One (A Stranger Things Fanfiction)

Chapter Three - Mike's Nighttime Thoughts

Mike always felt guilty these days.

There had been signs lately that another attack from the Upside Down was imminent, and Mike didn't always know what to do or where to be.

He wished that he could be in multiple places at once, so that he could protect everyone that he loved.

The best that he could do was guard a different loved one each night.

Sundays and Wednesdays, he guarded Will and Eleven, who were frequent targets for the Mind Flayer's attacks. He always slept in Will's room on these nights in order to reassure Hopper that he wasn't doing anything inappropriate with Eleven.

Mondays and Thursdays, he guarded Dustin, who was in the hospital, having recently taken a bad fall and broken every bone in his body. That would have been bad enough for a person with a healthy skeleton, but was especially bad for Dustin, who had cleidocranial dysplasia.

Tuesdays and Fridays, he guarded his father and his younger sister. They didn't always understand him, but they didn't need to in order for him to love them. They were his family.

He dreaded Saturdays, when he guarded his mother.

Not too long ago, his mother had moved out of their house and moved in with her new boyfriend, who Mike despised. He still loved his mother and wanted to protect her, but being around her now was a chore, because her new boyfriend was such a creep.

Honestly, Mike wouldn't have minded seeing this guy get eaten by a Demogorgon.

He wished that he could protect Lucas too. The problem was that he didn't know where Lucas was. Nobody did. He'd run away with that annoying girl, Max, sometime during the summer, and nobody had heard from them since. There were rumours swirling that Max was in a delicate condition, and that just gave Mike all the more reason to want to protect them, not just from Demogorgons, but from Max's evil stepbrother, who was out hunting for them every day.

Mike really wished that a Demogorgon would eat that guy.

He supposed that he didn't really need to worry about his older sister. She was still on her honeymoon with Will's brother. He only hoped that they wouldn't come back until the coming battle was over.

Mike still felt guilty that he couldn't guard everyone at once.

Right now, he was guarding Will and Eleven, but that meant that he was leaving all of his other loved ones on their own, and he didn't know what he would do if something happened to one of his loved ones while he was guarding another one.

He imagined that Will had to be embarrassed about being guarded like this, but Mike knew that an embarrassed friend was better than a dead one. So, there he sat, on the floor at the foot of Will's bed, struggling to keep his eyes open, with a knife in one hand and an acetylene torch in the other one.

Suddenly, the wall began to ripple, which was a telltale sign that something was coming from the Upside Down. In a flash, Mike was on his feet, his weapons ready. He glanced at Will, who was struggling into an upright position, and then back at the wall.

What came through the wall was not a Demogorgon, but a wild-eyed woman.

She was dressed only in a hospital gown, which, like her skin, was coated in mud and blood, both dried and fresh. Her long hair looked as if it had never been washed or even brushed. She locked eyes with Will, looked like she was trying to say something, and then she suddenly collapsed, unconscious, right on the spot where Mike had just been sitting.

"It can't be!" exclaimed Will.

"Do you know her?" asked Mike.

Before Will could answer, the wall rippled again, and this time, a Demogorgon came through. It roared, and then appeared to zero in on Will. Mike jumped onto the bed and assumed a protective stance.

"You want him?! You're going to have to get through me!" shouted Mike.

The Demogorgon then grabbed Mike, and Mike felt many, many sharp teeth sink themselves into his neck.

"No!" screamed Will.