When Nancy and Mrs. Wheeler had offered Will a few minutes alone with Mike, Will had expected to make use of it. When his mom told him he could have the day off school to stay with Mike, Will had brought along crayons and paper, content with the idea of merely sitting in Mike's presence.

When Mrs. Wheeler had abruptly said she needed air, and when Nancy had glanced at Will to say you good? before following her mother out of the room, Will had nodded instantly. Before the door had even closed behind them, Will had dragged his bulky chair as close to Mike's bedside as he could get it. Will had half-hoped the scraping of the chair against the tile would stir Mike. It didn't.

Will rested his head against Mike's mattress, hesitant even to breathe. Mike murmured something indiscernible, eyes still closed as if weighted down, and rested his hand across the back of Will's neck.

Will breathed deeply then, closing his eyes to strengthen the image he was drawing up in his mind. He placed Dustin and Lucas on the opposite side of the bed, Mike's basement coffee table on the hospital cot. If Will held his breath and focused hard, he could pretend Mike's hand resting between his shoulders was the way Mike clapped his back, tender but celebratory, when Will the Wise beat some particularly adverse monster. That last time they had played, in November, that- That last time. Mike had-

Clap.

Will pushed himself upright, falling backward and hitting his spine against the top rail of the chair. Mike's hand fell lazily onto the bed, but Will… Will could have sworn he'd felt Mike's joyful, winning pat.

Will shoved his chair back, wincing at the scrape it left on the tile. He shot one guilty glance to Mike and then to the door.

"Close," Mike murmured, accompanied by a string of incoherencies. Will traced the outline of the bed as he moved towards the exit. There were magnets in the tips of his fingers, pulling him in from the end of the hallway. Will tried not to tell himself he was imagining an excuse to abandon Mike.

"I'm staying close," he promised, an opened the door. Ignoring the sinking condemnation in his belly, Will left and closed the door behind him.

"You want a dollar?" he asked, and offered it out in his hand.

It was like Will had been struck by a blast of lightning. His hair stood on end, his limbs snapped stiffly as if petrified. She looked at him and then at the dollar, and Will felt a whoosh of air sucked from his lungs.

"You," he said before he even knew what he was looking at, much less what he was saying. "I-"

She shied away from him, eyes ferocious and panicked. Will pulled away too. He wasn't sure who had scared the other.

"Here," he offered, half as an apology, and fed the dollar into the machine. "Get whatever you want."

She said nothing. Eyes fixed on him, she tapped the glass in front of the chocolate pudding. Will felt the muscles around his mouth twitch into something resembling a smile. He typed in G-1 and the last pudding cup dropped, revealing the empty coil behind it. Dustin would be so pissed.

The pudding fell into the slot with a flop and the girl with the big hat dropped to her knees to pull it out, quick as a flash. She held it in her hands and her face seemed to lift just by looking at it. Will typed in another code and a can of grape soda came barreling down. She pushed her arm through the flap to retrieve that, too, and held the pudding in one hand and the soda in the other, each clenched in a tight little fist.

"Could I… The soda?" Will offered out his hand. He felt bad to take it from her, but when she looked up at him, her small smile seemed huge across her face. As she exchanged it, her pinkie brushed Will's, sent a shock down his spine and left him gasping in a way he didn't understand.

"I'm Will," he said. "Do you want to sit?"

Still she said nothing, but she followed him to a pair of chairs and sat. Will tapped his fingers on the armrest. She looked at him. He exhaled a heavy breath. She looked at him. He bounced his knees out of sync, let the motion vibrate through his whole body and come out of his ears like a hum.

She looked at him.

"Are you, um, a patient? Or something?" Will clenched his jaw, huffing internally at his own stupidity.

She blinked at him. "Um… Seeing," she said.

"Oh, like a visitor?" Will offered the word. She nodded and smiled again, pulling on the low hanging flap of her hat.

"Yes. Visiting."

Will stretched backward in his chair, still gripping the unopened can of soda. "Yeah, me too," he said. "I'm visiting my friend, Mike."

"Mike." She said it a fraction of a second after him, and for a slip instant, they were speaking in tandem.

Will nodded. He couldn't look away from her. Her big eyes, her muted facial expressions. How short was her hair, under that overwhelming hat?

"Mike," she said again. Reminding him… Urging him?

"Yeah, he's…" Will didn't know, he- His palms, his armpits, the underside of his knees, all prickling with sweat through a deep shiver working its way from inside him. He'd slipped before, into someplace in between , but never in public, never like this. He'd never felt it like this before, he'd felt it like this but. Never so- Connected. To what, he didn't know.

Will jumped out of his seat as if it had bitten him. "I'm, I'm, I really should get back to him." He struggled to explain posthaste. She peered at him curiously.

"Where?"

"To Mike, to-" His hand was sweating around the grape soda, he clenched and released his free hand in an effort to fight off visions that weren't coming.

"That hallway," he said, and pointed, too distracted by himself to notice the glimmer in her eyes. "All the way at the end."

Will rubbed at his eye until it hurt. His skin was crawling, he felt- magnetized. His ears were ringing, his blood itched, he, he-

"I have to go," Will apologized, barely able to hear his voice over the high pitched cosmic hum. Something popped in Will's chest, and the can of soda exploded, sending purple fizz gushing down his shirt. Melting him.

"Sorry, I'm- I'll be right back." He backed away, felt the door of the bathroom behind him and pushed through. As the door swung shut, Will got one last look at the girl, watching him go and wiping her nose on her sleeve.

The door clicked shut with a resounding finality. The bathroom was quiet, dull. Will felt very much like passing through the door had somehow catapulted him into another universe, a reverse Upside Down where everything was exceedingly ordinary.

The symptoms from before had vanished, and if it weren't for the sweat stains at the peak of his sleeves or the rushing heat in his face, he might have doubted he'd ever felt anything other than average at all.

Even the ringing in his ears had left him, and in its place was a faint absence of sound- an emptiness. Will crushed the soda can and dropped it into the trash atop wet paper towels, thinking of the girl with the big hat and the way she clutched that chocolate pudding.

"Okay," Will said, voice and fingers shaking. He reached for the paper towel dispenser. The row of fluorescents above his head flickered once, twice. A warning.

Will pressed a sticky hand to his mouth and tried not to breathe.

That hallway . All the way at the end .

Eleven let the words carry her across the floor, stepping gently on each colored tile. As she passed down the hall, doors seemed to beckon, welcoming her. Not the right doors. Not yet. She wandered onwards.

That hallway. All the way at the end.

That's what Will had said, and now, Eleven leaned into the window, letting her forehead rest on the glass, and gazed downwards. To her right, a heavy door led to the stairwell. To her left-

He was within, El could feel it. His heartbeat pulsed in her chest. There was no need for own heart at this proximity, Mike's beat for her. She could feel it. She could feel him .

El laid her hand on the doorknob. The cool metal only served to exacerbate the sweating of her palms. She couldn't make her hand push forward.

Eleven turned back, hand still resting on the doorknob. The stairway was one escape. The window was another, if she could catch them both before they hit the parking lot pavement. She had saved Mike from the fall before. This time, the fall would save them both.

No more Hopper, no more trailer. No more hiding from Mike's parents. No more shut up in the basement all day. No more shut up anywhere.

My parents can get you an actual bed for the basement. Or you can take my room if you want, since I'm down there all the time anyways.

Mike was waiting for her.

I'm close, she thought to him. She could feel his heartbeat through the door. Close.

She twisted the doorknob and pushed.

A/N: Once again, I wrote this an immediately posted! Any errors or regular bad writing is my own fault. Come complain to my tumblr big-dumbass.

Originally, there was like 25,000 drafts of Will and Eleven's interaction that I had to scrap, as well as a scene between Nancy and Hopper that I ended up cutting from this publication. Thinking about saving the various scenes that I can't put up due to word count, sensibility, etc. and releasing them as bonus content after this story ends - probably in 2 chapters. Sorry that there couldn't be MORE Will and Eleven in this chapter, I worked really hard to get it in there but in the end it just didn't work. Hopefully you get to see more of them in bonus content.

Absolutely MASSIVE thank you to everyone who reviews and pesters and reminds me that people actually want me to finish writing this. It is literally the only reason I am ever able to put a chapter up. Your comments are all so lovely and really gets me in gear to write. Wanted to take another moment to reply to each of you individually.

phieillydinya: Phew, that's a crazy username to type. Your reviews are always SO NICE! I am so pleased you find El's characterization realistic, I always struggle with her a lot because of her limited vocabulary, so I'm never quite sure how to translate her thoughts into words. So glad you were able to find enjoyment in the last chapter, and that I could give you a distraction from your family. Hope this chapter comes out at a convenient time for you too! Sorry this chapter was STILL not Mileven-y, hoping you find... a fulfilling amount in the penultimate chapter! Sooooooon (hopefully)!

Starla Marie Locke: Your username is so pretty, I love it. Now that I read it back, I reeeeeally hope I'm not publishing your real name! Eek. But anyway, yes! That's so funny, I almost wish El had used her super powers to go junkfood crazy but. I needed an excuse to introduce Will into the story so El could have an easier time finding Mike! But that's a great image, thanks for sharing it with me. Stealing eggos from the supermarket 2.0. I am doing great actually! Just got to publish under my dude name for the first time and feeling super excited about it. If you want, message me and I'll send you the link! Hoping you are doing well too and are having a great start to the new year!

speedermeen: Ahahaha! Will! I was super pleased when I came up with that line. I love writing Will but rarely get the chance, so I'm excited I got to do almost a whole chapter focusing on him. Hope you enjoy this one too, although there isn't as big of a twist as the last.

PondLake: Hope this interaction was pleasing to you! I went through about 10 drafts of this chapter (thus the lateness). This one had the least amount of true interaction between them, but all of the others just seemed to drag on for so long between the two of them and never get to Mike. Poor Mike indeed! So I wanted to get to him asap. So glad you're enjoying the writing, I've been going back and forth on the amount of apprehension and build-up, so I'm glad it feels right to you! Hoping you are doing well.

mcplestreet: I am so glad you enjoyed the last chapter! I worked hard on making that last paragraph suuuuper tight. Unfortunately I don't really... feel like I achieved that anywhere with this one, but it had been so long I just needed to get this chapter up so I could move forward. The connection between them is something I really wanted to explore more but felt like I couldn't within a reasonable word count. I have some drafts of this chapter I'm thinking about releasing later as bonus content so... hopefully you find some good content in this chapter and if not, in the coming ones! I really enjoyed responding to everyone individually, so much that I decided to again. Everyone says such nice and different, I like to take the time to reply to each one. And you write too! Excited to go take a look at your stuff when I have the time :)

Guest: Whoever you are ... Yes cliffhanger. Impossible to resist, as you can tell if you read this chapter too. Usually I'm better at... getting to the point, but not with this work for whatever reason. Hoping you are well and still reading!

AliKattt: Mmmmm your reviews are always so fun! So glad you didn't see last chapter's Will Byers cliffhanger coming. Hoping I did him justice in this chapter, although I know it felt rushed to me. I am so glad you enjoyed the last chapter ... Hoping this one comes anywhere close in comparison and that the next two chapters can really wow you. Going to try to update soon, I swear! Although I know the last turn around has been... Um, long. Anyway, hoping you're doing well and have a really great start to your 2019!

Julia: Glad you enjoyed! Always nice to hear about someone coming across it last minute and delving in deep. I hope this chapter has been worth the wait!

Natasha romanoff: SO GLAD YOU LIKED! Yes, I did continue. It just took me a while (a very long while). I hope you like this chapter and that the next one comes out soon for you!

Sam: I am truly so glad that you have been reading and liking. This chapter is kind of shit but ... hopefully not TOO shit. I am continuing and hopefully soon I will be finishing!

Emma: Ahahahaha your reviews are so fun. So glad you care enough about my writing to continuously leave reviews to inspire me, I really enjoyed getting new reviews from you. You totally did NOT step over the line, but I hope the next chapter goes up fast enough that I don't have to leave you handing like I did last time. Hoping you are well and that this chapter is worth the reviews you left me! Thanks!

Tyler: I was incredibly excited to get your review so long after the previous chapter had went up. Sometimes I don't write just out of forgetfulness, so reviews like yours are a great reminder. As you can tell, I really did take my time with Chapter 8. I am glad you have been waiting and I hope this chapter pays off. So pleased you like my style, especially by calling it unique because I feel like my style changes so much depending on the media I'm consuming while I write. This chapter has been heavily influenced by Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. Previous chapters have been inspired by Donna Tartt's the Goldfinch, Anne Carson's translation of The Bakkhai, inoubliable's IT ff on ao3, and more! But I'm so excited to hear that it seems to come off as a unique writing style to you. Anyway, thanks for bearing through this incredibly long response to your review, and I'm hoping you are having a fantastic 2019 and beyond!

Next chapter coming... Soon! Hopefully. You know how I am.