~=~=~Elevens POV~=~=~

"This is a code red! Do you copy! This is a code red!" I hear Lucas' voice echo through my mind, I open my eyes a bit to see Max lean down and grab her walkie talkie. "Shut. Up." She grumbles turns it off and dumps it back on the ground. We both lay back down and try to go back to sleep. Next minute my phone rings. "You have got to be kidding me!" Max groans as she gets out of bed.

"I'm sleeping go away!" She yells, shes about to hang up when she holds the phone back to her ear. "What are you talking about?" She mumbles. "What?" She hangs up and looks at me. "What did he say?" I ask getting sleep out of my eye.

We jump out of bed and get dressed as fast as we can. I wheel my bike out of the garage and Max jumps on her yellow one. We speed down the road to Mike's house, He said that something bad happened and we need to get there as fast as we can. I just hope it's not a shitty apology he's making up.

----10 minutes later----

"I didn't think it was really anything at first... I just didn't want to believe it." Will explains. "The first time I felt it was at Day of The Dead."

"The power went out that night too" Mike says. "Yeah, I remember Dad getting pissed about that." I sigh. "And then I felt it again at the field, near the Nelson Farm. And then again yesterday, outside Castle Byers." "What does it feel like?" Max asks. "Its like... you know when you drop on a rollercoaster?" He explains to us all. The room fills with lots of "Yes" and "Sures." "No.." I say getting some attention. "Well, it's like everything inside your body is just sinking all at once, but this is worse," He says. "Your body... it goes cold, and you can't breathe. I've felt it before. Whenever he was close."

"Whenever who was close?" Max asks squinting her eyes. "The Mind Flayer." I look up at Will. "I closed the gate,-" Will then interjects. "I know but, what if he never left? What if we locked him out here with us?" He says turning and looking at me.

Will gets up and grabs a handful of crayons and rips a piece of paper off one of Mike's sketch books. He starts vigorously scribbling a drawing of the Mind Flayer. "This is him, all of him. But, that day on the field... a part of him attached himself to me." He smudges the drawing and shows his hand with black crayon all over it. "My Mom, Jonothan, and Nancy got it out of me, And Eleven closed the gate." Will flips the paper around. "But the part that's still in me, what if it's still in our world?" He leaves a handprint of his black smudged hand. "In Hawkins."

"I don't understand, the Demodogs died when El closed the gate. If the brain dies, the body dies." Max explains. "We can't take any chances. We need to assume the worst. The Mind Flayer's back." Mike agrees, looking at all of us. "Yeah. And if he is... he'd want to attach himself to someone again. A new me." Will's voice darkens.

"A new host." Lucas agrees, almost in a whisper of realization. I look at Will, wanting to know more. "How can you tell if someone is a host?" I ask.

--A short bike ride to the pools later--

Max peers through her binoculars and looks at Billy -her so-called cursed brother-."I don't know, he seems pretty normal to me." She sighs. "Normal? How many times have you seen him with a shirt on?" Lucas exclaims. "Well I mean it's a little weird." She admits. "Yeah, more than a little" Mike says. "He was in a tub with ice! The Mind Flayer likes it cold!" "But everything else-" Max then cuts him off. "-He's lounging at the pool! Which is like the least Mind Flayer thing ever!" Max argues, getting slightly frustrated.

"Not necessarily," Will cuts in. "The Mind Flayer likes to hide, he only used me when he needed me... It's like, like you're dormant. And then, when he needs you, you're activated." He explains. "Okay, so we just wait until he gets activated?" Max suggests. "No, what if he hurts someone." Mike says with a tone of worry in his voice, "Or kills someone." Will adds cautiously. "We can't take that chance," Mike says. "We need to find out if he's the host" Mike gets up and starts walking towards the pool. "Where are you going?" I call.

"I have an Idea! Boys only!" He yells.

"Seriously!" Max frustratedly sighs.

"Just trust me on this one!" Mike bickers. Max rolls her eyes and we sit in the shade. I take out my walkie talkie and so does Max. She leans back and puts her hands behind her head. "What's the bet they are going to take hours." I sigh lying next to her. "Well, it's a perfect time to talk about them." She sneers, getting a giggle from me.

-- at least couple minutes later--

I sit up and see Mike and Lucas come towards us. "Huh, I guess I was wrong!" Max smirks. "Max go with Lucas and El come with me." Mike orders. Max rolls her eyes and gets up.

Mike leads me into a storage room, explaining that we need a mannequin or something. "Woah that thing is super creepy! Let me see it!" He snatches it off me with a huff and holds it up. I raise an eyebrow in confusion. "I think this will work, right buddy?" He touches the chin of the doll, "rIghT MiKe." He says in a high pitched voice. He chuckles and looks at me. I roll my eyes, take the doll and throw it over my shoulders.

"Hey El," Mike says. I turn and look at him with an arched eyebrow. "I just wanted to say... Do you know when I said Nana was sick? She wasn't. I lied." He sighs. I crook my head. "I know," I mutter coldly and sounding rather disinterested. I turn to leave when he starts talking again. "Righ, right, right I know I just think it was important for you to know the context." He explains.

"Hopper, he went all crazy on me telling me I'm spending way too much time with you. He made me lie, I mean, you're the most important thing to me in the world." I roll my eyes and drop the doll.

"What if he's right?" I remark.

"What?"

"Hop."

"Oh, no, no, no, no. He's just some angry old man who hates joy."

"But if I only see you," I playfully punch his shoulder, "And I'm a different species than you then I should be with my species more," I say, making my point.

"What are you talking about?" He sounds as though some big secret had been exposed.

I roll my eyes and throw the mannequin over my shoulder. "Did you spy on me? That's totally against the rules!!" Mike gasps.

"I make my own rules." I retort and leave.