— 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐅𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫 —

HAND IN hand, Steve and I walked in front of the kids as we followed the path the Demogorgon took. After a few minutes, I let go of his hand and held onto my axe that was resting on top of my shoulder. I noticed him look at me when I did so, but I tried my best to avoid his gaze. Instead, I focused on the chatter behind me and the rustling of the trees.

"You're positive that was Dart?" Lucas asks.

"Yes. He had the same exact yellow pattern on his butt." Dustin answers, quickening his pace to squish himself between Steve and I.

"He was tiny two days ago." Max says.

"Well, he's molted three times already." Dustin says.

"Malted?" Steve asks.

"Molted." Dustin corrects.

I look over at Steve.

"It means he shed his skin so he can grow more, pretty much." I say.

He smiles at me and then Dustin speaks again.

"Like hornworms." Dustin adds.

"When's he gonna molt again?" Max asks.

"It's gotta be soon." Dustin says, "When he does, he'll be fully grown, or close to it. And so will his friends."

"Like the Demogorgon we fought at the Byers' place." I say.

"Yeah," Steve says, "And he's gonna eat a lot more than just cats."

"Wait," Lucas walks in front of Dustin and we all stop, "A cat? Dart ate a cat?"

"No, what? No." Dustin says.

"What are you talking about?" Steve says, "He ate Mews."

Dustin opens his mouth and looks at Steve.

"Mews? Who's Mews?" Max asks, looking at me.

"It's Dustin's cat." I say.

"(Y/N)! Steve!" He scolds us.

"I knew it! You kept him!" Lucas yells.

"No!" Dustin defends, "No, I... He missed me. He wanted to come home."

"Bullshit!" Lucas says.

"I didn't know he was a Demogorgon, okay?" Dustin defends.

"Oh, so now you admit it." Lucas argues.

"Guys, who cares? We have to go." Max says.

Suddenly, I hear something coming from the woods. It almost sounded like a screeching noise.

"I care! You put the party in jeopardy! You broke the rule of law!" Lucas continues to argue.

"Guys?" I say trying to get their attention, but only Steve looks over at me.

"So did you!" Dustin yells back at Lucas.

I hear the sound again and I start to walk towards the side of the woods where it was coming from.

"(Y/N)?" Steve asks me and continues to follow me.

I put a finger up and wait for a sound again. After a second, I hear it again and then look over at Steve, seeing that he noticed it as well.

"Hey, guys?" Steve tries to get the groups attention.

They continue to argue.

"Guys!" Steve yells at them.

They all turn to look at us and another screeching noise rings out through the trees. Steve starts to walk towards the sound and I follow.

"No, no, no. Hey, guys, why are you headed towards the sound?" Max says.

We continue walking and make it to the edge of the woods. We all look off into the distance and Lucas raises his binoculars.

"It's the Lab." He says, "They were going back home."

We continue to walk towards the direction of Hawkins Lab, much to the displeasure of Max who insisted that we go back. I walk a bit ahead of the group so that I don't have to deal with the complaining and Steve speeds up to walk next to me.

"Hey, you okay?" He asks me.

I chuckle.

"As okay as I can be, considering I just bashed a Demogorgon's head in and now we are heading to the source."

"Yeah, I get that." He says.

We stay silent for a moment until he speaks again.

"So, where is Nancy?"

"What?" I ask.

"When I went over to her house yesterday Dustin said she wasn't home." He says.

"Oh, yeah. I was looking for her too." I say.

He stays silent and looks over at me. I look back at him and he looks down at his feet.

"Can you just tell me one thing?" He asks.

I furrow my brows.

"What is it?" I ask.

He pauses for a moment and then continues.

"Is she with Jonathan right now?"

I stay silent and he sighs.

"I don't know, Steve." I say.

"Please," He pleads, "Just tell me the truth."

I shake my head.

"The last I heard, they were going to do something. I think it had something to do with the Lab, but I don't know." I say.

He shakes his head and looks ahead.

"I didn't go with them because I felt guilty keeping this secret from Nancy." I say.

He stays silent.

"Did you ever end up telling her?" I ask him.

He opens his mouth to say something, but suddenly we hear someone calling out. The kids stop chatting and we make our way through the trees and finally to the street in front of the Lab. I see a car and then I hear the voices again.

"Steve?" Nancy and Jonathan say at the same time.

"Nancy?" Steve asks.

"(Y/N?)" Jonathan asks.

"Jonathan!" I say, running up to him.

I lean my axe up against a gate and I engulf him in a hug. He rubs my back for a moment and then lets go. The rest of the group walks towards us.

"What are you doing here?" Nancy says, sounding aggravated.

"What are you doing here?" Steve says, sounding equally peeved.

"We're looking for Mike and Will." Nancy responds.

"They're not in there are they?" Dustin asks, pointing to the Lab.

"We're not sure." Nancy says.

"Why?" Jonathan asks.

Suddenly, the loud screeches are heard again, originating from the Lab. We all turn and see the lights flashing from inside. Everyone starts to panic and Jonathan runs over to the gate button and tries to press it.

"It wont open." He yells.

Then, the lights inside the Lab turn back on.

"The power's back." Nancy announces.

"Try the button again, Jon." I say to him, standing outside the booth where the button was.

He presses the button multiple times, but the gate still does not open. Dustin then pushes past me and into the booth.

"Let me try." He says.

"Hang on—" Jonathan says.

"Let me try, Jonathan!" Dustin cuts him off and pushes him out of the way.

Dustin pushes the button repeatedly, doing the same thing Jonathan was, and the gate still refuses to open.

"Son of a bitch! You know what..." Dustin continues smashing the button.

"Hey!" I yell at him, "Pushing the button repeatedly is not going to get you anywhere, so just calm down!"

He stops pushing the button and shoots me a look, only to continue pressing it and staring me in the eyes. I roll my eyes at him and walk away from the booth. I walk to the gate that I had rested my axe on and pick it up, dragging it behind me. I lean against the side of the booth and look over at Nancy and Steve. They stood opposite of each other, with a great distance between them. I notice Nancy's face and it reeks of guilt. I look behind me and, through the window of the booth, I notice Jonathan staring at Nancy. Before I can take a second to fully realize what was going on, the gate opens.

"Hey! I got it!" Dustin chuckles. He then shoots me a shit-eating grin and I shake my head at him, giving him a dirty look.

Jonathan and Dustin walk out of the booth and we all stand in front of the gate, watching it open. Jonathan then runs to his car and Nancy does the same. They get in and everyone steps away from the gate, Steve standing next to me. They quickly drive off and make their way towards the Lab.

I look over at Steve and study his face. His eyes were down at the floor and his brows were furrowed. He had his arms across his chest and his bat was leaned up against the booth.

"I guess it's my turn to ask if you're okay." I ask him.

He looks over at me and his brows unfurrow immediately. He gives me a small smile which I return.

"Did Nancy seem... off to you?" He asks me.

I purse my lips and then I bite my bottom one on the inside of my mouth. I nod my head.

"Yeah," I say, "I'm sure it's with all this happening, again."

He shakes his head.

"No, this is different."

I give him a small smile and look down at the ground. Immediately after, a car speeds down the road and honks. I reach over and pull Max out of the road and Steve grabs Lucas. Jonathan's car drives past us, then a police truck pulls up.

He quickly brakes in front of us, then I see who it is.

"Dad?" I ask.

"Lets go!" He yells to us.

Quickly, I usher the kids into the back seat and then hop in the back myself. After we were all inside, Steve hops in the front seat.

"Okay, lets go!" Steve yells and my dad quickly pulls off.

We speed behind Jonathan's car and I notice my dad looking at me through his mirror.

"Dad, what the hell is going on." I ask him.

"I'll explain when we get there," he says, "And so will you."

I see Steve then reach his right hand behind his seat, poking out in front of me and just barely visible. I reach my hand out and grab his. He squeezes my hand and I smile. I then notice Hopper look over at Steve, giving him a weird look. I quickly let go of Steve's hand and sit back in my seat.

We make it to the Byers' house and we all run inside. Immediately, I'm met with paper climbing all over the walls and the floor. The papers have a 'tunnel-like' drawing on them, connecting them all together to make, what appeared to be, a big map. Will was laid on the couch, asleep, and Jonathan kneeling by his side. Nancy had a hand rested on Jonathans shoulder and Steve watched as I stood next to him. Hopper was on the phone, calling for military backup.

"Sam Owens. Dr. Sam Owens. I don't know how many people are there!" He said into the phone.

Steve starts to walk away to the dining room and I follow behind him, placing a hand on his back quickly and then dropping it. I stop and stand next to Mike and Steve walks towards the window.

"They didn't believe you, did they?" Dustin asks my dad.

"We'll see." Hopper says.

"We'll see?" I ask.

"We can't just sit here while those things are loose!" Mike says.

"We stay here, and we wait for help." Hopper says, walking away.

Mike shakes his head and I rub his shoulder for a second. The group stays silent and I lean up against the wall, opposite of Steve. We look up at each other every once in a while and I try to put on a smile.

Mike gets up from the table and walks towards the living room.

"Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV?" He says.

Hopper let us know before we walked into the house everything that had happened. How Will was sick, how the Demogorgon's invaded the Lab, and how Joyce's boyfriend, Bob, was killed.

"Really?" Lucas asks Mike.

Mike turns around and walks back towards us.

"He petitioned the school to start it and everything. Then he had a fund-raiser for equipment." Mike says, "Mr. Clarke learned everything from him. Pretty awesome, right?"

"Yeah." Dustin and Lucas both agree.

Mike sets down the toy he was holding onto the table.

"We can't let him die in vain." He says.

"What do you want to do, Mike? The chief's right on this. We can't stop those Demo-dogs on our own." Dustin says.

"Demo-dogs?" Max asks.

"Demogorgon dogs. Demo-dogs. It's like a compound." Dustin says.

We all look at him like he's insane.

"It's like a play on words—"

"Okay." Max interrupts him.

Dustin stays silent for a moment and then speaks up.

"I mean, when it was just Dart, maybe..."

"But there's an army now." Lucas adds.

"Yeah, Mike. It's too much for us to handle." I say to him.

"Precisely." Dustin agrees.

"His army." Mike says.

Steve looks over at Mike.

"What do you mean?" He asks.

"His army!" Mike says, again, "Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army, too."

We all look around at each other and Mike runs to the side of the room, grabbing a paper off of the table. On the paper was a drawing of a spider-like figure towering over the woods.

"The shadow monster." Dustin says.

I walk over to Mike and look over his shoulder to get a closer look at the drawing and Steve does the same, standing to my side with a hand on the small of my back.

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

"And so this virus, it's connecting him to the tunnels?" Max asks.

"To the tunnels, the monsters, the upside down, everything." Mike says.

"Woah, woah. Slow down." Steve says.

"The shadow monster is inside of everything." I say.

"Yes," Mike says, "And if the vines feel something like pain, then so does Will."

"The Demogorgon, too." I add.

"And so does Dart." Lucas says.

"Yeah. Like what Mr. Clarke taught us. The hive mind." Mike says.

"Hive mind?" Steve asks, shaking his head.

"A collective consciousness. It's a super-organism." Dustin says.

"And this is the thing that controls everything. It's the brain." Mike says, pointing at the drawing of the shadow monster.

"Like the mind flayer." Dustin says.

"Dustin, that's just a game." I say to him, remembering the reference of the Dungeons & Dragons game the party has been teaching me.

"What?" Steve and Max say in unison and Lucas snaps his finger, pointing at Dustin.

Mike runs back over to the living room and grabs a book, brining it over to the dining table and placing it on the table. Dustin flips through the pages. Nancy and Jonathan join us.

"The mind flayer." Dustin says.

"What the hell is that?" Hopper asks, emerging into the dining room.

"It's a monster from an unknown dimension. It's so ancient that it doesn't even know its true home." Dustin says.

We all stay silent, so he continues.

"Okay, it enslaves races of other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly-developed psionic powers."

"Oh, my god, none of this is real. This is a kids' game." Hopper says.

"No, it's a manual. And it's not for kids. And unless you know something that we don't, this is the best metaphor—" Dustin says.

"Analogy." Lucas corrects.

"Analogy? That's what you're worried about?" Dustin says, getting angry, "Fine. An analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is."

"Okay, so this mind flamer thing—" Nancy begins.

"Flayer. Mind flayer." Dustin corrects.

"What does it want?" Nancy asks.

"To conquer us, basically." Dustin says.

"It believes it's the master race." I say.

Steve looks over at me.

"Like the Germans?" Steve stammers.

I give him a small smile.

"Do you mean the Nazis?" I ask him.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Nazis." He corrects, smiling back at me.

"Uh... If the Nazis were from another dimension, totally." Dustin says.

My dad puts a hand over his eyes and rubs his forehead and Dustin continues.

"Uh, it views other races, like us, as inferior to itself."

"It wants to spread, take over other dimensions." Mike adds.

"We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it." Lucas says.

"That's great. That's great." Steve says, walking back, "That's really great. Jesus!"

I put a hand on his back and it drops as he walks away. Hopper looks over and gives me a confused look. Nancy picks the book up off of the table.

"Okay, so if this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything, then if we kill it..." Nancy says.

"We kill everything it controls." Mike finishes.

"We win." Dustin says.

"Theoretically." I add.

Hopper takes the book from Nancy's hands.

"Great. So how do you kill this thing? Shoot it with Fireballs or something?" He says.

Dustin chuckles.

"No. No, Fire— No Fireballs. Uh, you summon an undead army, uh, because...because zombies, you know, they don't, they don't have brains, and the mind flayer, it... it... It likes brains." Dustin stammers and we all give him a look.

"It's just a game. It's a game." Dustin adds.

"What the hell are we doing here?" Hopper slams the book on the table.

"I thought we were waiting for your military backup." Dustin says.

"We are!" Hopper yells.

"But even if they come, how are they gonna stop this?" Mike asks, "You can't just shoot this with guns."

"You don't know that! We don't know anything!" Hopper says.

"We know it's already killed everybody in that lab." Mike says.

"And we know the monsters are gonna molt again." Lucas says.

"We know that it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town." Dustin.

"And if that happens, there's no hope." I add.

Suddenly, a voice is heard from behind us.

"They're right."

We all turn and see Joyce standing in the hallway.

"We have to kill it." She says, her voice hoarse.

Hopper walks up to her.

"I want to kill it." She adds.

"Me, too, Joyce, okay?" He says, "But how do we do that? We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here."

"No. But he does." Mike says, looking at Will, "If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's Will. He's connected to it. He'll know its weakness."

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

We all walk behind Mike.

"Yeah, but... he can't spy if he doesn't know where he is." Mike says.