twenty

-

EL WAS FOCUSING on trying to find dustin in the void, seeing where he was.

blood dripped down el's nose, as it was quiet in the room.

max and y/n stood next to each other.

lucas pulled out a coke, and opened it.

"quiet." max whispers to lucas.

"oh, sorry." lucas apologizes.

mike looked at lucas in disgust.

"how do you even drink that?" mike asks lucas.

"because it's delicious." lucas whispers.

"what?" mike, max, and y/n asked in unison.

"it's like carptener's the thing." lucas references. "the original is a classic, no question about it. but the remake.."

then he sipped the drink again.

"sweet," lucas said, turning to mike.

"bolder.." he turned to max.

"better." he turned to y/n.

"you're insane." mike tells lucas.

"so, you prefer the original thing?" lucas asks mike.

"what? no, i'm not talking about the thing, i'm talking about new coke." mike replies.

"it's the same concept, dude." lucas disagrees.

"uh, actually, it's not the same concept." mike argues.

"it is the same concept."

"no, it's not."

"yes, it is."

el ripped off her blindfold immediately, annoyed by their antics.

"hey!" el warns them.

"sorry.." mike apologized immediately.

"sorry." lucas also apologized.

"did you find him?" mike curiously asks el.

el sighs, before answering.

-

mike had his arm wrapped around el, to help her walk.

max, y/n, and lucas pushed the cart.

"the movies?" lucas asks.

"dustin's so freaked out about the gate, he decides to go watch a movie?" y/n remarks, sarcastically.

"yeah, makes total sense." lucas sarcastically adds.

"you're positive he said gate, and not great?" max asks el.

"yeah, like, 'this movie i'm watching is great.'" will references.

"sounded like gate." el says.

"which would explain how the mind flayer's still alive." mike adds.

"yeah, we just have to shut it again." nancy tells them.

"then the monster dies." will adds.

"but if not, we always have lucas' fireworks." max teases lucas.

"keep mocking my plan, max. keep mocking it." lucas threatens. "i wanna hear you say it again, because you keep doubting me. you keep doubting me!"

-

the russians started inching closer to the counter, that dustin, robin, erica, and steve were hiding behind in the starcourt mall.

they got out their guns.

they started coming closer, and closer, and closer.

until the car in the mall started honking, and beeping.

they looked behind them, and looked up to see el, with her arm out, and blood dripping from her nose as she focused on lifting the car.

el then used her powers to wipe the russians out with the car.

steve, dustin, robin, and erica hesitantly popped up, to see y/n, max, el, mike, will, lucas, nancy, and jonathan.

dustin looked up at el, and smiled.

they started running up to each other, as mike helped el.

dustin laughed. "you flung that thing like a hot wheel!"

dustin ran up to el, and hugged her tightly.

"lucas!?" erica calls.

"what are you doing here?" lucas asks erica.

"ask them. it's their fault." erica blames.

"true yeah, totally true. it's absolutely our fault." steve admits.

"i don't understand what happened to that car." robin says.

"el has superpowers." dustin replies.

"i'm sorry?" robin asks.

"superpowers." dustin repeated. "she threw it with her mind."

el started hearing ringing in her ears, and started trailing off, and walking away from the others.

she started covering her ears as she panted, then she just collapsed to the floor with a grunt.

"el! el!" mike called, as he ran up to her, the rest following behind him. "what's wrong? what's wrong?"

"what's wrong with her?" erica asks.

"my leg." el replied, in pain. "my leg."

"her leg, her leg. okay." jonathan panicked.

they ripped off the bandage from el's leg, and saw something in her leg, as her leg continued gushing blood.

then the thing in el's leg started moving as el started yelling out in pain.

the thing in el's leg started moving even more, causing el to scream in pain.

everyone shared glances with each other, with fear.

"what is that?" erica asks in disgust.

"there's something in there." mike says.

"jesus christ." dustin says in fear.

"keep her talking. keep her awake, okay?" jonathan instructs everyone, and then immediately runs off.

"el, el, el. stay awake." mike tells the girl.

then jonathan came back with a knife, and a wooden spoon.

"you know, it's not actually that bad." robin comments while she stuttered. "there was a.. the goalie on my soccer team, beth wildfire, this other girl slid into her leg, and the whole bone came out of her knee, six inches or something, it was insane."

"robin." steve warned.

"yeah?"

"you're not helping."

"i'm sorry." robin immediately apologized.

"okay. all right, el? this is gonna hurt like hell, okay?" jonathan reminds el.

"okay." el replies as she felt tears come down her face from the pain.

"i need you stay real still." jonathan instructs as he put on a pair of gloves. "here, you're gonna want to bite down on this, okay?" jonathan hands el a wooden spoon, and puts it in her mouth.

jonathan placed the knife near el, causing el to start panicking.

"do it." mike tells jonathan as he held el.

"okay." jonathan quietly replied.

jonathan started slicing el's leg as she screamed in pain, causing the wound to have open access.

jonathan closed his eyes, and winced, then placed his fingers into the wound.

"jonathan!" nancy calls.

"stop talking!" jonathan tells her.

"no! stop it!" el says to jonathan, then takes out the wooden spoon. "stop!"

"stop!" nancy tells jonathan, and places her hand on his shoulder.

"i can do it." el said in between sobs, as she started to sit up in pain.

she started concentrating on her leg, and the wound, and pulling out the thing inside her leg.

she started grunting in pain again, once she was starting to pull it out of her leg with her powers.

el then starts screaming, as she continued using her powers.

the glass window near them started to shatter, causing max to immediately cover y/n's head in protectiveness.

it was a piece of the mind flayer, el threw it, then it started slowly crawling, then got stepped on.

all of them looked up to see hopper, joyce, and murray.

-