nine

-

IT WAS JUST MAX, y/n, steve, mike, lucas, and dustin at the table right now.

"did you guys know bob was the original founder of hawkins av?" mike asks them. "he petitioned the school to start it and everything. then he had a fundraiser for equipment. mr. clarke learned everything from him."

he walked up to lucas, y/n and dustin.

"pretty awesome, right?" mike asks.

"yeah." dustin, y/n and lucas agreed while max stayed silent.

mike then put a blue cube on the table.

"we can't let him die in vain." mike spoke up.

"what do you want to do, mike?" y/n asks, unaware of his point. "the chief's right on this. we can't stop the demodogs on our own."

"demo-dogs?" max asked, confused.

"demogorgon, dogs." dustin tried explaining. "demo-dogs. it's like a compound, it's like a play on words-"

"okay." y/n cuts him off.

"i mean, when it was just dart, maybe." dustin explains to mike.

"but there's an army now." lucas finished his sentence.

"precisely." dustin says.

"his army." mike realizes.

"what do you mean?" steve asks.

"his army!" mike looks at all of them.

max look at him weirdly.

"maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army too."

mike hands a drawing.

"the shadow monster." dustin says.

"it got will that day on the field." mike tells them. "the doctor said it was like a virus, it infected him."

"and so this virus, it's connecting him to the tunnels?" max asks.

"to the tunnels, the monsters, the upside down, everything." mike replies to her question.

"whoa. slow down. slow down." steve speaks up.

mike then explains everything he just said to steve.

"like the mind flayer." dustin says.

"the what?" max, and steve ask.

-

dustin sets down a book about the mindflayer.

"what's the mindflayer?" hopper asks.

"it's a monster from an unknown dimension." dustin replies. "it's so ancient that it doesn't even know its true home. it enslaves races of other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly-developed psionic powers."

"oh my god, none of this is real. it's a kids game." hopper denies.

"no, it's a manual. and it's not for kids." dustin defends. "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?" dustin asks in frustration. "fine. an analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is."

"okay, so this mind flamer thing-" nancy intervenes.

"flayer." dustin corrects.

"what does it want?" nancy asks.

"to conquer us, basically." dustin replies. "it believes it's the master race."

"like the germans?" steve suggests.

"uh, the nazis?" dustin asks.

"yeah, yeah, yeah.. the nazi's." steve says.

"uh.. if the nazi's were from another dimension, totally." dustin says before continuing. "uh, it views other races, like us, as inferior to itself."

"it wants to spread, take over other dimensions." mike adds.

"we are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it." lucas says.

"that's great. that's great." steve sarcastically comments. "that's really great. jesus!"

"okay, so if this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything, then if we kill it-" y/n says.

"we kill everything in control." mike finishes her sentence for her.

"we win." dustin adds.

"theoretically." lucas corrects.

"great. so how do you kill this thing? shoot it with fireballs or something?" hopper asks.

dustin laughs. "no, no, no fireballs. uh, you summon an undead army, uh, because.. because zombies, you know, they don't have brains, and the mindflayer, you know, it.. it likes brains." dustin stutters. "it's just a game. it's a game."

"what the hell are you doing here?" hopper mutters as he slams the book onto the table.

"i thought we were waiting for your military backup." y/n says.

"we are!" hopper annoyingly replies.

"even if they come, how are they gonna stop this!?" mike asks. "you can't just shoot this with guns."

"you don't know that!" hopper reminds mike. "we don't know anything!"

"we know it's already killed everybody in that lab." mike argues.

"and, we know the monsters are gonna molt again." max adds.

"and, we know that it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town." dustin says.

"they're right." joyce says, appearing out of nowhere from her room. "we have to kill it."

hopper starts walking closer to joyce.

"i want to kill it." joyce tells him.

"me too." hopper says.

"i-"

"me, too, joyce, okay? but how do we do that? we don't exactly know what we're dealing with here." hopper reminds her.

"no. but he does." mike realizes. "if anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's will. he's connected to it. he'll know it's weakness."

"i thought we couldn't trust him anymore." y/n says, confused. "that he's a spy for the mindflayer now."

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

-

mike was scrounging through the cabinets, looking for stuff.

"i get why el was your mage now." max says to him, with a small smile.

"what?" mike asks.

"y/n. he told me all about her." max replies.

"yeah, well, she shouldn't have." mike coldly tells the ginger-haired girl.

max looks back up at him, her smile fading.

"and just because you know the truth, it doesn't mean you're in our party." mike tells her. "you do know that, right?"

"yeah- yeah, i know." max lies. "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."

mike immediately got flashbacks to the girl last year as he shut the cabinet. "yeah, she was. until that thing took her. just like it took bob."

mike then got up, and left, leaving max there.

'so much for being nice' max thought.

-

while mike, joyce, hopper, and jonathan were with will in the shed, dustin, lucas, and steve were off alone doing their own thing.

leaving max and y/n alone in the hallway, sitting across from each other on the ground.

"if he finds out where we are.. will he sends those dogs after us?" max fearfully asks y/n.

"he won't find out." y/n assured max.

"yeah, but- but if he does." max continued.

"judgement day." y/n simply says.

max wondered why she felt this way around y/n, why she would get so happy around y/n, why she got a warm feeling around y/n.

maybe she just needed to take her mind off of things, maybe get a boyfriend.

-

hopper left, he grabbed a pen and a piece of paper, and went to the others, with mike, joyce, and jonathan.

"what happened?" y/n asks.

"i think he's talking to us, just not with words." hopper began writing something down.

it read, 'here'

"will's still in there. he's talking to us." hopper states.

-

they started moving around, and jonathan put will's favorite song, should i stay or should i go, into the radio, and started playing it.

"do you remember the first time i played you this?" jonathan asks will. "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."

darling, you've got to let me know

after that, they went to the table again, and started decoding what will was trying to tell them.

should i stay or should i go?

"okay, got it!" lucas says.

'c'

-

if you say that you are mine. i'll be here 'til the end of time.

"'l.'" lucas decoded.

"'o'"

-

so you got to let me know.

"then you cast fog cloud and you saved us." mike explained a memory to will. "you saved the whole party."

"'s.'" lucas decoded.

should i stay or should i go

-

it's always tease, tease, tease

"you saw that little girl and she was in the sandbox and she was crying." joyce explained.

"'e'" lucas decoded.

you're happy when i'm on my knees

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

one day it's fine and next it's black

'g.'

so if you want me off your back

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

well, come on and let me know

"'she's sad, mommy." joyce repeated what will told her a few years ago.

"'a'"

"i love you so much." joyce tells will.

"'t'"

"so, so much." joyce continues.

should i stay or should i go?

"'e'"

nancy picked up the notebook, to read the sentence.

"close gate.." they all read from the notebook.

then suddenly, the phone rung.

"shit. shit, shit!" hopper cursed.

dustin rushed to the phone and immediately hung it up.

the phone rung again, and dustin was about to hang it up again, but y/n angrily took the phone, took it out the wall, and threw it to the floor.

"do you think he heard that?" max asks.

"it's just a phone. it could be anywhere, right?" steve replies.

"will, can you hear me?" joyce asks.

will closed his eyes, and his eyes were moving side to side, looking around.

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

hopper immediately took the needle, and stuck will with it, making him fall unconscious.

in the distance, they heard screeching.

"that's not good.." dustin mutters.

steve, jonathan, nancy, y/n, max, dustin, and lucas ran to where hopper, mike, joyce, and will were, which was in the shed.

"they're coming!" jonathan says.

jonathan and mike start to untile will.

they take will, and start running out of the shed.

hopper takes a gun.

"hey, hey! get away from the windows." hopper shouts at the kids.

"do you know how to use this?" hopper asks jonathan, referring to the gun.

"what?" jonathan asks.

"can you use this!?" hopper repeats.

"i can." y/n steps up.

hopper tosses the gun to y/n.

y/n starts cocking the gun, and aims it.

hopper aims his gun, nancy has her gun, and steve has his bat ready to swing.

"where are they?" max asked as she hid behind y/n.

they heard a loud screeching sound, causing them all to jump.

"what are they doing?" nancy asks.

they kept hearing screeching, until it turned weak, and the demo-dog shot through he window.

they all yelled out, in fear.

it didn't move though, it looked dead.

y/n walked closer to the demogorgon.

"holy shit." dustin mumbles.

"is it dead?" max asks.

y/n puts a foot lightly on the demogorgon, and it didn't flinch, or move.

the door then, on its own, slowly started to unlock, by itself.

the door opened, revealing a girl, her nose was bleeding, it was eleven.

mike's face immediately softened once he saw the girl.

hopper immediately lowers his gun.

a small smile started to appear on mike's face.

-