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This wasn't how it was supposed to happen.
That's how The Party viewed it, anyway. Everything that could've gone wrong in the latest fight against the Upside Down did. And they had lost badly.
One of the Party’s most important members, Maxine Mayfield had died briefly before coming back to life. But she was still in a coma, which wasn’t any better. And the fight that followed ended in disaster. Nobody was in any condition to fight, meaning that all they could do was help people evacuate as they fell back and watched the military fall quickly to the Demogorgons and Demodogs attacking. Everyone still alive thought that the Upside Down was simply going to hunt down anything that stood in its way.
Unfortunately, that’s the opposite of what happened.
The storm had suddenly stopped, and the monsters had vanished. But the Upside Down continued to infect everything in its path ever so slowly. And nobody felt as guilty for everything that happened as Eleven did. It had only been a week since it all went down, but El couldn't shake the feeling that a lot of this was on her. Even if everyone was trying to tell her it wasn’t her fault.
This day was a particularly hard one, as El’s feelings of guilt and pain felt even more bad. She was simply walking by herself in the woods, not too far from her dad’s cabin. She then turned back as she heard something rustle as she saw Will walking over.
“Hey El,” Will said, with a small smile.
El simply nodded as she said, “Hi.”
Will couldn’t help but feel bad, as he knew that his step-sister was trying to hide her emotions. He had done that before, and it had only made things worse for him. He didn’t want that to happen to El.
“Mike was busy helping the others stock up, but he asked me to come find you. He’s really worried about you,” Will continued.
Eleven hesitated at this before asking, “Where is he now?”
Will shrugged as he said, “He said that he would be at his house, but I haven’t heard from him since we last talked.”
El nodded again with a light as the two started the walk back to the cabin, as El would borrow Will’s spare bike and bike over to Mike’s house.
Mike’s house was one of the vantage points being used to help scout things out that were related to the Upside Down. Mostly everyone had left for the cabin though, as Mike managed to convince the group he was fine on his own. In truth, Mike was struggling as much as everyone else. If anything, Mike felt an extreme amount of guilt because he wasn’t there to help when Hawkins came crashing down.
This was one of the only times Mike had managed to be by himself following the beginning of the storm, and being in the basement where he and his friends spent endless hours having fun and making memories that’d last a lifetime. He sat down in Eleven’s fort, which was still standing after all of these years. He took out a framed picture of The Party and couldn’t help but reminisce on the good times.
That photo had been taken during the Snow Ball of 1984, and that was the time when everyone was the happiest. And now, those times felt so far away with everything that had happened afterward.
“Hello?”
Mike was snapped out of his thoughts by the voice of the girl he loved, as he responded, “I’m down here, El.”
Mike heard the basement door open, as Eleven went down the stairs. She saw Mike sitting in the fort as she went to sit down next to him.
“I’m sorry if I haven’t been talking recently,” El simply said after a brief silence.
Mike shook his head as he said, “You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just…I’m worried for everyone else. And what’s going to happen. I just feel guilty about not being here to help fight in the first place.”
Eleven hummed in response as she replied, “I feel guilty too. About Max. And about not being here to fight sooner.”
There was more silence as the two rested their heads against each other. Their eyes met for a few moments as they smiled lightly at each other. Even in the worst circumstances, they would always want to go through things together.
“I’m not going to stop fighting,” Mike eventually said, “No matter what, I’ll fight for you. For everyone.”
“I’m not going to stop either,” El responded, “We’ll win. No matter what.”
The two shared a kiss before pulling apart as Mike got up and stuck out his hand as he said, “Together?”
“Always together,” Eleven replied, as she took Mike’s hand and the two walked out of the basement, hand-in-hand.