CHAPTER EIGHT
THE FACELESS MAN

THE FOLLOWING DAY, Mabel had gone straight to Mike's house once her family had all dispersed to their respective locations, Eleanor and Dave at work and Athena at school, the girl meeting up with Dustin and Lucas on the way, and the trio biking to Mike's together.

Mabel had proposed the intelligent idea of giving Eleven a makeover so she didn't look too out of place, in order for the group to successfully sneak her into school to use the Heathkit—it was quite well-received, despite the suggestion being the default victor, as the rest of the party had no other ideas of their own to propose.

Mabel grinned in accomplishment as she sat back in her seat, pulling the makeup brush away from Eleven's face once she finished her task. "All done. You look pretty, El."

"'Pretty'." Eleven repeated quietly, slowly enunciating the word as she comprehended its meaning, eyebrows quirking upwards as Mabel nodded in agreement.

A knock on Nancy's bedroom door—where the girls were currently residing in, as well as who the makeup belonged to—, caught their attention, Mike's voice sounding from the other side. "We found something for El to wear, can we come in?"

"Wait!" Mabel sprang up, dropping the makeup on Nancy's desk and hurrying to the door, which Mike was now beginning to swing open, the girl quickly pushing it back and causing it to slam shut again.

"Woah, what the hell?!" Mike exclaimed.

"Is she naked or something? Not again!" Dustin called, resulting in Mabel rolling her eyes in exasperation and shifting her attention to Eleven again, who had raised her eyebrows at all the yelling.

Mabel then opened the door slightly, sticking her head out to conceal Eleven, additionally holding her hand out as she spoke up. "Hand over the goods."

Mike frowned in absurdity, stepping forward and trying to catch a glimpse of the superhero, before Mabel hurriedly moved her head in front of him to continue acting as a barrier. "Give. Me. The. Goods, Wheeler."

"Okay." Mike widened his eyes as he just shoved the baby pink dress and blonde wig in Mabel's hand, not wanting to encourage her delusional behaviour more than he needed to.

"Thank you." Mabel flashed him a wide grin as she moved back and harshly slammed the door shut again, causing Mike to slightly jump back at the abrupt action.

•

A few minutes later, Mabel opened the door, keeping it ajar, and stepped out, gesturing to Nancy's room with both hands as she cleared her throat and spoke up loudly. "Presenting...Eleven!"

When nothing happened for a few seconds, Mabel furrowed her eyebrows and tilted her head to glance inside the room, whispering to the other girl. "That was your cue to come out."

Eleven just raised her eyebrows, causing Mabel to sigh and coax her out with a wave of her hand.

As Eleven began to approach the doorway, Mabel grinned again, flashing the boys a wide smile as she repeated her previous introduction. "Presenting...Eleven!"

As soon as she finished her sentence, the girl pushed Nancy's bedroom door open, Eleven shyly stepping out to consequently become visible to the rest of the party, expression entirely bashful, nervous eyes darting between them for a moment before settling on Mike, who was stunned, wide eyes focused on the girl and lips parted, his jaw almost completely dropping.

"Ta da!" Mabel giggled. "Isn't she pretty, guys?"

"Wow." Dustin hummed, impressed, his eyebrows raising as he did so. "You're right, May, she does look-"

"Pretty." Mike blurted out before he could prevent himself from doing so.

A small smile tugged at the corners of Eleven's lips at the compliment.

"Good." Mike casually corrected almost immediately, shrug accompanying the word once he realised Lucas would definitely be judging him. "You look pretty good."

Eleven's soft smile slightly grew as she began to walk away from the group and to the mirror on the wall, the party sharing impressed glances—with Lucas narrowing his eyes suspiciously at Mike—before each of them followed after her.

"You did good, May." Dustin supportively nudged Mabel's waist, the girl nodding in accomplishment.

"Thank you, D."

"Pretty." Eleven murmured as she stared at herself, taking in her appearance and repeating Mike's previous words. "Good."

•

Nancy frustratedly strode out of the room she was being interrogated by two cops in, ignoring her mother's loud calls of her name as she just continued her journey to her locker to grab the rest of her books.

Athena was on her way to her next class when she came out of a different classroom, almost barreling into Nancy as she widened her eyes and stumbled back a bit at the other girl's hurriedness. "Woah, woah...Nancy?"

Nancy stopped at the familiar voice, the girl huffing out a breath as she turned to face Athena and slightly calming down at the sight of her friend. "Oh, Athena, hi."

Athena slightly furrowed her eyebrows as she noticed Nancy's infuriated and overwhelmed state. "What's wrong?"

Nancy just shook her head in anger, casting her eyes away from the girl as she abruptly explained. "I was just interrogated by the cops about what happened at Steve's. They can't find Barb, they think I somehow drove her away, and all they care about is what happened between Steve and I, it's disgusting!"

"Okay, okay, slow down." Athena shook her head, trying to take in Nancy's hurried words.

"And I went back to Steve's to try and find her myself, and instead, I saw this...thing, some man or something in the woods that looked like it had no face, and nobody is believing me when I say that something is wrong, something is wrong!" Nancy furiously ranted, releasing a huff as she took a minute to catch her breath.

"Wait, you saw a man that had no face?" Athena stopped, her frown disappearing as her mind flashed back to the memory of the creature that she saw on her run the other day.

It was Nancy's turn to frown now, and her exasperated expression shifted into one of perplexity. "I know it sounds crazy, but...yeah...why?"

"Nancy, there you are! We're going home. Now." Mrs Wheeler's infuriated voice suddenly interrupted their conversation, the girls turning to face her at the command. "Hi, Athena."

"Hi..." Athena let her voice trail off as she shared a glance with Nancy. "Call me later, okay?"

Nancy just furrowed her eyebrows deeper as she just wordlessly nodded before shooting a glare at her mother and continuing her journey to her locker.

•

"Okay, remember, if anyone sees us, look sad." Mike started, glancing between his friends as they all entered the school and headed straight towards the AV room.

"Look sad, got it." Mabel nodded determinedly, Dustin and Lucas acting sad by running their fingers down their cheeks to signify the act of crying, Eleven mirroring their movements.

"Attention students, there will be an assembly to honour Will Byers in the gymnasium now, do not go to fourth period." A teacher's voice crackled over the loudspeaker as the team arrived at the AV room, Mike trying to twist the door handle open, but failing, as the door was firmly locked.

"It's locked." Mike sighed defeatedly.

"What?" Lucas narrowed his eyes, advancing to the door, trying to jimmy the handle open and slam his shoulder against the door, however, his efforts were to no avail.

"Hey, do you think you can open it? With your powers?" Dustin questioned, hopefully glancing at Eleven.

"Boys?" Mr Clarke's voice interrupted the kids' antics, and they all twisted around to face the teacher with raised eyebrows, each of them placing on nonchalant exteriors in an effort to mask their previous desperation.

"Hey." Dustin blew out a casual breath.

"Hi, teach." Mabel quipped, slightly shuffling in front of Eleven in an effort to mask her, even if it was just a little bit.

"Assembly's about to start." Mr Clarke furrowed his eyebrows as he glanced between them, somehow not noticing Eleven yet.

"We know. We're just, you know..." Mike plastered on a disheartened expression, tone faux-sorrowful as he redirected his attention to the ground.

"Upset." Lucas quickly finished with a small huff, then remembering that he had to play it sad, face dropping as he rested his head on the door and darted his eyes to the ground before redirecting them to Mr Clarke again.

"Yeah, definitely upset." Dustin concluded with a firm nod.

"We need some alone time...to...process." Mabel sighed an exaggeratedly long breath as she nodded.

"And to...cry..." Dustin hesitantly added.

"Listen, I get it. I do." Mr Clarke empathetically sighed at their words, believing the kids' performances. "I know how hard this is, but let's just be there for Will, huh? And then..." The man pulled out the keys to the AV room and threw them to Mike as he spoke, who fumbled to catch them with raised eyebrows. "...the Heathkit is all yours for the rest of the day. What do you say?"

The kids shared eager looks, each of them nodding at the teacher in acceptance of the offer.

Mr Clarke then shifted his attention to Eleven, curiously tilting his head. "I don't believe we've met. What's your name?"

"Elev-"

"Eleanor!" Mike cut in right as Eleven began to softly answer, Mabel slowly glaring at the boy at his use of her mother's name for Eleven's alias. "She's my-"

"Cousin!" Lucas hurriedly exclaimed.

"Second cousin." Dustin added with a pointed expression, simply wanting to feel included.

"She's here for Will's funeral." Mike elaborated on their, now roughly established, lie.

"Ah, well, welcome to Hawkins Middle, Eleanor." Mr Clarke turned to face Eleven, choosing to believe the kids. "I wish you were here under better circumstances."

Eleven confusedly glanced between the party before nodding at Mr Clarke. "Thank you."

"Uh, where are you from, exactly?" Mr Clarke inquired with furrowed brows.

The kids snapped their heads to watch Eleven in anticipation of her answer.

Eleven's perplexed expression shifted into one of incredible seriousness as she slowly shook her head. "Bad pla-"

"Sweden!" Mabel blurted with widened eyes, verbalising the country that came to mind first.

"I have a lot of Swedish family." Mike huffed out an awkward chuckle as he went along with the lie.

"She hates it there." Dustin chimed in.

"Cold!" Lucas added, convincingly nodding.

"Subzero." Dustin concluded.

Mr Clarke's bewildered eyes darted between the kids as he just cleared his throat, choosing not to extend this conversation, which was now entering awkward territory. "Shall we?"

"Yep!" Lucas' shoes squeaked as he pushed off the doorway, the kids beginning to follow after Mr Clarke as they each approached the gym.

Mabel stood beside Mike, whispering as she shot him an exasperated stare. "My mom's name? Really?"

Mike frowned at her in response. "It was the first thing that came to mind! And Sweden? Really?"

Mabel narrowed her eyes at the boy. "Touché, Michael. Touché."

•

Athena had arrived ten minutes after Nancy had called her and practically forced her to meet her at her house, the girls now in Nancy's room and glancing down at Jonathan's, previously torn-up, photo of Barbara that Nancy had messily stuck together, the girl sitting on her bed in front of it, and Athena slowly pacing back-and-forth in thought, arms crossed over her chest and brows furrowed.

"You see it too, right? I mean, I'm not going crazy?" Nancy started, glancing up at Athena for confirmation of the presence of the shadow creature in the corner of the image.

"Definitely not going crazy." Athena shook her head as she continued her pacing, then referencing her own experience, which she had just finished telling Nancy about, post-viewing the photo. "The thing that I saw the other day had the same, exact silhouette. Only, its face was divided and it had a million sharp teeth...I thought I hallucinated the whole thing, but now that we have this..."

Nancy paused, raising her eyebrows as she slowly nodded in comprehension. "What if you didn't?"

Athena abruptly stopped her pacing as she casted her eyes down to the image, seeming to have come to the same idea as Nancy as the pair shared determined looks.

Wordlessly formulating the idea to find Jonathan, Nancy stood up and shoved the photo in her shoulder bag, both her and Athena beginning to make their way out of Nancy's house.

•

"Hey, Troy!" Mike shouted as the students began to disassemble from the gym, post-assembly, the group following close behind. "You...you think this is funny?"

"What'd you say, Wheeler?" Troy narrowed his eyes at Mike as their fellow peers had now formed a circle around them in interest of the interaction and possible chance to witness a fight.

"I saw you guys laughing over there." Mike glared at Troy and his friend. "And I think that's a real messed up thing to do."

Lucas, Mabel, and Dustin shared raised-eyebrow looks at Mike's confrontation, Eleven narrowing her eyes at the bullies from her position beside Mike.

"Didn't you listen to the counsellor, Wheeler? Grief shows itself in funny ways."

"Besides, what is there to be sad about, anyway? Will's in fairyland now, right?" Troy had a humorous glint in his eye as he glanced between Will's friends. "Flying around with all the other little fairies. All happy and gay."

As the bullies turned to leave, Mike couldn't stop himself from letting his anger get ahold of him, and he roughly pushed Troy's back, sending the boy falling straight to the ground.

Mabel and Lucas' hands flew straight up to their mouths in shock, Dustin's eyes widening at the action as the crowd around them let out surprised 'woah's'.

"You're dead, Wheeler! Dead!" Troy warned as he stumbled back upright and hurried towards Mike, holding up his arm as he went to punch him, although before he could, the boy suddenly froze in place, causing everyone around them to frown in question.

A light trickling sound was heard, and everyone's eyes were now drawn to the source of the sound.

"Dude, Troy peed himself!"

The fellow students erupted into entertained and mocking laughter, pointing to the boy in amusement, Lucas, Mabel, and Dustin sharing wholly amused looks as they raised their eyebrows and joined in the chorus.

"What the..." Mike furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, although a wide smirk appeared across his lips in satisfaction at the embarrassing sight.

Mike turned to face Eleven, who had her head slightly tilted downwards, a devious grin tugging at the corners of her lips as she wiped blood from under her left nostril with her sleeve.

"Hey! What's going on here?!"

"Mike! Let's go!" Lucas whisper-shouted as he grabbed Mike and tugged him along with him, Mabel, Dustin, and Eleven, who were now sprinting out of the gym to avoid getting in trouble by their teachers.

•

Athena and Nancy slowly entered the funeral home that Jonathan had told Athena he was stopping by earlier, catching Jonathan's attention, their faces filled with sympathy.

"Can you just give me a second?" Jonathan's quiet voice broke as he glanced at the man who was helping him pick a casket, who nodded.

"Of course."

Jonathan slowly approached the girls, eyebrows confusedly furrowing as his eyes shifted between them. "Hey..."

"Hey, Jonathan." Athena quietly replied, sending the boy a small, tight-lipped smile as she inhaled and exhaled a deep breath. "Is there anything that we can do to help?"

Jonathan sniffled, glancing down and softly shaking his head at the offer. "Thanks, but...this is all I can do right now..."

Athena nodded in immediate understanding, softly murmuring an assuring "of course" as she observed the boy meet hers and Nancy's eyes again after a moment.

"Can we talk...for a second?" Nancy whispered after a few seconds, Jonathan nodding a moment later.

Whatever the girls needed to talk about would be a nice distraction, after all.

•

"I mean, it looks like it could be some kind of perspective distortion, but I wasn't using the wide angle." Jonathan explained as he intently glanced between the photo and the girls beside him. "I don't know. It's weird."

"And you're sure you didn't see anyone else out there?" Nancy inquired, frowning at Jonathan as she awaited his clarification.

"No." Jonathan shook his head in response. "And she was there one second and then, um...gone...I figured she bolted."

"The cops think that she ran away." Nancy quietly elaborated, shaking her head slowly in refusal of the notion. "But they don't know Barb. And I went back to Steve's, and I thought I saw something. Some...weird man, or..."

Athena glanced between the pair beside her as she finished Nancy's train of thought. "The creature I told you about, Nance. It looked like a man, but it just...wasn't..."

Sharing glances, Jonathan's frown deepened, Nancy beginning to pack up her things as she just shook her head and stood up, Athena mirroring her movements as she seemed to have come to the same realisation that, now that they verbalised their collective assumptions, maybe it wasn't the best idea to bombard Jonathan with conspiracies, especially when he was currently trying to mourn his brother. "We shouldn't have come here today, I'm- I'm so sorry..."

"What'd they look like?" Jonathan quickly spoke up before the girls could leave, eyes curiously flickering between them as he awaited their responses.

"What?" Athena bewilderingly frowned.

"Those men you both saw in the woods." Jonathan specified. "What'd they look like?"

Athena's eyebrows furrowed deeper as she looked away, trying to piece together her memory of the creature and simultaneously find a way to describe it. "It was like a human, but...deformed..."

Nancy nodded, her eyebrows creasing inwards as she added. "It was like it-"

"Didn't have a face?" Jonathan finished for the two, eyebrows raising as he already knew the answer, primarily from his mother's assertions.

Nancy's frown faded at the words. "How did you know that?"

•

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