mary. [ BILLY HARGROVE ]

liii. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

~The Battle of Starcourt~
warning: mature language
mentions of blood

     Eleven screamed out in pain, the thing crawling inside her leg still. Everyone was talking all at once, not knowing what to do about it. 

     "What is that?" Erica asked. 

     "There's something in there," Mike said, everyone quieting down. 

     "Jesus Christ," Dustin said as Eleven wailed out in pain. 

     "Keep her talking. Keep her awake, okay?" Jonathan asked, standing from the ground. 

     "Jesus Christ," Dustin said again. 

     "Hey, hey, hey. Stay awake, stay awake," Mike said as Eleven screamed again. "Let's get her on this side, on this side. Easy, easy, easy, easy." 

     "It's, uh, you know, it's not actually that bad," Robin said, everyone barely looking at her. "There was a - The goalie on my soccer team, Beth Wildfire, this other girl slid into her leg, and the bone came out of her knee - six inches or something, it was insane." 

     "Robin," Mary said, standing up to look at her. 

    "Yeah?" 

     "You're not helping," she said. 

     "I'm sorry," Robin said quickly. Jonathan ran back up, stopping right in front of Eleven's leg. 

     "Okay. All right, El? This is gonna hurt like hell, okay?" Jonathan questioned. 

     "Okay," she sobbed out. 

     "Need you to stay real still. Here, you're gonna want to bite down on this okay?" Jonathan said, holding out a wooden spoon. Mike put it between Eleven's teeth as Jonathan pulled on gloves. Jonathan slowly moved the knife down to Eleven's leg, then glanced up to Mike. 

     "Do it," Mike said. Jonathan slowly cut open Eleven's leg, and she screamed in pain as blood seeped out of the wound. Once that was opened, Jonathan slowly put two fingers into her leg to get the thing out. Everyone gasped and looked away for a moment as Eleven continued to scream against the wooden stick. 

     "Jonathan!" Nancy yelled at him. 

    "Stop talking!" he yelled. Eleven screamed, spitting the wooden stick out of her mouth. 

     "Goddamn it!" she screamed. "No! Stop it! Stop it!" 

     "Stop!" Nancy said, Jonathan pulling his finger out of the wound.

     "I can do it," Eleven sobbed out. "I can do it." Mike helped her sit up, Eleven staring at her leg. She extended her hand, beginning to pull the flesh from the creature out with her powers. She screamed in pain as it slowly crept out, trying to fight. She screamed louder, the glass behind them shattering to pieces. They all covered their heads as Eleven pulled out the flesh with a scream. She stared at it for a moment before throwing it away. Everyone stared as it crawled away, a boot suddenly stomping on the creature. They all slowly looked up from it to see Hopper, Joyce, and Murray all standing there, seemingly just as beaten down as them. 

~*~

     "The Mind Flayer, it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world," Mike explained to the three adults. 

     "And it almost did. That was just one tiny piece of it," Nancy informed them. 

     "How big is this thing?" Hopper asked.