ABDITORY [stranger things]

➝ the vanishing of will byers

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but i know that it's too late
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Sunday, November 6, 1983

🅸nside the basement of a beautiful big house on a cul de sac sat a group of kids playing around a small table.

Four boys were shouting and laughing while playing their favourite game. Dungeons & Dragons.

Behind the loud group sat another boy. Much calmer. In his hands, he held onto a book. He had given up on reading it a while ago, his friends being way too loud for him to even remotely focus on the world within the pages.

Instead, he looked through his brown locks at his friends. A small smile adored his lips as he watched them have fun.

"Something is coming. Something hungry for blood." Mike, one of the boys, told / yelled at the group.

Benjamin rolled his eyes at the boy's excitement. Ben was different from his friends. While they were outgoing, loud, and studious, Ben was more introverted, and quiet, and preferred reading and watching TV over making his assignments. His friends loved, what others at school would call nerdy games like D&D.

Ben didn't.

He didn't understand the game at all and never wanted to partake in the campaigns they created. And yet, every time, without exception, Ben was invited to sit in Mike's basement as they played for hours on end.

"A shadow grows on the wall behind you, swallowing you in the darkness. It is almost here." Mike continued. The kid had everyone in the room hanging on to each word.

"An army of troglodytes charge into the chamber!" Mike said while he dramatically put a figurine, of what Ben guessed was a troglodyte, on the table.

"Troglodytes?" Ben asked himself, scooching slightly forward to glimpse the figurine. He, too, was invested in the story. He had to give it to Mike, his acting was on point. From beginning to end, his friends were glued to his lips, yearning to know more about this world that he had created.

"Troglodytes?" Dustin asked, seemingly reading his friend's mind.

"Told ya," Lucas sassed, which made everyone laugh, including Benjamin.

"Wait a minute," Mike suddenly said. "Did you hear that? That – that sound, boom, boom." He banged his hand on the table, making everyone jump. "Boom. That didn't come from the troglodytes. No, that came from something else. The Demogorgon." Mike, again, slamming a figurine on the table. From what Ben could tell, the Demogorgon looked half human half plant.