OPEN HEART » stranger things 3

- chapter eleven: e pluribus unum [ part one ]

CHAPTER ELEVEN.
the hospital hypothesis.

outfit up top is what she wears in the second half of the chapter

this is literally a filler im so sorry
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it was as if the mind flayer was standing so clearly in front of nineteen. she could see him and hear him like he was there. she'd never felt so buzzed and aware of her surroundings. the mind flayer was somewhere in the hospital with them. with nancy and jonathan.

her friends circle around the room, looking up at the blinking lights.

"i'm guessing that's not you?" lucas asks nineteen. she shakes her head.

"nancy and jonathan," she whispers. "we have to find them."

will walks to her side and touches her arm. "can you find them? can you hear the mind flayer?"

she nods. "elevator." she says.

they quickly walk out of the waiting room and past the lady at the front desk. "hey, hey, hey!" she starts. "two at a time!" however, they ignore her.

nineteen continues to hear the horrific growling followed by nancy's cries. she resists the urge to cry at the thought of something happening to the girl and continues running down the hallway.

they arrive in front of the elevator, where max begins to hit the upwards button repeatedly. mike looks around. "stairs." he says, looking to the right. nineteen nods, as the stairs would be faster, and they all begin running to the stairway.

nineteen ends up in the front so she can lead them. they burst through the door to the next floor and see jonathan attempting to break the glass into a room.

nineteen feels an overwhelming sense of dread. he was in that room.

eleven busts down the door telepathically and nineteen looks inside. a big, bloody, meaty creature stood before them. she'd never seen anything like it. it slightly resembled the mind flayer, but was smaller. it turns towards the sound of the door breaking off its hinges and roars.

"jesus." mike breathes.

"what the f-"

max is cut off as the monster roars and advances towards them. with a throw of her arm, eleven sends the monster flying into the wall where she pins it down. she does it once more across the other wall, then to the ceiling, and then finally sends it downwards to the floor.

it gets up slowly and eleven heaves heavily as she lifts her hands and throws it out the window. it bursts through the glass and lands with a squelch outside.

nineteen looks over on the other side of the room, where nancy is balled up in the corner, gasping quietly. jonathan immediately runs past them to his girlfriend.

"go!" eleven says as the rest of the kids make their way outside to the monster.

"what the hell was that?!" max yells as they descend the stairs.

"i don't know." mike replies. "the mind flayer's never looked like that, has it?"

nineteen swallows roughly and winces as her neck still hurts from earlier. she rips open the door at the bottom of the stairs and they run through the hallway again, past the desk woman, and out the side doors.

they stop right past the sidewalk and eleven throws her arms out protectively. the monster squelches around on the ground in front of them, moving like a liquid.

nineteen stares at it in wonder and confusion as it begins to disappear and dissolve into a sewer drain in the middle of the street. she takes a big breath in and closes her eyes. when she opens them, all that remains of the monster is a human bone.