ten

-

"ELEVEN" mike whispered.

"mike." eleven gasped, in relief.

they immediately walked up to each other, and embraced each other in a tight hug, staying like that.

"is that.." max asked.

"i never gave up on you." mike tells eleven. "i called you every night. every night for-"

"353 days." eleven finishes his sentence. "i heard."

"why didn't you tell me you were there?" mike asks eleven. "that you were okay?"

"because i wouldn't let her." hopper intervenes.

mike let's go of eleven, and immediately turns to hopper.

"the hell is this? where've you been?" hopper asks eleven.

"where have you been?" eleven asks him.

hopper pulls eleven into a hug, and eleven hugs him back.

"you've been hiding her.." mike realizes. "you've been hiding her this whole time!"

mike then shoves hopper.

"hey!" hopper stops mike. "let's talk. alone."

mike gives in, and then they went to another room.

eleven went up to lucas, y/n, and dustin, then hugged them.

"we missed you." lucas tells her.

"yeah, i missed you." y/n added with a smile.

"i missed you too." eleven said.

"we talked about you pretty much everyday." dustin adds.

eleven backs away from dustin and has a confused look on her face, then touches his mouth.

"teeth." el says.

"what?" dustin asks.

"you have teeth." el realizes.

"oh, you like these pearls?" dustin jokes, then does a weird purring sound, making lucas' smile disappear.

"eleven?" max says as she walks up to the girl.

"hey. um, i'm max." max introduces. "i've heard a lot about you." max adds with a smile.

eleven just walks right past max, ignoring her.

eleven went to hug joyce.

"hey, hey, sweetheart." joyce whispers.

"can i see him?" el asks joyce, referring to will.

joyce sighs, they walk into the room where will was laying unconscious.

"he's not doing well." joyce tells el.

"i know." el softly replies. "i saw."

"what else did you see?" joyce asks the girl.

joyce and el walk to the paper that had 'close gate' written on it.

"you opened this gate before, right?" joyce asks the girl.

eleven nods her head yes. "yes."

"do you think if we were able to get you back there, that you could close it?" joyce asks.

-

"it's not like it was before. it's grown." hopper explains to the girl.

"a lot." hopper continued. "and, i mean, that's considering we can get in there. the place is crawling with those dogs."

"demo-dogs." dustin corrects.

"i'm sorry, what?" hopper asks.

"i said, uh, demo-dogs." dustin repeats. "you put them together, it sounds pretty badass—"

"how is this important right now?" y/n asks dustin, cutting him off.

"it's not. i'm sorry." dustin apologizes.

"i can do it." el speaks up.

"you're not hearing me." hopper tells her.

"i'm hearing you. i can do it." el says.

"even if el can, there's still another problem." mike reminds hopper. "if the brain dies, the body dies."

"i thought that was the whole point." max says, confused.

"it is, but, if we're really right about this.. i mean, if el closes the gate and killed the mind flayer's army.." mike explains.

"will's apart of that army." y/n realizes in fear. "closing the gate will kill him."

-

el was starting to get ready to leave, hopper started up the car.

mike walked up to el.

"just be careful, okay? i can't lose you again." mike says to her.

"you won't lose me." el assures while shaking her head.

"do you promise?"

"promise."

el and mike started to lean in.

"el.. come on, let's go. it's time." hopper interrupts their moment.

mike, y/n, max, lucas, dustin, and steve just watched el left, it affecting mike the most.

-

"shit, it's billy!" max says.

steve went outside to talk to billy.

just like that though, a few minutes later, billy comes banging into the house.

"well, well, well." billy says, then slams the door. "y/n l/n. what a surprise. i thought i told you to stay away from her, max."

"billy, go away." max grits through her teeth.

"you disobeyed me." billy ignores her. "and you know what happens when you disobey me."

"billy.."

"i break things."

billy grabs y/n by the shirt, and pins her against the wall.

"billy! stop! billy!" max begs.

"get off of me, you-" y/n says.

"since maxine won't listen to me, maybe you will." billy ignores her. "you stay away from her."

billy then slams y/n into the cupboard. "stay! away from her, fag."

y/n took high offense to what billy just said to her, she had enough.

"get off of me!" y/n shouts, then kicks billy in his groin.

billy groaned in pain. "you are so dead, l/n! you're dead."

steve grabs billy, stopping him from hurting y/n.

"no, but you are."

steve then swings at billy, throwing a punch.

billy immediately collapses to the ground from the punch.

"steve!" max says.

billy gets back up, laughing. "looks like you got some fire in you after all, huh!? i've been waiting to meet this king steve everybody's been telling me so much about."

"get out." steve warns.

billy swings at steve, but steve ducks it.

one thing leads to another, and billy was on top of steve, beating the shit out of him, as steve started bleeding.

max eventually grabbed the needle, that they used on will, and sticked him in the neck.

billy immediately stopped punching steve, and got up, and faced max.

he looks down at his neck, and takes the needle out.

"the hell is this?" billy asks max. "you little shit, what'd you do?"

billy then collapses to the floor.

"shit." mike curses as billy started laughing.

y/n had enough, so she grabbed steve's bat with the nails on it.

"from here on out, you leave me, max, and our friends alone. do you understand?" y/n threatens billy.

"screw you, fag." billy tells y/n.

y/n slams the bat on the ground between billy's legs, then pulls it out.

"say you understand!" y/n shouts at billy. "say it." y/n repeats. "say it!" she screams.

"i understand." billy weakly says.

"what?" y/n asks, making him say it louder.

"i understand." billy repeats, this time louder.

y/n let's go of the bat, then max reaches her hand into billy's pocket, and takes his keys.

"let's get out of here." max tells everyone as she raises the keys.

-

"nancy?" steve asks mike once he wakes up from his unconscious.

mike turns to steve, and looks at him with nothing but confusion, and furrowed brows.

steve groaned, and reached for his face.

"no, don't touch it. don't touch it." dustin instructs steve.

steve turns to dustin.

"hey buddy." dustin says. "it's okay, you put up a good fight. he kicked your ass, but you put up a fight. you're okay."

"okay, you're going to keep straight for half a mile, then make a left on mount sinai." y/n tells the driver.

"what's going on?" steve asks.

max was driving, but looked at steve while driving.

"oh my god!" steve started to panic.

"steve, relax. she's driven before." y/n says.

"yeah, in a parking lot." mike reminds dustin.

"that counts, dipshit!" y/n tells mike.

"oh my god.." steve started to panic even more. "whoa... what's going ?"

max stomped her foot down on the pedal even harder, making the car go faster.

"oh my god!" steve says. "no! whoa! stop the car. slow down"

"i told you he'd freak out." lucas says.

"stop the car!" steve shouts.

"everybody shut up!" max yells. "i'm trying to focus!"

"oh wait, that's mount sanai, make a left!" y/n tells max.

max quickly turned the car, knocking over a mailbox.

steve started screaming in the backseat.

max eventually stopped the car abruptly.

"ah! hello!" steve randomly says once the car stopped.

"incredible." mike compliments.

"told you. zoomer." max remarks.

all of them get out of the car, and they start putting on goggles and masks to cover up their faces.

"hey, guys, where do you think you're going?" steve asks all of them.

dustin ignored steve and set something down.

"what are you, deaf? hello?" steve continued. "we are not going down there right now. i made myself clear. hey! there is no chance we're going down that hole, all right? this ends right now!"

"steve!" dustin calls. "you're upset, i get it. but the bottom line is, a party member requires assistance, and it is our duty to provide that assistance. now i know you promised nance that you would keep us safe."

then dustin hands steve the bat with nails. "so keep us safe."

steve sighs and takes the bat.

the group of them went down into the tunnel.

"holy shit.." steve mutters.

"yeah. i'm pretty sure it's this way." mike tells everyone.

"you're pretty sure, or you're certain?" dustin asks.

"i'm 100% sure." mike replies. "just follow me and you'll know."

"whoa, whoa, whoa, i don't think so." steve stops mike.

"what?" mike asks.

"any of you little shits die down here, i'm getting the blame. got it, dipshit?" steve replies. "from here on out, i'm leading the way. come on, let's go."

all the kids started following steve behind.

-

"guys come on, keep moving." steve instructs as they kept walking.

dustin found something suspicious on top of the tunnel.

"what the hell?" dustin mutters.

then suddenly, dustin heard a spraying sound, with some of the liquid landing in dustin's mouth.

"ah! shit!" dustin screams. "help! help! help!"

"what happened? what happened!" steve eagerly demands.

"it's in my mouth!" dustin whimpers. "some got on my mouth! shit!"

dustin began coughing, then he calmed down.

"i'm okay." dustin decides.

y/n scoffs. "are you serious?"

"very funny, man." steve jokes.

"jesus, what an idiot." max insults.

they continued walking through the tunnel, shining the flashlight.

"all right, wheeler." steve speaks up. "i think we found your hub."

"let's drench it." mike decided.

they started getting hoses, and sprinklers, drenching the whole tunnel.

then they noticed fire in the distance.

"go, go! let's go!" steve instructed.

they started running in the opposite direction, as steve continued shouting.

while they were running, one of the tentacles got a hold of mikes leg, causing him to fall down.

"help! help!" mike shouted.

everyone started running over to mike, trying to pull him off.

"everybody back!" steve yelled, and used his bat to hit the tentacle.

the tentacle almost immediately released itself, freeing mike.

then, just like that, they heard a screeching sound behind them, causing them to turn.

"dart." dustin says.

they all started talking at once, trying to stop dustin.

"shh. stop." dustin tells them. "trust me, please."

dustin walks closer to dart, and takes off his mask and goggles.

"hey. it's me, it's me." dustin assures. "it's just your friend, it's dustin. you remember me? will you let us pass?"

dart screeches at dustin, causing him to flinch. "okay, okay, i'm sorry. i'm sorry about the storm cellar. that was a pretty douchey thing to do. you hungry? yeah?"

dustin pulls out a three musketeers from his pocket.

"he's insane." y/n comments.

mike and max start hitting y/n's arm.

"shut up." mike whispered to y/n.

"i've our favorite." dustin says to dart. "see? nougat."

dart comes closer to dustin, as he unraveled the candy, dustin gently placed the candy on the floor, as dart eats it, dustin motioned for the rest of them to pass.

they did so, quickly running over, dustin got up and out his goggles back on.

"goodbye, buddy." dustin finally says.

"come on, let's go, let's go!" steve shouted as they continued running.

they felt a shaking, causing them to trip.

"what was that?" max immediately asked as she got back up on her feet.

they turned around. "they're coming." mike realized. "run! run!"

they found a rope, and quickly started climbing up, helping each other up, with max first.

"y/n come on!" max says. "grab my hand."

y/n did as max said, and quickly gripped onto the girl's hand.

everyone, except dustin and steve got up, they heard screeching, and quickly turned.

"dustin! come on!" mike shouted.

the demo-dogs cake over to dustin, and they flinched, but the demo-dogs just quickly passed dustin and steve, not touching them one bit.

mike's eyes start to widen. "eleven."

dustin and steve get up, they get back up on their feet, but all of them noticed a brightening light, all the lights starting to go brighter.

all of a sudden, the lights returned to normal

-