𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐄𝐍; 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐨𝐧 (ON HOLD)

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐞𝐧

Hopper and Joyce drove to the Byer's house. On the walls, pictures of blues and purple lines were put up "what's up with this stuff?" Cheryl asked, Penny was holding her hand, they didn't want to lose each other again.

"Long story." Hopper simply answered "just wait here until we figure something out" Penny sat down at the kitchen table, where everyone else were. Cheryl opened the refrigerator, she was thirsty "Now isn't the time to eat" Hopper told her "I'm thirsty. I nearly got ate from a demogorgon and my head is pounding. I think now is the time to drink." She looked deadly in Hopper's eyes as she turned the cap off of the plastic bottle "Now, i'm going to try to calm down from my near death experience." 

She walked away from everyone, it was too stressful with the Upside Down and confusing. She walked into the bathroom and turned on the sink, the water was cold, the way she wanted it to be. She cupped her hands and splashed the water on her face, trying to wake her up more. After she did that, she grabbed the white towel and dried her face.

Steve knocked on the opened door "yes?" Cheryl put the towel down "Just wanted to see if you were okay" He leaned on the door frame "I'm fine" She had a poker face on, she didn't want to worry him or the others. "You know you don't have to lie to me right?" Cheryl frowned "everything just been stressful, you know? Right now I would be eating dinner and talking about school... not about deadly, weird, creatures." She grabbed the water bottle and took a sip of the refreshing drink "I understand. It's weird, everything about it is weird. But- we're all working together to defeat it. When we do, it will be a huge relief."

Cheryl put her water bottle down on the counter "what if we don't?" Her foot was tapping on the tiles of the floor "we will. Don't doubt us now" She chuckled "what are you, a motivation speaker?" Steve nodded his head repeatedly with a smile "Oh yeah- I motivate people all the time" He sarcastically said "You two need to come in the kitchen" Penny interrupted their talk "why? What's wrong?" Steve moved away from leaning on the door frame "Mike has information on the shadow" 

They quickly rushed to the kitchen, where Mike was holding up Will's drawing "what's going on?" Mike sighed "The shadow monster's inside everything. If the vines feel something like pain then so does will" He explained "like Dart" Lucas added on "everything is connected?" Cheryl questioned, it all made sense. The drawings taped on the wall are what Will can see because he's connected to the creature. He still has connections to the Upside Down since he was down there last year.

"The hive mind." Cheryl shrugged her shoulders "Hive mind?" Steve looked at Dustin "a collective consciousness. It's a super organism." Dustin explained to everyone "and this" Mike pointed to the drawing "is the thing that controls everything. It's the brain" "Like the mind flayer" Dustin took the drawing out of Mike's hand "from DND?" Penny shook her head "you play DND?" Steve looked over at her "I used to with Penny."

Dustin grabbed a book that had information about the Mind Flayer since Steve and Max had no clue what they were on about, he slammed the book down on the table  "The mind flayer" He put his finger down on the paper where the picture of it was "what the hell is that?" Hopper was standing behind everyone after trying to comfort Joyce "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." 

"Oh my god none of it is real. This is a kids game" Hopper didn't believe "so was the demogorgon but that was real" Cheryl looked over at the grown man "That's a name" He shook his head "What Dustin said about the mind flayer, it's similar to what Will is going through. It's the closest thing we got." Hopper sighed "whatever you say."

"So what does the Mind Flayer want?" Nancy looked over at the book "To conquer us, basically. It believes it's the master race" "Like the Germans?" Steve stupidly said "like the Nazis?" Dustin looked over at him "uh, yeah yeah the Nazis." Cheryl laughed at Steve being stupid "Uh, if the Nazis were from another dimension, totally." 

Nancy picked the book up "so if this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything then if we kill it..." "we will kill everything" Mike finished his older sister sentence  "great, so how do we kill this thing? Shoot it with fireballs or something?" Hopper took the book out of Nancy's hand and read it "no fireballs. You summon a undead army because uh, zombies don't have brains and the mindflayer likes brains... it's just a game." Hopper threw the book on the table in annoyance "what the hell are we doing here"

"I thought we were waiting for your military backup" Dustin yelled at him "we are!" "Even if they come how are we going to stop this? You can't just shoot them with guns!" Mike shouted "you don't know that! We don't know anything!" The younger kids started to yell about everything they know so far about the creature "We know that it controls everything it touched" Cheryl crossed her arms over her chest.

"They're right." Joyce came out of Will's room "we have to kill it" Hopper walked over at the sad woman "I want to kill it."  Cheryl wanted to kill it to, in fact everyone did. "But how do we do that? We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here." Mike walked over to Will "if anyone knows how to destroy  this thing, it's Will" Mike suggested "yeah- yeah. Will knows what to do" Cheryl agreed with the younger boy.

"I thought we can't trust him anymore? That he's a spy for the mind flayer now?" Max questioned "I trust him" Penny looked at Max "he can help us defeat the mind flayer" Penny added on.

Joyce suggested to put Will in the shed that was outside and cover the walls with stuff so Will doesn't know where he is or the mind flayer. It sounded like a good idea.  Cheryl and Nancy we're in the basement looking for things that could hang up on the wooden walls. Nancy cleared her throat, she wanted to talk "So, you and Steve huh?" She asked when she grabbed a old newspaper "what about me and him?" Cheryl grabbed a flashlight that was on the small table.

"You two been hanging out a lot" Nancy folded up the white newspaper into a square so it could be easier to carry "Yeah, as friends." She scoffed "Steve has a look in his eyes when he sees someone hes... interested in. He has the same look he had for me." Nancy turned around to look at Cheryl, she was busy dumping things on the floor "I don't think he does. You hang out with Jonathan a lot" She switched the conversation around. 

"W-we're just trying to figure the upside down out." The Wheeler girl stuttered, Cheryl hummed in response. "You know, if you like Steve I wouldn't be mad, right? We ended things." Nancy randomly brought up "I don't like Steve" She lied through her teeth "I think you're lying." The Blake girl sighed "It's none of your business." 

"No, I know it isn't. I just- I don't want bad blood between us." Cheryl looked at Nancy, she had her hand out, wanting to shake "why would I have bad blood with you?" She raised her eyebrow "because I'm his ex... exes don't get along" Cheryl looked down at Nancy's hand, she decided to shake it "maybe we will."