(Ep. 8: The Mind Flayer)

Walking along the abandoned railway tracks after that scene felt entirely awkward and tense. The older teens guided the way back home while Dustin, Max, and Lucas fell behind. The kids wanted to talk about what happened, but knowing they'll receive some long scolding was more than enough to keep them quiet.

So instead, Lucas broke the silence to ask, "You're positive that was Dart?"

Dustin rolled his eyes, tired from repeating himself, "Yes. He had the same exact yellow pattern on his butt."

All of them glanced at him, confused on how he knew such a specific detail.

"He was tiny two days ago," Max stated.

"Well, he's molted three times already," he explained, much more irritated.

Steve joined the conversation to question his words, "Malted?"

"It's molted," both siblings corrected.

"I'm pretty sure it's malted," Steve continued, kicking a few pebbles from the path as he slung his bat over his shoulder.

"Well, you're wrong," Gwen was just grateful he wasn't trying to talk about their almost kiss. She's not sure what she'd say because quite frankly, she never expected to be nearly kissing Steve Harrington.

Dustin started leading the way as he continued with his explanation, "Shed his skin to make room for growth like hornworms."

"So when's he gonna molt again?" Max questioned.

"It's gotta be soon. When he does, he'll be fully grown, or close to it. And so will his friends," Dustin nonchalantly said as if it wasn't an issue at all.

Gwen looked up at the sky to gaze at the stars that were more vibrant than ever. "And he's gonna be eating more than just cats," she sarcastically mumbled, not expecting anyone to have heard her.

"I was just going to say that," Steve responded and glanced over at her as he tried saying anything regarding their almost kiss, but his mind was suddenly left in a complete blank. She briefly looked at him and started walking away the second he met eyes with her, only worsening the situation since she appeared to be unaffected by what almost happened.

"Wait, a cat?" Lucas made an abrupt stop and turned to Dustin. His eyes were filled with confusion and slight astonishment as he tried comprehending what he just heard. "Dart ate a cat?"

Dustin took a step back, immediately shaking his head as he tried dismissing him, "No, what? No."

"What are you talking about? He ate Mews," Steve blatantly said while joining the circle in a calm demeanor.

"Mews? Who's Mews?" Max questioned, still trying to comprehend everything that's happened and the fact the monster turned out to be real.

"It was Dustin and Gwen's cat," he explained.

"Steve!" Dustin exclaimed, annoyed that his friend had revealed his secret.

Lucas paced around, annoyed his friend kept something incredibly dangerous even after what happened with Will. He harshly pushed him, infuriated at his lack of common sense, "I knew it! You kept him!"

"No! No. No, I... No, I..." Dustin stuttered, not knowing how to explain himself, "He missed me. He wanted to come home."

"Bullshit!" Lucas yelled.

"I didn't know he was a demogorgon, okay?"

"Oh, so now you admit it?"

Gwen frowned at their continuous fighting, thinking on how they were wasting time when those creatures could be lurking around.

"Who cares? We have to go now!" she snapped at the two and attempted to separate them, but Lucas pushed her off as he was determined to keep confronting his friend.

"I care!" he yelled, "You put the party in jeopardy! You broke the rule of law!"

"So did you!" Dustin argued back.

"What?"

Dustin shone his flashlight on Max's face, causing her to squint her eyes and shield them with her hands, "You told a stranger the truth!"

Max scoffed and leaned forward in anger, "A stranger?"

"You wanted to tell her too!" Lucas defended himself although he knew he had broken their code, but would never admit it out loud.

"But I didn't, Lucas, okay?"

As the kids continued to argue, Gwen and Steve slowly drifted from the group when hearing faint shrieks from afar. They shone their flashlights into the forest and scanned every possible area, expecting the creatures to reappear.

Steve turned to her and said, "A sound just came from there."

"I have an injured arm, not injured ears," Gwen responded.

Steve frowned at the usual remark she always seemed to have, "Can you answer like a normal person for once?"

Ignoring him, she turned the flashlight to the kids to grab their attention, "Guys!" They continued arguing, getting more louder by the second that Gwen's voice wasn't able to reach them. She rolled her eyes and placed her hand on her hip before yelling, "Hey, idiots!"

That seemed to have caught their attention. Their arguing simmered down and they were left completely silent while looking at her. The screeches returned, causing her to turn in the direction it came from. She started walking to the trees with Steve, Dustin, and Lucas following her.

Max was the only one who remained in place as she thought of how stupid they were being in heading to the danger. "No, no, no. Hey, guys, why are you headed towards the sound? Haven't horror movies taught you anything?" The lights from their flashlights were starting to get smaller and smaller, leaving her with no choice than to follow them as she really didn't want to stay in the complete darkness by herself.

The others walked carefully, making sure not to step on any twigs and branches just in case the creatures were near. Gwen was the first to arrive at the hill, bringing Steve to whisper, "A little heads up would've been nice."

"Can you just shut up?"

Dustin reached them before he was able to say anything, "I don't see him."

Lucas popped up his binoculars and focused as much as he could on the looming darkness. There was nothing much to be seen except for the familiar silhouette of Hawkins Lab.

"It's the lab. They were going back home."

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It seemed stupid to be heading in the direction of danger considering they barely made it out of the bus safely. There was just something that didn't make sense as to why the demo dogs chose to head to the lab when they had everything they needed to feast upon.

Not that Gwen was complaining. Getting mauled by those monsters was not the way she wanted to leave this Earth.

Everyone walked down the hill in complete silence. It was strange not hearing the kids mumble a word to each other so Gwen and Steve had to look back constantly to make sure they were still following.

Steve kept glancing over at her and checked her bandaged arm to see if it kept bleeding, but it surprisingly stayed the same as when they first wrapped it. Every time he looked at her, it was like he could forget this entire mess they were in. He was able to breathe and shoot for the stars as all he wanted was to know what their near kiss meant for her.

If only she'd look at him once and not pretend as if it didn't almost happen. He checked the kids one more time before slowly walking towards her. He wasn't sure what exactly he was going to say, but all he knew was that they needed to talk about it.

"So," Steve began, "Are we just going to ignore what happened?"

Gwen froze, not sure what to say since she didn't expect him to mention anything, "Talk about what? Nothing happened."

"We almost kissed," his brows furrowed in confusion and his lips curved downward into a perfect frown. "Something was about to happen."

"Yeah, but nothing did so let's just forget about it," she started walking away and tried to ignore the fact that she was about to kiss Steve Harrington. The boy she's hated since freshman year and never once imagined starting to develop feelings for.

He stormed after her, refusing to accept her denial as he was certain she also felt something. Whether it was something positive or not, he needed to know what this meant.

"Henderson, can you please-" Steve nearly held her hand, but she was quick to shove it away and hurry in reaching down the hill. She tried focusing on the fact the lab would soon be in sight and it would only be a matter of time until all this was forgotten about.

Steve came to a halt when realizing she had no intentions on facing what they almost did. Not that he expected much from her when all she's done is run from her problems and offer nothing but defiance.

"That was pathetic," he heard Dustin say.

Max chuckled, "It's nice finally seeing a guy go after the girl."

Embarrassment consumed Steve from realizing that the three kids had witnessed everything. Even more so that he didn't follow his own advice on not showing that he cares.

"I thought you were good with the ladies," Lucas snickered while walking past him.

Steve stayed quiet for the rest of the walk when all of a sudden, familiar voices were heard yelling into the forest.

"Hello?"

Gwen started running towards the voice, relieved to hear it knowing everything will get back to normal sooner.

"Who's there?" the voice asked, "Who's there?!"

Hawkins Lab came to view along with Nancy and Jonathan, who had been peering into woods when seeing flashlights waving around.

Steve took charge and led the rest of the group, not before deciding to take his own advice and ignore Gwen on the way down.

"Geesh, can you stop yelling?!" Gwen complained to Jonathan's questioning before feeling shoulders bump hers.

"Gwen?" Nancy and Jonathan questioned when hearing her voice until finally noticing who's with her. "Steve?"

"Nancy?" Steve responded.

"Jonathan!" Dustin exclaimed.

"What are you doing here?" Nancy asked and began walking towards the Scooby Gang, who had already been walking to them.

"Together," Jonathan pointed out, startled when seeing his best friend and rival next to each other.

Gwen deflected the question, "What are you doing here?"

"We're looking for Mike and Will."

Noticing the lab's power outage and remembering the sounds heard, Dustin hesitantly asked, "They're not in there, are they?"

"We're not sure. Why?"

As soon as Nancy's question ended, loud shrieks were heard again, alerting them of the impending danger as they turned to the darkened lab. They started praying to whatever holy divine exists that their friends are not inside with those monsters.

"What the hell happened while we were gone?!" Jonathan questioned the group. Soon learning about Will's episodes, his nightmares, why drawings were covering every inch of his house, and the whole demo dog situation the group had barely escaped from.

As soon as he was caught up on everything, he sprinted to the security box and began pressing the red button aggressively. He hoped that despite the power outage, it would miraculously work, but the gate wasn't budging for anything.

"Let me try," Dustin tried taking over his spot, but Jonathan was resilient on continuing to press.

"If it didn't work with me then it won't work for you."

"Just let me try!" Dustin ignored his protests, "Let me try, Jonathan!" He continued to press the red button and glanced at the gate to see if it opened, but the gate wouldn't start for anything. "Son of a bitch! Open up, you piece of shit!" Like some kind of miracle, the gate suddenly started functioning, "Hey! I got it!"

Everyone ignored him and watched as Nancy and Jonathan rushed inside the car and drove into the building, leaving the Scooby Gang behind as all they could do was wait. It was clear how worried they were from all the pacing back and forth of just waiting for their friends' safe arrival.

Even through all the worry and chaos, Steve was unable to pull his eyes away from Gwen. He hated how he couldn't stop thinking of her, and especially over their almost kiss.

Gwen noticed him as she was also glancing in his direction, but every time their eyes met, she would look away and hope he wouldn't take it as an invitation to speak to her.

"Can you just talk to him and get it over with already? It can't be that hard," her brother whispered when noticing the tension.

"Now is not the time. We have greater things to worry about."

As if on cue, Jonathan's car returned at full speed. They stood in front of the gate watching as the car got closer until realizing it had no intention of stopping. Barely getting out of the way and starting to catch their breaths, Hopper's car stopped beside them with the passenger door open, "Let's go!"

The kids jumped inside and piled onto the backseat. Only the passenger seat was left, but it had already been taken by Gwen, forcing Steve to sit in between Max and Dustin. Seeing Steve's uncomfortable expression was quite comical as she found herself wanting to laugh on how striking they resembled a can of sardines, but she knew better than to laugh in the current situation they're in.

Hopper drove erratically towards the Byers' home. He kept checking his rearview mirror to make sure nothing was following them, when he suddenly noticed the newcomer of the group.

"Who the hell is she?"

__________________

The Byers' residence was dead silent. Everyone reflected on how many times they've managed to escape death and how much more they have to go through. With those monsters still at the lab, it's only a matter of time until they manage to escape and reach town.

Jonathan kneeled next to an unconscious Will, feeling an overwhelming sense of guilt of not being there for his little brother. Nancy stayed with him and comforted her new love, not knowing what more she can do. Steve stood by the hall watching over them before heading into the kitchen, soon to be met by the piercing silence of the kids and Gwen as they listened to the intense phone call Hopper was making.

"I don't know how many people are there!" he yelled over the phone. "I don't know how many people are left alive!"

Everyone was on the edge of their seats waiting for some kind of confirmation that help was on the way. For anything that didn't mean they would have to do everything themselves once again.

Hopper hung up at a complete loss, causing Dustin to step up to ask the question that went through everyone's minds, "They didn't believe you, did they?"

"We'll see," Hopper told them.

"We'll see? We can't just sit here while those things are on the loose!" Mike blurted out in frustration and fear.

Gwen knew he was right, but they don't have the needed resources to fight those monsters. Fire simply scares them off, but they return even angrier. Bats, guns, nothing works on those things, so what could they possibly do that'd be useful?

"We stay here and we wait for help," Hopper ordered even though he felt the same way, but after losing one of their own, he couldn't afford to risk anyone else.

Refusing to stay in this silence any longer, Gwen took off to Will's bedroom to check on Joyce. She wasn't sure what exactly she could say to offer any comfort as she knew that when losing someone you love, no amount of words would be able to diminish the pain.

The door was slightly open. She could see through the cracks a grieving Joyce wrapped under a blanket having that same empty stare her mom had for years. Only reminding her of those dark years of having to take care of both her brother and mother at just nine years old. Her mother had lost the will to live as her father was the air she breathed... and he was gone.

Hopper was turning the corner when he saw her just hovering outside the door with her hand on the knob, "You okay, kid?"

Not taking her eyes off Joyce, she just nodded and closed the door, "Yeah. Just wanted to know if she needed anything."

He knew her too well to know that's not what was bothering her. Having practically raised her had granted him the authority to pry, "Don't lie to me. I know there's something more."

"Well there's not, and you should probably walk in there because I know I won't be much help." Storming off in the opposite direction, she stopped when seeing Steve at the end of hall - who had clearly been keeping an eye on her. "Damn it," she muttered and turned right back around.

A smirk covered the chief's face once he realized, making him block her path to prevent her escape, "So are you and Harrington a thing now?"

She groaned in frustration. It was one thing getting asked about her boy troubles by the kids, but an entirely different one when an adult does.

"Why do I keep getting asked that?"

"Maybe you should ask yourself that," he ruffled her hair knowing how much she hated it and gave her a gentle smile before entering the bedroom.

Gwen took a deep breath as her eyes focused on the ground to prevent herself from looking his way. She felt furious to have been poisoned by these feelings, especially now when the world's quite literally at stake. Now was not the time to worry about boy troubles and even more since it was about Steve.

She knew better than to just stand here and do nothing, so she gathered every ounce of courage and forced herself to walk past him.

Steve leaned his back against the wall and tried to prevent any accidental contact when he suddenly became overpowered by that intoxicating scent of hers. A mixture of roses and delicate perfume that's become engraved into his soul.

Not even realizing it, his lips curved upward into a soft smile as he closed his eyes. He found himself entranced by the memory of their almost kiss and the way those dreams he was having almost became a reality.

Nancy cleared her throat and pressed her lips together to refrain from smiling at the sight of him being this mesmerized by her. She watched as his eyes filled with panic when realizing someone had seen him, making her give an understandable nod that meant she wouldn't say anything.

Steve quickly adjusted his jacket and walked towards the kitchen, finding relief when seeing everyone gathered at the dining table that had a D&D book wide open.

"The Mind Flayer," Dustin informed them.

"What the hell is that?" Hopper mumbled as he reached the room just in time.

"It's a monster from an unknown dimension. It's so ancient that it doesn't even know its true home," he paused, expecting anyone to catch on, "It enslaves races of other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly developed psionic power."

Gwen chuckled at how ridiculous this sounded, wondering how a kids' game relates to this.

"It's just a kids' game, Dustin."

"It's not real," Hopper added.

"It's not a kids' game!" he exclaimed, "It's a manual and unless you both know something that we don't, this is the best metaphor-"

Surprised at his intense approach, she folded her arms defensively and said, "Well don't give attitude! And it's not a metaphor, it's an analogy."

"Analogy? That's what you're worried about?!"

Steve interrupted and clapped his hands together for his attention, "Hey! Stop snapping at your sister! None of that is helping either!"

Nancy and Jonathan exchanged equally confused looks. From having worked together, now Steve was defending her. What a strange night this has been.

"Okay so this Mind Flamer thing-" Nancy leaned forward and narrowed her eyes attentively at the book.

"Flayer," Dustin corrected.

Nancy rolled her eyes, "Flayer. Mind Flayer. What does it want?"

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

Steve doesn't know much about D&D. He's heard of it, but has never shown any interest in it. Mainly from believing it's simply a nerdy game for kids, so why should he be drawn to playing it? Either way, he was starting to regret not learning anything about it since he was starting to feel less smarter than everyone.

"Like the Germans," he blurted out, not even realizing his mistake.

The table turned silent. Nancy, Gwen, and Jonathan glanced at each other confused at Steve's understanding approach, yet also entirely wrong response. Nancy was about to correct him, when Dustin beat her to it, "Uh? The Nazis?"

Embarrassment burned Steve's face as his mind prayed the soft lighting wouldn't reveal his flushing cheeks, "Yeah, yeah, yeah."

With a gentler tone, Dustin simply dismissed his comparison, "If they were from a different dimension, totally," he paused before continuing, "Like I was saying, it views other races, like us, as inferior to others."

"So you're saying what took over Will wants to take over us now?" Gwen curiously asked, slowly putting the puzzle pieces together.

Mike took the lead in this, "Yeah, basically. It wants to spread, take over other dimensions."

"We're talking about the destruction of our world as we know it," Lucas added.

Steve started freaking out, regretting ever having getting involved in this as it now seemed he won't get to live out his dreams if those monsters take over. He left the circle and ran his hands through his hair while pacing around the room in a panic, "Well that's just great. That's really great!"

Gwen was tempted to try and comfort him, but her best friend was literally beside her. Jonathan would never let her hear the end of it, especially since it's about Steve. She can't afford having anyone think her feelings are changing after having spent years hating him.

"So how do you kill this thing?" Hopper questioned, "Shoot it with fireballs or something?"

That was enough to send Dustin into a spiral. He tried searching for the right response, but he stuttered through them all and came to the realization that his sister was right and this was just a kids' game.

"I thought we were waiting for your military backup," he instead replied when Hopper started walking away.

"We are!"

"And even if they come, how are they gonna stop this?" Mike questioned irritably, "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!"

Lucas interrupted, "And we know the monsters are gonna molt again!"

"And we know that it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town," Dustin added.

Joyce had been hearing their conversation, causing her to leave the bedroom and join in, "They're right. We have to kill it. I want to kill it."

Hopper walked to her and gently placed his hand on her shoulder, "Me too, Joyce, okay? But how do we do that? We don't know exactly what we're dealing with here."

Gwen had left the circle to check on Will. He was still unconscious and seemed so at peace despite the mind flayer still controlling him. She started wondering if maybe he could help. If he could search somewhere in his mind for anything that'd let them know how to destroy it.

"What if he does?" she blurted out, causing everyone to turn their heads. "Will must know something. I mean, he's sharing his body with that thing so he must know it well enough."

"He's connected to it," Mike agreed, "He'll know its weakness."

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

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