Stay or Go

Chapter 35

We get back inside the house, Steve and I standing closer then we had before and a warm feeling filling my chest. "The mind flayer." My brother starts, slamming a book down on the table and Hopper voices our thoughts "what the hell is that?" Without even blinking my brother replies "it's a monster from an unknown dimension. It's so ancient that it doesn't even know its true home. It enslaves races of other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly-developed psionic powers."

Jonathan moves so he is next to me and I rest my head on his shoulder comfortingly "oh, my god, none of this is real." The police chief says "this is a kids game." Dustin narrows his eyes at the older man before arguing "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-" Lucas cuts through my brothers rant by correcting him "analogy."

Dustin snaps his head to his friend "analogy?" He asks, temper rising "that's what you're worried about? Fine. An analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is." Nancy raises her hands dramatically and places them on the table, leaning over "okay, so this mind flamer thing. What does it want?" Dustin looks down for a second and I shiver slightly despite being inside. Jonathan takes off his jacket the time Steve does and there is some awkward tension "thanks." I say softly, taking Jonathan's jacket and wrapping it around my body.

"To conquer us basically." My brother answers "it believes it's the master race." Steve then gestures with his hand "like the Germans." He adds confidently and we all look at him confused. "The Nazis?" I ask and he gives me a blank look "yeah, yeah, yeah the Nazis." He replies. Dustin hesitates before continuing "if the Nazis were from another dimension totally. Uh it views other races, like us, as inferior to itself."

Mike Wheeler nods his head rapidly and takes over the story telling "it wants to spend, take over other dimensions." Lucas then leans slightly over the table, his face illuminated in the hanging light above us "we are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it." He adds. Steve starts moving then, throwing a hand up in the air and hitting it on the table "that's great. That's great. That's really really great. Jesus!"

He walks away for a moment and I ask "okay, so if this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything, then if we kill it..." I pick up the book and Mike finishes "we kill everything it controls." Dustin nods "we win."

"Theoretically." Lucas cuts through, Hopper comes wandering over to me and takes the book out of my hand. "Great." He says "so how do you kill this thing? Shoot it wit fireballs or something?" I snort and my brother chuckles "no, no, no, fire...... no fireballs. Uh, you summon an undead army, uh because..... because zombies you know, they don't have brains." He stutters slightly as he finishes, noticing the look Hopper is giving him. "it's just a game." He backpedals "it's a game."

Hopper slams the books shut and slams it back onto the table "what the hell are we doing here?" He mutters before walking away. "I thought we were waiting for your military backup." Dustin calls out before the older man has a chance to walk away. "We are!" He shouts back angrily and Mike counters with "how are they gonna stop this? You can just shoot this with guns." Hopper stares the boy down.

"You don't know that!" He says "we don't know anything!" I bite the inside of my cheek and look up at Jonathan who is looking extremely nervous, doing the only thing I can think of to comfort him right now, I link our arms and slide my hand into his. The older Byers looks down at me then and smiles weakly as Mike shouts "we know it's already killed everybody in that lab. We know the monsters are gonna most again. And we know that it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town."

I let out a shuddering breath as we hear footsteps coming towards us and then Joyce Byers says "they're right." we all turn our heads to look at her "we have to kill it. I want to kill it." Hopper starts walking over to her as though in a trance "me too." he affirms "me too, Joyce, ok? But how do we do that? We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here."

"No." Mike says swallowing hard "but he does. If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's Will. He's connected to it. He'll know it's weaknesses.." We all come round the other side of the table. "I thought we couldn't trust him anymore." Max says "that he's a spy for the mind flayer now." Mike nods, moving closer to his unconscious friend "yeah, but he cant spy if he doesn't know where he is."