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C H A P T E R   F I F T E E N  :

" OPEN THE GATE "

･ ｡ﾟ ⋆✩⋆  ･ ｡ﾟ

| D E C E M B E R  25th , 1986 |

H a w k i n s , I n d i a n a

12:50  A.M

"I'M SAYING THAT WE NEED TO GO THROUGH THE UPSIDE DOWN."

El was left with a room of contemplative silence, no one had any preference to this idea.

However, they knew she was right in the terms of how effective the convenience of it was.
It was like a door that would lead them straight to Russia, only they had no idea how to navigate the other world.

"But how are we even gonna go through the upside down anyways? The gate has been closed for the past couple months."
Murray interjected, earning a pained look from Joyce as she recalled how it was closed.

Joyce recalled the scene that played out in front of her while she struggled to turn the keys to turn off the turbine while Y/N and Hopper stood together by the open gate, their hands clasped together.

Joyce was broken when she found that they were gone after she closed the gate, and she blamed herself for their struggle of survival in Russia.

But now, she has a chance to find and rescue both of them.

"Wait," Dustin thought for a moment. "El could open and close the gate before. Maybe she could open it again!"

Dustin turned to look hopefully to El, who's lips were pursed in a straight line. She knew she couldn't open it again, because her powers have been dormant for the last couple months.

She was nowhere near strong enough, except for the casual levitating of small things or the closing of doors.
  But she was not powerful enough to perform something as extreme as opening or closing the gateway to an alternate dimension.  

Joyce turned to look at Dustin with a knowing look, as if she were trying to silently communicate that El could not perform the task they needed her to do.

But just as Joyce was going to announce the dismissal of the idea, El blurted an answer to Dustin's question. "Yes."

The group turned to look at El after her response, their eyes hopeful.

No one knew that over the course of the past couple months away from Hawkins, Eleven's powers have been dormant with the exception of few levitations.
So no one knew to doubt El when she said she could open the gate.

"Wait, you can? You can open the gate again?" Mike took a double check seeming skeptical himself, but El smiled thinly.

"Yes." She stated, earning a skeptical look from Joyce, Jonathan, and Will because they knew she couldn't. "Yes, I can open the gate again."

El knew she wasn't strong enough. She knew, but she just wanted to feel needed again.

Back when she still had her powers, she was the party's prized hope. She was their only hope.

But now that she couldn't use them anymore, she felt unneeded, like she didn't have an importance anymore.
She just wanted to feel important again, and help the party regain hope and faith in her.

She just wanted to give them hope.

The party exchanged murmurs of excited approval of El's idea, contemplating how they should further their plan.

"Let's do it then." Murray agreed, turning to the large group to go over what plan he seemed to have.

El sat there, quiet and still as she turned to look at Joyce who gave her an unsure look.
She gestured to her with head to point to her room again, indicating that she wanted to talk with her.

El inhaled nervously, seeming to know exactly why Joyce was pulling her aside. She also grabbed Will, Jonathan, and Mike's arm to follow her, earning confused glances all around.

Once they all filed into El's room, Joyce shut the door behind them, giving them a quiet space to talk.

Joyce seemed frazzled, her hair was frizzed and she looked exhausted.
She just wanted to find both Hopper and Y/N as soon as possible, but she needed to know why El volunteered herself falsely.

"El, sweetheart," Joyce started, pressing her hands together as she looked serious.
"Why would you say you can open the gate? You know you've been a bit shaky with your powers."

El looked down, fiddling with her hands as Mike looked somewhat disappointed but also as though he knew El wasn't strong enough yet.

"I just..I just wanted to help." She muttered, still refusing to look up at Joyce.

"Sweetheart, you know you can't do something that big yet, why would you tell them that you
could—.."

"Because I wanted to feel needed again!" El blurted, her face reddened at her sudden outburst.

"I just," She took a breath before mellowing out. "I just wanted to be the 'mage' again. If I don't have my powers, how can I help anything?"

El glanced at Mike at her mention of being the 'mage', the position he assigned to her as part of the party.

Joyce exhaled with immediate regret at her own words, not knowing that El felt that way.

Jonathan felt badly for El, knowing that she just wanted to be apart of things again.
He had gotten to know her pretty well over the course of her living with them and everything, so he felt like he could help.

"Hey," Jonathan turned to place a comforting hand to El's shoulder, prompting her to look up at his soft smile.
"You don't need to have powers to help. You've helped us so much, in ways we'll never be able to repay, but you don't give yourself enough credit. You deserve a break in all this."

"You really do deserve a break, El." Will smiled warmly.

"Yeah, and you're still the mage, just temporarily..retired." Mike joked, earning a small chuckle from El.

Jonathan smiled thinly, earning a small smile from El at his words. She nodded, her glossy eyes now returning to normal as she leaned in to hug her older brother figure.

Joyce smiled at the exchange, as well as Mike who walked over to El after Jonathan and her parted from the hug.

"What should we tell everyone, then?" He asked, looking over to Joyce who looked stressed at his question.

She huffed, her hands dropping her her sides. "Let's just keep quiet for now. Let them relax for a little bit, then we'll figure out something."

Everyone nodded in agreement, agreeing to let the group believe that El could open the gate, until they found out an alternative anyways.

They filed out of the room, joining the commotion of the group who seemed to be buzzing with energy with their newfound 'plan' of El's.

Mike watched as they spoke about how they were going to solidify their 'plan' in the morning.
They needed sleep if they were going to go through with this plan, so they decided to take the rest of the night to rest.

They arranged a way so that they all found a place to sleep, old blankets and pillows were distributed as Mike found his way to Y/N's room.

Y/N's cabin room was dark with the soft lamp light illuminating it's emptiness once Mike turned it on, smiling weakly at the sight of her bed.

He couldn't possibly wait any longer to see her, an image of her always lingered in his mind as a reminder of what he's fighting for.

He missed her, and there was no way he could sleep knowing that she's alive and they're so close to finding her.

He approached the bed, sitting at the edge to look back at the covers that he hadn't laid upon in what seems like forever.
It didn't smell like her perfume any more, the memory of her scented lotion or body spray painfully faded from her sheets.

"We're gonna find you, Y/N.." Mike mumbled with a sigh, tracing his fingers along the fabric.

"I swear, I'll do whatever it takes to see you again.." He muttered to himself as he clenched the sheet in his hand as if it were going to fade away, just as her presence did.

"Glad to hear you say that because I need your help."

Mike froze, his eyes widening at the speaker's voice from behind him as his hand unclenched the sheets in his hand.

He didn't turn to look at the source yet. He was frozen still, and tensed.

There's no way. He thought to himself. No way.

It was unmistakable.

It was the voice he grew to love and the voice that grew to be a sound of pure harmony.

It was the voice he grew up with.
His mouth dropped open at the sound of it, fearing that his mind may be playing tricks on him.

Please.

So in a hesitant and hopeful turn, he looked to where the source of the voice came from.
There she was, standing across her room as she stood confidently yet stealthily, like she shouldn't be doing what she was doing.

She looked at beautiful as ever, but yet the look in her eyes were different.

It was fierce, it was confident, it was bold.

Yet, it was mentally exhausted and scared.

Mike couldn't form any words, his breath being caught in his throat.
He rubbed his eyes as if his mind were tricking him, only to see her reappear after he opened them again.

He formed the only words he could.

"Y/N.." Mike breathed out.

⋆

Authors Note :

SO..THAT HAPPENED.

what do you think is happening??

what's y/n doing there? is she even really there? :3

in the next few chapters, things are gonna start happening so be prepared..

it's gonna go DOWN pretty soon..

.

what do you think about all this ??

any theories ? any predictions?

thanks for reading.. stay tuned !!

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