𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐁𝐎𝐃𝐘 | Steve Harrington

019, the mind flayer

 
   Everyone sat there, the last hopes for someone to come help them still being there. Reese stood against the wall, waiting for her mom to come out of the room she went in with Joyce, who was still sobbing.

  "Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of hawkins AV?" Mike asked, he had walked out of the room and was now holding something blue. Bob had died tonight, he was together with Joyce, the demogorgon's killed him. "Really?" Lucas asked him softly. "He petitioned the school to start it and everything. Then he had a fund-raiser for equipment." He explained. Reese softly smiled at his story, she had never met bob but he seemed nice.

  "Mr. Clarke learned everything from him." Mike told them. "Pretty awesome right?" He asked dustin and lucas, who both nodded. He placed the blue box on the table. "We can't let him die in vain." Mike told them. "What do you want to do, Mike?" Dustin asked him quickly. "The chief's right on this. We can't stop those demo-dogs on our own."

  "Demo-dog?" Max asked, coming into the conversation. Steve and Reese stood there watching the kids. "Demogorgon dogs," Dustin explained. He made a movement with his hands, putting them together. "Demo-dogs." He explained.  "It's like a compound. it's like a play on words—" "Okay."

  A short silence fell, Reese looking around awkwardly. "I mean, when it was just dart, maybe..." Dustin continued until lucas cut him off. "But there's an army now." "Precisely."

  "His army." Mike added. Steve looked up at him quickly. "What do you mean." he asked the boy. "His army." Mike said now louder then before. Reese looked at Steve who was as confused as she was. "Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army, too." Mike explained. Everyone looked at each other.

  Mike then ran out of the room and grabbed a picture he gave to dustin. "The shadow monster." Dustin said, it was a drawing Will made. "It got Will that day on the field." Dustin looked up from the drawing. "The doctor said it was like a virus, it infected him."

  "And so this virus, it's connecting him to the tunnels?" Max asked Mike. "To the tunnels, monsters, the upside down, everything." He explained. This was either gonna get them killed or... get them killed.

  "Hey, hey, hold your horses, Wheeler." Reese said, not understanding what he was talking about. "Okay, so, the shadow monster's inside everything. and if the vines feel something like pain, then so does Will." He explained

  "And so does dart." Lucas added. "Yeah. like what Mr. Clarke taught us." Mike told them. "The hive mind."

  "Hive mind?" Steve asked him confused by what the hell the younger boy was talking about. "A collective consciousness. It's a super-organism." Dustin told him. "And this is the thing that controls everything. It's the brain." Mike continued his story. "Like the mind flayer." Dustin said making Lucas snap his fingers, the group looked up at him. "The what?" Max and Steve said in unison.

  Dustin grabbed a... dungeons and dragons book? "What the fuck does that have to do with any of this?" Reese muttered just so loud that the others could hear it. "The mind flayer." He introduced the figure. "What the hell is that?" everyone looked up at the voice of the chief. "It's a monster from an unknown dimension." Dustin explained. "It's so ancient that it doesn't even know it's true home." He added. "Okay, it enslaves races of other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly-developed psionic powers."

  "Oh my god, nothing of this is real. This is a kids' game." Hopper sighed, stepping back from the table. "No, its a manual. and it's not for kids." Dustin told the elder man, obviously very serious about the whole thing. "And unless you know something that we don't, this is the best metaphor—"

  "analogy." Lucas corrected him. everyone now looking up at the boy. "analogy? that's what you're worried about?" dustin asked him, reese sighing at the two boys. "fine. an analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is."