Neighbors - Strangerthingsau

Chapter 26

"El, Wait!"

It's been two days. Two days since the bad men came to El's house. Since then, they have been stuck in this small cabin. Too small for everyone's liking. They keep on bumping into one another and arguing about the littlest things.

The only person that had left the cabin was Hopper. He left to get food, flashlights and call the other's parents saying that their kids were sleeping over at Will's for a few days.

El personally hated it here. She hated the dust that, no matter how hard she tried to clean it up, never went away. She hated the darkness and how small it is, it reminded her of the lab. But she was here so she won't end up back in the lab again. And if that means a few more days of this, she would take that over years of it.

El sat on the couch playing with her hands. She was constantly bored with nothing to do, it made time feel like years. In a way she was used to it, being bored. At least this time around she had people to talk to. And only half of the talks end up in fights now.

"How long are we needing to stay here?" Lucas asked from the table. El could already tell that this conversation was going to end in a fight. She knew because this question had been tossed around a lot, and every time it's answered with a-

"I don't know." Hopper said annoyed, he rubbed his tired eyes and sighed.

"Well, if we don't get home soon, our parents will start wondering where we are." Dustin rose his voice.

"Your parents think your at our house."

"I know," Dustin said. "But what if they called the house and no one is there to answer. What if they went over to your place to make sure everything was okay and we weren't there?"

"He's right." El said standing up, gaining the attention of everyone. "They need to leave."

"El," Hopper said. "They're in danger too. The bad men saw them. They need to stay safe and they won't be safe if they are just walking around town."

"You're right." El nodded. "Which is why you need to go with them."

"El-"

"You can keep them safe." El argued. "Plus, they are in way more danger staying. Like with mama, she would have been fine if she wasn't caught with me. And I am not going to let them do the same thing to the people I love."

"We are not just going to leave you here." He said shaking his head.

"He right." A new voice broke through the conversation. El turned to see Mike walking up to her. "We can't just leave you here."

"I will be fine." El said getting irritated.

"We know you'll be fine, Eleven." Mike spoke gently.

"Don't call me that!" El rose her voice. When he said that before she felt new. But this time he said it brought her back to the reason they were hiding in the first place. "And if you know I'll be fine then you can leave, because you won't be fine if your caught with me."

"El-" Joyce tried to reason with her before getting cut off.

"I'm the reason my mother is sitting in her rocking chair right now!" El yelled with tears starting to form in her eyes. "I refuse to be the reason for you guys to get hurt too! And I don't want the people I care about to have their brains turn to mush and never get better! You it's either you leave or I will!"

"No!" Mike yelled back. "We won't let that happen, I promise."

"You can't control what happens, you know that!" She said tears spilling out of her eyes.

"Neither can you!" Mike through his hands up for emphasis. "And you know that! So stop acting liking you know what will happen because you don't! You don't know if Brenner will find us! You don't know if they find us what they will do! Face the fact that your as stupid as the rest of us in this situation!"

"I'm trying to protect you and think ahead!" She spat back.

"Maybe you should stop then! Because it's making you a schizo and an idiot!" Mike's eyes widened as he realized what he just said. He look at El to see pain in her face. He immediately felt bad and tried to look for something, anything to say to make it better.

The room was quiet. Like everyone was just waiting to see what would happen next. El blinked back the rest of her tears as she walked past Mike towards the door. Mike realized what she was doing and grabbed wrist to stop her from leaving the cabin.

"El, wait!" He said with pleading eyes. Pleading to forgive him. Pleading for her not to leave.

She whipped her head to face him, anger clear on her face and voice. "Goodbye Mike."

She ripped her arm from his grasp and went over to the door. Before they knew what hit them, the door slammed shut indicating she left. The group sighed and hurried to the door to stop her. One by one the filed on to the porch, only to find themselves, no El.

"Let's split up, don't go too far. Meet back up here." Hopper said as the group dispersed. Mike walked past Hopper to start looking only to be stopped by him. "You should stay in case she comes back. Plus, you've done enough."

Mike said nothing but nod and sit down on the porch with hopes they will find her.

He hated himself for what he said. It was his fault she left and he knew it. He wished to turn back time and change things so it wouldn't end with her leaving, instead it would've ended with her understanding.

He sat and waited for the group. Minutes felt like hours as he sat there with a pit in his stomach making feel sick.

An hour passed by before slowly everyone started to return empty handed. The group was waiting for the last person to show, Hopper. The minutes dragged on longer as people tried to find ways to occupy themselves on the porch. Jonathan and Joyce were pacing, Dustin and Lucas were looking in the woods to see if they could see anything, Max was shooting Mike glares, Mike was sitting on the stairs with his leg bouncing up and down with anticipation.

A snap of a twig made everyone look at where the sound was. A shadow emerged for the darkness and as it step into the light of the others flashlights, it revealed itself as Hopper.

He looked up at the group with saddened eyes and shook his head showing he didn't see any sign of her.

They planned to wait at the cabin for a few hours to see if El would show. All they could do was hope.

Hope that she would come back safe.

Authors note

Thanks again for reading. I'm so for the cliffhanger, goods news is that you don't have to wait long.

And if you are getting a lot of notifications because of me, I'm sorry I'm currently am trying to edit the book.

See you tomorrow!