"He said he was building something," El whispers from beside me on the couch, her head on my shoulder as I rub her arm up and down, "That it was all for me."

"Building something...is he talking about the flayed?" Max questions.

"He must be." Nancy nods.

"So he's building an army just like we thought." Lucas says, pacing the floor.

"Yeah, but he's not building this army to spread." Mike sighs.

"He's building it to stop Eleven." Will adds.

"Last year, El closed the gate on him. I have a feeling that really pissed him off."

Lucas nods, "Like, royally."

"And the Mind Flayer now knows that she's the only thing that can stop him. But if she's out of the way..."

"Game over."

El lifts her head from my shoulder, "He also said he was gonna kill all of you."

"Yeah, well, that's nice." I say sarcastically. I hear a faint screeching noise and loud booms and I stand up, looking outside the window, "Do you guys hear that?"

Nancy shrugs, "It's just the fireworks."

I turn around to El, "Billy...when he told you this, it was here? It was in this room?" El nods.

Will raises his hand to the back of his neck, "He knows we're here."

We all run outside the cabin and look down the road to see fireworks being shot off and a creature, much like the one in the hospital only bigger, coming towards us. Nancy tells me to get the kids inside and her and Jonathan go to the little shed outside the cabin. The kids and I start to board up the windows with items we find all around.

When Nancy and Jonathan come back, he hands me an axe, keeping one for himself, and Nancy has a gun.

"Hey, get away from the windows." Nancy demands.

We all stand in a circle, waiting for the monster. I raise the axe when the plates start to clatter and the lights start to flicker.

"It's close." Will notes.

A mug falls off of the hook it's on as the ground shakes.

Everything goes completely still for a moment, until suddenly, a large tentacle-like arm breaks through the window. The kids get up against the wall as Jonathan uses an axe to cut the tentacle. It snaps back and hits Jonathan, throwing him across the room. It goes towards him and Nancy shoots it, gaining it's attention. She shoots it three times and then runs out of shells. Nancy backs away from it until she's pressed against the wall. The arm gets right in her face, but El stops it right before it can attack Nancy.

The tentacle starts to shrivel up as El pulls it away from Nancy. El moves her hand in a downward motion, cutting the 'head' off of it.

The remainder of it slithers always and out the window just as a new arm flies through. El lifts her hand up, stopping it, and another comes through. El stops that one as well and holds them in place for a few seconds before cutting their 'heads' off, just like the first one.

Suddenly, a tentacle reaches through the roof, pulling El off by her feet and towards the sky. I run forward with everyone else as we try to get El away from the creature.

"Nancy, shoot it!" I scream.

A gunshot rings through the air. The monster let's out a pained shriek and Nancy continues firing the gun at it.

Lucas takes my place in pulling on El and I reach down and grab the forgotten axe that I dropped to help her. I jump up on the knocked over bookcase and bring the axe down onto the monster.

It roars and I continue to cut the tentacle off as Nancy fires the gun. I use all of my strength to bring the axe down and the tentacle snaps and the creature releases El, causing all of the kids to fall to the ground.

The head of the tentacle is still on El's foot. Mike lifts himself up and rips it off of her, throwing it across the room. El screams in pain as it skitters off.

The actual head of the monster stares at us through the hole in the ceiling. El stands up and limps forward as I help all the kids up, pushing them behind me.

El yells as she raises her hands. She splits the monster in half and falls backwards. Max catches her just before she hits the ground.

We all rush around to leave the cabin and Max and Mike help El walk . We climb into the car and Nancy drives away just as the monster starts to put itself back together.

We drive to a grocery store and Nancy throws a rock through the door so we can get inside.

Nancy grabs rubbing alcohol and gauze pads and Mike and Max lay El on the ground.

Nancy leans down in front of El, "Okay. Let me see," she pulls up El's pant leg and everyone groans in disgust at the nasty wound.

Nancy grabs a gauze pad and starts to put it on El's leg, but Max stops her, "What—What— Hey, what are you doing?"

Nancy shrugs, "I'm cleaning the wound."

"No, first we need to stop the bleeding, then clean, then disinfect, then bandage. I skateboard. Trust me."

I clear my throat, "Please tell me she's the one who helped me."

Max nods, "I did. I let Nancy sew you up after." Max grabs the gauze pad from Nancy, "Mike, hold this. Keep the pressure on it, nice and firm, okay?" She looks back at Nancy, "We're gonna need water, soap. And someone's gonna have to clean Y/N up, too."

I furrow my eyebrows in confusion and then look down at my arm to see that I had bled through the bandage and my T-shirt.

"I'm fine. I'll take care of myself. Let's just focus on El right now."

Nancy and Jonathan leave to find water and soap and Lucas dumps out his bag, "Does any of this help?"

Max shakes her head, "No. Go get me a washcloth and a bowl."

"A bowl?"

"Lucas."

"Oh, o-okay." Lucas and Will run off to find a bowl.

I lift the sleeve of my T-shirt up and unwrap the bandage from around my arm to see that I popped my stitches, "Shit," I mumble. I grab a gauze pad and put it in my arm to try and stop the bleeding. I suddenly get an idea and look at Max, "I'll be right back."

I grab a few more gauze pads and walk to the hardware aisle and get a roll of duct tape. I place the gauze on my arm and wrap the duct tape around it. good I just need something to keep the bleeding at bay while we figure things out. I'll get medical attention as soon as we're done.

I walk out of the aisle to see Will, Lucas, and Max by the fireworks stand.

"You wanna kill that thing with fireworks?" Max asks, inspecting the firework in her hands.

"Do you have a better idea?" Lucas smirks.

Max tosses the firework at Lucas, "Uh, yeah. Eleven."

"Against that thing? She's gonna need some backup."

Max scoffs, "Oh, my God." She walks back to El and Mike and I walk forward. I start helping Lucas and Will grab fireworks before deciding it would be easier to get carts.

We start loading the carts up with fireworks and I hear Mike yell Dustin's name.

"What's going on?" I question when I get to the aisle we left him and El on.

Everyone looks over at me and then they all start rushing around. Max goes and grabs El a bandana and then Nancy and Mike bring El over to the frozen food section. They open the doors and the El places the bandana over her eyes.

"Does anyone wanna explain what's going on?" I question, only to get shushed by Mike.

We sit for a few moments and Lucas pops open a can of Coke.

"Quiet." Max whispers.

"Oh, sorry." He whispers back.

"How do you even drink that?" Mike questions.

"Because it's delicious."

"What?" Mike and Max ask in unison.

"It's like Carpenter's The original is a classic, no question about it. But the remake..." Lucas takes a drink of the Coke, "Sweeter, bolder...better."

Mike scoffs, "You're insane."

"So you prefer the original ?"

"What? No, I'm not talking about , I'm talking about New Coke."

"It's the same concept, dude."

"Uh, actually, it's not the same concept."

"It is the same concept."

"No, it's not."

"Yes, it is!" Lucas yells.

El tears the bandana off, "Hey."

"Sorry." Mike apologizes.

"Sorry." Lucas repeats.

"Did you...find him?"

I throw my hands up in frustration, "Find who?!"

Nancy sighs, "Dustin. We think he's in trouble.

I watch from the balcony of the mall as a group of men walk around the floor of the mall as if they're searching for someone. One points their gun at a counter of one of the stores and my heart speeds up. He talks into his walkie and then the other men join him. They all slowly walk towards the counter with their guns raised and I look at El with pleading eyes, silently begging her to do something and save my brother.

El moves her hand and a car alarm starts to go off, gaining the attention of the group of men. I sigh in relief and they all look up at us. El throws the car, killing the men and I watch as Dustin, Steve, Robin, and Erica Sinclair, all stand from behind the counter and gaze up at us.