chapter eight
totally clueless

💗

LILY'S BEEN TRYING to find as many reasons as possible for the group not to go near the lab, but with the kids' blind determination and their somewhat feeling of responsibility for the creatures let loose, she realises even attempting to drive them away is practically impossible.

And so, she reluctantly walks with Steve Harrington at her side and a bunch of middle schoolers behind her, keeping their eyes peeled as the eerie-looking building draws closer.

Lily's not sure if she ever payed enough attention to Hawkins Lab before to remember whether or not it always looked this creepy. Then again, she supposes the knowledge of what kind of things are hidden inside as well as the thick mist lurking around the building's edges isn't exactly helping its image.

"Hello?"

A voice echoes, snapping her out of her thoughts.

She can just make out a car, still with its headlights on, parked outside the lab's gates. Two shadowy figures stand in front of it.

"Who's there?" the unfamiliar voice yells again.

The group draw nearer, until they're only metres away — and Lily can only just see who is standing before them.

"Steve?!" Nancy Wheeler and Jonathan Byers call out together.

Oh, perfect.

"Nancy?" Steve says walking forwards.

"Jonathan..." Dustin speaks.

Shame you didn't bring your red roses, Lily wants to say to the Harrington boy, as he leaves her side walking forwards to meet his newest ex-girlfriend.

"What are you doing here?" Nancy says, before she turns to the rest of the group, her eyes landing on Lily.

Lily gives her an awkward smile. Nancy, confused, goes to greet her — but Steve cuts her off.

"What are you doing here?"

"We were looking for Mike and Will..."

"They're not in there, are they?" Dustin says, gesturing towards the lab.

"We're... not sure..."

"Why?" Jonathan asks, his brows furrowed with worry.

As if on queue, the familiar screech Lily had only heard from the creatures before echoes from inside the building whilst the lights slowly flicker.

Whatever kind of awkward encounter this is going to be, it can wait. Even Lily, who has nothing to do with any of these people or their siblings, can tell something is very wrong — somebody is in danger — Dustin had been right, earlier, when he said to Steve: We have bigger problems than your love life.

The group stand in a circle, and everyone tries to give a poor attempt of an explanation as to why they are there — and how exactly they're going to get into the lab.

Steve keeps glancing sideways at Lily, like he's afraid she's going to say something. She doesn't. In fact, she's unusually quiet — but what can she say? She has no idea what is going on, she doesn't even remember the names of half the people involved in this — and she has no knowledge of anything that could help, as of right now.

And still, amongst all this, she wants to try and communicate some sort of peace with Nancy. She doesn't know why Lily's here — and Lily can easily picture being in Nancy's shoes, right now, and see how bad it looks. Steve showing up out of the blue with his ex at his side days after splitting up with Nancy? Yeah, that's not at all sketchy.

Yet, she can also sense some sort of closeness between Nancy and Jonathan. Not that they didn't have that before. But it seems less hidden, now — like they've stopped trying to conceal it.

Whatever it is, Lily wished she had some sort of telepathic connection with Nancy just for this moment, all so she can say 'I promise I'm not trying to cause any problems! I would love to be friends with you, really! I don't care that our ex is a prick! Even if I was jealous before!'

Everything just feels a bit too much.

She feels useless, uncomfortable and out of place. Why did Steve bring her here? Why did he get her involved?

Nancy moves forward past the murmuring group, her eyes on the building before them. Lily looks up, just as she sees several lights begin to light up in the lab's window.

"The power's back," she says.

Everyone rushes back to where Jonathan's car is parked, outside the closed gate. The boy hurries towards the control box and repeatedly pushes the button that should open the gate and allow them to drive through.

Only it doesn't.

"Let me try," Dustin says, walking over.

"Hang on—"

"Let me try, Jonathan!"

He pushes the exact same button, but there's still no sign of the gate opening.

Lily looks around and tries to think of what a smart person would do. She attempts to adopt the brains of those kinds of side characters in movies that help the protagonist with their cleverness and quick-thinking skills — but she's got nothing. The gate's too tall to climb, not to mention the amount of wires protecting it to ensure that even if someone could reach the top — they've got no chance of getting over.

It's a government-protected laboratory, of course there's no chance of getting in if the usual form of entry doesn't work.

And then suddenly, the gate opens.

"Hey — I got it!" Dustin grins. "I got it!"

It's decided that Nancy and Jonathan should go investigate, whilst Steve and Lily 'babysit' — though they made it clear to alert them straight away if something went wrong.

The group stand in silence, tension thick in the air as they wait for any sign of life from the lab.

"You know," Lily says, causing Steve to quickly turn his head. "Maybe you were right in trying to keep me out of this,"

And Steve concludes that the world must be ending — because Lily just spoke an entire sentence to him without insulting him.

He shrugs.

"You were worried about your Dad," he says, before a small grin creeps up on his face. "And you're as stubborn as a mule,"

Lily almost laughs. She instead gives Steve a smile.

"Almost as stubborn as you," she says.

"No, no," Steve shakes his head. "You're worse. Way worse. Always have been,"

His words linger in the air for a moment. Always have been.

They almost bring Lily back to reality, and remind her of all she had to deal with Steve over the years. And suddenly she feels annoyed, again. Almost shocked at herself for being so... nice to him.

Steve then turns to Lily as though he means to say something to bring her a bit of comfort — but he can't seem to find the words.

And he doesn't have long to find them — for, what seems like merely moments after Nancy and Jonathan enter the gate of the lab through Jonathan's car, the sounds of multiple voices yelling and a painful cry echo through the area.

"Guys!" Max says.

Engines rumble and headlights flash and Lily glances right to see two cars speeding towards them. The drivers beep their horns, and the group dart out of the way as they drive through — as the two grow closer, she can recognise them as Jonathan's car and a police car right behind.

Jonathan drives straight through, but the police car pulls up alongside them. A man with a beard, of whom Lily assumes is the Chief, calls out to them,

"Let's go!" he says.

Nobody hesitates — the two teenagers stand aside for the kids get into the car first, and then Steve lightly puts his hand on Lily's back, guiding her in next.

There aren't enough seats in the car for all of them — and so Lily and Steve find themselves squeezed onto the passenger seat, both with their legs hanging off the edge.

If it weren't for the situation they were in, perhaps either of them might have found time to feel awkward about it — but being in such a close proximity to Steve Harrington that Lily's half sitting on his lap and feeling his heavy breathing on her neck is surprisingly the least of her issues, as of right now. She's not thinking about it — she wants to know what the hell those screams were about, although deep down she knows she has some idea.

Steve, on the other hand, can't help but notice how good she smells. She's wearing perfume — he can't tell which, but the scent of vanilla and jasmine fills his nostrils and he just can't help but think just how Lily Wright it is. Like they'd taken every aspect of her and bottled it.

And then he realises the place his mind is wandering to and he curses himself out — glad of the fact that nobody can see the heat creeping up onto his cheeks the longer they sit in such an intimate position.

The world feels like it's ending, and yet his focus is on Lily Wright and how she's almost sitting on him and how nice she smells? Come on, Steve.

💗

THEY FIND THEMSELVES STANDING in the Byers' household, every member of the group giving a vague telling to the others of what had happened in their own part of what seems to be one huge, messed up problem.

Will Byers lays unconscious on the couch, his brother muttering quietly to him with Nancy standing behind, a hand on his shoulder for comfort.

Lily knows now is not the time, but she can sort of gather in her mind what has gone down between the two of them — they seem more like a couple now, than ever.

She leans against the wall with her arms folded over her chest, listening to the Chief on the phone to what sounds like someone to do with the Military. She exchanges a glance with Max and gives her a weak smile, which the red-head returns.

The two girls seem to find comfort in one another, knowing they're not the only ones that are entirely new and caught up in this situation.

Steve seems to linger around Lily, also. But not in a weird way, although he's secretly scared someone was reading his mind in the car ride over and he's going to be outed as some sort of creep. But he swears that's really not the reason he appears closer to the blonde than normal.

He feels uneasy, he's unsure of what to do with himself, but he feels slightly better just standing near her. It's like on your first day of school, when the first kid you talk to is the one you tend to gravitate towards and you end up sitting next to them in different classes for comfort. It's that sort of comfort he feels when he's around her.

Lily feels that sort of way, too — but she's not admitting that to anyone, not even herself. The world's ending, but no doubt she'll still find a little bit of time to be pissed off at Steve Harrington.

Then again, she's not entirely sure she even is pissed off at him, anymore — or if she's just acting that way because she's used to it.

"I don't know how many people are there! I don't know how many people are left alive!"

Lily snaps out of her high-school-drama thoughts at the sound of Hopper's voice as he talks about the lab and those creatures on the loose. Perspective, Lils. Perspective.

So many scientists in that building were just killed. An innocent man had just died — Joyce Byers' boyfriend Bob had just been ripped apart by those beasts Lily and Steve had stupidly lured and fought off earlier.

How reckless had she been that she so easily went along with everything — when her life had been at stake? She would have been responsible if those monsters had gotten past her and Steve and gotten to the kids. She would have been responsible if she herself had been killed. She would have been responsible for leaving her dad to live alone and struggle, all by himself.

"I am the police! Chief Jim Hopper! Yes, the number that I gave you, yes. Six, seven, six, seven... I will be here."

He slams the phone down and sighs. Lily's stomach sinks. It doesn't seem like good news.

"They didn't believe you, did they?" Dustin says.

"We'll see," Hopper says.

"We'll see?!" Mike Wheeler repeats. "We can't just sit here while those things are loose!"

"We stay here, and we wait for help." Hopper demands.

A defeated silence follows. The police is exactly who Lily would have trusted with a situation like this — and if the Chief has called the military... what else can they do, in this moment?

She feels entirely helpless — like she has been the entire day, really. It's a feeling she should have grown used to, by now.

There's a sudden movement on the other side of the room, and Lily turns to see Mike stand up, and walk towards what looked like a stack of games. He picks one up.

"Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV?"

"Really?" says Dustin.

"He petitioned the school to start it, and everything," says Mike. "Then he had a fundraiser for equipment — Mr. Clarke learned everything from him,"

He walks back over to the group of kids sitting at the table.

"Pretty awesome, right?"

"Yeah..." Dustin and Lucas murmur.

Lily and Steve exchange sad glances. It's the first time they've looked at each other since they entered the Byers' house after their awkward car ride.

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

"Well, what do you wanna do, Mike?" Dustin says. "The Chief's right on this. We can't stop those demodogs on our own,"

"Demodogs?" Max questions, raising an eyebrow.

Dustin looks at her like she's stupid.

"Demogorgon... dog... demo-dog," He explains slowly. "It's like a compound. It's like a play on words—"

"—Okay!"

Steve's girl advice really hasn't been working for Dustin, Lily notes.

"I mean, when it was just Dart, maybe..." Dustin reverts back to the original topic of conversation.

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

"Precisely,"

"...His army," Mike then says, which makes everyone turn their heads towards him in confusion.

Lily can see the cogs in his brain turning as the boy stands there in deep thought.

"What do you mean?" Steve asks.

"His army!"

Steve looks towards Lily for some sort of reassurance that he's not the only one that doesn't understand — and she shrugs in response, entirely clueless.

"Maybe if we can stop him — we can stop his army, too!"

"Okay — who is he?" Lily asks.

The boys retrieve a picture apparently drawn by Will days before of this so-called 'shadow monster' he had been seeing in this 'Upside Down' world Lily's been vaguely filled in on. She can't help but think — at least in this drawing — it represents some kind of huge, terrifying spider.

She reads in between the lines as the group discuss theories — suggesting that this 'shadow monster' infected Will, like a virus — connecting him to some 'tunnels' in Hawkins that originate from the Upside Down (Lily thinks — she's not one hundred percent sure she understands).

Theoretically, Will is connected to these tunnels, to the monsters, the Upside Down — everything.

"Whoa — slow down, slow down," Steve says, and Lily's a little relieved she's not the only one starting to feel a little lost.

"Okay, so... the shadow monster's inside everything, and if the vines feel something like pain, then so does Will,"

"And so does Dart," says Lucas.

"Yeah. It's like what Mr. Clarke taught us. The hive mind,"

Lily really wishes she'd paid more attention in Middle School science.

"Hive mind?" she asks.

"A collective consciousness," Dustin explains. "It's a super-organism,"

Mike points to the drawing of the shadow-monster.

"And this is the thing that controls everything. It's the brain."

"Like the Mind Flayer!" Dustin says, his face lighting up.

Lucas, in revelation, points and clicks.

Everyone else looks around, frowning.

"What?"

Sooner or later, a book is slammed onto the table, of which Lily is sure belongs to some sort of kids game — but if she has learned anything in the past twenty four hours, it's that anything she's had doubts with has pretty much proved her wrong — so she decides to keep her mouth shut, and let the others talk.

"The Mind Flayer." Dustin repeats, once everyone has gathered around the table.

"What the hell is that?" Hopper asks with a monotone voice.

"A monster from an unknown dimension — it's so ancient, that it doesn't even know it's true home,"

Dustin looks around at everyone around the table, but nobody talks. Lily continues staring at him, expecting him to go on. He does.

"Okay, it enslaves races of other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly-developed psionic powers,"

Lily exchanges a glance with Max, who rolls her eyes.

"Oh my God, none of this is real. This is a kids' game," says Hopper — and Lily feels relieved to have someone voice exactly what she was thinking.

"No — it's a manual — and it's not for kids," says Dustin. "And unless you know something that we don't, this is the best metaphor—"

"—analogy," Lucas corrects him.

"Analogy? That's what you're worried about? Fine! An analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is,"

"Okay," Nancy says. "So this mind flamer, thing..."

"Flayer, Mind Flayer,"

Nancy sighs.

"What does it want?"

"To conquer us, basically, it believes it's the master race,"

"Oh — like the Germans." Steve speaks up, receiving a huge amount of frowns from the rest of the group.

What is wrong with that boy?

"Uh — the Nazis?" Dustin says.

Steve pauses, looking confused. Lily shakes her head at him.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Nazis," he nods.

"Uh..." Dustin says, as Hopper holds the bridge of his nose. "If the Nazis were from another dimension... totally... uh..."

Lily's starting to wonder where they're actually going with this — and her mind jumps back to those creatures they left behind at that lab. How long would it take for them to get out? Are they currently hunting Hawkins, right now? How long would it take for them to get to her house — where her dad's home alone? How long would it take for them to get here?"

"It views other races, like us, as inferior to itself,"

"It wants to spread, and take over other dimensions," Mike joins in.

"We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it," Lucas says.

"That's great. That's great. That's really great. Jesus!" Steve says loudly, panic overcoming his expression. He turns around and runs a hand through his hair.

"Okay... so if this thing is like a brain... controlling everything..." Nancy says, picking up the book and scanning the open page. "Then if we kill it..?"

"We kill everything it controls," Mike nods.

"We win,"

"Theoretically,"

"Alright, great, so how do you kill this thing? Shoot it with fireballs or something?" Hopper says, taking the book from Nancy and flicking through the pages.

Dustin lets out a chuckle.

"No, no, no. No fireballs. Uh... you summon an undead army, uh, because..."

His confidence begins to falter as he goes on, realising what he's saying.

"...Because, you know, zombies... they don't have brains... and the Mind Flayer, it likes brains — it's just a game. It's a game,"

A series of sighs and groans erupt around them. Any hope that Lily had of these people knowing what they're doing diminishes — it's not just her that's behind, they're all totally clueless.

"What the hell are we doing here?" Hopper slams the book back down.

"I thought we were waiting for your military backup!" Dustin says.

"We are!"

"But even if they come, how are they gonna stop this?" Mike protests. "You can't just shoot this with guns!"

"You don't know that!" Hopper raises his voice. "We don't know anything!"

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

"And we know the monsters are gonna molt again!" Lucas adds.

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

"They're right," a soft, sullen voice speaks from the doorway.

Lily turns around to see Joyce Byers, heartbroken, distressed, but determined, all the same.

"We have to kill it. I want to kill it."

Hopper slowly walks up to her.

"Me too, me too, Joyce, okay? But how do we do that? We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here,"

Joyce stutters, desperation in her eyes as she attempts to think of something that might help. Lily can't help but think she just looks like she could do with a big hug.

"No," Mike says, before turning his head to Will. "But he does,"

He starts walking forwards.

"If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's Will. He's connected to it. He'll know it's weaknesses,"

"I thought we couldn't trust him anymore?" says Max. "That he's a spy for the mind flayer, now?"

"Yeah, but... he can't spy if he doesn't know where he is,"

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AUTHORS NOTE

💗 I knowww right now Lily has a very small part in this messy situation but don't worry I do have big plans for her own plot alongside things!! this won't just be a fic where she tags along I pinky promise!!

💗 I know it's been quite slow but hopefully now things will start to pick up in the next chapter.

💗 anyways I hope you enjoyed!! let me know what you think x