"Let's begin." Dr. Brenner smiled at Sarah from across the metal table.

Sarah gulped and began to shake as a man behind her fastened a strange helmet onto her head. Sensors suctioned onto her head like stickers and a strange buzzing noise began to fill her ears.

"I need you to focus," Dr. Brenner said, trying to catch her eyes as they darted around the room anxiously. "Can you do that for me?"

"Can I see my mommy and daddy?" Sarah asked, her eyes finally settling back on his.

"If you help us we can help you," Dr. Brenner replied. Sarah gave him a small nod and he smiled warmly. "Now, I need you to look at that wall and envision this picture, okay?"

Sarah studied the picture that Dr. Brenner slipped before her. It was a room with lots of buttons and metal machines. She had never seen it before but she didn't care because she would do whatever it took to see her parents again. "Okay."

"Okay..." Dr. Brenner led on, waving his hand in expectation.

"Okay...Papa." Sarah squirmed in her seat. She didn't like calling him that. He wasn't her father.

"Good," Dr. Brenner smiled again. "Proceed."

Sarah turned to face the wall to her left and tried to pick a spot on the wall to focus. She found a small smudge almost directly before her and concentrated all her might on it. She stared and stared until her eyes strained and began to pulse in pain. They felt like they were going to pop out of her head.

Sarah turned away when she could no longer handle the pain, rubbing her eyes vigorously. She looked to Dr. Brenner for help, but the unrelenting look on his face told her that she would not receive any until she did as she was told.

Tears welling in her eyes, she turned back to the smudge with the hope of seeing her mom and dad again fueling her. The longer she stared at it, the more it started to move and change. It was starting to take the shape of something familiar. It was starting to take the shape of the room in the picture.

Dr. Brenner gasped in astonishment as a small whirling circle began to appear in front of the wall. It slowly grew larger and larger, revealing new details with every centimeter. Within seconds it had grown to the size of a softball.

"Incredible," Dr. Brenner whispered. He started to move towards the circle that Sarah was creating with her mind, but it snapped shut just as he reached it. A loud thud signified that Sarah's body had dropped to the ground. His hand remained stretched out towards the spot where the portal had been.

Two guards began to move towards Sarah's limp body on the floor, but Dr. Brenner waved them aside as he knelt beside her himself. He lifted her weak, semi-conscious body onto his lap, her head lolling around and falling onto his chest. A bright streak of blood dripped from her nose and splashed onto the ground.

Hopper sat in his recliner, a bucket of popcorn glued to his hip. His eyes took turns looking between the clock and the TV screen before him.

"Oh, Richard! Where are you, my darling?"

"Look away, Rebecca! You cannot see me like this! I'm hideous, I'm a monster!"

"Please, Richard! I've missed you terribly!"

"Run...RUN AWAY!"

Hopper nearly jumped out of his chair as the cabin door swung wide open and slammed against the wall. The abrupt movement sent the popcorn bucket flying and sprayed kernels all across the floor.

"El...?" Hopper asked cautiously, standing up slowly and resting his hand on his gun, which was holstered at his side. The door remained open, despite the fact that nobody was holding it. Hopper took a few careful steps towards the doorway to get a better look...

...Right as Eleven came bursting through the door in a fit of grunts.

"Jesus!" Hopper shouted, holding his hand over his heart and feeling the quickened pulse under his fingertips. That stupid corny horror flick had put him on edge. "Where have you been? It's ten o'clock, you don't call—"

Hopper was cut short when he watched two other people accompany Eleven through the door like a train: Mike and a mysterious girl who looked like she'd been through hell, back, and then through hell again. Eleven and Mike carried her in, her arms draped around their shoulders and her feet sliding across the floor.

"What the hell is going on?" Hopper asked. "Who is that?"

Eleven and Mike struggled to bring the girl over to the couch and lay her unconscious body across it. It was a good thing that she was still asleep because her head hit the arm rest on the way down. They looked between the girl and each other before looking to Hopper.

"Sister," Eleven said, holding up the girl's wrist for Hopper to see. Hopper stepped closer and nearly did a double take when he saw the tattoo.

"What...How..." Hopper began, unsure of what he even wanted to ask. There were so many thoughts racing through his mind.

"We don't know," Mike answered this time. "She found us."

"How about you run on home, kid," Hopper said, finally finding and grabbing on to one of the many racing thoughts. "It's getting late."

"But--" Mike started. 

Hopper waved a hand to cut him off. "We've got this handled."

Mike sighed in defeat, giving Eleven a small wave before he walked out the door.

"All right, what's going on?" Hopper asked once he was sure the door was securely shut and locked. He liked Mike, but as a cop he knew it was best to interrogate one person at a time. Also he was mad that Eleven hadn't given him a head's up about staying out past curfew and aimed to address it without an audience.

"She needs a place to stay," Eleven answered. "Here."

"Here?" Hopper asked in disbelief. They had no idea who this girl was. That tattoo meant that she had some sort of strange supernatural abilities. How did they know she wouldn't use those powers against them? "Why here?"

"Please," Eleven begged, looking up into Hopper's eyes. This girl was family. She wanted to find out more about her.

Hopper quickly looked away and rubbed the back of his head. She always got him with those puppy dog eyes. "What's her name?" Hopper sighed after a few moments of contemplation.

"Don't know."

"Okay..." Hopper said. "How long will she be staying?"

"Don't know."

"Is she okay?" Hopper asked. "She looks pretty beat up..." Shallow breaths rose and fell from the girl's chest. She didn't look great but she didn't look dead. The cuts and scrapes decorating her skin looked old and mostly healed, but the sight of ash and dried blood was worrying. What had happened to her?

"Don't know." Eleven's answer was once again the same.

"Fine," Hopper caved. "She can stay until we figure something out. But if anything, and I mean anything, happens she's outta here. Kapeesh?"

Eleven nodded her head excitedly, looking down at her new sister with a huge smile. Seeing how happy his daughter was, Hopper couldn't help but smile as well, but the smile faded quickly when he remembered what time it was.

"Now off to bed," Hopper instructed. "I'm still mad at you for staying out so late."

Eleven rolled her eyes but the smile remained as she trudged to her room. The same thought continued to play itself over and over in her head: Sister.

Hopper glanced down at their new guest out of curiosity. Unconscious she looked innocent enough, but he couldn't seem to shake a new feeling that emerged when he looked at her: Danger.

★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★