MADELINE, dustin henderson

|013

They continue to talk to Will, as we write down the letters that Hopper gives us through dashes and dots with a walkie-talkie.

"C"

"L"

"O"

"S"

"E"

"G"

"A"

"T"

"E"

"Close gate," we read when it's finished. Suddenly, the phone starts ringing.

"Shit, shit!" Dustin exclaims and picks up the phone, hanging it up. It starts ringing again, so Nancy rips the whole phone out and throws it on the ground.

"Do you think he heard that?" Max asks.

"It's just a phone, it could be anywhere. Right?" Steve states and I shrug.

"Let's just hope he didn't," I say. Suddenly, we hear screeching from the outside of the house. All of us walk to the windows.

"That's not good," Dustin exclaims. The door opens and Hopper, Joyce, Mike, and Jonathan come in, Hopper with a gun.

"Hey, hey! Get away from the windows," he yells and we walk to the back wall of the room.

"Do you know how to use this?" Hopper asks Jonathan.

"What?" he asks back.

"Can you use this?" Hopper repeats.

"I can," me and Nancy walk further. Hopper looks between me and Nancy, throwing the gun at her.

"Oh, come on, really?" I ask in disbelief.

"I need you to be safe, Madeline," Hopper says and I sigh.

"Fine," I mutter in understanding. Steve grabs his bat, swinging it slightly from side to side. They point their weapons to the windows, ready for anything to attack. I grab onto Dustin's hand, holding it tightly.

"Where are they?" Nancy asks and Lucas joins, ready to throw a rock with his slingshot. We hear screeches from the outside and a loud one from another window. Everyone turns to it, ready for anything.

"What are they doing?" Nancy asks again. Another loud screech comes from the other side of the window we were looking at before. More screeches are heard and then one Demodog comes flying in through a window. Everyone backs up from it and my grip on Dustin's hand gets tighter. When the Demodog doesn't move at all, we slowly walk closer to it.

"Holy shit," Dustin exclaims.

"Is it dead?" Max asks and Hopper pushes it with his feet, seeing it not move. The lock on the front door starts unlocking and everyone turns to it.

"Do Demodogs know how to open doors?" I ask as I hide behind Dustin's shoulder. The door slowly opens, revealing a girl in all black. Everybody just kinda stares at her in shock, while me and Max have no idea who it is. Mike and the girl walk to each other.

"Eleven," the Wheeler boy mutters as they hug.

"Mike," the girl says and me and Max exchange looks.

"Is that..." Max trails off and I move next to Dustin. Mike and El pull away from each other.

"I never gave up on you, I called you every night. Every night for—"

"353 days. I heard," El cuts Mike off.

"Why didn't you tell me you were there? That you were okay?" Mike asks.

"Because I wouldn't let her," Hopper replies and I furrow my eyebrows.

"The hell is this? Where've you been?" he questions as he walks to the girl.

"Where have you been," El says back, then Hopper pulls her into a hug.

"You've been hiding her. You've been hiding her the whole time!" Mike realizes, pushing Hopper.

"Hey! Let's talk... alone." Hopper grabs onto his shirt and they walk into a different room. We hear some screaming, but then it tunes down. Dustin lets go of my hand and he and Lucas walk to El, both hugging her.

"We missed you," Lucas says and I look at Max.

"I missed you too," Eleven states and I look back at them.

We talked about you pretty much every day," Dustin states and they pull away. El stares at Dustin for a second, then touches his mouth.

"Teeth," she says.

"What?" Dustin asks in confusion.

"You have teeth," El explains and Dustin and Lucas smile at each other.

"Oh, you like these pearls?" Dustin asks and does a 'grrr' sound. I raise an eyebrow at him.

"Eleven?" Max asks and walks to her, making me walk beside her.

"Hey, um... I'm Max." she smiles at El, reaching her hand for her to shake.

"And I'm Maddie, Hi. We uh... We heard a lot about you." I smile too. El just looks at us and passes between us, not forgetting to bump into us a little bit. Me and Max exchange sad looks, then look to the ground. Joyce walks in and hugs El.

"Hey, Dustin whispers as he grabs my hand. I look up at him.

"I'm sure she's gonna come around," he says and I nod.

"Yeah, I guess," I say quietly, pull my hand away and sit on the couch.

-

"It's not like it was before, it's grown. A lot. And I mean, that's considering that we can get in there. The place is crawling with those dogs," Hopper states as we all gather around the dining table.

"Demodogs," Dustin corrects him and I roll my eyes.

"I'm sorry, what?" Hopper asks.

"I said, uh... Demodogs. Like Demogorgon and dogs, you put them together, it sounds pretty badass—"

"How is this important right now?" I question, cutting him off.

"It's not, I'm sorry," Dustin mutters in response.

"I can do it," El says, making us all turn to her.

"You're not hearing me," Hopper exclaims.

"I'm hearing you, I can do it," Eleven repeats confidently.

"Even if El can, there's still another problem. If the brain dies, the body dies," Mike states.

"I thought that was the whole point," Max says in confusion.

"It is, but if we're really right about this... I mean, if El closes the gate and kills the Mind Flayer's army..." Mike continues.

"Will's apart of that army," Lucas says and I sigh.

"And closing the gate will kill him," I mutter and Mike nods.

-

We all head to Will's room, me shivering from how cold it is in there.

"He likes it cold," Joyce mutters.

"What?" Hopper asks in clear confusion.

"It's what Will kept saying to me. He likes it cold," she explains and walks to the window, closing it.

"We keep giving it what it wants!" Joyce exclaims.

"If this is a virus and Will's the host, then..." Nancy trails off.

"We need to make the host uninhabitable," Jonathan finishes for her.

"So if he likes it cold..." I mutter and look at Joyce.

"We have to burn it out of him," she states and I sigh nervously.

"We have to do it somewhere he doesn't know this time," Mike adds.

"Yeah, somewhere far away," Dustin concludes.