͏b͏r͏o͏k͏e͏n || ͏b͏i͏l͏l͏y ͏h͏a͏r͏g͏r͏o͏v͏e

T H I R T E E N

"Have you contacted the police?"

"I am the police! Chief Jim Hopper!" he replies, running his fingers through his hair.

"Is there a number I can reach you at?"

"Yes, the number that I gave you, 6767..." I stand and walk over to the window, feeling the weight of our situation.

"They didn't believe you, did they?" I ask Hopper.

"We'll see," Hopper huffs.

"We can't just sit here while those things are loose!" Mike exclaims.

"We stay here and wait for help," Hopper firmly states. I sigh heavily. He leaves the room, and I spot a Rubik's Cube on a table. It reminds me of Bob and I laugh lightly despite the grim situation. I walk over to the boys and Max.

"Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV?" I ask, trying to lighten the mood.

"Really?" Lucas asks, tilting his head.

"Yeah. He petitioned the school to start it and had a fundraiser for equipment. Mr. Clarke learned everything from him. Pretty cool, right?"

"Yeah," the boys agree. Mike stands up, determination on his face.

"We can't let him die in vain," he declares.

"What do you want to do, Mike?" I ask softly.

"We can't stop those Demo-dogs on our own," Dustin vents, running his fingers through his hair.

"I mean, when it was just Dart, maybe... But there's a whole army now," Lucas adds.

"Precisely. His army," Mike agrees.

"What do you mean?" Steve furrows his brows.

"His army. Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army, too," Mike says, grabbing Will's drawings.

"The shadow monster," Dustin begins.

"It got Will that day on the field," Joyce adds.

"The doctor said it was like a virus; it infected him," Nancy says.

"And so this virus, it's connecting him to the tunnels?" Nancy asks.

"To the tunnels, monsters, the Upside Down, everything," Jonathan explains.

"Whoa, slow down. So the shadow monster's inside everything. And if the vines feel something like pain, then so does Will," I say.

"And so does Dart," Dustin adds.

"Yeah. Like what Mr. Clarke taught us. The hive mind," Mike explains.

"Hive mind?" Steve asks.

"A collective consciousness. It's a super-organism," I explain.

"And this is the thing that controls everything. It's the brain," Dustin clarifies.

"Like the Mind Flayer," Mike whispers.

"The what?" Max snaps her head towards him.

"The Mind Flayer."

"What the hell is that?" I ask.

"It's a monster from an unknown dimension. It's so ancient it doesn't even know its true home. It enslaves races of other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly-developed psionic powers," Mike explains.

"I don't understand this stupid nerdy stuff," I scoff, holding my head.

"Oh, my God, none of this is real. This is a kids' game," Hopper huffs in frustration.