MY TEARS RICOCHET 𛲕 STRANGER THINGS

29. Spycraft

"What the hell is that?" asked Hopper, staring at the book as though it had personally offended him.

Daphne couldn't really blame him; she too felt like they were wasting time discussing scientific theories and reading about creatures from a fictional game when they could be out trying to stop the rabid monsters that were currently running around Hawkins.

"It's a monster from an unknown dimension," explained Dustin. "It's so ancient that it doesn't even know its true home. 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. This is a kids' game," groaned Hopper.

The man clearly wasn't in the mood for the kids' bullshit; the last few days ageing him by at least a couple of years. Daphne couldn't help but agree. She kept looking back at the door every few seconds, expecting the demogorgon army to come bursting through the doors at any minute. The clock was inching past midnight and she was so tired she felt like she might collapse, but she was far too terrified to close her eyes.

"No, it's a manual," retorted Dustin, frustrated by Hopper's disbelief. "And it's not for kids. And unless you know something that we don't, this is the best metaphor—"

"Analogy," corrected Lucas, causing Dustin to shoot him a withering glare.

"Analogy? That's what you're worried about? Fine. An analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is."

"Okay, so this mind flamer thing—" Nancy began, before getting corrected by Dustin.

"Flayer. Mind-Flayer."

She sighed, clearly restraining herself from snapping at him. "What does it want?"

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

"Like the Germans?" Steve butted in, causing Daphne to run a hand down her face in second-hand embarrassment.

"Uh, the Nazis?" quipped Dustin, staring at him in disbelief.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Nazis."

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

"It wants to spread, take over other dimensions," added Mike.

"We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it," finished Lucas, slamming his hand down on the table dramatically. Daphne, who had only been half paying attention, flinched at the abrupt noise.

"That's great. That's great. That's really great. Jesus!" cried Steve, turning away from the table and running his hands through his gelled hair in pure panic. Daphne couldn't really blame him. The kids weren't exactly inspiring a great deal of optimism right now.

"Okay," interrupted Nancy, leaning forwards across the table to read the book in front of her. "So if this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything, then if we kill it..."

"We kill everything it controls," finished Daphne, the pieces finally coming together in her head.

"We win," confirmed Dustin.

"Theoretically."

Daphne tuned out the conversation completely, her brain working overtime to sift through all the new information. Everything they knew so far could be traced back to Hawkins Lab. Whatever was controlling all these monsters — the way to stop it must be from the inside. She thought back to last year when El had first told them about the Upside Down. And she had an idea.