eleven ran upstairs and into mike's beedroom. she noticed the strange new bed right away. she sat down on the bottom bunk and fumbled with the bandana tied around her wrist. 

el had always been good at reading people. she could tell that there was something off about how sad Richie's face got when she mentioned the bruise. she was also good at telling lies from trut, because friends don't lie, right? and he was definitely not being truthful when he mentioned the 'fight'.and since that boy made mike happy, she didn't want him to be sad. 

she'd been able to see into her mama's past, right? she tied the bandana to her face so her eyes were covered. she pictured Richie's sad face clearly in her mind. she stepped into the mind scape, water sloshing at her feet. 

the first thing that she came across was a younger richie, probably by about four years, watching his parents fight. they seemed to be fighting over him and mike. she watched Richie as mike and him watched their parents in fear. karen took a ring off of her finger and threw it at wentworth. she was crying as she stormed away. 

the scene disappeared in a puff of smoke and a new one came into view. 

richie and mike were hugging and crying, standing outside of a decent sized house. 

"i love you richie." whispered mike. 

"love you mike." said richie. and karen grabbed one of mike's hands and told him gently that it was time to go. mike gave one of Richie's hands a squeeze before being whisked away by his mother. 

wentworth stood behind richie with a hand on his shoulder. 

"come on, son." he said. richie pushed his father's hand away and ran. 

"richie!" he yelled. but he didn't go after him. 

richie ran up to a small house, swiping at his face, and climbed  a big tree up to a second story window. he tapped on the window and a small boy ran over to it, smiling, and opened it to let richie in. his smile erased when he saw the tears and as soon as the taller boy stumbled through the window he hugged him tightly. for a while he let richie cry into his shoulder, but eventually he pushed richie off of him and wiped away his tears, and asking what had happened. then that scene disappeared too. 

another one appeared. in this one he looked alot older, and alot skinnier. his father was screaming at him for having broken something. then he struck him across the face, in his side, on his chest. it was sickening to watch. his face was screwed up in pain, but his sad eyes were the same. this one dissappeared as soon as it came. 

the next scene materialized behind her and she twisted to see it. richie was  sitting on his bed, sobbing. he looked pretty bruised, and he had a few fresh cuts on his wrist, and it looked like he was about to create another one. el didn't understand why he would do that, but it really scared her. there was a small knock on the door and he dropped the sharp metal object and kicked it under his bed, quickly sliding the sleeve to his hoodie down. 

"come in." he said. he wiped at his eyes and his face lit up when he saw the boy from earlier. the way he looked at the smaller boy reminded her of the way that mike looked at her. 

"eds!" 

the scene vnished in a puff of smoke. 

the smoke faded, revealing another scene. this one was really strange to her. there were multiple other kids in the room with him, including the boy from earlier. but the room was dirty and disgusing. the furnature was broken and there was a white faced creature giggling at the kids. it had a pipe through its head, so its face was strangely screwed up. it looked like it was going to attack them. the small boy, 'eds', richie had called him, was crying. his arm was bent at a weird angle; it was definitely hurt. richie grabbed the boy's face in his hands. the image shifted to one last scene. 

once again, it was just richie and his father. his father was yelling, and richie dropped the bottle he was holding onto the ground. it shattered. he was pushed to the ground and his father muttered something under his breath. he tried to stand, to get away, but his father struck him on the face, creating the same bruise that he wore today. 

eleven quickly tore off her bandana. each of the images she found were either terrifying, heartbreaking, or both. and what was that creature? 

she threw the bandana onto the bed and walked shakily downstairs, wiping her nose on her sleeve.