CHAPTER 16
THE MIND WHAT

VERONICA stepped inside the Byers' home once again, the scent of dirt and despair filling her nostrils whole. She rubbed at her eyes as sleep wanted to descend upon her, but she wouldn't dare lay down. Steve followed in behind her after taking a few moments to slap himself on the face. "You got this," he whispered to himself, thankfully Veronica didn't hear.

The blue-haired teenager watched Mike Wheeler walk over to the coffee table in the living room. He picked up an ornament on the table, and Veronica patted his shoulder as she passed by. Dustin was looking at an awkward Veronica and Steve striding into the kitchen and sitting on the sink. They sat a foot apart, but Dustin saw everything. He wanted to chuckle, though he decided to keep quiet.

Mike looked down at the box in his hands with a sigh. "Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins A.V.?"

The kids didn't answer as uncomfortableness filled the air. Finally, Lucas pursed his lips and said, "Really?"

Mike turned to face his friends. "He petitioned the school to start it and everything. And then he had a fundraiser for equipment. Mr. Clarke learned everything from him." Mike smiled faintly and walked towards the table. "Pretty awesome, right?"

His friends nodded as he set the ornament on the dining table. Veronica agreed with a shake of her head. She had no connection and barely shared a word with this Bob, but from what Mike Wheeler was saying, he sounded like a smart guy. He must have been Joyce Byers' boyfriend or something, because her husband had walked out long ago.

"We can't let him die in vain," Mike said then.

Dustin looked up. "Then what do you wanna do, Mike? We can't stop those Demodogs on our own."

"Demodogs?" Max repeated with a confused expression.

"Trust me," Veronica said, "I had the same question."

Dustin shrugged, as if it were obvious. "Demogorgon." He put out one hand. "Dogs." He laid out the other hand. "Demodogs. It's like a compound. Like a play-on-words, you know?"

"Okay," Max interrupted, already getting the gist of the word. She then began to play with her fingers.

Dustin sighed as he eyed Mike. "I mean, when it was just Dart," he continued, "maybe."

"But there's an army now," Lucas added.

"Precisely."

Veronica rubbed her hands over her face. The sleep was creeping on her like a disease. "Well, we've basically wasted a whole weekend on this problem." She muttered, her words laced with annoyance. "I got a lot of homework to do, and tomorrow's Monday. We best figure this out by tonight."

"Yeah, like that's gonna happen," Dustin replied, causing him to receive a glare from Veronica.

"Wait," Mike paused the group's words, "his army. It's his army."

Steve looked up from where his hands were resting on his lap. A piece of hair fell in front of his eyes. "What do you mean?"

Mike swallowed hard. "Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army too."

Turning on his heel, Mike began to sprint down the hall and into Will Byers' bedroom. His friends immediately followed, and Veronica and Steve closely walked behind. They kept an awkward distance from each other, but that became hard when they entered the cramped room. Mike found a drawing on Will's desk and he held it up for them to see. It was a large black shadow in a dark sky, but the shadow had long legs, like a spider almost. The air was filled with sketchy gray clouds and red fog. Veronica rested her face in her left hand as she blinked at the drawing.

Max took the drawing from Mike, scanning it with her wide blue eyes. From beside her, Dustin said, "The Shadow Monster." He then snatched the sketch and eyed it carefully.

"It got Will that day in the field," Mike replied. "The doctor said it was like a virus. It infected him."

"And so, this ... this virus," Max continued. "It's ... it's connecting him to the tunnels?"

Mike nodded. "To the tunnels, to the monsters, to the Upside Down – everything."

Steve slightly shoved the kids to let him into the circle. He held up his hands. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down."

"Yeah," Veronica agreed, "I'm not following."

Mike sighed, turning to the two teenagers with an annoyed expression. "Okay so, the Shadow Monster is inside of everything, and if the vines feel something like pain, then so does Will."

"And so does Dart," Lucas added.

"Yeah," Mike nodded, "it's like what Mr. Clarke taught us. The hive mind."

Veronica closed her eyes, furrowing her brow in the process. "What in the hell are you going on about?"

"A collective consciousness," Dustin answered quickly as his eyes met Veronica's. "It's a super organism."

"This –" Mike said, pointing to the large spider shadow in Will's drawing "– is the thing that controls everything."

Veronica and Steve nodded slowly, their minds cautiously connecting the pieces together. "So, it's like ..." Steve scratched the top of his head. "It's like the leader."

"It's the brain," Mike clarified.

Dustin's light eyes went wide as he stared closely at the sketch. His mouth slowly opened in shock, and soon he muttered, "Like the Mind Flayer."

Veronica and Steve looked to each other again, and although the awkward tension still lingered between them, they found themselves growing close at the fear in the room. Veronica turned back to the kids, resting her arm on Steve's shoulder, and they both exclaimed in unison, "The Mind what?"

•••

After searching in Will's room for twenty minutes, Mike finally found what he was looking for. The teenagers, children, and adults gathered around Dustin as he then plopped the large book Mike retrieved on the dining table. There was already a page opened, and from what Veronica could see from beside Steve, it was filled of listings with different fantasy monsters. Her face scrunched up in confusion as she said, "This seems like some ... Dungeons and Dragons book, or something."

"That's because it is," Dustin replied before pointing to a rare monster on the page. "The Mind Flayer."

Veronica's eyes met Nancy's when the two girls looked up, and suddenly, the blue-haired girl felt nervous around the other. Veronica gulped at the realization that she was going to have to work with Steve's ex-girlfriend, but ... why did she care in the first place? It wasn't like Veronica was dating him. She just needed to get out of her own headspace.

The room around them was quiet for a moment, and then Hopper muttered, "The hell is that?"

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

Edward rolled his eyes from his place besides Hopper. "This doesn't sound real whatsoever." He laid out his hand towards Dustin. "I mean, isn't this from some ... some kid's game?"

"Dad," Veronica called out with a deadpanned look on her face, "if there's anything I've learned so far, it's to not underestimate these kids."

Dustin shook his head, pointing back to the book. "It's a manual, and it's not for kids. And unless you or Hopper know something we don't, this is the best metaphor –"

"Analogy," Lucas corrected.

"Analogy," Dustin repeated. "That's what you're worried about? Fine! Analogy – for understanding whatever the hell this is."

Nancy held up her hands. "Okay, so, this Mind Flamer thing –"

"Flayer. Mind Flayer." Dustin corrected her, basically copying Lucas' actions.

Nancy stood up straighter and breathed heavily through her nostrils. "What does it want?"

"To conquer us, basically," he replied. "It believes it's the master race."

Steve nodded quickly, "Like the ... like the Germans."

Veronica turned to him with a lofted brow. She pursed her lips before adding, "The Nazis, you mean."

"Yeah, yeah," Steve then said, rubbing the back of his head. "The Nazis, yeah."

"Yeah, if the Nazis were from another dimension, totally," Dustin agreed while Edward rubbed at his eyes. "It views other races, like us, as inferior to itself."

Mike's head snapped to his friend. "It wants to spread and take over dimensions."

"We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it," Lucas clarified, eyeing each person around him.

"That's great! That's just ... so great!" Steve exclaimed sarcastically, walking away from the table to run a hand through his hair.

Veronica rolled her eyes at his outburst. Her finger tapped the table as she chewed on her bottom lip. "So ... what you're saying is that we're all goners."

"That may not be the case," Nancy replied. She took the book into her hands and skimmed the page. "Okay, so, if this thing is, like, a brain that's controlling everything, then if we kill it –"

"We kill everything it controls," Mike finished her sentence, causing the sister to nod in agreement.

"We win," Dustin added.

Lucas shrugged. "Theoretically."

Hopper walked over to Nancy and she handed him the book. He flipped through a few pages, but quickly went back to the original. "Alright, great. So how do you kill this thing? Shoot it with fireballs or something?"

"I don't think we have fireballs, Chief," muttered Edward.

Dustin only chuckled softly. "No, no, no fireballs. You summon an undead army, because ... because ... zombies, you know, they don't have brains and the Mind Flayer ... it likes ... brains."

Everyone stared at Dustin with confusion. Steve stood in the back of the kitchen, his hands on his hips. Hopper glared at Dustin with annoyance, while Veronica's brow rose. He couldn't be serious about this.

"It's just a game," Dustin finished.

Hopper groaned loudly and threw the book on the table once again. "The hell are we doing here ..."

"I thought we were waiting for your –" Dustin raised his arms wide "– military backup?"

"We are!" Hopper exclaimed menacingly, followed by a sigh.

Edward laid a hand on Hopper's shoulder, holding him off from saying something he shouldn't. He then turned to the kids in front of the table. "They're coming. We just have to wait."

Mike wrinkled his nose and viewed at Edward. "Even if they are, how are they gonna stop this? You can't just shoot this with guns!"

"You don't know that! We don't know anything!" Hopper answered, throwing his hands in the air.

"We know that it's already killed everybody in that lab!"

"And we know the monsters are gonna molt again," Lucas said.

"And we know that it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town," Dustin explained.

Edward looked to his feet before glancing at Hopper. He shrugged at his boss. "Maybe they do know something."

A creak sounded on the floorboards. The group turned to see Joyce standing before them, a knit blanket wrapped around the scrubs hanging on her body. Dried tears stained her cheeks, but Joyce would be okay. She already went through too much. She knew how to survive this, or at least she hoped she did.

"They're right," she said. "We have to kill it. I want to kill it."

Hopper swallowed hard before approaching Joyce. "Me too. Me too, Joyce, okay? But how do we do that? We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here."

Edward lifted his hands and slapped them on his sides from behind Hopper. "I thought we did know," he whispered with annoyance.

"No, but he does," Mike answered for all of them, striding into the living room. He approached Will, who was laying on the plush couch. "If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's Will. He's connected to it. He'll know it's weakness."

Max was standing beside Mike now, crossing her arms over her chest. The rest followed her lead and they began to watch Will with interest. Drawings that mapped out the Upside Down tunnels hung around him, some even lingered on the couch near Will. The young boy slept on the couch soundlessly, but they all knew the darkness that lingered inside of him. "I thought we couldn't trust him anymore." Max said with confusion. "That he's a spy for the Mind Flayer now."

Veronica glanced to Steve, who was closing his eyes and rubbing the sleep from them. Both their lives were getting crazier and crazier, and to think their adventure had only started off with Steve visiting Nancy's house to apologize to her. Veronica couldn't believe how they got to where they were now, and she definitely couldn't believe herself when she laced her fingers with his.

"Yeah, but ..." Mike paused, thinking over his new idea. "He can't spy if he doesn't know where he is."

•••

A/N: Just wanted to give a big thank you to everyone reading this story. Your support has gotten this story on the Featured List, and I'm so appreciative of all of you. Thank you so much ❤

( made by JustSav )