The school bell just rang, signifying the end of school, and John was walking with April to her locker. When they arrived, they saw Nancy standing at her locker with a worried look on her face. John asked, "What's wrong, Grace?"
Nancy answered, "I haven't seen Barb all day and it's not like her to skip school. I'm worried about her."
John rubbed her back and said, "Why don't you call her parents and ask if Barb is there?" Nancy nodded her head.
Nancy said, "Okay, I'll use the phone here to call them." John and April walked with Nancy over to the pay phone and John handed Nancy some coins. Nancy took them and inserted them before she dialed Barb's home phone number and the phone began to ring.
Nancy said, "Come on, come on, come on..." John rubbed her back to calm her down and April held her hand. Nancy calmed down a little and waited for someone to answer.
Barb's mom answered the phone, "Hello?"
Nancy said, "Hi. Miss Holland, it's Nancy."
Mrs. Holland said, "Oh, Nancy, how are you?"
Nancy said, "Good. I'm good. Um, I was just wondering, uh, is Barb there?"
Mrs. Holland said, "Mmm... No, she hasn't come home yet."
Nancy asked, "But she did come home, right? After the vigil?"
Mrs. Holland said, "No, she said she was staying with you last night."
Nancy said, "Right, yes. She did, sorry. I meant, did she come home this morning? I think she left some textbooks, and she was going to go pick them up."
Mrs. Holland said, "Oh, um, no, I haven't seen her."
Nancy said nervously, "You... You know what? I just remembered... she's at the library."
Mrs. Holland asked, "Nancy, will you please have her call me when you find her?"
Nancy answered, "Yeah. I will. Sorry to bother you." Nancy hung up the phone, her face gaining a very worried look.
April squeezed her hand and said, "Don't worry, we will help you find her."
Nancy nodded and walked with them heading to John's car. They had to walk around the building in order to arrive at their car. As they were rounding the corner, they saw Steve sitting on the hood of Jonathan's car.
Steve got off the hood and walked towards Jonathan. Steve said, "Hey, man."
Jonathan asked, "What's going on?"
Steve said, "Nicole here was telling us about your work."
Carol said, "We've heard great things."
Tommy said, "Yeah, sounds cool."
Steve continued, "And we'd just love to take a look. You know, as... connoisseurs of art."
Jonathan sighed and said, "I don't know what you're talking about." Then Jonathan started to walk past Steve to get into his car, but Tommy grabbed his bag.
John who was walking over to his car saw this scene and changed directions to see what was going on. April and Nancy walked behind him. They arrived in front of Steve and his group right as Steve took some photos out of Jonathan's bag. Steve said, "Here we go." Steve and his friends started to look through the photos and noticed that there were pictures of them from last night.
John asked suddenly, "What's going on here?"
Jonathan looked a little nervous and tried to speak but was cut off by Steve. Steve said, "Jonathan here, was taking pictures of us last night."
Carol said, "Like some creep." John walked forward and held out his hand and Steve handed the photos to him. John looked down at the photos one by one. April and Nancy also looked on as they were curious.
John finished going through all the pictures and looked at Jonathan. John asked, "What is the meaning of this Nathan?"
Jonathan gulped before he said, "I was just in the woods looking for clues of Will when I heard a scream and went to check it out. Then I took some picture when I saw them partying."
John looked at Nathan for a couple seconds before he took the photos of a slightly compromised Nancy, then he handed the rest of the photos to Jonathan. Steve asked, "You're just going to let him off?" John ignored him, which pissed Steve off.
John said, "You should have just come out of the woods and joined in the fun, pal." Then John started to walk away, when Nancy stopped him.
John looked at Nancy and leaned down when she motioned him. Nancy whispered, " Grab Jonathan, I want to ask him about Barb." John nodded and walked toward Joanathan and put his arm around his shoulder.
John said, "Let's go have a little chat, bud." Jonathan nodded nervously and walked away with John to his car. April and Nancy followed behind John.
Steve and his friends watched John take Jonathan away and Steve said, "I don't think we will see Jonathan for a long time." Carol and Tommy nodded their heads.
Meanwhile, John had just arrived at his car and let go of a nervous Jonathan. Nancy walked in front of Jonathan with a serious face and asked, "Did you see Barb leave last night?"
Jonathan took a second to calm down before he said, "I saw her sitting at the pool but when I looked down at my camera, she suddenly vanished. She must have left then."
Nancy sighed and said, "Thank goodness, I thought something might have happened to her."
Jonathan then stood there nervously as he looked between Nancy and John. Nancy saw him standing there nervously and said, "You can go now." Jonathan nodded and immediately scurried away.
Nancy asked, "John, can you drive me over to where Barb parked her car last night? I want to see if her car is still there or not."
John said, "Sure, let's go." John burned the photos of Nancy with a lighter before he got into the car, where Nancy and April were waiting. John started the car and lowered the window before he backed out of his parking spot. John drove out of the lot slowly and then went down the road following Nancy's direction.
They arrived at the spot Nancy and Barb ditched the car, they found that Barb's car was still parked on the side of the road. John parked behind Barb's car and Nancy dashed out the door as soon as the car was parked. Nancy looked inside Barb's car and saw she was nowhere to be found. Nancy yelled, "Barb! Barb! Where are you?!"
John and April arrived beside her and gave her a hug. Nancy began to sob as she felt guilty about losing Barb. John and April held Nancy for about 15 minutes before she calmed down. Then April led Nancy to John's car and got in with her. John walked over to the car and opened the door, easily breaking the locked door.
John got in and started to look around for any clues, but he didn't find anything. This was all a show as he knew that Barb was most likely already dead, and he felt no pity towards that fact. John got out of the car and walked back to his car before he sat down and consoled a still slightly sad Nancy.
In the upside down, Barb was still in the hollow tree. She was beyond hungry and decided to go out in search of food. She walked as quietly as she could, looking around vigilantly. Barb walked through the forest of trees and saw something peculiar in the distance.
Barb walked forward a little faster and arrived at a small circular ditch. Barb smelled fresh blood from the bottom and thought it could be something she could eat. Barb climbed down into the ditch slowly and began to look around, her vision was a little blurry, but she managed to see the half-eaten carcass of a deer.
Barb knelt down in front of the carcass and felt her stomach churn. She was reluctant, but the mere thought of survival allowed her to lean down and begin to devour the raw meat of the deer. It tasted absolutely putrid, but she swallowed it down fiercely. Her will to llic=ve was too strong to be broken by this small obstacle.
Barb ate as much as she could but suddenly, she heard a growling sound coming from far away. Barb immediately climbed out of the hole as fast as she could. She ran as fast as her injured leg would allow her and managed to arrive back at her hollow tree.
However, just as she was walking inside a monster jumped on her from the side and bit into her shoulder. She was stunned by the pain and unable to stop the beast from tearing a huge chunk of flesh out of her shoulder. Despairing, Barb gave up as the pain overwhelmed her senses and all she could do was hope that she would die sooner. She had one final thought before her vision faded to black, 'Goodbye, John. I guess I'll never see you again.' A lone tear falling from her bloodshot eye.
The mistake she made that led to her death was very easy to avoid, but she had no way of knowing. The goo that masked her smell rubbed off when she climbed into the ditch and when climbing out. Also, the deer blood that stained her white legs gave the monster a strong scent to follow. The only way she would have had a chance was if she had known how to recloak herself in goo.
The monster dragged Barb's body away from the hollow tree to another location and set her body down. Some weird fleshy vines holding her body to the ground. The monster opened it's mouth and surrounded Barb's head. The monster back away a couple minutes later and you could see Barb's stomach squirming.
Meanwhile, Eleven, who had gone back into the basement, looked at her watch and saw 3:15. Seeing this she made her way out of the house. Walking through the back door, she walked through the back yard and continued forward, heading straight for the power lines behind the house. She only had to walk about 200 meters before she arrived next to a metal tower. When she arrived, she started to pace around as she waited for the boys to come. She kept repeating, 3-1-5 to herself quietly.
Suddenly, a stray cat meowed loudly, catching her attention. The cat started to hiss at her, causing El to start breathing heavily as she remembered another memory from her time in Hawkins Lab.
Sensors were hooked up to her head and she was sitting in a chair right in front of a white cat that was hissing at her. Dr. Brenner was observing her actions through a monitor. Eleven got very scared and began to cry as she ripped the sensors off her head. Eleven shook her head at Brenner, but he was not amused at all. His face growing colder, he stared at her for a second before he nodded his head.
Suddenly, two men walked into the room Eleven was being held and dragged her out of the room as she cried and begged for them to stop. El screamed, "No! No! Please!" The men didn't listen to her however and continued to drag her down the hall to the punishment room. Eleven saw Brenner and shouted, "Papa! Papa! Papa!" But the man ignored her pleas as he watched her get dragged away.
The men threw her into the room and were about to shut the door, when Eleven's face grew cold, and she used her powers to slam the door open. This caused one of the men to go flying into the hard wall, his body hit with enough force to break the tiles behind him.
The other man looked on in fear before he grabbed his taser and intended to go into the room. However, Eleven gave him no chance to retaliate and twitched her neck, causing the man's neck to break. A sickening crunch being heard.
Eleven fell against the wall and slid down it to the floor as blood came out of her ears and nose. She was breathing heavily as this much use if her power had strained her body. Brenner walked down the hall and saw what Eleven did, but instead of being angry, he was grinning madly. He changed his face before he walked into the small room.
Eleven looked up at him, and was a little fearful, she slinked back a little. But when Brenner caressed her head gently, she began to cry softly. Brenner said, "Incredible." Brenner picked her up in a princess carry and began to walk down the hall with her slowly. Eleven passed out from the exhaustion of using her power.
She was broken of her daydream when Mike called out to her. She looked at him as she began to regain her bearing. She remembered that she wasn't in that place anymore and that she could do anything she wanted now. Now that Mike knew of her existence, Papa would never be able to hide her away again. Also, John wouldn't let that happen to her, would he?