the year of el | mileven

ch. 24 | secret weapon

Her eyes shot open and she was surrounded by dark familiarity.

The walls oozed with thick black slime and white specks drifted from the sky almost as if they were snowflakes.

She sat on the frozen ground and wrapped her arms tightly around her knees bringing them close to her chest.

This place brought back painful memories that she had done her best to hide in the recesses of her mind but now they were resurfacing all at once.

El felt as empty and as alone as she did when she was a child.

She tried to wipe away those overwhelming thoughts by replacing them with the new memories she had with Mike.

Desperate to ease her mind she began to sway while she hummed the song that played during their first dance.

✧

"Professor, If my calculations are correct she has connected to the other realm and she should be there right now."

"Perfect." Lowe said rubbing his hands together.

✧

Joyce grew frantic after hearing everything from her son "No! No! No! This can't be happening for the second damn time!" She retorted, pacing around and pulling out a cigarette

"Whoa, so Will you actually saw the demogorgon again?" Lucas gasped

"I saw three of them this time but they're smaller"

Dustin's mouth fell "So the slug shit we saw you pukin up, they were babies?"

"I guess" Will shrugged with an uneasy expression on his face

Joyce lit the cigarette and took a quick drag "That's it, I'm callin the Chief! We are gettin to the bottom of this once and for all!" she said running off to the payphone near by

"I'm just trying to process all of this." Max said, blinking slowly "So the doctors are actually a bunch of ass holes who took the monsters you basically gave birth to and raised them for some kind of crazy evil government experiment?!"

Will nodded "I knew they were hiding something, I just wasn't expecting it to be this.."

"Mike and El are sure taking a long time.." Lucas interrupted, glancing at his watch

Max grew worried "Do you think they're okay?"

"What If something happened guys? Maybe we should go check on them?" Will asked, nervously rubbing his head

"We?" Dustin shook his head from side to side "No we. Lucas AND I will go check on them, you can barely get out of bed as it is so you're staying right here mister"

"Um Hey! Did you forget about me?" Max intervened, waving her hands in his face

"You should stay with Will and his mom, ya know for comfort.."

Max deadpanned "You've gotta be kiddin me Dustin"

"I actually agree with him. You should stay with them plus somebody's gotta explain to Hopper what's happenin when he gets here so he doesn't murder us" Lucas replied lightheartedly, placing his hand on her shoulder

Max looked him in the eyes and sighed "Fine.. I guess"

"Thanks you're the best!" he replied, suddenly embracing her

Max eye's grew wide in shock and then she smiled, blushing faintly "Just be careful okay?" she cringed as she caught onto what she had just said "uh.. like don't do anything stupid Sinclair"