𝐎𝐂𝐓𝐎𝐁𝐄𝐑
𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍: thirteen or thirty
CINDY HELD THE flashlight tightly in her hand as she walked down the train tracks, her brother to her left and Dustin to her right.
Max and Lucas walked steadily behind the trio, their occasional pants being the only sound eliciting through their group as they made their way back to where Steve's car was parked at the edge of the woods.
Lucas sighed loudly, breaking the lingering silence as he opened his mouth to speak.
"You're positive that was Dart?"
"Yes," Dustin muttered in annoyance, seeing as his friend had asked him this many times since the group had fled the junkyard, "He had the same exact yellow pattern on his butt."
Max furrowed her ginger eyebrows from behind him. "He was tiny two days ago."
"Well," Dustin sighed, "he's molted three times already."
Cindy kept her head down, her brown eyes trained solely on watching as her sneakers crunched against the copper leaves that blanketed the tracks. Her sneakers were once white, and while she had never been adamant that they stayed in perfect, clean condition, she grimaced silently as she took in their slight brown tint.
"—Malted?" Steve asked from beside her, shaking his head in confusion as he glanced over at the Henderson boy.
Keeping his eyes straight ahead, Dustin shook his head slightly in response. "Molted. Shed his skin to make more room for growth like hornworms."
"When's he gonna molt again?" Asked Max, her eyes focused on the back of the boy's head.
"It's gotta be soon," Dustin stated, "When he does, he'll be fully grown, or close to it. And so will his friends."
A sigh left Cindy, and for a moment, she wondered how Dustin could know such a thing. He was incredibly smart, smarter than he was given credit for, that was for sure. Cindy, although she didn't show it much, admired the way her curly-haired friend had such a determination to know as many things as possible, even if it sometimes meant he corrected her constantly.
"Yeah," Steve scoffed, nudging Cindy in the ribs with his elbow as he turned to her and Dustin, "and he's gonna eat a lot more than just cats."
Cindy raised her hand, bringing it back quickly and hitting her older brother in the chest swiftly.
"Steve, shut up."
"Wait," Lucas stopped abruptly, yanking Dustin back by his shoulder, "a cat?"
Dustin looked at his friend with wide eyes, desperately trying—and failing—to conceal the truth.
"Dart ate a cat?"
"No, what?" Dustin shook his head, "No."
"What are you talking about?" Steve muttered, glancing down at Cindy, furrowing his brows as his sister glared at him with warning eyes, "He ate Mews."
"Steve!" Cindy called, throwing her hands in the air aggravatedly as Max shook her head from beside her.
"Mews?" The redhead asked, peering between the Harrington siblings with confused eyes, "Who's Mews?"
"Don't," Cindy held up a hand in her brother's direction, "Don't answer that."
With a soft scoff, Steve pushed Cindy's hand away, looking back up at where Dustin and Lucas stood.
"It's Dustin's cat."
"Steve!" Dustin shouted, groaning at the older Harrington while Cindy slapped a hand against her forehead.
"I knew it!" Lucas pushed on Dustin's shoulder, "You kept him!"
"No!" Dustin muttered, "No. No, I... No, I..."
Cindy, Max, Steve, and Lucas each stared at the boy, brows furrowed as he stammered.
"He missed me," Dustin confessed, "He wanted to come home."
Lucas scoffed. "Bullshit!"
"I didn't know he was a Demogorgon, okay?"
"Oh, so now you admit it?"
"Guys, who cares?" Max interrupted their bickering with pleading eyes, "We have to go."
But Lucas persisted, turning back to glare at Dustin.
"I care! You put the party in jeopardy! You broke the rule of law!"
"—So did you!" Dustin pushed a finger into Lucas' chest.
"—What?"
"You told a stranger the truth!" Dustin flicked the switch on his flashlight before shining it in Max's face, who squinted her eyes at the sudden light.
A scoff tumbled from her lips. "A stranger?"
"You wanted to tell her too!"
"But I didn't, Lucas, okay? I didn't tell her!"
"Guys," Cindy grumbled, "Just drop it, alright?"
Dustin's gaze flickered towards Cindy for a moment before dropping back onto Lucas.
"We both broke the rule of law, okay? So we're even. We're even."
"No, no!" Lucas waved his arms around dramatically, "We're not even. Don't even try that. Your stupid pet could have ate us for dinner!"
"That was not my fault!"
"Oh, my God," Cindy groaned, pressing a bony finger against her temple and rubbing it gently.
"Guys?" Steve called, and Cindy allowed her eyes to dart in his direction, leaning her head against the finger that was resting against her temple.
Steve stood on the edge of the woods, flashlight scouring over where the tree trunks met the floor of the forest. Cindy moved her attention away from her friends, who, despite her and Max's protests, continued to bicker.
"Guys!"
The group of children turned abruptly, facing the older Harrington with wide eyes. Cindy rolled her eyes as their words halted on their tongues just as a faint screeching carried through the trees. She took a deep breath, blowing air through her nostrils as she took a shaky step towards her brother, her hands balling into nervous fists at her sides.
Steve slung the nailed bat over his shoulder before looking down at his feet. Stepping over the tracks, he set off into the woods, Cindy following closely behind him, her hands sweaty and quivering.
"No, no, no. Hey, guys," Max called after them, seeing as Dustin and Lucas ran to catch up with the siblings, "why are you headed towards the sound?"
Cindy pumped her legs quickly, her calves burning slightly as she attempted to keep up with her older brother's longer strides. Eventually, after sloshing through the muddy surface of the forest floor, with an assortment of leaves and pine needles sticking to the tops of her sneakers, Cindy broke through the edge of the forest, trailing after Steve as they made it to a grassy hill overlooking the town.
Dustin shook his head slightly, breathing heavily as he stopped at Cindy's side.
"I don't see him."
Lifting his binoculars to his eyes, Lucas surveyed the area before speaking.
"It's the lab."
He rose a finger, pointing hesitantly in the direction of the source.
"They were going back home."
✽
The group had escalated down the hill, finding themselves trekking through yet another bundle of trees. Cindy shined her flashlight in every direction, breathing in and out through her nostrils as she tried to keep her rising nerves at bay.
It was obvious they were near the edge of the woods, seeing as they could see a large patch of flat, grassy ground through the trees. As they ventured further and further, a voice echoed around them, what sounded like a boy's voice calling out to whoever was there lingering in the trees.
The voice wasn't familiar, at least, not with the trees surrounding them muffling the voice. It was only when they broke through the woods did the voice register with each member of the group. Steve, being at the front of the group of children, tilted his flashlight up, letting it scan over the owner of the unknown voice.
An unintentional scoff left Cindy Harrington's lips as her eyes focused on who stood in front of her. Not only was there one person, but two. A boy and a girl.
Jonathan Byers and Nancy Wheeler.
"Steve?" The pair said in unison, and Cindy, in an attempt to hide it, rolled her eyes as she glanced down at her shoes.
Her brother shook his head beside her. "Nancy?"
"What are you doing here?" Nancy spat, both her and Jonathan taking several steps towards the group.
"What are you doing here?" Steve repeated, furrowing his eyebrows as he glanced between his girlfriend and Jonathan.
"We were looking for Mike and Will," Nancy stated, shrugging her shoulders as if it were obvious.
Dustin pointed towards the lab, which Cindy realized was completely dead, showing no signs of life whatsoever.
"They're not in there, are they?"
Nancy let her gaze drift between Jonathan and Steve. "We're not sure."
"Why?" Jonathan spoke, his tone low and quiet as usual.
A screech rang out in the distance, forcing the entire group to glance towards the lab with worried filled eyes. The lab howled with life, and Cindy could only imagine how loud the Demo-dogs had to be shrieking if she and her friends were able to hear it from a few yards away.
A familiar tingle shuddered through her, making her stomach churn within her body. Anxiety crawled its way up her neck, sinking its talons into her flesh and clinging to her so tightly that she couldn't shake the incessant thoughts that boggled her mind.
The realization that Mike was inside the walls of the rogue lab struck her, and Cindy could feel the goosebumps rising to her skin. Any ounce of anger she held towards him vanished, the thought that she could never see him again too prominent to worry about a childish argument.
She wasn't even entirely sure what Mike was to her at this point.
Was he her boyfriend?
Her best friend?
Her best friend that was also sort of like her boyfriend?
The labels were endless, but they meant nothing if she lost Mike, and she begged any God that would listen to keep him alive. Cindy Harrington didn't have much in life that made her happy, but the few things she did have were what kept her going, what reminded her of who she was.
And those things, those people, meant everything to her. They kept her sane, kind, humble, loyal.
Her mother, Steve, Dustin, Lucas, Max, Mike, Eleven, they were the people who made Cindy Harrington who she was.
It wasn't the money, the large house on the hill, the clothes, or the looks that made her a good person, no, it never had been. It had always been them. And it always would be.
✽
Cindy Harrington sat at the Byers' kitchen table, her head resting on Mike's shoulder as she stared blankly her hands tangled together in her lap. Mike stood slowly, smiling softly down at her before pacing towards the living room, the sound of paper crunching under his sneakers as he stepped on one of Will's drawings that covered the walls of the small home.
Cindy watched the raven-haired boy carefully, her eyes skimming over his frame as he halted in front of an end table placed beside the worn couch. He bent over, picking something up and cradling it in his palms gently.
"Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV?"
Mike's words seemed to pull the rest of their friends from their own minds, looking at him with tired eyes, their bodies slumped over in their chairs. Yet, a soft smile rose to Cindy's lips, breathing air through her nostrils as she stared intently at the back of Mike's head.
"Really?" Lucas spoke into the lingering silence.
Turning around slowly, Mike's eyes met Lucas' before falling to Cindy's, a close-lipped smile appearing on his face as he registered the girl had already been watching his every move.
He nodded, eyes moving back onto Lucas'. "He petitioned the school to start it and everything. Then he had a fundraiser for equipment."
Mike took a few steps closer smiling as he neared the kitchen table. "Mr. Clarke learned everything from him. Pretty awesome, right?"
Dustin and Lucas met eyes, smiling sadly before looking away. "Yeah."
Cindy glanced back down at her hands, resting them in front of her, her small fingers locked together. Mike stood behind her chair now, placing a hand carefully on the back of the chair.
"We can't let him die in vain," Mike shook his head, glancing at each of his friends.
"What do you want to do, Mike?" Dustin interjected, his sudden change of tone causing Cindy to flinch slightly, "The Chief's right on this. We can't stop those Demo-dogs on our own."
"Demo-dogs?" Max asked from her spot beside Cindy, her eyebrows raised questioningly.
Dustin snapped his gaze onto her, an unamused expression crossing his features.
"Demogorgon. Dogs," He motioned his hands in a way that separated the two objects before moving them together as they formed into one, "Demo-dogs. It's like a compound. It's like a play on words—"
"—Okay," Max nodded quickly.
Dustin sighed before looking back up at Mike. "—I mean, when it was just Dart, maybe..."
"—But there's an army now," Lucas stated as Dustin nodded.
"Precisely."
"—His army," Mike spoke, staring blankly at the table as thoughts flooded his mind.
"What do you mean?" Steve asked, turning to face the younger Wheeler with furrowed brows.
"His army," Mike repeated, peering at each of his friends as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army, too."
Mike darted down the hallway of the home, his friends scrambling to catch up with him as they entered Will's bedroom, leaning over Mike's shoulder as he held a piece of paper in his hands.
It was a drawing of Will's, Cindy guessed, judging by the details and intricate, complicated designs etched across the paper. On it was a black figure, with arms branching out of its body and stretching onto the ground, red lightning striking in the background.
"The shadow monster?" Cindy mused, tracing her brown eyes over the scribbled black lines of the creature.
Mike nodded, meeting her gaze as she glanced up at him. "It got Will that day on the field. The doctor said it was like a virus, it infected him."
"And so this virus," Max stared down at the drawing, "it's connecting him to the tunnels?"
"To the tunnels, monsters, the Upside Down, everything," Mike nodded quickly.
"Whoa," Steve held his hands out in front of him, reaching over Cindy's shoulder to grab the drawing, looking closely at it as he held it in his own hands, "Slow down. Slow down."
"Okay, so," Mike breathed, "the shadow monster's inside everything. And if the vines feel something like pain, then so does Will."
"—And so does Dart," Lucas interjected.
"Yeah," Mike nodded slowly, "Like what Mr. Clarke taught us. The hive mind."
"Hive mind?" Steve shook his head, peering down at Cindy, who opened her mouth, but closed it again as she wasn't sure how to explain it.
"A collective consciousness. It's a super-organism," Dustin spoke for the younger Harrington, smiling softly as she nodded in approval.
Mike took the drawing from Steve's fingers gently, careful not to tarnish it in any way. "And this is the thing that controls everything. It's the brain."
Dustin's eyes widened as Mike tapped a finger against the black figure scribbled into the thin paper. "Like the mind flayer."
A gasp came from Cindy, priding herself in that she recalled the boys educating her on the Dungeons & Dragons villain. Lucas snapped, pointing at her with a knowing look in his eyes.
Max and Steve glanced at each other before peering between the party members, totally unaware of what they were talking about.
"The what?
"What?"
A light bulb went off in the younger Harrington's brain. Extending an arm out in front of her, she clasped her hand onto Dustin's forearm, looking up at him with wide eyes.
"Do you have your manual?"
A scoff left the Henderson's lips. "You know I do."
"Then what are we standing around for?" Cindy groaned, rolling her eyes as she released his arm from her grip before running towards the door, making her way down the hall and back to the kitchen, her friends trailing quickly behind her.
Mike gathered Hopper, Joyce, Jonathan, and Nancy, and soon enough everyone was crowded around the table, uncomfortably crammed into the small kitchen.
Slamming his manual onto the table, Dustin flipped the book open to the exact page, as if he knew where to find it by memory.
"The mind flayer."
"What the hell is that?" Hopper muttered, his arms crossed over his chest as he carelessly glanced down at the black and white pictures on the book's page.
"It's a monster from an unknown dimension. It's so ancient that it doesn't even know it's true home. It enslaves races of other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly-developed psionic powers."
"Oh, my God," Hopper groaned, rolling his eyes and glaring at the wall in front of him, "none of this is real. This is a kids' game."
"No, it's a manual," Dustin defended, "And it's not for kids. And unless you know something that we don't, this is the best metaphor—"
"—Analogy," Lucas corrected, shoving his hands in his pockets as he stared at the open book.
Dustin's eyes widened, annoyance pooling in the depths of his pupils. "Analogy? That's what you're worried about?"
Lucas shrugged, raising his thick eyebrows in his friend's direction while crossing his arms over his chest defensively.
"Fine," Dustin sighed, "An analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is."
"—Okay," Nancy raised her hands in front of her, shaking her head slowly as she leaned in closer to get a better look at the picture on the book's page, "so this mind flamer thing—"
"—Flayer. Mind flayer."
A sigh left Nancy as she shook her head curtly. "What does it want?"
"To conquer us, basically," Dustin stated, "It believes it's the master race."
"Oh," Steve nodded, nudging Cindy in the ribs with his knuckles, "Like the Germans?"
Blinking slowly, the younger Harrington peered up at her older brother, lips parting as she searched his eyes, realizing he was being serious.
"You mean," Cindy raised her hand, placing it on his shoulder, a concerned expression written across her features, "Like the Nazis?"
An awkward silence filled the air as the siblings stared at each other. Steve let his eyes bounce off of his sister's, his gaze darting around in front of him for a few moments before he nodded quickly.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Steve met Cindy's stare once again, nodding frantically as if he had known it the whole time, "the Nazis."
Dustin glanced between the siblings with a confused expression before continuing his train of thought.
"Uh...if the Nazis were from another dimension, totally. Uh, it views other races, like us, as inferior to itself."
"It wants to spread," Mike nodded, leaning over on his hands, "take over other dimensions."
"We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it," Lucas added, pressing a finger against the surface of the table repeatedly.
"That's great," Steve nodded, pushing off the table and turning on his heel, running a hand through his messy hair, "That's great. That's really great."
Nancy shook her head, sighing. "Okay, so if this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything, then if we kill it..."
"We kill everything it controls."
"We win."
✽
The plan had fallen into place suddenly. The party figured that, while they couldn't necessarily trust Will, as he was a spy for the mind flayer, they could use him to the best of his ability. They figured they could use Will as their own spy, turn the tables on the mind flayer and use Will for his knowledge, as long as neither Will or the mind flayer knew where he was.
Each member of the group had been assigned to a different task. Steve and Nancy were covering the walls of the Byers old shed with an array of tarps, hoping to cover anything that could aid the mind flayer in determining where Will was located. Dustin, Lucas, and Max were sifting through the Byers trash cans, searching for anything they could use to cover the walls of the shed in case the tarps Nancy and Steve had used missed a spot.
Joyce, Hopper, and Jonathan were focused on Will's safety, executing a plan on how to wake him, how to restrain him, and how to put him back to sleep if their plan went downhill. Lastly, Mike and Cindy were in charge of sorting through the Byers cleaning cabinet, hunting for a chemical strong enough to wake Will quickly.
Silence lingered between them as they sat in front of the kitchen sink, where the cabinet was tucked into. Cindy carefully ripped pieces of duct tape off the spool, glancing in Mike's direction as he set a jug of ammonia beside him.
Their eyes met slowly, silently searching each other's features as unspoken words hung in the air, waiting patiently to be heard.
"Something's bothering you," Cindy muttered, her dark brows creasing slightly, her stare never moving away from his chestnut-colored irises.
Mike's lips quirked, a small smile crossing his face as he watched her. He didn't know how she did it, but he realized then that it was impossible to keep anything from Cindy Harrington. It wasn't that she looked for things to be wrong, or that she was nosy. She cared deeply for the people she loved, cared for them more than she ever cared for herself, and his smile widened, a soft chuckle leaving him as he looked down at his hands.
"I'm sorry," He spoke, voice level and careful as if he were afraid to surprise her with his words.
"What?" Cindy shook her head, brows furrowing completely now as she scanned over him, wondering if she had misheard him.
"About that day," Mike answered, shaking his head timidly as he moved his eyes back onto hers, "The day after the mind flayer got Will."
"Oh," Cindy's lips parted slightly, the memories of that horrible day flooding back into her mind.
"I shouldn't have said those things about you," Mike shook his head, "None of them were true. I only said them because I was upset, and it wasn't right for me to want to make you upset too."
"Mike—"
"—And," He spoke, watching as she opened her mouth to speak but closed it instead, "I was jealous, which was stupid and I don't know why I even talked to you like that—"
"—Mike," Cindy smiled, her tone playful as she stopped him, "It's okay."
With parted lips, he stared at her, searching her features to make sure she wasn't just saying it to make him shut up.
But, just as Mike had predicted, she read his mind. Cindy nodded, her smile widening on her lips as she leaned forward, taking his hand in her own.
"It's okay."
"I just..I don't want you to think that I think I can control you—"
"—Mike!" Cindy laughed lightly, shaking her head curtly, "What is up with you?"
"Nothing," The sound of her laugh made him smile toothily, "I just want you to know I didn't mean it. Any of it. And I'm happy you like Max, I really am. But I was jealous, of her, and when I said those about you, I knew I was wrong. You were just trying to be her friend, and I was selfish and wanted you all to myself. I didn't want you to like Max because I didn't want you to forget me."
Cindy sat there for a moment, moving her eyes from left to right as she searched his eyes carefully before smiling widely, laughing to herself. She moved closer to him, placing both hands over his cheeks, tilting her head to the side.
"I'm never gonna forget you," She whispered, her thumb grazing over his cheekbone slowly.
She stared at him for a moment, taking in how beautiful he looked in the pale moonlight that poured through the windows of the small kitchen. She didn't care what anyone said, whether she was thirteen or thirty, she loved Michael Wheeler more than she had ever loved anyone in her entire life.
He kept her grounded, kept her real, kept her golden. He knew her maybe even better than she knew herself, accepted her for who she was, cared for her when she swore no one else did, and he was always on her side, even when she was wrong.
And so, as they sat silently in the Byers kitchen, her hands pressed against his cheeks gently, Cindy wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him close to her like it was the last time. His arms circled around her, squeezing her tightly as his head fell to her shoulder, and she lifted her hand, tangling her fingers into his raven hair, moonlight clinging to their skin as they held each other like they were the only two people in the world.
（this chapter has been revised and edited as of october 5, 2020）