American Heroes: A Stranger Things 3 Fic

The New Host

Will wakes up to the sun glaring in at him through the window. He sits up, stretching, before realizing he's not in his own bed. He's on the floor, and on the bed next to him are Max and Eleven. Max is showing Eleven a comic while brushing her hair. Will rubs his eyes, groaning. He goes to check his watch, but it's not there. He must have left it at his house. "What time is it?"

Max glances at her watch. "Twelve fifteen."

Will jolts up. "What?! Why didn't you wake me up?"

She makes a face at him. "You never told us to wake you. Do you have to be somewhere? "

Will groans. "I was supposed to meet Dustin at the mall at nine, and Mike and Lucas don't know I'm here. Can I use your Supercom to tell them what's going on?"

Max shrugs. "Well, since you're here, what's the rush? You can tell Mike and Lucas after you've explained to us what's going on."

El leans over her shoulder and looks at Will. "You were going to tell us about the Mind Flayer."

Will folds his arms. "But Mike and Lucas are probably wondering where I am. If they go to the mall looking for me, and Dustin doesn't know where I am either, they're going to get worried."

"They can wait," Max insists, boring her eyes into Will's. "I'm not letting you use my Supercom until you tell us what's going on."

"Why not?"

"Because you came here to tell us about the Mind Flayer, and it's your own fault for not telling Mike and Lucas that you're here."

Will sighs, running a hand through his hair before giving in and taking a seat on the side of Max's bed. "Okay, well, I was thinking that maybe the part of the Mind Flayer that was in me last year, somehow got locked out here with us after you closed the gate."

"How do you even know it's here?" Max asks.

"I guess... I sort of get this feeling whenever he's close."

"What kind of feeling?"

"Like... have you ever dropped on a roller coaster?"

"Yeah," Max says.

"No," says El.

"Well, it's sort of like that... like everything in your body is just sinking, all at once. Only this is worse. A lot worse. Your body... it goes cold, and you can't breathe. I... I felt it first at Day of the Dead, then again in the field when we were putting up Cerebro, and yesterday in Steve's car right before we ran into you."

"But how is it here again?" El asks.

Will pauses, thinking. "A part of it attached itself to me, that day in the field at school. My mom got it out of me, and you closed the gate... but what if that part that was still in me is still in our world? In Hawkins."

"I don't understand," Max says. "The demodogs died when El closed the gate. If the brain dies, the body dies. How is it still alive?"

"I can't explain it exactly, but if he's back, that means he'd want to attach himself to someone again. A new me."

Max looks at El who leans forward. "How do we know who it's attached itself to?" El asks.

"Assuming we would even know the person, they would probably be acting different. The Mind Flayer, he likes it cold, so whoever is his new host would do whatever they can to avoid the heat."

Max and El glance at each other knowingly.

"What is it?" Will asks.

"I think we might know who the new host is," El says.