The lights start to flicker and we all stand up.

"He's here." Will whispers.

"Come on." I say, and we walk past the reception desk, ignoring the calls of the receptionist.

I click the elevator button repeatedly and then Mike grabs my hand, "Stairs."

We run to the stairs and try to find Nancy and Jonathan. Which isn't hard because there is loud screaming down a hallway and I see Jonathan slamming a fire extinguisher against a door.

El pushes him backwards and uses her powers to open the door just as a loud screech sounds in the room.

I look through the doorway to see a monster, much like the picture of the Mind Flayer only smaller and more Freddy Kruger-like then the original 'shadow'.

"Jesus." Mike pants.

"What the f—"

Max gets cut off by the monster growling and running towards us.

El yells and throws the creature against the walls and ceiling before finally sending it out through the window.

I push Jonathan towards Nancy and the kids and I run back downstairs and outside. We run out the doors of the hospital, and El puts her arms out in front of us.

The monster is like a pile of flesh. It's slowly crawling into the sewage drain. Nancy and Jonathan come out and we all climb into the car and head to Hopper's cabin.

We all sit around in silence in the main room of Hopper's cabin while El sits in her room with a blindfold on trying to find one of the flayed.

"It can't be good for her to be in there this long." Mike groans.

"Mike, you need to relax." Max sighs.

"What if she gets brain damage or something?"

"Oh, shit," Lucas gasps, "Is that, like, a real thing?"

Max rolls her eyes, "No, it's not. He made it up. Mike doesn't know what the hell he's talking about."

Mike scoffs, "Oh, and you do?"

"No, I—"

"Yes, from The Hawkins Post." Nancy cuts Max off, talking on the phone. Max and Mike continue arguing, but I walk over to where Jonathan and Will sit. Nancy's been calling almost every local business number in the phone book, "I-I called a couple days ago about the...Yes, yes, um...I was just following up to see if anything else had gone missing, or if—Okay. Um, sorry to bother—" Nancy hangs up the phone and walks over as Jonathan marks out the number in the phone book, "Who's next?"

Jonathan shakes his head, "There is no next. Unless you wanna start calling random people's homes."

"It doesn't make sense."

"What part of any of this makes any sense."

"There's a pattern, okay? A consistency to their behavior. They've been feeding on these chemicals since this started, and—and, what, they just stop, out of the blue?"

"Maybe they have all the chemicals they need," Will shrugs, "Maybe they've all turned into those...things."

"But what about the source? I mean, did the Mind Flayer just suddenly stop infecting people? And even if the flayed are monsters now, why can't El find them?"

"Okay, can you guys settle an argument for us?" Max questions as her and Mike walk over, "Who do you think should decide El's limits? Mike or Eleven?"

Mike scoffs, "The way that you frame that is such bullshit."

"It's not bullshit, Mike. This is your whole problem. And it's also precisely the reason why she dumped your ass."

"El dumped you?" Nancy asks.

"Yeah, because she is conspiring against me." Mike answers, pointing at Max, "She's corrupting her."

Max rolls her eyes, "No, enlightening her. The fact is, she's not yours. She's her own person, fully capable of making her own decisions."

"She's risking her life for no reason."

"For no reason?" Nancy shakes her head, "Mike, the flayed are out there doing God knows what."

"Killing, flaying..." Lucas starts.

"Transforming into monsters." Will adds.

I nod, "And El's not stupid. She knows her abilities better than any of us."

Max smiles, "Exactly, thank you."

"And she is her own person. With her own free will."

"Exactly. El has saved the world twice and Mike still doesn't trust her."

Mike scoffs, "You wanna talk about trust, really? After you made Eleven spy on us?"

"Wait, What?" Lucas speaks up.

"Oh, she didn't tell you this?"

"No!"

"Your girlfriend used El's powers to spy on us."

Max shakes her head, "No, no, no. I did not makeher. It was heridea. Why are we even talking about this, seriously?"

"Yeah, Who cares?" Will adds.

Lucas scoffs, "I care!"

"Yeah," Mike nods, "I guess girlfriends don't lie, they spy."

"We were just joking around. Tell them, Y/N."

"Yeah, it was jus—"

Mike cuts me off, "Wouldn't it've been so funny if I was taking a massive shit or something?"

"You weren't." Max counters.

"But what if I was?"

"Then gross!"

"Seriously, Mike?" I groan.

Mike shrugs, "I'm just trying to demonstrate how careless Max is with Eleven's powers. In fact, how careless all of you are. You're treating her like some kind of machine when she's not a machine, and I don't want her to die looking for the flayed when they've obviously vanished off the face of the Earth. So can we please just come up with a new plan because I love her and I can't lose her again."

I smile at Mike's confession as El walks out of her room, "What's going on?"

"Nothing. Nothing." Mike says to her, "Just a family discussion."

"Oh. I found him."

"Found who?"

El sits in front of the TV, in the main room of the cabin, with the blindfold over her eyes and we all sit on the furniture behind her, waiting. El starts panting and she tears the blindfold off.

"What's he doing now?" I ask.

"The same." El says, standing up to get a glass of water.

"That's not normal, right?" Nancy questions.

"Billy staying in his room in the Fourth of July? No, that's not normal." Max answers.

"He wants us to find him." Will says.

"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of," Nancy says, crossing her arms over her chest, "If we go to Billy, then the rest of the flayed know where we are."

Mike nods, "It's a trap, I agree. We'll be ambushed."

"We won't be surprised," Lucas counters, "We'll know that they're coming, and we'll kick their flayed butts."

Max shakes her head, "You mean El will kick their butts.

"It's too risky." Jonathan sighs.

"Yeah, and unnecessary." Nancy adds, "Killing the flayed won't stop the Mind Flayer. We have to find out where it's spreading from. We have to find the source."

"Billy knows it," El speaks up, "Billy's been there. To the source."

"Yeah, but—"

El cuts Mike off, "It's a trap. I know. We can't go to Billy, but I think there's another way. A way for me to see where he's been. I've only done it one time, with Mama, but I can try it again. If Billy will let me."

El sits back down in front of the TV and Mike leans down next to her, "El, I know you think you have to do this, but you don't. It's just, you've only done this before once. And your mom, she loved you, and wanted you to know what happened. And Billy's mind is— is sick, diseased. The Mind Flayer is in him."

"He can't hurt me. Not in there."

"We don't know that."

I lean back on the couch, next to Max, turned away from the conversation to let them have their moment.

When Mike sits back in his chair, everyone else walks in and joins us. El puts the blindfold over her eyes and we wait.

El starts whimpering and Mike jumps up, "Something's wrong. El, are you okay? Are you okay?"

El sighs, "I'm okay."

"What's going on?"

"I'm...on a beach."

"Okay, I may be dense, but the last I checked, there weren't any beaches in Hawkins." Lucas says.

"What else do you see?" Max asks.

"A woman," El speaks softly, "She's...pretty. I...I think she's looking at me," El is silent for a moment, "...There's a boy...It's Billy."

Max grabs my hand, "It's California. It's a memory."

"I think I see it. The source," El is completely silent for a few minutes. I lay my head against Max's shoulder and squeeze her hand.

"I think I found it." El whispers, panting, "The source."

"Where, El?" Max questions, "Where are you?"

"Brimborn...Steelworks."

Jonathan runs over and gets the phonebook, looking for the location, "Found it. 6522 Cherry Oak Drive."

"It's close." Nancy notes.

"El—El, we found it. Get—Get out of there. Get out." Mike stammers.

El whimpers loudly and starts to hyperventilate.

"What do we do?" I question, "H-How do we get her out? Guys, what do we do?!"

El sobs loudly and Mike gets on the floor next to her.

El screams and tears the blindfold off, reaching for Mike.

Mike wraps his arms around her, "El, you're okay. It's— It's okay."