The front and back doors simultaneously slammed shut as Hopper and Sarah both entered the Byers' home at the same time.

"Something wrong, kid?" Hopper asked Sarah as she came rushing into the living room, her head swinging madly about in search of someone to share her revelation with.

"I figured it out!" Sarah shouted with wide eyes and an even wider smile.

"Okay..." Hopper said in confusion as he slowly removed his jacket and hung it on the coat rack. "What?"

"The demodog isn't a demodog!"

"What?" a new voice called from behind Sarah and she whirled around to find Eleven sitting at the kitchen table eating a sandwich. In her excitement, she had somehow missed her on her way in.

Eleven finished off the last bite of her food and dumped the dirty plate into the sink before joining Sarah and Hopper in the living room.

"The demodog isn't a demodog," Sarah repeated a little more calmly. "And I don't think the demogorgon was a demogorgon either."

"What are you talking about?" Hopper asked as he took a seat on the edge of the couch and stared up at her in confusion. Eleven sat down next to him with a similar look on her face.

"It's the neighbor's dog, the missing one, Ralphie!" Sarah exclaimed. "He was turned into a demodog!"

"But how?" Hopper asked. "And why?"

Sarah shook her head. "I don't know but I suspect it's got something to do with Malcolm."

"But I thought Malcolm could create things out of thin air," Eleven spoke up. "Why would he need to change something into something else? Is that something he can even do?"

Sarah bit her lip and began to pace the room as she contemplated this thought. She rubbed her hand against her face as her mind tried to sort through all the possibilities and said, "There's something I'm missing..."

"We'll figure it out, kid," Hopper said with a comforting smile. "Don't worry."

Sarah couldn't think of anything else to say so she just crossed her arms over her chest and nodded her head. The excitement about discovering the truth behind Dart Jr. had drained from her and was replaced with more confusion and frustration. But the confusion and frustration didn't last long when a new distraction appeared in the form of a glowing, golden rift that sliced through the living room wall.

"Mom," Sarah greeted the woman who stepped through. She was surprised to find that she wasn't alone this time. Adam followed close behind.

"Ah, glad to see pops is in town," James' voice appeared in Sarah's mind amidst her uncertainty. Like usual, she ignored him.

"Who the hell is that?" Hopper asked, staring straight at Adam.

"A deadbeat dad," James answered.

"A friend," Diane replied calmly.

"A boyfriend?" Hopper asked with a raised brow and pursed lips.

"Now, Jim, if I didn't know any better I'd say you were jealous," Diane responded, a knowing smile spreading across her face. Hopper's face grew bright red and he found himself unable to reply.

"This is the ex-husband, then?" Adam turned to ask Diane.

"This is the father of her child and the owner of the house you're standing in," Hopper retorted, taking a step closer to Adam and pointing a finger at his chest. "So I suggest you tread lightly, friend."

"Technically Joyce owns it," Sarah pointed out. Hopper shot her a sharp glare to which she rolled her eyes in response. "This is James' father, Adam."

"James?" Hopper sputtered, turning on his heel to face Sarah with a bewildered look in his eye. "Like the Mind Flayer James, the psycho serial killer James? That James?"

"That's the one."

Hopper's face flushed bright red before a single word escaped his lips, "Out."

"Don't be so dramatic, Jim," Diane sighed and shook her head. "He's here to help."

"How?"

"Adam has the ability to create pocket dimensions, which we could use to trap Malcolm when we find him," Diane explained.

"Oh, so he's got powers too, huh?" Hopper's hands moved to his hips as his tongue pressed against the roof of his mouth. "Is that why you left me? Because I don't have powers?"

Diane rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "You're impossible," she muttered under her breath.

"Can we save this for another time? Please?" Sarah pinched the bridge of her nose as a sharp pain arose in her temples from their bickering. "I've found something."

"What is it?" Diane asked, her tone immediately shifting from irritated to interested.

"Somebody or something is changing animals into demo-monsters," Sarah answered.

"Malcolm?"

Sarah shook her head. "We're not sure. But I think he's connected."

Before anybody could say anything next, their conversation was interrupted by the shrieking of the phone. Sarah, being the closest to the phone, moved to answer it.

"Hello?" Sarah said into the handset.

"It's Nancy," Nancy's breathless voice answered from the other side. "You remember when you said to notify you if we saw anything weird? Well, we've seen something. A big something."

Sarah's posture immediately straightened and she pressed the handset harder against her ear. "What is it? Where are you guys?"

"We're at the cabin," Nancy answered. "As for what it is...I've never seen anything like it before. You need to get here quick!"

"Yes, of course, I'm on my way," Sarah responded before slamming the handset back against the wall. Without saying a word to the others, who were watching her with curious expressions, Sarah opened a portal to Hopper's cabin.

"What's going on?" Hopper asked, a look of concern settling on his face once he recognized the location on the other side.

"Don't have time to explain," Sarah answered without even glancing at Hopper as she strode towards the portal. "Adam, I have a feeling I'll need you."

Adam shared a glance with Diane, who gave him a nod and warm smile, before he followed in line after Sarah.

"Hold up!" Hopper shouted after them, rushing towards the portal before it could close. "I've got a gun!"

☆ ★ ☆

Hopper just barely made it through the portal before it closed, falling to his knees on the floor of the cabin. Sarah was already talking with Nancy and Jonathan, Adam standing at her side. Hopper picked himself up and dusted off his knees, grumbling to himself as he joined the rest of the group. With each passing second, he inched closer to Sarah until he had eventually boxed Adam out.

"Are you guys okay?" Sarah asked, glancing nervously between Nancy, Jonathan, and Barb to make sure that they weren't injured.

"We're fine," Nancy answered steadily. "Jonathan just about shit himself, but other than that we're fine.

"Did not," Jonathan muttered with furrowed brows and rosy cheeks.

"Where is it?" Sarah asked next.

"We saw it between those trees over there." Nancy moved over to the window and pointed to a small clearing between two large pines about thirty feet away from the cabin. "It's moved now, I don't know where, but I have a feeling it isn't gone yet."

As if in response to Nancy's comment, a loud wailing erupted from outside that sent shivers down Sarah's spine. A silence descended upon the cabin as everybody simultaneously held their breath until the wailing passed.

Sarah pressed her finger to her mouth before slowly creeping over to the window that was nearest to where the noise had come from. She ducked down low so that she wouldn't be seen, her eyes scanning the leaves and branches for any movement.

Her eyes flickered when they caught sight of a twig quivering and she studied it closely to determine whether it was from the wind or something else. As her eyes focused on the small area in the distance, the outline of something beyond it became clearer.

A small gasp escaped Sarah's lips as her eyes traced the outline up, up, and up, until it was completely hidden in the canopy of the trees. If she had to guess, it stood at almost ten feet tall. The shade and the dancing shadows of the leaves made it hard to determine what exactly she was looking at, but she knew that it was neither human nor animal.

It was something else entirely.

"Found it," Sarah informed the others, her voice coming out in a pale whisper.

The cock of Hopper's gun from behind her informed Sarah that the others were ready to fight. Sarah took a deep breath as she slowly pushed herself back to her feet. She had fought plenty of monsters before, but something about this one made her feel uneasy and she didn't know why.

Sarah locked eyes with Hopper and Adam before opening a small portal to the outside and disappearing through. She waited to close it until she felt Hopper's and Adam's presences behind her. Once she was on the other side, she kept her eyes trained on the shadowy figure, not even daring to blink.

The creature remained in the same spot, completely still, even as Sarah took a cautious step towards it. She flinched when a twig cracked beneath her feet and her whole body froze in place. Her eyes studied the creature for its reaction, but it still didn't move.

Sarah heard a crack behind her and looked back to see Hopper pointing his gun at the outline in the trees. She caught his eyes and gestured for him to lower it, which he begrudgingly did after she gave him an intense stare-down. She didn't want to attack yet. Not without first knowing what the creature truly was. She had a feeling that it was another unfortunate victim, like the demogorgon and Dart Jr.

After taking a deep breath, Sarah took another step forward. This time, the creature mimicked her action and Sarah could begin to see more of it. It had gray, splotchy skin that stretched taut against its boney figure. Two sets of arms protruded from either side of its body, each boasting three-inch claws that could tear through her like paper. Sarah craned her neck to try to see its head, but it was still hidden in the branches.

She took another step. The creature did too. Then another. And another.

Finally, when they were only fifteen feet apart from each other, the creature became fully visible. Its head was similar to a demogorgon or a demodog, with a mouth that opened into fang-infested petals, but there was one key difference: multiple tiny, glowing red eyes dotted the creature's head, all of them moving in unison as they followed Sarah's every move.

"It's okay," Sarah said calmly, craning her neck to look up at the creature. She wasn't sure if it could even understand her, but she felt the need to say something to cover the blaring beating of her heart. "We're not here to hurt you, we're here to help you."

She didn't expect a response.

"H-help?" the creature asked, its petals parting to let out a scratchy voice.

Startled, Sarah took a step backwards and bumped into Hopper, who she hadn't realized was so close to her. The movement disturbed Hopper's balance and he tumbled to the ground, setting off the gun in the process. Sarah shut her eyes and pressed her hands over her ears to block out the deafening gunshot that echoed through the air, but when she opened them again the creature was gone.

"Shit!" Sarah cursed, her eyes tracing the woods for any sign of it.

"That way!" Adam called, pointing towards the source of a monstrous wailing that suddenly filled the air.

The three took off in pursuit of the creature, hurdling stumps and dodging branches along the way. Thankfully, the creature didn't seem to be very fast. From the look of the erratic footprints it left behind in the dirt, it was clumsy and unsure on its feet, and within moments, it was back in their sights.

Sarah zapped the creature with her electricity to slow it down and it fell like a tree, shaking the very earth beneath it as its muscles convulsed. It didn't stay down for long though, and within moments it was swinging at them with its knife-like talons. Hopper yanked Sarah towards him before it could rip through her chest and Adam just barely jumped out of the way before one of the creature's claws could come down on his head.

"Help!" Sarah shouted, putting her hands out to show the creature that she meant no harm. "We want to help you, but you need to let us!"

"Hurt!" the monster cried angrily, its claws tearing through the air and swiping over their heads. It was then that Sarah noticed a hole in the creature's abdomen and black, sticky blood spewing out from within. That's where the bullet had gone.

"I-I'm sorry," Sarah apologized, her hands still raised out in front of her. "We can fix that."

The creature responded with another swipe of its claws. Hopper pulled his gun from his holster and pointed it at the creature, but when the creature caught sight of the metallic weapon responsible for its injury, it became even angrier.

The creature snarled and growled as all four of its arms reached for Hopper, but when its claws finally gripped into flesh, it found somebody else in its grasp.

"Sarah, no!" Hopper shouted from where he was lying on the ground, his gun out of reach. In the brief seconds before the creature could grab him, Sarah had shoved him aside and taken his place. "Let her go!"

Sarah grimaced in pain as the claws dug deeper into her flesh, ripping holes in her arms and legs. She looked up at the gaping maw of the creature, her eyes flitting from one crimson orb to the next as they bore down upon her. Did they hold mercy, sympathy, pity? She didn't know. She was only looking for answers.

In the chaos and confusion, Hopper managed to grab his gun and pointed it once more at the creature, but before he could fire a single shot, two large, fleshy wings unfolded from the creature's back and launched the creature and Sarah into the sky.

Sarah felt the air immediately expel from her lungs and the sharp wind cut her skin as they shot upwards at unfathomable speeds. She was stuck in the creature's vice-like grip so she couldn't see the ground beneath them but she could see the clouds above getting closer and closer. Until suddenly, they weren't.

The bleary, gray sky and the dark, rain-filled clouds were replaced with a golden glow that consumed them whole and spat them into a different world; a world with sweeping green grass that coated colossal cliffs and a sparkling blue ocean that lapped against the jagged rocks below. A world that Sarah immediately knew wasn't real.

Thank you, Adam, Sarah thought to herself.

"Gross," James replied. Evidently he hadn't left, but in that moment, she was almost thankful for James' company, because now it was just her and the creature stuck in a pocket dimension.

The creature, in its confusion, had dropped Sarah with a thud onto the soft grass and was flying around trying to look for a way out. It circled in the air above her, roaring in anger and fear. When it had exhausted itself, it sunk back down to the ground in front of Sarah.

"Where?" it demanded in a hiss.

"You're not going to be able to get out," Sarah explained from her spot on the ground where she was sitting cross-legged with her hands on her knees. "It's a pocket dimension."

The creature threw its head back and roared in anger. Its wings rustled in agitation, itching to take off again but ultimately deciding not to. In its stationary position, Sarah caught sight of the wound and a bout of sympathy once more consumed her.

"Are you in pain?" Sarah asked.

The creature growled in response, clearly still upset with her for her part in its injury. One of its claws reached up to caress the wound momentarily before it started pacing. Sarah decided to try another route.

"What are you?" Sarah asked as she watched the creature move about.

The creature stopped to study her for a moment before responding, "Monster."

"And before that?"

A solemn attitude settled upon the creature as it stared down at its claws. It turned them over and over until they finally sunk to its sides. In a defeated breath, it replied, "Man."

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