Chapter Text
The first time Mike noticed the spectral form was November 6th, 1983.
He is in the middle of narrating their campaign when Mike sees the semi-transparent form in front of him. He pauses for a moment before noticing that the others aren’t reacting, so he continues speaking, “A shadow grows on the wall behind you, swallowing you in darkness. It is almost here.”
The form disappears as Will speaks, “What is it?”
Shaking off his brief confusion, Mike decides to ignore it and focus on the campaign as Dustin says, “What if it's the demogorgon? Oh Jesus, we’re so screwed if it's the demogorgon.”
Mike continues to ignore the shape to narrate the campaign that he’s been writing for two weeks, even while the form seemingly teleports around the room. It doesn’t seem to be actually doing anything, so he puts his priority on the campaign for now.
When Mike brings out the demogorgon figure, all his friends speak over each other about what spell Will should cast, before Will says, “Fireball!” rolling the dice, which then tumble off the table.
“Oh, shit!”
“Where’d it go?”
They all scramble to search the floor for the dice.
Lucas asks, “Where is it?”
Will replies, “I don’t know!”
“Is it a 13?” Dustin asks, being the only one not looking.
“I don’t know!”
Lucas repeats, “Where is it?”
Dustin starts muttering, “Oh, my god,”
Mike hears his mother calling him, “Mike!”
“Can you find it yet?” Lucas asks again.
His mother repeats herself, getting closer to the basement door, “Mike!”
“No, I can’t find it!”
His mother opens the door before once again repeating, “Mike!”
Mike looks up from the floor, “Mom, we’re in the middle of a campaign!”
“You mean the end? Fifteen after.” His mother taps her watch before turning around and walking to the kitchen.
Mike hears the general disappointment coming from his friends as he follows her upstairs, “Mom, wait, just 20 more minutes!”
After being ripped out of his focus on the campaign, Mike notices the rectangular form again. This time, it’s switching between being in front of him and behind his mother as she speaks, “It’s a school night, Michael. I just put Holly to bed. You can finish next weekend.”
“But that’ll ruin the flow!”
His mother starts, “Michael-”
“I’m serious, mom. The campaign took two weeks to plan. How was I supposed to know it was gonna take ten hours?”
His mother looks up after he says that, “You’ve been playing for ten hours?”
Mike pauses for a moment before turning around to his father in the living room, who was adjusting the antenna on the tv, “Dad, don’t you think that 20 more-”
“I think you should listen to your mother.” The tv starts making static before his father lightly smacks it, “Dang dumb piece of junk.”
Mike doesn’t see the spectral form as he follows Lucas and Will out the side door. Weird, it seemed to be following me. Where is it?
It doesn’t seem to be interacting with anything, and his friends didn’t react to it and, Mike assumes, didn’t see it. He doubts that they just didn’t notice it, it was floating above their DnD board! But then that must mean they can’t see it, but that doesn’t make much sense either.
Mike is snapped out of his thoughts when Dustin closes the side door and says, “There’s something wrong with your sister.”
“What are you talking about?” Mike replies as he turns to look at Dustin.
“She’s got a stick up her butt.”
Lucas adds, “Yeah, It’s because she’s been dating that douchebag, Steve Harrington.”
“Yeah, she’s turning into a real jerk.” Dustin agrees.
Mike argues, “She’s always been a real jerk.”
“Nuh-uh, she used to be cool. Like that time she dressed up as an elf for our Elder Tree campaign” Dustin counters as he starts to cycle away.
“Four years ago!” Mike yells.
“Just saying.” Dustin yells back.
“Later.” Lucas says as he starts to cycle away after Dustin.
Mike watches them leave before Will admits, “It was a 7,” Mike looks over at Will and notices the light blue shimmer coming from behind Will, “The demogorgon, it got me.”
Noticing Mike’s confusion and how he wasn’t actually looking at Will, he follows Mike’s gaze and turns around, seeing nothing and turning back, “Mike?”
“Yeah?” Mike glances back at Will before looking back at the shape, “Do you see it?”
“See what?”
“That.. thing,” Mike says, moving in front of Will’s bike and pointing at it.
Will turns to look where Mike is pointing, “What thing?”
“That shape, it’s right th-” Mike cuts himself off as it disappears.
After a moment, Will asks, “Are you okay?”
Mike pauses for a moment before stepping back and replying, ”Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“See you tomorrow,” Will says slowly, looking at Mike with concern.
As Will cycles away, Mike sees the form that is now across the road.
Before he can investigate, Mike notices the garage light flicker. He turns around to turn off the light and startles when he notices that the spectral form is right next to him again.
“What-“ he says before cutting himself off, Mike sees the vague shape of it, there is a cylindrical part on the side closest to him, and a shape on the top made of two parallel lines connected by a C-shape at the back.
Suddenly, the form disappears. Mike stands there for a few seconds before turning the garage light off and heads inside.
The next day, he sees the spectral form frequently.
He sees it first in the morning when Troy and his minions approach him, Dustin, and Lucas. He ignores it, refusing to give Troy any new things to bully him about, but later he asks Lucas and Dustin if they saw anything and he only gets more confused when they say that there was nothing there.
He sees it slide through the air while he packs up his stuff in Mr. Clarke’s class. He doesn’t bother mentioning it to anyone, certain they’d parrot the same confusion all his friends had.
It’s already in the AV club room when he opens the door, excited about the new radio. It mostly just appears and disappears behind the device, so Mike ignores it.
He watches it appear in front of him while he tries to describe the path Will would’ve taken on the way home with Lucas and Dustin explaining the same thing. Mike goes quiet a second before the police officer (chief?) in front of him interrupts Lucas and Dustin, telling Mike to speak first. As he explains Mirkwood to the officer, he sees the spectral form rapidly change between facing him and his friends on the couch and the police officer on the chair opposite them, seemingly facing whoever was talking. Could the.. thing be related to Will? To his disappearance?
After ignoring it at dinner with his family, he sees it appear next to him when he sits at their DnD table with his walkie, seemingly pointed at the board.
“Lucas, do you copy? It’s Mike. Lucas,” As he speaks, the form teleports to a few feet in front of him.
It disappears right before he hears Lucas speak, “Hey, it’s Lucas.”
Seeing it appear in front of him again, Mike says, “I know it’s you. And say ‘over’ when you’re done talking so I know when you’re done. Over.”
Mike sees the same pattern as before, the spectral form disappears when Lucas is speaking, and reappears when Mike is speaking.
“I’m done. Over.”
Deciding to ignore Lucas’ mocking, Mike replies, “I’m worried about Will. Over.”
“Yeah. This is crazy. Over.”
“I was thinking… Will could’ve cast Protection last night, but he didn’t. He cast Fireball. Over.” Mike notices now that the form is slowly moving towards him.
“What’s your point? Over.”
“My point is… he could’ve played it safe, but he didn’t. He put himself in danger to help the party. Over.” Mike looks at the spectral form as he speaks, it has gotten close enough to him to be partially over the table before it disappears once again.
Mike wonders if Lucas has turned off his walkie before hearing, “Meet me in ten. Over and out.”
As Mike retracts the antenna on his walkie, the form appears for a split second. As he puts the walkie in his bag, it appears again. This time, though, it is vertical, with the cylinder part pointed down at his bag.
When he is finally out the door, he sees the form down the street, turning so that it’s always pointed towards him as he approaches on his bike.
Being distracted by the form, he almost misses Steve Harrington trying to sneak into the window of Nancy’s room. Gross.
Steve notices him and tries to play it off, failing to do so as he leans on the edge of the roof, while standing on part of the garden.
Mike sees the spectral form teleport in front of him and is reminded that he needs to meet up with Lucas, so he just shakes his head and leaves.
He doesn’t see the spectral form again until he’s met up with Lucas and Dustin and they have gone into the woods with raincoats and flashlights to look for Will after it started raining. Now that he is surrounded by the dark night, he notices that the form emits a faint glow. It’s barely visible, but Mike is able to see it now.
Mike hears something while Dustin is talking, “Did you ever think Will went missing because he ran into something bad? And we’re going to the exact same spot where he was last seen? And we have no weapons or anything?”
“Dustin, shut up.” Mike interrupts in an attempt to hear better, but the heavy rain around them makes it difficult.
“I’m just saying, does that seem smart to you?”
“Shut up. Shut up.” Mike stops walking as he hears the sound more frequently, “Do you guys hear that?”
Right after he stops talking, they all hear rustling behind them and turn around quickly. Mike only sees the spectral form in front of him, blocking his view, but his friends don’t react so he assumes that there isn’t anything there.
They hear another rustling and turn to the direction of the noise. The shape quickly appears in front of him again, but this time he sees a figure behind it.
Due to the spectral form blocking his view and emitting a slight glow contrasting the night, Mike can’t see who it is. He assumes it’s not Will, seeing as his friends aren’t reacting. It’s probably not an adult who’s looking for Will that could get them in trouble for being out here, considering what Mike can see, they seem to be about his height and not carrying anything.
After about fifteen seconds, the form disappears and Mike is finally able to see the person. They are a girl, seemingly around his age, in a yellow Benny’s Burgers t-shirt with a buzz cut, and soaked.
His first reaction is to assume that she is probably related to Will in some way. She is near where Will went missing, and how often are kids getting lost and wandering around the woods? Let alone two kids at once? Maybe she went missing because of the same reason Will did? Now that he thinks about it, Mike hasn’t heard of any other kids going missing, and he doesn’t recognize her from school. Mike is stuck between wanting to stay out here and looking for Will in case he’s here, and bringing her home and asking her why she’s out here.
Before he can decide, Lucas says, “Who are you?”
They all look at her, who just stares back at them.
Mike leans towards Lucas and Dustin and whispers, “Do you think she knows where Will is? Or is related to him being missing?”
“That’s what I was thinking,” Lucas whispers back.
“Then let's bring her back to my house and ask her, she doesn't seem to want to talk here at least,” Mike decides for the group.
Mike gestures for her to follow them and they start walking back out of the forest. It’s not long before they find themselves back at their bikes. Seeing as they only have three, Mike offers the girl to get on the back of his bike while they head back to his house.
When they’ve gotten to his house, they leave their bikes in the garage and go around to the basement door. Once inside, Mike sees a coat on the couch and offers it to the girl. She accepts it and sits down on the couch as Mike, Lucas, and Dustin crowd around her.
Once again, the spectral form appears in front of him as Mike tries to help the girl, “Is there a number we can call for your parents?”
The spectral form seems to teleport to the same place it was, but instead it’s now facing Mike, Dustin, and Lucas. Throughout the conversation, the spectral form teleports around the space between them and the girl. Now that they're in the basement and the spectral form’s glow isn’t the only light source, Mike’s able to see through the form somewhat, which makes it easier to ignore as he focuses on helping the girl.
Dustin asks, “Where’s your hair? Do you have cancer?”
Lucas cuts in, “Did you run away?”
“Are you in some kind of trouble?” Mike tries to focus on the important stuff.
Lucas notices a red splotch on her shirt, “Is that blood?”
Lucas starts to reach out to check if it really is blood, but the girl flinches when he gets near.
“Stop it! You’re freaking her out!” Mike tells Lucas.
“She’s freaking me out!” Lucas retorts.
The spectral form disappears for a moment before Mike realizes that it just found a new place to exist near the right end of the couch as Dustin says, “I bet she’s deaf.” Dustin leans forward and claps in front of the girl, who flinches away from the sound.
“Not deaf.” Dustin deciphers from the complicated evidence.
“All right, that's enough, all right? She’s just scared and cold.” Mike turns around to get some clean clothes for the girl. The spectral form follows him to hover behind the laundry basket as he grabs the clothes. He looks at it for a moment before it disappears and he heads back to the others.
It’s by the right end of the couch again as Mike returns to his place in between Dustin and Lucas, holding the clothes out for her, “Here, these are clean. Okay?”
The shape focuses on the girl as she takes the clothes from him and dries her face with them. She places the clothes next to her on the couch and stands up, starting to take her shirt off.
“No, no, no!” Mike interrupts as Lucas and Dustin turn around.
“See over there? That’s the bathroom” Mike explains as he points towards the bathroom.
Looking back, Mike says, “Privacy. Get it?” The girl nods and picks up the clothes from the couch.
The spectral form hovers right by the door to the bathroom as the girl enters the bathroom. When she enters, she looks around curiously. Mike tries to close the door but she urgently stops him.
Confused, Mike asks, “You don’t want it closed?”
“No.” The girl says.
“Oh, so you can speak. Okay, well… how about we just keep the door…” Mike closes the door so there’s only a small gap, “just like this? Is that better?”
“Yes.”
Mike nods and returns to his friends, who were clearly eavesdropping.
“This is mental.” Dustin says.
Mike reasons, “At least she can talk.”
“She said ‘no’ and ‘yes’. Your three-year-old sister says more.” Lucas criticizes.
“She tried to get naked.” Dustin argues.
“There’s something seriously wrong with her. Like, wrong in the head.” As Lucas speaks, Mike notices the lack of the spectral form.
“She just went like, “ Dustin says before mimicking taking his shirt off, accidentally knocking his hat off with the motion.
Lucas suspects, “I bet she escaped from Pennhurst.”
“From where?” As Mike asks, the form appears over Lucas’ shoulder. Maybe it was just behind me before?
The form is gone again as Lucas replies,“The nuthouse in Kerley County.”
“You got a lot of family there?” Dustin teases.
“Bite me. Seriously though, think about it. That would explain her shaved hair and why she’s so crazy.” Lucas reasons.
The spectral form flashes behind Lucas again as Dustin speaks,“Why she went like” Dustin repeats the motion of taking his shirt off.
“She’s an escapee is the point. She’s probably a psycho.” Lucas states.
Mike doesn’t pay any mind to the spectral form appearing behind Lucas as Dustin comments, “Like Michael Myers.”
“Exactly!” Lucas agrees, “We should’ve never brought her here.”
“So you just wanted to leave her out in that storm?” Mike argues.
“Yes! We went out to find Will, not another problem.” Lucas explains.
“I think we should tell your mom.” Dustin insists.
“I second that.” Lucas agrees.
“Who’s crazy now?” Mike asks.
“How is that crazy?” Lucas replies.
“‘Cause, we weren’t supposed to be out tonight, remember?” Mike reasons.
“So?” Lucas questions.
“So if I tell my mom and she tells your mom and your mom” Mike looks at Dustin.
Dustin realizes, “Oh, man.”
“Our houses become Alcatraz.” Lucas says.
“Exactly. We’ll never find Will.” Mike concludes.
Dustin looks at Lucas who looks back at him. Dustin repeats the motion of taking off his shirt, clearly in favour of telling someone else about the girl.
Mike begins, “All right, here’s the plan. She sleeps here tonight.”
“You’re letting a girl-” Dustin tries to argue.
“Just listen! In the morning, she sneaks around my house, goes to the front door and rings my doorbell. My mom will answer and know exactly what to do. She’ll send her back to Pennhurst or wherever she comes from. We’ll be totally in the clear. And tomorrow night, we go back out. And this time, we find Will.” Mike explains.
Dustin and Lucas look at each other, debating internally whether to agree or not. After a moment, they nod and start to head upstairs to leave.
Once the girl comes out of the bathroom, Mike leads her to the blanket fort him and his friends made and kept up for a while. Mike goes and gets his sleeping bag from the closet and heads back to the fort.
“Here you go. This is my sleeping bag.” Mike hands the bag to the girl.
Mike is startled for a brief moment as the spectral form appears right in front of him, but he quickly tunes it out again and asks, “Hey, um, I never asked your name.”
The girl doesn’t react for a moment, before she looks down at her wrist and pulls back her sleeve. The spectral form hovers in front of her hand, blocking Mike’s view.
After a couple seconds, the form disappears and Mike sees the tattoo on the girl’s wrist that has “011” written.
“Is that real?” Mike leans forward, reaching out to her wrist before she quickly retracted her arm.
“Sorry, I’ve just… never seen a kid with a tattoo before. What’s it mean? Eleven?” Mike asks.
The girl looks at Mike and points towards herself. Her name is eleven?
“That’s your name? Eleven? Okay. Um, well, my name’s Mike. Short for Michael. Maybe we can call you ‘El.’ Short for Eleven. “
El nods at Mike.
“Um, well, okay. ‘Night, El.”
The girl- El responds, “Night, Mike.”
Mike puts the blanket that acts as a front door down to hide El in case any of his family goes to the basement. He heads to the bottom of the stairs and looks back towards the fort. Now that he’s not focused on El, he notices the spectral form again. It’s currently pointed at him. He takes a step towards it and around the banister of the stairs. While he moves, the shape rotates so that it’s always facing straight towards him. Mike reaches out towards the shape and his hand phases right through it. What?
El stirs in the fort and Mike is reminded of the time. He turns to head up to his room, turning off the basement light as he does. As he goes up the stairs, he looks back at the spectral form, only to find that it’s gone.