Jonathan was bewildered by the inexplicable event that he witnessed two hours ago. Now lying on his comfortable bed, sheltered, free from danger, he could arrange his thoughts, without fear getting in his way.

Was it the same monster they had faced before? Or was it another one?

Why Hawkins? Of all the places it could go, it ended up in Hawkins. Wasn't the gate closed? Or did it seek revenge for eliminating the other one?

How could it talk? No one had heard it speak before. And why was it searching for Eleven?

The questions were continuous, like a river of them flooding inside his brain, but no trace of answers. He decided he needed to inform his old friend about the situation, so he headed for the phone that was located in the living room.

He dialed the number of Nancy's house, while checking the room for privacy. Three beeps were what it took for him to receive a voice from the other line of the phone.

"Hello?" Jonathan recognized the voice, but knew it wasn't a Wheeler.

"Who's there?" the teenager boy was about to slap himself, he sounded like a knock knock joke.

"This is Steve."

Steve? Why did Steve answer the Wheelers phone? Was he that acquainted with the family so as to pick up their telephone?

"Oh, hey Steve. This is Jonathan. Is Nancy there?"

"Considering it's an hour after midnight, nah. She's asleep," he could imagine the sarcastic grin Steve must have worn on his evil face right at this moment.

The irony in his tone was the last thing Jonathan wanted to be confronted with. And, in addition, he wasn't in any need of Nancy's help, or advice.

He shut the phone at its base forcefully, when he remembered that everybody in the house was asleep, and he cursed himself silently.

Eleven was fond of her new life, where people showed her affection, instead of cold behavior and arduous commands. But there were days same as this one that Joyce was at work, Will and the boys were attending school, and she had to wait at home, with nothing else to do.

By all means, she was allowed to leave the house, not like anyone could hurt her, but today, she had no intention on going outside.

Currently, she was using her powers to keep a random book she had encountered with on the air, soundlessly turning its pages. On days like these, Eleven trains herself by making heavy objects float, or sometimes she punches at nothing. She had discovered an interesting move, where her telekinisis could help her throw a super punch.

No one knew of her little practice sessions, and thankfully, she was able to hide the days when she pushed the limits. She had to strenghten herself up, so as to not go through any undesirable drama again. She was aware of everybody missing her when she suddenly disappeared, after defeating the monster at the school.

Will was a significant factor of her coming back, since he was able to travel between the two worlds. After that, he hasn't been to the Upside Down again, and nor has she. She was confident that they had come out on top about specifically that part of their lives.

"El?" Will's voice echoed through the room, and El let the book drop down on the floor immediately. "El. Hey," he leaned over, his hands touching his knees, while he was breathing rapidly.

"Okay?" she pointed at him, wondering why the boy was in such a rush.

"Me? Yeah, I'm okay. Mike is who I'm worried about."

They were in the woods, the very same woods where they had first met each other. Eleven was glad for being lost in there in the middle of the night, terrified of what her future would be, if there was one. But the boys had found her, befriended her, and taught her a whole new world.

Them, the people she had got close to because of three, now four, young boys were the reason she knew what happiness was.

"Here we go..." Will talked with a worrisome expression, preventing Eleven from becoming emotional. "Down there."

She followed his finger that was pointing on the ground with her eyes, where a hole was located.

"Mike?" she angled towards it, a recognizable small figure looking at her.

Embarrassment was filling Mike's cheeks, his self-esteem dwindling lower than ever. Indeed, it was more than amusing to fly in the air, he had done it before, but the fact that he was stupid enough to fall into a hole with his bike that he could not climb up without assistance was humiliating.

"Hey El. Can you, uh...get me out of here?"

The trio was now walking out of the woods, silence between them.

"Guys, did you hear about the problems with electricity in town last night?" Will was the one to talk first, startling the two other kids who had got used to the sound of their steps and only.

"Yeah...do you think...?" he couldn't spell the words outloud. They were all suspicious and puzzled, but talking about it would remind old fears they wished that remained untouched. And by glancing on Eleven, and seeing her terror-stricken expression as she realized what Will's words meant, he didn't want to progress the conversation any further.

Jim had been investigating for any kind of clues since he got wind of the odd happenings at the town. Well, to be blunt, electrical issues were not that odd; a small town like Hawkins reasonably had those inadequacies, but knowing what he does, even a minimal oddity was enough to start looking.

The fact that to an outsider, his story would seem -no, not seem, it would certainly stand as unbelievable, or a farfetched story trying to impossibly explain the disappearance of the missing kid, urged him to laugh quite harder than he's used to.

Searching through the woods, the only thing he was able to find were disgusting bugs, human footsteps and bicycle traces. Those damn kids never listened to them, for god's sake.