hurt, ( byler )

0.5

25 june, 1985
mike and eleven had sorted their shit out, and now their relationship was apparently stronger than ever. the six of them had gone on a day trip to the beach, and were now heading to the bus stop to get taken back to hawkins.

they had stopped at an icecream place, and lucas was laughing at dustin while the curly headed boy had a brain freeze. mike and el were walking hand in hand, mike with a chocolate icecream, el with strawberry. will trailed along at the back of the group, gloomily watching as mike and el had a quiet conversation, mike rubbing the back of her hand with his thumb.

max walked ahead of everybody, claiming everyone else "walked too slow" for her. lucas had attempted to keep up with her, but eventually fell back to walk beside dustin.

"perfect timing!" dustin exclaimed as the group reached the bus stop, at exactly the same time the bus arrived. the six teens waited for everybody else to board before they clambered on, max choosing her seat. el whispered something to mike, before leaving his side and happily sitting beside max. lucas threw his hands up and sat behind max, dustin sitting beside him. will's cheeks grew hot as he realised he'd be beside mike.

mike sat behind lucas and dustin, will joining his side. the seats on the bus weren't that big, meaning the two boys were sitting rather closely together. it's no big deal! will was frustrated with himself. you are two friends sitting beside each other. why are you getting your hopes up?

"are you having fun?" mike's voice drew will out of his thoughts.

"sorry?"

"are you having fun?" mike repeated.

"oh, yeah. yeah." will cast him a smile. "you?"

"yeah! heaps of fun!" mike smiled back at him, and will looked away in an attempt to hide his blush. mike was silent for a moment, before asking, "you still coming to dustin's?"

"yeah, of course!"

"cool." mike nodded and gave yet another smile before leaning back in his seat.

"cool," will repeated.

the six teens were sitting in dustin's living room, eating the leftover candy from a couple weeks ago. mike, eleven and will were sharing one sofa, while max, lucas and dustin were sharing the other one.

everybody was happy, joking around and having friendly conversations. or at least it was like that until dustin's cat walked into the room. el (who was sitting in the middle of mike and will) immediately tensed up, and dustin's cat stared at her, fur raised, hissing.

"mews!" dustin hissed, but the cat payed no attention. el was staring back at the cat, and it seemed as if she had forgotten everyone else was there. tews stood there, hissing and growling. el was starting to cry, and everybody was confused. dustin stood up and grabbed the cat, took it to his mom's room and shut the door.

eleven stood up and rushed down the hall to the bathroom. everyone heard the door slam shut. "what the hell just happened?" lucas asked.

"i have no idea," mike breathed. "i'll go check on her." he stood up and walked down to the bathroom. max was clearly twice as confused, since she didn't understand what happened as well as everyone else.

mike eventually walked out, looking at will. "she wants to talk to you, will."

"uh, okay?" confused, will stood up and walked down the hall, knocking on the locked door. "it's will," he said quietly. the lock clicked open and will entered the small room.

"you... i think you're the only one who would understand," el said, looking at herself in the mirror.

"why's that?"

"because they did tests on you too, didn't they?"

"well... yeah. but that was different."

"why?" she looked at him through the mirror.

"because they just did tests to see what was wrong with me. with my now-memories."

"oh."

"you can still tell me. i will probably understand better than the others."

"okay." she looked down at her feet. "papa put a cage in front of me. there was a cat inside it, and it was doing what dustin's cat was doing. i-i didn't know what he wanted me to do. he just looked at me and then i just knew he... he wanted me to kill it."

"el—that's horrible!" will didn't know what to say.

"i refused, so he-" she wiped her eyes, "-he locked me in the dark room. i want to forget papa, but i can't. not when i'm in a dark room, or when there's a cat by me. it's so scary, but i wish it wasn't."

"it's okay now, el. the bad men are all gone. the gate is closed. we're safe."

( AUTHORS NOTE! )
hi i haven't updated in a while i'm sorry
( 11:04am // 11 may 2019 )

unedited