MY TEARS RICOCHET 𛲕 STRANGER THINGS

29. Spycraft

CHAPTER 29: Spycraft

Darkness always finds you either way
It creeps into the corners as the moment fades
A voice your body jumps to calling your name
But after this I'm never going to be the same
— First Light, Hozier

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

November 4th, 1984: Byers Home

DAPHNE LEANED AGAINST THE COUNTER OF THE BYERS' kitchen, her eyes drifting absently over the assortment of sketches plastered across the walls of the small house. According to the others, the demogorgons were travelling through Hawkins via underground tunnels, which had some sort of connection to Will. It was all very confusing and Daphne was still trying to wrap her head around it when Mike burst into the kitchen with a crumpled-up sketch in his hand.

"The shadow monster," Dustin was saying as he followed him in, the small group crowding around to listen.

Daphne made her way over to them, taking the sketch out of Mike's hand to get a closer look. It was a massive creature with long, spider-like legs and a sheet of dark clouds hanging above its head. From what she had inferred, Will had been having nightmares about this creature ever since he returned from the Upside Down, and eventually, it had managed to possess him.

"It got Will that day on the field," Mike informed them. "The doctor said it was like a virus, it infected him."

"And so this virus, it's connecting him to the tunnels?" asked Max, who seemed to have adjusted to the revelation of the supernatural surprisingly well.

"To the tunnels, monsters, the Upside Down, everything."

"Whoa," Steve stopped them, much to Daphne's relief. She felt like her head was about to implode from all the information she was receiving at once. "Slow down, slow down."

"Okay, so the shadow monster's inside everything. And if the vines feel something like pain, then so does Will."

"And so does Dart," Lucas added.

"Yeah. Like what Mr Clarke taught us. The hive mind."

Daphne flashed back to middle school science classes, wishing she'd paid closer attention when Mr Clarke would ramble on about his favourite scientific theories. From what she could recall, a hive mind was when a super organism was controlled by one centralised body. Kill the central organism and kill everything that's attached to it.

"This is the thing that controls everything," Mike was explaining to Steve, who still looked visibly baffled. "It's the brain."

"Like the mind flayer," Dustin added, causing everyone to look over at him.

Lucas snapped his fingers at the boy, instantly understanding what he meant — as did Mike. Daphne, Steve and Max, however, had no idea. "The what?"

"Oh my God, you are so not prepared for this," mumbled Dustin. "We need to get Hop and the others."

After a few minutes of rummaging through Will's belongings, they were all standing around the Byers' kitchen table, staring expectantly at the book that Dustin had just slammed onto it. From what Daphne could tell, it was a Dungeons and Dragons book. Needless to say, unless Dustin was planning on throwing it at the demogorgons, she wasn't quite sure how it was going to help them right now.

"The thing that's possessing Will — it's like the Mind Flayer," explained Dustin, flipping rapidly through the book until he came across the right page.