Hopper

The barks could be heard all down my corridor. I had grown accustomed to them by now, but the guards were still uneasy around them, based on the slight jumpiness that they showed whenever the dogs could be heard barking. Probably because of the damage they could cause. The starfish like mouths that slobbered everywhere, their black, plastic skin that could mould into horrifying constructions. The Soviet experiments and projects that I presumed they were carrying out were not worth the destruction, horror, and death they brought with them. But the Russians would never stop, not if it gave them the advantage over their rivals in my homeland of good ol' America.

I only ever tolerated one Russian in my life, if you exclude the ones I busted back in New York. I would never admit I liked Alexei, but the guy had gotten to me. His appreciation of the free society America offered him compared to his Soviet one. His slurping of the slushies we bought him. It says a lot about a man when he is willing to give up government secrets in return for a slushie. The conditions he had endured beforehand must have been shocking. My mind often wondered to him, sitting in my cell, when I wasn't being put to work making some kind of railway. In the freezing cold, you could barely feel your limbs, let along think about your friends.

Then there was the matter of those who I had left behind. I could only imagine the way they were feeling right now. And El. Poor El. I looked after her as if she were my own flesh and blood, I mean she might as well have been, I would do anything to keep her alive. I can only hope her friends and Joyce were keeping her safe back in Hawkins. El and Mike's relationship, while I didn't approve of their make-out sessions in the slightest, would be crucial if El was going to survive the trauma of accepting my death. I just hope that they're okay.

After another day tiresome and painful day working on the railway, I slumped down in my cell. My bed was the furthest from comfort you could imagine, but I was so dilapidated that I fell asleep almost straight away. The next morning, I was woken, and I expected to have the same routine. This was not the case. A guard came into my cell, as one usually did to make sure I was on time, not that I could be late in a prison. But this time he was carrying a small sack, about head size. When I saw this, I realised what was happening. I knew better than to fight it, so I allowed the bag to come over my head and let the guard lead me to wherever we were going.

We stopped and I was forcibly sat down in a chair, the sack removed, and my hands placed into cuffs. This appeared to be a sort of interrogation room, with a two-way mirror. I had been here before, on the first day I entered this god forsaken facility, or wherever we were. A man, clearly of higher rank than the guards entered the room. He had on a military uniform. It was the same man who had greeted me into this fucking place. I hated the man. He had a steely look in his eyes, the kind that had seen enough shit in his lifetime to know how to deal with people.

'Hello Chief' he said, his thick Russian accent spilling through.

'Hello General' I said back, trying to keep the anger and fury out of my voice.

'I suppose your wondering what I want with you?' he said, his eyes never leaving the paper in front of him.

'It was on my list of questions' I retorted. One of the guards tightened his grip on his gun.

'No, Dmitri' he said, addressing the same guard. 'Our friend here needs to know we mean no harm, it's the only way we will get him to co-operate with us.'

I suspected the man didn't know much English, but he appeared to get the message and relaxed his grip a little bit. He turned his attention back to me.

'Now then' he said. 'I want to talk to you, man to man, about what happened at Starcourt Mall, and the events leading up to the destruction of the machine.'

'Why, you already know what I have to say. I've said it to you enough fucking times' I said back to them, my patience already beginning to wear thin.

He held his gaze. 'I just want to make sure we covered every detail. Now please, begin on the night of the incident, just before you jumped into the Upside Down.'

I sighed, composed myself, and began talking…

The terror in Joyce's eyes was unrivalled as she watched me while they tried to stop the device from exploding. Of course, that didn't matter, it was going to explode. But I wasn't going to die now, something deep down told me that. I don't know what. Either way, I had to save myself and there was only one way I was going to do that. I jumped through the opening to the Upside Down just before the explosion. The portal closed after me, a deafening noise entered the air around me, before turning into complete silence as the portal shut itself. I wandered around the Upside Down for some time, seeing corpses of what looked like ancient Greek soldiers to a corpse wearing a leather jacket. I turned round to walk in the opposite direction when I saw it.

I jumped, reeling back expecting an attack. But the object in front of me was stationary, and it remained that way. Once I was sure in myself that it was dead, I approached it. It was one of the demo-dogs, connected to the wall by some sort of vines, keeping it in place. Then I heard a growl, and it came from the stationary demo-dog. I reeled back again and took off into a run. From what I could hear, the dog was trying to get free of the vines it was attached to. I heard a snap and knew that it had got free and was looking to eat me as a celebration of its newfound emancipation.

Then in front of me, as I turned a corner through one of the many tunnels in the Upside Down and entered a clearing of sorts. And in this clearing, I saw a group of about 6 or 7 men in HazMat suits. They had guns. When they saw me, they went to raise their weapons. As they prepared to fire, they saw the creature chasing after me. I ducked down and slid to a halt as gunfire filled the air, directed at the dog chasing me. I turned to look back and saw its limp body drop to the floor, bullets still raining down on its body.

Once they stopped shooting and made sure the dog was dead, their attention turned to me. I didn't know much Russian but from my time in New York, I had picked up a few words here and there. Two of the men picked me up and held me in front of what appeared to be the leader of their group. I started to tell them to let me go, but then a blow came to the back of my head. The next time I woke up, I was in a cell in freezing Russia…

Brenner

Atlantic City was one of the best places in America, at least in my opinion. The sea from which the city got its name was a cool blue as the morning greeted the city. I loved Brigantine Beach, at least I would have if I were a beach person. I looked out of the window, as I had so many times after I found out she had been found. It had been quite the revelation. I hadn't been able to keep up with my other projects after this revelation. I had assigned the matter #008 to one of my associates to put my entire attention into this. But whenever I thought about her the same thought came to my mind. 'This time, we'll do things properly, and it won't end up with a group of kids keeping me from what is rightfully mine.' A knock on the door stirred me from this particular set of recurring thoughts.

'Who is it?' I said, still looking out of the window.

'It's me' said Bruce, one of my 'employees.'

'What do you want?' I asked, unusually feeling like I was going to lose my temper.

'We've just received word from Sierra' he said back to me. Any anger I had dissipated in a second, and I braced myself for what he had to tell me. From the way he was smiling I could already tell it was going to be good news…

Mike

It's funny how a singular whisper can define an entire night of your life. Once I heard that voice, I knew I wasn't getting to sleep. I tried to, but I was tossing and turning, trying to get a grip on myself. My heart beat faster than usual, but then that was a given whenever El was involved. Lucas was snoring next to me, but he occasionally said Max's name. It made me wonder what kind of dreams he was having for him to say her name. Once my mind went to far down that rabbit hole, I returned to thinking about El. Actually, I wondered if me or El dreamed about each other. I never could remember my dreams, but a few times I had woken up feeling incredibly happy, or very sweaty. Either way, I hoped we did. I lover her with all my heart, that much I knew. But soon enough, out of sheer exhaustion my head began to slowly settle down, and I drifted off into a dream that I was surely never going to forget.

We were back in Hawkins Middle School. The light above my head was flickering. There was no one next to me, but I could feel the presence of people around me. I heard a scream. It was coming from every direction, I turned around, but I couldn't see anyone. It was getting so loud, I felt like my ears would start to bleed. I put my hands to my ears to make it stop. It went on and on, getting louder, piercing my head like a drill. Then just as the power went out, it stopped. Then, one by one, the lights came back on, but only the ones in front of me. It was like they were illuminating a path. I followed them, hoping to find the source of this screaming and try to help them. I followed the trail of lights, passing my maths and history classrooms.

After weaving in and out of the corridors of the school, I eventually came to a passageway where the lights stopped about ¾ of the way down. I followed the lights which came to a stop just outside of a classroom I had never been in. I went to open it, but before I could touch the handle, it opened itself. I pulled it open, not knowing what I expected to see, but what I did see was not what I was expecting. In fact, I would have wanted it to be anything but what I was witnessing. It looked like something out of Hell, something that you would torture and torment people with. Inside was El, in her pink dress with her buzzcut holding the Demogorgon in place.

I looked up at the beast, but something about it was off. Then I heard cracking. The monster looked to be freeing itself of the psychic restraints El had put on it. El's nose was bleeding now, the blood a dark shade of red. The monster took laboured steps towards her, each step becoming easier until it stood just in front of her. I screamed out but my voice just echoed away. Apparently, the Monster heard it though as it looked straight at me. As it did, its head began to change shape. Its starfish shaped head started to contort itself inwards. The process looked horrible as the head began to slowly shape itself into a human head. Silver strands of hair started to appear and piercing blue eyes appeared.

What I was looking at was the hybrid of nightmares. Martin Brenner's head, on top of the Demogorgon's body. Then it spoke, it's voiced a mixture of the Demogorgon's screech and Brenner's voice. 'She's mine now' it said. El, who appeared to have been frozen in frame suddenly started to move again. She looked up in sheer terror as the monster grabbed it in one of its hands and impaled her with three long, sharp claws that had appeared on its other hand. Blood began to pour from her wounds, as the Demogorgon removed it from its claws, the lifeless body dropping to the floor.

'NO!' I shouted. The beast looked up at me and laughed a laugh that made my hair stand on end. The Monster began to approach me. I started to run but tripped over. As my head hit the floor, I saw the Monster approach me. I screamed out and…

I woke up drenched in sweat to see Lucas crouching next to me. It was still dark out.

'Dude you were screaming your head off. Bad nightmare?' he whispered, holding a bottle of water out to me in his hand. I grabbed it and started to drink.

'The worst' I said, when I had finished the water. I started to settle down back into my sleeping bag, hoping I would never have to recollect that scenario ever again…