Warnings: more cursing but does that really need a warning? An It (2017) reference and a series of unfortunate events reference if you squint :p✌🏻

|| 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐏𝐎𝐕 ||

My leg bounced intensely on the ball of my foot as I sat at the D&D table, hunched forward. My fingers were intertwined together to keep from fidgeting and my stomach felt uneasy.

A lot just happened and I haven't quite processed it yet. I remember running into Troy in the woods and being chased all the way to the quarry. I remember a sharp blow to the head and everything is fuzzy from there. I remember barely being able to stay conscious before blacking out and the next thing I remember is seeing Mike jump, only to be saved by El of course.

"Here, let me help."

Dustin's voice tears me from my thoughts. I look up and see him walking over to me with a wet washcloth. I perk up in realization, and shift in my seat for him to get better access to the back of my skull.

I hiss in pain when I feel the cold washcloth touch my open wound at the back of my head.

I feel his hesitation. "Oh, sorry,"

"It's okay. Thanks for helping," I say quietly, taking hold of the washcloth and applying pressure. Dustin let's go and sits across from me at the table.

"No problem. Are you sure you are feeling okay? How's your vision? Any light-headedness?" I can hear the worry in his voice escalate with every question he asks.

Sighing, I let my arm that holds the washcloth rest on table, I give my brother a small smile.

"Dustin, I'm okay."

Dustin sighed, and the room filled with silence. The only sounds were coming from the sink in the bathroom. Mike was helping El clean up.

Dustin soon broke the silence.

"I... I was really scared for you. I mean, how the hell are you even functioning this well? That rock should have done some serious damage."

I give him a slight frown, even though I know what he is getting at.

"You know what I mean,"

It's silent again, but we both begin to chuckle softly. Enjoying this fleeting moment of peace, not knowing the next time we will be able to laugh like this.

I frown at the thought. I take a deep breath, contemplating whether or not to voice my paranoid thoughts that have been festering in the very farthest corners of my mind.

"Dustin, I think," I shift in my seat a little. "I think-"

Defeaning static erupts from the comms as it bursts to life, causing Dustin and I to jump.

A panicked voice begin shouting incoherent words.

Lucas.

My head whips around to the device and then Dustin and I look to each other in understanding.

Dustin runs to the bathroom door, alerting Mike and El while I grab the comn and begin fiddling with it, desperately trying to fix the static.

Dustin came running back over with Mike and El in tow.

"Do you remember how he said he was looking for the gate?"

"Yeah." Mike said confused.

"Well, what if he found it?" You said in a questioning tone fiddling with the device.

"What's he saying?" Mike asked.

"We don't know! He's way out of range."

I hurriedly put the device up to my ear and I hear more muffled words and manage to make out a very muffled "son of a bitch!"

I shakily bring the comm up to my face and begin speaking into it.

"Lucas? Lucas it's Y/n. If you can hear us, slow down. We can't understand you. Over." I release the button and meet my friends gaze as we all wait for a response.

Suddenly his voice bursts through the comm loud and clear.

"Yes, I copy! Do you? They know about Eleven! Get out of there! They know about Eleven! The bad men are coming! All of them! Do you head me? The bad men are coming."

My heart stops at his words and I look to El in fear while Dustin rambles on.

"'Mad hen.' Does that mean anything to you?"

"Bad men." I croak in fear.

"What?"

"He said bad men!"

I waste no time in springing into action.

I grab Mike by the arm and begin to drag him towards the stairs.

"El, we're gonna need you to stay here for just a moment. We'll be right back. Dustin, stay with her?" I give her a fearful yet pleading look.

She shares the same look of fear in her eyes, a kind I have never seen before. Though she seems to trust me. And that's enough.

Dustin speaks up. "Uhh, sure okay."

To be completely honest, I thought it'd be a better idea that if anything were to go wrong she could protect him, rather than the other way around.

Heart pounding we make our way to the nearest window at the front of the house. We are running so fast we are barely able to stop ourselves from slowing down before we reach the window.

"Umm," I trail nervously as we both spot the same sketchy man in a very sketchy van parked just across the street.

"What's that guy doing?"

"You don't think..." I trail off once more, my stomach plummeted and I looked to Mike worriedly.

He returned the same terrified look and he dashed off to the kitchen.

I hear Mike's footsteps pound against the kitchen floor and I can't help but overhear snippets of the conversation.

"Mom!"

"Well, is he home?"

Not much time passes before it begins to fade out. My attention focuses on the van outside.

Alarms are going off in my system, everything is screaming danger and my suspicions are only confirmed when I turn my head to see a fleet of identical vans parade down the street.

My heart begins pounding against my ribs to the point it hurts.

The fleet of vans slow to a stop in front of Mike's house and one man in the passenger's seat of one of the vans give me a curious glance.

I want to run and hide. I want to whip the curtains closed and run away and never come back. The look he gave me... it struck a fear in me I have never felt before. Everything inside me was screaming for me to run.

But I was frozen.

It was like a nightmare. I want to run, but my legs won't carry me. I'm paralyzed. I'm frozen with fear and they seem to become intrigued with me.

Too intrigued.

My brain finally reconnects with my body and I quickly jerk the curtains closed and run for the kitchen.

I realized I've only wasted seconds but it felt like minutes staring out the window.

I stumble into the kitchen, almost out of breath, too scared to even remember going the short distance to the kitchen.

"Mike!"

Without even looking at me, he holds out a finger to me.

"One second."

I have no time to roll my eyes, scoff or even be offended.

"Mike!" I roar, grabbing his and his mother's attention.

He immediately whips around.

"We need to leave... right now!" I enunciate every word, making sure I'm getting through to him.

I waste no more time and run for the basement.

I hear the distant scolding of Mrs. Wheeler.

"Michael!"

I practically fly down the stairs and jump to the ground with a stomp that rattles a nearby lamp when I reach the third to last step.

"They're here." I say frantically, grabbing my things.

"We need to leave."

I grab my jacket and threw it on.

"What?" Dustin asked frightened.

"I said, they're here. We need to get El out of here now. Mike will be down in a second, there's no time to explain. Just be ready to leave."

I say hurriedly, scrambling around the basement and snatch up my compass and shoving it into my jacket pocket.

Soon enough, Mike was downstairs with us and we all made our way out the back door. We all grab a hold of our bikes and begin running them across the grass.

We all freeze when we see the men striding towards us.

We all climb onto our bikes and I see the fear in El's eyes. I turn back to see one man in particular that she had been staring at.

He had stark white hair and a wrinkling face and surrounding him was an aura of menace.

It was him.

The same man stuck fear into my very soul only minutes ago through the window.

His cold eyes bore into El, but then he turned his attention to me.

Something about him and the way he looked at me... it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. My blood ran cold.

Finally coming to my senses, I peddle away with my friends in a frantic splurge of energy. The adrenaline was finally kicking in.

I eventually heard the faint sounds of a cluster of car doors slam followed by tires squealing and I knew they were already close on our tail.

"Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God." Dustin groaned fearfully as we raced down the street.

Thankfully he had brought his headset and connected it to our shared comm so that we could still communicate with Lucas.

I hear a muffled voice coming from the headset before my brother responds.

"Yeah, Lucas, they're on us."

More static.

My heart is pounding harder which I never thought was possible.

"Cornwallis!" He shouts into the mic.

My lungs are beginning to burn.

"Copy! Elm and Cherry!" My brother orders.

Mike and I respond at the same time.

"Okay."

"On it."

We head down the road when I hear the frightening sounds of several vans approaching.

The ringing in my ears is now deafening. Panic has completely taken over now.

"Shit."

"This way, come on!" Mike orders.

My limbs have grown tired and I start to fall behind. This only makes my heart pound faster.

They begin to head toward one of the houses and I begin to follow them. Only then, I hear the sounds of an approaching vehicle. I whip my head back and see one of the vans approaching me. It knows I've fallen behind. It sees that I am as good as alone.

Separated from the group. Vulnerable.

And that's exactly what I am.

There was no time. It was a snap decision that did not allow me time to alert my friends. My brother.

Needing to throw them off my trail, I jerked the handlebars of my bike to the left at the very last second. I knew it had worked and had gotten that van off my tail because it had no time to turn. I casted a glance behind me and smirked knowing I had succeeded, but I also saw my friends disappear behind the house as they took the shortcut.

Hopefully, if I can time everything right, they won't even know I was gone. The last thing I want them to do is worry about me and compromise themselves in the process.

I returned my gaze to the road, but it was too late. A van had swerved out of nowhere and cornered me. Trying my best to avoid it, I swerved my bike to the side and I lost my balance and tumbled to the ground. The only thing to slow my momentum was the pavement I was now rolling across.

By the time I stopped tumbling, I layed there, the wind knocked out of me. I had survived, but my bike had not.

I heard the opening of car doors and I came to my senses. I saw men approaching me and I scrambled backwards. Fearful tears I hadn't even realized had been collecting began to fall.

"Ple-please. Stay away from me." I blubbered.

Another van began approaching and slowing to a stop behind the other. Another man stepped out.

It was him again.

He knew they had me cornered.

The men who had cornered me began circling in on me and I panicked.

I don't know what happened next.

All the sadness I had felt these past few days for Will. The heartbreak. All the anger I felt towards Troy. All the pain inflicted on me, all the fear. Every emotion washed over me as the most intense moments in the past week flashed before me and I felt everything at once.

And it exploded. Like a violent force of nature, I erupted.

"I SAID STAY BACK!"

I threw my hand up to protect myself and suddenly I felt a powerful warm wave of energy surge off of me and the air around me blurred, the windows of the van shattered and the men circling me were thrown back and slammed against the vehicle.

They fell towards the concrete and laid there, unmoving, surrounded by shards of glass.

Trembling violently, and at a total loss for words I looked to my hands realizing I had been the cause of this sudden occurrence. My hands were trembling. I felt the blood pump intensely through my veins and I looked to the man with white hair and to my own surprise I smirked slightly at him.

I jumped to my feet and begin backing away, not before giving the damage I had done a quick once over. I then broke out into a sprint and cut through the trees.

A smile broke out onto my face. A new wave of power and adrenaline was pumping though my veins and I was beginning to feel invincible.

A now undeniable, beaming smile found it's way onto my face when I saw my friends gather up just around the corner.

I leapt and bound and I waved my hands up in the air calling to them.

Even from a distance I could tell they had just figured out I wasn't there and were beginning to panic.

"Over here!"

"Y/N!"

"Oh, thank God!"

"Where were you? I thought you were behind us!"

"Where's your bike?"

"No time to explain! Lucas, I need a ride."

"No problem, hop on."

I quickly took a seat on the back of Lucas's bike, knowing he had a similar model to Mike's.

"They are not that far behind. We need to go. Now!" I explained frantically.

Sure enough, a few seconds later the roaring of engines came from down the street.

"Go, go, go, go, go!" Mike cried.

I held on tight to the Lucas as he began picking up speed. I shared a worried look with El and then we both looked behind us to see the vans gaining speed behind us.

"Go, go, go, go, go! Faster, faster!" Mike shouted desperately.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!"

Lucas casted a glance behind us and much to my dismay, I saw one more van just up ahead and it was heading straight for us.

"Look out!" I couldn't help but shout.

I held on tighter to Lucas and I looked ahead frozen in shock. It was just a few feet away.

And then everything happened in slow motion. I watched in amazement when the van tipped forward and it was thrown into the sky. It hurdled over us and I watched in amazement as it flew right over our heads.

"What the fuck?!" I shouted in awe.

My gaze never left the van and my heard turned to see it crash on it's roof blocking all the remaining vans and allowing us to escape.

I began laughing in relief and I looked behind me as we made our escape. I met eyes with the man with the white hair and I couldn't resist.

Keeping one arm secured around Lucas's torso, I turned around as much as I could and gave the man the finger with a proud smile on my face.

|| 𝟑𝐫𝐝 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐏𝐎𝐕 ||

Brenner got out of the car and made his way toward the wreckage. Not bothering to check for survivors he stares at the fleeting children.

He wanted to be mad that they had escaped. That his beloved Eleven escaped once more.

But he was too impressed.

And he was thrilled to have witnessed the incredible feat only minutes ago.

The tremendous effort shown by the young Henderson boy. He had had his suspicions for some time now. He was all too familiar to him. But seeing his amazing abilities first hand.

Ablilties that had been inside him all his life, hidden, laying dormant inside him. It was brought out in a complete state of emergency. Acting as his body's natural defense that he didn't even know he had.

All that untapped potential mixed with the unpredictable attitude could do great things.

No, today was not a loss. Today was a victory. He had finally found him after all this time.

His missing experiment.

Number 009.