"Are you positive that was Dart?" Lucas asked.

"Yes, he had the exact same yellow pattern on his butt," Dustin affirmed.

The gang began walking back, attempting to locate the creatures. "Well, he was tiny two days ago," Juliette said.

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

"Malted?" Steve asked, confused.

"Molted," Dustin corrected Steve, "shed his skin to make room for growth, like hornworms."

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

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

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

Suddenly, Lucas stopped walking. "Wait, a cat?" he asked Dustin. "Dart ate a cat?"

"No, what? No," Dustin lied.

"What are you talking about? He ate Mews," Ariana interjected.

"Mews? Who's Mews?" Juliette asked.

"Our cat," Ariana replied. Dustin shook his head at Ariana. "Ariana!"

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

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

"Bullshit!" Lucas yelled. "I didn't know he was a Demogorgon, okay?" Dustin defended himself.

"Oh, so now you admit it?" Lucas crossed his arms. "Guys, who cares? We have to go," Juliette urged.

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

"So did you!" Dustin fired back.

"What?" Lucas asked confused.

"You told strangers the truth," Dustin said, shining the flashlight into Max and Juliette's faces.

"Strangers?" Juliette asked, offended.

Everyone kept arguing when Ariana heard something in the woods. "Steve, you hear that?" she asked.

"What their yelling?" Steve chuckled.

"No! That screeching," she clarified. Steve and Ariana walked closer to the noise.

"Guys!" Steve called out, but they kept arguing.

"Guys!" Ariana yelled louder. They all turned to them, and suddenly, they heard the noise. They started to walk towards it.

They reached a cliff overlooking the woods. "I don't see him," Dustin said.

Lucas looked through his binoculars to find Dart. "It's the lab. They were going back home," he said.

When they got to the lab, they heard voices by the gate. When they shined their flashlight, they saw Jonathan and Nancy standing there.

"Steve? Ariana?" They asked.

"Nancy?" Ariana ran up to Nancy and hugged her. "What are you doing here?" She asked.

"Juliette?" Jonathan asked. "Hey, Jonathan," She said.

"What are you doing here?" Steve asked.

"Looking for Mike and Will," Jonathan explained. "They're not in there, are they?" Dustin asked.

"We're not sure," Nancy said. "Why?" Jonathan asked, worried.

Just then, the monster screeched loudly. They looked at the lab. The lights were flashing, and it looked abandoned.

A couple of minutes passed, and Ariana noticed the lights had turned back on in the lab. "The power's back," she said, making everyone look over at the lab.

Everyone ran over to the operating booth, and Jonathan tried to open the gate. He pushed the button, but it wouldn't open.

He kept trying to push it until Dustin pushed him out of the way. "Let me try," Dustin said. "Hang on."

"Let me try, Jonathan!" Jonathan moved out of the way, and Dustin pressed the button, but it still didn't open.

"Son of a bitch, you know what..." Dustin kept pressing it, but nothing happened. "Dustin, stop! You're gonna break it," Ariana said. "It's already broken, goddamn it!"

Dustin kept pressing the button. "Fuck this." Ariana used her powers to swing the gate open.

"Go!" Ariana told Jonathan. Then he and Nancy got into his car and drove to the lab.

The rest of the gang stayed behind and waited for them. Juliette looked towards the lab and saw the car coming a few minutes later.

"Guys." Everyone looked and saw Hopper's truck and Jonathan's car coming towards them.

"Watch out." Max grabbed Juliette's hand and pulled her out of the street.

Hopper stopped next to them. "Let's go," he said. They all got in the truck, and then Hopper drove off to Joyce's house.

______

When they arrived at the house, Will was asleep on the couch, and Jonathan, Juliette, and Nancy were watching over him. The kids were all sitting at the table, while Hopper was attempting to call someone for help.

"Is he gonna be okay?" Juliette asked Jonathan.

"He will be once we get this thing out of him," Jonathan reassured her. Juliette held Will's hand as he lay there.

Will was the person Juliette could always count on, her best friend. She thought of him more as a brother than a cousin.

Nancy walked over to Ariana and pulled her aside. "What is Steve doing here?" She asked.

"My brother recruited him," Ariana replied.

"Are you still mad at him?" Ariana sighed.

"Kinda. I mean, I can't stay mad at him forever, but I definitely can't forgive him for this." Nancy nodded.

"So, what about you and Jonathan?" Ariana asked.

"It's complicated. We haven't totally figured out what we are, but we slept together while we were out of town," Nancy shared with a smile.

"Oh my God. You need to tell me all the details later. And I mean all the details," Nancy's eyes widened.

"Don't be gross." She playfully hit Ariana's arm.

Juliette walked over to the table and sat down next to Max.

"How is he?" Mike asked. "Well, he's breathing, so...that's a good sign," Juliette sighed.

Mike sat up and walked into the living room, then picked something up. "Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of the Hawkins AV Club?" He said.

"Really?" Dustin asked. "He petitioned the school to start it and everything. And then he had a fundraiser for equipment. Mr. Clark learned everything from him. Pretty awesome, right?" Everyone nodded their heads.

"We can't let him die in vain," Mike said.

"Well, what do you want to do, Mike? All right, the Chief's right on this. We can't stop those Demo-dogs on our own," Dustin said.

"Demo-dogs?" Juliette asked. "Demogorgon dogs. Demo-dogs," Dustin explained.

"I mean, sure, if it was just Dart, we could, but there's a whole army now," He said.

"His army," Mike said. "What do you mean?" Steve asked. "His army. Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army, too."

Mike rushed to Will's room and grabbed a drawing. "The shadow monster," Dustin took it from Mike's hand.

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

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

"To the tunnels, monsters, the Upside Down, everything," Mike said.

"Whoa, slow down," Steve said.

"Okay, so the shadow monster's inside everything. And if the vines feel something like pain, then so does Will. Like what Mr. Clark taught us, the hive mind," Mike explained.

"Hive mind?" Ariana asked, confused.

"A collective consciousness. It's called a super-organism," Dustin clarified.

"And this is the thing that controls everything. It's the brain," Mike pointed to the picture.

"Like the Mind Flayer," Dustin said. "

"The what?" Ariana, Max, Steve, and Juliette were all looking at the three boys confused.

Dustin grabbed Will's "D&D" book and set it on the kitchen table. Everyone gathered around.

"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 its true home. Okay, it enslaves races from other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly developed psionic powers," Dustin explained.

"Oh, my God, none of this is real. This is a kid's game," Hopper scoffed.

"No, it's a manual, and it's not for kids. Unless you know something we don't, this is the best metaphor-"

"Analogy," Lucas corrected him.

"Analogy? That's what you're worried about? Fine, an analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is," Dustin exclaimed.

"Okay, so this Mind Flamer thing-" Ariana began.

"Flayer. Mind Flayer," Dustin corrected her.

"Whatever. What does it want?" she asked.

"To conquer us. It believes it's the master race," Dustin explained.

"Like the Germans," Steve said, and everyone looked at him, confused.

"The Nazis," Ariana corrected him. "Yeah, the Nazis, that's totally what I meant," Steve scratched his neck.

"Uh, if the Nazis were from another dimension, totally. Uh, it views other races, like us, as inferior to itself," Dustin explained. "It wants to spread, take over other dimensions," Mike added.

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

"That's great. That's really great. Jesus!" Steve panicked.

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

"Then we kill everything it controls," Mike said.

"We win."

"Theoretically."

"All right, great. So how do you kill this thing? Shoot it with fireballs or something?" Hopper asked.

"No, no, no, fireballs," Dustin chuckled.

"You summon an undead army because zombies, you know, they don't have brains, and the Mind Flayer, it likes brains. It's just a game. It's a game," Dustin sighed.

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

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

"We are!"

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

"We don't know that! We don't know anything!" Hopper yelled. "We know it's already killed everybody in that lab," Mike said.

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

"And we know that it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town," Dustin said.

"They're right." Everyone turned to see Joyce standing in the kitchen doorway.

"We have to kill it. I want to kill it," she said.

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

"No, but he does," Mike turned to Will. "If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's Will. He's connected to it. He'll know its weakness," Mike explained.

"I thought we couldn't trust him anymore? That he's a spy for the Mind Flayer now," Juliette said.

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

Everyone began clearing out the shed to interrogate Will. They took everything out and placed it in the yard.

Steve and Ariana went inside the shed to cover up the windows and walls, making it look unrecognizable.

"Hey," Steve turned to Ariana.

"It's really cool of you to help out the kids. I mean, you didn't have to come along, but you did." She said.

Steve smiled. "Yeah, those little shits are real trouble," Steve said. "Believe me, I know," Ariana replied.

Meanwhile, Juliette and Max were gathering supplies from inside the house. "So, this is all crazy, right?" Max said.

"Yeah, it is. I just hope Will is okay. He's been my best friend since we were little. I can't imagine my life without him. Last year when we heard he had 'died,' I begged my mom to take us to the funeral. But this was after I...never mind," Juliette stopped talking and got back to getting supplies.

"After you what...?" Max asked.

"After I told her I liked girls," Juliette said. Max just stared at her, and Juliette felt sick to her stomach.

She was scared that Max was going to think differently of her, but instead, Max just grabbed her hand.

"Jules...it's okay. Nothing could ever make me hate you." Juliette smiled.

"In fact, I happen to also like girls," Max smiled. Juliette's face lit up.

"Really?" She asked. Max nodded.

"I mean, I like boys too, but I also like girls," Max explained. "I'm glad you told me." Juliette smiled and then went back to getting stuff ready.

Both of them kept looking over at each other, smiling and blushing. Their hearts were racing, and their palms were sweaty. Maybe Juliette had a chance after all.

After they finished setting up the shed, everyone besides Juliette, Hopper, Joyce, Jonathan, and Mike stayed in the house. The rest went into the shed with Will.

Ten minutes later, they came into the kitchen, and Hopper sat down at the table.

"I think he's talking, just not with words," Hopper wrote down some Morse code symbols on a piece of paper. "What's that?" Steve asked.

"Morse code," everyone answered.

The code spelled out "Here."

"Will's still in there. He's talking to us," Hopper said.

Jonathan retrieved the boombox from Will's room and brought it out to the shed. The gang inside diligently transcribed the codes that Hopper was sending them.

When they finally deciphered what Will was saying, they stared at the paper. "Close gate," it said.

Suddenly, the phone started to ring. "Shit! Shit!" Dustin hurried to stop it from ringing.

Then it began ringing again, so Ariana yanked it out of the wall and threw it. "Do you think he heard that?" Max asked.

"It's just a phone. It could be anywhere, right?" Steve reasoned.

Just then, they heard the monsters yelling in the distance. "That's not good," Dustin said.

Everyone who had been in the shed rushed inside and locked the doors. Ariana grabbed her crossbow, Steve took hold of his bat, Hopper handed Nancy a gun, and Juliette found a sword. Max looked at Juliette, confused.

"Where did you find a sword?" she asked. "Found it in Will's room," Juliette shrugged.

Everyone waited for the creatures to approach. They heard the monsters' yells and screeches from all sides of the house and saw them moving around in the bushes.

Suddenly, a monster flew through the window and landed on the ground, causing everyone to scream. However, upon closer inspection, they realized it was already dead.

"Holy shit," Dustin said. "Is it dead?" Max asked.

Hopper kicked it and confirmed that it was indeed dead.

Then, the door creaked, and everyone turned toward it. The locks started unlocking by themselves.

"Ariana, stop unlocking the door," Steve said. "I'm not doing that," she replied.

The door swung open, and she walked in-wearing black clothes and eyeliner, her hair slicked back. Everyone lowered their weapons in confusion.

Eleven had walked through the door.

END OF CHAPTER