Magic between us || Fillie

Jealous

El steadily began walking backwards in order to get out of the cave, thinking she must be imagining that he was looking at her. That simply couldn't be possible.

'You don't recognize me at all, do you?', the blond boy asked, a slight disappointment noticeable in his voice.

She immediately halted and turned her head from left to right, her lips agape, searching for the person this boy was talking to.

'I'm talking to you'

She met his eyes once again, swallowing down the fear she felt when she realized he could truly see her.

'But... How...', she muttered shakily.

'How can I see you?', he finished for her and then, having gotten her silent confirmation when she nodded her head slowly, he continued, 'You should really be asking how you can see me.'

El's eyebrows furrowed, creating deep creases on her forehead. She shook her head, not understanding what he meant by that.

'You've been seeing these same images in your head for months and only now have you noticed the cave and seen me talking to Hopper. Why do you think that is?', he asked, genuinely interested in the response, being quite confused by that himself.

At the mention of her dad's name, she suddenly remembered what had happened just moments before, 'Hop... Hopper... How do you know Hopper? Where is he?', she uttered urgently.

He smiled slightly and, completely ignoring her questions, he said, 'I don't remember you talking that much before.'

'Before?', she repeated blankly.

'Yeah', he said simply, 'when we were kids. You really don't remember me?'

She simply shook her head, having no idea what he was talking about.

'We met each other when we were three years old.'

El couldn't help but disbelieve him. She had been in the lab all her life, she had never been to this place before. There was no way she could have ever met him.

'We didn't meet here. We met back in the lab. In Hawkins', he said automatically.

How did he know, she thought to herself perplexedly.

'I can hear your thoughts here', he answered, 'I wouldn't be able to do that in reality, but since this dream is my creation I can do what I want.'

'Your creation?', she repeated his words, feeling absolutely disoriented.

The boy in front of her just nodded, smiling smugly. He had done similar things before, but he couldn't help but feel proud of himself for how this one turned out.

'Who are you?', El asked firmly after a couple of minutes, when she realized he wouldn't elaborate on what he had said.

'Oh, how rude of me! I do apologize, I thought you might have remembered me so I didn't even think to introduce myself', he replied hastily extending his arm to shake her hand, 'My name is Пётр. Though in English, it's Peter.'

'In English?'

'Yeah, that's the English version of my name. I'm Russian', he explained patiently.

El hurriedly stepped back, almost jumping, her eyes wide open in alarm after hearing that. She didn't have very fond memories of Russians, especially not after Dustin's stories of his underground adventures.