November 11th, 1983

The Byers House

Limping up the steps of our house, Jonathan held me tight against his side; trying his best to keep me balanced. "Don't you think we should take you to the hospital?" He asked as he began to pull open the door. "What would we tell them?" I questioned with a quirked brow. "That you got attacked by a bear, I don't know?" I slipped out of his arm and leaned against the door frame.

"Jonathan, they would ask us what we were doing out there. A- And if we said that, then Mom would really look crazy for confusing a bear for a monster. Plus now we both know that there is a monster out there, not a bear." I finished, watching as he slowly began to nod in agreement. "Nell, what if you need stitches? Or it gets infected-"

Shooting him a reassuring smile, I patted him lightly on the shoulder. "I'll be fine, Jonathan... Just take Nancy home and I don't know... Make sure she's okay." I mumbled the last part and looked towards Jonathan's car to see a still shaken Nancy sitting quietly in the front seat, staring off into the distance, hugging herself tightly.

"You aren't still mad at her, are you?" He asked, his gaze also fixed on the traumatized girl. "Just take her home. I need to shower, wrap my leg, and somehow explain all of this to Mom." I mumbled, avoiding the question before slowly limping into the house and shutting the door behind me.

Holding back a groan and ignoring the throbbing pain in the back of my leg, I walked carefully into the living room, taking quick notice that the kitchen light was on. From inside the kitchen, I could hear Mom and Hopper talking frantically between one another, over a topic I could only assume revolved around Will.

Moving quietly through the living room, I groaned under my breath as the wood creaked loudly under my feet. "Eleanor, Jonathan? Is that you guys?" Mom called out as I sped up my pace and tried to move further down the hall, the floor continuing to creak beneath me. "Just me, Mama... Jonathan's taking the night shift..." I yelled back, quickly hearing the sound of chairs scrapping against the floor.

"What? No, I asked him not to do that anymore- What happened?" Mom walked out of the kitchen and stared down at me, stunned by my appearance. Quickly adjusting myself, I tried my best to hide the wound on the back of my calf. "Oh, you know... D&D got intense." I tried my best to lie and faked a laugh. "Right? How about you clean up, and try to get some sleep? Today's been a lot I know..." I nodded and slowly backed away from the two confused adults and slipped into the bathroom.

Turning on the light I was instantly greeted by my strange reflection in the mirror. The girl in front of me was covered in dirt, grime, and soil. I could barely recognize myself from how much my hair was matted down with that disgusting goo from the tree in the woods.

Peeling off my soaked jacket, I sat myself down on the edge of the tub and took off my boots before eyeing the wound on my calf. The slice ran from slightly below the back of my knee and just past the muscle of my calf, thankfully it didn't look deep enough to need stitches, but that didn't mean it was gonna heal nicely either... Ignoring the discomfort, I carefully peeled my pants off of my legs and grabbed a rag to start cleaning around the wound.

~~~

Walking into my bedroom, I finished drying my hair off with my towel when I noticed a strange figure lurking in the shadows of the night outside my window. What if it was the monster? Could it have followed us back out of the tree?

Walking towards the window slowly, the figure emerged from the shadows and knocked rapidly against the glass. "Hey... Hey, Nell open up!"

Rolling my eyes, I quickly realized that the figure wasn't the monster at all, instead, it was Steve Harrington. "What the hell, Steve! You scared me." I whispered and walked towards the window before slowly sliding it open. "We have a door you know." Rolling his eyes at my comment, he carefully pulled himself through the window and landed not so gracefully on the floor in front of me. "Doors are for losers." He said with a small smirk as he looked around my room.

"Right... And as much as I love the company, Steve. What exactly are you doing here?" I asked and sat myself down on my bed. He shrugged and continued to walk around my room, eyeing the books on my shelf and posters that decorated the walls.

"I need a reason to visit my friend?" He asked with a small smile though I could tell he was avoiding the real reason for him coming here. "When did you start to consider me as a friend?" I in all honestly but quickly regretted my choice of words as a slightly pained expression spread across his features, though he jokingly placed a hand over his heart and scoffed.

"I don't mean to be the bad guy, you know?" He quickly grew serious. Turning around in his place on the other side of the room to stare down at me. "No one's forcing you to be one either." I stated as he slowly made his way over.

Ignoring the comment, he looked down at my wrapped leg and furrowed his brow. "What happened there?" He asked and kneeled down to look at the tightly wrapped bandage. "Fell off my bike." I shrugged off his concern but he rolled his eyes at the lie, "You're clumsy but not that clumsy. You can talk to me you know?" The sad look flashed across his eyes again as he stared up at me.

"What's wrong, Steve? Why are you really here?" I scooted to the right side of my bed and patted the empty spot next to me. "Do you... Do you think I'm driving Nancy away?" He asked softly as he took a seat beside me, a frown quickly spreading over his lips at the idea.

"What? No... Steve, why would you think that?" I lightly placed my hand on top of his for comfort, though he just stared off into the distance. "She's been acting weird around me since that thing happened between Jonathan and me." Nodding, I awkwardly tried to think of a non-harsh response, though I could on stay quiet as his stare that was directed at nothing turned into a glare. "I know what I did was wrong, but what he did was wrong too... But for some reason, it's pushed her away from me and towards him."

"Is that such a bad thing? I mean, it's up to her to forgive him for the photos?" I tried but he shook his head at the thought. "Is there something going on between them? You're his sister and her friend, you'd know if there was."

I awkwardly laughed at the idea of Jonathan and Nancy getting together and shook my head, "That's crazy, why would you even think that way--" "Because I caught him in her room, and they looked pretty close to me." He cut me off with a glare. "Steve, I'm sure it's not what you think..."

Steve nodded for me to continue. "Then what should I think about it, why else would he be in her room?" I quickly opened my mouth to respond only to fall silent. I couldn't exactly tell him what had happened tonight... But then again I shouldn't be dealing with this anyways, much less from him. Shrugging, I rolled my eyes at the words that slipped out of my mouth. "Maybe the same reason I was in yours? Who knows Steve, just because you're hiding something doesn't mean she is too."

I stood from my spot on the bed to put some space between us before tightly crossing my arms over my chest. "This isn't like that..." He stumbled over his words as he spoke but still couldn't seem to find the right one. "Then what is it like? Did you ever stop to think that maybe you're connecting imaginary dots? Just because you're confused about your own relationship and feelings doesn't mean she is."

I let out a sigh and placed my head in my hands as Steve sat quietly in his place, staring up at me. "You are... so confusing, Steve Harrington." I mumbled more to myself and dropped my hands back to my sides. "You're beautiful, Eleanor Byers." He whispered and stood up from his place in front of me.

Before I could grasp what he was doing, Steve quickly pulled me closer to him and lightly grabbed the bottom of my chin, and placed my lips against his. Dazed and not thinking, I placed one of my hands on his shoulder and the other on the back of his head, my fingers lightly running through his hair. While he moved one hand down and placed it on my waist.

As if we both snapped out of it at the same time, we slowly pulled away from each other and I stared up into his eyes confused. "I- I should go..." He whispered after a minute of us standing in silence. "What?" I whispered and he slowly let go of me and made his way back towards the window. "I'm sorry... I don't know why I did that."

Ignoring the pain in my chest, I remained silent as he opened the window, "Let's just forget about this, yeah? Night..." He slipped through the window and ran back off into the shadows that he had come from just a few moments earlier, leaving me confused and alone in the middle of my room.

~~~

Waking up the next morning, all of the events that had taken place last night raced through my head. The monster... The tree... The Upside Down... Steve-- Jesus, no... Groaning at the reminder of what happened last night, I sat myself up in bed and ran a hand through my hair.

'Just forget about this.' That's what he said, and that's what I had to keep telling myself. It's probably for the best to act as if nothing had happened, right? I mean, what good could come from any of this?

From the kitchen, the phone rang loudly and I waited to see if anyone would answer it. But after a minute, I quickly learned that I was alone in the house. Slipping out of bed, I made my way out of the room and down the hall, stopping in front of the new yellow phone that hung off the wall.

"Hello?" I called out into the phone and leaned my head against the wall. "We're going back." The voice on the other end stated, it was to Jonathan. "What are you talking about?" I asked and wiped the rest of the sleep away from my eyes. "Looking for that thing. We're going back." He said again and I shook my head.

"You aren't serious, are you? You can't be serious... Where are you anyway?" I asked and heard Nancy's voice from somewhere else in the room. "I know last night was dangerous, but we have a theory on what this thing is and how to get it."

Jesus, who knows how long they've been working on this... And knowing both of them it would take an army to talk them out of it. "Fine, what's this theory?" I asked as I played with the cord of the phone, "That place that you and Nancy had found last night, that's its home." I nodded and waited for him to continue. "So instead of going back into that place, or looking for a way in. What if we can draw it towards us."

Chuckling at how he made it sound so easy, I shook my head at the so-called plan. "How exactly do we do that, and why would we do that? I mean it came real close to almost killing me last night. Unless Nancy's plan involves using me as bait again?"

"Nell, seriously... Nancy thinks that it's attracted to blood, like a shark, but it travels alone so that makes it defenseless if we trapped it." He said on the other end and I slowly began to understand this theory. "And once we trap it, we have the chance to kill it." I stated and looked around the empty house, "Get ready. Nance and I will pick you up in thirty."

"Wait... You mean like right--" The dial tone quickly greeted me on the other line as Jonathan hung up the phone. "Now..." I mumbled the last bit before groaning under my breath and hanging the phone back up.

Guess one bright side of this idea is that we finally had a plan that would help lead us to saving Will... Or at least make him a little safer where ever he was in that place.