CHAPTER TWELVE: CLUELESS

It was silent for a while as the younger kids of the group thought deeply on how to get Hopper, Eleven and Billy back. I squirmed uncomfortably in my chair at the feeling of eyes on me.

I had so many questions to ask, but no idea of how to put them into words. They've all been through this before? How long have they been dealing with it? Was it going to be like this forever?

Eventually, I broke, and my first question left my mouth, "what's going on?" I asked. It was a pretty open-ended question, but I didn't know what to say first. Luckily, the others seemed to understand. Even if I had been Flayed, and had some memories from the Mind Flayer, he didn't tell me everything. There were a lot of holes in his stories.

Lucas was the first to speak up, "do you know what the Upside Down is yet?" He asked. I shook my head in response, because I didn't know enough about it to understand. Only pieces. "Well, we've dealt with it twice before-actually, three times now. The Upside Down is another world almost identical to this one, but it's all dark and cold and it's where all these monsters live. They can Flay people," he hesitated, "like he did to you, to make them do whatever he wants."

"Don't forget," Dustin spoke up, "the monsters share a hive mind."

I frowned at the term, unable to remember what it meant, "hive mind?"

"It means they all share a consciousness. Whatever the Mind Flayer feels, the Demogorgons feel-"

"Demogorgon?"

Steve hummed, "it's these weird monsters in the Upside Down with no face and rows of teeth. It's terrifying."

"Yes," Dustin nodded, "moving on. Whatever one creepy crawly knows, the rest know. We've actually dealt with people getting Flayed before," he pointed awkwardly to Will, who shifted uncomfortably in his spot on the couch, "so we know that they share the hive mind while they're Flayed. Which brings me to my first question for you," I raised a brow at him, "is there anything important you can remember?"

I felt uneasy with the sudden attention, my mind thinking a million different things all at once as I glanced at each face looking back at me. Before I could truly panic, a hand slipped into my own, and I looked down to see Nancy holding it tightly, before I looked up to meet her eyes. She gave me an encouraging nod.

I inhaled sharply before slowly exhaling. I thought for a moment, trying to remember anything of any importance, but I kept coming up blank. "I'm sorry I- I can't remember much. I don't know why." I frowned.

Will frowned, "anything at all?"

"Not really. The more time that goes by, the less I remember." I furrowed my brows, my eyes narrowing at the dining table in frustration.

"Not really." Steve repeated, "so that means you remember something."

"I..." I paused for a long time as I gathered my thoughts. "I remember..." my throat tightened with guilt, "taking Eleven. I remember that Billy was there... um, I can't remember where we took her. I think-" dread pooled in the pit of my stomach. Realization hit me like a ton of bricks, and I paused to pushed my nerves away. "I think she's under the Mind Flayer's control." The room went dead silent. "She kept fighting it off, but she just got so tired..." I couldn't speak anymore.

How could I do something like that? Something so inhuman? My heart raced in my chest, and tears threatened to spill from my eyes. I should be punished, locked away for my crimes. I broke too many laws to count.

"It's okay, Harps." Nancy's soothing voice brought me out of my thoughts. She squeezed my hand comfortingly, and I looked up at her with my teary eyes. "That wasn't you. You know that."

"We'll figure this out, honey." I turned my gaze away from Nancy, my eyes meeting Joyce's. "It'll be all right."

With a quick glance around the room, it was easy to tell that no one blamed me for what I had done-but I did.

"Okay." Was all I could say.

"Luckily," Mike changed the subject, which I was thankful for, "we know where they are. It's where we found you, Harper." I frowned, not remembering. My head ached, and I reached up with my free hand to find a bandaid just above my right eyebrow. It was like my body remembered something that my mind couldn't.

Max seemed to be hiding her nerves better than anyone in the room, "we just need to go in and get them." Suddenly, she frowned. "But Eleven is Flayed." She reminded, "she'll be using her powers against us."

A heavy silence followed. The realization that this was going to be harder than everyone thought was gut-wrenching.

"We'll figure it out." Mike promised, though he didn't sound so sure. "There's gotta be a way to outsmart her. I mean... the Mind Flayer did it once before," he lazily gestured to me, "who's to say we can't do it too?"

"Once we get through to her, how do we get Hopper and Billy?" Max asked, "and we can't just assume that Hopper isn't Flayed, can we?"

"No," Lucas agreed, "we have to assume the worst."

"Can't we just get Billy and Hopper back the same way we got Harps back?" Nancy asked, "preferably with less violence." She gestured to all my wounds. The memories of receiving those were fading as time went on.

"Yeah, I'm with Nance." Steve nodded.

Dustin seemed to have no problem with that plan, "that sounds doable. But we can't just brush over the fact that we have no idea how to deal with Eleven."

Steve scoffed, "no one said we have no idea."

"No one had to say it, Steve. It's a silent agreement." Dustin rolled his eyes, "we don't know what we're doing."

"We have a clue, at least!"

"Oh yeah, and what is it?"

"We burn it out of her."

"She has powers, Steve!"

"Boys!" Joyce's voice rang out above everyone else's, a stern look on her face. "Arguing isn't gonna bring anyone back. We need to stay calm." Even when she said it, she looked anything but. The fear of losing Hopper was clearly driving her to the brink of madness.

Steve and Dustin stared at her for a moment before muttering under their breaths, "sorry, Miss Byers." Joyce nodded in response.

Silence followed after for the millionth time that night before Max spoke, "so should we come up with a solid plan, or are we incapable of doing so and we should just try our best to do this without having a clue on how to stop El?"

More silence, then, Dustin spoke, "I don't think we have much a choice." He admitted. "I mean, she has powers, right? Just... prepare for the worst and do our best?"

Mike sighed, "sounds like a plan."

Steve scoffed, "not a very good one." He muttered.

"Steve!"

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lizzie speaks...

i have two chapters to post to make up for lack of updates and this fic being on hold, go read the other one.

motivation for this fic is super low and i almost discontinued it two seconds ago... decided to just update slowly until i feel more motivated which still sucks and i'm sorry