I just finish Stranger Things 2 and OMG!
Now... The reason why this chapter is so short is that I'm taking some time from the fanfiction. Work is catching with me and I don't have the time I wish I have at all. I'm trying to catch up a little, but maybe is only a matter of time until I barely can touch the page again and eventually abandon every single story I've done so far. I wish that isn't the case, but who knows. I'll see what I can do, wish me luck.

Chapter 2: Paranoia taking over

The whole group, Jane, Edgar, Samantha, Alan, and Jessica run back to Edgar's house. They fall to their knees in front of the door because they didn't stop to rest since they run away from that house. They were completely scared, what they saw completely shatter their perception of reality. What they consider real and what they not. That monster not only was about to kill them all on the spot, but it would also eat them alive, that thought alone was scarier than dying... To be a monster's meal. When they fall to the grass in front of the house, Alan was the first one on standing up, despite the pain in his legs. He grabs Jane by her jacket and pushes her against the door so hard she hit her head against the door. Edgar saw him pushing Jane and try to defend her.

"Alan! What the fuck?!" Edgar asks and Alan yells at him.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Alan point at Edgar and then to Jane. "And you... What the fuck was that thing?! Answer me!"

"I don't know!"

"Bullshit, you know pretty well what that thing was. Don't give me that shit. You are going to tell me what was that!" Alan hit her against the door again and he was about to hit her in the face if she didn't answer to him. That makes Edgar stand up and stop Alan, Samantha also runs to stop Alan, but Jessica stays on the ground, shaking and about to cry. The whole group was a mess and falling apart quicker than anyone would expect. Fear takes over every single one of them and they didn't know what to do but to yell at each other. Of course, that makes the neighbors stare at them from the windows of their houses. Samantha notices them and try to calm everyone down.

"Alright, calm the fuck down, Alan!" Samantha pushes Alan away from Jane and she falls to the floor. "Listen... Calm down"

"Don't tell me to calm down!" He yells. "Maybe you haven't noticed it yet, but a clown, a FUCKING CLOWN, turn into a spider and was about to eat us alive!"

"Don't yell! People are staring at us! They'll call the police if you don't calm down!" Samantha point at the other houses and Alan saw the people looking out from the windows. "Look, you are scared... I'm scared too... We all are scared... Take a deep breath and when we all calm down then will try to answer the questions that plague our minds... Are you calming down or are you going to yell again?" Samantha talks to Alan with a calm tone. Alan, still angry, close his eyes and listen to Samantha's advise. He takes a deep breath and let it out. "Better?"

"No... Not at all" Alan sigh and hit the door. "Goddamit!"

"Hey! Watch it with the door!" Said Edgar. "Let's go somewhere else to talk about this. My house is not the best place right now... I can still smell the marijuana from here"

"But where genius?" Alan asks and Jessica stands up, she was still shaking, but propose a place.

"... M-M-My house. N-No one th-there now" She said. "We can talk there..." Jessica took a deep breath too and as calm as possible walk away.

"Tch... Fine" Said Alan and follow her. Samantha and Edgar help Jane to stand up.

"What a fucked up situation" Said Edgar.

"No shit..." Said Samantha. "Are you alright, Jane?"

"Y-Yes... Let's go with them... I have something to tell you"

Everyone gathers in Jessica's house at the other side of town. On their way there, every single one of them was watching their backs and everyone around them. They feel that that thing was watching them from the shadows and from every direction possible. After what they saw, they don't really know what to expect. It took them thirty minutes to arrive and as soon they enter, they close the door with the key and sit at the table in the living room in complete silence. No one says a thing and the silence keeps going for at least ten minutes. They try to digest what they saw and what happened.

"So..." Edgar looks at Jane. "What are we dealing with, Jane?" Everyone look at Jane, waiting for her to answer. Jane looks down and remember what happened just minutes ago and what happened yesterday... That was enough to make her cry. The tears came out of her eyes without warning and she tries to repress them.

"Th-That thing..." Jane made a pause. "I-I don't know what that thing is, but he's not a clown... He-He's not a fucking clown..." She said between sobs. "I saw it yesterday dragging a little boy to the sewers... and eating him alive" At the mention of a kid being killed so recently make everyone present nervous. "It's been a day, but it felt like he's been stalking me for weeks. Wherever I look, there he is... That thing is driving me crazy!" Jane yell. "I just want him to stop! I don't know how, but he's making me see things, things that aren't there and I can't tell anymore what is real and what not"

"That clown..." Said Jess and draw everyone's attention. "How did he knew?"

"How did he knew what?" Alan asks.

"The music box... He shouldn't know about that box at all. No one should know about that" Jess almost scream it.

"Why?" Edgar asks. "He might find out"

"No... I break it and I hide it. I still have it in my room. I lie to my mother and told her that someone stole it..." Jessica stand up and leave the living room for a moment, she comes back with a bag, she throws it on the table and shows them the music box, broke in half. "See? It's the same music box we saw in that house. How? How is this even possible? And don't give me that shit of "anyone can buy it". No, my grandfather made that thing... What the fuck is happening?" Jessica looks at Jane, both with anger and fear. "Please... Tell this is just an elaborated joke. This isn't funny at all"

"This isn't a joke! You think that I'll waste my time doing a prank?! I have better things to do... That thing is real and wants me dead or worst, maybe he just wants to drive me insane" Jane yell and look away from the group. Samantha was in deep thought. She didn't talk at all, instead, she hears and something pick her interest from the whole conversation.

"What about you, Sam?" Edgar asks. "What do you think?"

"... Is he a Shapeshifter?" Samantha asks with genuine curiosity and everyone look at her, not knowing what she means.

"A what?" Alan asks. "English, please"

"It's English, asshole" Samantha replied. "How do I put it...? Did any of you saw the movie "The Thing"?" She asks and only Edgar raise his hand.

"I have the VHS" He said. "What's your point?"

"Well... What if that thing is like the monster in the movie? I mean... The monster can transform into anyone he wants, but to do that, he has to "eat" him or her to do so. He absorbs the cells and takes the shape of his prey" She explains. "Now, the problem is this... If that clown is a shapeshifter, there's an issue that defies our concept of reality... We all saw the same thing, which means that what we saw was real, but for what Jane said... It can also create hallucinations. Which means that the music box might have been a hallucination, but the question remains... How it did it? where does he come from? What does he want? and more importantly, why?"

"Oh, I can answer those questions, really simple" Alan yelled. "He wants to eat us! That's why!"

"Stop yelling!" Samantha yells back. "We need to calm down and focus. Especially you. The fuck is your problem?"

"The fuck is my problem? No, the fuck is your problem trying to think about where that thing from and what are his motives!" Alan keeps yelling.

"Alan... Please, can you just remain quiet for a moment?" Said Jessica and look at her feets. "We are all... Scared, aren't we?"

"I wouldn't use that word at all" Said Jane. "I'm terrified of that monster... Seeing it eating a child was more than enough to scare me and traumatize me. I don't think I'll forget that for the rest of my life"

"Still, Samantha's question is worth asking" Said Edgar to Alan. "The more important question, the only one that matter... Where does he come from? The moment we know, we might know what we are dealing with"

"We?" Alan asks, annoyed by what Edgar said. "Don't add me to the mix, Ed! I have no reason to stay with you when that monster kills you. I'm out of this. As long I stay away from that house, I'll be safe"

"No! You are not safe, Alan. None of us are safe!" Said Jane. "Don't you understand, it will come after us and kill us, just like he did with that child. Even if we go to the police they won't believe us. I tried and they ignore me. If you get out of here now, he'll go after you"

"No, he won't" Said Alan like it was none of his business.

"You really think that?" Samantha asks. "It was your stupid idea of going to that fucking house for that drug! What makes you think it won't go after you?" Alan stop at the door and his legs didn't move. He wanted to leave, but the rest of his body make him stay where he was. It was fear, he was afraid of what he saw and all this situation was strange, so strange that everyone present was doubting about what they saw was real or not, but considering that they saw the same exact thing it makes it clear that it was real...

"Will that monster go after us? If it was after Jane, then it wouldn't be absurd that he'll go after us too, but..." Alan thought for a moment, but shake his head and open the door. "I'm out. This has nothing to do with me at all!" He yells and closes the door. Jessica saw him leave and tears came out of her eyes. None of them know what to do, how to react or how to deal with this. No one was going to help them, no one was going to protect them... No one was going to wake them up from this nightmare...

Alan walks back to his house. He looks up at the sky and saw the sun hiding behind the horizon. He looks around and saw not a single soul in the street. He, instead of walking on the sidewalk, walk in the middle of the street. Alan looks at his feet while walking and stop paying attention to his surroundings. His thoughts focus on what happened today, the monster that wanted to kill them and the fact that his life might change drastically because of this. He takes out a little plastic bag with a little of marihuana in it. He stares at it for a moment before crushing it with his hands and throwing it at sewer near him.

"That thing isn't real" He says to himself. He knew that it wasn't true, he knew that it was real, but he tries to convince himself that it wasn't real. "It was the drug, I had too much today"

"Are you sure about that?" A creepy voice speaks to him from the back. He turns around and saw it. The Clown stares at him from the other side of the street. He had red balloons in his right hand and the little bag he just throws away. "Look what I have here, Al. You shouldn't be throwing trash down there" The clown let go of the bag and fall to the ground. Alan, slowly, walks away from the clown while repeating the same sentence.

"You are not real. You are not real. You are not real" He said.

"I'm not real?" He asks with a little chuckle. "Tell me, Alan... Is he not real enough for you?" The Clown point at the Shadow behind Alan. He turns around and saw a black rabid dog barking at him. He turns to see the Clown, but he wasn't there anymore. The dog barks furiously at Alan and chases after him. Alan runs away as soon he saw the dog trying to bite him. He runs down the street as fast as he could, but the dog was catching up to him. While he runs he turns to see his chaser. The barking slowly turns into a maniacal laugh that belongs to that messed up Clown. Alan falls to the ground, near a house. He saw the dog stopping at only meters from him. He crawls away, and the dog approaches him, slowly. Alan was afraid, more afraid than he was in that house because he was scared of it. It was the exact same dog that he feared when he was a kid... And he still fears. He crawls until he hit the wall of the house with his back. He was cornered by it. The dog then turns into a twisted version of the clown, with yellow glowing eyes and teeth so sharp that the could chew metal. He grabs Alan by the throat and lifts him.

"F-F-FUCK YOU!" Alan yell and the clown laugh at him. The clown opens his mouth rip his face off, but when Alan thought that it was the end of everything... A flash of light blinds him and he hit the ground. He opens his eyes and the clown was nowhere to be seen. He saw an old man coming out of the house with a flashlight, a shotgun and a dog barking to the street, more specifically, at the sewer at the other side of the street.

"Why the hell are you yelling, boy?!" Said the old man. "Get the hell out of my property before I shoot you in the fucking back!" He points at Alan with the Shotgun. He, still shaking, stand up and run away from there and didn't stop until he reaches the safety of his house... But... Was it even safe at all?