"You're positive that was Dart?" Lucas asked Dustin as we 5 walked down the train tracks back to the car.

"Yes. He had the same exact yellow pattern on his butt."

"He was tiny two days ago."

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

"Malted?" Steve whispers.

"Molted." Dustin corrected him. "Shed his skin to make room for growth like hornworms." Oh how lovely!

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

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

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

"Wait, a cat?" Max questioned.

"Dart ate a cat?"Lucas stopped Dustin.

"No, what? No." Dustin lied. "What are you talking about?"

"He ate Mews." Steve said.

"Mews? Who's Mews?" Max answered.

"It's Dustin's cat." I told her. Dustin looked at the two of us.

"Steve! Wendy!" He yelled at us.

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

"No! No. No," we all looked at him, knowing he was lying. "I No, I He missed me. He wanted to come home."

"Bullshit!" Lucas yelled.

"I didn't know he was a Demogorgon, Okay?" Steve and I heard some growling or some howling near by. We both looked at each other and went closer.

"You hear that?" I asked him. He nodded. "Its gotta be those dogs."

"Guys?" Steve said as he tried to get the children's attention. It didnt work. "Guys!" He yelled and they all stopped. The growling started again. Steve went to the source. Oh no. I grabbed Maxs back as I stood behind the kids for protection and well, so they dont get lost. We all saw a building with flashing lights. Lockdown probably.

"I don't see him." Dustin said as well looked at the woods.

"It's the lab." Lucas said as he took out his binoculars. "They were going back home." I sighed. I looked at Steve, who was already looking at me. I gave him the most worried look. I sighed and shined my flashlight and walked towards to the lab.

"Wait!" Steve called out. He stopped me. "Let me go first, just in case anything happens." I gave the kids a hand to walk faster and besides me.

"I hope Will is okay." I said a out loud. Steve grabbed my hand and looked at me.

"He's gonna be okay, i know he is." I gave him a faint smile. After walking, we made it to the gate. I saw headlights. I ran towards it. "Wendy wait!" Steve called out.

"Hello? Who's there? Who's there?" I knew that voice. We all came out of the woods and saw Nancy and Jonathan.

"Steve?" Nancy said.

"Nancy?" Steve repeated.

"Jonathan?" I was confused.

"Wendy?" Jonathan spoke. We all met up. "What are you doing here?" He asked.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"We're looking for Mike and Will." Nancy said.

"They're not in there, are they?" Dustin called. We all glanced at the lab.

"We're not sure."

"Why?" All of the sudden the howling started and it was close by us and it was coming inside of the lab. We stood there arguing for no good reason, i dont even know how it all started.

"Powers back." Nancy said. We looked back. It was. We ran to the gate and tried to open the gate but it wasn't opening. We all stood there looking like fools. Minutes go by and nobody moved.

"If you guys are gonna stand there, im going in-" i said as Dustin and Max held me back as cars came in. Two of them were Aunt joyces and Hoppers cars.

"Come on! Come on, let's go!" Hoppers yells at us to get in the car. I let the kids go first and then steve.

"Let's go!" Steve shoved me in and I sat in the front as we drove away from the lab. We made it back home. Hopper puts Will on the couch and Aunt Joyce just went to her room. I went to Hopper.

"What the hell happened in there?" I asked.

"Those damn dogs came again. They killed Bob. And Will-" i walked away slowly as he mentioned Bob. Those dogs killed Bob. I went to the couch and kneeled down. I brushed back Wills hair.

"I'm sorry, Will. Sorry I wasn't there. I should have helped." I cried. Jonathan kneeled down with me and cried. We all stood there in silence. I walked to the kitchen. I gathered my thoughts in my room and I sighed. I heard a knock. "This is so much crazier than I imagine." I laughed off. Steve came in and sat down next to me.

"Just you wait. Those things are nastier up in person." I chuckled and i wiped my tear away.

"I wish I could've done something."

"Hey." He grabs my hand. "Dont blame yourself okay. Its not your fault. We are gonna fix this. Will's gonna be fine." I nodded my head.

"I wanted to say, you make a pretty good babysitter." He laughs. He pats my hand. We walked to the kitchen and heard the kids talk.

"His army." Mike said.

"What do you mean?" Steve asked as we walked in.

"His army. Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army, too." Mike lead us to Wills room abd showed us one of Wills drawings.

"The shadow monster."

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

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

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

"Whoa. Slow down. Slow down." The kids pasted us the drawing and it freaked me out. That thing actually looks like this in real life?

"Okay, so, the shadow monster's inside everything. And if the vines feel something like pain, then so does Will." Mile continues.

"And so does Dart." Lucas mentions.

"Yeah. Like what Mr. Clarke taught us."

"The hive mind."

"Hive mind?" I was confused. I raised my eyebrow.

"A collective consciousness." Dustin started to tell me. "It's a super-organism. And this is the thing that controls everything. It's the brain."

"Like the mind flayer." Lucas snaps his fingers. Max, Steve and I all got so confused.

"The what?" We all said.

"The mind flayer." Dustin said as he puts the D&D book down.

"What the hell is that?" Hopper was confused.

"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 of other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly-developed psionic powers." I sighed. Its just a game.

"Oh, my God, none of this is real." Hopper sighs. "This is a kids' game."

"No, it's a manual. And it's not for kids." Dustin looks at Hopper. "And unless you know something that we don't, this is the best metaphor."

"Analogy." Lucas corrects Dustin.

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

"Okay, so this mind flamer thing Flayer." I said as i cut off the tension.

"Mind flayer." Dustin corrected me. I rolled my eyes and shook my head.

"What does it want?" I shrugged my shoulders.

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

"Like the Germans?" Steve said. I looked at him. Its literally the Nazis. Didnt we spent a whole night studying about it the other day?

"Uh, the Nazis?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Nazis" steve sniffs and looks back me. "I forgot." I nodded.

"Uh If the Nazis were from another dimension, totally. Uh, it views other races, like us, as inferior to itself."

"It wants to spread, take over other dimensions." Mike chimes in.

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

"That's great. That's great. That's really great. Jesus!" Steve repeated and pushed back his hair with frustration.

"Okay, so if this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything, then if we kill it We kill everything it controls." Nancy started to ask.

"We win." I said.

"Theoretically." Dustin looked at me.

"Great."Hopper comes in and looks at the book.. "So how do you kill this thing? Shoot it with Fireballs or something?"

"No." Dustin laughs. "No, no Fire No Fireballs. Uh, you summon an undead army, uh, because because zombies, you know, they don't have brains, and the mind flayer, it it It likes brains. It's just a game." He laughs it off as he puts it together.

"It's a game." I rubbed my face with my hands. Hopper throws the book to the table.

"What the hell are we doing here?"

"I thought we were waiting for your military backup."Dustin yelled at Hopper.

"We are!" He yelled

"How are they gonna stop this? You can't just shoot this with guns."

"You don't know that! We don't know anything!"

"We know it's already killed everybody in that lab. We know the monsters are gonna molt again. We know that it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town."

"They're right." We all jumped to see Aunt Joyce in pain with Bobs death. "We have to kill it. I want to kill it." Hopper runs to her.

"Me, too. I - Me, too, Joyce, okay? But how do we do that?" Hopper tells her.

"We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here."

"No." Mike said as he looked at Will. "But he does.
If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's Will.
He's connected to it. He'll know its weakness."

"I thought we couldn't trust him anymore. That he's a spy for the mind flayer now." Max said.

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