DANCIN' ► DUSTIN HENDERSON [1]

3/3

EVERYONE GATHERED ANXIOUSLY AROUND the dining table, watching as Dustin slammed down Will's copy of the Dungeons & Dragons Guide to an open page. "The Mind Flayer," the Henderson announced.

"What the hell is that?" Hopper demanded.

"It's a monster from another dimension," Dustin answered. "It's so ancient that it doesn't even know its true home. Okay, it enslaves races of another dimension by taking over their brains using its highly developed psionic powers."

"Sounds kind of familiar," Jasper inputted sarcastically.

"Oh my God, none of this is real. It's a kid's game," Hopper groaned in disapproval.

"Um, no. It's a manual. And it's not for kids, it clear says ages ten and up," Dustin countered confidently. "And unless you know something we don't, this is the best metaphor—"

"Analogy," Lucas cut the curly-headed boy off pointedly.

"Analogy?" Dustin echoed incredulously. "We've got an entire army of Demodogs coming to eat us for dinner and that is what you're worried about? My seemingly incorrect word usage?"

"Guys, chill," Jasper intervened as the two boys sent glares teeming with annoyance at one another. "What Dustin is trying to say is this might help us understand what's happening. I mean, doesn't it sound a lot like our situation?"

"Yeah, yeah. Okay so this Mind Flamer thing—" Nancy started, attempting to help.

"Flayer, Mind Flayer," Dustin fixed her.

"Oh so who's worried about incorrect word usage now?" Lucas folded his arms challengingly.

"Children!" Jasper scolded the bickering boys again, throwing them a warning look. "The Mind Flayer," she continued for Dustin, addressing to the crowd. "It wants to conquer us. To become the 'superior race', I suppose."

"Oh, okay, like the Germans," Steve nodded in false understanding.

"Uh, the Nazis?" Dustin piped up, impatient with the Harrington teen laying thick in his voice.

"Now you're just embarrassing yourself, Harrington," Jasper patted his forearm in fake consolation. She had to stifle a laugh seeing the mortification crawl onto his face.

"I mean, if the Nazis came from another dimension, sure. I guess you could make that analogy," Dustin murmured, casting another wry glance at Lucas who simply mocked the boy by squinting his eyes and sticking out his tongue.

"Anyway," Jasper rambled on. "It sees other races as inferior to itself. And it wants to spread, take control of everything in its path and we—we are in its path. If we don't do something, this place is gonna eat up more than just Hawkins."

"Alright so if this thing is like a brain," Ruby picked up the book, skimming the page. "Then if we kill it, we kill everything it controls, yeah?"

"Okay so how do we defeat this thing," Hopper grabbed the book, restlessly reading over the page himself. "Kill it with fireballs or something?"

"This is probably the part where you admit it's just a game, Dustin," Jasper hissed to him from behind Hopper's arm.

"Well, no, no no no. You defeat it by summoning an undead army, okay? Cause it doesn't like zombies and..." his blue eyes slowly shifted back towards Jasper's, realization swimming in his gaze. "Yeah, it's just a game. It's just a game."