WHISTLEBLOWER | ❝It only gets stranger...❞
Hawkins has never looked back on the events of November 1983. They know the surface-level story. 'The boy who came back to life.' Will Byers is alive and well, while the futile search for Tonya McCarth...
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( trigger warning: potentially distressing descriptions of possession)
THURSDAY 1st NOVEMBER, 1984
CATH has so, so, so many questions. As she jogs down the hallways behind Will and Mike, squeezing past floods of students going to their next period, her mind clouds over with this new information — Dart is, quite feasibly, from the Upside Down. Although she couldn't pinpoint how or why at the time, Cath felt everything about the creature was just... wrong. It didn't feel natural; or now that she thinks of it, of this world.
But what does that mean for Will? For them? If Dart is a real, tangible entity from the Upside Down who managed to get into Dustin's trash, then clearly that horrible world is still bleeding into Hawkins. And as for Will... his increasingly frequent visions no longer seem as far-fetched or ignorable as before. Even he seems to be realising it now, an occupied expression solidifying in his features, like he is contemplating doom of some sort.
What this will all evolve into in the long-term, Cath has no idea.
Reaching Mr. Clarke's classroom, Mike thrusts his full body weight against the door to burst in. "I'm so sorry Mr. Clarke, it was just a stupid prank!" he gasps breathlessly. The group stare back at him, perplexed and startled as the Wheeler boy abruptly seizes Dart's cage and shoves it firmly underneath his arm. "We need to go right now," Mike then demands of the others, "RIGHT NOW!"
Shocked by his urgency, Dustin, Lucas and Max follow the other trio all the way back to the A.V. Club, a much more pressing meeting being commenced — only this time, Mike starts shutting the door on Max before she can come in.
"Not you," he tells her bluntly. "This is for Party members only."
"What? Really?" Max complains, but her disappointed expression already gets cut off by him shutting the door in her face.
Her pulse still racing from all the running and the general panic, Cath perches herself on the side of the table. Will has fallen thoughtfully quiet beside her, as Mike relays to Lucas and Dustin what he had just told them about Dart. In the dimly lit lamp light, she watches the shadows on the boys' faces contort in their reactions to the shattering news. Then, while they process the information, she glances over at Will. His hazel eyes have fixated on a obscure pattern in the wooden table surface, anywhere but their faces as he squirms underneath scrutiny. Cath knows he has never enjoyed being the centre of attention — and now, with his experiences of the Upside Down, he has been thrust into the spotlight against his wishes. No wonder he wanted her to keep things secret...
