four

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MIKE WALKED DOWN THE HALLWAY, with his walkie, to communicate with everyone else.

"east is clear. no sign of dart." mike tells dustin.

mike started walking up the stairs.

"where'd you go, you little bastard?" mike mutters under his breath.

eleven walked down the halls, looking for mike, when she thought she heard his voice, she walked down the hall, and looked to her side, but there was no sign of mike, so she decided to go in another direction.

which ended up being the opposite direction mike went.

"west is clear, too, y/n?" dustin asks through his earpiece.

y/n was immediately startled by this, seeing as she was with max, looking for dart in the gym.

"well- i mean, the gym is clear. lucas?" y/n responded, thinking of a response. "anything?"

lucas, decided to be dramatic, and kicked opened a classroom door.

"excuse me!" the lady said in disbelief "mr. sinclair!"

"s-sorry!" lucas quickly apologized while stuttering. "i was looking for study hall. bye!"

"nothing here, man." lucas quickly responded into the walkie as he left the classroom.

mike went into the gymnasium, same time y/n and max went into the locker room, then he saw the boys locker room door swing back and forth.

mike furrowed his brows and went to check it out.

"so, how long you been skating for?" y/n starts a conversation with max.

"since i was five." max quickly responded, with a small smile.

"i remember when i started off, boys thought girls couldn't skate." y/n recalls.

"exactly!" max agreed. "they think just because that were girls means we can't do things like skate, play soccer, and stand up for ourselves."

"right!" y/n also agreed with max, as y/n turned around and started walking to look for dart. "you get it."

"see?" max says with a smile across her face as she faced y/n. "we have a lot in common already."

a smile started to spread across y/n's face, as she looked over her shoulder, to see max also smiling.

y/n looked back over to the ground, still looking for dart, while she was still smiling.

max turned around too, making her and y/n not face each other anymore, also max still smiling while she looked down.

mike walked through the boys locker room door, investigating the room, to see if dart maybe went in there since he saw the door swing.

max started moving objects around, looking around for dart.

mike started looking around, with a spear in his hand, he started hearing objects move around, which made him panic.

he jumped to where the noise was coming from, then he yelled out, as he aimed the spear.

max gasped as her and y/n turned around.

"what the hell are you doing!?" y/n asked mike in frustration.

"what are you guys doing?" mike asked, raising his voice as he lowered the spear. "why are you both in here?"

"looking for dart." max replied.

"this is the boys' room." mike reminds them.

"yeah, so?" max asks.

"so you should go home!" mike insults as he drops the spear, and starts walking away.

max glared over to y/n, who was scoffing and rolling her eyes at mike's unreasonable hatred for max.

"why do you hate me so much?" max demands as her and y/n follow behind mike.

"i don't hate you." mike defends. "how can i hate you? i don't even know you."

"yeah, but you don't want me in your party." max reminds him.

"correct." mike retorts.

"why not?" max asks.

"because you're annoying!" mike insulted. "also we don't need another party member. i'm our paladin, will's our cleric, y/n's our rogue, dustin's our bard, lucas is our ranger, and el is our mage."

"el? who's el?" max curiously asked.

y/n's head shot up towards max, hearing her mention el's name.

"someone." mike quickly replied. "no one."

"someone or no one?" max eagerly asked.

"she was in our party a long time ago. she moved away, okay?" mike explains, then started walking away.

"she was a mage?" max asked as she put down her skateboard, and skated towards mike. "what could she do, like magic tricks or something?"

that question made mike roll his eyes.

"well, i could be your zoomer." max intervenes as she walks in front of mike.

"that's not even a real thing." mike defends.

"it could be." max says.

max gets on her skateboard and starts skating in circles around mike.

"see? zoomer." max says.

"mind-blowing." mike sarcastically says. "y/n can literally do that."

"come on, you know you're impressed." y/n tells mike.

mike takes a deep sigh. "i don't see any tricks. you're just going around in a circle."

"if it's so easy, you try it." max demands mike.

"no." mike denies.

"why not?" y/n asks.

"i don't know how." mike says.

"so, then you admit it's kind of impressive?" y/n asks.

"i think if i spent, like, all day practicing, i could do that." mike says as he turns to y/n.

"i would give you a million bucks if you could." max bets.

"okay, you're making me dizzy." mike tells max. "please just stop."

"i'll stop when i join your party." max replies.

eleven, comes over to the gym door, but mike doesn't see her.

"come on, just stop." mike begs max.

"it's a simple question." max speaks up. "am i in or out?"

a smile starts to spread across y/n and mike's face, as eleven watched as mike watched max going in circles with a smile.

eleven started to slowly feel anger rise over here, then, with her mind, she brought max down from her skateboard.

max yelped as she fell down from her skateboard, landing onto the ground, on her back.

max held her side in pain, while she laid on the ground.

"jesus! are you alright?" y/n asked max in concern as she walked over to max.

"yeah, yeah, i think so." max replies as she held her side.

y/n held out her hand to help max up.

max grabbed y/n's hand, and y/n pulled max up, reminding max of what happened earlier.

"what happened?" mike asks, confused.

eleven watched the scene play out in front of her, with her eyes watering.

"it was like a magnet or something pulling on my board. i know that sounds crazy." max explains.

mike looked down at the ground, in realization.

then he looked over at the gym doors, and saw nothing.

he rushed out of the gym, leaving max and y/n there, he looked in both directions, but eleven wasn't there.

"jesus, someone's cranky." y/n sarcastically commented, referring to mike. "past his bedtime?"

-

"i found him." will speaks through the walkie as he stared at the creature in the bathroom.

"where?" dustin asks.

"in the bathroom by mr. salerno's." will quietly replied.

"copy that." mike says, his voice cutting out a little.

the creature started making weird noises, looking at will.

"it's okay." will assured. "i'm not going to hurt you."

the creature looked at will, and screeched at him.

will backed away in fear, and dropped his walkie, then started running out of the bathroom.

he looked over, then the lights flickered off.

-

dustin found dart in the bathroom.

"it's okay buddy, you know i won't hurt you." dustin assures dart as he takes the creature.

"let's go. down here." dustin heard mike say in a distance.

"we're coming!" lucas yelled back at mike.

dustin took off his hat.

"stay low, keep quiet." dustin instructs dart, then stuffs the creature in his hat, and puts it back on.

"where's dart?" y/n asks dustin as she walks into the bathroom.

"i don't know. not here." dustin replied.

"what?" mike asks in disbelief, and checks the stalls.

"he said by salerno's, right?" max asks, referring to will.

"yeah, maybe will has him." dustin suggests.

mike freezes at the mention of will's name.

"where is will?" mike asks.

-

joyce was checking the school for will.

"will!" joyce heard in the distance.

joyce went up to dustin, y/n, and max. "dustin. what's going on? where's will?"

lucas runs back into the school with a scared looking on his face.

"the field!" lucas pants.

the five of them ran out into the field.

"will!" mike tried shaking will awake.

will was in a hallucination-trance like state right now, he wasn't moving, and his eyes were faded into a foggy white color.

"i just found him like this!" mike says. "i think he's having another episode."

joyce went up to will and started shaking him. "will! will! will! sweetie, wake up. it's mom! will, wake up!"

"can you hear us? will, please, just wake up."

then joyce started shaking will. "wake up! it's me!"

will's eyes shot back open, and he gasped for air.

-