𝐢 𝐜𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐦𝐲𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟

vii. THE MIND FLAYER

AFTER SEARCHING for the D&D books, Dustin sets down the book onto the table, the page open on what Icarus could see was a photos of creatures and the description of them.

"The mind flayer." Dustin says as he looks up. Icarus stood on one side of the curly haired boy as Steve stood on the other side. "What the hell is that?" Hopper asked as Icarus assumed he would. "It's a monster from an unknown dimension. It's so ancient that it doesn't even know its true home." Dustin said and everyone remains silent.

"Okay, it enslaves races of other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly-developed psionix powers." Dustin explained further. "Oh, my God, none of this is real. This is a kids' game." Hopper said. "No, it's a manual. And it's not for kids." Dustin defended right away. "And unless you know something that we don't, this is the best metaphor." Dustin said, pointing to the book. "Analogy." Lucas corrects.

"Analogy? That's what you're worried about? Fine. An analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is." Dustin said, looking down. "Okay, so this mind flayer thing, what does it want?" Icarus asked before looking at Dustin between him and Steve. "To conquer us, basically. It believes it's the master race." Dustin explained. "Like the Germans?" Steve stammered as he asked and Icarus looks at him, he gave him a confused look right away.

"Uh, the Nazis?" Dustin asked and Steve looks at Icarus, his cheeks turning red. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Nazis." He said, embarrassed a thirteen year old had to correct him. "Uh... If the Nazis were from another dimension, totally." Dustin says. "Uh, it views other races, like us, as inferior to itself."

"It wants to spread, take over other dimensions." Mike said as he looks at Steve then Lucas who spoke next. "We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it." He said and Icarus sighs. "That's great. That's great. That's really great. Jesus!" Steve said as he turns away. "Stevie—" "Okay, so this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything," Nancy said, cutting off Icarus as she picks up the book, walking around Dustin and Icarus. "Then if we kill it.." She paused.

"We kill everything it controls." Mike says. "We win." Dustin says and Icarus looks at Steve again. "Theoretically." Lucas says. "Great. So how do you kill this thing? Shoot it with Fireballs or something?" Hopper said as he grabs the book from Nancy. "No. No, no Fire— No fireballs." Dustin said, trying to be serious as he tells him.

"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 says, looking down and Icarus sighs. "What the hell are we doing here?" Hopper says, closing the book and throwing it onto the table. "I thought we were waiting for your military backup." Icarus said to him.

"We are!" Hopper says, turning around. "Even if they come, how are they gonna stop this? You can't just shoot this with guns." Mike says to him. "You don't know that! We don't know anything!" Hopper shouts at him. "We know it's already killed everybody in that lab." Mike argued back.

"And we know the monsters are gonna molt again." Lucas helps with arguing against Hopper. "And we know that it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town." Dustin also helps arguing. "They're right." Everyone looks over at Joyxe standing in the hall. "We have to kill it."

Hopper starts to walk over to her. "I want to kill it." She says. "Me, too. Me, too, Joyce, okay? But how do we do that? We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here." Hopper says.

"No. But he does." Mike said, looking at Will who was still unconscious, laying on the couch. "If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's Will. He's connected to it. He'll know it's weakness." He continued to explain as he walks into the livingroom. "I thought we couldn't trust him anymore." Max says as they follow him.