I opened the front door just enough to squeeze my head through the gap and check whether the living room was clear.
Good.
No sign of Mum, Dad, or Lucas.
Still, it was better to make sure.
"Mum? Dad? Lucas? Anyone home?" I shouted. "Just so you know, I skipped class and I'm coming inside."
Silence.
Nobody answered.
Perfect.
I opened the door the rest of the way and stepped aside, motioning for Eleven to come in.
"Welcome to my house," I said with a grin, sweeping one arm towards the doorway in an exaggerated gesture of invitation.
Hesitantly, she stepped over the threshold.
The door clicked shut behind us.
Eleven immediately tensed.
I noticed her eyes travelling across the hallway, taking in the family photos on the wall, the umbrella standing by the door, and the pair of trainers carelessly kicked into the corner.
Everything.
She examined everything.
Like she'd never been inside a normal house before.
Which, in a way...
She hadn't.
I slipped the chain onto the front door, locking it, before drawing all the curtains to stop anyone from looking inside.
"There."
I turned back to her.
"We're safe."
She was still standing exactly where I'd left her, clutching the oversized hoodie around herself.
"You don't have to worry," I assured her. "My parents are both at work, and Lucas won't be home until school finishes. Or at Mike considering the situation."
Her shoulders relaxed a fraction.
Only a fraction.
"I know you've got a lot of questions," I said. "So do I."
I gestured towards the kitchen.
"But first..."
I opened the fridge.
"...are you hungry?"
Her eyes immediately locked onto the food.
There it was.
Not fear.
Hunger.
Real, overwhelming hunger.
I smiled to myself.
That, at least, was something I knew how to fix.
I opened the freezer and pulled out a box of Eggos.
I'd added them to the shopping list before Mum went grocery shopping.
Because I knew she would like it.
I popped two into the toaster.
"Here," I said. "It'll only be a few minutes."
"I've got something better planned," I said as I turned towards the cooker. "You've been through enough. You deserve a proper hot meal."
The moment I handed her the toasted waffle, her eyes lit up.
Actual stars seemed to shine in them.
She stared at it for a moment before taking a cautious bite.
Her entire face brightened.
"How is it?"
"Good," she said, beaming.
I couldn't help smiling.
"I'm glad you like it."
She looked down at the waffle in her hands, then back at me.
I held up the box.
"They're called Eggos."
She frowned in concentration, carefully sounding out the unfamiliar word.
"E... E..."
"You've got it."
"...Eggos."
"Exactly." I smiled. "Eggos."
She looked back at the waffle, smiled to herself, and took another enthusiastic bite.
Now that she was at least eating something, I turned my attention back to the fridge.
What could I make for her?
I scanned the shelves before settling on the leftover pasta.
Mum had made it for dinner the night before, so the tomato sauce was already prepared. It would only take a few minutes to heat everything up.
I set the pots on the counter.
Then I remembered that the kitchen cupboards, countertops, and oven were all still too high for me to cook without standing on something. Dammit 10 years old body.
Damn this ten-year-old body.
I headed into the living room and grabbed a chair so I could reach them.
As I dragged it across the floor, the weight suddenly disappeared.
The chair rose into the air.
I looked up.
Eleven was standing a few feet away, one hand slightly raised.
A thin trickle of blood ran from beneath her nose.
She was trying to help.
I couldn't help smiling.
She was adorable.
"Thank you," I said gently, and pointed to the front of the oven. "You can put it down right here."
She looked relieved that she'd understood what I wanted.
The chair floated carefully into place before settling onto the floor with a soft thud.
I glanced at the blood on her face.
"You don't have to use your powers for everything," I said, grabbing a tea towel and wetting one corner under the tap. "Especially not for something as trivial as this."
I walked over and held out the damp cloth.
"Here."
She looked at it for a second before taking it.
"We're safe here since it's just the two of us," I said. "But it's still risky if my family comes back. If someone sees us using our powers, they'll start asking questions. People don't usually expect someone to levitate things with their mind."
She looked slightly confused, but nodded in agreement.
In the lab, using her powers openly had probably been completely normal—encouraged, even, so she could train them. She'd only been in the outside world for a couple of days.
She had no idea how the real world worked.
Everything around her must have seemed new, confusing and overwhelming .
A few minutes later, she'd finished the Eggos and, with nothing else to do, wandered over to me, curiosity written all over her face.
She leaned forward, trying to catch the smell of the pasta, then slowly reached out to touch the pan.
I caught her wrist before her fingers could make contact.
"It's hot," I said gently. "If you touch it like that, you'll burn yourself."
She immediately pulled her hand back and looked up at me.
"It's ready now," I said with a smile. "I just need to put it on a plate so we can eat it."
After dividing the pasta between two plates, I grabbed two cups and a bottle of grape juice from the fridge.
I handed the cups and the juice to Eleven.
"Can you carry these for me?"
She nodded and carefully took them, holding them as though they were something precious.
I picked up the two plates before leading her upstairs to my bedroom.
We'd already spent long enough in the shared part of the house.
If one of my family members came home unexpectedly, it would be much easier to hide her in my bedroom than explain why there was a strange girl standing in our kitchen.
We sat down on the floor of my bedroom and ate in silence.
Eleven was completely focused on her meal. She used both hands to eat, as though she was afraid someone might take the plate away before she'd finished.
She watched me use my fork and tried to copy me, but the pasta kept slipping off the fork. After a few unsuccessful attempts, she gave up and went back to using her hands.
I didn't judge her.
After everything she'd been through...
She would just feel insecure if I commented.
Once we'd finished eating, I cleared the plates away while Eleven washed her hands and face in the bathroom.
Now that she was warm, fed, and safe...
It was time to have the serious conversation.
I sat cross-legged in my bed and waited until she settled opposite me.
"Let's start with introductions," I said.
I pointed to myself.
"Erica."
She watched me carefully.
"Erica," I repeated, tapping my chest.
Then I pointed at her.
She hesitated before lifting her left arm and holding out her wrist to show her number.
I looked at the tattoo for a moment before meeting her eyes again.
"Eleven is not a name. It is a number."
She stared at me in silence.
"So... I'm going to call you Ellie."
She tilted her head.
"E-Ellie?"
"Ellie," I repeated with an encouraging nod.
A small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.
"Ellie." she whispered. She seemed to test the name quietly to herself before suddenly reaching across the space between us.
She gently took hold of my wrist and turned it over.
Her brow furrowed.
She searched my skin, slowly rotating my arm as if expecting to find something hidden there.
She wouldn't find what she was looking for.
No tattoos.
No number.
She looked up at me, confusion written all over her face.
"I'm not from the lab like you."
She kept staring at my bare wrist.
"I don't know why I have these powers," I lied.
I couldn't tell her the truth. Not about the system that had given me my abilities before sacrificing itself. Not about my memories of the future. Not about how I already knew who she was.
So I fell back on the cover story I'd prepared months ago in case anyone ever asked how I knew about the lab or how I'd gotten my powers.
"One day, weird things just started happening around me. At first, I could only move tiny objects. I thought I was imagining it."
I shrugged.
"But they kept getting stronger."
"I didn't tell anyone. I practised in secret instead."
A small smile escaped me.
"I actually thought it was pretty cool at first. I mean... who wouldn't? I thought I'd become some kind of superhero."
That part wasn't a lie.
When I first discovered my powers, I was excited. For a little while, I'd imagined becoming someone like the Avengers.
Then reality caught up with me.
Having powers didn't mean becoming a superhero.
It meant living in a world where superheroes existed... and so did monsters.
Whether it was people who wanted to use me or enemies far stronger than I could ever hope to fight, these powers alone would never be enough.
"Then I realised what could happen if people found out. No one can know about my powers."
"So I hid them."
"I kept them a secret."
She frowned slightly.
"...Secret?" she repeated, unfamiliar with the word.
"A secret is something we don't tell anyone," I explained gently. ""It isn't a lie. It's just something we choose to keep hidden. Once you tell other people, it isn't a secret anymore."
I pointed at myself.
"My powers are a secret."
She watched me closely.
"So, please don't tell anyone about me. Okay?"
She hesitated for a moment before giving a small nod.
"...Yes."
"Good."
I smiled reassuringly before continuing my story.
This time, she listened without interrupting.
"I became more and more paranoid. I kept thinking there had to be people out there who would come after me if they discovered what I could do. I tried to convince myself I was just imagining things... that I was scaring myself for no reason."
I paused before continuing.
"Then I started noticing strange things around the Hawkins Energy Department. The security was far too heavy for what was supposed to be an ordinary research facility."
"So I started watching it from a distance."
"I even found an old newspaper article buried in library archives about people accusing the place of kidnapping children and experimenting on them."
I folded my hands in my lap.
"I couldn't stop wondering why. What were they doing to those kids? Why were they chosen? Were they test subjects... or was there something special about them?"
I glanced at her to see if she was alright.
"I started thinking... what if they were like me?"
"So I prepared for the worst. I kept asking myself what I'd do if they ever came after me."
I let out a quiet breath.
"But all of that was just a theory."
"Until I met you."
I looked at the faded hospital gown she was still wearing beneath the oversized hoodie.
"You came out of the woods wearing a hospital gown."
I swallowed.
"And when you saw my powers..."
"...you weren't afraid."
"You thought I was like you."
Silence filled the room.
"I'm sorry," I said quietly.
"I'm sorry I was right."
"And I'm sorry that, even though I suspected something like this was happening..."
"...I couldn't stop what they did to you."
For that, I was truly sorry.
From the bottom of my heart.
I was sorry I hadn't been strong enough to save her sooner.
Sorry that, despite knowing what was happening, the only choice I'd had was to leave her there to endure it.
All I could do was wait...
Wait until she found the strength to escape on her own.
And when she finally did...
Be there to protect her.
For a long moment, she didn't say anything.
She simply stared at me.
I couldn't tell what she was thinking.
Whether she was angry with me.
Slowly, her eyes drifted down to her hands resting in her lap.
She absent-mindedly picked at the sleeve of the hoodie I'd given her.
"...Bad men," she whispered.
I frowned.
"The lab?"
She gave a small nod.
"Papa."
The single word made my stomach tighten.
Her expression changed.
Not into anger.
Fear.
Raw, instinctive fear.
"He..." She hesitated, struggling to find the words. "...hurt."
She pointed to herself.
Then she raised her hand, shaped her fingers like a gun pointing to herself, and quietly said,
"Bang."
A moment later, she turned the finger gun towards me.
"...Hurt... you."
I blinked.
She was warning me.
If the bad men discovered my powers...
They would come for me too.
"I know," I said. "That's why I keep my powers a secret."
I gave her a small smile.
"But thank you."
She tilted her head.
"For worrying about me."
A faint crease formed between her eyebrows, as if she wasn't entirely sure what I meant.
"No one's ever looked out for you before, have they?" I asked quietly.
She lowered her eyes.
A tiny shake of her head was all the answer I needed.
My chest tightened.
"Well..." I said, offering her a reassuring smile, "you don't have to do everything alone anymore."
She looked back up at me.
For a long moment, she simply searched my face.
Then, almost imperceptibly...
She gave me a small smile.