"Ellie, we need to talk."
Her attention immediately shifted to me.
I sat down on the floor beside her and gestured for her to join me.
She did, watching me expectantly.
"Tonight, I'm going to have to leave for a while."
Her expression changed immediately.
"…Leave?"
"Yes."
Her brow furrowed.
"…Why?"
"I need to help a friend."
She stared at me.
"…Friend?"
"Someone important to me," I explained. "He's in trouble, and I need to go find him."
Her hand suddenly shot forward and wrapped tightly around my wrist.
"…Stay."
My expression softened.
"Ellie—"
"Stay."
Her grip tightened.
There was fear in her eyes.
She was terrified.
She didn't want to be left alone.
She thought that I was abandoning her.
I placed my other hand gently over hers.
"I'm sorry, Ellie. I can't."
She shook her head.
"…Stay."
"I have to go."
Her eyes dropped.
"I'm not abandoning you."
She looked back up at me.
"Friends don't leave each other behind, okay?"
I pointed gently between the two of us.
"You're my friend now."
Then I paused.
"But he's my friend too. He's alone, and he's in danger. I can't leave him behind either."
Ellie remained silent.
Her fingers were still wrapped firmly around my wrist.
"I promise I'll come back."
She searched my face.
"…Promise?"
"Promise."
She still didn't let go.
"I'll leave you plenty of food and water. Enough for a week, even though I don't expect to be gone anywhere near that long."
I squeezed her hand gently.
"My family may panic when they realise I'm missing and try to force my bedroom door open. That's the worst-case scenario, but I need you to be prepared for it."
"If I come back, I'll tell you it's me before I try to open the door. So if someone tries to force their way in, don't wait to find out who it is. It doesn't matter if it's the police, the bad men, or even my family. If it's not me, leave immediately."
She looked at me with mild alarm.
I pointed towards the window.
"You need to do exactly what I say, okay? Put your hood up and don't let anyone see your face. Then climb out through the window. I'll leave the ladder I'm using tonight there for you. Once you're outside, find somewhere safe and hide until I come back."
I placed my hands gently on her shoulders and looked straight into her eyes, hoping she could see how serious I was.
"And when I come back, I'll find you. No matter where you are, okay?"
Her expression immediately hardened.
"…No."
"Ellie—"
She pointed at herself.
Then at me.
"…Come."
I understood immediately.
"You want to come with me?"
She nodded.
"No."
Her brow furrowed.
"…Come."
"No, Ellie. Where I'm going is dangerous."
She raised her hand slightly.
A silent reminder of what she could do.
"I know you're strong."
Probably far stronger than I was.
"But you've only just gotten away from people who hurt you. I'm not dragging you straight into another dangerous situation. Especially when this might cause you to be caught again."
She stared stubbornly at me.
"I'm going alone."
"…No."
I sighed.
This was going to be harder than I thought.
"Ellie, you know I'm strong too."
I held out my hand towards the bed and concentrated.
My little Applejack plushie slowly lifted into the air.
Ellie's eyes followed the flying pony plushie as it floated across the room before gently dropping into her arms.
A familiar warmth trickled beneath my nose.
I wiped the blood away with my sleeve.
"This is Applejack," I explained. "She is from My Little Pony."
Ellie looked down at the plushie curiously, carefully running her fingers over its mane.
"Hugging her always makes me feel better."
I hesitated.
"Only Mum knows I still sleep with her. I always hide her from Lucas because I know he'd use it to tease me or blackmail me."
Even after receiving all the memories from my past life and initially thinking that sleeping with a stuffed animal was childish, I could never bring myself to throw her away.
I reached forward and gently placed Ellie's arms more securely around Applejack.
"So, until I come back, Applejack will guard you too."
Ellie looked from the plushie to me.
"…Guard?"
"Keep you safe," I explained.
Her eyes dropped back to Applejack.
"She's extremely important to me, Ellie."
I smiled reassuringly.
"So you can believe me when I say I'm coming back. I wouldn't leave her behind forever."
Ellie stared at me for several seconds.
Then she slowly hugged Applejack against her chest.
"…Come back?"
"I'll come back."
I held out my little finger.
"Promise."
She stared at it, clearly having no idea what I was doing.
Right.
Of course she didn't know what a pinkie promise was.
I gently hooked my little finger around hers.
"This is called a pinkie promise. Pinkie promises are sacred oaths. It means I really, really mean it."
Ellie studied our joined fingers.
"…Promise."
"Promise."
Her grip around Applejack tightened.
She still didn't look happy about me leaving.
But at least this time, when I gently pulled my wrist from her grasp…
She trusted me to come back.
That night, I waited until long after curfew.
Until the clock struck midnight and the entire house had gone completely quiet.
By then, even the search parties had finally called it a night, heading home to get some rest before starting again in the morning.
It was time.
I quietly slipped out of my room.
I crept down the hallway with the letter in my hand. I'd thought about leaving it in the living room, but that would mean going downstairs, and there was too much of a chance I'd accidentally wake someone up. It was the same reason I was sneaking out through my bedroom window instead of risking the front door.
I hated imagining their faces when they read it. I knew they would be scared. And angry.
Probably really, really angry.
But disappearing without leaving anything behind would have been worse.
If I simply vanished in the middle of the night, they might assume whatever had happened to Will had happened to me too.
Then Hawkins wouldn't have one missing child.
It would have two.
My parents would panic. Hopper would have another disappearance to investigate. Search parties would split their attention between me and Will. It would cause even more panic around town.
Most importantly, it could distract Hopper from figuring out what had really happened to Will and uncovering the truth behind the lab. He might become too focused on finding a connection between our disappearances instead.
And once Lucas and the others eventually discovered the truth about the Upside Down, there was an even bigger problem.
They might think I'd been taken there too.
Or worse, that I'd somehow ended up there and been killed.
No.
Absolutely not.
It was better for Lucas to believe I was somewhere outside Hawkins, safe and being stupid, than to spend the next several days wondering if his little sister had been dragged into another dimension full of monsters.
At least until I brought Will home.
Even if, in reality, the Upside Down was exactly where I was going.
I unfolded the letter one last time.
Mom, Dad, Lucas,
Don't hate me when you read this, and please try not to panic. Mom, I'm sorry, but I lied. I can't just sit here and do nothing. I need to go and try to find Will.
I know the police and the search parties are already looking all over Hawkins, and I know one more person searching the same places they've already searched isn't going to make much of a difference.
The police officer said they think it's possible Will might have gone to see his dad in Indianapolis, so that's one place I'm going to try.
There's somewhere else I want to check too. Will mentioned to me once that there was a singer he really liked who was going to be doing a show a few states away. He wanted to go, but he didn't want to ask his mom because it was too expensive. The show is in a couple of days, so I want to check there too.
I know it's a shot in the dark. That's why I'm going myself instead of telling the police. If I'm wrong and Will isn't there, I don't want them wasting time and people checking something that might lead nowhere when they could still be looking for him.
Maybe he went to Indianapolis, maybe he tried to get to the show, or maybe I'm completely wrong about both and something happened to him. But I can't just sit here doing nothing when there's even a tiny chance I might find him.
Please try not to worry too much. I have a plan, and I have a safe ride with a relative of someone I know.
I know you're going to be angry. You can ground me for the rest of my life when I get back if you want.
Just please trust me.
I'll be careful. I promise I'll come home.
I'll be gone for a week at most.
I love you guys.
Erica
I stared at it for another second.
Every word about where I was going was a lie.
Well, almost every word.
I really was going to find Will.
I just couldn't exactly write, Don't worry, your ten-year-old daughter knows her missing friend is trapped in another dimension full of monsters and is sneaking out in the middle of the night to rescue him.
Indianapolis was real enough. Hopper had mentioned that possibility himself. The rest was nonsense, there to make sure that when they realised I wasn't in Indianapolis, they wouldn't know where else to look for me and would have no choice but to temporarily give up searching for me and focus on the mystery of Will's disappearance.
I hated lying to them. But this was Will's life at stake.
I folded the letter again, crouched down and carefully pushed it through the gap beneath my parents' bedroom door.
Then I quietly made my way back to my bedroom.
I closed the door behind me and looked around my room one last time.
I said goodbye to Eleven, promising her I would come back, and grabbed the other Upside Down survival kit. The one I'd made for myself. It had the same things as the one I'd given Will, plus my bow and the arrows I'd prepared for long-distance attacks.
Then I opened the window.
Cold night air immediately slipped inside.
I secured the rope ladder I had prepared earlier and slowly lowered it down the side of the house, wincing at every tiny sound it made against the wall.
I waited.
Nothing.
No footsteps.
No doors opening.
Everyone was still asleep.
Good.
I climbed onto the windowsill and looked back at my room one last time.
One week. Maximum.
That was all I needed.
Then I climbed out.
I descended the rope ladder as quietly as I could, the darkness hiding me against the side of the house. When my feet finally touched the ground, I looked up at the dark windows above me.
For half a second, I almost expected a light to turn on.
Nothing happened.
I pulled my hood over my head, adjusted the survival kit against my shoulder and disappeared into the night.
By the time anyone realised I was gone, I wouldn't be in Hawkins anymore.