AFTERMATH - Stranger Things 3

Chapter 8

El rushed home from school and immediately locked herself in her room, ignoring the greeting from Joyce as she walked inside. She breathed heavily as she thought of what Beverly said. She had seen black lines on Billy when he was possessed by the Mind Flayer. But she couldn't be flayed too. She would've known if she was.

El then looked down at her leg, where the Mind Flayer had bitten her. A scar was there in place of the wound that caused her so much pain. Mike was right, it did look like a pretty badass and bitchin' scar. She smiled as she thought of Mike, which cheered her up for a few seconds. Then she looked back at the scar and remembered what happened.

A small piece of the monster had gotten in there, but she removed it with the help of Jonathan. But what if she didn't get it all out? It didn't make any sense to El. She would've been among the flayed army if she was and she would be dead. If the brain dies, the body dies. The phrase that kept being said by her friends repeated in her head. 

Unless she wasn't fully infected yet.

El's thoughts were interrupted when she heard a knock at her door. After taking a few breaths to calm down before she destroyed the whole house, she opened the door up. There stood Will with the rest of the Loser's Club. She furrowed her eyebrows at them, confused as to why they were there.

"El, we need to talk about what happened back at school," Will said as he and the others walked inside her room. "You're probably flayed and we all want to help."

"Did you tell them?" El asked, referring to the Losers.

"Yeah, he told us all the shit you guys went through," Richie said. "Damn, that's been happening for nearly three years now? Holy fuck, that's a lot of crazy shit from alternate dimensions."

"I'm surprised you guys believed us right away," Will said. "We're not allowed to tell anyone the real truth because of the government, but we have them believe that the government was responsible for all the deaths and tragedies in Hawkins. What happened at Starcourt Mall was the last straw for people."

"It's because we've been through crazy shit as well," Beverly said. "We can't tell anyone either because they, especially adults, won't believe us. Lots of terrible things have happened in this town."

"From the research we've done, something tragic happens every 27 years," Ben added. "We also keep seeing weird things happening. Like, I saw a headless mummy in the library after reading about an Easter explosion disaster."

"I saw a fucking disgusting leper that made me shit my pants," Eddie said, shaking his head at the memory.

"I saw this creepy woman from a painting," Stan said. "AND RICHIE DON'T YOU DARE ASK IF SHE's HOT BECAUSE SHE FUCKING ISN'T!"

"Aw man," Richie said, pretending to be disappointed.

"Blood exploded out of my sink and all over my bathroom," Beverly said, getting back to the subject. "My dad couldn't see it, even though it was all over me and the whole room."

"I saw the hands of my parents reaching out for me from behind a door," Mike said, looking down. "My parents died when our building caught on fire. There was too much smoke and they couldn't escape in time."

"I have seen absolutely nothing happening here," Richie said. "I'm 90% sure it's real, but there's a 10% of me believes that they're just virgins who see weird fucking shit happening around. I knew virgins were sad, but I didn't think they were this sad."

"Richie, you're a fucking virgin too," Eddie said. "Shut the fuck up!"

"The t-thing I saw w-w-was..." Bill started to say, but he couldn't finish it. He looked down as Richie put a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder. He looked up at the trashmouth and gave him a thankful smile. "T-Thanks R-Richie," he said.