Mental. It was mental last night. I returned home crying. Quietly though, I don't think my aunt liked it when I cried so I tried to stop it. I headed straight to my room and hid under the covers. The covers weren't enough as I could hear my aunt shout 'Lon' through the walls, so I covered my ears with a pillow and closed my eyes. My thoughts only at Will.

And there I was again. Lying on the water floor in the darkness. My initial instinct was to run because so far every time I've been here, the crazy aggressive girl had been there too. I peeked upwards and saw her standing right next to me, instead, arm outstretched as if trying to help me up. I reluctantly accepted her help.

Once I got up, she spoke. "We share an enemy. Figured you'd want to see him," she said though clearly not in the mood to become friends. But I wasn't going to just let it slide. I was here with this girl now, consciously, for once not afraid and ready to talk. "Who are you?" I asked. She just shook her head. "Not necessary yet," she said, then pointed in the distance. "At this rate, he'll find him tonight."

In the distance in this vast empty dark void stood Castle Byers, Will's wooden fort that was normally in the woods, but now? It was here. Wherever here was. I turned to the girl to make sure I wasn't dreaming, but she had disappeared again. Just when I wanted to pressure her for more information. Useless.

Instead I headed up to Castle Byers, already hearing the quiet hums from Will, singing his song. "Should I stay or should I go," I quietly mimicked just to make sure I was right. Then I pulled aside the curtain and...?

NOVEMBER 12TH 1983

I fricking woke up. Such torture my God... uh, sorry. My gosh! Not that it mattered. I could just try again, since obviously, I wasn't going to be seeing Mike or Lucas or Dustin today. I wasn't going to be seeing anyone after what happened yesterday. Screw them all for trying to drag me into a mess I didn't create. It was probably for the better I felt useless yesterday because at least I could escape their judgments.

It took the doorbell ringing twice for me to even dare to roll out of bed. Okay my aunt screamed at me to open it since she was probably still with the man from last night. I opened the front door to Mike and Dustin. Not wholly unexpected, they are the type of friends to just show up to your house uninvited.

As they were standing there, rambling something about taking me to Lucas's place I realized I wasn't really mad at them, just mad that they didn't really even try to defend me, though, Mike tried, so I guess we were all right. Maybe it was moreso the emotions of the fight itself that got to me.

We walked down my porch towards their bikes, me too lazy to grab my own so just deciding to hitch a ride on the back of Dustin's. "Is that Mr. Byers's car?" Mike asked, looking over at the car in my driveway. The only reason why he recognized it, is that he probably saw it at the funeral yesterday. I shook my head. "Don't mention it, please," I said.

---

Lucas's door finally opened after multiple knocks. We had to look down a bit for a change, because it wasn't Lucas who opened it, but his younger sister Erica. "Lucas!" she shouted really loud. Typical for the brat she was. "Your nerd friends are here!" she added before slamming the door in our faces again.

Lucas opened it again a few seconds later. "What do you want?" The petty Mike of course made no attempt at even trying to set things right so it took a little nudge from Dustin for Mike to talk. Mike rolled his eyes and stretched his arm out. "I drew first blood, so..." Lucas didn't do anything. "Gosh, you're all pathetic," I muttered under my breath. No one heard, so I was in the clear.

"Okay, I'll shake. On the condition that we leave the weirdo and head straight to the gate," Lucas proposed. I could agree to that. I mean, did we really need Eleven for that? But Mike, who was definitely in love with Eleven now immediately shook his head. "Then the deal's off!" he shouted and immediately started bickering with Lucas again.

"We stick together!" Dustin tried to reason. "Yeah, the party, which is in this room," Lucas once again said. "El's one of us now," Mike said, almost begging really. "Uh, no she's not. She's a liar. She's a traitor-" I shook my head. "She just tried to keep us safe," I said, shrugging softly. Lucas sighed, irritated, probably feeling betrayed too. "If you three want to go waste your time looking for a traitor, go ahead, I'm gonna go to the gate and find Will."

---

Yeah, looking for a traitor. That's harder than you might think. After all, the first time we found her she was literally like right in the middle of the woods. Seemingly coming from nowhere. Maybe we could just like, reenact the moment and that would lead us to Eleven. "He should've shaken my hand," Mike muttered. I quietly chuckled. "He's probably just jealous you have a girl now," I joked.

"He's your best friend right?" Dustin then pretty plainly asked Mike and since we didn't really have any idea where he was taking this, we both just shut up. "He's been your neighbor and best friend forever, and now suddenly one day this girl shows up and all you do is pay attention to her," Dustin continued, setting of Mike because of course he's bad at taking criticisms. "That's not true," he defended angrily. "It is, Mike, and you know it," I returned to shut him up again. "And Lucas knows it too, but instead of talking you just wait until you both start punching and yelling at each other," Dustin said.

"He's not my best friend," Mike said, though it didn't sound as cold as something like that would normally. "I mean, he is, but, so are you guys," he added after a deep breath because oh boy biking up a hill is killing. Dustin simply shook his head. "You can't have more than one best friend, logic says so," he explained like a proper nerd. "That's bull Dustin, and you know it," I said since I used to say all four of them were my best friends. Though, were they?

I hadn't told them anything. All the things I'd been seeing. The dark water room, the girl, and then the whole ordeal with Will and... feelings.

Dustin halted unexpectedly and I almost crashed right into him. Mike had stopped too, why? I followed their gazes towards the grocery store. Some cops were standing outside, not the chief though luckily. All three of us figured it out pretty quickly when we got closer. The glass from the sliding doors was shattered on the floor, and the store owner was complaining about a child stealing Eggo waffles. Which, thanks to an explanation from Mike, is what he kept feeding Eleven for breakfast. So, yeah, we found a lead, a lead for Eleven.

---

Following the lead led us yet again into the woods. Pretty sure there was going to be a day where walking in the woods would lead to our demise. Chances that the dice hit the roll are low, but never zero. And the more time you spend somewhere, the more time you allow the dice to be rolled, and rerolled, and rerolled, and... uh. Yeah I can be ominous about it but I think you'd expect it to go wrong this time, and indeed it did. We ran into Troy and... Cooper? George? Larry? No time to think about that, we had to run because if you remember last time we saw them...

Someone between all the other students had to point it out. "Dude, Troy peed himself!" he shouted with a laugh.

Troy meant business, made clear by the fact he had a switchblade. Dustin dropped his bike and ran. I froze, like usual, but luckily Mike dragged me the first two steps of the way for me to start running as well. A chase ensued, leading us to run towards the quarry for some stupid reason. My gut feeling told me that was a mistake, which it was as that stupid Gregory friend guy of Troy looped around it and came from the other side. In case it was too hard to follow: we got cornered.

"Don't come any closer," Dustin threatened, grabbing a branch whilst Mike reached for a rock. I just froze again, useless again. It was laughable honestly. We were losers, couldn't even sound threatening despite having the bigger group. In that moment I knew we needed Eleven. She needed to be part of this party like Mike had been advocating for since he found her in the woods.

Mike threw the rock and missed, not by a hair, but by two Mike's on their side on the floor. He almost hit Dustin instead. Then the oh so heroic Dustin charged at Troy, swung the branch, missed, and immediately got grabbed by Troy, switchblade up against his throat. I threw my hands up in the air, sat down and accepted defeat as I was not going to embarrass myself even more than they already had.

"Stay back or I cut him!" Troy threatened, pressing the switchblade even further up against Dustin neck. "What do you want?" I groaned, just, done with this thing. Troy's head twitched into my direction. It was scary, like an owl, or a predator noticing just the slightest shift in the wind, finding the prey in the process. "Jump." I frowned, but followed his gestures towards the edge. Jump in the quarry? Garryson laughed. Troy just smiled, pure evil. "He's a fairy, he'll just fly himself to safety. Or be reunited with his boyfriend."

I got up, maybe to prove something. Maybe that I'm not a fairy. Not in love. Trying to deny it? No. I think I got up because for a second, part of me wanted it to be true. But the words of the girl softly whispered in my mind: "Fold it back." Alas, I was standing now though. To prove something. That I wasn't useless. That I could stand up for my friends.

I slowly made my way over to the edge. Dustin started pleading for me not to do it, but I did it anyway. I jumped. For a second I was falling. This one wouldn't take as long as the ones in my dream did. It all felt like the true end, closing my eyes, until something started tugging at my back. A split second I saw the girl in the dark room yet again. Still all too vaguely she simply said:

"Use wisely."

When I opened my eyes, I was floating, stuck in mid-air. Shit. Troy was gonna make fun of me so bad if he saw me fly. Then the grip shifted. From something or someone pushing down towards the water down below to keep me suspended in the air, to something or someone pulling me back up at my back. Almost like it was initially me who was making myself hover, before switching out for someone else.

I got dropped behind Troy, Ralph, Dustin, and Mike, who had all run over to the edge in disbelief. Scratching the back of my head because of the landing, I caught something moving in the corner of my eye. El. She was here. Before anyone could respond she tilted her head slightly but fast. A scream from Troy as the switchblade slipped out of his hand. "She broke my arm!" he screamed in agony before El very threateningly told him to "go." My first instinct was grabbing the switchblade which I did, and pocketed it, in case we needed it later.

"That's right, you better run!" Dustin shouted as Troy and Benny ran off. "She's our friend, and she's crazy!" I couldn't help but get excited. Smiling widely as El then fell over, probably drained like a battery again.

Mike was the first to reach her, I only joined after pocketing the switchblade. "The gate. I opened it," El admitted, lying flat on the ground out of exhaustion but still emotionally distressed. "I'm the monster," she then admitted as well. In that moment, I didn't even hesitate anymore. "No, El, gate or not, you're not the monster. You saved me. That makes you a friend, not a monster." I pulled her off the ground just to hug her. Mike quickly did the same, genuine, but probably also jealous that I was hugging what was clearly going to be his girl. When Dustin finally finished being smug and faking a sort of intellectual superiority on Troy and James, he joined in the hug too. Mike being jealous made me realize one thing. I had to open up. I had to tell him, just so he knew he didn't have a reason to be jealous. Not right now though. For now all that existed was a new friendship.

El joined the party.