"So you're telling me that I can control you?" I asked in disbelief. "Make you do things?"
'Exactly' It's chilling voice echoes throughout my head.
Looking around, I wonder if this is all a dream. "So if I tell you to I don't know like off yourself, you will?"
The Demogorgon gave off a horrible shriek that I could only imagine was a laugh. 'Silly child, you made me so why destroy me?"
"W-what do you mean I made you?" I struggled for the words to say.
'You and your cousin made me out of anger, but you started taking pills to forget me.'
"I don't have a cousin." I shook my head.
'But you do from your real family.'
I was beyond confused. "Jane died years ago." I stated. "She was never even born."
It laughs at me again. 'Let me know when you need someone dead. Goodbye.'
"Wait!" I reach out as if to stop it from leaving. "My brother, why him?" I questioned, taking a step forward.
'Time will tell. Goodbye, Kassidy'
Suddenly everything went dark, and the next thing I knew I was in the woods, alone. The headache hadn't resurfaced though. I felt cold just like after Eleven touched me.
Sighing to myself, I head home, my mind reeling to retain everything that happened.

****

Jonathan wasn't home when I arrived, but Mom and Hopper sat in the living room.
"Kassy," Mom sat straighter almost on edge. "May I see you in the kitchen?"
"Yeah, sure." I nod, following after her. "What'd I do this take?"
"Nothing, it's just," She paused, waiting a few seconds before continuing. "It's about your mother."
"My mother? Is she alright?" I was suddenly wide awake.
The thought that something happened to Mom put me on alert. I love my birth mother just as much as I do Joyce, but I haven't seen her in a few weeks.
"She's fine, but Hopper and I have to go see her about something tomorrow." Mom sighed. "I want you to come with us."
I nodded. "Can do, but why does Hopper need to see her." I asked, heading toward the fridge to get water.
"It's a long story and I don't want to get your hopes up." She said matter-of-factly.
"This is about Jane, isn't it?" I wondered out loud.
"Yes." Joyce sighed again. "A man told Hopper he saw Benny with a kid before he died. He mentioned the kid having a shaved head, and Hop thinks since he saw a child's room at the Lab.... well, he thinks it might be Jane is all."
Shaved head? Could she be talking about El? Wait! She thinks El is my baby cousin Jane? That might explain why she acts funny toward me, or why the Demogorgon said my cousin and I.
"Anyway, go get clean up, you look disgusting." Mom dismissed me.
So I did just that.
Hopper filled me in on all the details on the way. Mom had instructed me not to even mention knowing Terry and Becky Ives so I didn't. This resulted in us stopping to use a pay phone and get directions. Which was stupid, for we both knew how to get there.
Mom even played dumb when he got back into the car. The act seemed fail proof.
We pulled into the drive, walked to the house, and knocked three times.
A few seconds later, someone peeked out the curtains, causing both Hopper and Joyce to wave slightly.
Following the sound of the lock being undone, the door opened to reveal my mother. "Can I help you?" She questioned softly.
I mentally cursed Hop for blocking my view to my own mother.
"Hi, we're looking for Terry Ives. Does she live here?" He gets right to the point.
"Who's asking?" Mom doesn't take her eyes off Hopper to notice anyone else.
"Hawkins chief of police." He replied, flashing a badge.
Mom checked over it carefully. "And you want to talk to my sister?"
"Well, if your sister's Terry Ives, then, yeah, we do." Hopper confirmed. 

Mom shook her head, looking down slightly. "Okay, well, you can come in, but if you want Terry to tell you anything. You're about five years too late." Mom moves to let them in as she talks.
You can hear the TV playing in the distance as we enter. Mom still hasn't noticed me, too nervous about what the chief wants.
Hopper and Joyce go straight to her and Joyce begins to talk, leaving both me and Mom alone.
That's when she sees me. "Kassy?" She inquired, stepping closer to me.
"Hi, Mommy." I waved at her with a smile.
"Come 'ere, baby girl." She pulled me into a tight motherly hug.
I hug back immediately, sinking into her hold. "I've missed you."
"I've missed you too, baby." Mom kissed my forehead, we weren't hugging anymore, but she was still holding onto me.
She turned back to the other two in the room. "I told you, you're wasting your time." She stated. "Come on." Mom led them to the kitchen.
"She was apart of some study in college." Mom began once we were seated at the circler table.
"MK Ultra?" Hop guessed.
Mom gestured with her cigarette to tell him he was right. "Yeah that's the one. It was started in the '50s. By the time Terry got involved, it was suppose to be ramping down, but the drugs just got crazier, messed her up." Mom finished, glancing toward me.
"This was the CIA that ran this?" Hopper asked stupidly.
Mom laughed. "You and Terry would have gotten along. 'The Man,' with a big capital M." She sighed. "The paid.... a couple hundred to people like my sister, give 'em drug, psychedelics, LSD, mostly. And then they'd strip her naked and put her in these isolation tanks."
"Isolation tanks?" Joyce interrupted.
"Yeah. There these big bath tubs, basically, filled with salt water so you can float around in there. You lose any sense of, uh, sense and you feel nothing, and see nothing." Mom paused again. "They wanted to expand the boundaries of the mind, real hippie crap. I.. I mean it's not like they were forces her to do any of this stuff. The thing is she didn't know she was pregnant at the time."
Joyce seemed to be catching on. "Jane."
Mom nodded, taking another puff of her cig, and Joyce sighed.
I was beginning to think more and more that Jane and El might be the same person.
"Do you have any pictures of her?" Joyce asked.
She knew Jane was never around or otherwise I wouldn't have left my family at three.
Mom looked directly at me. "I don't think you guys understand. Terry miscarried in the third trimester." She said. "Didn't you tell them that, Kass?"
Dangit! Now Hop is going to ask.
"What does she mean didn't you tell us?" Hopper questioned right on key.
"She's my daughter." Mom stated. "I had to give her up when Terry went crazy and tried to suffocate Kass in her sleep saying that she was the reason Jane wasn't here. I figured you knew that."
I winced at the words, remembering the way Terry used to look at me.
Hooper looked at me for confirmation, I nodded. "She's telling the truth. My last name is Ives after all." I laughed.

Mom agreed to show them Jane's would have been room, and led the way.
"She keeps all this up been doing it for twelve years." She sighed, leaning against a dresser. "Terry, uh, pretends like Jane is real, like someday she's gonna come home some day. Says she's special. Born with 'abilities'." Adding hand quotes around abilities.
"Abilities?" Joyce echoed.
Mom nodded slowly. "You read any Stephen King?"
Yes, yes, I have.
She chuckled. "You guys look scared, actually. I mean, it's all make-believe." She continues to laugh, looking over at me.
Joyce asked what kind, and Mom begins to list: "Telepathy, Telekinesis, you know, stuff you can do with your mind. That's why the big, bad men stole Jane away." Mom was finding it all hilarious how Hop and Joyce looked scared, and frankly so was I.
"Her baby's a weapon, off fighting the commies. You know, the doctors all say it's a coping mechanism. You know for the guilt and all."
Now I'm convinced that Eleven and Jane are one and the same.
"Do you think there is any chance she could be telling the truth?" Joyce asked.
Mom looked at her like she was crazy.
"About having the kid?" She clarified.
Mom explains how there's no record of ever giving birth.
Hopper suggested it was covered up.
Mom smiled widely. "Like I said, you and Terry would have gotten along." She puts out her cigarette. "You don't believe this, do you, baby?"
I shook my head. "I'm not too sure."

****

Hopper and Mom discuss what just happened, not forgetting to leave out the part about Eleven being Jane.
The police radio thingy interrupts their conversation.
The man on the other of the radio reports that my dear older brother Jon has been in a fight.
I would bet you ten bucks it was with Steve Harrington and it somehow had to do with Nancy.
So we headed to the station.

########################
Chapter 6 ✔
Don't worry everyone will be together soon.