After the young party, with Nancy and Jonathan included, explained everything to Carmen since there was no way they would be able to lie about it, the Flores girl was in complete awe.

So that's why Bev and Alli were gone last year, she thought. Instead of the two lying to her, she would have wanted to be told the truth, but she guessed that they just weren't allowed. She couldn't really blame them.

And now...the girl wondered if something else was happening to them like what just happened at the hospital. When she asked, the others weren't that sure of it, but they hoped she was wrong about the suspicion.

But now, they had went to Chief Hopper's cabin since El, who was apparently Eleven, was his adopted daughter and it was hidden from the rest of the town. Eleven was performing some kind of mind powers that had been explained to Carmen, but she still didn't really understand it all too well.

"It can't be good for her to be in there for this long," Mike complained to his friends since Eleven had been in her room by herself for a while. Carmen listened from where she sat on the stool next to Will, who she noticed was a pretty quiet kid.

"Mike, you need to relax," Max told him.

"What if she gets brain damage or something?" he questioned.

"Oh, shit. Is that, like, a real thing?" Lucas asked in concern.

"No, it's not. He made it up. Mike doesn't know what the hell he's talking about," Max responded.

"Oh, and you do?" Mike sassed.

"No, I..."

Carmen tuned their childish argument out and decided to listen to Nancy on the phone. "Uh, yes, from The Hawkins Post. I-I called a couple days ago about the — Yes, yes, um...I was just...following up to see if anything else had gone missing or if — Okay. Uh, sorry to bother—" Nancy sighed in annoyance, putting the phone back up in its holder once the line went dead.

"I'm guessing they didn't wanna talk?" Carmen rhetorically asked, raising her eyebrows.

Nancy tilted her head and clicked her tongue, looking over Jonathan's shoulder at the advertisement book. "Who's next?" she asked, basically answering Carmen's question without actually answering it.

"There is no next," Jonathan told her as he X'd out Blackburn's Farm Supply, the place Nancy just called. "Unless you want to start calling random people's homes."

"Ooh! I know a lot of phone numbers because of my hookups. I can start calling if you want, the piece of paper should be..." Carmen trailed off, sifting through her jean pockets until she found the piece of paper she used to write down phone numbers. "Here!" She held it up proudly, waiting to see what they said.

Nancy, Jonathan, and Will all gave her a weird look. "No?" she assumed, squinting. "Yeah, I'm guessing that's a no." She shoved the paper back in her pocket, pursing her lips.

Nancy sighed once again. "It doesn't make sense," she said, getting back on topic.

"What part of any of this makes sense?" Jonathan responded.

"There's a pattern, okay? A consistency to their behavior. They've been feeding on these chemicals since this started, and — and, what, they just stop, out of the blue?" Nancy examined.

"Maybe they have all the chemicals they need," Will guessed. "Maybe they've all turned into those...things."

"But what about the source? I mean, did the Mind Flayer just suddenly stop infecting people? And even if the flayed are monsters now, why can't El find them?" Nancy continued, shaking her head.

"Okay, can you guys settle an argument for us?" Max queried as she and Mike walked over to them, followed by Lucas. "Who do you think should decide El's limits? Mike or Eleven?"

"The way that you frame that is such bullshit," Mike insulted.

"It's not bullshit, Mike. This is your whole problem. And it's also precisely the reason why she dumped your ass!" Max bit back and Carmen's eyes widened interestedly at the drama.

"El dumped you?" Nancy asked in shock.

"Yeah, because she's conspiring against me," Mike explained as he pointed at the redhead. "She's corrupting her."

"No, enlightening her," Max corrected. "The fact is, she's not yours. She's her own person, fully capable of making her own decisions."

"Nothing but the truth right there," Carmen agreed, nodding her head towards Max. Although she didn't know Eleven that well, Carmen knew she obviously deserved to make her own choices.

Mike gave Carmen a quick, irritated look before he continued on, "She's risking her life for no reason."

"For no reason? Mike, the flayed are out there doing God knows what," Nancy pointed out.

"Killing, flaying..." Lucas trailed off.

"Transforming into monsters," Will added.

"And El's not stupid. She knows her abilities better than any of us," Nancy told her younger brother.

"Exactly, thank you," Max thanked.

"And she is her own person."

"Exactly."

"With her own free will."

"Exactly."

"Damn, Wheeler, now I know why Bev started to like you," Carmen said and Nancy arched a brow. "Well, apart from the fact that you guys fought that Demo-orgy together."

"Oh, i-it's Demogorgon," Will rectified awkwardly.

"Same thing," Carmen replied as she shrugged.

"Look, El has saved the world twice, and Mike still doesn't trust her," Max carried on after she shook her head to ignore the prior conversation.

"You wanna talk about trust, really? After you made Eleven spy on us?" Mike questioned loudly.

"Wait, what?" Lucas said in confusion.

"Oh, she didn't tell you this?"

"No."

"Your girlfriend used El's powers to spy on us," Mike revealed to his friends.

"No, no, no, I did not make her. It was her idea," Max argued. "And why are we even talking about this, seriously?"

"Yeah, who cares?" Will asked, basically agreeing with Max.

"I care," Lucas pointed out.

"Yeah, I guess girlfriends don't lie, they spy," Mike said in Max's face.

"We were just joking around."

"Wouldn't it've been so funny if I was taking a massive shit or something?"

"You weren't!"

"But what if I was?"

"Then gross!"

"Seriously, Mike?" Nancy butt in to try and stop the argument since it was getting so stupid.

"I'm just trying to demonstrate how careless Max is with Eleven's powers. In fact, how careless all of you are," Mike responded.

"Uh, I better not be included in that. I just found out about her powers," Carmen spoke up, holding up her hands defensively.

Mike rolled his eyes, ignoring the Flores girl. "You're treating her like some kind of machine when she's not a machine, and I don't want her to die looking for the flayed when they've obviously vanished off the face of the earth. So can we please just come up with a new plan because I love her and I can't lose her again," Mike went on and everyone just stared at him, realizing what he had said.

A door then opened and Eleven came out, her nose bleeding slightly. "What's going on?" she softly asked.

"Nothing! Nothing!" Mike quickly answered before anyone could.

"Just a family discussion," Lucas grinned.

"Oh," was all Eleven replied to that. "I found him," she then said after a moment.

"Found who?"

✦ ✧ ✦

Eleven sat in the middle of the living room with a blindfold on and with static on the television. Her nose was bleeding again slightly as she tried to use her mind powers to find what they were all looking for: Billy Hargrove.

When Carmen was told what Billy had done to Beverly last year and what he was doing now, she was completely shocked and furious. At first, she found him extremely attractive, but now...she wanted to slap him and scream at him for what he did to her best friend.

The group watched quietly, not wanting to disrupt her at all. Carmen watched as well, intrigued as to how this all worked. Some people would have probably been scared out of their minds after finding out about this shit, but Carmen was a pretty chill person to a certain extent.

Eleven then gasped and ripped the blindfold off, breathing heavily. "What's he doing now?" Max asked her.

"Sitting in his room," Eleven answered before she got up, walking towards the sink so she could hydrate a bit.

"Sitting in his room?" Carmen repeated, furrowing her brows.

"Yes," Eleven confirmed before she started to drink the water she poured into her cup.

"And that's not normal, right?" Nancy questioned, mainly towards Max.

"Billy staying in his room on the Fourth of July? No, that's not normal," Max responded, shaking her head.

"He wants us to find him," Will realized.

"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of. If we go to Billy, then the rest of the flayed know where we are," Nancy spelled out.

"It's a trap, I agree. We'll be ambushed," Mike spoke.

"We won't be surprised. We'll know that they're coming, and we will kick their flayed butts," Lucas stated with a confident smile on his face.

"You mean El will kick their butts," Max corrected her boyfriend.

"Yeah, I mean, she did it at the hospital, right? That was pretty badass," Carmen pointed out with a nod.

"Okay, yeah, so then El will kill them and problem solved," Lucas continued, and Carmen and Max nodded.

"Yeah, but it's too risky," Jonathan argued.

"Yeah, and unnecessary," Nancy agreed. "Killing the flayed won't stop the Mind Flayer. We have to find out where it's spreading from. We have to find the source."

"Billy knows it," Eleven revealed as she walked back towards the group. "Billy's been there. To the source."

"Yeah, but—"

"It's a trap," Eleven cut Mike off. "I know. We can't go to Billy, but I think there's another way. A way for me to see where he's been."

"How?"

Eleven explained to them how she could enter Billy's memories and use those to find the source since he had been there before — like she had done with her mother in the past. Carmen didn't really understand, but she opted to stay silent and just watch and learn.

Everyone else stayed silent as Eleven made her way back over to the television, turning the static back on. She then sat back down, getting ready to put her blindfold on.

Mike then crouched down next to her. "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 Billy's mind is sick, diseased. The Mind Flayer is in him."

"He can't hurt me," Eleven assured Mike. "Not in there."

"We don't know that."

Eleven shifted over and placed her hand on his. "Mike," she began. "I need you to trust me."

Mike looked over at Max, who gave him a wide eyed look. "Yeah," he said as he looked back over at Eleven. "Just...be careful." He backed away, sitting on the couch.

Carmen let out a quiet snort. "Child relationships," she muttered, shaking her head. However, she was bit jealous of the fact that Mike and Eleven seemed to care so much about each other. She had never felt that way about anyone and no one had felt that way about her. Well, maybe Dylan, but that didn't count since she didn't like him back.

She then watched as Eleven put the blindfold around her head and entered into the Void, as she called it. She seemed fine for a moment before she began to gasp frantically, trying to catch her breath.

"Something's wrong," Mike quickly said as everyone watched Eleven freak out. She continued panting and gasping for breath until she finally started to slow down, calming down. "El, are you okay? Are you okay?"

Eleven let out a sigh. "I'm okay," she answered weakly.

"What's going on?"

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

"Okay, I may be dense, but the last I checked...there weren't any beaches in Hawkins," Lucas spoke up.

"What else do you see?" Max asked.

"A woman. She's...pretty. I...I think she's looking at me," Eleven slowly described. "There's...a boy." Carmen and Nancy made eye contact, both assuming that it was Billy silently. "It's Billy," Eleven confirmed after a moment.

"It's California," Max realized. "It's a memory."

"I think I see it. The source," Eleven told them and they all gave each other glances, tensing up eagerly.

"Keep going," Nancy urged softly and Eleven sucked in a breath, seeming to psych herself up.

The whole room had been silent for a few minutes, apart from Eleven's heavy breathing. No one dared to speak in fear of unfocusing the girl and losing the memory, so they waited until she said something.

"I think I found it," she voiced. "The source."

"Where, El? Where are you?" questioned Max.

"Brimborn...Steelworks," Eleven said and Jonathan immediately ran over to the table where they had left the book of ads.

He flipped through the pages, trying to find it. "Here. Okay, uh, steelworks, steelworks...Uh...Here, steel." He looked at the page, trying to find Brimborn. "Found it. 6522 Cherry Oak Drive."

"That's close," Nancy realized.

"El, El, we found it. Get out of there," Mike quickly told her. "Get out!"

"Why isn't she getting out?" Carmen asked since Eleven was still breathing heavily, not speaking.

"I-I don't know! Eleven!" Mike exclaimed, his eyes wide. However, the girl wasn't answering. She was still seated, searching for something.

"Mike, wait. Maybe she found something else," Nancy said, thinking of the best.

"But she would have said something," Max argued, her brows knitted together.

"I'm sure she's okay," Lucas told her, placing a hand on the redhead's shoulder comfortingly.

"You said she only did this once before, right?" Carmen brought up slowly and Mike nodded. Carmen didn't say anything else, not knowing if it would be a good idea to speak something bad into existence.

The group waited anxiously for Eleven to step out of the Void, but it seemed like she wasn't until she ripped off her blindfold and shrieked, "NO!"

Mike quickly got off of his seat and went over to over. "El, you're okay. It's — it's okay," Mike said as he took the sobbing girl into his arms. "El." She continued crying, her nose bleeding profusely.

Carmen quickly got up and got some tissues, rushing over to hand them to the girl. Eleven shakily took them, using them to clean her nose and wet eyes.

"Let's get her on the couch," Carmen told them and they nodded, moving over to give Eleven some space on the couch. Max stayed sat next to her friend, but didn't say anything to let her calm down. "Tell us when you're ready, all right?" Carmen said, her nurturing instincts taking over from what she had learned at the hospital.

The others looked between Eleven and Carmen, not used to Carmen's serious attitude when she was usually cracking jokes and being playful. But they had realized that letting an future doctor join their group wasn't such a bad idea.

Once Eleven had calmed down, that was when the nighttime fireworks had started to go off. Carmen had kind of forgotten that it was the Fourth of July and was bummed she wasn't out trying to hookup with some guy, but she knew that this was more important.

"He said he was building something. That it was all for me," Eleven started to explain.

"Building something...Is he talking about the flayed?" Max asked.

"He must be," Nancy assumed.

"So, he's building an army, just like we thought," Lucas said.

"Yeah, but he's not holding this army to spread," Mike pointed out.

"He's building it to stop Eleven," Will spoke up.

"Last year, El closed the gate on him. I have a feeling that really pissed him off," Mike guessed.

"Like, royally."

"Yeah, I know that if my gate got closed, I would be furious," Carmen stated and they all gave her a look, grimacing. "I forgot that you all are like, thirteen, never mind. Forget I said that."

Mike sighed and continued, "And the Mind Flayer now knows that she's the only thing that can stop him. But if she's out of the way—"

"Game over," Lucas interjected.

"He also said he was gonna kill all of you," Eleven told them weakly.

They all stared at her, blinking slowly. "Yeah, well, that's nice," Max replied sarcastically.

"Totally tubular," Carmen added since Billy was from California. "Do you guys say that in Cali?" Carmen whispered to Max and the redhead shook her head. "Oh."

Nancy then pushed up from where she was leaning against the couch, walking slowly across the room. "Do you guys hear that?" she asked, shuddering.

"It's just the fireworks," Jonathan told her.

"Billy..." Nancy began, turning around to face Eleven. "When he told you this, it was here, in this room?"

Eleven nodded her head and the others looked around the room, trying to hear the sound that Nancy was supposedly hearing. Will then suddenly felt a chill on his neck and he reached up, his eyes flitting around nervously. "He knows we're here," he spoke.

"Shit," Carmen muttered and they all quickly rushed out of the house, seeing the fireworks up in the sky.

But that wasn't the only thing making noise. The trees seemed to be swaying back and forth, and not just from the wind. Something was pushing them.

The same monster from the hospital, but this time it was even bigger, pushed through the trees to reveal itself to the group. "Oh, my God," Carmen breathed out, her mouth becoming dry.

"Everyone inside and start barricading the windows and doors. Now!" Nancy instructed and they all ran inside, gathering heavy materials to to start blocking any openings in the house.

Nancy and Jonathan grabbed weapons from outside before they walked back in the house, helping the others block the doors and windows. "Hey, get away from the windows," Nancy told them, holding onto a shotgun.

"You know how to use that thing?" Carmen whispered to the girl and she nodded. "Damn."

They then all stood in the middle of the room since the furniture was moved. Jonathan was also holding an axe in his hand as they all stood anxiously.

The lights began to flicker and some items began to rattle, making them gasp. "It's close," Will told them.

More things began to move in the house, the trees rustling outside which made them even more tense. "Where'd it go?" Max asked no one in particular.

Everything was silent until a disgusting hand-like blob bursted through a part of the house, causing them to scream and back away. It moved towards Eleven and shrieked before Jonathan hit it with its axe, making it yelp.

He continued hitting it until it retaliated and shoved him flying against the wall, the axe clattering on the ground. It started to go towards Jonathan since he was now unarmed, but Nancy stepped up behind it and started to shoot it with the shotgun.

It shrieked at her until she ran out of bullets. She looked down at the gun with wide eyes before she backed away from the creature. It went to go leap at her face before it paused in midair due to Eleven's powers.

The girl made the creature wail and shake as she held it in place to make sure Nancy wasn't attacked, until she ripped its head off, making the rest of the body retreat. "Holy shit," Max said aloud before another one bursted through the house, making Eleven use her powers on it again.

Another one came from the other side and she used her other arm to stop it, both of the creatures shaking in midair. She then brought her hands down at the same time, making their heads fall off.

"Holy fuck," Carmen breathed out in shock. "So badass."

But then, another tendril broke through the ceiling and grabbed Eleven's foot, dragging her away. She screamed fearfully as Mike jumped out, grabbing both of her hands. "El!"

All of them then quickly ran over, grabbing a part of Eleven's arms to try and pull her away from the disgusting creature whose gigantic mouth was at the top, trying to pull Eleven into its mouth. "Pull!" Mike yelled as they pulled as hard as they could.

Nancy then began to reload the shotgun. "Nancy, shoot it!" Jonathan bellowed, his voice cracking.

Nancy was able to reload it and she began to shoot the monster in the face, weakening it a bit. "Lucas!" Max shouted since he was just standing there.

Lucas looked over to see the axe on the ground and he got an idea. He ran over to it and picked it up as the Wheeler girl continued shooting before he hopped up on a stool. He then brought the axe down on the tendril, trying to sever it so it wasn't connected to the huge mouth.

The creature shrieked and Lucas kept on slicing it as Nancy shot at it, and the others pulled Eleven way. "Come on!" Carmen screamed right before Lucas chopped the creature on El's leg in half, making her drop down to the floor with everyone.

"El! El, you okay?" Mike immediately asked and she nodded weakly. The head on Eleven's leg continued to make noises, so Mike got up and ripped it off of her. She screeched in agony and Mike quickly threw it away, making it run off.

The monster was still there, though, so Eleven fought through the pain and stood up with a furious expression on her face. The creature shrieked at her but Eleven raised both of her hands up, yelling as she used her powers on the flayed.

The flayed shrieked in pain before Eleven split it in half. "Go, go, go!" Nancy immediately shouted so they could get out of there before the flayed regrouped.

"Hurry up! Come on!"

"Go!"

Jonathan quickly went towards the door and opened it up. "Everybody out!" Mike shouted and they all began to run outside, heading towards the car. The monster roared behind them, but they didn't even take the time to take a look since they just wanted to get the hell out of there.

All of them smushed themselves in the car even though there was no way all of them could fit. "Drive! Drive!" Mike demanded as Nancy started up the car, speeding away from the damaged home.

authors note
i don't know about you
guys but i love writing from
carmen's perspective. she's just so
funny to me lmaooo