After planting blood all over the floor and on the traps, Jonathan and Nancy both sat on the couch and tended to each other's wounds.  Jonathan finished wrapping Nancy's hand, so it was his turn.  Nancy wrapped his hand up with a gauze gently.  They both freeze and jump when they hear fainting creaking. 

Nancy looks up in alert, "Did you hear that?" She whispers. 

Jonathan waves it off, "It's just the wind. Don't worry. My mom, she said the lights speak when it comes." He says. 

Nancy frowns at him as she goes back to wrapping his hand, "Speak?"

"Blink. Think of them as alarms." He corrects himself.

She tightens the gauze a little and Jonathan flinches just a little at her soft touch.  His skin shivers against her fingers.  

"Is that too tight?" She asks as she carefully tapes his bandage.

Blushing and stutters, Jonathan shakes his head, "No, it's fine. Thanks." He looks down and watches her fingers continue to brush against his palm.  He lightly moves his fingers to touch hers.  She was so soft compared to his rough skin.  He looks up into her eyes, trailing over her lips.   He wondered what it would be like...to just once...

"Nancy?" He says softly.

Nancy looks up at him, becoming trapped into his intense stare, "Yeah?"

Jonathan says nothing but continues to trace her lips with his eyes.  Together, they slowly lean in closer...and closer.  

Bang! Bang! Bang! They both jump apart and gasp at the loud banging made at the door.  Soon, a familiar voice calls out from behind.  Both of them were shocked to find out who it was. 

"Jonathan?  Are you there, man? It's... it's Steve! Listen, I just want to talk!" Steve calls out and continues to bang on the door. 

Nancy looks at Jonathan in shock.  She didn't understand why he was here.  Of all times, he had to come here!  And she couldn't believe she was about to kiss Jonathan Byers!

She scrambles to get up and rushes towards the door, when she opens it, Steve was shocked to see her there. 

"Steve, listen to me." Nancy needed to get him out of here now before the monster comes. 

"Hey. Nancy, what--" Steve stammers in confusion. 

"You need to leave." She states. 

Thinking that she was afraid he was gonna fight again, he shakes his head, "I'm not trying to start anything, okay?"

"I don't care about that. You need to leave." Nancy tries to shut the door, but Steve pushes it back open and pleads with her. 

"No, no, no. Listen, I messed up, okay? I messed... I messed up. Okay? Really. Please. I just want to make things right. Okay? Please. Please..." He begs and, suddenly, his eyes catches the bandage on her hand.  "Hey, what happened to your hand?" He snatches and grabs her hand, flinching when he feels something wet and sees the red stain, "Is that blood?" He exclaims in shock. 

"Nothing. It was an accident." She waves it off. 

Steve frowns, noticing that Nancy was acting more strange than before, "Yeah, what's going on?"

"Nothing." Nancy says. 

Thinking she was attacked, Steve tries to get inside, "Wait a sec. Did he do this to you?" He says as anger builds up inside him. 

"No."

Steve shoves against the door to get inside, "Nancy, let me in!"

Nancy tries to fight, but Steve was too strong, "No. No! No, Steve!" she shouts and moves as Steve stumbles inside. 

Steve collects himself and frowns when he sees Jonathan holding a bat spiked with nails and weapons all over the coffee table.  Blood all over the floor.  

"What is... What the..." Steve stutters in confusion.

"You need to get out of here." Jonathan states. 

"Whoa. What is all--"

"Listen to me. I'm not asking you, I'm telling you, get out of here!" Jonathan begins to shove Steve out but Steve fights when he smells gas in the air. 

"What is that smell? Is that... is that gasoline?" He exclaims. 

Suddenly, Nancy rushes towards the table for the and cocks it and aims it at him. 

"Steve, get out!" Nancy demanded. 

Steve stutters in fear as he holds up his hands to stop her, "Wait. What? What is going on?" He asks with wide eyes. 

"You have five seconds to get out of here." She warns. 

"Okay, is this a joke?" He scoffs, but gulps when he sees she wasn't joking.  "Stop. Put the gun down."

"I'm doing this for you." She says.

Suddenly, the lights begin to flicker.  Jonathan's eyes widen in realization, "Nancy."

Steve and Nancy were too busy arguing, "Wait. Is this a... What is this?" Steve wanted answers. 

"Nancy." Jonathan tries to get her attention, but she was still trying to get Steve out.  

"Three. Two." She counts. 

Steve panics and braces himself to be shot, "No, no, no! No, no!" He shouts.

"Nancy! The lights." Jonathan shouts.

Nancy gasps as she looks, seeing the lights blinking rapidly.  She moves to take her stand with Jonathan.  Their backs pressing against each other.  She grips on to gun as Jonathan holds on to the bat.

"It's here."

Steve was confused with how they were acting, "Wait, what's here?"

"Where is it?" Nancy says as she blindly searches while the lights continue to flick rapidly, placing them both in darkness and light. 

"Where is what? Whoa! Easy with that!" Steve shouts and ducks when she was pointing the gun all around. 

"Where is it?"

"I don't know.  I don't see it." Jonathan says as he looks around with her.  The lights made it difficult for both of them to search for the monster.   

"Where is what? Hello? Will someone please explain to me what the hell is going--" Steve shouts, then the three of them jump with the roof begins to crumble.  

The three of them watch a huge creature begin to claw itself out from the ceiling, roaring loudly.  Nancy's eyes widen in horror as she sees the familiar monster falling from the ceiling.  Steve couldn't believe what he was seeing.  

Nancy moves to shoot the monster, but Jonathan was afraid she might get hurt.

"No!" He grabs her and pulls her away.  He grabs Steve's arm as well and yanked them both towards Will's room. "Go! Go! Run! Go!" He shouts. "Get out of here!" 

The Demogorgon stands on it's two feet and roars as it's head explodes open.  It could smell fresh blood all around it. 

The three of them rush through the hallway, "Jump!" Jonathan warns Steve to miss the trap.  Everyone jumps over the trap and rushes into the room. 

Jonathan slams the door shut and prepares himself with his lighter.  Nancy keeps the gun at the door.  All three of them stand panting heavily in fear and alert as they wait for the monster to get into the trap, but Steve was having a major panic attack. 

"Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Jesus! Jesus! What the hell was that? What the hell was that?" He yells.

Nancy and Jonathan snap their heads towards him, "Shut up!" They yell and turn their attention back at the door.  

They could hear the monster screeching from the other rooms.  Stomping and growling as it moves around.  They get ready and watch the yo-yo.  

"What's it doing?" Nancy whispers. 

"I don't know." Jonathan says. 

Suddenly, it went quiet.  Even the lights stopped flickering and blinking.  Everything was still.  Jonathan walks slowly towards the door to listen, but he couldn't hear anything. No growling. No feet stomping.  It was so quiet. 

"Do you hear anything?" Nancy whispers. 

Jonathan shakes his head, "No."

Hesitantly, Jonathan reaches for the knob and slowly opens the door. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Joyce, Hopper, and Gloria continue to search through Upside Down.  They managed to make it all the way towards the woods that looked similar to the ones behind Joyce's house.  Hopper slows his steps when they reached an area that was covered with some sort of...shells.  Large shells that looked like eggs.  It was like something out of Alien.  

"Dear God, please don't let there be chest busters in these things." Gloria prays in dread. 

"Thanks for that, Glory." Hopper mutters bitterly as he shines his light over the eggs.  They were all empty.  

"Hate to see what came out of these." Gloria says and moves to meet up with Joyce.  

Joyce was scouting around and gasps when she sees a familiar sign, 'Castle Byers'.  Broken and lying on the ground. 

"Will! Will!" She starts shouting.

Gloria rushes towards her and sees the destroyed fort scattered all around.  Hopper races to meet with them.  

Joyce looks around and sees if she could find Will.  This is where Eleven said he was, but where was he?

"Will! Will!" Joyce begins to sob.  

Gloria holds on to her as she continues to shout and scream for Will.

Hopper's eye was caught by a stuffed lion that was buried in the debris.  Almost like the lion his daughter Sarah had when she was in the hospital.  They diagnosed his daughter with cancer and soon, she had to stay at the hospital permanently when the doctors informed him and his ex-wife, Diane, that there wasn't anything they could do for her except make her final days the best they could.  It broke Hopper's heart when he watched his daughter's beautiful blond hair fall out.  He struggled to be brave for his daughter.  Last thing he wanted her to see was how much pain he was in.  

He remembers the day when he held her in his arms and read to her while she clutches on to the stuffed lion.

"'I asked Mrs. Spencer what made them red and she said she didn't know and for pity's sake not to ask her any more questions.  She said I must have asked her a thousand already. I suppose I had, too, but how are you gonna find things out if you don't ask questions? And what does make roads red? 'Well, I don't know,' said Matthew. It just makes me feel glad to be alive...it's such an interesting world'." He softly reads to her and kisses her smooth head.  

When the doctors had to look over Sarah, Hopper left Diane in the waiting room to have some time to himself.  He went to find an empty stairwell and slides down to the floor to sob his heart out.  It killed him knowing that his daughter wasn't going to live.  He was never going to see her graduate high school.  Never going to walk her down the aisle.   Dance with her.  Why was this happening?  Why? The pain of losing her was too great for him.

He snaps out of his thoughts as he hears Joyce's voice blending with Gloria's as they call out for Will.

"Will!" Joyce yells. 

"Will, answer us!" Gloria shouts. 

"Will!" Hopper joins in to search for him. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jonathan was the first to walk out slowly of the hallway and into the living room.  He frowns when he sees that the roof never collapsed.  There were cracks, but that's it.  As if nothing happened.  He nods to give Nancy and Steve the word that it was safe, but he knew it'll be back.  The blood on the ground was still fresh.  

Nancy walks out with a very skittish Steve as he looks around in terror.  Nancy holds the gun tightly as she looks around for the monster.  So far, it was gone.  But that didn't stop Steve for freaking out. 

Steve mutters terror, "This is crazy. This is crazy. This is crazy. This is crazy! This is crazy! This is crazy!" He shouts and rushes for the phone.  He begins to dial '911', but before he could get the last '1', Nancy storms up to him and yanks the phone out his hand and throws it across the room.  He looks at her in complete shock, " What are you do--What are you doing? Are you insane?" He glares at her.

"It's going to come back! So you need to leave. Right now." She demands. 

Steve didn't think twice, he just runs out of there.  Thinking Nancy was insane along with Jonathan.  But when he reaches his car, he hears the loud pulsating of electricity and sees the lights blinking again.  What was he doing?!  How can he just leave Nancy and Jonathan to that...that thing?!

Nancy and Jonathan stood back to the back again, scanning all around as the lights begin to go crazy again.  

"Where is it?" Nancy asks.

Jonathan grits his teeth, he was tired, so tired, he wanted this to end now.  This thing took his brother and killed Barbara.  It needs to pay. 

"Come on.  Come on, you son of a bitch." He growls lowly. 

"You see it?" With the lights flicking rapidly, blending them in and out of darkness, it was hard to see anything around them.  

"No. Where--Come on.  Where are you? Come on!" Jonathan shouts. 

Suddenly, the lights go out and Nancy hears low growling and turns fast to see the monster standing by Jonathan. 

"Jonathan!" Nancy screams.

Jonathan turns fast and sees it so close to.  He yelps in alarm before he knew it, he was on the ground with the monster hovering over him.  It presses him down on the ground and the bat flies out of his hand. 

Jonathan groans at the pressure of the monster's strength. Nancy cries out his name as he eyes the monster leaning closer and closer.  It's drool coating his face.  His eyes widen in terror as the monster's head opens and all he can see is teeth and it's throat.  

"Jonathan! Jonathan!"

The monster growls loudly, but snaps up when it hears the cocking of a gun.  Nancy points at the monster, aiming her gun at it. 

"Go to hell, you son of a bitch!" She yells

Jonathan splutters when it's drool fills his mouth.  He groans in disgust and spits out as much as he could.  Scrambling away from the monster as Nancy fires at it.  But, it barely did any damage to it.  

Nancy's eyes widen as she continues to fire till she was clicking the gun.  She gasps and backs away as she whimpers in terror.  Bracing herself to be attacked, she jumps as a figure comes busts through the front door and grabs the spiked bat, swinging it and hitting the monster.  

"Steve!" Nancy gasps and watches Steve swinging and hitting.

Steve grunts as he attacks the monster. His eyes widening in terror as his head was screaming at him, 'Why are you doing this, you idiot?!'  He twirls the bat in his hand for a better grip and whams against it harder.  He keeps hitting it till the monster backed away from him and into the bear trap.  

The monster howls in pain as it's foot steps into the trap and latches itself hard into it's flesh and bone. 

"He's in the trap!" Jonathan shouts as he gets up to his feet, "He's stuck!"

"Jonathan, now!" Nancy screams.

Jonathan rushes and flicks the lighter on, tossing it against the monster.  In a big flash with a loud whoosh, the monster lights up in flames and screeches so loudly in pain as the fire engulfs it.  

From the Upside Down, Hopper, Joyce, and Gloria all snap their heads up in alarm as they hear a horrific screeching in the air.  Echoing all around them.

"Did you hear that?"

The three of them take off towards the noise, while back in the real world, Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve cover their eyes from the bright flames.  

Jonathan rushes to grab the fire extinguisher, "Get back!" He grunts and points the hose at the fire, spraying all over the flames and carpet.  A huge cloud of smoke fills the whole house, making them all cough at the horrible smell burnt carpet and monster flesh.  

Panting, they wave their arms around to clear the thick cloud.  To their horror, the monster was gone.  

"Where did it go?" Nancy asks.  

Jonathan's eyes widen in dread, "No.  It has to be dead. It has to be." He couldn't understand it.  They had it trapped.  They burned it.  There's no way. 

In Upside Down, Hopper leads the women out of the woods and towards a familiar house that stood not too far from where they were.  Joyce couldn't believe it.  They walked past the familiar shed, covered in the weird vines, and beyond the site...was the house.  Almost as if it was in ruins.  Rotten wood, covered with vines and weird moss.  

"Come on." Hopper gestures both to follow him.

"Is that my house?" Joyce gasps.  

Hopper walks up to the backdoor and slowly opens it.  The door creaks loudly as Hopper walks inside first with Joyce and Gloria behind him.  

At the same time, the lights come on in the real world, alerting Jonathan, Steve, and Nancy something was there.  Jonathan gasps softly as the lights glow, but they begin to move.  

Hopper walks towards the hallway and sees dark blood staining the floor.  Something was here and it was injured.  Whatever it was, it wasn't human.  He had a feeling it was the monster, the Demogorgon. 

"It was here." Gloria says as she shines her light over the blood. 

"It was hurt." Hopper says. 

"What could have hurt it?" Gloria frowns.

"Who cares?  As long as something is killing it, it'll give us the advantage to look for Will." Hopper says.

Gloria turns and shines her light at him, "Think about it, Jim.  If something hurt something that big, what makes us think we're safe?" She scoffs.

"We're not safe here anyway.  Come on, we need to follow the trail while it's still bleeding.  If it did take Will, then it'll lead us right to him." Hopper says and moves to follow the blood trail. 

Joyce gasps softly in realization and moves to follow Hopper while Gloria trails behind.  

In the real world, Jonathan moves to follow the lights with Nancy and Steve behind him, in alert and terror.  But...unlike what the lights did when the monster was here, the lights didn't blink.  These lights were moving down a path.  He had a feeling he knew what was causing the lights to move.  

"Mom."

Joyce gasps and turns when she hears a faint voice echoing around her.

"Is that you? Mom."

"Jonathan?" 

Jonathan's eyes fill with tears when he hears the faint voice of his mother.  She was in Upside Down.  Looking for Will.  

"Joyce, come on."  Hopper says, snapping her out of her thoughts. 

Joyce turns and continues to follow Hopper and Gloria to find the creature and, hopefully, Will as well.  

Jonathan follows the lights with Nancy and Steve.  They all watch the lights head towards the door.  Then the street lights begin to flicker.  Nancy and Steve assumed it was the monster, but Jonathan knew.  He knew. 

"Where's it going?" Nancy asks. 

"I don't think that's the monster." Jonathan says.  

In his mind, he prayed.  He prayed that his mom will find Will, alive and safe.  And bring him home like she promised. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eleven watches her sister from afar as Fi shares a kiss with Jace.  She didn't understand why they were doing that.  But Fi didn't seem to be bothered by it.  In fact, she watches her sister return the kiss.  When they pulled apart, they just seem to be stuck in each other's gaze.  El watches her sister's face become a shade of red and her eyes seem to gloss over.  But when she smiled, Eleven didn't see anything wrong.  Just...curious.

"Ew." Mike grimaces as he watches one of his oldest friend suck face with Fi.  

"What are they doing?" Eleven asks. 

"Sucking face.  It's a way for grown ups to show they like each other.  Kinda gross to watch." Mike says, shrugging but he couldn't help think in the back of his mind what it would be like if he and Eleven...

Dustin and Lucas were still scavenging for the chocolate pudding in the kitchen.  Dustin opens one of the fridges and exclaims in triumph when he sees it loaded with cans of pudding.  

"Found it! I knew she was hoarding it. I knew it." He says as he fills his arms up with pudding.  

Lucas moves to join and grabs as much as he could, laughing in triumph, "Yeah."

"Always lying, saying she's out. Bald-faced liar." Dustin grins, then turns to call out, " Mike, Jace, I found the chocolate pudding!" He yells.

Mike, Jace, Eleven, and Five all jump when Dustin calls out from the kitchen.  

"Okay!" Mike calls back.

"Good for you, Dustin!" Jace calls out and chuckles.  

Mike turns back to look over Eleven, "Are you feeling any better?" He asks. 

Eleven sighs softly and shrugs.  Honestly, she still felt weak, but a little better.  With a confused look, "What's 'putting'?" She asks.

Mike chuckles at her question and how she pronounced pudding, "Pudding, it's...it's this chocolate goo you eat with a spoon." He watches her face scrunch up in disgust.  "Don't worry, when all this is over, you won't have to keep eating junk food and leftovers like a dog anymore. My mom, she's a pretty awesome cook. She can make you whatever you like." He says.

Eleven's face lights up, "Eggos?" She asks excitedly.  

Mike frowns, "Well, yeah, Eggos, but real food, too." He says and sighs.  "See, I was thinking, once all this is over and Will's back and you and your sister are not a secret anymore, my parents can get you and her an actual bed for the basement. Or you can take my room if you want, since I'm down there all the time anyways. My point is, they'll take care of you. They'll be like your new parents, and Nancy, she'll be like your a sister, too."

"Will you be like my brother?" She asks. 

"What? No, no." He scoffs. 

Eleven frowns, "Why 'no'?" 

"Because..." He sighs, how can he explain this? "'cause it's different."

Eleven was still confused, "Why?"

Mike sighs, embarrassed about it all, maybe he should just forget it, "I mean, I don't know, I guess it's not. It's stupid." he tries to wave it off. 

"Mike?"

"Yeah?"

"Friends don't lie." Eleven says. 

Sighing deeply, "Well...I was thinking...I don't know...maybe we can go to the Snow Ball together." He says sheepishly. 

Eleven was confused, "Snow Ball'?"

"It's this cheesy school dance, where you go in the gym and dance to music and stuff. I've never been, but I know you're not supposed to go with your sister." He explains. 

"No?"

"I mean...you can, but it'd be really weird. You go to school dances with someone that, you know...someone that you like." he explains. 

Eleven was so confused, "A friend?"

"Not a friend." This was getting frustrating, "Uh... uh...Uh, someone like a..." He stutters, then sighs, 'to hell with it', he thinks and moves quickly to lean forward and kiss her lips.  

Mike pulls back and looks into her eyes, watching her cheeks turn red as she gives him a surprised look.  He slowly leans back, hoping he wasn't going to be rejected, but she simply gives him a small smile.  Mike slowly returns one.  Meaning, she likes him, too.

Mike frowns and turns when he sees Jace and Fi watching them.  Jace gives him a fist pump in the air, silently cheering for him. 

Suddenly, they all jump when they hear a car lights shine through the windows.  

"Nancy." Mike gets up.

"Hang on." Jace holds up a hand and turns towards Fi, "Stay right here." 

Mike frowns and moves to follow him, but turns back towards Eleven, "Hold on, I'll be right back. Stay here." He says.

Fi frowns as she watches them both head towards the door, she walks over to Eleven and sits next to her.  

Mike and Jace walk out of building and watches cars arriving in front of the gym.  Jace's eyes widen when he sees familiar black cars swarming and agents rushing out.  Soldiers yell out orders as they storm into the building. 

"Go! You two, on me."

Mike gasps as they both watch Dr. Brenner get out of one of the cars and head inside. 

"Oh, shit.  Go! Go!" Jace says softly and grabs Mike's collar, yanking him back into building.  

Dustin and Lucas both dump dozens of cans of Chocolate pudding over the table with huge grins. Eleven frowns as she picks on up with Fi and exams it. 

"This will charge your battery right up, I'm telling you." Dustin states.

But before Eleven could eat some, Mike and Jace comes running into the building. 

"Guys! Guys!"

"What is it?"

Jace pants with a worried look, "They're here.  They found us."

Fi and Eleven share a terrified look.  Eleven rushes to her sister's arms and, together, they all rush out to another side to find a place to hide as the agents and soldiers storm inside, armed to the teeth with guns and weapons.  

"We know they're here."

"Be advised, west side of the building is clear."

"Sir, we've searched everywhere. There's no sign of them."

"Kitchen."

They searched every room, every part of the school.  Even finding the pudding scattered all over one of the cafeteria tables.  But no one was around.  

The soldiers go into one room, scanning the corners with their lights, "Nothin'.  Keep it locked down."

"All right."

Jace holds his gun up as he leads the kids to safety, or at least, escape the clutches of those from Hawkins Lab.  He carefully looks around the corners and urges them to run.

"How did they find us?"

"I don't know, but they knew we were in the gym."

"Lando." Dusting accuses.  

"We can figure out the 'how' once we get out of here." Jace says. 

Lucas paces ahead, then skids to a halt when two soldiers come out from the exit.

"Got 'em!" One shouts.

Jace shoves them all away and holds his gun up, "Go, go, go, go, go!" He yells and fires a few shots, ducking at the ones that return.  He grabs Fi and runs with her, holding her hand as they run from the bad people. 

"Come on!" Lucas yells.  

Jace skids to a halt when more soldiers pop up.  He fires more and manages to get one man, then turns and runs with Fi. 

"There they are. Freeze." More soldiers shout and rush out from the doors and exits.  Blocking their paths to freedom. 

At one point, Jace and Fi went separate ways from the group and got lost while Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and Eleven take another way.  

"Back! Go back!  Go, go! Go left!" Mike yells.

No mater where they went, the bad people were waiting for them.  They rush through the hallways and stop when they were surrounded.  Carol stood blocking their way, holding them at gun point with the soldiers.  

Eleven knew that woman, and remembers her killing that nice man who helped her and Fi.  She sends her a harsh glare and feels her energy come forth.

Suddenly, the flashlights begin to rapidly flicker as she continues to use her energy against them all.  Loud squelching came from Carol and the soldiers as they begin to stand frozen, choking as blood pours from their eyes and ears, their noses.  As one, they all fell dead to the floor.  

Before the boys could find relief, Eleven, suddenly falls to the floor with a loud thud, falling into unconsciousness.  

Mike rushes to her, "El, are you okay? El!"

"Something's wrong."

"She's just drained."

"No, no, no, she won't wake up. El! El!" Mike became worried for Eleven.  He knew she used too much power again and it took everything out of her.  Just to protect them.  He just wants her to be safe, to be ok.  She just needs to wake up.  He couldn't lose her.  He couldn't.