Surreal ✿ M. Wheeler ✿

✿ nine ✿

The next day, Josie and Eleven woke up and talked to each other telepathically. Josie was doing the hard work, though. She was lying on the ground emotionless, her eyes closed and eyebrows furrowed. Eleven was staring at the ground, wide eyed, as the girl was looking through her head and accessing her thoughts. She didn't need to talk out loud. She didn't even need to talk at all, for Josie could read her emotions just as well as she could read her mind.

He's my friend, El.

No.

I can't leave him in there. You know how dangerous it is.

No, Jo-sie.

We can... you can stop the boys and I can go in by myself.

Eleven grabbed Josie's limp hand comfortingly. She was still laying on the ground, completely inanimate. It was like her soul left her body and she was dead. Eleven checked her hand and still felt warmth, so she couldn't be dead. Plus she was talking to the girl in her head, there's obviously no chance she could do that without being alive. Unless, she somehow could. It would be another thing on the list of possibilities for the girl.

Eleven let go of the girl's hand when she heard footsteps rapidly descending down the stairs. She saw Mike, Lucas, and Dustin all coming down, Lucas and Dustin carrying bags full of various items. They looked over to the tent and saw Eleven sitting, staring at Josie with dead eyes. They then noticed that their friend was laying on the ground, unmoving and with blood dripping from her nose.

"Oh my god. I-is she okay?" Mike asked hurriedly. Lucas and Dustin exchanged looks. Mike ran to the tent and knelt down and looked at the girl, not knowing what to do. Eleven didn't say anything and remained to stare at Josie.

After a few minutes, Josie's eyes opened and she looked up to see Mike's brown eyes staring into her own. Mike completely sat down, a heavy sigh escaping him, looking relieved and the girl sat up. She rubbed the blood from her nose and looked at all her friends who were staring at her. She didn't say anything and looked at Eleven who was giving her a look. Josie gave her one back, they weren't going to talk about this right now.

"Guys stop freaking out, you're making my head hurt. I'm alive. There was no need for you guys to worry. The only way for me to go deep into someone's mind with full power is when I am immobile. It allows me to do more than just hear your thoughts, I can communicate to you as well as touch you," she explained.

Mike thought back to that night. The night where he felt like he could hear, smell, and feel the girl. Her fingers running through his hair. How she laughed with him. How she said that she liked his new nickname for her. And those words that ran through his mind every time he got to think about it.

Do you feel this?

He felt his hand all of sudden get warm, just like that day. The tingles that ran through his finger tips and the voice all sealing the deal. He knew that she was coming back to them and he knew that she was going to help them out. In anyway that she could, for her name wasn't Josefina for nothing. Her name had meaning, and she was their caretaker, she was going to find a way to get Will back.

"Okay, so what's the plan?" Dustin asked.

Mike got up from his spot and looked at Josie. She and Eleven were staring at each other, not speaking but he knew they were communicating. He could tell they were close, that they came together because of the misfortunes that happened to them. Though Eleven had been there longer, they still experienced something bad together. And Mike couldn't fathom what had been done to them. He didn't want to.

He decided to leave the girls be and walked over to his friends, the three of them breaking from the other two and coming up with the game plan. Mike looked between Lucas and Dustin. Lucas was the first to speak, "When will we begin the search?"