November 5th, 1984

The Byers House

Once we had arrived home, Jonathan carried Will inside with Nancy following behind him. Though mom stayed in her place in Jonathan's car, almost like she was glued to the seat.

After Steve had let us out on the passenger side of the car, I made my way towards mom, who leaned her head against the glass.

Lightly tapping on the window, she turned her head slightly to find me looking down at her from the other side. "I'm coming." She whispered from inside the car.

Her eyes reflected how broken she felt inside, feeling a hand on my shoulder, I turned to find Hopper standing next to me. "I'll get her inside." He stated, looking down at me before turning his gaze to her. "What happened in there?" I asked Hopper as I gestured towards my mother, causing a frown to slowly edge out on his features.

"We thought we could use Will's connection against this thing, but it's too strong. But we only led it towards us, the lab got overrun. Those things killed everyone in sight." Hopper explained as he walked me away from the car. "They got Bob."

Placing a hand over my mouth I tried to stop the tears that welled up in my eyes from falling. "I couldn't save him but it was too late. The best I could do was get your mother out of there before they got her too."

Nodding, I slowly moved away from Hopper. "Thank you." I whispered, looking down at my dirtied converse. "We can't rush her," I started, before looking back over at the car. "She'll come out when she's ready."

Nodding in agreement, Hopper made his way back towards the house before I slowly followed behind him, rejoining Steve and the rest of the party. "Max, do you wanna go home?" I asked the girl quietly as the boys made their way inside the house before us.

Shaking her head aggressively, she turned to face me, "I would rather stay with you guys." She stated before entering the house as well.

Making my way in, I found that Jonathan had placed Will on the couch and was now crouching by his side. Placing his hand on Wills, he leaned over the boy whispering to him quietly.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there. I should have been there." He whispered to our sleeping brother while Nancy gently rubbed his shoulder.

Stopping next to the two, I kneeled down next to Jonathan, lightly placing my hand on the one that he had placed on Will. "We're gonna fix this. We're here now." I whispered, causing Jonathan to nod slightly.

Slowly standing, I turned to find Steve leaning against the wall in front of an annoyed-looking Hopper who was now speaking angrily into the phone.

"Sam Owens. Dr. Sam Owens." He said into the speaker, barely waiting for the person on the other line to respond. "I don't know how many people are there! I don't know how many people are left alive!" He stated, raising his voice more than it had already been.

"Let's go sit down." Steve mumbled to me, placing an arm around my shoulders as we walked past Hop and into the kitchen. "I am the police! Chief Jim Hopper!"

Taking a seat at the table with the rest of the party, Steve stood behind my chair, resting one hand on my shoulder and the other on the side of the chair.

"You can reach me at the number I gave you!" Hopper yelled one last time into the phone before aggressively slamming it back into the receiver. "They didn't believe you did they?" Dustin asked Hopper as he stood next to Steve.

"We'll see." He replied a little too calm for how he had just finished the call. "No. "We'll see"? We can't just sit here while those things are loose!" Mike complained from his seat next to me, glaring at Hopper.

"We stay here. And we wait for help." He stated, before looking over us as if to gather that we all understood what he just said, before walking down the hall and out of sight.

"What help is gonna come?" I whispered, looking from the table and towards the living room where Jonathan was still kneeling next to Will. "If they didn't believe him, who's coming?" I finished, feeling Steve lightly squeeze my shoulder.

Getting up from his seat, Mike walked towards a pile of toys that I assumed had been left by Bob. "Did you guys know that Bob was the founder of Hawkins AV Club?" He stated as he picked up a Rubik's Cube from the top of the stack.

"Really?" Lucas asked, "Yeah. He petitioned the school to start it and everything. Then he had a fundraiser for the equipment. Mr. Clarke learned everything from him."

"He was pretty awesome." I stated, slightly smiling up at Mike. "Yeah." Lucas and Dustin agreed, "We can't just let him die in vain." Mike finished though Dustin shook his head.

"Well, what do you want us to do, Mike? The Chief's right on this. We can't stop those Demo-Dogs on our own." Dustin stated causing Max to furrow her brow.

"Demo-Dogs?" She asked confused. "Demogorgon dogs." Dustin stated boredly before holding his hands out to gesture the combination of two things. "Demo-Dogs. It's like a compound. Like a play on words-"

"Okay." Max stated slightly annoyed, rolling her eyes in amazement at how the boy had just spoken so dumbly to her. "I mean if it was just Dart, maybe we could do something." Dustin continued from where he had left off. "But there is an army now." Lucas finished for him.

"Exactly." Dustin mumbled while Mike stood at the front of the table deep in thought. "His Army." He said more to himself than us. "What do you mean?" Steve asked.

"It's his army. Maybe if we stop him, we stop his army too." Mike stated before rushing out of the kitchen and down the hallway, into Will's room. Walking towards his desk, Mike picked up Will's drawing of the Shadow Monster.

"The Shadow Monster." I nodded as Mike handed me the paper. "It got Will that day in the field. The doctor said it was like a virus, it infected him."

"So this virus is connecting him to the tunnels?" Max asked Mike as she looked down at the picture as I placed it in the middle of the table. "To the tunnels, the monsters, to the Upside Down, everything." Mike rushed his words as he tried to explain the idea in his head.

"Whoa. Okay, slow down." Steve stopped Mike, taking the drawing from the table to look at it. "So, the Shadow Monster's inside everything. And if the vines feel something like pain, then so does Will." Mike explained slowly.

"And so does Dart." Dustin pointed out. "It's the Hive Mind." I stated. "The what?" Steve asked handing the picture back to Mike. "A collective consciousness. It's a super-organism."

"And this is the thing that controls everything. It's the brain." Mike stated as he pointed back down at the drawing. "Like the Mind Flayer." Dustin stated.

"The what?" "What?" Max and Steve asked at the same time. "Do I have to explain everything to you guys?" Dustin groaned, walking out of the room and back into the kitchen. "I need everyone in the kitchen!" Dustin yelled as he went through his book bag, pulling out the manual for Dungeons & Dragons.

"You really carry that with you? Like everywhere?" I asked as we all stood around the table, now joined by Hopper, Nancy, and Jonathan while he flipped through the manuals pages.

Slamming the book back down onto the table, Dustin pointed at one of the drawings on the page. "The Mind Flayer."

"What the hell is that?" Hopper questioned the boy in front of him. "It's a monster from an unknown dimension. It's so ancient that it doesn't even know its own true home. It enslaves races of other dimensions by taking control over their brains using its highly-developed psionic powers." Dustin explained.

"Oh, my God, none of this is real. This is a kids game." Hopper complained. "No, it's a manual. And it's not for kids." Dustin stated, pointing an annoyed finger at Hopper.

"Honestly Hop, does anything that's going on seem real? Or even possible?" I asked the Chief. "And for now, this is the best metaphor-" "Analogy." Lucas cut Dustin off.

"Analogy? That's what you're worried about? Fine. An analogy for understanding whatever the hell this thing is." Dustin practically yelled at Lucas from across the table. "Okay, so this Mind Flamer thing-" "Flayer. Mind Flayer." Dustin now cut Nancy off.

"Flayer, okay. What does it want?" "To conquer us, basically. It believes that it is the master race." Dustin continued to explain. "Like the Germans." Steve connected the two with a nod of his head.

"The Nazis?" Dustin confirmed. "Oh.. yeah, the Nazis." Steve nodded, looking embarrassed. "Sure, if the Nazis where from another dimension. It views other races, us, as inferior to itself."

"It wants to spread, take over other dimensions." Mike explained to us. "We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it." Lucas stated, freaking Steve out.

"Well, yeah. That's great. Jesus. That's just great." Steve mumbled to himself and backed away from the table. "Just stay calm." I whispered to him, grabbing his hand to pull him back to the table.

Looking away from the book, Nancy awkwardly looked down at our linked hands. "Okay? So if this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything, what if we kill it?" She asked looking back down at the book.

"Then we kill everything it controls." Mike answered her. "Theoretically." Lucas added. "Great, then how do we kill this thing? Shoot it with fireballs or something?" Hopper asked, reaching over the table to pull the book towards him.

"No." Dustin laughed slightly. "No. No, fireballs. You summon an undead army." Dustin explained, slowly dying off as Hopper glared at the boy.

"Because zombies, you know, they don't have brains, and well the Mind Flayer likes brains... it's just a game." Dustin stumbled on his explanation before accepting that we couldn't get all the answers from the D&D manual.

"What the hell are we doing here?" Hopper groaned, slamming the book back down onto the table before turning to walk out of the kitchen. "You told us to wait for your military backup." I stated, annoyed at how he was treating this whole situation.

"We are!" He raised his voice turning back around. "Even if they come. How are they gonna stop this? You can't just shoot this with guns." Mike stated, walking up to Hopper.

"You don't know that! We don't know anything!" Hopper yelled back. "We know it's already killed everybody in that lab." Mike stated. "And we know that the monsters are gonna molt again." Lucas added on.

"We can't just shoot at something we can't see." I said as I walked up to Hopper as well. "And we know that it's just a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town." I finished, while Hopper stared down at me.

"They're right." A shaky voice called out from the hallway. "We have to kill it."

Looking over, we found mom standing in the hall, still shaken by the events in the Lab. "I want to kill it." She continued as Hopper slowly walked up to her. "I know, Joyce. Me too. But how do we do that? We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here."

"He does." I whispered from my spot, still in the kitchen as I looked over to Will who still laid passed out on the couch where Jonathan had left him. "If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's Will. He's connected to it, he knows it's weakness."

"But I thought we couldn't trust him anymore. That he's a spy for the Mind Flayer now." Max asked as we all made our way into the living room. "Yeah, but he can't spy if he doesn't know where he is."