Stranger Things

The Mind Flayer

After a few more minutes of walking, we were at the edge of the lab. Our flashlights must have alerted someone of our presence.

"Hello. Whose there? Whose there?" Jonathan yelled.

"Steve? Tammy?" Jonathan and Nancy said simultaneously.

"Nancy?"

"Jonathan?"

"What are you doing here?" Nancy asked looking outraged.

"What are you doing here?" Steve repeated clearly annoyed to see Nancy and Jonathan together. As much as Steve said he liked and while I believe that, I'm also not naive and know that he still has feelings for Nancy. They only recently just broke up.

"Guys how did it go?" I asked but Nancy and Jonathan were preoccupied.

"We're looking for mike and will" Nancy said

"They're not in there, are they?" Dustin said concerned. Jonathan looked worried and absent the whole time. Thoughts of Will and his mom probably running through his mind.

"We're not sure" Nancy said. Jonathan finely speaking up asked "why?"

Our attention turned as we heard the loud growls of demogorgons coming from inside the lab.

"That's why" I said. "Guys what do we do?" I asked.

Everyone broke into chatter leading to arguments on when Will and Mike were last seen. Nancy grabbed my sleeve pulling me away from the group.

"I slept with Jonathan" Nancy whispered letting out a sigh. The secret must have been bothering here.

"I kissed Steve" I said looking down at the ground avoiding her reaction. Nancy looked like she was about to say something when the lights turned back on at the lab.

"The power's back" Nancy said grabbing the attention of the arguing group. We all ran to the gate attendants booth. Jonathan pushing the button continuously hoping the gate would magically open

"Let me try" Dustin said pushing Jonathan aside.

"Hang on" Jonathan said wanting to still be in control

"Let me try Jonathan" Dustin yelled "son of bitch"

"Dustin watch your mouth" I said. The gate opened and we all sprinted towards the car to drive to the front of the building.

"Wait just in-case they are in there you guys stay" Jonathan said. We all shook our heads okay. Nancy and Jonathan quickly drove off.

We all waited around for them to return when Nancy and Jonathan quickly zoomed past us. Hopper stopped and screamed "Let's go"

Steve and I assisted all the kids into the car before we hopped in. We drove back to the Byers house where hopper called national help. Unfortunately, they didn't believe his story and we were left to fend for ourselves, once again.

Steve and I looked around at the drawings displayed on the walls of the house.

"Will drew these?" Steve asked quite astonished at the mass drawings.

"That's what Mike said. It's suppose to be a map of the holes or tunnels, whatever you want to call them under Hawkins" I said. Mike walked into the kitchen and we both turned our attention towards him.

"We can't let him die in vain" mike said probably referring to Bob.

"What do you want to do mike? The chiefs right on this. We can't stop those demo-dogs on our own" Dustin said.

"Demo-dogs?" Max questioned

"Demogorgon dogs. Demo-dog. It's like a compound. It like a play on words. When it was just dart maybe but now there's an army" Dustin said.

"His army" mike whispered

"What do you mean?" Steve asked.

"His army. Maybe if we stop him we can stop his army too" mike said standing up from the table and rushing to Will's bedroom. We all followed in suit curious as to what Mike was talking about.

Mike grabbed a drawing off the desk in Will's room.

"The shadow monster" Dustin said recognizing the drawing.

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

"And this virus, it's connecting him to the tunnels?" Max asked trying to piece all the information together.

"To the tunnels, to the monsters, to the upside, to everything!" Mike rapidly replied

"Whoa. Slow down. Slow down" Steve said

"Okay, so the shadow monster's inside everything and if the vines feel something like pain, then so does Will" Mike explained. Steve and I were slowly understanding the nonsense Mike was talking about before.

"And so does dart" Lucas added.

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

"Hive mind?" I asked.

"A collective consciousness. It's a super-organism. Keep up Tammy" Dustin said rolling his eyes.

"And this is the thing that controls everything. It's the brain" mike said pointing at the drawing from earlier.

"Like the mind flayer" Dustin said looking like an idea had just gone off in his head. Mike and Lucas sharing looks with each other.

"Is the stupid game you guys play on Sunday?" I asked.

"What?" Max And Steve said in unison. Mike ran to the other side of the bed pulling out a big book and lugging it to the kitchen where Hopper was already located.

Dustin grabbed the book from Mike and threw it down on the table quickly flipping to a certain page.

"The mind flayer" Dustin repeated.

"What the hell is that?" Hopper asked.

"It's a monster from another dimension. It's so ancient that it doesn't even know it's true home. Okay, it enslaved races of other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly-developed psionic powers" Dustin informed trying to probably impress Max with his knowledge.

"Oh my god, none of this is real. This is a kids' game" Hopper said annoyed. Time was ticking and he clearly would rather not spend it listening about D&D.

"No it's a manual. And it's not for kids, and unless you know something that we don't, this the best metha-"

"Analogy" Lucas said interrupting Dustin

"Is this what you guys are like all the time. I can't keep up" I said grabbing my hair and running my hands through it.

"Analogy. That's what you're worried about? Fine. An analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is" Dustin said becoming frustrated. Nancy then interceded trying to understand what this mind flayer wanted.

An argument broke out and was halted by the presence of Joyce who said "They're right. We have to kill it. I want to kill it"

"Me too. Me too Joyce, Okay? But how do we do that. We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here." Hopper said going to comfort a disheveled and upset Joyce.

"No but he does" mike said pointing to Will. "If anyone knows how to destroy this thing it's Will. He's connected to it. He'll know it's weakness" Mike continued.

"I thought we couldn't trust him anymore. That he's a spy for the mind flayer now" Max said

"Yeah but he can't spy if he doesn't know where he is" mike said. We all scrambled around the house making the shed look unrecognizable.