Keep me Closer - Billy Hargrove - Stranger Things

18: Remember

We all sat impatiently in the dining room around the table as Jim yelled at people over the phone.

" They didn't believe you, did they?" Dustin asked.

Jim turned around looking at us. "We'll see." He said blankly.

"We'll see?! We can't just sit around while those.. things are loose." Mike yelled.

"We stay here, and we wait for help." Jim said angrily turning back around and walking away.

***

I sat by Will as he slept while the kids sat at the table. We all sat in silence. Not knowing what to do or say.

I heard Mike walking closer to the living room. He stopped to pick up something that Bob had earlier dropped off for Will.

"Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV?" Mike asked.

"Really?" Lucas asked.

"He petitioned the school to start it and everything. Then he had a fund-raiser for equipment. Mr, Clarke learned everything from him. Pretty awesome right?" Mike asked walking back to the dining room.

" Yeah." Dustin and Lucas agreed.

Mike placed the blocks he picked up, on the kitchen table. "We can't let him die in vain." Mike said and I stood up and walked the to the entrance that separated the dining room and living room apart and leaned on the wall next to me with my arms crossed agreeing.

"Well what do you wanna do Mike? The Chiefs right on this. We can't stop those demodogs on our own."

"Demodogs?" Max asked with a ' for real?!' Kind of Look on her face.

"Demogorgen.. dogs." He said using hand gestures to explain like he did with me. "Demodogs. It's like a compound. It's like a play on words. You know it's like-"

"Okay!" She said in annoyance after Dustin just kept rambling on.

" I mean if it was just Dart, yeah! I mean we have her." Dustin said pointing at me and I got super uncomfortable with everyone staring at me.

" But there's a whole army now." Lucas informed.

" Precisely." Dustin added.

"His army." Mike mumbled.

"What do you mean?" Steve asked everyone looking up at Mike.

" His army!" Mike said enthusiastically. "Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army too. "

Mike grabbed one of Wills drawings of the Shadow Monster and showed it to everyone.

" The Shadow Monster." Dustin recognized.

"It got Will that day on the field." Mike said and looked at me. " You were connected to him. You could feel his pain. If you can feel his pain, m-maybe you could connect with him in other ways. Thoughts, emotions, maybe you could get in his mind know what he's thinking? Not just the Shadow Monster, but Will." Mike said and I just stuttered not knowing what to say. "The Doctor said it's like a virus, it infected him. But not her."

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

"To the tunnels, monsters, the UpsideDown, to her, everything." Mike informed.

" Whoa. Slow down slow down." Steve said looking at the picture and then at me.

" Okay so the Shadow Monster's inside everything. If the vines feel something such as pain so does Will, and then so does Quinn." Mike explained.