"You're positive that was Dart?"
"Yes. He had the same yellow pattern on his butt." Dustin responds to Lucas. The party was currently walking back down the rail road tracks trying to get back to Steve's car. You and Steve were in the lead, the three kids trailing behind you.
"But he was tiny just two days ago!" Max exclaims. "Well, he's molted three times already." Dustin sasses back. "Malted?" Steve asks, turning back in confusion to which you slap your forehead and let out a long sigh.
"Molted. It means he shed his skin like a snake does to make room for growth. Should've paid more attention in middle school biology, Harrington." You say, to which he puts his head down in shame.
"Well, when's he gonna molt again?" Max asks you, to which you shrug your shoulders. "It's gotta be soon, and when he does, he'll be full grown, or close to it." Dustin answers for you.
"So will his friends." You say in realization. "Yeah, and he's gonna eat a lot more than just cat." You intake a short breath, looking down at your shoes.
"Wait, a cat??" Lucas asks Steve, suddenly catching onto Dustin's secret. "Dart ate a cat??" He continues, to which Dustin shakes his head. "No, what?? No!"
"What are you talking about? He ate Mews." Steve says, to which you purse your lips. "Mews? Whose Mews?" Max asks.
"It's Y/n's cat." He responds, pointing over to you, who still had your head down, finding the ground to be very interesting.
"Steve!!" Dustin scolds. "I knew it! You kept him!" Lucas says, pushing Dustin slightly, looking to him with betrayal in his eyes. "No! no... No, I- no." You look over to him with a judgemental look, still not happy with him for getting your cat killed, even if it was unintentional. He sighs guiltily under your gaze.
"He missed me. He wanted to come home." He says, coming clean. "Bullshit!" Lucas accuses him. "I didn't know it was a Demogorgon, okay?!"
"Oh so now you admit it??"
"Guys, it doesn't matter. We need to go." You say, wanting their pointless arguing to be over. "Yeah! Who cares??" Max backs you up, to which you smile gratefully to her. You were so glad that there was finally another girl in the party. You did care, but it wasn't something you were willing to discuss right now in the middle of the woods on abandoned railroad tracks.
"I care! You put the party in jeopardy! You broke the rule of law!" Lucas accuses him. "So did you!!!" Your brother yells to him. "What??" Lucas asks, confused by the accusation. "You told the stranger the truth!!" You hear Max scoff from beside you, going over to them to join into their endless cycle of accusing.
"A stranger??" She asks. "You wanted to tell her, too!" Lucas yells back. "But I didn't, Lucas, okay???" You put your fingers onto the bridge of your nose, groaning at their continuous bickering.
You look up suddenly, though, at the sound of a screeching sound that sounded terrifyingly akin to the baby Demogorgons screech that you had just fought. You look over to Steve. "Did you hear that?" You ask, to which he nods, hand reaching into his backpack to get his bat carefully and slowly from it.
You follow suit, putting your axe in front of your face. "Hey, guys?" Steve asks, but they didn't answer, too involved in their heated discussion to hear him. You sigh.
"GUYS!" You yell to them, and they immediately fall silent upon hearing you. Steve looks over to you, a bit of jealousy and admiration present in his eyes. "How the hell did you do that??" He asks.
"Years and years of practice." You respond, falling silent upon hearing the screaming coming again. "Cover for me." Steve whispers to you, looking over into your eyes to see you nodding, before heading off towards the sound. You usher the kids to follow after Steve, Max being the only one left.
"Oh no, no, guys??? Why are we heading towards the sound???" Max questions, none of the answering her as they all follow Steve into the woods. You put a finger up to your mouth to hush her, holding your hand out for her to take.
"Don't worry, I'll protect you." You say, determined to not let anyone get hurt. She looks into your eyes, before hesitantly taking your outstretched hand, and you smile down to her. She gives you a ghost of a smirk to you in response. You follow the others until you come up to a tall hill that overlooked all of Hawkins. Had it been under any other circumstance, you would've admired the beauty of your small town.
You maneuver your body over to Steve's, axe still placed firmly in your hand. "I don't see him." Dustin states the obvious, while Lucas digs into his backpack for something. He finally found what he was looking for, pulling out binoculars from the pack before putting them up to his eyes.
"See anything?" You question, moving closer to him. "Yes, it's the Lab." He states, and you take in a sharp breath. "They were going back home..." You look over to Steve, him giving you the exact same knowing look that you were throwing him.
You both knew you had to go check it out.
——————
Your group finally made it down the hill, but not without any injuries. Your knee was severely busted from falling on it so often. You were glued to Steve most of the time because of this, his idea not yours. He was not nearly as clumsy as you were, which wasn't much of an accomplishment as you were pretty sure a newborn deer had more balance than you did. Nonetheless, you were insanely grateful when he offered you his arm to hang onto after your fourth time falling onto the hard forest floor.
When you finally made it onto level ground, you threw him a very grateful smile as you unhooked your arm from his, to which he returned without any hesitation. Max was having every bit of trouble as you were, desperately clinging onto Lucas for dear life. You looked over to them with a sweet smile on your face. They're so cute. You think to yourself.
You finally all make it down safely, you only had to help Dustin with the last part which was really unsteady due to the amount of weight it had been carrying distributed through the five of you.
As you make your way through the tree line, you hear familiar voices calling to your group with a demanding voice.
"Hello??"
"Whose there?!" None of you answer, too caught up with trying not to get whacked in the face by stray tree branches that hung dangerously low to the ground. You all finally get out, and look up to see Jonathan and Nancy standing with baffled looks on each face.
"Steve???" They both say in sync, not surprised by your presence in the least. "Nancy??" Steve asks in turn "Jonathan?!!" you ask as well, a bit surprised to see both of them together. "What are you doing here???" Nancy asks him.
"What are we doing here?? What are you doing here??" You question, stepping around Steve to get a good look at your best friend. "We're looking for Mike and Will." She says, and you tense up with worry.
"Are they okay?" You ask immediately. "We're not sure." She responds, and that's all it takes for you to go into full on panic mode. "I'm sure they're okay, though. Joyce, Hopper, and Bob are all in there with them, we think." Jonathan says to you, putting a hand on your shoulder comfortingly. The reassurance helps settle your rising anxiety slightly.
You hear Jonathan and Steve talk to each other indistinctly, probably relaying to each other what happened. You suddenly see lights turn back on in the direction of the lab. "Powers back on!" You say, pushing Steve and Jonathan out of your way before running to the direction of the building.
It doesn't take long for them all to catch up with you, all finally reaching the still closed gate. Jonathan then goes into the room beside said gate that controlled weather it opened or closed, messing around with different buttons before your brother saunters over as well.
"Let me try-"
"Hang on-" Jonathan says in response, before Dustin pushes him out of the way. You sigh, knowing it was no use. Dustin was doing the exact same thing and nothing was happening.
"Son of a bitch, Dustin, move over." You demand, shoving him over as well before going down to press a button. The gate opens immediately upon your touch and you pump your fists up in victory.
"Hah, loser." You day to Dustin, sticking your tongue out at him mockingly. Dustin rolls his eyes before walking out. Nancy and Jonathan immediately get into their car, driving off to get the others, leaving you, Steve, and the kids to fend for yourselves.
You walk out of the box like room, going over to Steve against the wall. You both stand in silence, leaving your mind to wander. You couldn't help but worry about the group. What if someone died, again. You didn't know if you could take it if another person died under your watch.
You hear an annoying sound repeatedly play from beside you, and you look over to Steve with a done look on your face. He was fidgeting with the flashlights switch, turning it on and off repeatedly. "Would you please shut up." You say, to which he only smirks cockily before clicking the switch faster.
You groan, putting your hands over your eyes. "I swear to God, Harrington, you're just as much of a kid as they are." You say, pointing over to the other three all gathered together, talking amongst themselves.
You pull your hands down from your eyes, dragging them down painfully slow before bringing your eyes over to Steve's. He rolled his eyes before stopping the obnoxious clicking noise, now moving on to flipping the flashlight in his hands, catching it, twirling it in his hands, before repeating the process.
You liked this trick much more. You stare in fascination, not being able to draw your eyes away from the somehow entertaining continuous motions. He laughs at the face you were making, probably akin to a cat staring at a lazar.
He leans over to ruffle your hair before you swat it away, flicking his arm. "Oh. It is so on, Henderson." Is all he says before attacking you with a harsh poke, to which you respond with flicking him again, starting another poke-flick war.
You both stop immediately upon seeing a familiar car pull up to the side of the road. "Let's go!" Hopper yells from inside his car. You immediately go over to the kids, dragging them to the front seat before shoving them into the car. You squeeze into the back while Steve gets shotgun privileges. You glare at him with jealousy at the amount of space he had.
Hopper told you the whole situation on the way over to the Byers residence. Everything from Will now being under the control of a strange creature from the upside down, to the baby Demogorgons attacking the whole facility and sadly killing Bob, Joyce's boyfriend.
It was about ten excruciating long minutes to get to the house, the air filled to the brim with a tense silence. As soon as you got to the house, you immediately go up to Nancy, needing to discuss a lot with her.
Joyce opened the door for everyone, ushering everyone inside as best she could with an unconscious Will held in her hands. She looked really bad, and you couldn't blame her. She just lost her lover. You put a hand on her frail shoulder, smiling gently to her.
"I'm here for you, Ms Byers. I know what it's like to lose... Lose someone close to you. I've gone through a fair amount." You say, to which she smiles sadly over to you. "Thank you, sweetie." She says in response, a bit emotionlessly, walking over to the couch before draping Will over it.
You feel Jonathan touch your shoulder, gently pushing his way over to get to Wills unconscious body. You move away, reading the room. You couldn't talk to Nancy yet, though, because she was comforting Jonathan. You really needed to talk to her though.
Later. You tell yourself. And with that, you walk off to the dining room where everyone else was located. You sit down on a chair next to Lucas, Dustin standing in the middle of you and Mike. You can hear Hopper yelling into the phone, probably trying to get backup. Steve was pacing around the whole house, making you pretty anxious, but you didn't have the heart to tell him to stop.
Speaking of the house, its walls were covered head to toe in Wills drawings of road like twists and turns. You found it somewhat amusing that every time you found yourself in this house, something strange was always going on in it.
Hopper sighs, hanging the phone up aggressively. "They didn't believe you, did they?" Dustin asks knowingly.
"We'll see." Is Hoppers only response, rubbing his temples to relieve the stress. "'We'll see?? We can't just sit here while those things are loose!" Mike retaliates.
"We stay here, and we wait for help." Is all he says, looking over to Joyce in concern as she goes into her room. He walks off in her direction to follow her before Mike can argue any further.
You all sit in silence for a couple more minutes, before Mike gets up from his chair, walking over to some blue, cube shaped object that was placed neatly on top of some old books. He picks up the strange cube before turning to the four of you.
"Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV?" Mike asks the group, to which you shake your head. You really didn't know him at all, other than the fact that he was Joyce's boyfriend. But, he seemed like he was an amazing dude.
"Really?"
"Yeah, he petitioned the school to start it and everything! Then... He had a fundraiser for equipment. Mr Clarke learned everything from him..." He says, walking back to the table, looking up to the group, seeing your slightly downtrodden expressions. "Pretty awesome, right?"
"Yeah... He seemed like a good person.. Wish I got to know him better." You state, to which Dustin and Lucas nod in agreement. "We can't let him die in vain." Mike continues.
"What do you want to do then, Mike?? The Chiefs right on this, we can't stop those Demo-dogs on our own." Max looks up to Dustin with a confused expression.
"Demo... Dogs?"
"Demogorgon Dogs. Demo-dogs? It's like a compound... A play on words?" Dustin explains, breaking it down for her until she waves her hands around. "Okay, I get it." She says, shutting him up.
"I mean... When it was just Dart, maybe. But... Now, there's a whole army of them." You say. "Precisely." Dustin points out.
"His army." Mike says, to which you all look up at him. He seems to have figured something out. "What do you mean??" Steve asks, confused by his words.
"His army. Maybe... If we stop him, we can stop his army too!" Mike says, looking at all of you to see if you got what he was saying. You all look at each other, realization finally dawning on all of you.
Mike suddenly walks off to the pile of books again, grabbing a drawing from off of it before showing it to all of you. "The shadow monster." Dustin says in realization.
"It got Will that day on the field. The doctor said it was like a virus, it infected him." Mike explains. "And... So, this virus... It's connecting him to the tunnels?" Max asks, a bit confused but slowly getting it. You watch their interaction behind the scenes, chewing your lip as you follow Mikes explanation.
"To the tunnels, the monsters, the Upside Down, everything-"
"Woah, woah, woah. Slow down." Steve says, coming up behind them to get in on the conversation as well.
"Okay, so. the shadow monsters inside everything. And if the vines feel something like pain, so does Will."
"And so does Dart." Lucas says in realization. "Yeah, like what Mr Clarke taught us. The hive mind."
"Hive mind??" Steve asks in confusion, to which you turn to him. "It's a collective consciousness... a super organism." You explain, finally joining into the conversation. Mike snaps his fingers, pointing to the monster Will drew. "And this is the thing that controls everything. It's the brain." He explains.
"Like the Mind Flayer."
You all look to Dustin. He cracked the code. Lucas snaps his fingers to him as he realizes this too. "The... What?" Max and Steve say at the same time, and you roll your eyes. You forgot there were some uncultured people here.
You rush off to Wills room, grabbing a book from off the shelf before going back into the dining room, slamming the book onto the table. Lucas had gathered everyone back up into the tiny room so you could all brainstorm. Dustin flips the pages till they reach a familiar one.
"The mind flayer." He reads aloud. "The hell is that?" Hopper questions from across the table. "It's a monster from an unknown dimension. It's so ancient that it doesn't even know it's true home." Dustin explains to the group. "Okay, it enslaved races of other dimensions by taking their brains using its highly developed psionic powers." He continues before Hopper interrupts him again.
"Oh my God, none of this is real. This is a kids game." He rebukes. "It's actually a manual, and it's not a kids game. And if any of you have a better metaphor for this thing that we don't know of-"
"Analogy." Lucas corrects you, to which you look at him ludicrously. "Analogy? That's what you're worried about??" Dustin questions. You wave it off before another war can start. "Fine, an analogy for understanding what the hell this thing is." You finish.
"Okay, so this mind flamer thing-" Nancy starts sarcastically, to which you snort. "Flayer. Mind flayer." Dustin corrects, to which she sighs. "What does it want."
"To conquer us, basically. It believes it's the master race." Dustin explains to her. "Like, like, the Germans." Steve stammers, this you out right bark in laughter. Sometimes, you worried about his IQ levels. "The- sorry- the Nazis??" You ask, barely audible through your broken laughter. Steve blushes, looking down slightly in embarrassment. "Uh... Yeah, yeah... The Nazis." He responds from beside you, and you burst out into laughter again, barely breathing.
"If... The Nazis were from a different dimension, then totally." Dustin replies as you try to recover from your deadly laughter. "Anyways, it uh, views other races, like us, as inferior to itself." Dustin continues after you stop with your giggling fit, Steve's ears still considerably red.
"It wants to spread, take over other dimension." Mike explains. "We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it." Lucas continues.
"That's great! That's great. That's really great, Jesus!" Steve says, turning away from the group before anxiously pacing back again, running a hand through his hair as he tries to process everything.
"Okay, so it this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything..." Nancy starts, taking the book from off the table and into her arms. "Then, if we kill it..."
"We kill everything it controls." Mike finishes for her. "We win." You say. "Theoretically." Lucas reminds you all. "All right, great, so how do you kill this thing? Shoot it with fireballs or something?" Hopper mocks, taking the book from Nancy.
"No, no, no- no Fire balls." Dustin says, chuckling nervously under his breath at the question. "Uh, you summon an undead army. Uh, because... Because zombies, you know, they don't have brains, and the- and the mind flayer... It... It likes- it likes brains." Your brother stammers out. "It's a game, it's just a game." He finally spits out. You slap your forehead in embarrassment.
"Oh, what the hell are we doing here?" Hopper questions, slamming the book shut. "I thought we were waiting for your military backup?" Dustin mocks.
"We are!"
"Even if they come, how are we gonna stop this???" Mike questions what everyone was thinking. "You can't just shoot this with guns!" He continues, throwing his hands up in the air.
"You don't know that!"
"Yes, we actually do. They don't work on them." You back him up, remembering Nancy's experience with it from last year. "We can't know for sure! We don't know anything!" Hopper yells back.
"We know it's already killed everybody in that lab." Mike defends you. "We know the monsters are going to molt again." Lucas joins in as well. "And we know that it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town." Dustin finishes the argument. You look to all the kids in admiration, wondering how they grew up so fast.
"They're right..." Says a silent, broken, croaky voice from the end of the hallway. You all turn around to see Joyce standing at the front of the hallway. "We have to kill it..." She continues. Hopper makes his way towards her. "I want to kill it."
"Me too. Me too, Joyce, okay? But how do we do that? We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here." Hopper says, coming face to face with the grieving mother.
"No, but he does." Mike says, waking towards Will. "If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's Will. He's connected to it. He'll know it's weakness." He continues, progressively getting closer to his unconscious body laying across the couch.
"I thought we couldn't trust him anymore? That he's a spy for the mind flayer now..." Max speaks up, all of you following after Mike slowly.
"Yeah... But, he can't spy if he doesn't know where he is."
—————-
You decided that the shed would be the best place to set up base camp, and you all immediately got to work. Hopper first got everything out of the shed to make more room and to make sure Will wouldn't know where he was, then you, Steve, and Nancy got to work on patching the whole area up with black paper. It was... A bit awkward, and you kinda wanted to leave.
"I'll be right back... Gotta check up on Dustin." You lie, going out of the room and to the front. You spot Joyce and Jonathan just a few feet from where you were, so you approached him, hoping to find some clarity as to what was going on between him and Nancy.
You see Joyce leave, and you approach him. "Need any help?" You ask, a bit standoffish. "Uh... Yeah, sure. Can you hold these?" He asks, holding out his clippers. You nod and take them from him. "So... What's going on between you and Nancy?" You ask, to which he sputters at the sudden question.
"Uh... Nothing? Absolutely nothing, nope, nothing going on." He says, and you laugh at his obvious lying. "You're horrible at lying, don't ever quit your day job." You joke, to which he laughs.
"Okay... I admit, I really... Really like her." You smile at him. "Yeah... I know. Have, for a while now." You respond, to which he looks at you with a surprised expression. "What, you're really bad at hinding things."
"Obviously..." He replies, holding out his hand for you to give him the clippers. "Does she... Reciprocate?" You ask, and he laughs, a look in his eyes that said he was reminiscing about something. "I think so." He says, and you look at him with a raised eyebrow. "It's nothing. Just, an inside joke." He says, and with that you both head back to the shed to finish the final touches.
You help put up a makeshift chair, as well as taping up the last of the paper around the walls, helping the kids from time to time. Until finally, it was ready. You, Steve, Nancy, and all the kids (minus Mike) were to stay in the main house, making sure nothing bad or unexpected happened.
Once you were all safely inside the comfort of the house, you and Nancy plop down onto the couch. "So... You and Jonathan, huh?" You ask, to which she stammer.
"I- oh- no- nothing, nothings going on between us." You look to her with a doubtful look. "Thought we weren't keeping secrets from each other anymore?" You ask, recalling the pact the two of you made the year before. She sighs, sinking deeper into the couch.
"I still... I like Steve. A lot. Hes a really great guy but- I can't help it... Jonathan... Hes just- I don't know, something about him." She says dreamily, and you sigh. You felt so bad for Steve. "You need to tell him..." You say, and she nods her head. "I know-"
"You keep saying that but it never happens. Nance, I get you don't want to hurt his feelings, but not telling him is so much worse than telling him upright. You need to tell him. Soon. You can't just keep going off with him while keeping Steve in the dark, it's just not right." She sighs, nodding her head.
"I know, I know. I just- I don't even know how I would put it, 'oh hey, remember that dude you were worrying about me cheating on you with? Well you were right and now we're dating!'" She says, groaning before putting her hands into her forehead.
"Not like that, that's for sure. Just tell him that you see him as a really good friend, and that you like Jonathan. Simple as that." You say, and she laughs. "I wish it was that easy."
"But it is! You just... You just need to tell him. Sooner rather than later." She nods, understanding what you were saying. All of a sudden, the door opens and Hopper steps through. You and Nancy immediately get up, following him to the dining room.
"What happened?" Dustin questions immediately, all of you gathering around the table where Hopper was writing on a piece of stray paper.
"I think he's talking, just not with words." He explains, writing multiple dots and lines onto the paper. "What is that?" Steve questions.
"Morse code." You all say in synch. "H-E-R-E." Hopper translates, writing each letter below the dot and line. "Here." You all say together. "Wills still in there. Hes talking to us." You all look to each other with a newfound sense of determination.
Jonathan immediately rushes into his room, grabbing the stereo before heading back outside. You all made a system, the people in the shed would retell memories of Will, the people inside translating what Will was saying in morse code. You had the job of transferring the dashes and dots to letters.
"Dash dot dash." Lucas tells you, to which you nod, going down the list until you come across the letter you were looking for. "C!" You call out to Nancy who immediately wrote it down.
"L."
"O."
"S."
"E."
"G."
"A."
"T."
"E."
"Close gate." You all read from Nancy's paper. The phone then rings, and you hurriedly go over to it, hanging up immediately in a panic. The ringer calls again, but this time Nancy full on throws the phone onto the ground, successfully breaking yet another phone in the Byers home.
"You think he heard that?" Max asks anxiously. "It's just a phone, it could be anywhere... Right?" Steve asks you, but all you do is look at him with a concerned expression. You then hear a growling in the distance coming from a Demodog. You immediately go into the living room to retrieve your axe, Steve not far behind you to get his bat.
You hear the front door open, and know that wasn't a good sign. The kids were all gathered around the window, trying to get a good look at what was coming before Hopper yelled at them.
"Hey, hey! Get away from the windows!" They immediately listen, falling behind him. He then holds out a shotgun to Jonathan as you form an assembly line to protect the little ones. "Can you use this?!" He asks him hurriedly. "What?!"
"Can you use this?!" He asks again, this time more desperate. "I can." Nancy speaks up. You smile to her, watching Hopper toss her the gun. You and Steve go to stand in front of Dustin, both of your weapons at the ready.
Everyone falls silent, trying to listen for any danger. "Where are they?!" Max asks, voice shaking, breaking the silence. No one answers, everyone too focused on trying to keep everyone safe. You can hear the monsters growling in the distance, and get closer to Dustin, arm stretched out to keep him from going anywhere.
Another growl comes from the front door, and you all turn towards it in unison. "What are they doing?" Nancy asks, shotgun still at the ready. Another growl comes back from the dining room, slightly louder than the last one.
You can hear the continuous sound of pained screeching, as if someone was hurting them in a fight. But, then, all of a sudden. It stops.
Right then, something flies through the window, spraying glass all across the carpet. You all scream in a panic, Hopper taking a stand in front of all of you, rifle ready to shoot at whatever just came in airborne through the glass window.
"Holy shit..." Dustin whispers from the side of you as Hopper gets closer to inspect it. It was the unmoving body of a Demodog. "Is it dead?" Max asks. Hopper doesn't respond, only nudging it roughly with his foot. It doesn't respond, only laying limply on the ground.
You then hear a creaking sound come from the door, and turn around sharply, getting your axe back at the ready in case anything was still out there.
You stare horrified at the door as it unlocks itself, and the latch comes from off the hinges.
The door then slowly opens.
White converse stepping slowly inside the house.
One.
Step.
At.
A.
Time.
You lower you axe immediately.
You can't believe your eyes.
You stumble back a step, knowing that this wasn't true.
It couldn't be.
She couldn't be.
You cover your hands over your mouth. You feel your legs giving weigh. You feel someone's arm wrap around your waist in order to steady you.
A broken sob comes out from your mouth as you stand frozen to the spot.
For what you see in front of you
Is Eleven.
Eleven was alive.
——————-
wohooo !! FINALLY EVERYONES REUNITED!!! so happy
anyways, i had a lot of fun writing this chapter, even if not a lot of interesting stuff happened, it was still SUPER long, so i hope you enjoyed it!!
next chapter will be the last of season two, can't believe we're halfway through the book! like bro what. it'll be a long one, like it's literally the longest chapter i have EVER written, and you get a badass main character moment so buckle up.
don't forget to vote if you liked this chapter :)
question of the day - name one thing you love abt yourself :D
word count - 5292