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Chapter 3

The next morning, Mike woke up, unable to move. He looked down and saw Eleven, and then smiled. He reached up and pushed some hair out of her eyes. He looked around and saw Dustin, Max, and Lucas still asleep on the floor, Joyce and Hopper were in the kitchen, and Will was sitting in a chair watching TV.

"Hey." Mike said quietly, trying not to wake Eleven up. Will looked at him and grinned.

"Hey."

"You feeling better?" Mike asked.

"Oh yeah. I haven't felt this good in a long time. What about you?" Mike glanced down at Eleven and nodded.

"So much better it's insane." Will grinned at him again.

"I'll be even better when I get food in ma belly." Will joked. Dustin sat straight up at the word 'food', which woke the other two up.

"Food? What are we eating."

"Well, apparently Hopper went to the store and got some eggos and some other things." Eleven's head popped up sleepily when eggos was said, much like Dustin had done.

"Eggos?" Mike laughed as she sat up. She scooted away from him so he could sit up too and then scooted right back so she was close to him.

"When all the other food is done we'll make you kids some eggos!" Hopper called.

"You guys need to call your parents and make sure they know you're okay and that you'll be home later." Joyce called. They all groaned and did so. Mike came back into the living room, silently fuming, after talking on the phone with his dad, who answered instead of his mom.

"Sorry son of a bitch, just a waste of time talking to him." He grumbled as he sat back down beside Eleven.

"Mike? Why you mad?" Eleven asked, putting her head on his shoulder. His anger slowly went away then.

"My dad answered instead of my mom. He literally just said "Okay" to everything I said. That's it." He rolled his eyes.

"I'm sorry." She said, putting her arms around him in a hug. He smiled a small smile and hugged her back.

"It's okay, El."

"Food is ready!" Joyce yelled and they all rushed into the kitchen. When their food was put in front of them, they all started to stuff their faces.

"Hungry, huh?"

"We only ate breakfast yesterday." Mike said, and the others nodded in agreement.

"I haven't ate in three days." Eleven said with a mouth full of food. Everyone looked at her.

"Why?" Joyce said. She shrugged innocently.

"You still need to tell me where you've been for the last couple of days, young lady." Hopper said, pointing a fork at her. She swallowed her food and took a sip of orange juice.

"Went to see mama." She said. "And sister."

"Sister?" Everyone chorused.

"Sister." She nodded. "Eight." She said.

"As in...?" Joyce asked.

"Experiment number eight." She told them. "With me when I was younger. She escaped."

"Where is she now?" Lucas asked. She shrugged.

"Police were after us. They were killing people that hurt them. Tried to get me to find them. I found one, but I didn't kill him. I was supposed to, but he had kids." She shoved a forkful of eggos into her mouth. "She put a wall up to hide us and before we left, I told her I had friends. Friends that I had to go back to and help. She wanted me to stay but I couldn't. I had to come back. Nice lady on bus talked to me though." She smiled at that. Everyone didn't know what to say.

"She had others with her?" Hopper asked. She nodded.

"Police were shooting at us." She pushed her empty plate back and looked at them.

"Wow." Dustin said in awe.

"What kind of abilities does she have?" Will asked.

"She can make people see stuff that others can't. She showed me a butterfly. It was pretty. And she showed me..." She stopped talking then, kind of dazed, her eyes beginning to water.

"El?" Mike asked softly. She looked at him and blinked.

"She showed me papa." She whispered. Everyone looked at each other.

"He's gone now, El. He can't hurt you anymore, I promise." Mike said. She looked at him, a twinkle in her eye when he said that.

"Promise?" She smiled. He smiled back and grabbed her hand.

"Promise."