I, Will Byers, Am Not a Victim

Chapter 22: Dr. Brenner is Alive

The time came where I went home and said goodbye to my friends. I'm glad we had the chance to hang out together, but I needed to get back to business. These problems were not going away by themselves, and it was up to El and I to tackle whatever was going to happen.

After school, El and I met at Castle Byers. This was perfect because Hopper was at work and my family typically left me alone while I was in there. As long as we didn't make too much noise, it would be fine. Right on time, at 3:30, or three three zero as Eleven likes to put It, she arrived.

"Hi Will," El greeted me as she pulled me into a hug.

"Hey El," I respond. "Thanks for meeting me here. This way, we don't have to tell anyone what's going on." I hated keeping this asecret, but if I were to tell anyone else about this, they would try to help, and I couldn't risk endangering them.

Like last time, I used sensory deprivation so that I could reach out to somebody. There was no television, but I had previously recorded the sound of static onto a blank cassette, and that worked just as well.

This time, I reached out to that feeling I had in my neck. I wasn't sure if I could do it, but El helped me and assured me that I was ready. I didn't see anything right away, but I remained patient, and before I knew it, I was getting visions.

Once my vision started, I had no doubt of what I was looking at. It was the source of our past trauma: Hawkins Lab. I started feeling sick to my stomach, like it was in knots. This triggered the memories from my dreams and my time there when I was possessed. I remembered apologizing to Mike and my mother, practically in tears, saying that I didn't mean to give our location away to the Mind Flayer, and that he made me do it. I remembered getting held down and sedated, frantically squirming and screaming to be let go; I was reliving the pain and fear I was feeling in that moment.

Despite reliving those traumatic memories, I was determined to do what I set out to do; find out what was going on. After taking several breaths to calm myself down, I refocused, and started seeing things clearly. Despite the fact that Hawkins Lab was mostly torn down, and the people working there were dead, the lab was in perfect condition, and the place was crawling with scientists.

That was surprising enough, but what I saw next sent shivers down my spine. I saw the gate re-opening, with the help of a machine. One ofthe people I saw working the machine was Dr. Brenner. I hadn't seen him in person since I was a toddler, and I only recognized him from my dreams, but there was no doubt that that was him. I thought he had been killed, either by Eleven or one of the Demogorgons, as Mike told me, by there he was, alive and well. For a brief moment, he stared in my direction. Did he notice me?