Neighbors - Strangerthingsau

Chapter 20

Danger

"Wait! Wait! Wait! Back up!" Dustin exclaimed from his seat on the couch. The party had hurried their walk home after El saw Brenner, and now they were in Mike's basement still trying to get all the facts from her. "I thought he was gone after he couldn't find you."

"That's what I thought too!" El turned to look at him. She was currently pacing the floor right now as the rest of the group watched her warily. "But he isn't gone. He knows I'm here, and it's only a matter of time before he finds me and puts me back in that place or worse."

"So what do we do?" Mike asked just wanting to help her stay safe.

"I have to tell Hopper." She said, she finally stopped pacing to face the group.

"I second that." Will spoke up for the first time since they got there. He looked at his sister to see her face a little bit paler and with a frightened look. He wanted to help her and if she thought it was a good idea, he would help in anyway to make her safe.

"We can go with you if you want." Lucas said watching El shake her head at this statement.

"No, he doesn't know that you guys know about my powers." El said starting to pace again. "And if you guys come along he will know you know about papa, and if he knows that he will figure out the rest."

"So what?" Max almost yelled.

"Yeah, what's so bad about us knowing?" Lucas asked.

"You guys aren't supposed to know," El states. "It puts you all in danger. Both Hopper and I know that, and I know first hand what happens to somebody who knows."

"Can everybody stop saying 'know'!" Dustin almost yelled, irritated.

"The point is," El rolled her eyes. "If Hopper finds out, you all will get yelled at and then I will get yelled at for putting you in danger."

"Who cares?" Mike said. "I don't care if Hopper yells at us, I would rather have it being you're safe and him mad at us, then him perfectly happy and you unsafe."

"I can tell him myself. He will know what to do, and he won't have to find out."

"But we can be there for moral support." Max smiling at her.

El sighed. "There's no way I can win this, can I?"

"No." The party said in unison.

"Fine." She said as the group jumped up from their spots, ready to go to Hopper.

To say El was nervous to talk to Hopper was a huge understatement. She was terrified, she knew what was going to happen when Hopper heard her talking about Brenner in front of her friends.

El walked through her house trying to find Hopper who was in the kitchen, reading the paper.

El cleared her throat. "Hop?"

Hopper looked up from the article he was reading, he immediately notice how nervous El looked. She hadn't looked this nervous since she told him papa was looking for her in Hawkins. "What's wrong?"

"I-uhh, I was walking home with the party and... and I found where papa has been hiding out. He's still here."

Hopper narrowed his eyes at the group standing behind her.

"Didn't I tell you guys to mind your own business." Hopper said in a low, threatening growl.

"Hop-" El said stepping forward with her arm out protectively.

"Didn't I tell you that you shouldn't be brought into this! That you were dealing with dangerous stuff!" Hopper yelled at the group.

"Hopper!" El raised her voice, something the group had only seen her do once before. "We can deal with this later. What's important is what are we going to do about papa?"

He sighed and ran a hand down his face. "Okay," he said quietly. "El, you are not leaving the house until we get this all under control. The rest of you are going to show me where you saw Brenner. None of you are going to talk about her in public, he has ears all over town and we don't need them knowing your in this mess too. Understand?"

Group nodded their heads, along with a few 'yes sir's'.

"Good." Hopper continued. "Now, show me where Brenner is hiding."

Everyone except El was in Hopper's car, which was full of tension and silence. The group just sat there, waiting and watching Hopper grip the steering wheel so tight that his knuckles were white. The sat there uncomfortably, counting down the seconds until Hopper explodes.

Thankfully, they didn't have to wait that long. "Do you realize the danger you put yourselves in? The danger you put her in!"

"We just wanted to know! We hate keeping secrets from one another." Max almost shouted back.

"Well, have any of you ever thought that some secrets are meant to be secret! The last time someone found out about her powers ended up basically brain dead and now sits in rocking chair for the rest of her life! That person got into something they shouldn't have gotten into, because she didn't know the dangers that came in with it. But I told you guys you were messing with dangerous stuff, and if you keep doing that, you'll end up just like that person."

"That person happens to be El mother," Mike fought back. "And she was trying to save her daughter."

"Oh, yeah!" Hopper said looking at Mike through that rear view mirror. "Let me ask you this, when you went to go confront El, did you do it to help or save her in anyway, or did you just think about yourselves and your questions that you so desperately wanted answered? And you did you at all think, 'oh well, Hopper said not to get into this because it's dangerous. We should listen to him.'?"

Mike looked away from Hopper, saying nothing in response. He knew Hopper was right, the we're only thinking about themselves. They thought Hopper's 'warning' was just a way to get them off their backs, not that they would be placed in actual danger.

"That's what I thought." He said turning his eyes back toward the road. "Now, where is this son a bitch hiding?"

Authors Note

Thanks for reading!!!

Let me know if I need to fix anything.