ain't it weird || stranger things x female reader (season 3)

twelve - time to dance

Thursday, July 4, 1985

The Mind Flayer knew they were trying to find him. Or else he wouldn't have sent Tom and Bruce from the Hawkins Post at the hospital to take care of Mrs. Driscoll. Kazuo was unsure what happened to her, but did it really matter? She was flayed. She was on the other side, just like Tom and Bruce who had tried to kill them.

When Nancy and Jonathan got to Mrs. Driscoll's room, they found her bed empty, but the two men from the journal were there, waiting for them. They had occupied themselves with killing everyone on this floor. Some more extra work for Hopper, when he and Joyce would get back from their hike to Illinois.

It was kill or be killed. After a memorable fight, Nancy and Jonathan had managed to get rid of their opponents when something ugly happened. Tom and Bruce's bodies melted, forming some kind of flesh slugs like Kazuo had seen earlier, and merged together to build the horrific monster that nearly killed Nancy.

Now that they were safe, back at Hopper's cabin hidden in the woods, Kazuo wondered how many people were already flayed, and if there would be more sacrificed to form an even bigger flesh monster. Maybe that was why they ate all these chemicals. To melt more easily. The thought made his face twist into a disgusted grimace. But then again, he was no chemist.

They had to find the Mind Flayer before the Mind Flayer found them and sent his monsters. Eleven was working on it, locked in her room for more calm as she searched through the Void for the people they already knew were flayed. And she had been in there for a long time.

"It can't be good for her to be in there for so long," Mike points out once again. He had been restless ever since they had stepped foot in the cabin. Kazuo looks at him from his spot in Hopper's armchair as the boy paces around worriedly.

"Mike, you need to relax," Max tells him.

"What if she gets brain damage or something?"

"Oh, shit," Lucas perks up. "Is that, like, a real thing?"

"No, it's not. He made it up," Max rolls her eyes. "Mike doesn't know what the hell he's talking about."

"Oh, and you do?" Mike argues.

"No, I..."

Kazuo stands up, sighing, and makes his way to the kitchen where the others were actually doing something productive. He was growing tired of this stupid boys v.s. girls war, which was really just still going on thanks to Mike's paranoia.

"Yes, from the Hawkins Post," Nancy was on the phone with a fertilizer company, the fertilizer she had found Mrs. Driscoll eating. They were desperate for hints of what the chemicals were for. "I-I called a couple days ago about the- Yes, yes, um... I was just... following up to see if anything else had gone missing, or if- Okay. Um, sorry to bother-"

Kazuo grabs a box of biscuits on the counter, looks at it for a few seconds, wondering if Hopper would mind him emptying his snack stack, and then shrugs before popping one into his mouth. He deserved it for trying to save the town while the chief of the police was away. Meanwhile, Nancy gets hung up on once again.

"Who's next?" She approaches Jonathan and Will, who were sitting at the counter. Kazuo leans against it, focusing on the phone book Jonathan was browsing.

"There is no next," he says, crossing the name of the last fertilizer company on the page. They had called everyone. "Unless you want to start calling random people's homes."

"Why not," Kazuo shrugs, munching on another biscuit and offering one to Will, who gladly accepts it.

"It doesn't make sense," Nancy ignores his comment, letting out a heavy sigh.