"You're positive that was dart?" Lucas questions Dustin, still slightly unsure about this whole thing.

"Yes," Dustin says, exhaling sharply. "He had the same exact yellow pattern on his butt," Dustin describes to the boy.

"Well, he was tiny two days ago," Max interrupts, looking to Dustin for some answers. We carry on walking to God knows where trudging along the rural path.

Dustin pauses for a moment before replying to Max. "Well, he's molted three times already," he points out to her.

"Malted?" Steve questions.

"Molted," I correct him. "Shed its skin to make more room for growth like a snake," I explain to Steve. He furrows his brows at my knowledge. "Don't tell me you've forgotten about Sally and Simon the snakes." Steve nods his head in the recollection of my family's pets.

"When's he gonna molt again?" Max asks, pointing her flashlight in the woodland either side of us.

Dustin shrugs his shoulders, not taking his eyes away from his surroundings. "It's gotta be soon," he says, not completely sure how this Demodog's anatomy works. "When he does, he'll be fully grown or close to it. And so will his friends."

"Yeah," I nod my head at Dustin. "And he's gonna want to eat a lot more than just cats," I mention, referring to Mews. May he rest in peace.

"Wait, a cat?" Lucas exclaims, pulling Dustin to a stop. "Dart ate a cat?" He looks at Dustin completely disgusted and shocked. At this point, Steve and I have just accepted that this thing ate a cat and we just carry on with life.

"No," Dustin denies, quickly. "No, what?"

Steve scrunches up his face in confusion at the boy. "What are you talking about?" He asks Dustin. I can tell he doesn't want Lucas to know about the cat situation but it's too late to stop Steve from releasing any information now. "He ate Mews."

"Mews?" Max repeats, looking at Steve. "Who's Mews?"

"It's Dustin's cat," Steve replies, pretty contently.

"Was," I correct him.

"Steve! Elizabeth!" Dustin yells at us for telling Lucas the whole cat situation.

"I knew it! You kept him!" Lucas scolds Dustin, who continuously denies it before sighing heavily. "He missed me," he defends himself. "He wanted to come home. I didn't know he was a Demogorgon, okay?"

I turn to Steve as the three kids continue to argue. "Do you feel bad that we created this?" I ask him, pointing to the bickering trio. He shrugs his shoulders and shakes his head. "Good, me neither."

Another screeching sound in the distance comes to my attention. Steve's head shoots in my direction, indicating he heard the noise, also. We both edge towards the direction of the sound to see if we can see anything, leaving the three behind having their argument. "Hey, guys?" Steve calls out to them, to which they carry on arguing. "Guys!"

The chittering sounds again so all of us run in that direction, leaving Max calling out to us asking us why we were headed in that direction. We follow the sound before we reach a hill. None of us can see them so Lucas pulls out his binoculars. "It's the lab," Lucas begins. "They were going back home."

Steve nods his head and starts walking down to the lab. "I'm sorry, are you crazy or something?" I call out to him. He looks back and nods his head. Dustin and Lucas begin to follow him. I turn to face Max and shake my head. "We're really doing this, huh?"

She sighs and tries to catch up with them, so I am left with no choice but to go and follow them. After around ten minutes or so, we make it down to the lab's entrance. "Who's there?!" A voice yells in the distance. "Who's there?!" It repeats. As we get closer, I recognize the two people standing there. Nancy and Jonathan. "Steve? Liz?" They both sound in unison.

"And co." I point to the three children standing behind us.

"Nancy?" Steve calls out, stepping forward. "Jonathan."

"What are you two doing here?" Nancy exclaims at us, as we all walk towards one another.

"What are you doing here?" Steve replies with her own question.

Nancy stops in her tracks when we all meet in the middle. "We're looking for Mike and Will," she explains to him.

Dustin's face drops immediately. "They're not in there, are they?" He asks, looking at Jonathan in hope.

Nancy looks and Dustin, then at Jonathan. "We're not sure," she shrugs her shoulders. "Why?" Almost as if on cue, the Demogorgon creatures screech out from inside the lab. Everyone begins having their own discussion as I watch the building.

The windows go from completely black to all lit up within seconds. "The power's back," I inform everyone. They all stop talking and turn to face the building. We run to the front gate and Jonathan tries pressing the button multiple times, nothing works. Dustin insists he try, but it doesn't work. He spams the button by pressing it and eventually, it opens. "Hey! I got it," he says, proudly.

Nancy and Jonathan get in their car and drive into the lab. We're left waiting around for someone to come back to get us. Steve grabs my wrist and pulls me off to one side. "We need to talk," he tells me but I just shake my head. "I don't care, Elizabeth, okay?" He exhales sharply and rubs his hand through his long hair in stress. "Seeing you hanging out with Billy, it's made me realize how much you truly mean to me."

I feel my eyes pricking, on the verge of tears. "No, Steve, please," I shake my head. He takes my hand and squeezes it tightly. "Steve, don't."

He laces his fingers in between mine and lets his hand drop by his side, taking mine with it. "Liz, I owe you an explanation for those months I didn't speak to you," he says, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear with his free hand. "I was shocked about what you had told me. Shocked that you actually felt that way about me."

I pull my hand out of his and shake my head, the tears dripping down my cheeks. "But you love with Nancy so none of that matters, right?" I tell him, not wanting to talk about this.

"Yeah," Steve nods his head at me. "I do love Nancy. But Elizabeth, I'm not in love with her." I blink a few times, trying to make sense of everything he's saying. He puts one of his hands on my cheek, using his thumb to brush away my tears. "Can't you see? I'm in love with you. I have been for years. I just used to 'I don't care' method and it clearly didn't work."

I laugh at him, softly, putting my hand over his. I pull his hand from my cheek and feel my face slowly drop back into a frown. "But Billy," I say in barely a whisper. "I can't just drop him. He needs me. You don't understand and I don't expect you to. It's complicated."

He drops his head, slightly and hums. "Yeah, I get it," he nods his head. Nancy and Jonathan's car drives past us and Hopper pulls up in his patrol wagon, telling us to get in. "But he doesn't love you," he shakes his head. "Not like I do."

With that, we all get into Hopper's vehicle and speed off. We all drive to the Byer's place in complete silence. No doubt all the kids heard Steve and me talking, we weren't exactly too discrete about it. Everyone rushes inside and locks themselves in. "Everyone stays here," Hopper instructs. "No one is leaving to tell their family, friends, nothing."

I furrow my brows together and shake my head. "So you just expect me to stand here and wait, letting my family roam the streets with those things walking around?" I scoff, walking over to the phone. "I don't think so."

"Oh yeah?" Hopper replies, as soon as I pull the phone off the hook. "And what are you going to tell them? Do you really think they'll believe you?" I stand there for a moment in thought. No, they wouldn't. "So put the damn phone down and listen to me, all right?"

I hesitate for a few seconds before putting the phone back on the hook, giving up completely. "I just need a minute," I tell everyone, rubbing my forehead. "I'm going to the bathroom." So I do just that. I head into the bathroom and rest on the sink. I turn on the faucet and let the water run into the basin.

I take a deep breath and exhale sharply before splashing my face with some cold water. I grab the towel, hung up next to the sink and pat my face dry. I stay in the bathroom for quite some time, just thinking about everything going on. When I finally pluck up the courage to leave, everyone is busy away, working at a new plan.

Dustin updates me on this new thing called the Mind Flayer, which is connected to the upside-down, the Demodogs - as Dustin now calls them, and Will, who is essentially a spy for the Mind Flayer. Everyone is trying to disguise the shed so Will can't be a spy for it but give us information on how to destroy it.

Steve enters the house with Nancy, coming out from the shed. He makes his way over to me and concern plasters his features. "Are you okay?" He asks me, genuinely worried. "You were in there for quite some time."

I nod my head at him and smile, softly. "Yeah, I know," I reply, running my fingers through my knotted black hair. "I just needed some time and space to think, to clear my head."

His eyes scan my face for any sign of me just telling him what he wants to hear. I guess he decides I'm telling the truth and nods his head once. "Okay," he whispers, softly. "Just... Just know you can talk to me, Liz." I smile at him before he pulls me into a tight hug, his arms engulfing my small frame.

The lights above us begin flickering, sending me back to the last time Steve and I were here. I feel my heart drop as I pull myself away from Steve. Nancy bursts around the corner to find us at the sight of the flickering lights. We all walk towards the back door, looking out the window to the shed.

Along the way, Steve picks up the bat, resting it on his shoulder again. The lights stop flickering after a few moments, so we all head into the living room, waiting. No one exchanges a word to anyone. We're too busy engulfed in our own thoughts. The back door slams open and we all jump to our feet, slightly startled.

We rush into the kitchen to see Hopper with a pen and paper. "What happened?" Dustin questions, wanting to know how his friend is doing.

"I think he's talking," Hopper mentions, still scribbling something down on a piece of paper. "Just not with words." Everyone else from outside enters the building. I look over Hopper's shoulder to see him writing something in morse code. "What is that?" Steve asks, looking down at the scrap piece of paper.

"Morse code," Hopper replies, not taking his eyes off the piece of paper. Hopper begins to spell out the code to reveal the word says. 'HERE'. "Will's still in there. He's talking to us." Joyce, Mike, Jonathan, and Hopper make their way back out to the shed, Jonathan taking a stereo with him.

Hopper leaves the kids with a walkie talkie and a morse code translation to try and work out what Will is trying to tell them. Eventually, we get a message saying 'CLOSE GATE'. The phone begins ringing and Dustin jumps out of his seat. "Shit. Shit!" He curses, before lifting the phone off the hook and slamming it back down. The phone rings again, to which Nancy just pulls it from the wall and onto the floor.

"Do you think he heard that?" I ask, looking to the back door to see if there's any commotion. Everyone else does the same, trying to see if anything happened.

"It's just a phone," Steve shrugs his shoulders, trying to reassure everyone. "It could be anywhere, right?" We all nod our heads at Steve. Surely, everything would be fine. We all stand in silence, waiting for someone to say something.

The kids look really scared, I need to try and reassure them. "Guys, don't be scared," I tell them, shaking my head. Dustin scoffs, shaking his head and crosses his arms over his chest. "Look, I know it's easier said than done-" Lucas nods his head vigorously. "But Nancy, Steve and I won't let anything happen to you, okay?"

They all look at Steve and Nancy who both nod their heads. Max visibly lets out a sigh of relief and loosens up. We all fall in silence again before hearing a screeching sound in the distance. Steve and I look at each other, instantly and look out the window. "That's not good," Dustin shudders, watching intently out of the window.

Hopper, Joyce, Jonathan, and Mike rush back into the house, carrying a sedated Will onto the couch. Hopper turns to Jonathan and holds out a hunting rifle. "Can you use this?" He asks, but Jonathan just stutters in response. "Can you use this?" Hopper asks again, pronouncing his words more clearly.

Jonathan hesitates for a few moments before Nancy steps forward. "I can," she claims, taking the gun from Hopper. He gets in a stance by the door, with his own firearms. Steve takes his place in between Nancy and Hopper with his bat.

The screeching comes closer to the window, causing the three to turn in that direction before the noises stop. "W-where are they?" Max stutters, tears filling her eyes. The creatures can be heard chittering just outside. Lucas pulls out his wrist rocket, getting ready for the worst.

"What are they doing?" Nancy asks, following a loud thudding sound at the other side of the room. Everyone turns, quickly, to face the direction of the creatures. The bushes outside the window rustle violently as the Demodogs brush their way through it.

A loud snarl sounds back in the direction of the door, all of us becoming startled and facing the door again. "They're surrounding us," I say, out loud, my voice really shakey with each word. The Demodogs begin groaning outside, making my heart beat quicker and quicker by the second.

The screeching abruptly comes to a stop, causing Steve to look at me in confusion. The window smashes through, the body of a Demodog flying through the broken glass, making everyone shit themselves. We all yell out in fear but stop after noticing the creature lying limp on the floor. Dead.

Hopper edges his way towards the creature, being cautious of what's going on around us. "Holy shit," Dustin manages to get out in a croak. Max steps closer, squinting her eyes at it. "Is it dead?" She asks, not certain herself. Hopper pushes his foot against the creature's face, getting completely no reaction from it.

He lowers his gun slowly, a wave of relief washing over everyone in the room. Of course, that is short-lived until the door begins to creak. We all look behind us and watch the door, waiting for something to happen. Those of us that are armed, holding their weapons, ready to attack.

The door unlocks by itself from the outside, causing everyone to stand back in fear. Steve pushes himself in front of me, keeping me behind everyone in the group. The chain latch on the door slowly slides off, before dropping to the side.

The door creaks open, revealing not a monster, but a girl. Everyone immediately lowers their weapons. The girl's nose has a dribble of blood oozing from her right nostril. Mike steps forward, tears brimming in his eyes. The two kids look at each other dead in the eyes before Mike finally speaks. "El?"