Chapter Eight

We were coming into the Byers' house, the five of us pulling out from Hopper's car. "Mike." I looked over and saw a teenage girl running towards him. "Oh, my God. Mike!" The girl hugs him, this must be Nancy. "I was so worried about you."

"Yeah... uh, me too." Mike awkwardly said. Nancy looked over at El.

"Is that my dress?" Nancy looked at me. "Are those my clothes?" I gave her an awkward smile.

We all gathered inside, explaining things. "Okay, so, in this example, we're the acrobat." Mike begins to explain, drawing a picture like Mr. Clarke had done. "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."

"A gate." Dustin added.

"That we tracked to Hawkins Lab." Lucas continued on.

"With our compasses." I smiled.

They still weren't getting it. "Okay, so the gate has a really strong electromagnetic field, and that can charge the directions of a compass needle."

"Is this gate underground?" Hopper asked from the chair.

"Yes." El answered softly.

"Near a large water tank?" Hopper continued.

El nodded. "Yes."

"How do you know all that?" Dustin stuttered.

"He's seen it." Mike realised.

"Is there anyway that you could... that you could reach to Will?" Joyce asked El. "That you could talk to him in this-"

"The Upside Down." El cuts her off.

"Down. Yeah." Joyce whispered. El nods.

"And my friend Barbara?" Nancy added. "Can you find her, too?"

We were all gathered around El at the table as the static from the radio was heard and El had closed her eyes. The lights flicker above us.

El opened her eyes. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

"What?" Joyce stammers. "What's wrong? What happened?"

"I can't find them." Her voice breaks a little and my heart sinks. El had gone to the bathroom and we had created a mini circle.

"Whenever El uses her powers, she gets weak." I begin to explain.

"The more energy she uses, the more tired she gets." Dustin continued.

"Like, she flipped over the earlier." Lucas said.

"It was awesome." Dustin nodded.

"But she's drained." Mike explained.

"Like a bad battery," I tell them.

"Well..." Joyce stammers. "How do we make her better?"

"We don't." Mike replied. "We just have to wait and try again."

"Well, how long?" Nancy asked.

Mike shrugged. "I don't know."

"The bath." A soft voice came from behind us, we turned and there was El standing there.

"What?" Joyce asked, looking at her.

"I can find them." She almost whispered. "In the bath."

Dustin had called Mr. Clarke for some advice, while we sit around and wait.

"Mr. Clarke? It's Dustin." Dustin started. "Yeah, yeah. I just, I... I have a science question." Pause. "Do you know anything about sensory deprivation tanks? Specifically about how to build one?" Another pause. "Fun." Pause. "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?"

With that, Dustin writes everything down the Mr. Clarke was explaining to him. "How much?" Dustin asked. "Uh-huh... yep, all right. We'll be careful. Definitely. All right, Mr. Clarke. Yeah, I'll see you on Monday. I'll see you Monday, Mr. Clarke, bye."

He hangs up. Dustin looked at Joyce. "Do you still have that kiddie pool we bobbed for apples in?"

"I think so. Yeah." Joyce nods.

"Good. Then we just need salt. Lots of it." Dustin informs us.

"How much is lots?" Hopper asked.

Dustin looked at the paper. "1,500 pounds." My eyes widen.

That's a lot.

"Well, where are we gonna get that much salt?" I asked. Hopper claimed he knew a place, so he and Jonathan went to the school Cafe to steal some.

Well, "borrow" as they called it.

So, Lucas, Dustin and I are at the school Gym setting up the kiddie pool. "Okay, um... how does this even work?" Dustin complained as we couldn't get the kiddie pool to stay upright.

"Try that side." Lucas suggested and Dustin went over to hold it up.

"Son of a bitch!" One of the other sides fell as we all tried to hold it up.

"Pull it back." I suggested and we all pull it back, having one side each but a spare side left that keeps flopping. "One, two, three."

The kiddie pool flops.

"Shit!"

Once Nancy and Mike got here with the hoses that they, once again "borrowed", they plugged the hoses into the water sources that was nearby in the gym.

We managed to put the pool up and the water was flowing into the pool nicely. We kept measuring the water to see how the water needed to be.

It needed to be much colder. "Colder!" I called over to Nancy and she switched the water temperature as cold as she could.

"Warmer!" Lucas yelled. "Right there!"

Hopper and Jonathan had came by with the salt bags of salt. We cut them open and poured them into the water.

Doing a little experience with an egg, Dustin dropped the egg in to see if it floats. It does not. That's when we tipped more salt into the water.

We tried it again, this time, the egg floats perfectly. So this means El can float perfectly onto the water without sinking.

We put the radio down onto a stool and put the frequency high. El had taken off her socks, Mike's watch, and taken the goggles that Joyce had tapped around in duct tape so it was dark.

She puts the goggles on. El lets out a sigh before stepping into the kiddie pool. She slowly sat down and begins to float.

I sat on the side, along with everyone else who was watching.

The lights above us flickers. Then the lights turned off and we just waited.

"Barb... Barbara?" We heard whisper, Nancy perked up.

The lights flickered. "What's going on?" Nancy asked worriedly.

"I don't know." Her brother replied.

"Is Barb okay?" Nancy leant forward. "Is she okay?"

"Gone." El said. "Gone." My eyes widen.

"It's okay, it's okay." Joyce whispered to El.

"Gone! Gone!" El was frantic, making my heart sped up.

"It's okay, it's okay." Joyce says a little louder this time. "It's okay, it's okay. We're right here. We're right here, honey. I got you, don't be afraid." Those words seemed to calm her shaking body down.

"Castle Byers." She suddenly said. "Will?" Joyce gasped at the mention of her son's name.

"You tell him... tell him I'm coming." Joyce tells her. "Mum is coming."

"Hurry," we heard over the radio. "Hurry."

"Okay. Listen, you tell him to... to stay where he is." Joyce instructs El. "We're coming. We're coming, okay? We're coming, honey."

There was then whimpering over the radio and El jumps up, shocking almost everyone. Joyce comforted El, telling her sweet things like "I've got you" "it's going to be okay".

We'd gotten El out of the bath, wrapping her in some towels to keep her warm and she leans on Mike, with Dustin and Lucas by them.

"So this fort, where is it?" Hopper asked as he shrugged on a coat.

"Uh, it's in the woods behind our house." Joyce stutters.

"Yeah, he used to go there to hide." Jonathan explained beside me. Hopper had left, Joyce and Jonathan following.

I stayed in the gym, crossing my arms. Well, this is a good thing. Will is still alive and we still have time to save him.

I walked out of the Gym where Nancy was, Jonathan wasn't far behind me. Jonathan walked past me and sat down next to her, I kind of just stand there.

"We have to go back to the station." Nancy said.

"What?" Jonathan asked softly.

"Your Mum and Hopper are just walking in there like bait." Nancy shakily said. "That thing in is still in there. And we can't just sit here and let it get them, too. We can't."

"You still wanna try it out?" Jonathan then asked her and I frowned a little. Try what out?

"I wanna finish what we started," Nancy whispered. "I want to kill it."

"What's at the police station?" I asked and their gazes landed on mine.

"Our traps," Nancy answered. I smiled and began to walk out. "Where are you going?"

I turned my head. "We're going to kill it, aren't we?"

A/N

Merry Christmas everybody!!

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