𝘌𝘯𝘥 𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴

001. Fall of Hawkins

Eleven crumpled the sad dead flower in her hand and stared into the distance. Henry had been right. They believed they had won, but in reality, they had not. It truly was the beginning of the end if she and her friends could not defeat him once and for all.

"He is still alive," Eleven said as she turned around to face the others. "If he was not, everything would be different. I know he is still alive."

Will locked eyes with her and quickly glanced towards the ground. "She's right. Now that I'm in Hawkins again... I can feel him again. He's hurting, but he's not going to stop. Not until he has everything."

Joyce and Hopper looked at each other with gaping open mouths. "Who's still out there? The one who caused all of... this?" Joyce asked, gesturing towards the dark smoking gates.

Jonathan's eyebrows shot up. "The woman who brought you here, how much did she tell you guys?" Hopper sighed wearily. "Next to nothing. All she told us was that El knows who he is and that he's a kid from the lab like she was. We don't know anything else. How much more is there to it?"

"We know a lot more than just that," Nancy replied. "His family moved here when he was young, and he's the reason Eleven was even born. He was the first of her kind-- with superpowers, I mean. He just didn't use them for good. His name is Henry. Henry Creel."

Joyce's face immediately went pale. She had almost forgotten about him. It had been so many years since she'd last seen him. The last time she'd seen him was the night that he, his mother, and sister had been murdered by his father, Victor. It wouldn't make sense that Henry somehow survived and just disappeared to Hawkins National Laboratory. She couldn't have heard Nancy right. "Did-- did you just say Henry Creel? He died almost... thirty years ago now."

"No, he didn't," Nancy replied. "His mother and sister died, and his father went to Pennhurst. He told me his story last week in a vision of everything that's happening now. His father... his father was innocent. Henry was the one who killed his sister and mother, and he framed his father."

Joyce frowned deeply. "That can't be right. His father was a cat murderer at the time. He killed Dustin's mother's cat and a few others too. Henry seemed a little strange, but he wasn't like his father. I confronted him about his father had been doing the night he died, and he knew exactly what I was talking about."

"Hold on, Joyce, let's hear the kids out on this," Hopper said. "I know we talked to Claudia back then and Bob helped us and everything happened with his sister and Henry... but I don't know. If El ever knew him from the lab, it might help us understand something."

"Hopper's right," Nancy replied. "Victor was told that Henry went into a coma and died a week later, just like everyone else in Hawkins too, but it wasn't true. I think that he went into a coma or something like that... but he didn't die. He was taken to the lab. Brenner used him and hurt him and did awful things to him. But Henry wasn't innocent in anything. He was the animal murderer when you guys were younger, not his dad. He-- he showed me in my vision. He planned to frame Victor for his mom and sister's murders and escape. He was going to run away. But he used too much of his strength. That's how he ended up with Brenner."

Hopper nodded wearily. "Alright, that explains that much." He then turned to his daughter. "El, how did you know Henry? He must have been twenty or thirty years older than you when you were even born."

Eleven looked directly at her father and adoptive mother as she told them, "There were many more of us when I was younger. Papa said I did not remember because I wanted to forget. There was a rainbow room where we would spend time and exercise our minds. Henry watched over all of us there. None of us knew that he was 001. Papa had told us that 001 did not exist, but he lied. Henry helped me understand my powers. Papa always told us to not use emotion behind them or we would fail, but he was only afraid of what we could do if we did. Henry told me the truth about using emotion, and he said he was going to help me escape. That is how I must have known about the drain that I used to escape when Mike and Lucas and Dustin found me. But I wanted to help Henry in return because I thought he was good. He showed me that he was 001 and said to wait while he found us a way out. That is when he killed the others. All of them but 008 because she was already gone. I came out too early and found him killing 002. I-- I was the one who fought him and sent him to the Upside Down. I am the reason he is doing all of this now."

Will shook his head. "El, this isn't your fault. Henry's been like this for a long time. He was murdering all those animals before you were even born. He was a murderer and a horrible person before you were even born. You just sent him to the Upside Down, and that's what he deserved back then. He doesn't deserve a second chance now... and we have an upperhand because I know how he thinks. If he was gone, if he was really gone, I would know."

"Yeah, Will's right," Mike agreed. "You sent him to the Upside Down because that's what he deserved. You saved so many people by doing that when you did it, and it wasn't your fault that Doctor Brenner made you go look for him. You didn't even know what was happening because you didn't even remember anything from before that until now."

"So, what's our next step?" Jonathan asked. "We obviously have to stop him before he kills anyone else. We already saw a lot of people leaving Hawkins which I'm sure will be helpful in the long haul, but we have to come up with a plan. We have to find him and make sure he actually dies. El, I'm sure if you fight him in person you can beat him this time. It will be different now that you're back in Hawkins. This is your territory, not his."

Hopper lightly shook his head. "We can't do any of that right now, kid. El still has to recover from her last fight, and we have to find a good place for your family and El and I to hide out. No one can know that I'm alive. It's too much of a risk right now."

"Well, there's always the Creel house," Mike said with a funny smirk. Jonathan rolled his eyes and said, "Very funny, Mike. That's exactly where they're gonna wanna stay."

"If the Creel house wasn't destroyed, I would agree. Not about staying there, obviously, but, it would've been helpful to learn more about Henry and his weaknesses there," Nancy commented.

"Anyways, I'm sure Jonathan and Will can stay at my house because my mom already knows they're back. We're already fixing the cabin back up." She turned to Joyce. "Are you more keen on staying at my house or with El and Hopper?"

Joyce gave her a small smile. "I'll stay here with El and Hopper. Besides," she said, looking up at Hopper, "I have a feeling they'll need someone else to keep things up around here while we figure out everything with Henry."

El's eyes widened in sudden realization. "You two... do not know about what happened to Max or Eddie, do you?"

Hopper frowned. "We weren't told anything about Max. Who's Eddie?"

"Henry... he had four victims to create gates to try to force his way back into our... dimension. Max was the fourth and final victim. The other three died, but Max... She died for a minute before I restarted her heart. She is in the hospital with Lucas and Erica. They are waiting for her to awake," El told her adoptive parents.

"Everyone in Hawkins thought Eddie was the one murdering the four victims," Mike said, "but they were wrong. He fought in the Upside Down, and the demobats killed him. Dustin's been taking it really, really hard. It's been hard on everyone."

"Did you just say demo-bats?" Joyce asked.

Nancy nodded. "There's a lot more than just demogorgons and demodogs in the Upside Down. Henry showed me all of them in my vision... and if everything that I saw is going to happen, everyone in Hawkins is in danger. And not just Hawkins... He wants world domination."

Will nodded. "Just like the Mind Flayer. I think... I think that they're working together. Otherwise, how would Henry have gotten his powers in the first place? I only was connected to the Upside Down and everything else when I was possessed."

"We should get the others and talk all about this together," Nancy said. "Steve and Robin and Dustin and Lucas and Erica are all apart of this. We should just get everything else fixed up first so we know where everyone is staying and what everyone's doing, right? Just to make sure no one's parents are trying to move them out of Hawkins?"

"I agree with that," Hopper said. "Everyone should just go home and try to get sleep before we all meet up together and talk this through."

After heading back to the cabin, Nancy and Will headed towards the Surfer Boy Pizza van to head back to the Wheeler's. Jonathan saw Argyle still gathering mushrooms and dragged him towards the van while Mike said goodbye to El.

He smiled at her with endearing eyes. "Are you sure you're okay? You don't want me to stay any longer?" She smiled sadly and shook her head. "It's okay. You and Nancy need to spend time with your family. I am sure your mom has been worried. I will see you tomorrow."

Mike smiled and nodded as he headed towards the van. "I'll see you tomorrow, El. I love you."