CHAPTER TEN.
no escape from reality.

—

eleven and mike fall into each other, having not seen one another for a year. nineteen watches them softly from the back of the room, knowing it was harder to see someone you had known after a long time over not knowing them in the first place.

they grip one another carefully, almost as if they would both break. nineteen hears max ask if that's eleven. mike pulls back.

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

"353 days." eleven finishes. mike lets out a little gasp.

"i heard."

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

"because i wouldn't let her."

mike turns around quickly as hopper walks in front of him. he makes his way over to eleven. "the hell is this? where you been?"

"where have you been?" eleven asks back. hopper sets his hand on her back and pulls her in close. she rubs her face on his stomach comfortingly.

"you've been hiding her." mike states in disbelief. "you've been hiding her this whole time!" he slams his hands on hopper's back. the man turns around, taking a fist-full of mike's collar.

"hey, hey! let's talk. alone." hopper says firmly. eleven lets out a sigh as the walk away, but her arms are only empty for a couple of seconds before she turns to her right. she hears a little cry.

nineteen and eleven make eye contact as the long haired girl makes her way to eleven quickly. eleven's eyes flood with tears again, and they collide together. both of the girls start crying into one another's shoulders.

"what's going on?" steve whispers.

"they know each other." lucas says. "way longer than any of us." max stares at the two girls, curious.

they pull away and look at each other. "i can't believe it." nineteen sobs. eleven shakes her head, trying not to cry louder.

"are you okay?" she asks. nineteen nods, going back in for another hug. eleven lets out a teary laugh, gripping her sister's shoulders.

dustin and lucas start to step forwards. nineteen wipes the blood and tears from her cheeks and steps back for them. eleven wraps her arms around both of them.

"we missed you." lucas tells her. she smiles. "i missed you, too."

"we talked about you pretty much every day." they pull back, smiling. eleven glances at dustin, but her gaze stays on him. she leans forward to get a better look. she suddenly reaches forward, sticking her thumb in his mouth. he moves his head away, making a noise of discomfort. "teeth." she says.

"what?" dustin asks. "you have teeth." eleven tells him.

"oh." dustin chuckles, looking over at lucas, who was laughing as well. nineteen lightly smiles. "you like these pearls?" he then makes a noise with his mouth that makes both nineteen and eleven's smiles drop in confusion and surprise. lucas sighs and shakes his head in annoyance.

"eleven?"

nineteen looks behind her. max walks over. she smiles at eleven, glances at nineteen and looks back.

"hey. um, i'm max." she holds out her hand like she had done when she first met nineteen.

"i've heard a lot about you." she says kindly. nineteen glances at the ginger, smiling.

she was with mike.

nineteen's smile slowly fades at the words in her head, and she narrows her eyes when eleven completely ignores max's hand and walks past her, brushing her shoulder. max stares at the ground, hurt and confused.

nineteen watches her walk over to joyce, and after they converse for a bit, they walk down the hallway, presumably to where will was.

nineteen walks over to the couch where steve sits and collapses beside him, tired and hungry. she closes her eyes and tries not to fall asleep as she waits for whatever next plan the people in the room come up with. she leans her head against steve's arm.

but eleven soon comes back out, walking straight to the table where the words, 'close' and 'gate' sat on a clipboard.

everybody slowly starts making their way to the kitchen, walking into where joyce is hovering beside the telekinetic. nineteen takes a breath and stands up, following them. they all crowd around the table again.

"do you think if we got you back there, that you could close it?" joyce asks. eleven looks at her before looking forward, focused.

not alone.

-

"it's not like it was before. it's grown." hopper sighs. "a lot. and i mean, that's considering we can get in there. the place is crawling with those dogs."

"demo-dogs." dustin informs. hopper turns to the boy. "i'm sorry, what?"

"i said, uh, demo-dogs." dustin repeats, already regretting opening his mouth. "like demogorgan and dogs. you put 'em together, sounds pretty badass."

"how is this important right now?" hopper all but yells. "it's not. i'm sorry." dustin says, looking down.

"i can do it." eleven tells hopper, looking up

"you're not hearing me." hopper says softly. "i'm hearing you. i can do it." she says louder.

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

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

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

"will's apart of that army." lucas says, it finally clicking for him. they all share looks.

"closing the gate will kill him." mike confirms. they all look down. nineteen and eleven share a nervous look.

we have to do something. eleven tells her.

i know. nineteen nods, looking down at her lap.

joyce stands up, going to her son's room, where he was sleeping. they all follow her.

"he likes it cold." she says as she sees where they have the air conditioning on.

"what?" hopper asks. "it's what will kept saying to me. he likes it cold." she responds, walking to the window and shutting it.

"we keep giving it what it wants!" she tells them, looking at will's sleeping figure.

"if this is a virus, and will's the host, then.." nancy trails off, thinking. jonathan answers. "then we need to make the host uninhabitable."

"so if he likes it cold.." joyce finishes, "we need to burn it out of him."

"we have to do it somewhere he doesn't know this time." mike says. "yeah," dustin agrees. "somewhere far away."

hopper suddenly stands up straight.

it's obvious he knows a place, and he grabs a blanket, gathering up will's body. they all start for the living room. jonathan opens the door, grabbing his keys. hopper has will thrown over his shoulder as he starts saying directions to the cabin he kept eleven in.

nineteen looks around the room, wondering if this might be the last time she sees it. she makes eye contact with joyce and she walks over.

"hi, nineteen." she smiles. nineteen can't help but smile back. "hello." she greets.

joyce sniffs and puts her hands on nineteen's shoulders. "i just wanted.. to say thank you, for doing this and helping will." she says. nineteen nods and smiles.

"will's good." she tells her and joyce nods, bringing nineteen into a hug. the young girl stiffens for a second and then hugs her back strongly. nineteen smiles and pulls back. her and joyce start for the door.

eleven and hopper are standing across from each other at his vehicle. nineteen walks past the group, who are standing in a circle talking quietly.
hopper glances at nineteen before getting in the front seat. eleven holds the door open.

"hey!" she suddenly hears. she glances back. steve is coming out the door. "hey, nineteen should stay here." steve says in disbelief.

"no." eleven immediately says to him. the man backs off, alarmed. "i want her." she says. steve's mouth drops open to argue but eleven grabs nineteen's wrist and tugs her to the car. nineteen waves at steve and he scoffs, setting his hands on his hips, but waves once at her, knowing she was safe with hopper.

nineteen hops in the back, and sits behind hopper, leaning up against the car, since there were no seats or doors. she looks down before turning and looking back at the five people standing at the door. she stares until they disappear from view.

-

it was silent in the car ride, obvious tension between the man and the girl in front of nineteen. hopper finally breaks silence.

"so, what, we're just not gonna talk about it, huh?"

eleven turns her head. "about what?"

"oh, i don't know. i'm just curious, you know, why all of a sudden you look like some kind of mtv punk." he tells her. nineteen's nose scrunches up. mtv?

eleven continues looking out the window, ignoring him. hopper sighs.

"i'm not mad, kid. i just want to know where you've been. that's all." he tells her. she doesn't reply for a moment.

"to see mama."

nineteen almost flinches thinking about eleven's visions that she saw. hopper seems speechless.

"okay. how'd you get there?"

"a truck."

"a truck?"

"a big truck."

"a big truck? whose truck was it?" he asks quickly, obviously extremely worried by now.

"a man's."

"a man's?"

"a nice man."

hopper glances between eleven and the road. "okay." he says. "so let me just get this straight in my head. so a nice man in a big truck, he drove you to your mama's, and then what? your aunt becky gave you those clothes and that makeup?" he asked incredulously.

eleven chokes, not knowing what to say.

you shouldn't have left. nineteen tells her, sounding like a parent.

"i shouldn't have left." eleven says. nineteen rolls her eyes at the fact that she used her words and looks out the window.

she hears a grunt. "no. no, this isn't on you, kid. i should've been there." he states. "i should never have lied to you about your mom. or about when you could leave. a lot of things i shouldn't have done."

"sometimes i feel like i'm.." he trails off, trying not to cry. "like i'm just some kind of black hole or something."

"a black hole?" eleven asks. "yeah, it's a.. you know, it's this thing in outer space. it's like, it sucks everything towards it and destroys it." he explains.

"sarah had a picture book about outer space. she loved it." nineteen looks over at eleven, who just simply stares at hopper.

"who's sarah?" eleven asks.

"sarah? sarah's my girl. she's my little girl." he answers. nineteen leans her head back on the window as she hears and feels the sudden emotions in hopper's mind.

"where is she?"

hopper doesn't look at eleven when he answers. "well, that's kind of the thing, kid.. she, uh.. she left us."

eleven looks forward, knowing what he means. "gone." she breathes out. "yeah." hopper confirms. "the black hole. it got her."

it got them

"and somehow," he continues. "i've just been scared, you know? i've just been scared that it would take you, too. i think that's why i get.. so mad." he takes a deep breath in and glances at the girl. "i'm so sorry. for everything. i could be so.. so.."

"stupid?" eleven asks. they chuckle. "yeah. stupid." he agrees. "just really stupid." eleven sniffles before reaching over and grabbing his hand. they hold each other tightly and she looks up at him.

"i've been stupid, too." she tells him openly. "i guess we broke our rule." he laughs. she chuckled with him.

"i don't hate it, by the way." he then says. "this whole.." he gestures at her with his hand. "..look." he smirks. "it's kinda cool."

"bitchin'." she lightly says, a smile in her voice. "okay, sure. bitchin'." he says.

he suddenly clears his throat and looks through the rear view mirror. "so, uh, what do you do?" he asks. nineteen looks up.

"this one told me you read minds. that true? you did something else a little wonky in the house." he says. nineteen sits up and leans to the side.

"'manipulate electric fields'." she tells him. "that's what owens said. i don't know what that means."

he barks out laughter. "yeah, you and me both, kid."

"you guys.. grew up together?" he asks. eleven looks back and the two girls share smile. "yes." eleven confirms. they hold each other's gaze.

"listen, nineteen, i'm gonna help you, okay? you're never gonna be stuck in that lab again." nineteen closes her eyes as she feels tears brim them. hopper clutches the wheel so tight that his knuckles turn white.

"but you guys have to get through this. you have to be strong, and you have to stay together. then it'll be okay." nineteen opens her eyes and finds eleven staring at her, confidence written on her face.

"i promise."

-

they pull up to the lab, nobody in the car moving for a moment. it didn't take superpowers to feel the fear radiating off the girls. hopper gets out first.

eleven gets out after him, holding the door open for her sister. nineteen hops out, and eleven steps back. she slams the door shut.

they both stare up at the hauntingly eerie place, eleven's breaths becoming quicker as terrible memories flicker throughout her mind. nineteen watches them for a second before she grabs eleven's hand.

the memories disappear at once and eleven glances over at here.

we're safe.

eleven nods and they turn back to look at hopper, who cocks his rifle and slams the trunk door shut.

"all right." he starts. "you let me do the heavy lifting up front, all right? save your strength 'till we're below."

he huffs and looks down at them. "you guys okay?"

nineteen looks up at him, but eleven stares ahead. instead of answering, she starts walking forwards, tugging nineteen into the lab with her.

—

im fr not ready to end any of this.