Home Strangerthingau

Chapter 21

Welcome to Chicago

Half of the car ride was filled with silence. People sat in anticipation just wanting to find El and bring her home. But there was always doubts that came with it too. What if we don't find her? What if she stuck in there and we can't get to her? What if they know were coming? What if it's too late?

Bare feet slapped cold tile floor as red lights flashed, giving off some light every few seconds. An alarm blared loudly notifying people of what was happening. Along with the alarm, people were screaming angrily as they followed her into another hallway. Their screams becoming closer behind her making her aware of just how far they were. She didn't dare look back, she knew if she did she would get caught.

The exit came into view and she started to get happy. A few more feet and she would be free. Before she even got to door, however, a hand was placed on her arm with a tight grip and pulled her back, making her stop running. That still didn't stop her from fighting back, but before she even had the chance to put her hand out or even focus, another hand was out on her other arm restraining her. A second passed by before the man she feared the most stepped in front of her with needle full of who knows what.

She was terrified, she couldn't focus. All she could do was try to break out from their holdings. But still that wasn't enough. He took one step forward and panic started to set in.

"No, no! Let me go!" She pleaded. "Help! Help!" She screamed hoping someone good would hear and save her.

The man took one last step and stabbed the needle into her left arm, making her world started to turn dark. Before it all disappeared she managed to yell out one last, "No!"

No! El's voice rang through Joyce's head. The one word was enough to put her on edge. The voice was faint and tired but also pleading and terrified.

"Will." She said quietly enough so that if El tried to talk again, she would hear it. But then a bad feeling washed over her making a shiver run down her spine.

"What?" He said in the same tone. He knew there was a reason she was talking the way she was.

"Call Hopper. Tell him to pull over immediately." She commanded. With that Will pulled out his walkie and radioed to Hopper's car in front of them.

"Hop, mom said you need to pull over immediately." Will said with urgency in his tone to let Hopper know he was serious.

They all watched as the police truck ahead of them started to slow down and pull off to the side. Once Joyce put the car in park she was out of the car and ran over to Hopper who was standing with the older kids with the same confused look.

"I heard her!" Joyce exclaimed looking at everyone gathering around her.

"What did she say?" Hopper placed his hands on her arms to have her face him.

"She just said 'no' but it was the way she said it." Joyce started to panic. "It was weak, and it-it kinda faded away at the end and-and..."

"Joyce." Hopper tried to calm her down. "What are you trying to say?"

"I-I think something happened to her. Something bad." That was enough to make everyone's blood run cold.

Joyce saw something bright in the corner of her eye and looked past Hopper to see what it was. Everyone else looked toward where she was looking with wonder. A blue sign stood that read Welcome to Chicago. It was enough to make the urgency of the situation real.

"Everyone back in the cars. We need to find her and fast." Hopper said already going back to his car.

Everyone quickly followed his actions and got back in their cars.

"Hop?" Jonathan asked from the passenger seat.

Hopper looked over at him as he started driving again. "What?"

"How are we going to find her?" Jonathan questioned. "I mean, you said it yourself, Chicago a pretty big place. What are we going to do?"

Hopper took a few seconds to think of an answer. "I found out once before, didn't I? I can do it again."

The older kids looked at one another. "How did you find her?" Nancy spoke up from the seat behind Jonathan.

Hopper sighed fully remembering how she came into his life. "You guys knew I was a cop here, right?"

Everyone nodded their head in response, staying quiet to hear the story.

"Well, one day I got a call from a family saying that their daughter went to a friends house for the night and she never showed up. She was supposed to walk there because her friend lived in the same apartment complex as the family did. After a few hours of her friend waiting for her to arrive—because the girl didn't give her a specific time of when she would be there—she decided to call her and see where she was. Her family said that she left two hours before the call and had gotten worried. So, they called to report a missing person and I was put on the case."

"She was taken by the lab?" Robin asked.

"Yeah, she was. I probably spent two weeks following every lead and they all led me to dead ends. Until I read a news paper article on a place call Chicago Lab. There was a women named Terry Ives that said that these people that worked there took her daughter from her years ago, but no one believed her."

"Terry Ives?" Jonathan muttered under his breath. "El's mom?"

"Yep. Let's just say that was enough to peak my interest for the case. The major problem was that I had never heard of that building and I had never seen it. And I had lived there for about 5 years, never came across it. So it took a look at a bunch of maps and news articles—because they seemed to be on my side—and I managed to get a location of where she was within three hours. And soon enough I had myself and a whole bunch of backup going to the lab to help her. We looked high and low for her but we couldn't find her.

We were just about to give up and head back when I looked in one more room and found the missing girl we were searching for. She wasn't breathing. We thought they maybe she tried to fight back and they didn't like it so they killed her. We tried to arrest everyone in that lab but a lot of people got away, including Brenner.

We were just finishing up at the lab when I passed a door and heard crying coming from it. I managed to get the door opened and there was Eleven. She was in her room, on her bed, curled up in a tight ball. She heard me come in and her head snap my way so quickly I thought she had gotten whip lash. But the way she was looking at me, she was terrified and she hugged herself even tighter, I knew I couldn't leave her. In fact, I refused to let her go into foster care and so I adopted her to try to protect her. I truly believed she would have been safer with me."

"She is though!" Jonathan raised his voice. "You tried everything to protect her and shit happens and things get messed up. But the important thing is that we know she's alive! If she had gone to foster care or with another family, she might have ended up back in the lab sooner and they would still think she's dead!"

"Jonathan's right!" Nancy agreed. "We're going to get her back and this time we know who we're searching for and we know what to do to find her."

"She's coming back." Jonathan said softly.

She's coming back

Authors note
This is a longer chapter but I'm not upset. I actually quite like the chapter.

Love ya ❤️❤️❤️