[𝗘𝗣𝗜𝗦𝗢𝗗𝗘 𝗘𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧: 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗗 𝗙𝗟𝗔𝗬𝗘𝗥]

AT THE BYERS HOUSE, WILL WAS ON the couch, still knocked out from the sedative. his older brother, johnathan, was stroking his hair, whispering to him.

"i'm sorry, bud." johnathan whispers to his younger brother. "i'm sorry i wasn't there. i should have been there."

"sam owens. dr. sam owens." hopper says to the woman on the phone. "i don't know how many people are there! i don't know how many people are left alive!"

max wipes off some blood from sage's nose and face as hopper hangs up the phone.

"they didn't believe you, did they?" dustin asks the adult. "we'll see," the man replies.

" "we'll see" ? we can't just sit here while those things are loose!" mike objects. "we stay here, and wait for help." hopper tells the teen before walking away.

mike scoffs then looks at his sister. "you okay?"

sage nods. "i used a lot of energy," she says then grabs the napkin from max, wiping her nose one last time before throwing it away.

"we can tell," lucas commented, motioning to her bloody clothes and face. "what exactly did you do?" dustin asked her. "i blew up at least three demogorgons," sage responded.

dustin stared at her in shock and watched her get up from her chair, but quickly helped her up when she stumbled a little.

"no, sit down," dustin told her and sat her back down.

sage sighed.

there was a moment of silence in the room until mike stood up, walking over to the games bob had got will. the wheeler teen took the cube in his hand, staring down at it.

"did you guys know that bob was the original founder of hawkins av?" mike asked. "really?" lucas asked as mike turned around.

"he petitioned the school to start it and everything. then he had a fundraiser for equipment. mister clark learned everything from him." mike explained and walked back to the table. "pretty awesome right?"

"yeah," dustin, lucas, and sage agreed.

mike placed the cube down on the table and sage sighed, feeling her lip quiver just staring at the game — memories of her, bob, and will hanging out together when she was over.

"we can't let him die in vain," mike stated. "what do you want to do, mike? the chief's right on this. we can't stop those demo-dogs on our own." dustin cut in causing sage to look over at him.

"demo-dogs?" sage and max asked. dustin looked between max and sage. "demogorgon dogs. demo-dogs. it's like a compound. it's like a play on words —"

"okay," max cut dustin off.

"i mean, when it was just dart, maybe . . ." dustin changed the topic. "but there's an army now." lucas mentioned. "percisely," dustin agreed.

"his army," mike whispered. "what do you mean?" steve asked. "his army." mike said before sage started to catch on.

"maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army, too." sage added as she sat up on her chair.

mike walked off, his friends following him.

"guys? guys, i can't walk!" sage said before max came back, helping her up.

max wrapped her arm around sage as she helped the wheeler girl. mike picked up a drawing of the shadow monster that will had drawn.

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

"i would've stopped it but i was too late." sage said, leaning onto max. "and so this virus, it's connecting him to the tunnels?" max asked, holding sage up by her waist.

"to the tunnels, monsters, the upside down, everything," mike told the red-head.

"woah. slow down. slow down." steve said, looking at the drawing. "okay, so, the shadow monster's inside everything. and if the vines feel something like pain, then so does will." mike explained to the harrington teen.

"and so does dart," lucas added. "yeah. like what mister. clark taught us. the hive mind." sage told the dark-skinned teen. "hive mind?" steve asked.

"a collective consciousness. it's a super-organism." dustin informed steve. "and this is the thing that controls everything. it's the brain." mike added onto what dustin said.

"like the mind flayer," dustin stated.

lucas looked at dustin and snapped his fingers at how smart the henderson boy was.

"what?" steve and max asked in confusion.

everyone was now gathered around in the dining room, a book in front of dustin.

"the mind flayer." dustin began. "what the hell is that?" hopper asked. "it's a monster from an unknown dimension. it's so ancient that it doesn't even know it's true home." dustin replies to the adult.

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

"oh, my god, none of this is real. this is a kids' game." hopper says with a sigh. "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 —"

"analogy," lucas corrects.

"analogy? that's what you're worried about? fine. an analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is." dustin says.

"okay, so this mind flamer thing —" nancy begins to say.

"flayer. mind flayer." dustin corrects her.

"what does it want?" nancy asks. "to conquer us, basically. you know, it believes it's the master race." dustin explains.

"like the germans?" steve asks, cutting into the conversation. "uh, the nazis?" dustin corrects once again, looking at steve. "yeah, yeah, yeah, the nazis."

"uh . . . if the nazis were from another dimension, totally. uh, it views other races, like us, as inferior to itself."

"it wants to spread, take over other dimensions." mike says, catching on. "we are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it." lucas adds on.

"that's great. that's great. that's really great. jesus!" steve says, running his hand through his hair. "okay, so if this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything, then if we kill it . . ." nancy says, taking the book in her hands.

"we kill everything it controls," sage stated, finishing her older sister's sentence. "we win." dustin says. "theoretically," lucas adds.

"great. so how do you kill this thing? shoot it with fireballs or something?" hopper asks jokingly as he takes the book from nancy's hands.

"no. no, no fire — no fireballs." dustin chuckles before getting serious. "uh, you summon an undead army, uh, because . . ." the henderson teen looks up at the chief. ". . . 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 stammers.

"what the hell are we doing here?" hopper asks, closing the book, putting it on the table. "i thought we were waiting for your military backup." dustin says to the man.

"we are!"

"even if they come how are they gonna stop this? you can't just shoot this with guns." mike interjects. "you don't know that! we don't know anything!" hopper informs him.

"we know it's already killed everybody in that lab." sage brought up. "and we know that monsters gonna molt again." lucas says. "and we know that it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town." dustin adds in.

"they're right," joyce says, walking in. "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 tells the woman.

"no. but he does." mike says, looking at the unconscious 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," max says. "that he's a spy for the mind flayer now."

"yeah, but he can't spy if he doesn't know where he is," mike responds.

mike, sage, and max were in the kitchen, taping up some boards together.

"i get why el was your mage now." max spoke up, catching mike's attention. "what?" he asks.

"sage and lucas. they told me all about her." max replies making sage smile a little.

"well, they shouldn't have." mike stated. "and just because you know the truth, it doesn't mean you're in our party."

sage sighed. "mike, please,"

"no, sage, stop. you do know that right?"

max looks down at the tape in her hands and nods. "yeah, i know," max says. "i mean, why would you want a stupid zoomer in your party anyway? i'm just saying, el? she sounds like she was really awesome."

"yeah, she was," sage and mike say in unison. "until that thing took her," mike added and closed the cabinet door. "just like it took bob."

mike stands up and walks off.

sage watches her brother walk off then looks at max. "i'm sorry about him." sage tells the red-head. "trust me, max, he'll warm up to you."

"it's okay, sage. if he doesn't want me in the party then it's fine." max told the brunette. "no, don't listen to what he says, okay? you're in the party. you're our zoomer." sage tells max.

the mayfield teen looks at the wheeler girl and smiles a little.

"you're my zoomer,"

max chuckles making sage smile at her. "all right? you're in the party." sage tells her and chuckles a little at max's laugh.

the mayfield teen feels butterflies in her stomach at the sound of sage's laugh, but ignores it.

"come on. lets go help them." sage says then slowly gets off the floor, helping max up.

the two teen girls head out to the shed and begin helping everyone tape up the walls. after it was done, johnathan brought will into the shed, sat him down on the chair, and tied him down so he wouldn't escape.

mike and sage tie up some lights as lucas plugs them in so they can turn on. soon enough everything was done. mike and sage stayed in the shed so they way he could chat with will.

"all right, you ready?" hopper asked the byers woman. "yeah," joyce nods.

hopper shakes a vinegar bottle and pours some on a cotton ball. the man takes the cotton ball and puts it under wills nose, causing the byers teen to immediately gasp awake.

will looks around the room, not recognizing where he is. the byers teen tries to move but looks down to see he's tied up.

"what? what? what is this?" will asks. "what? what is this? why am i tied up?"

joyce kneels down in front of her son. "will, we just wanna talk to you. we're not gonna hurt you."

"where am i?" will looks at hopper, ignoring his mother. "you recognize this?" hopper asks the teen, showing him the drawing of the mind flayer. "do you recognize this?"

will shakes his head.

"hey," joyce whispers to her son. "we wanna help you. but to do that, we have to understand how to kill it."

"why am i tied up?" will raised his voice. "why am i tied up? why am i tied up? why am i tied up?"'

the byers teen starts to jump in his chair, repeating "why am i tied up" over and over.

the lights inside the shed begin to flicker and sage grabs mike's hand out of instinct.

"let me go! let me go! let me go! let me go!"

hopper keeps a tight grip around will making him calm down. the lights stop flickering and sage sighs, leaning onto her brother. joyce sits down on the chair in front of will.

"do you know what march 22nd is?" joyce asked her son. "it's your birthday. your birthday. when you turned eight, i have you that huge box of crayons. do you remember that? it was 120 colors." will stared at her mom as she continued to speak to him. "and all of your friends, they got you star wars toys. but all you wanted to do was draw with all your new colors. and you drew this big spaceship, but it wasn't from a movie. it — it was your spaceship. a rainbow ship is what you called it. and you must have used every color in the box." joyce told will, smiling slightly.

"i took that with me to melvald's and i put it up and i told everyone who came in, "my son drew this." and you were so embarrassed. but i was so proud. i was so, so proud." joyce finished.

"do you remember the day dad left?" johnathan spoke up from behind joyce. will's attention shifted to his brother. "we stayed up all night building castle byers . . ." the byers teen continued as he kneeled in front of will. "just the way you drew it. and it took so long because you were so bad at hammering." johnathan and joyce chuckle at the memory. "you'd miss the nail every time. and then it started raining, but we stayed out there anyway. we were both sick for like a week after that. but we just had to finish it, didn't we? we just had to." johnathan finished.

"do you remember the first day we met?" mike asked, joining in, squeezing sage's hand. will's attention shifted to the twins. "it was . . . it was the first day of kindergarten. we knew nobody. we had no friends and . . ." sage said, feeling her lip quiver at the memory. "we just felt so alone and so scared we kept clinging onto only each other, but . . . sage saw you on the swings and you were alone, too." mike said after his sister. "you were just swinging by yourself. i dragged mike with me and walked up to you and . . . i asked. i asked if you wanted to be our friend." sage added on, sniffling. "and you said yes. you said yes. it was the best thing sage had ever done, and i couldn't have been more thankful for it." mike finished off, smiling just a tiny bit.

"will, baby, if you're in there, just please . . . please talk to us." joyce whispered to her younger son. "please, honey, please, can you do that for me? please. i love you so much."

will stares at his mom, breathing heavily. "let me go."

joyce sighs at the response and sage frowns, wiping her tears.

hopper sighs then looks over at the teen, noticing his hand — his fingers were tapping the side of the chair.

   HOPPER WALKS INSIDE THE HOUSE with joyce, mike, sage, and johnathan.

"what happened?" dustin asked the adult. "i think he's talking, just not with words." hopper says while writing morse code on a paper.

"what is this?" steve asks. "morse code," almost everyone replies.

"H-E-R-E."

"here," sage whispers and let's out a smile of relief, thankful that her best friend was still there and not completely taken over. "will's still in there. he's talking to us." sage says.

the adults and teens walk back to the shed, allowing johnathan to play will's favorite song.

should i stay or should i go?

johnathan sits in front of his brother and begins speaking. "do you remember the first time i played you this? mom and dad were both arguing in the next room. so i played you the mix tape i made you. and it was the first time you got into music. real music.

"dash, dot, dash, dot." dustin mumbles as he writes down the morse code on the paper. "okay, got it. c." lucas says.

nancy writes down the letter c.

"and then the party escaped into the sewers, and there were those big insect things, and you guys were still on level one." mike tells will.

"l!"

nancy writes down the letter l.

"o!"

nancy writes down o.

"then you cast fog cloud and you saved us." mike continued. "you saved the whole party."

"s!"

nancy writes down the letter s.

"you saw that little girl and she was in the sandbox and she was crying." joyce told her son.

"e!"

nancy writes down the letter e.

"you gave her your tonka truck. and i told you we couldn't afford to buy another one."

"g!"

nancy writes down the letter g.

"you said she should have it because she's sad. "she's sad, mommy," "

"a!"

nancy writes down a.

"remember when i came out to you and the guys? you got so happy because you told me how confused you were about your sexuality. i then got happy because i was the only one who knew about it, and we both started gossiping about all the cute girls and guys all night together." sage told will, smiling at the memory.

"t!"

nancy writes down t.

"we pulled an all nighter it was so fun,"

"e!"

nancy writes down e.

the music stops and sage get off of her chair, standing next to mike.

everyone inside the house gathers around to see what nancy wrote.

C L O S E  G A T E

the phone suddenly rings and will shifts his attention to the door of the shed. sage gulps and then looks at her brother.

"shit. shit." dustin rushes towards the phone and hangs up on the call.

the phone rang again. nancy took the house phone off the wall, and threw it to the floor.

"do you think he heard that?" max asked. "it's just a phone. it could be anywhere. right?" steve said, looking at the teens.

inside the shed, will closes his eyes. sage was quick enough to grab the needle as joyce tried to speak to her son.

"hey. hey, can you hear me?"

"it knows. it knows where we are." hopper said.

sage licked her lips before injecting the needle into will's arm. joyce takes the needle and throws it aside as the boys go outside to check if any of the demo-dogs were at the house.

monster screech in the distance and sage walks outside to where the boys were at.

"that's not good," sage whispers to the boys before rushing inside of the shed. "they're coming!" johnathan said and began to untie the ropes around his brother.

"we gotta go." hopper said.

"here," sage said then burned the ropes off the of the byers teen. johnathan takes will into his hood and runs out of the shed with his mom.

mike and sage follow behind them as hopper follows behind the twins. the twins go to the window where lucas, max, and dustin were at.

"hey, hey! get away from the windows." hopper demands.

the teens move away from the window, allowing hopper to glance out of it before he looks at johnathan.

"do you know how to use this?" hopper asks the older byers teen. "what?" johnathan asks, looking at the chief. "can you use this?" the man repeats.

"i can," nancy says.

hopper tosses her the gun, allowing her to load it, and aim it.

all the younger teens, except sage, stand behind the adults and older teens. the wheeler girl lights her hands on fire as she awaits for one of the creatures to attack.

"where are they?" joyce asks.

monsters growling in the distance is heard in the distance. next, a loud thudding was heard and everyone turned towards where the noise was.

"what are they doing?" nancy questions, the gun still up. "i have no idea," sage answers from next to her, her eyes glowing an orange-red.

snarling was heard and everyone turned back to the window the younger teens were looking out of. sage lets out a deep breath as she senses something is about to happen. suddenly, the screeching stops abruptly.

out of nowhere, a demo-dog is thrown through the window. sage catches it with her telekinesis as everyone screams. the wheeled girl slowly walks over to it with hopper, dropping the creature to the floor.

"holy shit," dustin comments.

"is it dead?" max asks. "it looks dead," sage says in reply.

hopper uses