Sunday, November 4th, 1984

STEVE SHONE HIS LIGHT AHEAD,  holding the flashlight in one hand and holding Bea's in another.

"You're positive that was dart?" Lucas asked as the five walked along, following the growling.

"Yes, he had the exact same yellow pattern on his butt," Dustin explained, sounding audibly annoyed. "Hes already molted three times today," Dustin said and Steve looked at him confused.

"Malted?" He questioned and Bea chuckled to herself,  squeezing his hand lightly.

"Molted, shed his skin to make room for growth, like a hornworm," Bea explained and Steve nodded, clearly still not understanding.

"When he molts again he'll be fully grown, or close to it," Dustin explained, shining his flashlight in front of him.

"Yeah, and he's gonna eat a lot more than just cats," Steve said and Bea mumbled to herself.

"Cheeky bastard ate my cat," she mumbled and Steve held in a laugh, listening to Dustin as he talked.

"Dart ate a cat!" Lucas exclaimed and they all stopped, Steve realising what he had said.

"No, he didn’t eat a cat," Dustin said and Steve looked at him confused.

"What are you talking about? He ate Mews," Steve explained and Bea sighed.

Max looked around confused for a second before turning to Steve and Bea.

"Mews, who's Mews?" Max asked and Bea sighed.

"It is- was- Dustin and Bea's cat," Steve explained and Bea looked at him annoyed.

"Steve!" Bea and Dustin yelled at the same time and he turned to look at Bea confused, looking at her as if he was silently asking what he had done wrong.

"He missed me, he wanted to come home," Dustin said and in that moment Bea really felt for him, he loved Dart even if it was kind of weird.

Lucas and Dustin were arguing about breaking the laws of the party and Steve heard screeching in the distance.

"Steve?" Bea asked as he started to walk off, Bea following him as she held his hand, not really wanting to let go.

"Hey, what's wrong?" She asked as he stared into the distance.

"Can you hear that?" He asked and the two went silent and she heard it. The screeching.

"Guys!" Bea called out and the three all turned around to look at her. They all ran after the screeching, leaving a confused max behind to run after them.

"No, no, no, why are we heading towards the sound?" She asked before running after them.

Bea let go of Steves hand reluctantly as they both held their bats in hand. They stood at the tallest point in Hawkins, watching out at the forest as the screeching got louder.

"Its the lab," Lucas said as he looked through his binoculars.

"Course its the bloody lab," Bea said to herself, annoyed at the situation. "We've got to get out there," Bea said and Steve nodded.

They finally reached the bottom of the hill and saw two figures approaching slowly.

"Whos there!" A voice called out and Steve held the flashlight out, pointing it at the two figures.

It was Nancy and Jonathan.

"What are you doing here?" Nancy asked and Bea laughed.

"What are you doing here?" She asked and the two parties met.

"We're looking for Mike and Will,' Nancy explained and Bea sighed.

"They can't be in there," Dustin said and they all turned to the lab at the sound of the demodogs screeching.

"We haven't seen Will since his episode on the field," Bea explained and the four teenagers bunkered until Nancy walked off, staring at the lab.

"Hey, the powers back," she said and they all ran to the gates. Jonathan rushed in the control panel, clicking the open button but it wouldn't work, the gates closed.

Suddenly the gate opened and the seven stood watching the gate.

Steve leant the back of his head against the booth as he waits for Jonathan and Nancy to get back after they drove round to find Will.

All of a sudden, Jim's car drives round and stops.

"Lets go," he said and they all jumped in the back, climbing on top of each other to do so.

☆☆☆

THEY DROVE BACK TO THE BYERS
house after Jim had explained what the hell happened in the lab.

Turns out Bob didn't make it out alive.

The adults all talked and Bea walked solemnly over to the kitchen counter, leaning against it as she thought.

Steve walked over to her, Leaned against the kitchen counter, her head against his shoulder as she grieved. His hand running through her hair.

The kids were all sitting at the table, sad looks on their faces as they grieved Bob Newbys death.

He was so innocent in all of this.

"Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV," Mike said and Bea held back the tears, even she went to Hawkins AV when she was in middle school.

"He petitioned the school to start it and everything," Mike explained and Bea leaned into Steve's shoulder, silently sobbing. "Mr Clarke learned everything from him," Mike explained as he placed the square on the table.

"We can't let him die in vain," Mike said and Bea nodded her head, standing up straight and wiping the stray tears from her cheeks.

Everyone sat in silence for a second, thinkin.

"What do you want to do Mike?" Dustin asked, looking frustrated.

"The chiefs right on this, we can't stop those demo-dogs on our own," he said and Max looked at him confused. The kids just talked, Bea and Steve watching from afar.

Bea felt way too tired to care, she was focused on Steve's thumb running calming circles over her knuckles, trying not to drift into sleep.

"His army," Mike blurted out and Bea sat up.

"What do you mean?" Bea asked and inspiration flashed in Mikes eyes.

"Maybe if we stop Him, we can stop His army too," he suggested and Mike rummaged through a pile before pullingout a picture.

He showed everyone a picture that Will had drawn. "The shadow monster," Dustin said and Bea sighed.

"The one that got Will that day on the field," Bea recalled and they all hovered over the image.

"The doctor said it was like a virus, it infected him," Mike said and Max nodded her head, ideas echoing around the room.

"and so this virus, its connecting him to the tunnels?" She suggested and Mike nodded his head quickly.

"To the tunnels, monsters, the upside down, everything," He explained quickly, his voice at a rapid speed.

"Whoa, slow down, slow down," Steve said and everyone turned their attention to him.

"The shadow monster is inside Will. If the vines feel pain, then so does Will, like a hive mind" Mike explained, dumbing it down for him.

"Hive mind?" Steve questioned and Bea smiled at him and how out of the scientific loop he was.

"A collective consciousness. Like a super organism. Like the mind flayer," Bea explained, dropping her dungeons and dragons reference in at the end.

"The what?" Steve and Max said at the same time.

Max turned to look at Lucas and Steve looked down at Bea, furrowing his brow in confusion. Bea reached into the box on the side, remembering where Will kept his D&D manual.

"The mind flayer," she said, flicking through the book and slamming the page on the table so everyone looked at it.

"The hell is that?" Hopper said, walking into the room.

"It's a monster from an unknown dimension. Its so ancient it doesn't know its true home," Dustin explained and Hopper nodded vacantly.

"None of this is real, it's a kids game," Hopper explained and Bea sighed.

"No, it's a manual," Dustin said and Bea cut in.

"And its not for kids," she said, a smile appearing on Hopper face before confusion washed over him.

"Ok, this mind flayer thing. What does it want?" Nancy asked as she crowded around the table with them.

"To conquer us basically, it believes it's the master race," Dustin explained, slightly reading from the manual and slightly improvising.

"Like the Germans," Steve added, using his analogy.

"You mean the Nazis," Bea said and Steve stammered.

"Yeah, yeah, the Nazis," he said.

The two of them just smiled at each other, the action not going unknown to a curious Nancy and Jonathan.

"Ok so if this thing is like a brain, controlling people, then if we kill it, we kill everything it controls," Nancy said and Mike nodded, agreeing with her.

"They are right," a distraught sounding Joyce said as she walked out of her room, "We have to kill it, I want to kill it," she said and Hopper walked over to her.

"If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, its Will, hes connected to it, he'll know its weakness," Mike explained.

☆☆☆

HE WALKED OVER TO AN UNCONSCIOUS Will and they came up with a brilliant plan. Lock Will in the shed and have him spy on the mindflayer for them.

Once they all finished covering the shed to make it unrecognisable they left, waiting in the Byers house.

Bea walked in with Jonathan, Joyce, Mike and Hopper. She watched as Will panicked, the lights flickering on and off before he stopped and everything went calm.

Joyce crouched in front of him. Crying as she recapped his 8th birthday where he got crayons and embarrassed him in front of everyone.

"I was so proud. So proud," she said, tearing up. Jonathan breathed shakily as he walked over, crouching down next to his mum.

"Do you remember the day dad left," Jonathan said and Bea sighed, her breath shaky as she remembered the day as if it was only yesterday.  Jonathan told him the story of building Castle Byers together that day, even though Will couldn't use the hammer very well.

"It was raining but we stayed out anyway. We were sick for like a week after that, Bea being forced to bring us food every day," he said and Joyce chuckled, reminiscing on the story. She moved over to stand next to Hopper, both of them watching on awe. Bea smiled to herself.

"Can you remember Christmas Eve in 1980," she asked and Will turned to look at her, a blank expression on his face. "Your mum had to work that day and you were upset," Bea explained, tears in her eyes.

"So me and Jonathan watched Christmas movies with you all morning and at lunch we tricked you into thinking I was leaving," she kept on explaining, watching as his eyes followed her.

She sighed, her breathing shaky as she looked at Jonathan.

"But instead I convinced her boss to give her the day off, even though I had to work three weekends after that," Bea explained and both her and Jonathan laughed at the end slightly. "You told me it was the best present ever, a night you'd never forget," she said, emphasising the last word.

"Do you remember the first day we met," Mike asked and Will turned to him, the light making him look paler than he was. He explained the whole story about how he had no friends and then he met Will.

Even Bea was tearing up at that point. Will started to tear up and they all begged for him to come back. Will's breathing was shaky as he watched them.

His eyes flickering between Joyce, Jonathan, Bea and Will.

Thats when Bea noticed Will tapping on the chair.

"Hey, guys," she said, sniffling as she wiped the tears away. Hopper nodded his head, all of them running out.

Bea followed and leaned over Hoppers shoulder as he wrote out the words.

"What's that?" Steve asked and the entire party plus Bea looked at him.

"Morse Code," They said at the same time, looking back at the paper. Jonathan ran to his room, grabbing his stereo and his favourite cassette tape.

Their plan was to trick Will into talking and Hopper would watch as Will tapped the morse code on the chair and Hopper would communicate through the supercom.

Dustin wrote down the code and Lucas reached for the translator but Bea didnt need it.

"C" she called out and Nancy nodded, writing it down on the paper.

"L" she called out until they spelt a word.

"Close gate," Nancy called out once Bea had spelt the whole thing put in morse code.

That's when the phone started to ring and Dustin slammed it down. But when it didn't stop, Nancy threw it across the room, breaking it.

Hopper ran back in and they all heard the monster screeching in the distance.

"Thats not good," Dustin mumbled to himself and they all saw Hopper grab his gun.

"Bea, you can use this right?" Hopper asked, holding the gun out to her and she grabbed it.

"Course hop," she said panicked, aiming the gun at the window as she stood next to Hopper. Steve had his bat ready and Nancy was holding Bea's bat.

They watched the leaves russle outside, a panicked look on everyone's face.

Suddenly the screeching stopped and one jumped through the window, everyone screaming.

It was dead.

Hopper approached slowly, his gun aimed at it before they saw the blood. It was deaf.  Suddenlt the lock opened. Everyone was ready for the demo-dogs. Bea had her gun aimed at it, ready for anything.

But she wasn't ready for Eleven to step inside, her hair slicked back and dark makeup around her eyes.

Everyone stared at her in shock, Mike approaching slowly, tears in his eyes. Hopper and Bea lowered their guns as she walked in.

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