𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐚² | steve h.

016.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
— the shit —

"did you guys know that bob was the original founder of the hawkins AV club?" steve and amelia just stepped out of jonathan's room. steve paid attention to mike, his eyes falling on the young teen, while amelia looked back out to the living room. she looked at sleeping will, a small and sad sigh leaving her rather swollen lips. she wiped with the back of her hand them before joining the kids.

"really?" max followed up with mike's question. he nodded slowly as he admired the teasers. "he petitioned the school to start it and everything. then he had a fundraiser for equipment. mr. clarke learned everything from him. pretty awesome, right?"

"yeah." lucas and dustin nodded. mike put down one of the teasers he carried. "we can't let him die in vain."

"what do you wanna do, mike?" dustin shrugged. "the chief's right on this. we can't stop those demo–dogs on our own."

steve and amelia's brows jumped at the given name to the creatures. "demo–dogs?" max also caught on.

"demogorgon dogs." dustin explained with his hands. "demo–dogs. it's like a compound. it's like a play on words–"

"okay." max stopped him from going on. "i mean, when it was just dart, maybe–"

"but there's an army now." lucas over–spoke. "precisely." dustin murmured.

amelia's brows slowly came down from its furrow. "his army." mike muttered slowly. steve wrinkled his face. "what do you mean?" he asked.

"his army!" mike shouted again. "maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army, too."

mike ran out the dining room to will's room. the party and surprisingly steve and amelia followed too. they walked in as mike grabbed will's drawing of the shadow monster crawling over the byers' front yard.

"the shadow monster." dustin stated. "it got will that day on the field. the doctor said it was like a virus, it infected him."

"and so this virus, it's connecting him to the tunnels?" max inferred.

steve and amelia's brows shot up. "tunnels? what tunnels?" she asked.

"hopper went into these tunnels that the shadow monster's army must've made." mike explained. "he's connected to the monsters, the upside down, everything!"

"woah, slow down, slow down." steve told them.

"okay, so the shadow monster's inside everything." mike began. "and if the vines in the tunnels feel something like, pain... then so does will."

"and so does dart." amelia ended up catching on with a nod.

"yeah, like what mr. clarke taught us," mike looked around the party. "the hive mind."

"the hive mind?" amelia and steve repeated together.

"a collective consciousness. it's a super organism." dustin explained. "and this is the thing that controls everything. it's the brain."

amelia raised her eyebrows, looking unsure. "like bees and it's queen bee?" she guessed somewhat correctly.

"like a mind flayer." dustin added up right afterwards. lucas snapped his fingers, catching on immediately.

˚⁎⁺˳✧༚

dustin slammed a book open to a page with few pictures. "what the hell is that?" hopper asked nonchalantly.