an unexpected visitor

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

Eleven looked different. She was not the nearly bald girl Alina had met last year, wearing the blue jacket and Nancy's dress, who always looked so small, her brown eyes constantly wide and bruises constantly lining her face from overusing her abilities. But she also wasn't the girl who had come to Alina in her dream, with the mop of curly brown hair and the flannel shirt. This Eleven was punk, with sloppily done makeup, cuffed jeans, and steely determination on her face. And she was standing in the doorway of Alina's house, her eyes glistening with happy tears.

Mike was the first to step forward as everyone else let their weapons fall, disbelief written on his face. "Eleven?" he said her name cautiously, as if he didn't want to get his hopes up. Alina couldn't speak. Couldn't move. Could only stare at the girl who had haunted her for nearly a year. She half-expected Eleven to turn out to be a hallucination, a sign that her trauma had taken too much of her, but everyone else saw her, too. And she'd felt it. The magnet hooking itself in her stomach as the door began to unlock. She hadn't felt that in a year, and so she'd known that somehow, Eleven was back. She was alive.

Mike and Eleven could only stare at each other for a couple of seconds before collapsing into each other's arms, murmuring each other's names and holding each other tightly. Because, somehow, they were both alive, and they'd finally, finally, found their way back to each other.

Mike was right, Alina couldn't help but think. He was right all along. I never should've doubted him.

Eleven held onto Mike, tears finally falling loose from her eyes, and Max turned to the others still staring. "Is that..." she trailed off. She knew the answer. Knew it by the way they were all staring like they had just seen a ghost—because they practically had. Beside her, Gabe's eyes were wide as he took in the girl he'd been told about.

Alina found that her own eyes were wet as she watched Mike and Eleven. She'd been trying to get over her death for a year, so seeing her here was surreal. More than surreal. It was utterly impossible. And yet it was happening right in front of her eyes.

As they held each other, Mike sniffed. "I never gave up on you," he told her, briefly detaching from the girl so he could look at her face. "I called you every night. Every night for—"

"Three hundred and fifty-three days," Eleven finished, shaking her head as more tears spilled from her eyes. "I heard."

"Why didn't you tell me you were there?" Mike asked. "That you were okay?"

A new voice entered the conversation. "Because I wouldn't let her."

Mike whirled around to see who'd spoken. But he recognized the voice. Anyone in the room would recognize the voice of Chief Hopper, who, amidst dropped jaws, walked up to Eleven. Alina's blood went cold. "The hell is this?" he asked, and there was something in his eyes, something like fondness. "Where've you been?"

"Where have you been?" Eleven asked, glaring up at the big man, but there was no lasting anger as Hopper pulled her into a hug. Like they were a family. Like he really had known she was alive.

"Why..." Alina's voice was quiet as she looked at Hopper, who'd let her suffer for a year thinking her friend was dead. Who let her have nightmare after nightmare without saying a goddamn thing. Who let her live each day knowing that she'd lost two people that were close to her. "Why would you..." tears spilled from her eyes again, and she blinked. When her eyes opened again, they were red, an itch spilling through her palms. "Why wouldn't you tell us she was alive?"

"Look, kid—"

"You piece of shit!" A burst of energy shot out of Alina's palms and crashed into the wall, her eyes narrowing as she looked Hopper down. She wanted to hit him, wanted him to feel every bit of her anger, but it was like her feet were glued to the floor. She could only stare. "You let me think she was dead this whole time! You lied to me! You lied to everyone!"

Lucas took her arm, bringing her back to the group, but he seemed angry, too. At the comfort of his touch, however, Alina relaxed a little, and resorted to sobbing into his arms. She couldn't believe Hopper had done that to her. Couldn't believe he'd hidden Eleven for nearly a year, not thinking to mention it to the traumatized girl. Her vision blurred with tears as she clutched Lucas, her strength for yelling gone as more blood burst from her nose. Mike, on the other hand, was just getting started.

"You've been hiding her," Mike realized. His face contorted. "You've been hiding her this whole time!" he stuck his palms out and struck Hopper, but he barely flinched at the younger boy's blow.

"Hey!" Hopper lunged and grabbed onto Mike's collar. "Let's talk," he said. "Alone." Mike clenched his jaw, but let himself be lead away by Hopper down the hallway, leaving Eleven standing there alone.

Hopper didn't look at Alina, who was still fuming, aching to talk as well. Her entire body was shaking like a leaf, and she was so angry she could barely breathe. But... Eleven was standing right there. So Alina buried her anger, just for a second.

Eleven's eyes were still wet, but when she met Alina's gaze, she smiled.

"Magnet," she said, and then Alina finally lunged forward and nearly tackling her into a hug. She clutched onto Eleven as hard as she could, hoping Eleven could sense what the others didn't, but when she didn't seem to, she just cried. Eleven was real in her arms, unlike the dream, and this time, she didn't turn to wisps in her arms.

"Oh, my God," Alina choked out. "I kept... I kept seeing you everywhere. But I thought you were dead and I was trying to get over you but I couldn't stop thinking about you because I just... I missed you so much. I thought I was going crazy, El, but now you're here. You're actually here."

"I... I talked to you, Alina," said Eleven, confused. "In the black room. Do you remember?"

"I thought that was a dream!" Alina remembered the curly-haired girl she'd seen in the void. She sniffed, and although she was incredibly angry and terrified, she couldn't help but smile. One of the holes inside of her had been filled. "You look different."

Eleven smiled. "I met Eight."

Alina's jaw dropped. "Eight? You mean, you met another test subject?" Now this was new. Alina had always wondered about the other ten subjects that were before Eleven, wondered what abilities they'd possessed and if they'd ever escaped. Well, apparently, it turned out one had, and Eleven had found her. Alina had a million questions—what were Eight's abilities? Where had Eleven found them? But she knew they could wait.

Eleven nodded. "She wanted me to stay with her. But I had to get back to my friends."

Alina hugged Eleven tighter. "I'm glad you did. I missed you, El. I missed you so much. So, so much."

"I missed you too," Eleven replied. "Sister."

"Sister?" Alina echoed. "What do you mean?"

"Eleven." Eleven pointed to herself. "Twelve." She pointed to Alina, who blinked. She'd only thought of herself that way once, and it was more of a worst-case-scenario situation. "But no more. Now El and Alina."

"El and Alina." She liked the sound of that. Alina turned her head towards Lucas and Dustin, who were trying not to show how much they wanted to join in, and remembered how much they'd missed Eleven, too. Finally, finally, she broke away from her hug, stepping back so as to let Dustin and Lucas embrace their friend, reuniting the party at last.

"We missed you," said Lucas.

"I missed you too," said Eleven. Alina rejoined Max and Gabe, who were looking a little awkward being the only ones to not have met the telekinetic girl before, and put her arms around them. They both smiled, seeming to appreciate the gesture during this awkward time.

"We talked about you pretty much every day," said Dustin, as they finally broke their embrace. Eleven stared at him, then reached towards his mouth.

"Teeth," she said.

"What?"

"You have teeth."

Dustin grinned. "Oh. You like these pearls?" he made a purring sound, sounding like some kind of weird animal, and Eleven seemed taken aback, while Lucas just shook his head. Alina stifled her laughter, happier than she'd been... well, happier than she'd been in a year. She still wasn't perfect—her eyes kept darting to the door, as if any minute now her dad would walk in, too—but even with everything happening, she could manage to crack a smile. Which was pretty darn good.

The fury about Hopper was still coiled deep inside of her, and she could hear Mike sobbing through the door, but she didn't let this quell the best moment she'd had all year.

"Eleven?" Max seemed to finally be down with hiding in the sidelines, as she began to walk towards the ghost girl. "Hey. Um, I'm Max." She stuck out her hand for Eleven to shake, and Alina noticed the girl didn't look happy. In fact, she looked almost murderous as she stared Max down. Did she know her? What was going on? Max's smile faltered a little at the look on Eleven's face, but she kept her hand outstretched nonetheless. "I've heard a lot about you."

Instead of shaking Max's hand, which is what literally everyone expected her to do, Eleven pushed past her as if she wasn't even there and jumped into the arms of Joyce, who had been there to comfort her in the bath last year.

"El!" Alina's jaw dropped open at the blatant rudeness, but she couldn't stifle a snort. She walked up to Max, whose head was down, her cheeks red in embarrassment. "Oh my God, Max, I'm so sorry. But that was also kind of funny."

Gabe headed up to the group too, glancing at the girl. "I'm just glad I didn't offer to shake her hand," he remarked, his eyes wide. "She would've like shoved me out of the room or something."

Max managed a smile, though she still looked a little miffed. "Nobody likes the new kids, I guess."

Skywalker suddenly let out a meow, winding himself around her ankles, and Max picked him up, rubbing his furry head. "Okay, your cat is the cutest," she remarked, as Joyce lead Eleven into Alina's room, where Will currently lay. Skywalker let out a couple of purrs as the other party members pet him, and Alina closed her eyes.

Soon. It would be happening soon.

It was strange, how fast moods could change. While Alina was obviously ecstatic at the fact that Eleven was back—Eleven was in her room! Eleven was alive!—she couldn't help the sadness that came through her when she realized the same thing wouldn't happen with Brandon Fairgrieves. He was still dead, his eyes closed and his life stilled. He would never come back.

His funeral had been quiet. Alina, Lucas, Mike, Dustin and Will all had gone, as well as their parents (Lucas, Mike, Dustin and Will's, anyway) and some old friends Brandon had around town. None of the men from the lab came, as they were in coffins themselves. Alina remembered wearing sneakers to this funeral instead of the sandals he'd forced her to wear for Will's, and spent a lot of the service comparing the two. She could feel the cold wind biting her nose and took her gloves off in order to feel something. She was just... just numb. So while everyone else cried, Alina Fairgrieves did not shed one tear.

Was it wrong not to cry at your dad's funeral?

Joyce and Karen kept shooting her sympathetic glances as the preacher spoke, and Lucas kept his arm around her the entire time. The funeral was closed casket, thank God, because Alina didn't want to see her dad's dead body. Didn't want to see the suit they'd most likely put him in or his plasticized face or his closed eyes. Didn't want to put her ear next to his mouth and feel no warm breath from there. And so when the casket was lowered into the ground, Alina pretended he wasn't in there. She could almost feel him standing right beside her, his hand on her shoulder, smiling sadly.

After the funeral, Alina had gone to the Byers (at that point she hadn't referred to it as home) and sat on her bed, reading the letter over and over. Her thumb traced each individual letter in his looping script and she'd lay down, clutching it to her chest. It was only then that she'd started to cry.

She felt the same way now, as if her dad's death was fresh again. He, unlike Eleven, was never going to return. And she hated him for that.

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

a/n: this chapter... i'm emotional. i'm so happy for el and alina's reunion, and it makes me cry because i remember where they both came from. which might be dramatic, because this, after all, is literally just a fanfiction, but idk. alina and gabe are like my children now, i guess.

anyway, i hope you enjoyed this chapter! we're getting even closer to the end, and everything with billy and steve and the tunnels and the snow ball. and my writing definitely gets better in these next chapters. it's honestly already improved so much since i've written this book, and especially since i wrote acatalepsy, so... yeah. expect better writing in the next book, hopefully.

'till next time!