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CHAPTER SIX MIND FLAYER
The house is silent save for Jonathan's consoling whispers as he strokes Will Byers' hair and Hopper's side of his phone conversation. Will lays on the couch, he's been put to sleep because Will's eyes are no longer his own. His arms are no longer his own. His mind is no longer his own. There's something inside of him, Hopper and Mike had explained. There's something possessing him and stripping away Will's power. It's using him as a puppet, a way to spy into Hawkins, to make sure that no matter what, the thing inside of him wins.
Abby sits slumped at the small round table in the kitchen along with Alex, Max, Dustin, Lucas, and Mike. She gazes around at the house as she taps her fingers against the wooden surface. On any other occasion, Abby thinks that the house would be charming and cozy, but right now, this is anything but charming. Papers cover the walls, long, thick lines drawn across the surface of the paper, they all connect like a puzzle, an intricate kind of maze that covers almost every square surface of the house.
Steve wanders into the kitchen just as Hopper angrily hangs up the phone and turns toward the six teenagers that sit around the table in various positions. Alex glances over at Max every so often as the girl's eyes flit over the maze of papers. Dustin stands with his palms resting on the table while Lucas shifts in his seat every so often. Mike only stares forlornly at Hopper as he yells into the phone.
"They didn't believe you, did they?" Dustin asks.
"Who would?" Abby counters.
People only believe what they see, and sometimes even if the truth is right in front of them, people only see what they want to see. It's how it works when you get older, you get told that the things that you once believed are outlandish and childish and that it's time to grow up and face the real world. Childlike beliefs are lost as time passes and children morph into teenagers and then into young adults because they're only ever allowed to believe in facts. Everything needs to be rationalized, because if it isn't then everything that people have grown up knowing collapses underneath them and drives the world into insanity.
"Nobody," Alex agrees.
"We'll see," Hopper says.
"'We'll see?'" Mike repeats incredulously. "We can't just sit here while those things are loose!"
"Do you not remember the last time there was one Demogorgon loose in Hawkins?" Alex inquires. "Think about how it'll be with like a hundred on the loose. It'll only be worse if we don't do something."
