FicWad

It was after the Snowball. El and Mike were walking home hand in hand, Lucas, Dustin, Will, and Max were already headed to their homes.
It was a calm peaceful night. Not a cloud in the sky, and a romantic, full moon hung brightly in the night.

They walked quietly, enjoying the presence of each other.

“El?” Mike asked, bashfully.
“Yes Mike?”
“I was wondering if we could meet tomorrow at the arcade?”
“Arc-ade?” Said El, sounding out the word.
“Yeah, like a place where you go to play games,” Mike explained.
“Like Dungeons and Dragons?”
“No, not exactly. Like video games. You’ll see when we get there,”
“Oh. Okay,”

They walked in silence for a couple moments before El suddenly stopped, and let go of Mike’s hand.

“El? What’s wrong?” Mike asked, worried for his friend.

She looked at him with fear in her eyes.
“The bad men,”

Mike audibly gasped. He took El’s hand back into his, and ran to his house.

They went in through the basement door, and locked it behind him. They were both breathing heavily.

“El, how close are they?” Mike questioned.

She closed her eyes, and blood started to trickle out of her nose. Her mouth was snapped shut, and she had a look of stern concentration of her face.

About a minute later, her eyes shot open, and she looked directly at Mike.
“Door,” was all she muttered.

Mike went white as a ghost when, moments later, he heard loud banging at his front door.

“El, we have to hide you. They’re going to take you away again!” Mike tugged at her dress,”

“No use,” El muttered, looking downward.
“Yes use! There has to be a place!” Mike almost shouted, looking around.

There was another loud knock at the door. Mike looked out of the window and saw large white vans surrounding his home.

He heard footsteps coming down the stairs.
“Mike? Is that you knocking?” It was his mom.

“No mom. I’m downstairs!” He called back, ushering El to the blanket fort.

His mom came to the basement, dressed in her bath robe.
“Who is knocking at this hour? And why are you down here?”

“I’m just, um, I just got home, and I came through the basement,” He stammered.
“Why would you come through the basement?” She persisted.

“Because.. I saw those people following me! Yeah,” Mike lied.

“What people?” She continued to question.
“Troy! Troy kept following me. Now, if you excuse me, I’m really tired,” Mike said with a fake yawn.

“Alright. I’m going to see who is at the door,”
“Okay, mom,”

As she went back upstairs, he crawled to the fort to check on El.

“Are you okay in there?”
She nodded, and he listened to the conversation upstairs.

All he heard was something about a search, and that was enough to send him and El into a panic.

“El, what do we do? Where do I hide you? I’m not losing you again,” Mike said, grabbing El’s shoulders and looking her in the eyes.

“Mike, I-“ she was cut off by armed men flooding the basement.
“I’m sorry,” El whispered, finishing her sentence.