Neighbors - Strangerthingsau

Chapter 15

Eleven

El was watching some tv with her mom, when she heard a knock at the door.

"Jane! Can you get it? I'm kind of busy here!" Becky yelled from the other room.

"Sure." El yelled back. She got up from her place on the couch and walked towards the door. She opened it and saw the five people she would least expected to show up.

"Hey El." Lucas said.

"Or should we say Jane." Dustin finished. That made El's heart stop. Mike saw the terror flash through her eyes as her mouth opened as if she were going to say something, but no words came out.

"Jane!" Becky called from the other room. The group watched as she tensed at the named. "Who was at the door?"

El looked behind her to see Becky making her way towards the door. El stepped behind Becky as she looked over the random kids that just showed at her door. "I'm sorry, can we help you guys?"

"Were Jane's friends." Max said looking at El straight in her eyes. El looked down at her feet.

"Oh!" Becky exclaimed looking at a scared El. "Well, your a long way from home. Why are you here exactly?"

"We know there's something going on." Lucas sighed. "We need to know the full thing."

El and Becky looked at each other as in they were having a silent conversation. After a few seconds Becky looked back at the party. "Why don't you guys come inside."

The party went inside and walked down the long hallway. They looked into the living room and saw El's mother on a rocking chair, mumbling words to herself. They were lead into the kitchen and Becky left saying she would leave them alone.

As soon as they heard a door shut everyone turned to El who was pacing the room. Her heart was racing, her stomach was twisting, her body was shaking.

"I don't know if you know this, but our number one rule for being in this party is friends don't lie." Lucas said watching as El stopped pacing and turned to the group.

"I never lied to you guys." El spoke softly.

"Really?" Mike said softly. "Really Jane?"

"I didn't lie, Okay? I don't consider that my name anymore."

"Okay." Will said. "Did you actually know the reason you came out here?"

"Okay, that I may have lied about, but trust me it was for your own good." El said throwing up her hands defensively.

"Our own good?" Lucas said crossing his arms. "What could possibly be that important that you need to keep things from us?"

El looked down at her shoes not responding.

"Fine." Lucas said annoyed. "Don't tell us. Just know that we aren't going to trust you, if you don't trust us."

The group started to leave until they heard El. "Wait!" The group turned around to face her. "I'll tell you, but you have to be completely 100% sure, that you want to know. Because there is a risk with you knowing."

The group all looked at each other then nodded at El. They all took a seat, getting ready to hear everything she's about to say.

"Fine." El said taking a seat also. "Before I was born, my mom worked at a place called Chicago labs. Her job was to get in these bathtubs for experiments. They would have her take a bunch of drugs before going into them. Their main focus for these experiments were to expand the mind, but what my mom didn't know at the time, was that she was pregnant with me.

When I was born, the scientist that worked with my mom thought that I would be special. So they took me away from her. They made her and Becky think I was dead. But my mom saw me and knew I was still alive. So she tried everything to try get me back, but she got caught one time. They did something to make her like what you saw, she never got better.

For me though, the scientist were right about me being special. They ran experiments on me, and if I didn't do what they wanted they would hurt me or lock me in a small closet. Which is the reason I'm so scared to be in tiny places. They made me a prisoner for 12 years. Until Hopper found me and got me out of there. When he found me, I could barely speak, I only really knew 'yes' 'no' and 'papa'. He took me in.

He taught me math, English, everything I needed to know. I met my mom and Becky, but we decided I would be safer with Hopper. So he adopted me. And when we found out we were moving to Hawkins, that was the first time I got to walk around freely without feeling unsafe. Like, I wasn't a prisoner anymore." El finished with tears boiling in her eyes.

The room was silent for a few minutes with everyone trying to grasp what they were just told.

"That doesn't answer all of our questions." Lucas finally spoke up.

"Well, asked them and I will do my best to answer." El replied.

"What does El stand for?" Mike asked.

El took a deep, shaky breath. "Eleven."

"Eleven? Like the number Eleven?" Max asked.

El looked down at her long sleeve shirt and brought her arm up on the table. She pull her sleeve back to reveal a tattoo of 011 on her wrist.

"You have a tattoo?" Dustin asked wide eyed.

"It's how they kept track of the children they were experimenting on." El said.

"How were you special?" Will asked.

El didn't respond, all she did was point to something behind them. The party turned to see silverware floating in midair. They turned to look at El and saw that her nose was bleeding. She wiped her nose on her sleeve as all of her friends eyes burned on her.

"Y-you have powers!" Dustin stuttered.

"Yes." El said shyly, just wanting to disappear.

"So, why are you here?" Max asked softly.

"I saw him the other day. Papa. He was looking for me so it wasn't safe for me in Hawkins. But I should be able to come back in a few days."

"Okay."

"Did I answer all of your questions?"

"Yeah." They said in unison.

El got up and left the room, but before she got out of the room she turned to face the party who were watching her. "Have a nice trip back."

The group got up and started walking towards the door. As they were leaving they saw El in the living room with her mom, watching tv, silently crying. They all looked at each other and they knew they had the same feeling.

Guilt.

Authors note!!!
Thanks so much for 900 reads! ❤️❤️❤️
Also thanks for the positive feedback for Letter to El!