We continued down the dark path of the train tracks, I was still trying to figure out where all of the creatures were headed, and why they all went together.
"And you're positive that was Dart?"
"Yes. He had the same exact yellow pattern on his butt." Dustin stated answering Lucas' question
"But he was tiny two days ago"
"Well, he's molted three times already" Dustin replied
"Malted?" Steve asked looking towards Dustin
"Molted. Shed his skin to make room for growth like hornworms." My younger brother clarified
"When's he gonna molt again?"
"Probably soon. He'll most likely be fully grown" I responded with a guess, I looked over to see Dustin nodding his head in agreeing.
"So will his friends"
"Yeah, and he's gonna eat a lot more than just cats"
"Wait, a cat? Dart ate a cat?" Lucas asked upset forcing Dustin to look at him
"No, what? No." We all had stopped walking
"What are you talking about? He ate Mews." Steve said confused. I had clued in that Dustin had not told any of his friends he had known where Dart was this whole time.
"Mews? Who is Mews?" Max questioned
"It's their family cat." Steve informed her
"Steve!" Dustin yelled so Steve would shut up
"I don't think he told Lucas" I whispered to Steve as I continued standing beside him. We both slowly looked over to a glaring, obviously upset, Lucas.
"I knew it! You kept him!" Lucas yelled lightly pushing Dustin.
"No! No. No, I- Hazel did!" Dustin yelled looking in my direction, a long with the others.
"What? No, Dustin!" I yelled back at him, as everyone returned their sight back to Dustin.
"Sorry. He missed me. He wanted to come home." He explained, facing Lucas once again
"Bullshit!" He yelled
"I didn't know he was a Demogorgon, okay?"
"Oh, no now you admit it?"
"Okay! You two, enough, who cares. It is the middle of the night and we need to go." I yelled back trying to stop their argument
"I care! He put the party in jeopardy! You broke the rule of law!" Lucas yelled back to me and Dustin
"So did you!" Dustin yelled pointing
"What?" Lucas asked confused
"You told a stranger the truth!" Dustin yelled back shining his flashlight in Max's face
"Oh my God" I mumbled rolling my eyes
"A stranger!?" Max argued stepping towards the two boys
"You wanted go tell her too!"
"Yeah but I didn't, Lucas, okay? I didn't tell her!" Dustin yelled. Off in the distance I heard a loud roaring noise, I grabbed the flashlight from Steves hand and started slowly began walking away from the group, as everyone continued bickering.
"Hey guys" I called back keeping my head towards the dark forest. No one had answered me or payed attention so I yelled again.
"Guys!" I yelled while looking back to see Steve halfway towards me and the three kids turning around. I began walking south and the rest started following. I heard Max calling from the back of the group about going south but I continued walking.
"Hey Hazel" Steve called to me as he jogged beside me, with the kids behind us.
"Yeah Steve" I asked still focused ahead of me and the ground not wanting to trip.
"Back there. On the bus." He said stopping his sentence
"Oh, when you risked your life being an idiot to save us?" I asked causing him to laugh slightly.
"No. Not that." He told me as he held my arm back so I would stop moving. The three kids glanced at us but slowly kept walking, trying not to lose sight of us.
"I'm just gonna say it okay?" He said while we faced each other
"Okay." I said quietly
"I know this is a bad time, but I don't know if we are gonna have time later so I am saying it now. I like you, like really, really like you." Steve told me. After he told me I began to smile wildly and slightly chuckling in relief.
"What? What's wrong" he asked nervously
"Nothing is wrong. I really, really, like you too Steve." I told him while we both began smiling as we watched each other.
"Okay love birds. We are a little busy!" Dustin yelled. Steve and I turned around to see all three kids staring at us. I laughed slightly and began looking down to see Steves hand was out, as I looked back up and smiled even more I grabbed onto his hand and we began walking towards the kids.
"I don't see him" Dustin said as we all got to the edge of a giant hill together, looking down into the fog and darkness that has surrounded Hawkins.
"It's the lab. They were going back home." Lucas told us as he pulled his binoculars away from his eyes.
"Can I see?" I asked holding my free hand out towards Lucas, who handed me the binoculars. I pulled them up to my eyes and began scanning through the top of the mist. I saw the lab and only a few giant red lights on but not the major ones.
"We need to get over there now" I say handing Lucas his binoculars. We all hurried our pace as we made our way towards the lab. Steve and I led the way down all the hills to make it to the lab as fast as we could. Once we got down the giant hill I heard someone yelling towards us.
"Hello? Who's there!" They yelled, I had noticed headlights of a vehicle as we got closer and Steve held his bat in his free hand, and my hand in the other, while I had the flashlight in my free hand, with the kids trailing behind us. Once we broke through the woods and made it near the fence we began walking towards the two figures
"Steve? Hazel?" The two voices called out and I immediately dropped Steves hand once I figured out who the voices were.
"Nancy?" Steve called
"Jonathan?" I called as we made our way towards each other
"What are you doing here?" Nancy asked
"What are you doing here?" Steve responded
"We're looking for Mike and Will" Nancy told us as we caught up with one another
"They're not in there, are they?" Dustin asked nervously for his friends
"We're not sure."
"Why?" Jonathan asked looking at Dustin. Before anyone could answer there was a loud screeching noise coming from the lab.
"What was that?" Nancy asked turning to look back at us. We all began bickering asking multiple questions about anything we could think of when all the power in the lab turned back on.
"The power" I called stopping everyone from their arguments. Jonathan had ran to open the fence, but it didn't open.
"Let me try. Let me try, Jonathan!" Dustin yelled running to where Jonathan was. He began rapidly pressing the button but nothing happened.
"Son of a bitch!" He called pressing the button a final few times, then the front gate had opened.
"I got it!" Dustin called as he laughed. We all stood watching at the gate finished opening.
"What now?" I ask
"We go in" Jonathan stated as him and Nancy jumped into his vehicle and drove towards the lab, leaving us behind. I began pacing in circles on the pavement where the vehicle once was. I looked up and saw headlights shining in our direction several feet away
"Guys" I called out and began to move out of the honking vehicles way pulling Max back with me. The first car drove past us and the second car parked.
"Let's go." The driver said, I noticed it was Hopper in his vehicle. Steve quickly ran and opened the door as the kids pushed their way into the backseat. After all the kids went I jumped into the middle front seat beside Hopper, and Steve jumped in beside me.
"Okay! Lets go!" He yelled slamming the door shut as we made our way to the Byers house.
Once we got to the house Jonathan was carrying Will inside to lay on the couch, the rest of us had followed and the remaining kids sat at the kitchen table, while Hopper argued on the phone. I stood near the kitchen sink staring out the window as mike yelled at Hopper. I felt someone touch my arm and I turned around to see Steve standing beside me, giving me a comforting smile, but didn't say anything. Hopper had told us that Bob had died saving everyone.
"Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV?" Mike told us
"Really?"
"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 told everyone as he stepped back towards the table.
"We can't let him die in vain."
"What do you want to do, Mike? The Chief's right on this. We can't stop those Demo-dogs on our own." Dustin told him
"Demo-dogs" Max questioned while everyone looked in her direction
"Demogorgon. Dogs. Demo-dogs. It's like a compound. It's like a play on words you kno-" Dustin didn't get to continue because Max and stopped him.
"I mean, when it was just Dart, maybe..." Dustin focused back on Mike.
"But there's an army now." Lucas told him
"His army." Mike said causing Steve to look up to him.
"What do you mean?"
"His army. Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army too." Mike told us as he ran into the room with Wills creatures drawing.
"It's connecting him to the tunnels, to the upside down, everything." Mike told us all
"Whoa. Slow down. Slow down." Steve told him. So Mike can explain it in a way we would understand
"Like the Mind Flayer" Dustin told us
"The what?
What?
Who?" Steve, Max, and I said at the same time not knowing who the mind flayer is. Dustin ran and got a book and brought it to the kitchen table as everyone in the house gathered around.
"The mind flayer."
"The hell is that?" Hopper asked
"It's a monster from an unknown dimension. 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." Dustin explained to us
"Oh, my God, none of this is real. This is a kids' game." Hopper told everyone rolling his eyes
"No, its a manual. And its not for kids. And unless you know something that we don't, this is the best metaphor—" Dustin stated but was cut off by Lucas correcting him
"Analogy."
"Analogy? That's what you're worried about? Fine. An analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is."
"What does it want" Nancy asked leaning onto the table
"To conquer us. It believes its the master race." Dustin answered her
"Like the Germans?" Steve stammered out trying to understand
"Steve, no that's..." I began but stopped myself not wanting to continue
"Uh, the Nazis?" Dustin told him
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Nazis." Steve stammered once again looking at me and back to Dustin
"If the Nazis were from another dimension, totally. Uh, it views other races, like us, as inferior to itself." Dustin finished
"It was to spread, take over other dimensions." Mike added
"We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it." Lucas said after Mike.
"That's great. That's great. That's really great. Jesus!" Steve said walking away from the table
"Great. So how do you kill this thing? Shoot it with Fireballs or something?" Hopper asked walking to grab the book from Nancy
"No. No, no fire— No fireballs. Uh, you summon an undead army, uh because... because zombies, you know, they don't have brains, and the mind flayer, it... it... it likes brains. It's just a game. It's a game." Dustin told us all
"Well why did you even mention it then, Dustin if its just a game?" I argued
"What the hell are we doing here" Hopper said angrily slamming the book down on the table.
"I thought we were waiting for your military backup." Dustin argued back
"We are!" Hopper yelled back
"Even if they come, how are they gonna stop this? You can't just shoot this with guns." Mike began arguing as well. I took a deep breath in annoyance at us finding no solution through arguing.
"They're right" Joyce said from behind us all.
"We have to kill it. I want to kill it." She said sternly as Hopper walked towards her.
"Me too, me too Joyce, okay? But how do we do that? We don't exactly know what we are dealing with here." Hopped explained to her
"Wait." I said causing everyone to look at me.
"Will. Will is connected to it isn't he? The day at school when we found him in the field, that was the mind flayer wasn't it?" I said as Mike nodded his head
"If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, its Will. He'll know its weakness." Mike said agreeing with me
"I thought we couldn't trust him anymore. That he's a spy for the mind flayer now." Max asked
"Yeah, but he can't spy if he doesn't know where he is." Mike said as him and Jim went out to the Byers shed to clear it out for Will.
Everyone began getting everything ready for Will. I was making my way inside to help Jonathan when Joyce walked past me inside. I continued my way towards Jonathan.
"Hey, need some help." I asked walking towards him
"Yeah, sure." He said cutting a piece of wire from his clothes line. I helped put all the clothes that were hanging up into a basket for when he cut the wire.
"So... you and steve?" He asked smiling as he began rolling up the wire
"Wha-what, are you, uh, talking about?" I asked nervously while shoving one of Joyces shirts into the basket
"I saw you two holding hands back at the lab" he said cutting his last wire. I stood quietly not knowing what to say.
"It's okay. I won't mention it to Nancy, or anyone." He said rolling up the wire he had cut.
"Okay. What about you and Nancy huh?" This time I asked smiling, he began smiling back at me.
"Don't worry. I won't mention it to Steve." I repeated back, allowing Nancy and Jonathan to decide who to tell. I knew something was going on with them, even when Steve and Nancy were together. I could see how happy they were around each other and how she always had a soft spot for him. Maybe Jonathan saw that when I was with Steve.
When we finished with the wire we brought it into the shed where everyone had begun helping to make it unrecognizable to Will. Everyone but Will, Hopper, Jonathan, Mike and Joyce made their way back into the house to wait. We were in the house for a few minutes when the lights began to flicker throughout the house, and suddenly stopping.
"Do you think it was Will?" I asked Steve, he didn't answer but I could tell he agreed with me. We all continued to wait in silence for anyone to fill us in on what is happening with Will. Out of nowhere everyone but Will made their way back into the house.
"What happened?" Dustin asked as Hopper grabbed a sheet of paper and a pen
"I think he's talking just not with words." Hopper said while writing lines and dots on the paper forming Morse code.
"What is that?" Steve asked
"Morse code" the boys and I all said. The words on the sheet formed H-E-R-E.
"Will's still in there. He's talking to us." Hopper said. Jonathan ran to his room and grabbed his stereo and a cassette tape. We set up the table so Hopper could send us the Morse code through the walkie talkie.
"Dash, dot, dash, dot." The boys said writing down what they got, as Lucas looked at the sheet with the morse code alphabet.
"Got it. C" they said to Nancy who had been writing down the letter we find.
"L" the second letter had came through.
"O"
"S" Nancy had written the fourth letter with crayon.
"E"
"G"
"A"
"T"
"E"
Hopper had sent the last letter and we all surrounded Nancy to see what Will wanted us to know.
"Close gate" we all said out loud before the phone began to ring.
"The phone!" I yelled pushing myself off from the chair
"Shit! Shit!" Dustin yelled running to shut it off, but it rang once more. Nancy pulled the phone off the wall and threw it across the room.
"You're going to have to buy Joyce a new phone" I told her as she turned around
"Do you think he heard that?" Max asked
"It's just a phone. It could be anywhere, right?" Steve stated. We all stood waiting to see what would happen next, when there was another loud roaring.
"That's not good" Dustin said as we all gathered together inside the house. The kids sat on the couch leaning near the windows when Jim walked in.
"Get away from the windows!" He yelled holding two guns
"Can you use this?" He yelled towards Jonathan
"I can" Nancy called out as Jim threw the gun for Nancy to catch. Everyone got in position and I stood next to Steve and Hopper before Steve began to push me behind him, towards Dustin.
"Where are they?" Max asked behind Lucas who has his sling shot. The growling got louder and louder.
"What are they doing?" Nancy asked as we all turned to the right where we heard the growling get louder.
The bushes began to rustle and the noise had gotten louder towards the front of the house again. Steve held his one hand out to make sure I was behind him, as I held my arm around my younger brothers shoulder to keep him with me. Out of nowhere the screeching stopped and a demo-dog was thrown through the window, causing us to all jump back. Hopper had his gun pointed to it just in case it made any indication it was still alive.
"Holy shit" Dustin said breaking the silence
"Is it dead?" Max asked as we all began slowly walking towards it.
"Hopper poke it or something" I spoke from behind Steve
"I'm not gonna poke it" he said sticking his boot out to kick the head. The door began to creak and I jumped and grabbed onto Steves arm. The door lock had fallen slide out and opened, as the Hopper stepped towards the door holding his gun. Once the door opened, Hopper had lowered his weapon, and we all saw Eleven walk into the house. Her hair was slicked back and she black eye makeup and a bloody nose. I quickly turned my head to see Mike walking towards her.
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Whoaaaaa only one chapter/episode left !!! Thank you everyone who has read the story and has enjoyed it, I love Stranger Things and I love Steve so this writing this makes me very happy. This is also going to be the first story I have completed and I am so excited. Season 3 better come and come fast because I miss mom Steve :(