"it means i hear and see stuff that isn't real."

—

true to his word, hopper protected them. he took them straight back to joyce's house where almost everyone else was waiting.

erin hops out of the police vehicle behind dustin, and immediately joyce, jonathan, nancy, and elizabeth run out.

"mike. oh, my god. mike!" nancy says quickly, running to her younger brother and hugging him tightly. elizabeth makes her way to erin as well and they grasp each other tightly. erin smiles up at her when she pulls away and elizabeth sets her hands on her shoulders, looking her over.

"are you okay? are you hurt?" she asks, moving her head around. erin nods and rolls her eyes. "i'm fine, liz, everything's okay." she says sincerely.

"i was so worried about you." nancy tells mike. he hesitates. "yeah, uh.. me, too." he replies, but it comes out more like a question. nancy suddenly stops and glances behind mike. erin follows her gaze to eleven, who's standing there silently.

"is that my dress?"

after that, joyce quickly ushers them inside, and hopper then demands to know what is going on. mike and the rest of the kids readily sit down, and the wheeler boy begins to draw out the flea and the acrobat theory and then hold it up to hopper, joyce, jonathan, liz, and nancy.

"okay, so, in this example, we're the acrobat. will and barbara, and that monster, they're this flea. and this is the upside down, where will is hiding. mr. clarke said the only way to get there is through a rip of time and space." mike explains.

"a gate."

"that we tracked to hawkins lab." lucas nods. "with our compasses." dustin adds. when the people across from them just seem overwhelmed and confused, dustin holds up his hands.

"the gate apparently has a really strong electromagnetic field, and that can change the directions of the compasses needle." erin suddenly pipes up. she gestures her hands around the air in front of her. she has a really bad tendency to talk with them.

"is this gate underground?" hopper asks from the side.

"yes."

they all look to eleven, who had softly spoken for the first time in a while. she's staring at hopper with lowered eyebrows.

"near a large water tank?" he asks. she nods again. "yes."

"h-how do you know all that?" dustin asks quietly. hopper doesn't respond, just continues staring at eleven, as if trying to figure her out.

"he's seen it." mike suddenly realizes. erin looks to him in confusion.

"is there any way that you could.." joyce's gentle voice starts. she looks at eleven in nervousness. "that you could reach will? that you could talk to him in this-"

"the upside down." eleven informs.

"down," joyce whispers. "yeah." eleven then nods and erin casts a quick glance to her friends.

"and our friend, barbara. can you find her, too?" nancy then says. her and liz are slightly leaning across the table towards eleven. erin looks down at her lap at the thought of barbara. she hadn't seen her in a while, even before she went missing.

they then go to the kitchen and sit at the table with mike's walkie-talkie and a taped up picture of barbara. erin sits beside mike as eleven looks over the picture and then closes her eyes. they move behind her eyelids as she tries to find them. static just comes out of the walkie-talkie as eleven lets out a small breath. they all lightly lean in.

the lamp above the table flickers quickly, and they all glance up at it and then each other. the static then completely goes away and eleven opens her eyes, staring at a spot at the table and not moving. it doesn't even look like she's breathing. she blinks and her eyes become sad. her breath quickens and she looks up at joyce.

"i'm sorry."

erin feels herself become deflated as joyce starts asking what's wrong. "what happened?"

"i can't find them." eleven's voice breaks as she starts lightly crying. erin's face drops completely and she looks down at the table.

she couldn't find them? she couldn't find will? erin swallows and pushes her hair behind her ear as eleven leaves to the bathroom.

"what's wrong?" joyce asks as soon as she hears the door close. mike stands up and goes over next to lucas. "whenever she uses her powers, she gets weak." erin stands up as well and moves in between lucas and dustin.

"the more energy she uses, the more tired she gets." dustin elaborates.

"really tired. especially after one day." erin adds.

"like, she flipped the van earlier." lucas says, giving an example.

"it was awesome." erin nods in agreement. "but she's drained." mike says.

"like a bad battery." dustin says.

joyce stutters as she speaks. "well, h-how do we make her better?" she asks frantically.

"we don't. we just have to wait and try again." mike says. erin shakes her head.

"she just needs rest. you saw after we left the av room at school. she just needed to lay down for a little bit." erin says to the group.

"well, how long?" nancy asks. mike glances down and then back at his sister. "i don't know."

it's then that eleven chooses to come back in. "the bath." is all she says. joyce turns around to look at her quickly.

"what?"

"i can find them." she tells them. "in the bath."

-

after careful discussion, and enticing eleven on what they needed to do, everything started coming together. dustin then decided on his own that he just needed to call mr. clarke for more information.

he seems to wait forever for their teacher to pick up. he then turns away from where the hook is. "mr. clarke? it's dustin."

"yeah, yeah." he continues. "i just, i.. i have a science question." he finishes lamely.

he waits for a second before speaking louder. "do you know anything about sensory deprivation tanks?" erin winces at how weird this must sound to their science teacher. everyone sat at the table, watching him intently. "specifically, how to build one?"

"fun."

"you always say we should never stop being curious. to always open any curiosity door we find. why are you keeping this curiosity door locked?!"

that seems to do the trick, because then dustin is dragging the phone over to the table and beginning to write down what all mr. clarke says. erin watches with a raised eyebrow at some of the things, but hey, whatever works.

"uh-huh. uh-huh. uh-huh. uh- hu- how much?" he then writes mr. clarke's answer. "uh-huh. yep, all right. yeah, we'll be careful. definitely. all right, mr. clarke. yeah, i'll see you on monday. i'll see you on monday, mr. clarke. bye."

erin finally stands up straight from her weird leaning position on liz's body and jonathan's shoulders as he was sitting in front of her. dustin leans forward and looks at joyce across the table. "do you still have that kitty pool we bobbed for apples in?"

she glances around. "i think so. yeah."

"yeah? good. then we just need salt. lots of it." dustin says.

"how much is 'lots'?" hopper asks. dustin looks down at his notebook and then slowly back up.

"1,500 pounds."

everyone seems shocked as their eyes all widen. "where are we gonna get that much salt?" liz asks.

hopper knows a place, unsurprisingly.

when they all get up, erin doesn't move, instead staring at a place in the shadows in the hall. there's someone standing there.

she suddenly feels a hand in her own, and a hand on her face. the hand turns her head and she's met with bright blue eyes.

liz looks at the terrified look on her sister's face and a thought immediately comes to mind.

"you don't have your pills, do you?"

erin swallows. she doesn't. she had found it out in the car when she reached into her pocket, only to be met with air. she looks down at her shoes in shame.

liz opens her mouth to speak, but is interrupted by hopper.

"let's go!"

liz takes her sister's hand and they go to the cop car together, to the place hopper knows. she doesn't say anything to erin, just holds her tight.

when they arrive, 'the place' turns out to be hawkins middle. even though liz is reluctant to leave her sister, even for a small amount of time, erin, dustin, and lucas get tasked with setting the kiddie pool up in the gymnasium. erin walks alongside dustin as he rolls it in to the center of the floor.

"this damn thing is heavy." dustin grunts and erin rolls her eyes. it's a kitty pool, how hard could it be? they get it to the middle and start untying it.

they pull it apart and begin flattening it out. "come on. it's upside down." dustin complains, turning it. erin flips it with him, smoothing out the sides. "no, this way."

erin is soon eating her words because yes, it is actually difficult. "okay, um," lucas starts, holding up a side. the opposite side falls. "how does this even work?" dustin asks them.

they pick up one side. "try that side." lucas tells dustin. dustin goes to it, and picks it up, but the other side falls. "son of a bitch!"

erin even ends up tripping at one point, and she falls into the empty pool. dustin is laughing as she gets back up. she rolls her eyes and hurriedly takes off her jacket to make it easier.

"pull it back. pull it back." lucas tells them once they start helping again.

"we are!" dustin yells. they all get one part of the circle, and lucas counts for them to pull it back.

it falls inwards and dustin throws his hands down. "shit!" erin leans back and looks up at the ceiling, letting out a loud, frustrated groan.

lucas slaps at it and grabs his side again.

by some miracle, they get it up. erin's still not sure how, but she definitely knows that dustin wasn't that miracle.

they bring in the bags of salt, and some hoses, hooking them up and filling the pool with water.

erin stands by as lucas checks the water, trying to get it to just the right temperature. "colder!" he yells to the supply room where nancy is.

"warmer!" he then screams.

"right there!" he holds up his hand, even though nancy probably couldn't see him. erin bumps up and down on the balls of her feet from her place beside mike. she glances over at him, and then to her other two best friends. she still couldn't believe that none of this was over yet. what was gonna happen?

her thoughts are interrupted when a sudden clanging sound is heard. she looks around to see what was going on, but finds that no one else heard anything. erin looks back down at her feet. oh, yeah.

jonathan and hopper then come in, and poor sack after sack of salt. erin takes a deep breath in. it's fine. don't make a scene.

afterwards, to check it, dustin brightly runs to the school kitchen and grabs an egg carton. erin, mike, lucas, and dustin bend down over the pool as he opens the carton. he gives them all a small smile before plucking one out and setting on the water. it sinks and they all sit back in disappointment.

so jonathan and hopper pour a couple more bags of salt, and then they check it again.

it floats this time, and erin laughs in amusement as mike punches his arm jokingly. he then gets up, and sets his walkie talkie on a table behind them. it's the same one with wheels they had rolled eleven out of from the av room. erin watches as he turns the dials to the right channel.

-

eleven takes off her socks as they all gather around the pool. then a watch that mike had apparently given her. she gives it to him as joyce hands her a pair of duct taped goggles. she slowly puts them on.

she takes a deep breath, and then joyce and hopper hold both of her hands as they help her into the pool. she walks to the center, and then slowly bends down. she leans back and floats, her arms stretched out beside her.

the lights suddenly flicker and the speaker from the walkie-talkie squeaks. the lights then go completely out as they all turn back to the girl.

it's silent for several moments as erin watches the girl barely move. her finger twitches and erin aches her to grab her hand to comfort her.

"barb? barbara?"

elizabeth and nancy both lean forward when eleven says her name. she glances across the pool at her sister, who was between joyce and nancy, and then erin glances to her right at hopper. he's staring intently, waiting for any kind of sign.

eleven then starts breathing heavily, and the lights pulse off and on. erin looks around the gym and the ceiling. "what's going on?" nancy asks.

"i don't know." nancy looks away from her brother to eleven. "is barb okay? is she okay?"

"gone."

erin's heart drops to her feet, and her mouth opens in shock. barb is dead? there's no way.

"gone. gone."

erin looks over at her sister, and without any warning, liz stands up, and runs out of the gym. erin starts to hear the clanging sound from earlier and dog barks as she quickly makes a move to follow her, but a sudden splashing sound, and a hand tightly gripping her wrist stops her. the sounds screech to a halt.

erin looks down to see eleven's own hand holding her wrist. erin's eyes furrow in confusion. she thought that the pool was so eleven couldn't have any senses? so why is she touching her? and where did the sounds go?

"gone. gone!"

"it's okay. it's okay!" joyce shushes her gently. erin moves her hand so that eleven is now just holding it simply and she patiently waits. the girl continues crying, and erin has to move over slightly as eleven suddenly takes joyce's comes down to her shoulder, soaking her sleeve. hopper moves as erin slides down closer to joyce.

"it's okay, we're right here. we're right here, honey." she soothingly tells the girl with the shaved head. "it's okay, we got you. don't be afraid. we're right here with you. you're safe, it's okay."

joyce slowly moves her hand from eleven's shoulder to her hand. erin tries to move as well, but eleven surprisingly has a very strong grip. the long haired girl looks away and to the doors that liz had just run through. she bites her lip and then swallows, looking around the group. she makes eye contact with nancy and the older girl nods. "i'll go." she murmurs through teary eyes, and follows out the door after liz.

"castle byers."

erin's eyes snap back to the girl and she stares wide eyed at her. she looks up at joyce, who shares the same look of anticipation.

"will?"

joyce lets out a gasp. erin leans forward in hope. she hears the others around her let out small breaths.

"you-you tell him.. tell him i'm coming. mom is coming." joyce says. it's silent for a second and then eleven speaks quietly, but it's not to the people around her. no, it's not to them.

"your mom.. s-she's coming for you." erin's vision goes slightly blurry as tears flood them.

"h-hurry."

everyone looks over to the walkie-talkie quickly. will's voice is small and scratchy, and erin hears joyce let out a small sob. eleven found him — she really found him! erin shares a look with dustin and lucas.

"okay. listen, you tell him to-to stay where he is. we're coming. we're coming, okay? we're coming, honey."

"just-just hold on a little longer. will. will." eleven then says. erin bites her lip and lets out a shaky breath. it's silent for a moment.

"will? will?"

erin shakes her head as eleven's voice gets more urgent. "will?!" she begins to breath heavy, and grips erin's hand tightly again. "will!"

whimpers and cries come from the walkie-talkie, and they all glance back.

eleven then shoots up out of the water, taking her hand out of erin's and yanking the goggles off. erin gasps in surprise and falls back. she leans on her palms and breathes heavily as she plants her feet up in front of her.

eleven shrivels up against joyce, who holds her in her arms. "okay, it's okay. i've got you. i've got you. i got you, honey. you did so good." she whispers to her. eleven cries onto joyce's already wet sleeve as erin closes her eyes and sighs softly.

erin barely registers hopper getting up, or more talking going on around her. all she hears is multiple voices blending together at once. she lets out a small sound of pain as the sounds start up again. they always went in and out for long periods of time.

she sets her head in her hands and lays her arms on her knees as she brings them to her chest like eleven had done. she just has to wait for it all to go away.

"maybe we should get elizabeth."

"i don't - hey, wait-"

a hand is set on her right arm, and the voices suddenly stop.

erin freezes too, momentarily, before slowly lifting her head. when she opens her eyes, eleven is sitting next to her with hopper's flannel on. her face is dry of tears now, and she's rubbing erin's right arm somewhat comfortingly. erin stares at her in amazement. she had done that earlier as well in the pool. make everything go away.

"what's wrong?" the girl asks softly. erin shakes her head as she sniffs. "i just have schizophrenia."

eleven stares at her for a long moment, obviously confused by the term.

erin shuffles and turns towards the girl. "it means i hear and see stuff that isn't real. i don't always know if it's real or not. sometimes it's easy to tell, but other times it's harder." she explains quietly. "i have my pills that makes it all go away for about 6 hours, but i lost them somewhere." eleven nods, kind of understanding.

they then get up, and move to the bleachers. eleven sits beside mike, and erin sits beside her. lucas comes up to them and sits behind erin.

he slowly wraps the towel in his hands around eleven, and erin smooths it out, rubbing her arm and her back. she has her head on mike's shoulder and is staring at the floor aimlessly.

the long haired girl then leans forwards, holding her hand on her forehead with her hair covering her face like a curtain. she breathes in through her nose and out through her mouth. she almost begins to lean on eleven because of how exhausted she feels, but stays where she is.

erin quickly clamps her hands over her ears at the sudden sound of her mother's voice echoes in her ears. she scrunches up her shoulders and almost lets out a cry. multiple footsteps echo around the room and the door to the left of them closes. she doesn't know if it's real or not, so she doesn't bother looking up, knowing that if something else had happened, they would have said so.

she sits back up, and looks around. the noises are still clearly there, but she tries to focus elsewhere, as it would die down in a second. she turns to see eleven had leaned up and was staring at her in concern again. erin just shakes her head and attempts to smile at her.

eleven says nothing, but snaps her head slightly to the side. the noises stop, and erin blinks rapidly in shock and confusion. she didn't even touch her that time. what is going on? and how is eleven doing that to her?

—

yo someone on one of my instagram accounts who reads this says that eleven is gonna be erin's gay awakening and i just ksksks

also we got some supernatural shit going on between erin & el 👀