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episode eight   |   stranger things

❛  THE LAST TIME   ❜

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AURORA STOOD AWAY FROM the group, everyone tending to Eleven as she screamed in pain. Her hands were shaking as she bit at her nails that had been gnawed to the bit.

Jonathan jumped up, running away from the group as he took off somewhere. Aurora swallowed harshly as Mike and Steve began to lift Elevens head up, the girl raised her hands, pointing at Aurora to motion her towards. Aurora dropped next to the girl, holding her arm.

Robin took this time to try and comfort the group, "you know, it's not actually that bad! There was a...the goalie on my soccer team, Beth Wildfire, this other girl slid into her leg and the bone came out of her knee! Six inches or something, it was insane."

Aurora tightened her grip as she moved it from Elevens arms to her hand, squeezing again. Steve shook his head, "Robin. Not helping."

Robin ran a hand through her hair, "I'm sorry."

Jonathan ran back to them, dropping to his knees as he held a knee up, "this is gonna hurt like hell, okay?"

Aurora could tell he had held it over a flame by the color changing on the metal, so she held tighter to Elevens hand and waited her for to give the go-ahead.

Jonathan finished unwrapping the bandage around her leg, "I need you to hold real still, okay?"

"Okay," Eleven cried out in agreement.

Jonathan held out a wooden spoon, "you're gonna want to bite down on this, okay?" Aurora reached out to grab it at the same time Mike did, she bent her head glancing at the girl when he took the wood and placed it between Elevens lips.

"Holy shit! Holy shit!" Dustin spoke as Jonathan poised the knife at the moving spot in her leg.

"Hold your breath," Aurora commanded Eleven as Mike told Jonathan to start.

Elevens screams were muffled slightly as Jonathan made the first incision. Elevens grip on Auroras hand tightened even more as she held on, her back arching in pain. Aurora turned her head away as Jonathan dropped the knife, pressing her forehead to Elevens.

Eleven was sobbing as Aurora pressed a kiss to her forehead, before the screams grew louder. Aurora lifted her head to watch as Jonathan's hand dug around in Elevens leg, screaming for the creature. Eleven spit the wooden spoon out of her mouth, dropping Mike hold on her arm.

      "I can do it," the girl spoke weakly, "let me do it."

      "Are you sure?" Mike and Aurora questioned at the same time, but Aurora was the one to get the nod. She tried to pull her hand away, but Eleven held it tighter to her chest, shaking her head softly.

      "I'm here." Aurora whispered, as Eleven sat up more, breathing heavily as she focused her powers on her leg. Eleven was screaming as the creature in her leg began to submit to the power she forced onto it, albeit slowly.

      Elevens screams intensified as the glass behind the group shattered into a million pieces when Eleven finally flung the creature out of her leg. The creature chittered painfully as it tried to crawl farther away, only to be crushed under the boot of Chief Hipper as he stood with Mrs. Byers, an older man and Auroras three aunts.

      Aurora smiled softly, jumping up to hug her three parental figures tightly. The three older woman all jumped to cradle the girl in their arms. When they pulled away, all three of them had a stern look on their faces.

      "What are you guys doing here?" Aurora smiled brightly at them, hoping that Flora hadn't noticed her missing keys or that Mary and Fauna hadn't noticed the fact that it had been almost two days since they last saw her.

      "What are we doing here? What are you doing here young lady?" Flora spoke, her hands on her hips as she waved a finger in Auroras face. They had noticed. "First! I wake up for work and my keys are missing to my office and then I get a notice that that Mayors office had been broken into and then! You go missing for almost two days! We had called Chief Hopper here and he had no idea where you were, and Mrs. Henderson had no idea where her son was, or Mrs. Byers, or Mrs. Wheeler or Mrs. Sinclair! What the hell have you been up to young lady!"

"I'd like to know too," Hopper spoke up from where Eleven was hugging him.

"It's a long story..." Mike jumped in, casting his eyes down as Mary, Flora and Fauna all glared at the boy.

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      TURNS OUT, THE STORY was even longer than it seemed as the others had quite an adventure as well, and on top of Dustin and Auroras adventure their explanation took much longer than anticipated.

      "The Mind Flyer, it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world." Mike finished.

      "And it almost did, that was just one small piece of it," Max added, crossing her arms as she watched Mike who was looking at Aurora longingly.

      "How big is this thing?" Hopper questioned.

      "It's big," Jonathan shook his head, "thirty feet, at least."

      "Yeah," Lucas shrugged his shoulders, "and it sorta destroyed your cabin."

      "Wonderful," Hopper scoffed, "and while they were doing that, you five were..."

      "Intercepting a Russian communication and finding out that they are planning on opening the gate again and that's probably how the monster got into this world again." Aurora finished.

      Steve raised his hand, "and just to, understand, this big fleshy spider thing that tried to kill El, is some sort of gigantic weapon?" Eleven nodded from her place on Hoppers arms, the man not letting go of her from the moment he saw her.

      "Yes." Nancy nodded.

      "But instead of, like, screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon with melted people?"

      "Yes! Exactly that," Nancy nodded again with a straight face.

      Steve stuttered over his words, "okay, just making sure."

      "Are we sure this thing is still out there?" Flora interrupted, "and it's still alive?"

      "El beat the shit out of it but, yeah, it's still alive." Max nodded, smiling at the brunette.

      "But if we close the gate again," Will started.

      "We cut the brain off from the body," Aurora nodded, smiling at the boy softly.

      "And kill it." Lucas ended. "Theoretically, of course."

      "Yoo-hoo," Murray shouted, waving around papers as he hurried to join the group once more. The five other adults stood up, leaving the kids to wait around the fountain as they surrounded Murray as he slammed the papers to the table. "This is what Alexei called the hub. Now the hub takes us to the vault room."

      "Okay, where's the gate?" Hopper asked.

      "Right here," Alexei pointed at another square he had drawn a distance from the vault room. "I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the vault room."

      Aurora, who had snuck up on the group, spoke up, "it's more like five hundred."

      The other kids had followed her, but Erica was the only one to speak up, "what, you're just gonna waltz in there like it commie Disneyland or something?"

      "I'm sorry, who are you two?"

      "Erica Sinclair. Who are you?"

      "Murray...Bauman." The older man seemed astonished that a young girl was speaking to him like that, but Max and Aurora had to cover this mouths to stifle any giggles that wanted to escape.

      "Listen, Mr. Bunman, I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that shithole for almost thirty-six hours. And with all do respect, you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die!"

      "I'm sorry, why is this four-year-old speaking to me?"

      Aurora coughed, "fine, you don't want a four-year-old to tell you that, I will. You will die if you follow that, look at Steve and Robin, they were caught for what, twenty minutes? And they almost died, imagine what would happen if you were caught longer than that, or after five kids just evaded them?"

      "But," Dustin intervened, pushing Aurora back slightly, "you don't have to die. May I?"

      "Please," Murray motioned to the papers.

      Dustin pulled them towards him, "okay, see this room here? This is a storage facility, there's a hatchet here that feeds into their underground ventilation system. that will lead you to the base of the weapon. It's a bit of a maze down there. but between me, Erica and Aurora, we can show you the way."

      "You can show us the way?" Hopper scoffed.

      "Hell no! My daughter is not going down there again," Mary shouted from where she was standing next to Joyce.

      "Yeah, no." Hopper shook his head, walking away from the kids, as he picked up the assault rifle from a dead Russian, cocking this gun carefully.

      Flora approached the man, "I'm coming with you."

      Hopper took on e look at her and laughed, "no."

      "Why not?"

      Hopper glanced her over, "you look like a child barfed pink all over you. You carry yourself as though your still in your twenties, and your a—"

      "A what?" Flora narrowed her eyes, "a woman? Because I am. My sisters are and so is my niece! But, I have an eidetic memory and I know exactly which way to go, so if those radios cut out—which they most likely will over two-hundred feet underground—you need a navigator at knows where to go. Enter me, so if you want to be sexist, go ahead but know that I'll be the first one to spit on your grave at your funeral."

      Hopper stared for a moment, before nodded, "I see where Aurora got her attitude from."

      "I heard that."

      Near the fountain, Erica was stern on the fact that the adults would die as she approached Dustin, Lucas, and the others. Aurora, Eleven and Max were on the other side of the fountain per the blondes request.

      "You guys survived," Lucas added.

      "Barely," Dustin shook his head, "we could've really used you guys down there."

      "Could've used you guys up here too," Mike added, glancing at Aurora.

      "Yeah, man. We missed you, dude." Lucas nodded.

      "Yeah, big time." Will finished before the four boys all joined in a hug, finding comfort in the familiarity.

      "Please don't cry nerds." Erica spoke up, ending the sentimental moment between the four friends.

      "Erica!"

      "Keep saying my name, see what happens." She placed her hands on her hips, before something clicked in her head, "which one of you is Michael?"

      The subtle glance from Lucas to Mike gave Erica everything she needed to know. The ten year old marched up to the boy before slamming her foot into his shin, watching as he crumbled in pain, "that's for her, because I know she's too nice to do it and she's probably going to forgive you against my better judgement. But I'm watching up, pig head."

      "Hey!" Hopper shouted, tossing over a radio, "you can navigate. Just from somewhere safe."

      "It's not that simple," Dustin shook his head, "the signal won't reach. Not with this, you need something with a high enough frequency band to reach the Russians radio tower. but for that to work, you need to have someone who is both seen their coms room and has access to a superpower handcrafted radio tower. One preferably already stationed at the highest point in Hawkins. Oh wait, that's me."

      "If you want us to navigate, you got us." Erica added, nodding her head.

      "But we need a head start." Dustin finished, "and a car."

      Hopper sighed, fishing out his keys from his pocket. "You get even the smallest dent — I don't really care, it's not my car, you radio us as soon as you get up there."

      Dustin headed over to Aurora, "we're going to Cerebro, we're gonna navigate them from there."

      Aurora stood up from the booth, her eyes staying glued to Eleven who was leaning on Max's shoulder. "I'm gonna stay here, my aunts are here and I'm probably already grounded. Are you guys going to be good without me?"

      "It wouldn't be the dream team without you," Dustin added, pulling the blonde in for a hug. "But in all honesty, you need to stay here and talk to Mike. We'll be okay out there, you just be okay in here."

      Watching Dustin leave was bittersweet, but once she was sure the four friends had left she headed over to her aunts. Mary and Fauna were teary eyed as they watched Flora, the woman assured them she would be fine. She would never die at someone else's hand.

Aurora ran the last few feet, jumping into Floras arms as she hugged her like it was the last time. She felt her two other aunts surround the rest of her and soon enough she was encased in their warmth.

"You have to braid my hair when you get back," Aurora whispered when her three aunts pulled away, tears streaming down her face. "You have to come back, you can't leave me. You can leave me like they left me."

Flora sigh softly, dropping to her knees to be eye-to-eye with the girl. She brushed a finger through her matted and dirty hair, "I am not like your parents Aurora, but I love you just as much as they did, maybe even more, and I will come back to you. But you have to come back to me, so stay safe, my little princess."

"Hey," Will interrupted, standing in front of them, "we're all getting ready to go."

Aurora nodded, and two of her three aunts followed them, while one headed towards Hopper and the others. Aurora glanced at Hopper, and took one moment before running towards the man. She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed, enjoying the warmth she had missed for almost six months.

"I'm sorry, kid," Hopper whispered into her hair, "I'm sorry, but if it made sure Eleven was okay I would do it again in a heartbeat, I would do anything to make sure both of you were safe. So I'm sorry, Aurora."

"I'm sorry too," Aurora sobbed, "I'm sorry that I ignored you for so long. I'm sorry that I was mad at you for so long but at some point I realized that I wasn't mad at you, I was mad because I didn't have someone like you to protect me in the way you protect Eleven. So, I'm sorry, and for the record, you're an amazing dad."

Hopper pulled away, and wiped off her tears, "and you're an amazing kid. So please, be safe. And we can make up for lost time when I get back. Donuts at Sally's on Sunday?"

"It's a plan Hopscotch," Aurora smiled, and hugged him once more before following the rest of them.

Something in her heart sank as she continued to walk away from the mall, as if something was never going to be the same after tonight.

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(      LET ME SPEAK    :      )

one or two more chapters after this!
but guys shit hits the shit covered fan
after this...so i need to give yall a happy
chapter first hehe

credit goes to fivehxrgreeves