BAD TIMES • STEVE HARRINGTON

7. the manual

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chapter seven

"THE MIND FLAYER," Dustin said, slamming the Dungeons and Dragons Handbook onto the dining room table. Everyone, aside from Mrs. Byers and Will, was standing  around the Byers' table. They leaned over, staring at the thick book, and the section labeled "Mind Flayer".

"What the hell is that?" Chief Hopper asked, his voice gruff.

Dustin immediately began his explanation. "It's a monster from an unknown dimension." His eyes darted around the table. "It's so ancient that it doesn't even know its true home." Diana raised her eyebrows unhappy to think that they were all just living in another game of D&D. "Okay, it enslaves races of other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly-developed psionic powers."

"Oh, my God, none of this is real," Hopper said, exasperated. "This is a kids' game."

Dustin paused. "No, it's a manual. And it's not for kids." This time he didn't miss a beat. "And unless you know something that we don't, this is the best metaphor—"

"Analogy," Lucas and Diana interrupted at the same time. The former made a face at her.

Dustin halted in disbelief. "Analogy? That's what you're worried about?" No reply. "Fine. An analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is. Besides it's not like she was just scrying in the next room." His last words were sarcastic as he gestured to Di.

"Am I supposed to know what that means, or why she's even here?" Hopper asked, pointing at her.

She narrowed her eyes looking at the man who must've been a foot taller than her. "It's Diana. My scrying was just another reason to believe this manual. And I'm here because I know a lot of things. Too many, in fact. Wanna know the future? It's not that good. Think you've got a secret? You can't hide it from me—"

"Enough kid," Hopper said cutting her off. Well, he wasn't in a good mood. Lucas shot her a look and she shrugged. She was mostly just pushing the man's buttons. If they thought she was crazy, she might as well try and prove them wrong.

"Okay, so this mind flamer thing—" Nancy began, steering the conversation back on track.

"Flayer. Mind flayer," Dustin corrected. There was a collective sigh across the room.

Nancy's curly brown hair fell into her eyes as she moved. "What does it want?"

"To conquer us, basically," Dustin replied simply. "It believes it's the master race."

"It wants the world for itself," Diana added. "I thought it was well on its way to getting it too, now I'm not so sure."

Steve leaned over in question. "Master race? Yeah, like the Germans?"

Diana made a face and so did Dustin. "Uh, the Nazis?"

Steve waved a hand around. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Nazis."

"If the Nazis were from another dimension, totally. Uh, it views other races, like us, as inferior to itself," Dustin continued to explain.

"It wants to spread, take over other dimensions," Will continued.

Diana looked at Lucas as he began to speak. "We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it."