Clean cut American kid ~ Stranger things

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

I watch awkwardly as the obviously emotional reunion acts out before me. I feel like I'm not supposed to be here. Max timidly walks up behind the boys after they're done embracing Eleven. She sticks her hand out to shake and El looks at it for a second before deciding to ignore it and push past them all. She walks over to me. I look down at the girl. There's recognition in her eyes. She holds out her left hand. I put mine in it. She flips it over and looks at the number scribbled on my cast. She tugs at her sleeve. Eleven. I look up at her face. She knows who I am. I don't know how, but she knows who I am. We give each other a silent nod. 

Joyce coms up next to us and takes the girl in her arms. They hug for an extended time and I'm back too feeling excluded. Oh shut up Sherry! Seeing all these bleeding people together strangely makes me feeling jealous. Just a little bit. Joyce calls her sweetheart. 

El asks Joyce to see Will. They walk in to the bedroom in which he's laying unconscious. She sees the message next to the bed. Close gate. 

"You opened this gate before right?" Joyce asks. "Do you think if we got you back there, that you could close it?"

El looks at Joyce. "I can close it," she says confidently. She turns around and looks at me. "With you."

I blink. Me? I feel a big hand on my shoulder. Hopper. 

"I don't know if this is a good idea."

"I can do it." El says firmly and looks sternly at him above my shoulder. "With her it will be easier."

She walks towards me. 

"I know what to do, you have to be with me. I know what you can do, I've seen it." 

I feel Hopper's heavy hand, trying to reassure me. I turn to look at him. I must look as exhausted as I feel but I know it's not over yet. This is what I have to do. What I want to do.

"I mean, I did open a gate as well." I look at Eleven. "Let's do it."

*****

I reach for Hoppers cigarette package that's stuffed into the center console in his car, placing one cig between my lips and lighting it. I drag the smoke into my lungs. Deep breaths. I lean my head against the window and focus on calming my nerves. Hopper and Eleven are talking in the front seat. It's bleeding and emotional and I'm uncomfortable knowing that I'm not supposed to be here as it happens so I fill my head with anxious thoughts to keep myself from overhearing. 

I feel someones stare on me and meet Hopper's eyes in the rearview mirror.

"What?" I ask.

"You hanging on back there?" He asks.

"Yeah, why?

He looks like he wants to say something. 

"Keep me out of the bleediness," I tell him and look out to the window again to avoid noticing his expression. 

He doesn't have time to think of a comeback before the lab towers up in front of us. We jump out of the vehicle and walk in through the entrance. It's a graveyard. Disembodied meat piles are spaced out through the building. A dull stench of rot fogs the air. Hopper leads the way with the flashlight attached to his rifle. We head down to the control room. It's unmoved since the last time we were here and had to flee because demo dogs broke trough the glass. I walk towards the shattered opening. it's large enough for us to simply step through. 

I feel Hopper's hand wrap around my arm and hold me back. Not again. I turn around.

"What now?"

He seems to contemplate in his head. 

"I just wish you'd... be a bit careful sometimes. Take it easy."

"Not really time for that now. Eleven, are you ready?"

"I'm ready."

Hopper sighs deeply. I hold back a smug grin. Finally two against one.

We step though the glass opening and onto the hanging sluice. Hopper is right behind us. The gate is towering in front of us and it looks like an over dimensional flesh wound, vomiting negative energy and sucking the life out of our world. 

Eleven grabs my hand and weaves her fingers with mine. I'm not doing anything yet I can feel the energy leaking through me. I sense the blood rearranging in my body, everywhere I'm frozen through the bone except where my fingers are entwined with hers. The blood is heatedly pounding in my hand as the power in my body is leaking from me and through her, where it absorbs more power before shooting out through her fingertips towards the gate. I notice when demo dogs appear and jump onto the sluice, they're creating commotion, and Hopper starts firing. I notice it all, but my body is frozen still, numb, and I can't focus on anything but the pounding of energy that I'm sharing with Eleven as she combines our power and closes the gate. Slowly but surely, closing the gate. 

And then everything is silent. Darkness encompasses us as the fire beyond the gate is diminished. We tumble to the floor of the sluice in a tired pile. My head is pounding and I struggle to not fall unconscious from exhaustion. The only source of light comes from the strip light in the ceiling of the open sluice. As through a thick fog I feel Hopper wrap his arms around us and pull us all three together. Eleven squeezes my hand. I didn't feel her still holding it. I give her a squeeze back.

"You did good, you both did so good," he says in his familiar and comforting deep voice. I lean my head against his shoulder.