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There was a soft knock at the door, and Nancy turned around to see Mike standing at the threshold of her room. He must’ve recently showered as his hair was damp; the inky black curls falling into his eyes. He was taller than her now - had been for a while - but at that moment he looked very young. She knew they had all been having problems sleeping, but even so the deep purple of his under-eyes against his pale skin was startling.
“Hey, Nance.” His voice was thin, weary. Barely above a whisper. “I was wondering if you had any shoes spare, for El?”
He watched his sister open up her closet and pull out an assortment of shoe pairs: sandals, sneakers, heeled boots, pumps. She singled out the grey sneakers and pushed them closer to Mike, coupled with a few pairs of frilly white socks to go with them.
“Let me find her some clothes, too. It's not fair on her to be stuck in yours all the time.” She began sifting through the coat hangers that held her nicer items, seeking anything colourful, bright, fun. “Pretty sure I have an old pink dress around here somewhere.”
Nancy knew it had been the wrong thing to say the second it had left her lips, the attempt at lightening the mood falling flat. Judging from the furrow in Mike’s brow and his fast blinks, it had only added to the heavy tension. He still hovered in her doorway, looking lost in thought, same as her. It was bizarre: despite everything that had happened that year - losing Barb, fighting the Demogorgon, her entire life being flipped on its axis - she still remembered it with a loose fondness, wishing she could go back to it. It was a testament to just how devastating and desperate their situation was now if she was thinking of that time in her life as simpler.
Guilt squirmed in her gut. Back then, Nancy had made Mike promise her that after everything that had happened to the two of them, they would begin confiding in each other. No more secrets. That very same night, Nancy had laid in her bed, shaking hands capturing her sobs whilst hot tears spilled from her eyes. Every time she closed them she saw the creature roaring, aflame, reaching for her, Jonathan, and Steve. On top of that, she still had no idea what had truly happened to Barb. Eleven had indicated that she was dead, her body in the upside down but be that as it may, it did nothing to ease the pain in her chest, the need for closure. If anything, it just raised more questions that would never be answered.
The four walls of her bedroom had felt like they were closing in on her, and she had thrown open her door to find, across the landing, Mike’s already open with him standing in the entrance. They had stared at each other with the same blank, broken look - mirror reflections of grief and loss. Aside from his elation at seeing Will awake in the hospital, Mike had been operating like he was in a trance. Nancy had mostly pieced together what had happened at the Middle School from Dustin and Lucas. She had planned to ask her brother about it as soon as they were alone at home, but they had returned to find their house swarmed with military personnel and people in suits. Their mother had tried to reassure them that it was going to be okay - to just tell the truth - and the siblings had a split second to lock eyes before they were taken to separate rooms to be questioned. As soon as it was over, they had both hurried upstairs and locked themselves in their bedrooms and hadn’t seen each other until the meeting on the landing. Nancy had taken one step forward, the creek of the floorboard deafening in the still silence, and Mike had swung his close.
There were many more secrets to come.
The way Mike lingered in her bedroom doorway, uncertain and hesitant to enter, made Nancy’s chest ache with sadness. There had once been a time where he had spent more nights in her room than his own. Back when Holly had first been born, her ear-splitting wails had seeped into Nancy’s dreams and often caused her to startle awake, her own scream’s mixing with her baby sister’s. It would then only be a matter of seconds before she would hear the snick of a door, padding footsteps, and then Mike would quietly let himself into her room. He would lay down at the end of her bed and begin telling her what he had written for his Dungeons & Dragons campaign that day and how he predicted Lucas, Dustin and Will would respond to his tasks and the soft sound of his voice would lull Nancy back to sleep.
Nancy slid her closet doors shut and sat back down on her bed, gesturing for her brother to join her. She refused to let past mistakes repeat themselves. After a beat he joined her, perching on the edge as if he would spring away at any minute, and haughtily raised an eyebrow in her direction. The two of them were so similar; so quick to act out in a defensive zeal of arrogance and temper that did not at all reflect the turmoil they were feeling inside. The urge to bite back at him, to squabble and bicker in the way that only siblings can, came quickly to her tongue but one look at the exhaustion on his face diminished it.
“Mike.” Nancy said, “Talk to me.”
“About what?”
“About California.”
Mike laughed nastily. “Oh, yeah. The thirty seconds I spent there was great. Nice and sunny.”
Nancy didn’t respond to that, only looked at him like she was waiting for him to say more. She watched as his shoulders slumped, the tension in them easing slightly.
Mike ran a hand roughly through his hair. “I did actually have something I wanted to talk to you about. It’s about defeating One.”
It hadn’t been what Nancy had expected from this conversation, but it was the topic on the forefront of everyone’s mind. It never took long for whatever any of them were discussing to circle back round to the threat they currently faced. Any information, no matter how small, would be better than what they were currently working with.
“You know the night the Mind Flayer had possessed Will, and we were all at the Byers house, and the Demodog flew through the window, and then El appeared?”
He asked this like it was a normal question. To them it was. Nancy nodded.
“I don’t know if you remember, but Hopper asked El where she had been? Because she hadn’t been at his cabin for a few days before that. El had used the void to track down another child that had been in the lab with her that had managed to escape. Her name’s Kali Prasad. El found her in the void again last night and thinks that if we go to her, she might help El to defeat One. Kali’s abilities are different to El’s - she can make you see anything she wants you to. She could -”
“She’s number Eight.”
Mike’s eyes shot to Nancy’s, his sentence forgotten. “You know about Kali?”
“I - No. Yes. When Henry was in my mind he mentioned a child - Eight - that had got away -”
Mike swivelled from where he sat on the bed, fully facing her now. His face was incredulous, his eyebrows raised so high they were practically in his hairline.
“What do you mean, when Henry was in your mind?!”
If the situation had been any different, and if the raw memories weren’t so fresh in her mind, she may have laughed at the situation. This was exactly why they had been long overdue to have this conversation.
“It’s fine - don’t scowl at me, Mike - I mean it. It was as I was leaving the Upside Down, he got me.” She softened her voice. “He was just using me as a messenger. For El. He wanted me to tell her all he knew. I saw inside the lab, and…the other children. Afterwards. He’d said Eight had a lucky escape.”
Mike’s expression darkened. “Was that all you saw?”
The horrific, gut-wrenching images of her mother, sister, and Mike himself that Vecna conjured in her mind had been plaguing her ever since she first saw them. She would never be able to forget them, but it was out of the question that she would tell Mike about this. She would not burden him further.
“Yes,” Nancy lied, “It was over quickly.”
Mike blew a deep sigh between his teeth, his fingers fidgeting with a thread that had come loose on Nancy’s quilt. They sat in silence for a while, but the awkwardness from before had disappeared. It wasn’t quite comfortable, either. Nancy sensed Mike was teetering on the precipice of talking to her about California, and allowed him time to collect his thoughts.
“I just…” He closed his eyes. “I’m so scared, Nance. Of what he’s capable of. Of what he’s already done to Max. Of him hurting anyone else. And even if El and Kali somehow manage to defeat him, who’s to say that this time next year we won’t be gearing up to fight the next one?”
Nancy reached for her brother, grasping his hand in hers and squeezing tightly. He had verbalised exactly how she felt, too, but she wanted to be strong for him. For all of them.
“We know so much more now than we did back then.” She tried to put as much power behind her words as possible. “We have answers, now. Henry has been behind everything, has caused every chain of events. He is the catalyst, and the key to ending this. We stop him, we stop it all.”
Mike’s hand in hers was shaking. “It’s not going to stop. Even if-”
His voice cracked, and he snatched his hand back from hers, swiping at his eyes roughly. “They were shooting at her. A department of the U.S. military. They tracked her down across the country with the sole purpose of killing her. They had a helicopter, Nancy. A fucking helicopter. Even if they can defeat One, the military isn't going to let her go and live a normal life. She will always have a target on her back.”
Mike was standing now, pacing angrily around her room. Nancy watched as he paused and turned back to face her, squaring his shoulders as if he was preparing himself for something.
“If El has to leave Hawkins,” Mike said slowly, “I am going to go with her.”
Nancy blinked once, twice. “I know, Mike.”
Mike’s brow knitted together. “You do?”
Nancy couldn’t help but smile slightly at the look on his face. “Yeah. We all know. But it’s not going to come to that. We will come up with a plan for that, too. I promise.”
Mike's dubious look made it clear he didn’t quite believe her, but it seemed a weight had been lifted off him regardless. Nancy felt it too. The air between them was clear, their bond tighter - stronger - than it had been in a long while.
Mike bent down to scoop up the sneakers and the socks. “I better actually get these to El.”
“Yeah, of course. I will pick out some other clothes for her and leave them by your door later.”
“That would be great. Thanks, Nance.”
Mike drew the door close behind him as he left, pausing once more in the entryway. “One last thing. Do you still like Jonathan, now? Or…?”
Mike managed to close the door firmly before the heeled boot slammed against it.