark haired girl stood at the end of the hallway.

"Kali!" Eleven yelled, running towards her. They both opened their arms and embraced each other. Mike followed quickly behind Eleven, looking confused. "This is my sister Kali." Eleven told Mike, flipping over Kali's wrist to show him the tattoos.

"So this is who Jane was so eager to get home to." Kali commented. Mike and El both blushed at her comment.

Behind them Hopper pushed on the door into Sarah's room. It had closed as the cloud passed through. The door creaked open slowly. Hopper took a deep breath anxious to see how Sarah was. He stepped into the doorway. Suddenly there was a gasp from inside the door. Joyce and Eleven were the first to rush in.

Crumpled on the floor against the wall sat the police chief. His head was in his hands and his knees were pulled up to his chest. In his hand was a stuffed animal tiger. He was clutching it as tight as he could.

Behind him sat an empty bed. Sarah was no where to be seen. Joyce gasped and covered her mouth with her hand.

Eleven bent down and crouched next to him. She leaned over and hugged him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. He hugged her back and they cried together as Father and Daughter.

After a few minutes Hopper got a grip of himself as was able to clean himself up enough to get off the floor. Kali began to lead them back down the hallway, and down a few flights of stairs, back to the staff room she had found.

On the way there Eleven and Mike fell behind the rest of the group.

"W-what happened to s-Sarah? Mike asked, confused.

"Gone. The cloud..." El trailed off. Mike nodded understandingly. A tear began to fall from Elevens eye. Mike noticed this and wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close. Eleven was so excited to finally have a sister, and now she was gone...again.

El leaned her head on Mike's shoulder as they walked, trying to stop the tears from coming, for Hoppers sake.

They arrived at the lounge and all went inside, Hopper went over and sat on the couch. He was still clutching the stuffed animal, staring straight at it. Cautiously, Joyce walked over to him and rubbed his back.

At this Will leaned over to Jonathan and whispered so that only he could hear. "Have you noticed how Mom is acting?"

Dustin, who was standing slightly behind Will was able to hear and chose this opportunity to speak up. "It's obvious...your Moms got a thing for the chief."

Will rolled his eyes.

"Sadly, I think your friends right...but if he makes Mom happy then that's a good thing right?" Jonathan told Will. Will nodded. Jonathan did not like the idea of his mother dating again. He had never grown too fond of Bob, there was something weird about him. He had nothing against Hopper, he just didn't want to see his Mothers heart get broken...again. Her past 2 relationships had both ended terribly. One ended in a horrible divorce, while the other ended in his Mom watching her boyfriend get torn apart by demodogs.

The rest of the group, excluding the adults, went over and gathered around a large table. Robin spoke up in a demanding tone.

"Somebody tell us what the hell is going on!" She slammed her fist down on the table.

Billy walked over to Max, taking a cigarette out of his pocket. He paused for a second and placed it in his lips, he covered it with one hand and lit it with the other. He continued walking until his face was about 3 inches from Max's. He looked her in the eye.

"Yeah, would you like to tell me what's going on Maxine?" He questioned accusingly, huffing smoke into her face with every syllable. She coughed and tried to back up, but was stopped by a wall.

"I-I—" she stuttered before being cut off.

"Don't blame her! It was my fault." Lucas informed as he stepped forward to her side. His words even surprised himself.

"I told you he was bad news Maxine." Billy snarled.

"The only one who's bad news here is you Hargrove." Steve stated, coming to Lucas's defence.

What are you saying Harrington?" Billy took the cigarette from his mouth and flicked it to the ground. Stomping on it, he twisted his foot, not caring that it was on carpet. He took a step closer to Steve. The kids could all tell what was about to happen.

"Billy! Stop it!" Came Max's voice.

"Steve No!" Dustin yelled

Billy raised his arm, balling his hand into a fist when something else caught their attention.

A sharp wind suddenly blew past the outside of the door, making a few papers inside float to the ground.

This caused everyone to wrench their heads to look at the door, interrupting the fight about to happen.

The single shaky voice of a young boy who had experienced more fear in his 14 years then most do in their entire lifetime broke the silence.

"It's still in the building."