Here's the next chapter! Enjoy!

After class, Jane got outside of the school and used the nearest phone to call the Byers house. She had called five times and it always goes to voicemail. She hung up when she heard Joyce's voice in the voicemail for the fifth time, deeply sighing. This meant that Will was in big trouble...

She ran back to her friends, who were all waiting on the steps. "Anything?!" Lucas called out to her.

When she got close to them, she said, "We need to talk in the AV room NOW." That made everyone get their things and follow her. She stopped when she saw Max about to follow her too. Everyone else stopped, including her.

"What?" she asked.

She was wondering if she should even be a part of the discussion they were going to have. Well, it wasn't like she was going to mention...Mike, in any way. Plus, Max DID see what they all saw yesterday, with Dart AND Will. But...she has no idea that the Upside Down exists and would probably think they're crazy because of it. She told her, "I'm sorry, but you can't join."

She gave her a baffled look. "What? Why?"

"It's, uh...something personal, something you shouldn't know yet."

She scoffed. "Come on, I can keep a secret."

She shook her head. "You wouldn't understand, okay? Sorry." She then gestured the boys to follow her, making them do so and say their apologies to the redhead. She was completely baffled by this. Would it kill them to MAKE her understand? What was it that she wouldn't understand?!

In the AV room, Jane sat on the table and told the two boys, "I promised Will I wouldn't tell anyone this, but..." She paused for a bit. "Remember when he ran off on Halloween and I chased after him?" The two boys nodded at her. "Well, he ran because he saw some kind of shadow in the sky."

The two boys looked both worried and puzzled. "A shadow? What kind of shadow?" Lucas asked.

She shrugged. "I don't know. He told me it was huge and it was coming for him." Now they just looked worried. "If Will REALLY has True Sight, if he could REALLY see into the Upside Down, then he could've seen that shadow yesterday."

"That's why he was frozen like that?" Dustin asked.

She nodded a little. "I think so."

"But could it hurt him?" the dark-haired boy asked. "I mean, if this shadow thing's not from our world..."

She shook her head a little, thinking about when she saw Will suddenly freeze up. She thought it was because the shadow got him, but maybe... "I dunno." She looked at the curly-haired boy. "Dustin?"

He sighed. "If you're in another plane, you can't interact with the material plane, so theoretically speaking, no, it can't hurt him."

Could that be true though? "If that's even what's happening...I mean, this is real-life, not D&D."

"So, what do we do?"

"We get more knowledge." She pointed at herself for a second. "I'll go by Will's after school and see what's going on." She then pointed at the two boys. "You two, and Max, continue looking for Dart here."

That made Dustin give her a puzzled look. "Dart? The hell's Dart gotta do with this?" Lucas gave him a rather concerned look.

"Will heard the noises he was making in the Upside Down. I don't know how yet, but he HAS to be connected to the Upside Down somehow. If we find Dart, then maybe we can solve this thing. Maybe we can help Will." The boys didn't reply to her, but nodded.

Back in the cabin, Mike was crouching down and looking at the ripped-out wires that was connected to the TV, truly seeing why it wouldn't work. He sighed and threw them down. He looked around, seeing the complete mess he made last night, especially with the glass. It wasn't like he broke the windows on purpose. He was just really upset and angry that he didn't have any control of his powers at that point.

Since Jim offered to fix the TV if he cleaned this entire cabin, then he'll gladly do so, even if he still was a little mad at him and Terry.

He started by walking to the dictionary on the floor and picking it up. He blew the dust off of it and placed it on the table. He then looked at the bookshelf and used his power to put it back up again. He saw all the things it dropped on the floor, so he went to those, picked them up, and put them back on the bookshelf where they belong. Once he was done with that, he took a deep breath before grabbing the broom to clean up the glass.

...

While he was sweeping the glass from the floor into a pile, he reached to the couch. He shoved it away a little and continued sweeping until he spotted a piece of glass stuck between a rather open crack. Curious, he used his power to completely push the couch away and propped the broom onto the table, crouching down and pulling out the piece of glass. He threw it to the pile before he put two fingers through the large crack and lifted it up, seeing that it was a secret door, much to his surprise.

All he saw when he opened it was darkness, but it didn't stop his curiosity. He looked around for a flashlight and remembered seeing one in a drawer of the bookshelf, so he got that from there. He then turned it on and poked his head down into the secret floor, seeing a bunch of boxes with labels on it. He saw a white one labelled "New York", then another labelled..."Vietnam"? He wondered what a "Vietnam" was. He continued looking around until he spotted a box labelled "Hawkins Lab". His eyes widened at the sight of that. What was a box like that doing underneath the floor...? Did Jim and Terry know about this?

He decided to get himself into the secret floor and crawl to that box. He grabbed it and went to the opening, placing it near there before crawling back up from it. He grunted a little, since the opening was a little small. When he finally got on the ground floor, he opened up the box and got out a folder. He opened that up, seeing a bunch of papers in it. He wondered what could be in there...

Inside the Lab's interrogation room was Kali and Jonathan, the guy moving his foot a little and the girl tapping her fingers on the table. They were just brought in there and were left for what felt like hours on end, just looking around and staring at each other. Kali couldn't help but think of what her mother told her last year when she was explaining how she got into the Upside Down. She mentioned being in this room, talking to...him. She didn't even WANT to call that man her father, because he wasn't, not even legally-speaking. Still...she said that being in here wasn't exactly very pleasant and neither was talking to him, so...

She looked at the camera in the room and stood up, having a cold expression on her face as she asked bitterly, "Hey, arseholes, why don't you let us out?"

As if he heard her from the room, Dr. Owens, the leading scientist, opened the door and made them look at him. "Oh?" he said, Jonathan standing up and Kali getting her purse. "Things aren't very pleasant in here, are they?" Neither of them replied to him. "Sorry about that, hospitality's not our strongest suit, with the scientists and all." They figured that long ago. He stepped closer to them, seeing their sharp glares at him and making him just a little uneasy.

He pulled his sleeve away to check the time on his watch. "Okay, well..." He looked up at the two teenagers and asked, "You two up for a little walk? I'll assume you're behind me." He got out of the room, gesturing them to follow him. They both looked at each other before leaving the room with the lead scientist, the girl putting her hand into her purse before getting it out.

"'Men of science have created abundant mistakes of every kind,'" he continued as they walked down the hallway. "George Sarton said that. You two know who he is?" They didn't, him looking away from them. The two teenagers saw a couple soldiers and scientists look at them, making them look away. "It doesn't really matter. The point is, mistakes have been made."

Kali scoffed at that. "Really? Killing my best friend AND trapping my mum in that place were MISTAKES?"

Dr. Owens tried to look reassuring. "Abundant mistakes, the latter not being on me in particular." She guessed he was right, but it didn't excuse that or the former. "The thing is that the men involved with those mistakes, the ones involved with your mom, your sister, and your friend's death..." The dark-haired girl saw a room where a few scientists were testing out a substance. "They're gone and for better or for worse, I'm the schmuck they brought in to make things better, including pardoning your mom." Right, since she did disclose some secrets about the lab. "However, I can't really make things much better without your help."

She scoffed again. "That's another way of saying without us shutting up."

He stopped and looked rather amused by her witty responses. "She's a tough one. You guys been together long?"

The two looked weird to hear him even suggest that they were a couple. "We're not together," they both said almost in-sync.

He didn't reply to that statement and instead asked, "Wanna see what REALLY killed your best friend and what REALLY trapped your mom?" Well, this WILL be her first time seeing it and Jonathan's too, since his mom also went to the Upside Down to save Will...making the two of them feel extra nervous about this.

...

They got into the lower control room, seeing scientists work the machines there. "Hey Teddy," Dr. Owens greeted one of the men going to the hole. "I brought an audience with me, if you don't mind."

"The more, the merrier, sir," the scientist replied. The two teenagers knew one of the former leading men of the facility was named Ted. They guessed "Teddy" was called that so he wasn't associated with him.

The two teens finally looked at the hole that caused all of this. The two looked shocked at how big it was. Its webs looked thicker and there were many white particles floating around there. There were also these...vines from underneath it. God, did it look disgusting and unnerving. "I'd call this one hell of a mistake, would you?" Dr. Owens asked them. That would be, if they were being honest. He nervously chuckled, standing right beside Kali. "See, we can't really erase our mistake here...but we CAN stop it from spreading, like pulling weeds." Jonathan looked at him while Kali kept her eyes on that thing, being in disbelief that her mom actually entered the Upside Down through this...hole.

Jonathan looked back at it as the scientist continued, "But imagine this for a moment: a foreign state, let's say the Soviets..." The two teenagers looked at him. "They hear about our mistake. Think about their reaction. Would they even consider this..." He paused to point at the hole. "A mistake?" The teens looked back at the hole with rather fearsome faces. "They could actually think of replicating that."

Just then, Teddy got into the place the hole was at with a flamethrower and a hazmat suit. The doctor went on, "If we bring more attention to ourselves...then more people like the Hollands would know the truth and then that scenario becomes more likely to come true." He paused for a bit, the three still looking at the hole. "Now you two see why I have to stop the truth from spreading too." He pointed at the hole again. "Like I said, it's like pulling weeds. And we're doing this by any means necessary." When he said that, Teddy began to burn the vines with the flamethrower, screeching being heard from them. Dr. Owens walked behind Jonathan and Kali and asked, "So, do we now understand each other?"

They didn't answer that for a bit, continuing to see the vines of the hole being burned. To be honest with themselves, this would get worse if it was more spread out-hell, they couldn't fathom the thought of this getting outside of this lab...

In Hideaway, Terry was nearly done with her shift, it was just forty more minutes. In the pocket of her uniform was a note she wrote while she was on break. It was to Jane and Kali, when she comes back, telling them that she'll be taking extra hours, so they can eat what they want. Those "extra hours" were just going back to Mike and...trying to talk to him again, to make things right so things could be back they way they were again.

The door opened, making her and a couple other waitresses look to see Hopper once again. She was surprised to see him come to this place again. "Hey, Chief," Diane greeted him as he walked right past her.

"Hey," he plainly greeted her back before approaching Terry. He whispered to her, "Listen, I need to talk to you right now."

She looked concerned. "The pumpkins?" she whispered back.

"Worse." That struck her like lightning. What could be worse than those pumpkins?

She looked at one waitress and told her, "Joan, take over for me for a minute, will you?"

"Uh...sure," the waitress replied.

The two got out and to the side of the building. "So what do you mean by 'worse', Jim?"

He shoved his hands into his pockets and said, "I visited Joyce 'cause she was calling to me this morning. Turns out there's something wrong with Will."

Her eyes widened. "What? What's wrong with him?"

"I don't know exactly, but..." He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "See, the kid has episodes."

"I know actually. Joyce told me about it when I shopped for candy on Halloween." He looked surprised. "Not only that, but...did I tell you that she and I saw Will frozen outside of the field yesterday?"

His eyes widened at that. "What?"

So she didn't. It was a rough day yesterday, so... "I met up with Joyce accidentally and we decided to look for our kids. We met up with their friends and then we saw Will completely stiff outside. Jane tried to break him out of it, then Joyce before he snapped out of it." She sighed and rubbed her face. "Is his P.T.S.D. getting worse?"

He shook his head. "I don't think he has post-traumatic stress disorder, Terry." She looked shocked to hear that. "Did Joyce tell you about a drawing he made?"

She began thinking, then remembered one time. "The one where a monster was coming to their home?"

He nodded. "He says he could see that thing, that he could feel him, like he likes being cold."

She looked very worried and crossed her arms. "How does he know that?"

"He just says that he knows, like he has memories that aren't his." That sounded very terrifying, actually, and way beyond her knowledge. "He said that he could feel something growing and spreading and killing. Joyce and I then thought we should make him draw how he feels."

She nodded. "Then what?"

"The drawings somehow connected with each other, so we tried to connect them all with tape."

"You sound like there were a dozen drawings."

He scoffed. "My best guess is over a hundred."

Her eyes widened more. "Over a hundred drawings?!" He nodded. "Jesus..." That meant the severe case of what he was going through.

"We saw that the drawings made these forked lines. I figured that he was drawing vines, which connects back to the pumpkin patch. I think that's why they're rotting." That made sense. What Will was going through sounded awful though, like he was...possessed.

She sighed and asked, "And you're going there, right?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Take good care of Mike for me, okay?" He was going to leave, but hearing him say that made her worry more. That's why she grabbed his wrist to stop him.

"Wait." He turned to her. "You're going there ALONE?"

He nodded again. "Yeah."

"How long will you be gone?"

He just shrugged. "I dunno." He tried to leave, but she still kept her grip on his wrist...like last year. He gave her a concerned look.

"I'm coming with you."

He sighed. "Terry-"

"We don't know how dangerous these 'vines' can be Jim. You don't need to do this alone. You need someone to watch your back."

He guessed she had a point, but still... "What about Mike or your girls?"

"I can give a note to the girls. Plus, you know I don't come to the cabin until seven."

He remained silent for a moment, looking away from her and thinking about taking her with him. He was just telling her all of this so she would kept up to date. Maybe he would need someone to make sure he gets out of the "vines" before it was too late, but the last time they teamed up to discover something...didn't end well.

"Jim." He looked into her eyes, seeing the determined look in them. She was really adamant about this...

Just like last year.

He sighed and pulled away from her grip. "If you really wanna come with me, then meet me at Merril's Farm as soon as you're able, alright?" She just nodded at him before he finally left. He hoped that Terry wouldn't follow through with that...but if there was one thing he learned personally about her, it's that she's one determined woman.

Terry walked back into Hideaway, Joan looking at her and asking, "Am I done?"

She nodded. "Yeah, carry on."

She nodded back at her before then asking, "What were you and the Chief talking about?"

"Things." She then got away from her before she or anyone else ask any more questions about her and him. She just didn't have the patience for their comments right now. She had to come with him. Who knows what these "vines" could do to him?

She had the note and the excuse of coming back to the cabin at seven...wait, how could she even tell the time? She could look at the sky. When the sky becomes dusky, then she and him could leave at that time. It's just to be safe. She hoped that things won't go terribly wrong...and that Will would be alright. Going through something like that must be hard for a kid like him to go through.

When the final bell rang in Hawkins Middle, Lucas had walked up to Max to get her to join him and Dustin in finding Dart. However, she was in a rather sour mood, slamming her locker shut and walking away from him, much to his surprise. She just didn't get it. Jane liked her, the rest of the boys liked her, so why the hell was she not allowed to participate in their conversation?! Because she "wouldn't understand"? Wouldn't understand what?! It wasn't like she was a complete dumbass or anything.

When they got out, Lucas said, "Max, hey! Where're you going?! Come on! We need to look for Dart."

"Yeah, good luck with that," she replied bitterly. The black-haired boy stopped for a bit, wondering why she was acting like this. He came quick to the conclusion though before catching up to her.

"Max, listen, we're all sorry. It's just-"

She stopped and turned to him. "Just what?"

He gulped a little, stopping as well and holding his hands up a little. "Just...like Jane said, you wouldn't understand-"

"Wouldn't understand WHAT?!" She stormed a bit closer to him while shouting that, making him jump a little. He stayed silent for a moment, thinking of how he could explain it to her. "No, wait, let me tell YOU what I don't understand: you and Dustin want me to be in your party and then Jane is fine with me being in it too, but then you guys treat me like shit!"

He looked shocked to hear her say that. "That's NOT true-"

"YES IT IS! You guys just all hide in the AV Club, keeping secrets like we're in second grade or something. Is there seriously something I shouldn't know or what?!"

Lucas didn't answer for a bit, trying to come up with a way to tell her. "It's..." He shook his head. "There are things we can't tell you for your own safety, alright?"

She merely scoffed at that. "For my own safety?"

"YES!" He looked so serious saying that, making her wonder why.

"Because I'm a girl?"

He looked puzzled at her saying that. "Jane's a girl-"

"But she's the exception and I'm not, right?"

He sighed, putting his hands down. "Max-"

"What? Do you guys tell her everything because she doesn't even look like a-"

He finally spat out, "YOU'D THINK WE'RE CRAZY, OKAY?!" She stiffened at that, her eyes widening at him yelling. He never thought he could snap at her like that, making him sigh again and look guilty. "Max...if I tell you what we can't tell you, you'd think we're nuts. You wouldn't even believe us."

She raised an eyebrow and scoffed again. "Really?"

"REALLY." He still looked serious while saying all of this...

She'd think they're crazy, huh? Since she was from California, crazy could mean a lot of things. She shook her head, sighing. "What do you mean by 'crazy'?"

"EXACTLY what I mean."

She closed her eyes and had her hand move in a circular motion. "Elaborate."

He sighed. "Look, we can't talk about it right now." He looked around to make sure they didn't look suspicious and got closer to her. "Not here." That made her even more baffled and puzzled than before. "Maybe...tomorrow afternoon, if you got time, go to the arcade. I'll tell you everything, okay?"

She scoffed once again at the suggestion. "Last I checked, the arcade's pretty public."

"I'll find a place for us to be alone." God, she never saw anyone be this serious about a secret before. If he was going to do all of this for a probably stupid secret...

She shrugged. "Fine, if I got the time, I'll meet you there." She then backed away before turning and finally walking away from him. "By the way, you still smell!" She then got on her skateboard and skated away.

Did he? He thought it was getting faint. He sniffed himself and looked ashamed, muttering, "Aw, shit..." He then left. He couldn't believe he was doing this, but if Max REALLY wanted to know, then he'll have to tell her if it meant being around her more longer.

Outside of his car waiting for Max was Billy, who had an unlit cigarette in his hand and saw the African-American boy leave as his step-sister got closer to him. She kick-stopped and grabbed her skateboard, walking towards the car as he got out of her way. When they both got in and buckled up, he asked her, "So, who was that kid?"

She looked at him and answered, "No one."

He didn't look slightly convinced, him scoffing. "No one?" He got out a lighter and placed the cigarette in his mouth, lighting it up.

She sighed heavily and added, "He's just some annoying kid from my class." He dimmed his lighter and sucked in the cigarette, blowing out smoke without a damn of how she would be affected by it.

"Annoying, huh? That why he said something about being crazy?" She looked at him with wide eyes while he put his hand on the window to tap out the ash of the cigarette. "Why was he talking to you?"

She looked away from him when he looked at her and answered, "I-it's just about a stupid assignment."

"Then what? He said he was crazy suddenly?"

She glared daggers at him. "Were you listening?"

He glared daggers at her too, making her feel a little...scared. "Can't exactly ignore a yell like that. He bother you?"

"Why do YOU care?"

He sighed in irritation. "Because you're a piece of shit, Max, but we're family and we're supposed to look out for each other." But were they really? Because brothers aren't supposed to be walking pieces of shit.

The red-haired girl scoffed once more, looking away from him and shrugging a little. She began to sarcastically say, "Jee, what would I ever do without-"

"HEY!" He grabbed her wrist tightly, making her stiff and more scared. He leaned close to her and said in an intimidating voice, "This is serious shit, Max. I'm older than you, so let me teach you something: there are certain types of people you should stay away from in this world and that kid..." He pulled her closer to him. "...is one of those types, the most dangerous type." She tried to pull from his grip, but he was strong. "You stay away from him, you hear. Stay...away." He then released his grip on her aggressively and started the car.

As they began to drive off, Max tried her best not to cry. Billy was a piece of shit...but he was dangerous to piss off. Not only that...he was also scary, intimidating, like he was a monster. That was who he was to her: not a brother, just a goddamn monster. Now she wondered if she could even go to the arcade the next day...

Done! What do you guys think of this chapter? Any typos or mistakes I might've missed?

Yeah, Max still doesn't get invited back to the AV Club and yeah, she's still mad about that. However, I hope you guys don't mind that and know why this is the case.

While I was planning out how this season'll go, I came across some crossroads, one of them being whether or not Terry should go to find the tunnels with Hopper. After some pondering, I decided that she should because in this AU, it makes sense for her to look out for him. Hope you guys don't mind that!

I also hope you guys didn't mind me writing out the whole scene with Max, Lucas, and Billy. I wouldn't write that if I didn't think it was necessary, considering how a bit different the situation is. I mean, Jane didn't leave her out because she didn't like her and Lucas knows that...

Anyways, review, follow, favorite, and I'll see you guys in the next chapter!