. . .

〝 𝑖𝑖. monster hunting

6:58 PM

Despite their wariness, Rowen and Steve had made the executive decision to wander away from their not-so-safe makeshift safe house β€” or rather bus β€” and trek into the woods to follow their own trail. Retrace their own steps, rather than remain on the bus, waiting for more Darts and the hope that an answer would come. They didn't have time to wait for answers, or help, or Hopper to roll up in his Blazer and tell them everything would be alright when it wasn't.

The fact that the Demogorgon dogs had spared them for something else did not mean that all was well, only that they had taken their attention and their teeth to another place, where she hoped there would not but most likely would be other people.

"Guys, what are you arguing about now?"

"About how Dart can molt more than once a day," Dustin said.

Rowen hoped that they would be quiet as they followed the other-dimensional creatures β€” slightly fearful that they might hear them, exhausted of the sounds of bickering . . but as things go, they never were what she hoped.

"He can't molt twice in one day, Dustin," Lucas pressed. "There's no way he can grow that fast."

"Malt?" Steve questioned, squinting.

"No, molt. As in molting," Dustin corrected sharply. "It's when an animal sheds old skin to make room for new growth. Like hornworms."

"Okay, so . . when's Dart gonna molt again?" Rowen asked.

"It's gotta be soon," said Dustin. "When he does, he'll be fully grown, or close to it . . so will his friends."

"Yeah, and he's gonna eat a lot more than just cats," Steve chimed in.

"Wait, a cat?" Lucas grabbed Dustin's arm, stopping him along with the rest of the group. "Dart ate a cat?"

Dustin shook his head. "No, what? No . ."

"What do you mean 'no'?" Rowen questioned. "He ate Mews. We buried her yesterday."

"Mews? Who's Mews?" Max asked her.

"Dustin's cat."

"ROWEN!" Dustin shouted.

"I knew it!" Lucas exclaimed. "You kept him!"

"No! No . . no, I . ." Dustin stuttered over his words, looking from Lucas, to Rowen, to Steve and Max. They all gave him the same look, and he gave up with a sigh. "He missed me!" he tried. "He wanted to come home."

"Bullshit!"

"I didn't know he was a Demogorgon!"

"Oh, so now you admit it?"

"Wait, if you didn't tell him about Mews, then how the hell did you explain how I found out about all of this?" Rowen asked Dustin, interrupting their banter.

"He told me you saw Dart in the woods before conveniently running into him," Lucas informed her angrily.

"Guys, who cares?" Max tried reasoning. "We have to go."

"I care!" Lucas burst. "He put the party in jeopardy. He broke the rule of law . ."

"SO DID YOU!" Dustin yelled.

A few more seconds and Max was arguing, too, arguing as they had at the junkyard. The three turned into a little circle of banters and shouts and once more, they were defending themselves, defending whatever the hell it is they were doing or had done. It was beyond the point of aggravating, but Rowen was beyond the point of trying to defuse it. She sighed through her nose, dragging her light along the brush to her left. The kids arguing remained the only noise, and their group remained as the only ones occupying the forest. It was empty, apart from them and maybe a few animals that weren't already scared off by the loud voices.

If they were there, she couldn't hear them . . but after a moment, Rowen began to hear something else. Something far off. She looked to her right, shining the flashlight she was given towards an incline. She heard the noise again, listened. It sounded like a roar.

Gaze on the piles of leaves and tree branches, Rowen tapped at Steve's arm repeatedly before walking off of the tracks. She didn't look to see if she dragged his attention away from the argument taking place. Her shoes crunched, and the sound came again. It was louder this time, but even as Steve came to stand next to her, the arguing only continued.

"Hey, guys . ." She heard him say. Dustin and Lucas only got progressively louder. "GUYS!" Steve shouted.

They stopped, looked at him attentively. The roars came again . . . They didn't need to say anything. Lucas and Dustin were already jumping into action, following her and Steve up the incline. Max, however, stayed put.

"Hey β€” guys, why are you headed towards the sound?" she asked.

Rowen ignored her question, ushering her along. "Max c'mon!" She only gave Rowen a wary look, but Rowen's stare hardened. "Max . ."

The thirteen-year-old groaned, reluctantly following. They trailed up until the incline came to an abrupt stop, until they reached the edge of what she realized was a large hill. She couldn't see where they were or anything to tell her one way or the other . . . but being able to see the skyline of Hawkins was evidence enough. They were a far cry from the edge of town.

"I don't see them," Dustin said amidst the faint roars.

Lucas lifted his binoculars, searching . . .

"It's the lab," he eventually said. "They were going back home."

Rowen shuddered. Home? How many of those things were they keeping in that lab? Tens? Hundreds?

Without a word, they unanimously decided to descend the hill, inching closer towards the lab and closer towards what Rowen was hoping would not be sitting there waiting for them.

Now that she had her watch back, she could say it took them maybe fifteen minutes to get to Hawkins Lab. As if her feet weren't already tired, by the time they got close to the entrance, they were aching. And although it made her want to slow down, that wasn't why she suddenly chose to stop. Two heads bumped into her back.

"Ow!"

"Hey! What β€” . ."

Rowen squinted, ignoring Max and Dustin's grumbles. "Is there a car down there?" she asked quietly, as if whoever owned the car would hear her if she didn't.

Steve took a step forward. "Yeah . ." he said, shining his flashlight forward. They could just see the outline of one.

"Someone else is at the gate?" Lucas asked from behind them.

"Who is it?" Max asked.

"I don't know," Steve answered. He continued forward, towards the entrance where the brush parted. The rest of them followed, stepped over a few more vines, a few more rocks, walked around a few fallen branches until the trees began to thin . . That was when she saw the faint image of two people.

"Hello?" one called. ". . Who's there?"

Rowen and Steve kept marching forward with the kids in tow, walking out of the forest, onto a poorly cut side lawn. Their flashlights no longer made it difficult to see who stood before them, and when they finally saw who it was . .

"Steve?" The pair said in unison.

It was then that Rowen finally recognized their faces . . and she had nothing to offer but a completely bemused expression. What were Nancy Wheeler and Jonathan Byers doing at Hawkins Lab?

Both groups stared open-mouthed, marching toward one another with equal shock.

"What are you doing here?" Nancy asked incredulously.

"What are you doing here?" Steve asked in return.

"We're looking for Mike and Will."

Rowen threw a glance at the lab. "They're not in there, are they?"

Nancy's gaze landed on her. ". . We're not sure," she told her hesitantly, then shook her head, her wary expression replaced with confusion. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

Rowen furrowed her brow at the intensity of her tone but thought nothing of it. She opened her mouth to introduce herself, but Jonathan beat her to it.

"Rowen. She's Billy's sister . ." he told Nancy, directing the confusion on her face from Rowen to him.

Nancy's expression became a little less confused, a little warier.

"How do you know that?" Steve asked, slightly dumbfounded.

"We met already," Rowen clarified. "On Halloween."

Nancy nodded, shifted uncomfortably, looking between Rowen and Steve. "Oh, well . . Does she β€” ?"

"Know about the Demogorgons?" Rowen finished, sporting a tight-lipped smile. "Yeah . ."

Both Jonathan and Nancy's eyes widened.

"But β€” wait. How did you even find out?" Jonathan asked, sounding as flustered as Nancy looked.

"Dustin, you wanna take this one?" Steve turned to the kid before she could answer.

Dustin threw a baffled look at him. "What? Why me?"

"Dude, it's pretty obvious."

"Oh, what?" he snapped at Steve defensively. "Just because she found a Demogorgon in my house when I wasn't there, that means I have to explain everything?"

"Yeah, it kinda does."

"There was a Demogorgon in your house?" Nancy questioned. She went ignored.

"No, it doesn't!" Dustin argued.

"Dustin, you were pretty much the one who got us all into this," Lucas said.

"I was not!"

"Guys . ." Rowen tried, but she went ignored, too. They began to bicker again β€” for the thousandth time, as far as she knew.

Speaking over them rarely worked and she didn't want to shout at them again. So, Rowen took a page out of Steve's book, clicking her flashlight on and shining it in their faces, making them stop.

"Hey!"

"OW! Rowen!"

She clicked the light off. "Are you done?" she asked firmly. Dustin and Lucas clamped their mouths shut, and she turned back to Nancy and Jonathan. "Listen, I tutor Dustin. I went to his house on Friday and instead of finding him, I found one of those things in his room eating his cat."

"Yeah, and you totally freaked out."

"Shut up," Rowen snapped at him, but it was hollow, and all three of the kids grinned to some degree. "Anyway . ." she continued. "Dustin explained everything to me, including what happened last year. Giant Demogorgon and all."

"But now there's more of them," said Dustin.

"More of them?" Jonathan echoed, growing nervous. "What, you mean like there's a group of them walking around somewhere?"

"Yeah, but they're not like the huge one we saw last year. They walk on all fours and are about β€” . ." Steve steadied his hand in the air at about three feet, ". . β€” yay high."

"But they're still dangerous," Lucas told them.

"And have a million teeth," Rowen added.

"They almost knocked us out of a bus," Max commented.

"Wait, a bus?" Nancy questioned. "What bus?"

"Well, uh . ." Steve scratched the back of his head. ". . The Demogorgon that was in Dustin's house, we tried baiting it to the junkyard," he explained. "We were gonna set it on fire, you know? Like we did last year. But it, uh . ." He placed his hands on his hips. "It, uh . . it didn't go so well."

"Yeah, 'cause the barrier around the bus was shit," Dustin complained. "It obviously couldn't keep out four Demogorgons."

"How was I supposed to know three more would show up?" Steve snapped at him.

Rowen crossed her arms, ignored their banter. "Basically, we just figured out there's more than one of them like . . thirty minutes ago, so . ."

"That's why we're here," Lucas said. "We were following them."

"You were following them?" Nancy questioned, concern all over her face.

Dustin stepped in front of Rowen, looking between Nancy and Jonathan with an excited expression. "Yeah, so, basically, we were in the bus, and they were coming at us, right? They threw themselves against it and made everything shake and fall over. Steve was whacking one with his bat because it broke through, so we ran to the back. Then another one jumped on top of the bus because we left the top open with the ladder and stuff, and it started roaring at us, you know? It was like RAAAGH, and we were like AHHH . ."

He began waving his hands around comically, imparting what happened to them as if it was one of the coolest things he had ever experienced.

Nancy and Jonathan looked confused, Lucas gave his friend an incredulous look. Max, Rowen, and Steve didn't know what to think.

Dustin shifted on his feet, smile faltering. "Anyways, we uh . . we thought they were gonna reach inside and grab us, but they didn't. They just ran off."

"That's why we followed them," Lucas added.

"And then we heard roars coming from the lab, so we came here," said Dustin.

"Are you sure the roars came from the lab?" Jonathan asked.

"Positive," Lucas said with a nod. "We think they were being called back home or something."

It was then that the roars came again, shook them from their conversation and, for a moment, left them frozen. They waited, hesitantly, as if the sound was a war cry and the Demogorgons were about to charge down from the lab towards them . . . but they did not. Nothing came.

Rowen had no doubt in her mind that they came from the lab this time, thus their silent question had been answered . . but what were they supposed to do?

She turned to Nancy and Jonathan. "How long have you guys been looking for your brothers?"

"All day . ." Jonathan told her before turning his attention to the boys. "You guys haven't seen them?"

Lucas shook his head. "They're not answering their supercomms."

"They haven't been for the last two days," Dustin complained.

Jonathan deflated, looked at the lab timidly as if the building was such a foreboding presence.

"Do you think they're in the lab, too?" Max piped up.

"Why would they be?" Lucas asked.

She shrugged. "I don't know. You said Will went to the lab for appointments sometimes, right?"

"Dude, how much did you tell her?" Dustin demanded of his friend.

"It's not like I told her every little detail!"

"And Will's appointments aren't a detail?!"

"Guys, seriously?" Rowen butt in.

The arguing which she had hoped they were freed from returned until it was overruled by Jonathan's questions. Possibilities of Mike and Will's whereabouts were thrown back and forth, Dustin began to narrate their experience at the junkyard again. Max rolled her eyes and Rowen didn't know what to do, but when something that resembled the sound of a switch being flipped caught her ear . . .

"The power's back," said Nancy.

The overlapping voices went quiet. Rowen had not noticed she had moved until she looked over Dustin's head. Nancy had broken away from them, staring at the building as they all did now . . and when they all realized what had happened, they bolted. They bolted towards the tollbooth before the gate. Jonathan reached it first, squeezing in and pressing his hand against what she assumed was the button that would move their obstacle aside.

But it didn't work. He smashed the button repeatedly until Dustin made him move, squeezing into the small booth himself.

"Let me try," he pushed.

"Dus β€”"

"Let me try, Jonathan!"

Rowen looked over her shoulder. Dustin was smashing the button again and again as Jonathan had, going at it relentlessly. She was reminded of how he did the same with his English homework, trying again and again until he got it right. Honestly, the idea of 'trying again and again' sounded good in her head, but with Dustin, it wasn't exactly what she would call dedication. He just did things repetitively until they worked the way he wanted, cursing or grumbling in frustration, not thinking of how it could potentially fail him.

The button pressing stopped, and she turned fully towards the booth this time. Dustin was looking up at the gate in hopes that it was opening . . . but it was not.

"Son of a bitch," he cursed. "You know what . ." he began smashing the button even harder now.

Rowen rolled her eyes, ready to break the news to him that pressing harder would not make anything better . . . but, before she could even open her mouth, the gate jerked. Her gaze flew towards it. The metal blockade pulled open with a jitter, stopped with a screech when the road was free of it. She half expected a hoard of Demogorgons to come charging at them . . but they never came.

"I got it!" Dustin called happily.

Nancy brushed by her, racing to the passenger side of the car that sat behind them while Jonathan trailed to the driver's side.

"You guys stay here," he told them, opening the car door. "We'll go see if they're up there."

Rowen looked over her shoulder, gaping at him. "You β€” you're kidding, right? Those things could be sitting by the front door waiting for you."

"We'll be fine," Nancy told her, not appearing as calm as she sounded, but standing firm anyway. "If they are we'll just . . drive really fast."

They climbed in before she could utter another word, and before anyone else could say otherwise. The vehicle growled weakly, moved along with a slight creak that she caught as it passed.

Jonathan's car was . . old. A 'well-used 1971 Ford LTD' old. If it wasn't already clear by the banged-up look the outside presented, having a brother who loved cars to the point of obsession made the condition of Jonathan's car painfully obvious to her. It also made her worry that Nancy was putting too much faith in its ability to make a quick getaway if Rowen was right about what sat waiting for them up the hill.

She was curious about cars, she would admit. Not to the point where she was truly interested . . but for Billy, to say that was to give him an open invitation to tell her everything he knew. And at the time, because it always put a smile on his face, Rowen didn't have the heart to stop him . . . which was why her second-hand knowledge was making her anxious.

She gazed up the road to the lab for a while until she decided to wander, trailed towards the tollbooth to look inside. Why there was no security guard stationed outside was something she wanted an answer to. If the power was on, if people were inside the lab, then that meant there had to be someone outside, guarding . . right? Wasn't that how places like this worked: guard present at all times, keeping an eye out? Not an empty booth with a shotgun left abandoned in the corner.

She leaned against the side, took the gun from its place.

"Hey, guys? . ."

Rowen looked up from her worn, now dirt-covered converse to see Max in the middle of the road, staring up the slow incline. She thought nothing of it at first . . but when headlights suddenly swerved into their line of sight, inching closer and closer β€” . .

Jonathan honked as she came up behind Max and they immediately backstepped.

"Guys, get back!"

They just barely moved out of the way before he coasted by and, for a second, Rowen wondered why Jonathan didn't slow down for them. But then another car appeared behind him, slowing down instead.

Rowen's jaw dropped at the sight of the driver. "Hopper?!"

The chief parked his car in one swift motion, ordered them all to get in the SUV. Steve jumped into action, opening the passenger door and making the kids go first. Max climbed in, then Dustin, then Lucas. Steve ushered her to get in and the gun was slipped to the back . . but Rowen didn't climb. She couldn't. The kids filled what empty space was left, and Steve paused when he realized that himself.

But they didn't have time to pause, and Rowen dragged him in by the hand so Hopper could go. The second the door closed, Hopper slammed on the gas, speeding forward as if they were in a getaway car.

It made her wonder . . was she right when she said that the Demogorgons might have been up there waiting for them? Were Hopper, Mike, and Will in there with them? Had they been trapped? Is that where Hopper had been all this time?

"Woah, woah, woah . ."

Speaking of Hopper.

"What is she doing here?" Hopper asked, glaring into his rearview mirror . . . Silence. He looked between Steve and the road ahead. "What is she doing here?"

Steve flinched. "Dustin? . ." he called all of the chief's attention to the back, where Dustin made a noise of protest.

"Seriously? I have to explain again?"

"You didn't even explain the first time!"

"I don't care who the hell explains," Hopper snapped. "Someone tell me why my receptionist is in this car."

"Okay, how about the receptionist tells you?" Rowen offered quickly. The chief glanced at her, waiting.

Rowen relayed the events of the past two days to him as simply as she could, mentioning Dart, Dustin's deceased cat, his crazy explanation of everything from November of last year up till now, the plan they made to trap Dart β€” which, now that she looked back on it, was a god-awful idea β€” and everything in between. The explanation took up many minutes, but no one was bothered by it. The demand to know Rowen's sudden involvement broke the silence that would have otherwise been extremely uncomfortable β€” in more ways than one β€” and somehow managed to refocus a very tense chief of police.

Not that her story made him any less tense . . but it was another thing to focus on besides whatever he and Jonathan were driving away from.

Hopper ran a hand down his face, muttering under his breath.

"Where the hell have you been?" Rowen asked, anxious. "Were you at the lab the whole time?"

"No," he said. "Not the whole time, anyway. I went down to Merril's farm Friday. You remember all the calls we got about crops dying?"

"Yeah?"

Hopper began to relay his own events, from getting trapped in a hub of tunnels that were connected to the Upside Down, being found by Mrs. Byers and a man named Bob, being dragged out of said tunnels by soldiers. He watched Will undergo way more than any kid should and then watched again as scientists poked and prodded him like a lab rat, only to find out that what he was trapped by was connected to Will somehow . . . And, as if that wasn't enough, there were more Demogorgons in the tunnels, climbing out and breaking into the lab. They had killed most of the people there, and fact that he, Will, Mike, and Mrs. Byers got out with their lives was because of sheer luck.

"But, wait . ." Lucas said, tearing her away from all the questions which swirled in her head. "I thought that the only way to get to the Upside Down was through the gate?"

Hopper sighed. "Not anymore. The gate, the tunnels, the whole thing . . they think it's spreading like some kind of virus, that it has been for the past year."

A heavy beat passed.

"Holy shit . ."

"What about the demodogs?" Dustin asked.

The chief gave him a confused look through the mirror. "The what?"

"The Demogorgons," Dustin explained. "The ones in the lab . . how many of them are there?"

Rowen caught Hopper's hands tense around the steering wheel. "Too many."

She would have shifted uncomfortably in her seat had she had the room to do so, but she was practically arm in arm with Steve and he was all but pressed against the window. They sat stiffly, and the car filled with an unsettling silence.

The walls of trees soon thinned into open space, and that open space was soon dotted with houses and powerlines, things that somehow made Rowen a little calmer when she saw them through the window. They were coming closer to town . . but it seemed into town was not where they were going. Hopper made a left turn that dragged them away from the street lights that sat neatly on either side of the road and, suddenly, it felt like they were in the forest again. Only, they were able to drive through the trees this time, unlike the trees that hid the train tracks.

Rowen occasionally cast a glance over her shoulder at her three, smaller counterparts, checking to see if they weren't inching towards any kind of nervous breakdown; but, after five minutes had passed, she also looked to see what made them so quiet. Had they not been shifting in their seats so much, she would have assumed they all fell asleep . . but she had to admit, that was an idiotic assumption given their circumstances. Sleep was an impossible feat at that moment, even with the sky above them that, on any other night, would have lulled her into it.

Despite how tired she felt, Rowen was wide awake. She was on edge with the question of whether or not they were safe yet, the one Hopper could not provide an answer to. The weight of it swelled, filled the empty space of the car until all of them were left jittery and silently impatient.

They juddered in and out of potholes and, with the way the car jerked, Rowen had to strain her grip around the console so Steve wouldn't be squished further into the window. Maybe it was just because she was too close to him for her liking, but truthfully, she hated how small the seats were when the Blazer was big enough to haul all of them and three more. Then again . . as she looked over her shoulder once more, with as much stuff as Hopper had squeezed into the back, she was surprised the kids found any room at all.

Hopper turned the wheel again and the tires rolled over a different path, one she could not see, but by the way it sounded, could tell was solely gravel. They drove straight until one lone street lamp provided some light, shining down on a shabby, one-story house. It was dark on the inside, abandoned. Sheets and towels hung on a makeshift clothesline and a red Toyota Camry sat to their right, isolated. Hopper parked with much less vigor and she saw Jonathan pull up next to him through the window, saw him fumble with his keys and climb out a little clumsier than the chief did.

Steve got out then, freeing Rowen of her cramped position before she stepped out too. Hopper's car didn't have seats that slid all the way forward like Billy's, so the kids climbed their way out; Max first, Lucas second, Dustin third with Steve's bat and backpack in hand.

Rowen didn't let any of them touch the gun she took.

She grabbed the weapon from the back and shut the door just as Nancy raced by her, catching up with Jonathan who was, until she reached his side, attempting to open the front door while carrying his unconscious brother at the same time. Mrs. Byers walked in after them, quiet and closed in on herself, guided by Hopper.

Another door shut.

"Woah, wait . . Guys, what's Max doing here? And who is she?"

To say Rowen gave Mike Wheeler a death glare would have been fitting. Out of everything that was going on, from his friend being unconscious to the Demogorgons coming after them, he chose to scowl at her and Max . . and it was irritating. And her temper was growing shorter by the minute. She did not have time to deal with a kid who didn't want them there.

Mike had the decency to flinch under her stare.

Rowen threw an arm around Max's shoulders and tugged her along as they stepped past him, went inside behind the rest. Jonathan placed Will on the couch, Rowen set the shotgun to the side in the hall, Max slumped into a chair in the kitchen.

Hopper eventually corraled everyone inside.

It took her a minute to really settle, realize what it was that they were doing β€” running from monsters . . they were running from actual monsters. It took her until Hopper plucked the phone from the wall and dialed a number and began talking hurridly to whatever poor soul he subjected to his 'serious tone' on the other end.

If there was anything Rowen learned from working with Hopper, it was that he had a lot of tones. Aggravated tones, parental tones, 'no bullshit' tones . . they were vague ones, but they were tones all the same and she picked up on it quickly. Perhaps because her dad had vague tones, too.

She didn't know whether she should stand or sit. She couldn't find it in her to make a choice, found it hard to do anything except listen to the clock that ticked somewhere she could not see, to lean against the wall next to the gun she set down . . just in case.

"Sam Owens. Dr. Sam Owens . . I don't know how many people are there. I don't know how many people are left alive!"

Rowen wrapped her arms around her waist.

"I am the police! Chief Jim Hopper! . . Yes, the number that I gave you. Yes, 6767. I will be here."

The phone was slammed back into its place.

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

"We'll see."

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

"We stay here, and we wait for help," Hopper told him firmly, turned to her. "Rowen, can I talk to you for a second?"

Rowen stiffened when he said her name, watched him disappear down the hall for a moment before she even took a step. She threw a glance Max's way, caught how she had been staring . . . They all were. Rowen straightened, pushed herself from the wall, and followed Hopper reluctantly. When she approached, he looked at her expectantly.

"Listen, if this is about the junkyard, I didn't mean for that to happen, okay?" she blurted quietly.

Hopper sighed, but he didn't have enough time to get a word in.

"Well β€” . . I mean, okay, so I could've kept it from happening, but one minute I was going to Dustin's house to tutor him, and the next there's this thing trying to bite my head off and suddenly he's explaining so much to me about other dimensions . . and then before I know it we're trying to hunt the thing down with Steve of all people . ." she gestured towards Steve's head.

"Rowen . ."

"And then my stepsister shows up with another kid and I don't know what to do because we were already in too deep and I didn't want to abandon them to save my own ass and β€” . . and I don't know. I'm sorry."

"Rowen . ."

"Yeah?"

The chief gave her a slightly dubious look. "Why are you apologizing?"

She returned the look in equal measure. "Because I thought you were mad?"

"Why would I be mad?"

Rowen hesitated, taking in the genuine concern on his face. "I β€” I don't know," she muttered. "You see a look on someone's face, you assume they're mad, I just . ."

"Listen, if I was mad, do you think I would've waited till now to tell you?"

She blinked. "No, but . . but we could've gotten killed," she said. ". . aβ€”and I didn't do anything."

"Kid, that's not you're fault," Hopper said. "None of this is your fault. You got dragged into it, same as us."

Rowen stood there, arms wrapped around herself, shifted from one foot to the other. "I know, but . . Jesus, I just stood there like an idiot. Steve almost got himself torn to pieces and I just stood there."

"Hey, hey . ." Hopper said softly. "Don't beat yourself up. You're not an idiot, okay? You were doing what you thought was best. So was he."

"What I thought was best was getting them out of there."

"And you did that."

She laughed dryly. "Yeah . . after the fact," she said. "I let them sit there and almost get eaten an β€” . . and, yeah, we didn't get eaten, but I still had no idea what I was doing."

"You think we do?" he almost laughed. "We don't even know what the hell we're dealing with."

"That's comforting," she muttered.

Hopper elected to ignore her comment. "We're gonna figure out what to do . . I promise"

"How do you know we will?" she asked quietly. "You remember what happened last time you promised, right?" Rowen raised her brow. "I won't be gone for hours this time?"

"That's not going to happen again," he told her earnestly.

Rowen leveled his gaze. "If Mrs. Byers hadn't found you, you could've died, Hopper."

"Yeah, but I didn't," he threw back. "And you won't either. None of us will."

As dark as it seemed, Rowen could not keep herself from doubting what he said. It was hard to believe anything she was hearing anymore . . How could he promise something like that when he just told her that he had no idea what he was doing either? When the only reason he wasn't dead was because of Mrs. Byers?

She began to chew on her bottom lip, glanced at the lines of paper taped to the walls, taped to the floor . . all over the place, really. A mess of colored-in paper covered the Byers house from top to bottom and somehow she was just now noticing.

"Hey," Hopper said, calling her attention back to him. "I mean it. We're gonna get out of this." He placed a tentative hand on her shoulder. "You're going to be fine. Max is going to be fine."

Rowen couldn't bring herself to look him in the eye . . one, because she didn't want him to see how she was blinking away what had glossed over her eyes. Two, because even with the 'assuring adult' role he tried to fit as best as he could right now . . she still found it hard to believe him, and she didn't want him to feel like he failed. She nodded, and that was all.

Hopper took his hand off her shoulder, sighed.

Rowen glanced at the closed bedroom door to her left. She remembered hearing it slam, remembered how Mrs. Byers went into the house first and how she never saw her after that.

Rowen looked between the door and Hopper. "Who's Bob?" she asked hesitantly, quietly.

The question made him frown, made his shoulders drop. "Bob, uh . ." he mumbled, trailed off. His hand was dragged down his face, roughly, as if it would wipe away all their problems. "He was . ." Somehow Hopper found it difficult to say the word.

But Rowen was perceptive enough to guess. She frowned, felt her stomach begin to drop already. ". . Husband?"

"No . ." But Hopper debunked that thought. "No, um . . they were dating."

Realization washed across her face. "Oh . ."

"He was a good guy."

Rowen felt her heart sink. She glanced at the door again, crossing her arms. "Is she okay?"

Hopper's gaze turned to the walls around them, but he nodded once more. "She will be. Joyce's a tough woman," he said, throwing her a look. "And you're a tough kid."

A smirk just barely tugged at the corner of her mouth. "Tough kid to talk to?"

That got a huff out of him. "Sometimes," he admitted. ". . but you know what I mean."

She almost found the will to shake her head at him as if he was crazy, but the second that she looked him in the eye, she found she couldn't. Rowen expected him to be upset. Hell, she expected him to be furious, to quietly chastise her in the hall so the kids wouldn't see or hear what went down. She expected him to call her out for being stupid, reckless even... but he didn't. Out of everything she could have seen coming, what actually happened was inching towards the bottom. Maybe at the very bottom.

Hopper squeezed her shoulder and told her everything was alright and would be alright as if she was a five-year-old who dug themselves in too deep and broke a rule they didn't mean to break. And it made her feel oddly calm, the worry and anxiety she felt over what he would say to her replaced with... something. Something she wasn't used to.

"We'll be okay," he told her.

Rowen nodded again. He nodded in return, then stepped towards Mrs. Byers's door, pushing it open. Rowen chose then to go back to the kitchen, arms crossed once more. The kids still slumped in their seats, but when Max saw her, she sat up just a little bit straighter.

"What were you guys talking about?"

Rowen shook her head as she came up to her chair. "Nothing important," she said, squeezing Max's shoulder.

"He doesn't know what to do, does he?" Mike asked from across the table.

Rowen tried not to glare at him again.

His face still presented her with the same, hard stare he had when they were outside and she felt an urge to snap at him... But she bit back her tongue and took in a breath, placing her hands on the top of the chair. "Hopper said that we're gonna get out of this . . Okay? Backup or not, we're going to. We're gonna find a way to fix everything."

"How do you know that?" Mike snapped. "Those things could've broken out of the lab by now."

It took everything in her not to bite back, to swallow down the way she would normally react. "Mike, I realize that but β€”"

"But what? . . You don't know what could happen, you don't know anything."

"Mike, knock it off," Lucas tried. "She's just trying to help."

"Help by what? By lying to us?"

"By keeping you dip-shits calm," Steve snapped from behind him. "Okay, I don't know what you saw at that lab, Wheeler, but whatever the hell happened, don't take it out on her, alright?"

Mike held a glare with him for a moment, but he then let out a sigh, sinking back into his chair. She could see it all over his face. Mike wasn't just annoyed by the fact that she and Max were intruding on whatever it was about this whole ordeal that he held close to him . . Something happened.

Rowen thought of the lab, she thought of how he had been there, thought of Mrs. Byers and Will, thought of . . "Hopper told me about Bob."

Mike did not look up at her, but she could see how he flinched.

"Did you know him?" she tried.

He kept his mouth shut tight, gaze pinned on the table.

"He played DnD with us sometimes . ." Dustin told her fondly, looking between his friends. "You know? When we would come here for a campaign, he would always ask us about it and make us popcorn and stuff."

"Yeah, he was pretty cool," Lucas agreed.

Rowen looked at the top of Max's head, and the table fell silent again. She wished she had that same way of assuring people like Hopper did, that same determined look in her eye that said everything was going to be okay, even if it wasn't. Even if she didn't believe him herself . . she didn't want to see the four seated around the table so downcast.

"Did you guys know he was the original founder of the Hawkins AV?" Mike said quietly, after a while.

Lucas looked up at his friend. "Really?"

Mike sat up a little in his seat. "He petitioned the school to start it and everything. Then he had a fundraiser for equipment . . Mr. Clarke learned everything from him. Pretty awesome, right?" He looked down at his folded hands, shaking his head. ". . We can't let him die in vain."

"Well, what do you wanna do Mike?" Dustin questioned. "The chief's right on this. We can stop those demodogs on our own. If it was just Dart . . maybe."

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

"Precisely."

"His army . ." Mike muttered, eyes suddenly wide.

Rowen's brows drew together. "What?"

"His army," Mike repeated, glancing between all of them. "Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army, too."

"Who's him?" Steve asked.

Mike bolted from his seat, racing down the hall. The boys and Max followed suit, then Rowen and Steve. Mike shuffled through papers in a desk until he found the one he was looking for, pushing it into his friend's hand.

Dustin's eyes widened in realization. "The Shadow Monster."

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

"So this virus . . it's connecting him to the tunnels?" asked Max.

"To the tunnels, to the monsters, to the Upside Down, the everything β€”"

"Okay, woah, slow down. Slow down . ." Steve interrupted.

Mike turned to him. "Okay, so . . if the Shadow Monster's inside of everything, and if the vines feel something like pain, then so does Will."

"And so does Dart," Dustin added.

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

"Hive mind?" Steve echoed.

"A collective consciousness," said Dustin. "It's a superorganism."

"This is the thing that controls everything," Mike explained further. "It's the brain."

Then Dustin's eyes widened even more. "Like the mind flayer . ."

"The mind what?" Rowen asked.

"Kitchen . . Now," Dustin gave the order to no one in particular, disappearing into Will's room, digging through drawers, and looking under the bed. Mike went into the living room, Steve went down the hall with Max in tow. Rowen lingered, came to a halt at Mrs. Byers's bedroom door.

"Hopper?" she tried, knocking quietly.

She heard no noise of protest, pushing the door open to see more colored-in paper fill walls and cover furniture. Hopper sat on the ground, Mrs. Byers sat on the bed wrapped in a blanket. They both looked over to Rowen expectantly.

"We need you in the kitchen," she told the chief. "Mike and Dustin think they found something."

Mrs. Byers shared a wary look with Hopper but beckoned him to go anyway, throwing a weak smile Rowen's way, as if saying she would be alright by herself. Rowen returned the small gesture, stepping back over the threshold to the kitchen.

Book in hand, Dustin raced to the table as everyone began to file in. He flipped through the pages until he found the one he was looking for, plopped the book down. "The mind flayer . ."

"The hell is that?" Hopper asked, coming to stand next to her.

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

"Oh my god," Hopper griped. "None of this is real. This is a kid's game . ."

"No β€” no, it's a manual," Dustin corrected, brow raised. "And it's not for kids. And unless you know something that we don't, this is the best metaphor β€”"

"Analogy . ." Lucas corrected.

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

Rowen threw her hands up in midair, already fed up with the bickering. "Okay, so this mind-thing . ." she began, leaning over the book.

"Flayer. Mind Flayer."

She threw him a dangerous look, but bit back her tongue. "This Mind Flayer . . what does it want?"

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

"Oh, like the uh, like the Germans," Steve said.

Rowen, Nancy, and Jonathan all threw him questionable looks.

"Uh, the Nazis?"

She could see the gears turn in Steve's head, see him begin to realize what exactly it was that he just said. "Yeah, yeah, the Nazis," he muttered.

"Uh . . if the Nazis were from another dimension then, yeah. Totally," Dustin tried. "But yeah, uh . . it views other races, like us, as inferior to itself."

"It wants to spread," Mike butted in. "Take over other dimensions."

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

"Okay, no," Rowen waved her hand out before he could elaborate any further. "No, we're not talking about 'end of the world' stuff right now . ."

"Okay, so if this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything . ." Nancy began, taking the book, pacing around the table. ". . then if we kill it?"

"We kill everything it controls," Mike finished for her.

"We win," Dustin said. "Theoretically, anyway . ."

"Alright, great," Hopper gruffed, swiping the book from Nancy's grasp. "So how do you kill this thing? Shoot it with fireballs or something?"

Dustin laughed under his breath. "No . . no, no. No fireballs, uh . . you summon an undead army? Uh, because . . because zombies, you know? They β€” they don't have brains and the Mind Flayer it . . it likes brains . ." Hopper gave him a look, and Dustin shrugged. "It's just a game."

With a sigh, Rowen began to rub her forehead, eyes squeezed shut.

Hopper was growing frustrated. "The hell are we doing here?" he asked, slamming the book onto the table.

"I thought we were waiting for your military back-up?" Dustin sassed.

"We are!"

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

"You don't know that! We don't know anything!" Hopper tried.

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

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

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

Hopper exhaled deeply, rubbed at his face, probably hoping this was all some kind of dream he could wipe away. He shared a look with Rowen, but all she did was give him a discouraging shrug. "We're running out of options, chief . ." she said. "Unless you have another idea, this is all we got."

But Hopper pressed his lips in a thin line and gave her a look that said no, he did not.

"She's right . ." Mrs. Byers's voice breaks the argument, bringing all gazes towards her. "They're right . ." She stood at the threshold, straight and tall despite the pained across her face. "We have to kill it. I want to kill it."

Hopper broke away from the group, walking up to her. "Me too. Me too, Joyce," he said. "Okay? But how do we do that? . . We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here."

"No . . but he does," Mike said. He trailed into the living room, gaze fixed on his friend. "If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's Will. He's connected to it. He'll know its weakness."

"But I thought we couldn't trust him anymore?" said 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."

. . .