"stop it, lucas, you asshole. she can't help it."

—

they don't sit there for much longer, waiting for nancy, jonathan, and elizabeth to come back, until mike gets impatient and abruptly gets up. eleven's head almost falls and she gives him almost an annoyed look as he walks away.

erin watches him leave the gym, only to come back a moment later. he stalks over to them. "they're gone."

"what?" lucas asks as erin sits up.

"nancy, jonathan, and elizabeth. his car's gone."

"they're probably just sucking face somewhere." dustin replies. erin gives a disgusted glance at him. "three of them?" lucas asks him from behind her.

"you know what i mean." dustin sighs. "didn't elizabeth have a really big crush on steve harrington or something? maybe she went to find him."

erin rolled her eyes. although, liz had harbored a secret crush on the harrington boy for ages, she hadn't even told nancy or barb out of embarrassment. erin couldn't even begin to think how she must have felt when steve and nancy got together.

"did they go with the chief?" dustin then asks after lucas and mike both loudly exclaim their disgust for dustin's words.

"i don't know." mike tells him.

"no." eleven then says firmly. erin glances over at her. mike does too.

"what? did you see them? do you know where they went?" he asks rapidly. eleven hesitates. "yes."

"where? where did they go?"

eleven stares at him for a small second, her chocolate brown eyes not leaving his.

"demogorgan."

erin stands up, going over to mike. "okay, we gotta talk about this." she says, grabbing his arm and steering him away. dustin and lucas follow as they gather in a huddle and immediately start overlapping each other on ideas.

"guys, guys! this is crazy." mike says. "we can't just wait around."

"mike, in case you forgot, we're still fugitives. the bad men are still looking for us." lucas looks around the group.

"yeah, and we don't even know where your sisters are." dustin chimes in.

"el can find them." mike immediately responds. erin rolls her eyes.

"look at her, mike. she's tired." erin says. they glance back as eleven turns her head to them quickly from where it's set on her knees.

"i still think we should stick to the chief's plan." dustin says.

"exactly. we stay here, keep el out of sight and keep her safe. that's the most important thing, remember?"

erin smiles at lucas. he had come so far from thinking el was a freak. he had every right to be worried, but he came through in the end.

"besides, they're okay. they're with jonathan."

"yeah, and they're both kind of badass now, so.." dustin starts. erin purses her lips and squints her eyes. she never really saw her older sister as a 'badass' type.

she then suddenly sways, and feels her vision go fuzzy. oh, no. this couldn't keep happening all night. she looks down at her feet as she feels lucas set his hand on her arm. she notices dustin then start to walk away, but his footsteps echo in her ears louder than normal.

"well, where are you going? you just said to stick to the plan!" mike calls. she then feels an arm start to guide her away, and she follows silently, holding her fingers over her ears.

"i am. i'm just gonna go get some chocolate pudding." dustin says back. "i'm telling you, lunch lady phyllis hoards that shit."

"are you serious?!" mike shouts at his retreating back.

"el needs to be recharged!"

erin, lucas, and dustin then leave the gym to go to the cafeteria. lucas holds her hand much like a mother with a child as he drags her away. she hears footsteps behind her, knowing mike and eleven had just followed them. her lip trembles as they push open the doors, walking across the lot.

she starts taking deep breaths in and out to calm herself as she scans the area outside. dustin pulls open the doors and they swerve through the hallways to the cafeteria. they get there pretty quickly, and dustin makes a beeline for the kitchen.

he goes straight to the one of the small refrigerators and opens them. erin stops in between lucas and dustin and shakes her head in amusement. stacks of pudding cups are neatly placed beneath the milk.

"found it! i knew she was hoarding it." he says. "i knew it."

dustin and lucas begin grabbing them, happy and prideful. erin sniffs, wiping the half-dried tears off of her cheeks. she half-heartedly starts grabbing some of them.

"always lying, saying she's out. bald-faced liar." dustin continues. him and lucas have armfuls now, while erin only has two. "erin, come on. you're the strongest out of all of us." dustin suddenly whines, picking up more and putting them in her own arms. she rolls her eyes, because yeah, sure, she may be stronger than will, mike, and lucas, but she's not stronger than dustin and she doesn't feel like carrying cans of pudding.

she sighs and takes them anyway, as the boys go back and grab for more. "mike!" dustin suddenly shrieks, calling back into the cafeteria. "i found the chocolate pudding!" his voice cracks.

erin continues grabbing them weakly, still taking small breaths. there were faded whispers in the back of her mind now, and she could tolerate it. it was okay.

"okay!" she hears mike call back in annoyance.

she glances back, even though she can't see into the cafeteria and purses her lips. she turns back as dustin starts packing some onto the counter so he's able to get more.

it's then that a sudden loud growling echoes around the room. erin stops and turns around, looking frantically. "did you guys hear that?" she asks quickly.

"no. what are you talking about?" dustin asks. she shakes her head.

"no, i heard something. it was a growling noise." she tells them. lucas shakes his head.

"erin, it's fine. you didn't hear anything. there was nothing."

"no, you're lying. there was something." she says, backing away. she almost drops the cans of pudding. dustin stops and turns to her too. his face is sad.

"erin, i promise. there's nothing we wouldn't tell you, and mike would have already come in."

"you're lying," she whispers, backing up. lucas shakes his head, almost annoyed. erin feels her heart drop.

"stop it, lucas, you asshole. she can't help it." dustin cries.

erin suddenly feels a sense of panic come over her. what if dustin and lucas aren't real? what if they're just saying this so the bad men could get to her? she begins to hyperventilate.

"tell me something only lucas would know."

lucas seems offended, and he almost backs up into the refrigerator. he glances at dustin and shakes his head, but nonetheless tells her something only he would know.

"in first grade, when we asked you if you wanted to ride our bikes with us sometime, you didn't actually know how to. but you pretended so you could hang out with us. and that's how you got that weird scar on the back of your left leg." he tells her. dustin glances over at him, lightly smiling at the new story he didn't know, since he didn't get there until the fourth grade.

erin feels tears spark behind her eyes, and her nostrils burn as she tries not to cry. she nods, looking down, before walking to the counter and laying the pudding cups down. she holds out her fingers and starts counting them, over and over. only ten. you only have ten.

usually, if something was really wrong, she had 13 fingers.

there were only ten, though, and she let out a sigh of relief. she feels dustin set a hand on her back, and she glances over her shoulder at him. he nods his head, gesturing to her that they were gonna go out to the tables.

she nods and picks up the cans again, following them out. when they get out there, they see mike running out the doors, with eleven watching him go.

"where's he going?" dustin asks her. she looks over at him in surprise, then relaxes. "nancy."

they nod and start setting down all of the pudding cups. eleven picks one up in curiousness, looking it over.

"this will charge your battery right up, i'm telling you." dustin tells her.

they don't get time to open them, before mike is suddenly running into the cafeteria in panic.

"guys, guys!" he shouts. they all look up in alarm.

"what is it?" lucas asks him.

mike screeches to a halt. "they found us." he breathes out. erin's eyes widen. how'd they know? without thinking, they start gathering everything, and putting their coats on. erin feels panicky again, so she continues to breathe in through her nose and out through her mouth.

they quickly exit the cafeteria, and run down the hallway. erin pushes her hair behind her ears to keep it out of her face as she follows lucas, who is leading them. he stops at a hallway, and looks left or right before going left. "come on!"

they run down a set of small stairs, panting. "how'd they find us?" lucas whisper-yells.

"i don't know, but they knew we were in the gym." mike tells them.

"you think someone sold us out?" erin asks.

"lando." dustin replies.

the doors in front of them are suddenly yanked open and bright lights shine in their faces. multiple guards point their guns at them. erin lets out a gasp as they all turn to go a different way.

"go, go, go, go!" mike calls. they hear the agents yelling around them. they run to the end of the hall, and burst through a door but more agents appear at the end of that hallway.

"there they are. freeze!" one of them yells.

"back! go back!" mike shouts. they turn back through the door. "left! go left!"

they do so, following eleven, who's running faster than all of them. erin lightly grazes the wall at how fast she turns.

a woman, with a few guards behind her, calmly appears at the end. the kids skid to a stop as the woman holds up a gun.

erin looks behind her at the guards. they're surrounded, with nowhere to go.

the lights on the guns start flickering, and erin turns back. eleven is staring down the blonde woman, and breathing heavily.

erin gasps when the guards begin to choke, and their eyes start to bleed. it drips down their faces as their hands wobble. then a loud snapping sound is heard, and they all drop simultaneously.

the group stands there in shock for a moment, before eleven is suddenly falling. she hits the ground with a thud, and they run to her quickly.

"el, are you okay?" mike pants, shaking her. her eyes are closed and erin fears the worst. "el!"

"something's wrong." he then says.

"she's just drained." dustin replies. mike shakes his head. "no, no, no, she won't wake up. el. el! el!"

he suddenly leans down to her back. "she's barely breathing." he informs.

"we gotta go." lucas tells him.

"leave her."

the four kids' heads snap up, and erin sees the man from before. the one with the beady eyes. dr. brenner.

they stand up quickly, watching the bad men advance towards them. they stand ready, guarding eleven.

"step away from the child." dr. brenner tells them.

"no!" mike yells in response. "you want her, you have to kill us first."

"yeah!" erin shouts. "that's right!" dustin says, along with a chimed in "eat shit!" from lucas.

before they could do anything, though, guards sneak up behind them and grab them quickly, preventing them from moving. erin shrieks and immediately tries to get out of his hold, but it doesn't work. the boys shout repeatedly.

"let go of me!" dustin screams as they watch dr. brenner lean down over eleven.

he sits down and picks her up like she weighs nothing. erin flinches when he grabs her face in his hands. "eleven? eleven, can you hear me? eleven?"

she blinks her eyes open and blearily asks, "papa?"

erin elbows the man holding her in the gut but she doesn't escape. she grunts as they tighten their hands on her.

"yes, yes, it's your papa." he smiles sadistically.

"get off of me." lucas grunts. eleven blinks over at them, now noticing their unfortunate predicament.

"i'm here now." brenner continues.

"let her go! let her go, you bastard!" mike then screams.

eleven then becomes extremely frightened, and she starts whimpering. erin's heart aches and she struggles to get out of the man's grasp once more.

"shh, shh, you're sick." brenner tells the girl. "you're sick, but i'm going to make you better. i'm going to take you back home, where i can make you well again. where we can make all of this better, so no one else gets hurt."

eleven registers his words, and finally looks up to him.

"bad."

the man lets out a breath as she repeats the word. she then reaches a hand out towards the kids. "mike. mike."

the kids begin struggling again, wanting to go over to eleven. "mike," she whimpers again, trying to get out of brenner's hold.

the lights suddenly flicker heavily, and they all glance up. 

"blood." mike states. the party looks to him. "what?"

"blood." he repeats, and erin gets it. the monster. it's attracted to blood, like all other predators. and there was a lot of blood on the ground in front of them.

erin hears a screech, and she flinches, letting out a cry. dustin glances at her and she writhes around, still in the man's arms. "it's here." she gasps. "i heard it."

to further prove her point, there's a sudden thudding on the wall in front of them. dust falls off of it because of the sudden banging coming from it. the men in front of it back away, staring. erin whimpers, shrinking back. the wall moves, like goo, as bricks fly out and land on the ground.

erin lets out a scream as the monster then bursts through, screeching. they all stare, petrified.

"demogorgon." dustin states.

the bad men let go of the kids and they stumble backwards in fear. the guards start firing at it.

"go, go, go, go!" mike screams as they run to eleven. dustin, being the strongest, lifts her up. erin helps, and then they start running.

"come on!" mike yells at them. "lets go!"

erin hears the monster's shrieks, and more of the guards yelling as they make their escape. she was trying her best not to cry. what if they didn't survive?

they turn down a hallway. "come on!" mike leads them, lucas and erin behind dustin. they swerve around a man firing rapidly.

mike pushes open a door, and erin watches as eleven's head accidentally hits the door. "sorry." dustin apologizes quietly. "hold on, we're almost there. we're almost there." he tells her. erin's heart lurches into her throat. they run through the science classroom to the back as lucas locks the door.

"come on. come on." dustin pants. "help, help." he then says. "come on, get her on the table." the small girl groans as they all attempt to set her on one of the tables. erin situates her head, and then backs away as mike moves to her. erin holds a hand over her heart. it's beating rapidly, and she bites down on her lip to prevent from crying aloud.

eleven grabs ahold of mike's hand. "just hold on a little longer, okay?" he sighs. "he's gone. the bad man's gone. we'll be home soon, and my mom.. she'll get you your own bed. you can eat as many eggos as you want."

eleven lets out a sniffle. "and we can go to the snowball." he finishes.

erin leans against the table opposite them, feeling tears flood her eyes. she had the worst possible feeling, like something horrible was about to happen. it's like an actual feeling, like happiness and sadness. like it's actually real. she shakes her head at his words, staring down at the ground.

"promise?" eleven breathes out, her voice small.

erin feels sick to her stomach and lets out a shaky sigh.

"promise."

the moment is soon ruined when the monster screams just outside the door. erin shouts in surprise and fear, backing up. more gunfire echoes around them, the monster calls out, there's a thudding sound, and then dead silence.

"i-i-is it.. is it dead?" dustin stutters out.

they pant as there's no sound at all in the room and out of it.

it bursts through the door then, and erin screams to the top of her lungs. the boys all exclaim and grab at lucas for the wrist rocket. it's their only weapon.

"go, go, go!" mike screams. "get the wrist rocket! get the wrist rocket now!" dustin yells, prying lucas' backpack off of his shoulders.

it roars at them, tired of their silly human bickering.

"hurry!" erin screams from beside the boy. they get to lucas' backpack.

"get the rocks! get the rocks!" mike screams at the curly haired boy.

"getting the rocks!" dustin screams back in his face.

"give them to me!" lucas yells. he gives them and lucas manages to get a rock into the saddle and pull it back quickly, aiming.

"go! go! kill it! kill it!" mike screams.

"get it, lucas!" erin shouts. lucas lets go, and it barely harms it, flicking off and landing on the floor. it starts to advance towards them, roaring in anger.

"give me another one." lucas tells them. dustin hands one. "kill it! bastard!" dustin continues. erin's hand tremble as everything passes like a blur.

"kill it! go, go!" mike encourages. it walks around the desks.

"kill it! now!" dustin screams.

"kill it, lucas!"

"kill it!"

the next rock bounces off it. lucas quickly grabs another one.

"hit him!" mike tells him. "it's not working!" lucas shrieks back.

"hit him again! kill him!"

"keep going, come on!"

they urge him on more, despite the rocks not working at all. it was coming towards the slowly, as if teasing them. erin feels her eyes getting heavy, and she blinks as she realizes that this was it. they weren't gonna make it. her body slouches as she stares at the monster.

lucas sets a rock back in the saddle and pulls it back. the monster growls, and he lets go.

the demogorgan is suddenly tossed back to the chalkboard and held their dangling. the desks all push themselves out of the way. the kids let out exclaims in shock and step back. did lucas do that?

erin suddenly feels the voices in her head stop more than she hears them.

she turns as eleven brushes past her, walking to the monster. her nose is bleeding, and she's staring at the monster in furiousness.

"eleven, stop!" mike screams, running forwards.

but with one flick of her hand, eleven sends him back, flying through the air. he collides with a cupboard and lays on the floor in defeat. erin gasps lightly, watching his world collapse in on itself.

she turns back slowly, watching eleven walk to the monster calmly as it squeals in pain. there's suddenly a loud crunching sound and it lets out a scream.

it goes quiet, and all you can hear are her footsteps. the monster roars again. another crunching sound echoes around the room as the girl stops in front of it.

eleven slowly turns her head, looking at no one but mike.

erin feels the horrible feeling at its peak now. this is what was going to happen. this was the horrible feeling. eleven stares for a moment.

"goodbye, mike."

the tension in the room shifts, and erin feels like crying and screaming to the top of her lungs then. she's leaving them. shes really going to leave them and sacrifice herself.

the girl with a shaved head turns back and glares steadily at the monster.

"no more."

she holds out her arm in front of her. the monster twitches and lets out a small shriek. erin flinches at the loud sound as a tear falls from her eye. she can't bear to look up, but she does anyway. the other boys hold their hands over their ears and look down because of how loud the screaming is, but erin doesn't move.

she's heard too many loud noises on her own throughout her life to look away. she swallows roughly.

she lets out a sob as eleven's screams echo throughout the room, as loud as the monster's.

watching the girl go is like watching your new pet fish get flushed down the drain because you didn't feed it right. you can't do anything to stop it and it's not coming back.

there's things floating around in the air, and it's coming off of the demogorgon. it's like its the skin of it. whatever it is, it takes eleven away. erin watches it envelope her in a dark cloud.

and then, it's like eleven's just.. disappears. she's there one moment, and she's not the next. erin lets out a cry as she slumps against the desk and closes her eyes.

the lights stop flickering and the boys all stand up. it's quiet for a second, before mike is suddenly charging to the front of the room and looking around. the boys follow after her. "el? el?"

erin walks after them, tears dropping down her cheeks uncontrollably. the boys screamed for her, but erin knew it didn't matter.

she was gone.

—

wow.