Joey Hopper//Will Byers -Book two-

The Mind Flayer: Part four

My friends and I all sit around Will's kitchen table. Of course Will isn't sitting down with us. He's lying on the couch, Jonathan and Nancy watching over him. I clutch my head in my hands as my dad yells into the phone.

"Sam Owens. Dr. Sam Owens...I don't know how many people are there! I don't know how many people are left alive!" He takes a breath and listens to the person on the other line. "I am the police! Chief Jim Hopper..! Yes, the number I gave you, yes. 6767...I will be here."

He then hangs up the phone with a thud. I know I must have gotten a concussion the other day, otherwise my head wouldn't still be feeling like jello. The weird thing is that I was so sure the pain had gone away. Even now that it's back, it feels...different. There's no point in dwelling on that though, I have much bigger problems to deal with.

Dustin sighs from my side. "They didn't believe you, did they?"

"We'll see." My dad says.

"We'll see?" Mike repeats. "We can't just sit here while those things are loose!"

I roll my eyes. "Great idea Mike. Let's just go running back in there and give it another shot. We did so great last time."

"We stay here and we wait for help." My dad tells us before he storms off in frustration.

This whole situation sucks. I want to agree with Mike, don't get me wrong. I'm not a complete idiot though. Those things killed Bob. I could barely even do anything about it. I'm not losing anymore people, I won't let it happen.

Mike suddenly gets up and slowly walks over to a small pile of junk.

"What are you doing?" I ask to no response.

Finally, Mike picks up what looks like a homemade rubix cube. "Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins Av?"

"Really?" Lucas questions.

Mike turns back to us. "He positioned the school to start it and everything. Then he had a fund-raiser for equipment. Mr. Clarke learned everything from him. Pretty awesome, right?"

We all nod our heads and share a few 'yeahs.'

Mike then places the cube on the table in front of us. "We can't let him die in vain."

"Well what do you want to do Mike?" Dustin asks. "Joe's dad is right on this. We can't stop those Demo-dogs on our own."

"Demo-dogs?" Max raises a brow.

"Demogorgans," Dustin motions one hand before motioning the other, "dogs. Demo-dogs. It's like a compound. Like a play on words-"

"Okay..." Max trails off.

I shake my head. "Hey, at least it's better than mini demogorgons."

"Well, yeah because that names dumb." Steve speaks up.

I look towards where he's been hiding in the shadows. "Why are you even still here, Steve?"

"I'm..." He rakes his brain for an excuse. "Babysitting."

"Oh yeah, because you're so great at that." I sarcastically murmur.

"Look," Dustin interrupts us. "I mean, when it was just Dart, maybe..."

Lucas cuts him off. "But there's an army now."

"Precisely," Dustin nods.

Mike looks down in thought. "His army."

"What do you mean?" Steve asks.

"His army," Mike repeats. "Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army too."