"Is there a number we can call for your parents?" "Where's your hair?" "Do you have cancer?" Of course we had a lot of questions for this girl. She was still shaking though Mike had given her this jacket he stole from his dad. Lucas noticed what he assumed to be a blood stain and reached out. Mike slapped his hand away. "Stop it, you're freaking her out!" "She's freaking me out!" Lucas argued back. "I bet she's deaf," Dustin then chimed in a bit too cheerful and then proceeded to unexpectedly clap towards her face. She was startled. "Not deaf."

"Maybe she should change clothes, she's soaked," Mike pointed out. "Astute observation after just watching her sit there for about an hour!" I sniped at him. "So? She's still soaked!" he replied after which I gave up. This was an uphill battle. I shook my head and wandered off towards the laundry basket I knew Mike had in his basement, pulled out a towel and one of Mike's sweaters.

"Are those my clothes?" Mike then had the audacity to ask. "Do you have a better alternative?" I simply asked at which he shook his head. I nodded once just to rub it in, then passed this strange girl the clothes. She took off the jacket, stood up and immediately reached to take off her shirt. Lucas and Dustin panicked and immediately turned around. I froze, cause that's what happens in unexpected moments. Mike was the one stopping her, turning and joining her to the bathroom.

"That was mental," Dustin muttered as he still had his eyes closed. "She's in the bathroom now," I said to Dustin, at which he opened his eyes. Mike slowly wandered back to us as he left the girl behind in his bathroom with the door open about three inches. "She can talk," Mike told us. "She said 'no' and 'yes'," Mike then added for more context. Lucas sighed a bit irritated. "Your three-year-old sister says more than that," Lucas said, clearly annoyed by the whole situation. "There's something seriously wrong with her, like, wrong in the head."

To exemplify Dustin reinacted the girl removing her clothes a few times. "She might be from Pennhurst," I suggested. "Yeah, that nuthouse from Kerley County," Lucas said, honestly just desperate for anything to distrust this girl. I wasn't planning on being that for him so I just looked at him disgusted. He now had to defend that point on his own. "Think about it, it explains the shaved head and why she's so crazy, she's probably an escapee, a psycho even." Dustin's eyes widened. "Like Michael Myers," he said, which then made me terrified of her again. Gosh why'd he have to bring that up, now I won't be able to sleep tonight, heck, even bike back home. Good thing my aunt probably won't care.

"So you wanted to just leave her out there in this storm?" Mike asked, offended. "Yes! We went to find Will, not some other problem!" Lucas argued back. I then sighed with a tremble, honestly just a bit overwhelmed. "W-we should probably just t-tell an adult," I suggested quietly, nervous. "No, we can't, we weren't supposed to be out tonight, if we tell an adult..." Mike "Our houses become Alcatraz," Lucas finished. "And we'll never find Will." Whatever warm, fluttery, hopeful feeling I had, it was shot down by that thought. I shook my head a bit in disbelief.

"Look, here's the plan, she sleeps in my house tonight, then, tomorrow morning she'll walk around the house, ring the doorbell. My mom will answer and know exactly what to do," Mike suggested. I still frowned, not shaking anymore because the thought of Michael Myers had left my head. Darn it, now I'm thinking about him again. "Then tomorrow night, we'll go back out and this time we'll find Will," Mike continued, of which I had missed half already.

I simply nodded, grabbed my stuff and just decided to head home. "You really think she's-" Dustin started but I stopped him immediately. "I don't care, I still want to sleep peacefully tonight, not have nightmares," I said, unable to hide a slight tremble in my voice.

---

NOVEMBER 8TH 1983

The next day, I arrived at school with Dustin, and Lucas. No Mike in sight. "Oh this is weird, he's never this late," Dustin muttereds as he looks at the empty chair next to Lucas. I look over too. "You don't think he's gone too right? Oh gosh, what if I'm tomorrow?" I start spiraling immediately. Lucas sighs, not trusting Mike's plan. "I thought you liked his plan?" Dustin asked, while I continued to spiral. "Yeah, but obviously it was stupid, or he'd be here," Lucas rationally explained. That calmed me down too. "Hey, what if she slept naked?" Dustin then asked, a bit out of pocket. I just frowned at him while Lucas muttered a quiet 'Oh my God'.

I kinda stopped spiraling. I trusted Mike. He wouldn't rat us out. Not that I am in any danger, my aunt could never turn the house into Alcatraz. I have too much blackmail power for that already. Just one mention of Martin and she'll die of shame like, right there. Then again... the chief? He's scary.

---

After school, the first thing we did was bike over to Mike's place again. Mike led us to his bedroom, where the strange girl had moved to throughout the day, clearly his plan having failed cause well... she was still here. "Are you out of your mind?" Lucas asked, genuinely concerned for Mike.

"She knows about Will," Mike then replied, already brushing past us to grab something before any of us could really react. "She pointed at him, she knew he was missing. I could tell!" Mike said, frantically showing us the picture of the five of us winning the science fair last year. "You could tell?" Lucas asked, still skeptical, and rightfully so. "Just think about it," Mike said. Clearly he was not going to let this go, and whatever happened today, gosh he was defending this girl like his life depended on it. "Do you really think it's a coincidence we found her on Mirkwood, the same place that Will disappeared?" he asked. That convinced me, again. Because it's what I already sort of subconsciously concluded when we found her. "She's a lead, that's for sure," I said with a confirming nod. "And she said bad people are after her, I bet maybe these bad people are the same ones that took Will," Mike then adds, something none of us were aware of yet.

"I think she knows what happened to him," Mike says, whilst I'm still left questioning what he meant by bad people. "Then why doesn't she tell us?" Before I'm fully out of my thoughts Lucas is already moving over to her, threateningly asking her where Will is. "This is nuts, we have to bring her to your mom!" Dustin said, mostly trying to get Lucas off of the girl verbally. "No! Eleven said telling any adult would put us in danger." I turned to Mike. "Eleven?" I asked, almost a bit in disbelief, to which Lucas agreed. "Danger?" Dustin then asked as well, which made me start spiraling, only slightly this time. "El for short," Mike answered the first question, then turned to Dustin. "Danger, danger."

He raised a finger gun at Dustin's forehead, then slowly turned, passing my forehead and almost landing on Lucas's but Lucas quickly swats it away. "No, no, no!" he said. "Oh shit we're so dead," I said, my breathing picking up in pace, properly panicking now. Dustin's eyes widened at my swearing, meanwhile Lucas just shook his head and went over to go to Mike's mom. Right as he opened the door it immediately got ripped from his hand and slammed back close. With a frown Lucas tried again, but once again the door was slammed shut. Before he could try a third time, it got locked.

I was mostly just confused. Was Nancy playing a trick on us? No that can't be. Then I follow Mike's gaze towards Eleven. She was standing now, instead of sitting on Mike's bed. Down her nose ran a small, but very visible blood drop. "No," she said terrifyingly fierce.

---

Mike decided the smartest move was to just stash Eleven in his room. That way, no one would see her. That is if she decided to stay there too, and with the way she so uh... politely stopped us from telling anyone, I fear she's a wildcard at the moment. For extra protection, Lucas, Dustin, and I stayed over for dinner.

Holly was flipping her cup, Nancy was just dead silent, and the rest of us were just kind of flipping around the food on our plate, not eating at all. I just didn't feel like eating. Too many conflicting emotions. Sadness. Anger. Happiness. Confusion. And then also that weird warm feeling which kind of took a back seat for a second.

"Something wrong with meatloaf?" Mrs. Wheeler asked. "Not really hungry, sorry," I quietly replied, trying to be respectful. I would have not been as respectful if it were my aunt instead. "I ate two bologna sandwiches, I don't know why," Dustin meanwhile lied. Less respectful than me, but maybe a bit more believable in a way.

"It's delicious, mommy," Nancy then said with a smile that was a bit too big to be genuine. I looked at her, skeptical. "So, there's this..." Here it comes, fricking knew it. "...special assembly thing tonight for Will at the school field," she said, which, yes it's true, but she hasn't shown interest in Will's disappearance at all according to Mike. "Barb's driving," Nancy added. "And why am I only hearing about this now?" Mrs. Wheeler replied. "Besides, I told you, I don't want you out after dark until Will is found." Nancy shook her head. "It'd be super weird if I wasn't there," she then tried some more. Mrs. Wheeler thought about it for a second, then softly sighed and nodded. "Just be back by 10:00," she said.

"I think you should take the boys too," she then said, gesturing towards us. We can't have that though, we have Eleven to hide. That still doesn't really make sense in a sentence to me but maybe it'll make sense the more I use it. Hiding Eleven, hiding Eleven. No, still doesn't.

"Don't you think you should be there, for Will?" Mike choked on his milk before he could answer. I followed his gaze towards the stairs. Of course, independent, crazy, blissfully unaware Eleven was coming down them. Mrs. Wheeler saw Mike's gaze, then caught mine and was about to turn around when Dustin saved us with two very loud slams on the table. That caught her attention before she fully turned around. "Sorry, spasm," Dustin just quietly muttered to cover it up. Seems like it worked. No one... uh, well, Holly probably saw... no one with a consciousness great enough to remember it for longer than a day, saw Eleven. Holly started to whimper out of fear. Mrs. Wheeler blamed it on a loud noise. Guess that was indeed the thing that startled Holly.

---

After dinner we found Eleven back in the basement. "No adults," Mike said firmly as he walked down the stairs. "With meatloaf," I added a bit shaky because honestly? Yeah that meatloaf was gross. Dustin, Lucas, and I huddled up behind Mike as Mike kneeled down to pass her the food. "Don't worry, they won't tell anyone about you," he said to her. I just nodded a bit exaggerated to make sure she believed me. "They were just, scared. They just wanted to find our friend," Mike continues. "Friend?" Eleven then asked, which is like the second word I've heard her say like... ever. "Yeah, friend... Will," Lucas said, hesitatingly though, as if he already knew that that was not what she was asking.

"What is... friend?" she asked. Lucas tried his very best to stay calm. In the end, he succeeded. "A friend is-" only for Mike to immediately cut him off in the typical, big ego Mike. "Is someone that you'd do anything for," he rambled. "Someone you lend stuff to like comic books or trading cards," Dustin added. Nice, but a bit pointless. "And they never break a promise," Mike then said, immediately taking the spotlight back. Come on, there had to be a way to take that back from him again. Like to stop his main character attitude a bit. "Friends don't lie," I simply said, getting it all like a neat summary. Eleven simply repeated it after me. She still seemed a bit confused.

But we left it at that. We still wanted to go out and find Will, so, we turned to packing stuff for our second night out trying to find Will. However, Eleven had other plans. I noticed her rising from the small fortress Mike had built in his basement and slowly walking towards the table where we had been playing that crazily terrifying game of DnD. The board was still out and a few of the pieces were still on it. "What is the weirdo doing?" Lucas asked at which I elbowed him.

Eleven closed her eyes, seemingly trying to find something. Then she found it and opened her eyes. She moved calculated, as if she knew exactly what she was doing, grabbing Will's character and lifting it off of the board. "Will," is all she said. It first sent that warm, fluttery feeling down my chest followed by a shiver down my spine. "Do you know where he is?" Mike asked, sitting down next to her. In response, she wiped all the other pieces off of the board and flipped it around. She placed Will's character on the black backside of the board. To explain, all she had to say was "hiding."

"Will is hiding?" A nod.

"From the bad men?" A shake.

She moved her hand over to the second figure, still those eerily calculated moves. Her moves were too swift to properly follow though but when she put it down and removed her hand, all I could think of was my lousy promise to Will.

"Hey, cheer up, I'll just save you once it's my turn again!"

There's no way I was actually going to save Will from what she placed down.

The Demogorgon.