Alarms were blaring throughout the Hawkins National Laboratory; red and white lights flashed in every room. Subject 010 ran down the corridors as fast as he could. His heart pounding against his chest, his bare feet slamming against the rough tile floor, ignoring the pain of anything he was stepping on. This was the only time he could make his escape, one that he may or may not have created by complete accident. Whatever he came into contact with was not too pleased that they met once again; perhaps, that's exactly what it wanted. The long, sickly-looking creature with no face may have found the opening it was looking for within 010, whether any of the scientists have realized it or not. This was their fault anyway. 010 didn't want anything to do with this, the first encounter was enough for him to never want to try to contact it again, but Papa had other plans. 010 felt like he had to, mainly out of guilt. From what he overheard and understood, he wasn't as further developed with his powers as the other subjects were. He couldn't move things with his mind as quickly as the others, but he had strengths in other areas. Perhaps that's why that creature found it so easy to reach out to him and to break through into this world.

"Ten!" The boy heard Papa's voice behind him. He skidded to a stop, looking over his shoulder. "Come here!" Papa held his hand out to him.

The lights began to flicker, and the building shook, followed by a high-pitched screech from the upper floors. For a moment, 010 did consider taking it, knowing that Papa would get him somewhere safe away from the monster, but at the same time, this was the only time 010 could make an escape. Did he know where he was going? Not entirely. For the past couple of months, 010 used his powers to map out the exact path escape route he could take to get the hell out of here. While he had never physically walked it before, his hallucination powers allowed him to see it in his mind as if he did.

"Ten…" Papa warned, knowing the look on the thirteen-year-olds face; it's the same look he gave before he attempted any of his previous failed escape plans. 'Don't."

010 had a slight smile on his face, giving Papa a small wave as a tiny droplet of blood ran down his nose. The ceiling in front of Papa crumbled, dust flew everywhere, and Papa had to block his eyes as he took a step back. Looking back, the creature that had broken through the gate was now standing tall in front of Papa. He gasped, stumbling backward in shock as the creature let out a roar, taking a step closer. Papa covered his face in terror, not knowing how he would even protect himself from an attack like this.

"Ten! Ten!" Papa called out, still cowering.

A pair of hands reached out behind Papa, pulling him up to his feet. He let out a scream, swinging his arms as best he could to fend off whatever grabbed him.

"Dr. Brenner… Dr. Brenner!" A voice called out.

He opened his eyes, trying to catch his breath and steady his heart rate. The scene that was in front of him just seconds ago was gone? There was no evidence that the creature crashed through the ceiling; in fact, the ceiling was intact. Glancing around, there was nobody in the hallway beside himself and the armed guards that had gotten separated from him in the first place.

"Where did it go?!" Dr. Brenner shouted, jerking himself away from the hands.

"What?"

"The… That… Thing!"

The two armed guards glanced at each other before looking back to Dr. Brenner; they could only assume that he was rightfully stressed about the monster lurking around the lab. Although, last they heard, it was still running around in the lower levels.

"What thing, sir?"

"The…" Dr. Brenner trailed off, taking an embarrassing amount of time to piece together what had just happened here.

Ten.

"Where did Ten go?"

"We haven't seen him since-"

"Find him!"

Pst… Fourteen-year-old Steve Harrington tried grabbing Robin Buckley's attention, who was sitting at the same table as he was in their Mythology class. Robin was too busy taking notes to prepare for their upcoming test to entertain whatever antics he was up to. They may have been best friends, but he knew that paying attention in class was above him.

The problem with that was that Steve needed to talk to her about the news the entire school was just given in an early morning assembly as it didn't make sense to him. Still, he assumed that she would have more information about it. Apparently, Jonathan Byers had gone missing, and because of this, Chief Hopper came to the assembly to announce that until whatever was going on here was solved, there was going to be a curfew in place. The school children didn't love that idea, as everyone groaned simultaneously, trying to criticize the decision, only for Hopper to tell them that this was the mayor's choice. He was only here to deliver the news. Steve assumed since Robin played in the same Dungeons and Dragons group as Jonathan, she had better insight and details that haven't yet been released to the public.

"Robin," Steve whispered, only to get ignored. He grumbled under his breath, flipping the piece of paper he had been using to sloppily write notes over, and quickly scribbled something out on it. He folded it a couple of times before tossing it over Robin's notebook, only for her to stare at it.

"Mr. Harrington!" The teacher's voice boomed out of nowhere, causing Steve to jump. He thought he had gauged the timing just right that he wouldn't have gotten caught, but that woman has eyes on the back of her head, swear to God. "Is there something you need to share with the rest of us?"

Steve quickly shook his head, fidgeting with the pencil in his hands.

"No, ma'am."

With an annoyed huff, she turned back towards the board, continuing to write with the chalk in her hand. Steve kept his eyes straight ahead, trying to focus on whatever it was they were now talking about; he knew he wasn't going to get anything out of Robin during class.

The moment he began copying down what was written up on the board, he let out a pained yelp after Robin stomped down on his foot as hard as she could. Robin kept her eyes down on her notebook as the teacher turned back around, not once suspecting that she could have been the cause of Steve's outburst. Steve gave her a pained smile, giving her a small wave before picking up his pencil again. He had no idea what it was about a teacher's glare, but he swore they could cut through any of them at any given moment. Super villain powers.

With her back turned again, Robin opened the note waiting for her. She squinted, barely unable to read Steve's abysmal handwriting.

Heard anything? Was all it said.

Robin caught his eyes, shaking her head.

While Steve didn't know Jonathan on a personal level like Robin did, it was still concerning that somebody in their class would get snatched up like that without a trace. Who knew who was next if it could happen so quickly to him? Steve knew how much this was affecting Robin. While they only typically talked during their D&D sessions, they were still pretty close. Outside of that, they just fell into different friend groups.

Whatever happened, Steve knew Jonathan would pull through.

Hawkins National Laboratory
Two Days Prior

"Good morning, Ten!" Dr. Brenner said almost too cheerfully upon entering the small, empty white room that 010 was forced to refer to as his bedroom. The boy was sitting in the middle of his bed, his arms wrapped around his legs and hugging his knees close to his chest. "How are you feeling today?"

No answer. Typical.

With a sigh, Papa sat down on the edge of his bed. He didn't understand why 010 was being so difficult lately, they gave him practically everything he needed to keep him content here, yet it didn't seem to be enough. They couldn't force him to participate in the lessons. After all, it was 010 who was the one who decided to give them the results that they were looking for. Without him, they had nothing, and nothing wouldn't provide them with any edge to the next steps in their research.

"Not hungry today?" Papa tried making small talk. The nurses had brought up their concerns that 010 had been refusing to eat the past couple of meals, and nothing they tried didn't help. With a defeated sigh, Papa turned his body so he was facing him. "You can't keep doing this, Ten. You're going to starve."

010's deep brown eyes pierced through him in his glare. If looks could kill, indeed. He must have not wanted Papa dead that badly; everybody here knew that if 010 wanted any of them dead, he would have done so with little to nothing to stop him. It was the lack of tapping into his potential in other areas of his brain. At the same time, he was able to create and produce hallucinations on a whim, but he still wasn't strong in his telekinesis. In fact, if Dr. Brenner hadn't seen the small amount of telekinesis for himself, he would have believed that 010 simply did not possess that power like the others had.

"What can I do for you?"

"Out."

Dr. Brenner let out another sigh. Ever since they took him out on a small 'field trip' outside in terms of helping him create more vivid hallucinations, that's all he ever talked about. More and more, every day, 010 would refuse to provide them any studies until he went back outside. Now, he had this vision that he would somehow be able to leave the lab and live out there.

That was never going to happen.

"Ten…" He gently put a hand on the side of the boy's face, only for him to flinch back away from the touch. "You know we can't do that."

"Out."

"We cannot do that…." He said slowly. "It's dangerous."

010 brought his hand up to his mouth, anxiously biting at the skin surrounding his thumbnail. It wasn't fair; he used his power to watch the nurses towards the end of the day. How come they were allowed to go out and stay out for hours? Why did he have to stay here all the time? Why was Papa allowed to leave? It just wasn't fair.

Papa watched as 010 reached towards him, placing his index finger on his chest.

"You… can go out." He pointed back to himself. "I… cannot?"

"It's different, Ten. Someday you'll understand." As soon as Dr. Brenner saw that 010 was about to counter his statement, he quickly added something he knew would get him to stop talking about it. "Remember what happened to One?"

010 shut his mouth immediately. No, in fact, he did not remember what happened to 001. The only thing he knew was the stories that Papa had told him regarding the dangers of going outside for too long unsupervised. The tale was that 001 found his way out of their home, only to be taken away by the monsters. It sounded sketchy to 010, but he knew he didn't have the knowledge to disprove that was actually the case. 010 couldn't remember much about 001, but he could recall that he was older than he was and sometimes conducted some tests around the lab, and was friendly and understanding. Around the time he disappeared was the point where 010 began to act out.

"Ten…" Papa started, knowing precisely what to say now. "You can help us… Help us find One."

"One."

"In the tank."

010 frowned; of course, he needed to go into the tank; that's all Papa ever wanted him to do. The last time he went in there, he stumbled onto something he probably wasn't supposed to see.

"Please, Ten?"

010 didn't say anything; he only pushed himself off from the bed, waiting for Papa to follow his lead.

The last time.