voltage ; stranger things

seventeen ; if you're happy

WHATEVER it is beneath Eleven's skin, it's alive, and it's angry. It darts this way and that, causing her to scream out again in agony. Everyone cringes and recoils as a pocket of pus begins to leak out from the side.

          "Somebody do something!" exclaims Mike.

          Jonathan climbs to his feet and tells her, "Okay, okay, stay right there." He races around the corner and into one of the tiny restaurants before returning a moment later and skidding to his knees. He gives Eleven a wooden spoon, which she bites down on, and shows everyone a hot-tipped kitchen knife. "El, this is gonna hurt like hell, okay?"

          He hesitates for a moment, collecting his breath, before he dips the knife into her calf. Eleven wails against the spoon, struggling against Mike and Lucas' hold. Colleen holds her sister's hand, horrified, as Will clings to her side and cries.

          Jonathan sets down the knife and swallows thick, then slowly inserts his fingers into the wound. Everyone cringes and holds their breath. Eleven screams. The thing inside her leg writhes and squirms, avoiding his grasp as he attempts to grab it.

          "Stop it!" Eleven cries after she spits out the spoon. "Stop it, stop it!" She pants deeply as Jonathan pulls back, his hand bloody and eyes wide. "I can do it," she murmurs. "I can do it."

          Colleen and the boys help her sit up before she extends a hand towards her wound. At her feet, Tony and Jonathan scoot back, wary. She emits another ground-trembling scream as she uses her powers to tug and twist at the thing inside her leg. It refuses to come out. She pulls even harder, at last extracting a small, slimy thing that screeches and flails in the air. It looks like a tiny arm of the shadow monster that haunted them just last year; the Mind Flayer.

          She cries out one last time before hurling the thing away. It lands on the ground across the food court, where it squirms for a moment. Then, a foot crashes down and stamps it out, splattering its insides. Everyone slowly looks up to see who the foot belongs to; Hopper, bearing a large cut on his forehead, with Joyce and Murray, the man Colleen, Jonathan, and Nancy once went to see, in his wake.

          Dustin slumps back against the nearest display window. "Oh, thank god," he says. "It took you guys long enough."

•••

          Within the hour, a plan is devised and set into motion; the new Mind Flayer, a gigantic, spider-like demon from the upside down is on its way; it's looking for Eleven and Colleen. They know, for it told the former itself, through its new vessel - Billy Hargrove. He's coming for them.

          The adults decide they will trek down to the Russian lab beneath the earth and shut the gate, with Dustin and Erica as their guides, who plan to communicate with them through Dustin's radio on a hill somewhere in the middle of a field. Cerebro, he calls it.

          And finally, the kids, along with Colleen and the other teenagers, will take the car back to Murray's safe house outside the city. They'll be safe there until the gate is shut and the Mind Flayer is killed, once and for all.

          As Colleen leans against one of the pillars in the food court, attempting to calm her deafening thoughts and cloudy mind, someone touches her arm. She opens her eyes to find Steve standing before her, a pistol in his right hand. "Hey," he murmurs low.

          "Hey." She switches her gaze to the gun. "Where did you get that?"

          He looks down at it, turning it over in his grasp. "Hopper gave it to me," he explains, "in case we're followed."

          "Well, just don't shoot yourself in the foot with it. I don't think I'll be able to save you then."

          They both chuckle for a moment, then fall quiet. There's a nervous tension between them, a connection that trembles and threatens to make them both confess their feelings all over again. This could be the last time they see each other; Steve and Robin are taking Dustin and Erica to the radio - Colleen is staying with her sister.

          "Be careful, Collie," he says, and finds he's closer than he was just a moment ago.

          She smiles, rather sadly, and tilts her head forward. Their breaths meet, reminding the other that they're right here, and their noses nudge against each other. "Always," she whispers. "I'll see you tomorrow."

          He nods, then touches his lips to hers before pulling away and retreating with his group. Colleen watches him for a moment, then turns her head when she feels eyes on her. From one of the benches set against the fountain is Hopper and Eleven, both staring at her with two very different expressions. Her sister gives her a tiny smile; her father looks as though he's going to keel over and suffer a heart attack.

          She pads over and sits on Hopper's other side, wordless. They sit together, silent, relishing in the feeling of being together again. How odd it is that only a few days can change everything.

          "Uh," says Hopper, turning to his eldest daughter, "hi."

          She looks up at him. "...Hi."

          "So is Harrington your boyfriend now?"

          Colleen looks down at her feet, gently clicking her heels together. She wishes they would take her home. "Yeah," she murmurs. She knows he won't at all like this. "He is."

          Hopper runs a hand over his face, then sighs deeply and hangs his head. "Guess I couldn't expect it to last forever." He looks down at her, then gives her a small, exhausted smile and takes her hand in his. "But if you're happy... I guess I can live with it."

          Colleen exhales and leans into his side, as does Eleven. He wraps his arms around his girls and holds them tight, closing his eyes. One more time. They can do this one more time; this time next week, Colleen will be on the phone with Steve late into the night and Eleven will be dancing in her room with Mike and he'll be in the middle of it all, simply listening to them and watching his shows. Everything will be okay. They'll all be okay.

          "I'm tired," says Eleven. "But I can fight."

          Colleen nods her head in agreement. She's so, so tired, from running from the Russians, being drugged, and then throwing up her insides... but she can't stop now. There's still work to be done.

          "I'm proud of you," says Hopper. "Both of you." He looks between them. Despite their situation and where they are, he smiles. "Tell you girls what - after all this is done, why don't we take a trip. Wherever you guys want."

          "Disney World," says Colleen.

          "The ocean," says Eleven.

          "Disney World is at the ocean."

          "Wherever you want," says Hopper, cutting them off, "that's reasonable."

          Before they're able to come up with anything else, Mike approaches them and gives a nod. "Guys. It's time to go."

          The girls exchange a look, then wrap Hopper in a tight hug from both sides. He exhales, almost contentedly, and embraces them before letting them go. "Be safe," he tells them.

          Before she joins the group, Colleen turns back. "Do you have your keys?" she asks.

          He reaches into his pocket, then produces his keys. He rattles them. She nods her head, then turns away and hurries after the others.