Alarms sounded throughout Hawkins Laboratory; a warning to the chaos that was unfolding deep within the ground below. Fluorescent lights flickered above heads, as panic started to grow between the souls cooped up inside the thick walls. Hell was about to break loose.

A stitch was forming in Marigold Lonsdale's side, but her cousin would not allow them to stop, not even for a second to cast a glance over their shoulders. Her palms were clammy, fear leaking through her pores, but she could only focus on one thing in that very second; the stench of blood that was coating the tiny corridors with a morbid perfume.

The Hawkins teenagers went around in circles; the laboratory suddenly a labyrinth that promised no safe way to escape without running into a monster that had climbed through the underground tunnels and broken through the barriers that were put in place to prevent something horrible like this from happening. Duncan was attempting to lead the way, pulling Marigold and Dottie along with him, holding too tightly, dread making his mind cloudy. He had no idea where these corridors went and no answers to where the pack of Demodogs were waiting. They were suddenly the hunted.

"We've been down this corridor twice," Dottie puffed, her cheeks flushed with colour and sweat was dripping down her spine through her shirt. Her stomach was twisted with horror, she could not even begin to wonder if Micky was somewhere safe. "Wait—that's the elevator."

Marigold twisted around in her tennis shoes, ears picking up the beeping sound of an incoming elevator at the very end of the corridor. Before she could move, somebody pushed by her shoulder, knocking her aside. Bloody footprints followed the lab worker, who was mumbled something in-cohesive. They watched in silence as the woman pressed the up button, waiting lonely for the doors to slide open. "Should we follow?" Marigold finally questioned aloud. Duncan gave her a weary look, but didn't return her question.

Dottie made the final decision, letting go of Duncan's hand and pushed herself towards the end of the corridor. Marigold followed hastily, but paused mid-step when the metal doors dinged open and to reveal a blood soaked scene. Her scream was lodged in her throat.

Hovering over a body, mouth wide open and tearing through the thin skin around the poor doctor's neck was a monster Marigold had only heard about in whispers. She had seen a lot of weird things that she could not explain, but she had never witnessed the beast her sister had faced last year. She had almost not believed the story; some interdimensional monster hunting down the good folks of Hawkins.

"Mari!" Duncan shouted. "Dottie!"

With the shouts, the Demodog jolted its head upwards. His body was ten times the size of Butterball and when it growled, it felt like the glass would break in the windows and the ground would shake like an earthquake. The monster pounced towards the woman, claws sinking into her shoulder blade and its tiny teeth digging into her throat, ripping it to ribbons within seconds. Marigold skidded to a halt, her breathing heavy and her mind a whirlpool. Dottie, not frozen with fear, scurried backwards, her fingertips looping around Marigold's wrist and trying pull her backwards.

Marigold, feet rooted to the floor, barely got the chance to move, her eyes glued to the monster, watching how its mouth opened like a delicate flower, but was only filled with ugly destruction. She knew this beast would haunt her dreams. She watched wordlessly as the woman's body, limb and soaked with blood, flopped to the floor in a heap, her eyes soulless. Finished with its kill, the Demodog turned to face the girls.

Without any hesitation, for a monster had to remorse, the Demodog picked up its pace, claws clanking against the blood slick flooring. He was so quick, too quick for Marigold, even with her friend attempting to pull her along, pleading with the heavens for her to move damnit!  Marigold was struck with fear, far more than she had ever experienced before.

Her scream was high-pitched as the Demodog caught her ankle, deadly sharp teeth ripping through her jeans and piecing her skin. Dottie, quick to action, found the nearest thing in her grasp, which happened to be a janitor's broom stick and whacked the beast's head. "Leave. Her. Alone." Dottie yelled, her very own battlecry. Blood soaked through Marigold's jeans, thick and oozing. But thankfully, the beast unlatched itself.

Behind the girls, a gunshot rang through the corridor, mixing with the overheard alarms. A bullet found its home in the Demodog side, and it shrunk away quickly. Marigold was crying, unsure how long tears had been falling down her cheeks, her mind a muddled explosion. Thankfully, Dottie Fields was a little more level headed right now, and curled her hands under Marigold's armpits and yanked her upwards, holding most of her body weight against her side.

Fredrick Lonsdale, suit jacket torn and blood dotting his hairline, lowered his gun. "This way, quickly." His voice was calm, too unpredictable, like he was prepared for the worst to unravel tonight. The trio followed behind him wordlessly.

***

Crickets chirped in the night, offering a false sense of peace, as five teenagers walked along the train tracks, for the second time today. Dustin Henderson was auguring loudly with Lucas Sinclair, but Daisy Lonsdale ignored them, or she was attempting to. 

"You okay?" Steve Harrington asked quietly.

Daisy had no true answer to that question. "We almost died. Again."

"But we didn't," Steve offered. "That's something."

They came to a pause on the train tracks, Steve lowering his flashlight to the dirt. He stood close to her, seeing the drying wound on her cheekbone and the crusty blood clinging to the base of her neckline. She had tried to clean herself up, but it was no real use. During the battle against the Demodogs at the junkyard, he thought she had been stupid following him; very stupid, but brave. He liked that about her. Maybe Daisy Lonsdale would always follow him into danger, much like he would follow her.

He brushed his thumb across her cheekbone lightly. "That might leave a scar."

"You like scars," Daisy smiled, noticing how her stomach flipped upside down with his delicate touch. She almost wanted to pretend they were alone and savour the moment, but the children's argument was only getting more heated behind them. "Don't you, Harrington?"

Steve grinned a little bit. "Just like you like idiots."

"Sure," Daisy closed her eyes for a moment, then stepped away. Sometimes, only in brief seconds when she found herself paying too much attention to him, when they were not jokingly flirting or skidding around the complications of their friendship, she wished things could be simple with him and that they had the right timing to try. But maybe they would never get that chance. Steve dropped his hand back to his side and rocked back in his sneakers. Daisy felt bold tonight, too bold. "What are were doing, Steve?"

He shook his head, clueless. "We're heading back to town."

"No," Daisy sighed. "What are you and me doing?"

Steve Harrington truly was clueless, maybe about a lot of things. The biggest thing he was clueless about was his feelings for Daisy Lonsdale. He had always liked her, even when she hated his guts and sworn to never trust him again. But maybe he could not have her, not in the way she needed somebody to promise to never hurt her, and he would, eventually. "We're—I don't know."

Through the towering trees, cutting through the shouting of the children, a noise hissed through the darkness and that had the moment between Steve and Daisy shattering like fragile glass. Steve swung his flashlight towards the sound and followed the path towards the woods that spread on for miles. Daisy stepped up beside him, squinting her eyes to locate where the haunting and distant howls from a pack of Demodogs were coming from, or headed.

Steve turned around to glare at the kids, voice loud. "Would you lot shut up! Can't you hear that?"

Dustin, Lucas and Max hurried to watch the woods below the ridge. Lucas held up his beloved binoculars and found the source through the fogged trees. "That's Hawkins labs," he stated slowly. "They're going home."

Daisy heaved her metal weapon over her shoulder and started towards the ridge. "Looks like that's where we're headed." She made it halfway down the small hill and turned around, finding nobody following her. "Well, come on. We don't have all night."

Steve Harrington followed her into danger, with a grin to the dark heavens above.

***

Inside the Hawkins Laboratory, three children followed blindly behind Fredrick Lonsdale, who knew his way through the maze of locked rooms and corridors all too well. He did not stop moving, not even when his own granddaughter whimpered in pain, her ankle throbbing with pain and leaving a bloodied path behind them. They stepped over bodies and heard the screams of others, but nobody said a single word, only kept on moving before they were killed, or worse, half eaten and left for dead, dying in a puddle of their own crimson blood.

"Inside here," Fredrick came to a tiny computer room, which locked from the inside and served for a safe place to wait out the Demodogs. Overhead, the lights finally blinked out, leaving the four of them in total darkness. "Now."

Ushering them inside, Fredrick took one look at the teenagers. Duncan was huddled near the back of the room, coated in a strange green light that came from the computer monitor screen. His lips were drawn into a tight line and his eyes were narrowed across at Marigold. Dottie was crouching down to examine Marigold's ankle in silence. Marigold, curls a mess and mascara running down her cheeks in black rivers, held back at cry. Her eyes were filled with a dreaded rage.

"Are you three alright?" Fredrick questioned.

Marigold laughed cruelly, staring across at her grandfather. "Do we look alright?"

Fredrick simply pursed his lips. "Now is not the time for your snippy attitude."

"When would you like a silver platter of my attitude?" Marigold yelped when Dottie touched a tender spot, but did not allow her pain to push away her anger. "Tomorrow when we're all dead? Or would you like it when you're being sued for allowing those things to roam the town on a killing spree?"

Her grandfather shifted his gaze away, simply checked his gun, loading it up with a few more bullets. "I would like to point out, if it were not for me, you would be dead right now, Margiold." His voice remained emotionless. "Keep that in mind."

"Now I'm supposed to thank you for saving my life?" Marigold hobbled towards him, Dottie going to sit by the back wall with her knees drawn to her chest. Duncan placed his hand on her shoulder without a word, only paying attention to his grandfather, who's thoughts were spilling out of his mind suddenly. "You ran me out of town, remember? Not only days ago, you threatened my life, and Duncan's, suggesting we're expendable. There's no chance in hell you're getting a thank you right now. None of this would be happening if you hadn't played God with Brenner."

Fredrick calmly allowed his eyes to rest back upon Marigold. "Everybody is expendable," he reminded her. "A few casualties are expected with great breakthroughs. You simply would not understand the work that's been done here. You are children, you can not see the bigger picture."

Duncan shifted on his feet, hearing every single horrible thought that was flowing through his grandfather's mind. Fredrick was valuable right now, which was something he had never been. Marigold continued to poke the beast however, only adding fuel to the fire. "What bigger picture? How about all the death that's on your hands? How about your entire lab staff are dead outside this door? How about all the innocent people that have been killed in the past because of you and this stupid experiment."

"How about your own flesh and blood you've killed?" Duncan asked, finally speaking up. Marigold rounded to see his face, hidden in the green light. His eyes were filled with tears, now finally knowing the truth. "You killed my father."

Dottie sucked in a gulp, sinking further to the floor. Marigold's eyes were on fire; heavenly fire that could burn a million suns. "What?" She turned back to her cousin. "What are you talking about?"

"In that car crash in Kentucky, you wanted me dead too." Duncan got to his feet, taking slow steps towards the man who had ruined his life. "You ordered the hit on us. All because dad would not allow you to get away with your experiments with Brenner. You poisoned my mother's mind, all to cover up your abuse in power. How could you do that to your own family?"

You're a despicable person," Marigold hissed, venom dripping from her words.

Fredrick Lonsdale was a horrible man; he had killed to keep secrets and ordered others to do his bidding in order to protect the nature of his work with Dr. Brenner. He had funded the man's experiments with MKUltra and allowed monsters to overtake a town for research. He was terrible, but he was prideful and powerful, which maybe meant more to him than family.

Duncan blinked away his tears and with all his might, the anger he had carried his entire life, raised his fist towards his grandfather, but hesitated. He had never hurt anybody. He had never wanted to. "Go ahead, grandson." Fredrick encouraged him.

"You're not worth it." Duncan said, lowering his hand.

Marigold struggled forwards, her ankle making any movement hard, and curled her fist and struck her grandfather across the face. She had no problem with inflicting pain to somebody that deserved it. "You are not our family," she said. "You never have been."

Overhead, the lights flicked back on, the lab rebooting its power, but that was not the only thing that had come back to life in that very second. Growling erupted from behind the locked door, claws slamming against the wood, as a Demodog broke his way into the tiny room. 

Duncan pushed Marigold backwards automatically, fear spiking in his blood. Dottie was leaping to her feet, her mind quicker than ever. "Get away from the door!"

"Stay back!" Fredrick shouted, gun raised.

Seconds merged together after that moment; gunshots blared, the Demodog attacked, ugly mouth and claws reaching the greying man and jerking him towards the door. His head hit the wood hard, the gun falling from his grasp. His humerus was ripped from its shoulder joint, a terrible cry painting the night in blood. He staggered backwards, but the Demodog was not quite done and through the gapping hole in the wood of the door, clawed at his abdomen, leaving a gash that splashed red rain to the floor in seconds.

Marigold twisted her head to the side, her stomach rolling and her head spinning. Duncan fumbled around, trying to figure out to do without getting himself killed in the process. Dottie, with pure adrenaline running through her veins, dropped to her knees and crawled towards the gun lying on the floor. Her hands were shaking when they wrapped around the heavy metal.

The Demodog wedged its large body through the hole with a quick struggle, but finally entered the tiny room with a loud snarl. It stepped over the fallen body of Fredrick, rounding to Marigold and Duncan. Dottie, holding back a trembling cry, aimed the gun and squeezed hard. "This is for Butterball, you son of a bitch!" she screamed, watching as bullet after bullet struck the Demodog. The beast whimpered softly, before its legs gave way eventually.

Marigold choked on her sobs, as Duncan, softer than anybody could imagine, lowered to his knees in his grandfather's blood. He watched wordlessly as Fredrick coughed up blood, which stained his entire chin and dribbled down towards the floor. "Stay with me." Duncan whispered, reaching to hold the man's hand. He hated him, but he did not deserve to die alone.

Dottie, who was still trembling, hovered over them both. Her level headedness grounded her, despite the urgency that called her to sink to her knees and cry too. "There's nothing you can do for him," Her words were not mean, just fact. "We have to go."

Duncan shook his head. "We can't just leave him."

Marigold wiped at her cheeks. "We have to."

Her eyes said it all; why stay with a man who would have killed them, if given the second chance?

"If we leave him," Duncan said, "We are no better than him."

They should have left, fled into the corridors and taken the staircase up the ground floor, where another man was taking his last breath too, but there they waited. Waited for a horrible man to die.

Duncan touched two fingers to his grandfather's temple softly. He closed his eyes and willed his powers to flow into Fredrick Lonsdale's mind like a dream. Scenes from a once sweet life played on a continuous loop; a loving wife, too pretty for the world and taken too soon. Two daughters in a house painted white. A happy family, that maybe could have lasted in another life. Fredrick Lonsdale died within a dream, curtsey of the grandson he had wanted dead for a very long time.

***

Daisy Lonsdale had waited months for her sister to return to her, but waiting in the cold night air after her battle in the junkyard hours ago, felt almost worst. Her fears had not bloomed until she saw her sister hobbling through the shattered glass doors of Hawkins Laboratory, not where she had expected her to be.

Steve had been standing beside her, he hadn't left her side, even with Nancy Wheeler watching them as the group had met them on the outskirts of the labs moments earlier. Once his gaze locked onto the blonde, he whispered one single word into Daisy's ear. "Go."

Leaving him behind, along with the other children, Daisy raced through the ankle length weeds and weaved around the gate to keep unwanted guests from the property. Up ahead, Hopper was loading the others into his truck quickly, trying to beat the monsters waiting the inside still, feasting on what was left of Bob Newby. 

"Mari!" Daisy shouted, her lungs sucking in the nighttime and the odd scent of blood. She caught one sight of her sister, propped against Dottie's body, one jean leg soaked in blood and her face stained with makeup and tears.

When she finally reached her, she wrapped her arms around her middle and held tightly. Over her shoulder, Duncan moved towards them. He looked tired, empty even, from the night's activities. He offered Daisy a small smile, something nobody else noticed. Marigold pushed away her pain in her leg and hugged her back. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Daisy said, pulling back to see the damage done on her sister. She could only guess how she looked; beaten and drained. "I'm so glad you're okay."

With those words Marigold started to cry. Behind her, Joyce was weeping in the front seat of Jonathan's car, holding an unconscious Will in her lap. Dottie and Micky were hugging too, and the others were piling into cars, ready to get far away from here. "Nothing's okay," Marigold choked out, too exhausted to even explain everything.

Hopper turned back to the Lonsdale children. "You can hug later," he called out, hurrying them along. "We've gotta' go."

Daisy led her sister and cousin to Jonathan's car, where they wedged their bodies into the backseat next to Nancy Wheeler. She had heard the last snippets of their conversation and spotted the cloudy look in Marigold's eyes. Nancy Wheeler had no comforting words, only the cold hard truth. "She's right, none of this is okay," she said quietly. "And this is only the beginning tonight."