"Jude." El pulled the blindfold off to look at him. When they got back to Hoppers, Jude had went with El into her room while the others stayed in the living room. "Have you seen mama?"

"Recently?" he looked up from the book he'd been reading, one of his that he'd given El for practice. "Yeah, i've seen her."

"Doing okay?" she looked curiously.

He gave her a small smile, nodding. "She's going good."

"Are we still cousins?" El looked oddly. "Since Hop eropted me?"

"Adopted." Jude corrected her with a nod. "And yeah, duh. We'll always be cousins. Always family."

El smiled, nodding. "Glad."

"Glad too." he nodded. "So, you like hanging out with Corey?"

She shrugged. "Feels like we are the same."

"Yeah, he's pretty cool." Jude nodded his head.

"And cute." El agreed, Jude gave her a gapping look, she was holding back a grin.

"El!" Jude gave a dramatic gasp. "You heartbreaker."

She laughed, falling onto the floor. "He is cute though."

"Yeah." El smiled.

"But..." Jude trialed off, clearing his throat. "Are you completely over Mike?"

"Over?" she looked oddly.

"Don't like him anymore." Jude corrected himself to simplify it for her.

El shrugged. "We are friends. Better friend then boyfriend."

Jude cleared his throat. "Okay, go back to your superhero shit while I just be a boring human, reading my book."

El grinned, tying the bandana around her head again.

They'd traveling back into the living room with the rest of the group, all sitting around El as she once again was blind folded and had the tv static once again. El began to breath heavy, ragged like before yanking it off.

Jude held his water bottle out to her. "Since we share germs."

"What's he doing now?" Max asked curiously.

Moments went by and El had down the last of Jude's water, Corey following her to the kitchen.

Jude had been smelling the candles on the shelves when Mike approached. "Hey."

Jude rose his eyebrows, clearing his throat. "Yo."

"Smelling candles?" the Wheeler boy nodded. "Yeah, yeah, candles smell."

"So true." Jude agreed, holding one out to him. "Do you wanna..."

"Oh! Sure." he gave a grin, leaning down to smell the candle. "Candly."

Jude nodded, setting it down. He didn't make eye contact, the two staring at the wall. "Sorry about before."

"Irs fine." Mike said back. "I didn't know..."

"Know what?" Jude asked almost defensively.

"That you didn't like girls." Mike whispered.

"I do like girls." Jude nodded his head.

"So, boys too?" Mike looked in confusion.

Jude ignored him, biting the inside of his mouth. "Is this gonna be weird?"

"Yup." Jude hummed, turning away and walking to the couch.

El welcomed in, Corey close behind her, the pair over hearing Nancy talking about finding the source. "Billy knows it. Billys been there. To the source."

"Yeah, but-" Mike began.

"It's a trap. I know." El cut him off with a nod of her head. "We can't go to Billy, but I think there's another way. A way for me to see where he's been."

The static was turned on the tv again as El sat before it. Jude kept his distance from Mike, sitting with Lucas and Corey. "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 Billys mind is-is sick, diseased. The mind flayer is in him."

Corey looked at Jude as they shared a look. Neither had to say anything, it was easy to know. El faced Mike. "He can't hurt me. Not in there."

"We don't know that." Mike shook his head.

El turned to him fully now. "Mike. I need you to trust me."

Mike hesitated as he looked at Max, who gave him a stupid look. He faced El again. "Yeah. Just...be carful."

Corey moved out of the way to go to the floor with El a moment, leaving his seat open. Mike hesitated, sitting down next to Jude as their knees touched. Mike hesitantly placed his hand onto of Jude's, the Mackenzie boys eyes doubled in size.

Moments passed and El was completely silent, which was weird. She usually would say what she saw but hadn't spoken to them at all. Max and Jude shared a similar look as they watched. El began to panic as she took raged, beep breaths of fear.

"Somethings wrong." Mike spoke up with wide eyes.

Corey looked to Jude in worry as he kneeled. "Cousin, is everything okay?"

A second passed and he saw the tear fall from under her blindfold. "I'm okay."

Jude nodded to Corey, letting him take over with talking to her to avoid multiple voices. "What do you see?"

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

Lucas gave an odd look. "Okay, I may be dense, but the last time I checked, there weren't any beaches in Hawkins."

"If there was, I wouldn't be trying to get a tan while fighting The Mimd Flayer." Jude rolled his eyes, getting back on the couch with Mike.

"What else do you see?" Max asked her.

"A woman." El said after a second. "She's...pretty. I- I think she's looking at me. There's... a boy. It's Billy."

Corey looked at Max as she frowned. "It's California. It's a memory."

"I think I see it." El said honestly. "The source."

Jude, unknowingly, squeezed Mikes hand in a panic.

"I think I found it. The source." El said against after a few minutes.

"Where, El? Where are you?" Max jumped in in questioning.

"Brimborn." El readz "Steelworks."

"Joyce keeps a phone book by her night stand, right?" Jude looked to Jonathan as he hurried to get it.

Corey leaned over. "What's a phone book?"

Him and Nancy began to flip the pages. "Here, steel. Uh, found it. 6522 Cherry Oak Drive."

"That's close." Nancy nodded her head.

"El, El, we found it. Get out of there." Mike called quickly.

Panic flooded Jude when she hadn't moved, he froze as well. Mike and Corey yelled for El, trying to get her back. Jude shook his head, hurrying onto the ground. "El! El, come back."

She was crying, but her wasn't coming back. Corey held her face. "El, it's okay, it's okay. Just come back home."

Mike grabbed Jude's shoulders in a panic before El ripped the bandana off, Corey still holding her face as she cried and breathed heavy. Jude sighed in relief, falling backwards from his kneeling position. Corey comforted El as Jude came down from his panic, as did Mike before he placed his hand on Jude's knee for support.

"He said he was building something." El told the group as they sat together on the couch. Corey had his arm around her while Jude and Mike stood, looking down on them. "That it was all for me."

"Building something?" Max asked before looking over toward Nancy. "Is he talking about the flayed?"

"He must be." the oldest Wheeler said honestly.

"So, he's building an army, just like we thought." Lucas nodded as he paced slightly.

"He's building it to spread." Mike nodded alongside his words.

"Like a virus." Jude nodded alongside him.

"To stop Eleven." Will finished the confirmation.

"Deadly virus." Jude corrected himself.

"Last year, El closed the gate on him. I have a feeling that really pissed him off." Mike nodded his head, dark eyes darting around the room.

"Like, royally." Lucas added alongside his words.

"And the Mind Flayer now knows that she's the only thing that can stop him. But if she's out of the way-"Mike began, being cut off.

"Game over." Lucas confirmed.

"He also said that he was gonna kill all of you." El added.

Jude couldn't help it, he laughed as everyone looked at him in disbelief.

"Thats nice." Max spoke as she looked forward again.

Nancy's body gave a shutter, leaning off the wall and walking near the window. "Do you guys hear that?"

They all went silent to listen to what she's been talking about before Jonathan spoke up. "It's just the fireworks."

"Billy." Nancy spoke as she spun around to El. "When he told you this, it was here, in this room?"

El nodded her head.

"He knows." Jude nudged Mike.

"Know what?" Max turned back to them, the loud noise over filling the cabin as they each looked up alarmed.

"He knows we're here." Will confirmed for them, his hand placed on the back of his neck. Jude hurried around the couch, following Nancy and Jonathan out the door while the party trailed behind the three. Walking down the steps of the cabin, the group all looked at the rustling trees, the Mind Flayer before them screeched loudly their way.

"I didn't sign up for this!" Corey yelled as he ran in first, Mike and Jude doing the same, connected at the hand.

"We need to block the walls." Mike nodded as they all searched for wood, nails, anything that they could use to baracate themselves in Hoppers cabin. He saw Jude hurried off. "Jude!Get back here!"

"Chill your tits!" Jude called, coming back with his baseball bat in hand. "Hopper convisgating all my bats really paid off."

"Okay, get away from the windows." Nancy called quickly, grabbing the shot gun as the duo, along with Mike from the other side, backed away quickly. The group all huddled together, Jude clutching his bat. . The lamp squeaked, heavy breathing going through the room, Corey grabbed El's hand, dishes began to shake, the electricity flickered.

"It's close." Will confirmed for them.

They all looked up, Mike scooted closer to Jude. A cup broke from the kitchen, making Max speak up. "Where'd it go?"

The rumbling was gone, nothing was moving.

They all let out a yell when a claw shot through the window. Jude held his bat as the remaining party grabbed El.. The claw was coming straight toward them before Jonathan lunged forward, hitting the axe into the claw a few times before it threw him back into the wall. Jude swung his bat, hitting it over and over. Nancy shot it to help Jude, shrieking at her but she continued to shoot at it.

Mike grabbed Jude and yanked him back. Running out of bullets, the oldest Wheeler backed against the wall as the claw went straight for her. El hurried forward, using her power to stop it, holding it in place.

It slowly began to retreat backwards under Els hold. The Hopper girl swung her hand down, yanking the head of the claw off. The rest of the body shrieked, flying out of the window and past Max. Jude ran before her, shoving his bat right down the claw as it tried to reject it. He yelled out, walking forward to weaken the claw with the bat shoved down its, what wasn't suppose to exist', throat.

Before he got complete over, another claw shot out. The pair ducked quickly, El using her power on this one as well. Another shot from the other wall, both her hands occupied. El gave a yell, yanking her arms on sync to rip the heads off.

"That was so co-" Corey began, being cut off by The Mind Flayer braking the cabin ceiling and had hold of El's leg, pulling her.

"El!" Jude yelled, they all ran forward to grab ahold of her.

"Nancy, shoot it!" Jonathan yelled as El gave a scream of pain, the party all holding onto her with all they had. Corey feet started to slip on the rug. Nancy shot upwards at the creature, not doing much at all but it gave Corey an advantage as he gave the end of the claw a squeeze, gagging at the feeling, but weakening it to drop to the floor with El.

Lucas grabbed the axe, running forward and chopping at the claw, that seemed to be its tongue, pulling El up. He hit it a good few times, Nancy shooting at it as well. The teens feet began to slip on the rug as The Mind Flayer was nearly taking them all with El. Lucas gave a final chop, breaking El free as she collapsed onto them.

"You bitch!" Jude yelled at the retreating claw.

"You can't talk to a claw." Corey gave him a hug as he got off the ground.

"El! Are you okay?" Mike called as he sat up, getting a nod from the barley moving girl. He grabbing the claw part that was still attached to El's leg, yanking it as she cried out in pure pain.

The creature roaring from the hole in the ceiling. El began to stand, Jude stood protectively infront of Mike;!who was still on the floor. She leaned against him as he held her up right, throwing both her arms out with a loud yell, ripping The Mind Flayer to shreds above them.

"Go, go, go!" Nancy yelled. Corey wrapped his arms around El quickly to help her to the car, Mike grabbed Jude's hand.

"I think you'll make the baseball team for sure now!" Mike yelled as they ran down the steps.

"No shit!" Jude yelled back.

•

kylie speaks

he did say he wanted to
practice baseball this
summer....