Shadows and Monsters- A Jonathan Byers/Stranger Things fanfiction

Chapter 22: Flying

   Mike and everyone else turned to see Eleven standing tall with her fists clenched and a bloody nose. She walked closer to us, as one of the bullies fell to the ground and the other's arm snapped, sounding like a painfully broken bone. He cowered in pain, holding onto his arm. 

"Go." Eleven commanded, as they ran away.

"Yeah that's right! You better run! She's our friend and she's crazy! If you come back here she'll kill you! She'll kill you, you hear me?" Dustin yelled at them both as they ran back into the woods.

   As Dustin was getting the last word in, I couldn't help but laugh until I heard Eleven fall to the ground. We all ran to her side, to see if she was okay. Her eyes were closed and she wasn't conscious, although she was breathing. Mike got down closest to her and shook her, trying to wake her up. 

"El?" He called out repeatedly. She was opening her eyes and was starting to gain consciousness.

"Mike. I'm sorry." Eleven was crying, the kind of crying that broke your heart to watch.

"Sorry? What are you sorry for?" Mike asked.

"The gate. I opened it. I'm the monster." She answered, choking on her words. 

"No El, you're not the monster. You saved me, do you understand? You saved me." It was evident that he was so happy to see Eleven.

   Mike helped Eleven up and pulled her into a hug. Dustin joined the hug, wrapping his arms over his friends. Jonathan and I looked at each other, shrugging our shoulders, and joined in as well. I loved these kids and I wanted to protect them at all costs. We all stood up eventually one by one, brushing off all the dirt from our clothes. 

"Do you guys wanna come over to my house?" Mike asked all of us.

   We all said yes, so we walked back to the woods so Mike and Dustin could get their bikes and Jonathan and I got back to his car. The two of us followed the three back to Mike's house as we sat in silence.

"I can't believe Eleven did that with her mind." I confessed to Jonathan.

"Yeah. She saved Mike's life before we could, but you were really brave today." He said.

"Me?" I turned to face him, taken back by his compliment.

"You did more then I did to try and help Dustin." He added.

"Well I tried to until I got tackled to the ground by a middle schooler." I laughed.

"Still, You knocked him down first, and you got a knife out of it." He pointed to the skinny, silver knife that I had forgotten was still in my hand. 

   Jonathan pulled into Mike's driveway, as we walked with the boys to Mike's back door that led directly to his basement. We walked into the basement, closing the door behind us. Eleven walked into the basement's bathroom. The door was open as I saw her looking in the mirror. I walked in, thinking she might want the company of another girl. I noticed she was wearing Nancy's old clothes that she used to wear when we were friends. El looked cute in them, and it brought me back to when Nancy and I use to coordinate cute dresses and outfits to wear to school. Now I just showed up in jeans and a t shirt. 

"Still pretty?" Eleven asked while looking at her reflection.

"Very pretty." I told her, putting a hand on her shoulder. She turned to me and smiled. I noticed that she had dried blood on her nose so I grabbed a rag on the sink and wet it with water.

"Let me help you out though. You have some blood on you." I told her, pointing to her nose. I rung out the rag and carefully wiped away all of the blood. She continued smiling, as Mike approached us.