~Just Another Kid (Y/N Harrington x Will Byers)~

Eight:The Mind Flayer

[Y/N's POV]
An alarm blares over the lab.
"We're too late! We're too late!" I hear Mike scream.
"What's going on?" Joyce asks.
"They're here." I say.
"We're under attack." Mike adds.
"Thank god I knocked him out." I say. "He would've known where we are." I explain after everyone but Mike makes a confused look at me. We hear gunshots in the distance.
"Those are gunshots!" Bob says. Hopper and Dr. Owens slam through the door.
"God, you scared me." I say.
"We gotta go. We gotta go." Hopper says. He grabs Will and takes a few sleep shots from a stand nearby. The rest of us run after them. As we run a person with a demo creature gets thrown across the hallway. We turn around. More people are being chased.
"Come on." We go into a room.
"Oh my god." Bob says looking at security cameras on the wall. Then the power goes out.
"Oh my god."
"Look this is us, and this is the nearest exit. But even if we somehow make it there, there's no way out." Dr. Owens shows us a map.
"What do you mean?" Hopper questions.
"The locks are fail-secure." Dr. Owens explains.
"Fail secure?" Joyce inquires.
"If there's a power outage the building goes into lockdown." He adds.
"Can it be unlocked remotely?" Bob asks.
"With a computer sure but somebody's gotta reset the breakers."
"Where are the breakers?"
"The breakers are in the basement, three floors down." He answers. Hopper heads to leave.
"Hey, where are you going?" Bob asks.
"To reset the breakers." Hopper says.
"Okay and then what?"
"We get the hell out of here."
"No, then the power comes back on. If you want to unlock the doors you have to reboot the computer system and then override the security codes with a manual input."
"Fine, how do I do that?"
"You can't. Not unless you know BASIC."
"I don't know what that means."
"It's a computer programming language." I say.
"Teach it to me."
"Shall I teach you French while I'm at it, Jim? How about a little German? How about you Doc? You speak BASIC?"
"No." He sighs.
"Okay. I got this. I got this." Bob reassures himself more than us.
"No. Bob." Joyce hugs Bob.
"It's okay." He whispers. "It's going to be okay. Remember, Bob Newby, superhero."
"You got this." I smile reassuringly. He nods.
Hopper and Bob head out in the hallway to start the misson.
Hopper comes back in. After a long few moments in the dark the power switches on. We all walk over to the cameras to see Bob.
"He made it." Mike says.
"Okay, Bob, can you hear us?" Dr. Owens asks through an intercom mic.
"Loud and clear Doc. Can you hear me back?" We hear him ask.
"Yeah, we hear you alright."
"All right, give me a minute." I glance behind me at Will. I sigh.
"Keep Hoping." I cross my fingers and whisper under my breath so no one could hear me.
"Open sesame." Bob says.
"It's open." Dr. Owens says.
"Son of a bitch did it." Hopper smiles.
"Right, I'll meet you outside." Bob says.
"Nice job." Hopper goes to leave.
"Hold on a second, Chief."
"What's wrong?"
"West stairwell's not clear anymore."
"What's going on?" Bob asks.
"We've got some company."
"Where?"
"The west stairwell."
"I got an idea." Bob walks back over to the computer.
"What the hells he doing?" Just then the water sprinklers go off on the first floor.
"Okay. Okay, that worked. Now, get out of there. Go! Go!" Hopper picks up Will.
"Wait a second chief. Take this." Dr. Owens hands him a walkie-talkie.
"What are you doing?" Hopper asks.
"Any more surprises, I'll let you know. Go. Go!" Hopper leads our group out of the hallway. I stand beside him ready to attack. We make it to the front doors. Hopper and Mike run outside. I notice Joyce stay behind. I stand next to her.
"Come on Bob, come on." She says. He runs through the door. The monster bangs on the door.
"Bob!" Joyce yells. I try and hold the door back with my powers. I'm probably too weak from making Will pass out. Just then a Demogorgon slams through injuring Bob. Joyce screams. I throw it off of Bob for a split second but it runs back.
"No!" Joyce yells. I stare in terror fighting the monster but it keeps  ending right back. Hopper runs in and starts shooting at the demo creature. More run in.
"Go!" Hopper yells.
"I-im so sorry." I grab Joyce's hand as Hopper and I pull her out. I glance back at the sweet nerdy guy. He saved us all. But I couldn't save him, just like I couldn't save El. I bite back tears as we get out of the building.
"What happened?" Mike yells as Joyce sobs and I bite tears back.
"He's gone! He's gone!" Hopper yells as Demo-dogs try and break through the glass. We see a car pull up. I grab Will from against the wall lifting him up.
"Come on! Get in!" I see Jonathan in the driver's seat of a car. Hopper takes Will from me and we all run to the car.
----
We all get out of the cars as we arrive at the Byers home. I see Steve getting out of the passenger seat of Hopper's car.
"Steve?" I yell.
"Y/N?" He looks at me. "I'm glad you're okay." He says pulling me into a hug.
"Yea I'm glad you are too. Wait how did you get part of this again- you know what I don't care." I stutter. "Well, let's kill these sons of bitches once and for all." I say and walk inside. He shrugs and follows me.
Jonathan whispers to Will even though he knows that Will can't hear him. Hopper calls someone on the phone to deal with the lab. The party and Max sit/stand at the dining room table.
"They didn't believe you did they?" Dustin asks Hopper as he hangs up.
"We'll see." Hopper responds.
"We'll see? We can't just wait here while those things are loose!" Mike yells.
"They could be killing and possessing innocent people right now!" I agree.
"We stay here, and we wait for help." Hopper raises his voice and walks away. After a few more moments Mike rises to his feet. He walks to the puzzles Bob wanted to give Will earlier.
"Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins Av?" He asks.
"Really?" Lucas questions.
"He petitioned the school to start it and everything. And then he had a fundraiser for equipment. Mr. Clarke learned everything from him. Pretty awesome right?"
"Yeah." Lucas and Dustin say. I nod my head. Mike places one of the puzzles on the table.
"We can't let him die in vain."
"What do you want to do Mike? The chiefs right on this. We can't stop those demo-dogs on our own."
"Demodogs?" Max asks.
"Demogorgon, dogs. Demodogs. It's like a compound. It's like a play on words-."
"Okay." Max says.
"I mean when it was just Dart. Y/N could have taken him out."
"But there's an army now."
"Precisely."
"His army." I say.
"What do you mean?" Steve asks.
"His army." I repeat. "Maybe if we stop him-."
"We can stop his army too." Mike realizes what I'm saying. Mike grabs the drawing of the shadow monster that Will had.
"The shadow monster." Dustin examines the drawing.
"It got Will that day on the field." I say. "The doctor said it was like a virus, it infected him." I explain.
"And so this virus, it's connecting him to the tunnels?" Max asks.
"To the tunnels, monsters, the Upside Down, everything." Mike answers her.
"W-whoa. Slow down. Slow down." Steve says.
"Okay so, the shadow monster's inside everything. And if the vines feel something like pain, then so does Will." Mike explains.
"And so does Dart." Lucas adds.
"Yeah. Like what Mr. Clarke taught us. The hive mind." I say.
"Hive mind?" Steve questions.
"A collective consciousness. It's a superorganism." Dustin explains to Steve.
"And this is the thing that controls everything. It's the brain." Mike points at the picture.
"Like the mind flayer." Dustin's eyes widen. Lucas, Mike, and I realize.
"The what?"
"What?"
Dustin slams down a D&D book in front of everyone.
"The mind flayer."
"What the hell is that?" Hopper asks.
"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." Dustin states.
"Oh my God, none of this is real. This is a kids game."
"No, it's a manual. And it's not for kids. 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? Fine. An analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is."
"Okay, so this mind flamer thing-."
"Flayer. Mind flayer." Dustin corrects. I roll my eyes at his hypocrite comment.
"What does it want?" Nancy asks.
"To conquer us, basically. It believes it's the master race."
"Like the Germans?" Steve asks.
"Uh, the Nazis?" Dustin asks.
"Y-yeah yeah yeah the Nazis."
"Uh.. If the Nazis were from another dimension totally." Dustin says. "Uh, it views other races like us inferior to itself."
"It wants to spread." Mike adds.
"Take over other dimensions." I further explain.
"We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it." Lucas clarifies.
"Thats great. That's great. That's really great! Jesus!" Steve mumbles.
"Okay, so if this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything, then if we kill it.."
"We kill everything it controls."
"We win."
"Theoretically."
"Great. So how do you kill this thing? Shoot it with Fireballs or something?"
"No. No, no fire- No fireballs. Uh, you summon and undead army, uh because zombies, you know they don't have brains and the mind flayer, it...it likes brains. It's just a game. It's a game." Dustin stutters.
"What the hell are we doing here?" Hopper sighs.
"I thought we were waiting for your military backup."
"We are!" He yells.
"Even if they come how are they gonna stop this?" Mike argues. "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."
"And we know that it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town."
"They're right," Joyce says emerging from Will's room. "We have to kill it. I want to kill it."
"Me too. Me too Joyce okay. But how do we do that? We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here." Hoppers tone softens at Joyce's upset face.
"No. But he does." I say. "If anyone knows how to kill this thing, it's Will. He's connected to it. He'll know if weakness."
"I thought we couldn't trust him anymore." Max says. "That he's a spy for the mind flayer now.
"Yeah, but he can't spy if he doesn't know where he is." I answer.
Everyone helps set up the shed so that Will doesn't recognize it. Everyone seemed to be more calm and to fix things while doing so. After grabbing tape from inside I look to Will.
"I'm really sorry. I should of done something I should-" I cut myself off sadly. I grab his hand and squeeze it gently. I know he wasn't awake but somehow this made me feel better.
Hopper brings in Will and we tie him to a chair.
"All right you ready?"
"Yeah." Hopper walks over to Will with a bottle on cleaner that has ammonia in it. He puts a cotton swab of it under his nose waking Will up. He looks around confused but starts to freak out.
"What? What? What is this? What? What is this? Why am I tied up?" He exclaims. Joyce walks up to him.
"Will, we just wanna talk to you. We're not going to hurt you."
"Where am I?" He yells. Hopper walks up to Will. He shows him the shadow monster drawing Will had drawn a day or two ago.
"You recognize this? Do you recognize this?" Will shakes his head no.
"Hey. We wanna help you. But to do that we have to understand how to kill it."
"Why am I tied up? Why am I tied up? Why am I tied up? Why am I tied up?" He screams.
"Will."
"Hey."
"Why am I tied up? Why am I tied up? Let me go! Let me go! Let me go! Let me go!" The lights flicker as he screams. "Let me go! Let me go! Let me go! Let me go! Let me go! Let me go!" He cries. "Let me go.." The lights stop flickering. He stares at his mon.
"Do you know what March 22nd is? Its your birthday. Your birthday. When you turned eight, I gave you that huge box of crayons. Do you remember that? It was 120 colors. And all your friends they got you Star Wars toys, but all you wanted to do was draw with all your new colors. You borrowed paper from y/n and you drew this big spaceship, but it wasn't from a movie. I-i-it was your spaceship. A rainbow ship is what you called it. And you must have used every color in the box. I took that with me to Melvad's and I put it up and I told everyone you came in, 'my son drew this.' And you were so embarrassed. But I was so proud. I was so, so proud."
"Do you remember the day dad left? We stayed up all night building Castle Byers...just the way you drew it. And it too so long because you were so bad at hammering. You'd miss the nail every time. And then it started raining, but we stayed out there anyway. We were both suck for like a week after that. But we just had to finish it, didn't we? We just had to."
"Do you remember the day that we met? It was...it was the first day of kindergarten. I knew nobody. I had no friends and.. I just felt so alone and so scared, but...I saw you on the swings and you were alone, too. You were just swinging by yourself. And I just walked up to you and.. I asked. I asked if you wanted to be my friend. And you said yes. You said yes. It was the best thing I've ever done." Mike cries.
"D-do you remember when you and Mike found me? I was on the edge of the woods.. I was scared and cold and upset and hungry. I had just escaped the lab. You two where in second grade and you came up to me and asked if I was okay. I shook my head no. And so Will, you brought me to your home and you fed me ice cream, chocolate chip cookie dough to be exact and random foods every day while I was a little stowaway in the shed. Until your mon found me, and you explained that you were trying to keep my safe. And then I got adopted and we were friends ever sense." I wipe tears that we're streaming down my face. "If you hadn't found me.. I don't know where I would be."
"Will, baby... if you're in there, just please...please talk to us. Please, honey, please can you do that for me? Please. I love you so much." Joyce whispers. Will looks like he's gonna cry but his face changes.
"Let me go." I look over him for any sign of anything. When I notice his hand. He's tapping something. I turn around to Hopper and cautiously point at his hand. Hopper glances at me and realizes. We all walk inside.
"What happened?"
"I think he's talking, just not with words." He draws out the amount of taps that he had.
"What is that?" Steve asks.
"Morse code." We all answer.
"H-E-R-E."
"Here." The party says.
"Wills still in there. He's talking to us."
Jonathan plays Should I Stay or Should I Go on his boombox.
"Do you remember the first time I played you this?" Jonathan asks. "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."
"And then the part escaped into the sweres and there were those big insect things and you guys were still on level one. Then you cast Fog Cloud and you saved us. You saved the whole party."
"You saw that little girl and she was in the sandbox and she was crying. You gave her your Tonka Truck and I told you we couldn't afford to buy another one. You said she should have it because she's sad. I love you so much."
"And you gave me your sketchbook because I liked the drawings. You said that it would remind me of you." Just then the phone rings. Will would know where we're at.
"Hey. Hey, can you hear me?"
"It knows. It knows where we are."
"Do you have the sleep medicine?" I ask. Joyce injects him with the Pentazocine. We all run inside.
"Hey! Get away from the windows." Hopper yells at us.
"Do you know how to use this?" Hopper asks Jonathan holding a gun.
"What?"
"Can you use this?"
"I can." Nancy says. Everyone gets in a ready stance Hopper with a gun, Steve with his bat, me in a standing position, Lucas with his slingshot, Nancy with a gun, and Mike with a candle?
"Where are they?"
"What are they doing?" Nancy asks as we hear a loud thump on the other side of the house. We hear a rustling in the bushes. We hear a few more noises before the noises stop abruptly. Just then a Demodog jumps through the window.
"Ah!" We all scream. I look at it. I walk up leading the group.
"Holy shit." Dustin whispers.
"Its dead." I study it for a moment before  kicking it. We all sigh and lower our weapons. When we hear the door creak so we face it. The lock unlocks itself. We raise our weapons again. The door slides open. Inside walks a punk-looking Eleven.
"El?" I yell.
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Sorry for not updating! Now your on a cliffhanger hehe. That was 3140 words.

-Love Hcney🤍