The Dark Looking Glass of the Dark Lord.

-8-

In another world, wreathed with flashes of violent lightning against a sky between a vivid angry red colour and a dark, mysterious purple, Henry Creel hung immobile, tentacles - thick and strong in the attic of the home his family had once lived in, the home he had discovered his fullest potential. It wasn't really his home, of course - the home the Creels had made had taken the family a long time to fit into the family's tastes, but at the time everything had been extremely tidy.

But this place…

While the structure of the house was identical, and many of the possessions his family had left in the house, and presumably still had left - Creel didn't have a clue if anyone had gone into the house and gutted it after the deaths of his mother and sister after he'd killed them, and his father had been sentenced to prison as he had planned and hoped for, but he had no idea if anyone had decided to go in and plunder the house; personally he wouldn't be surprised, but Creel felt nothing about it as he wasn't attached to the place - they had fallen into decay; there was a property in this world where decay was accelerated rapidly, and twisted life further transformed the building into a dark mirror of itself.

When Creel had first arrived and began exploring this strange, hostile world with its abundant hostile life with those monstrous creatures which had heads which opened up like a living, meat-eating flower studded with sharp teeth, and the plant-like vines, which had intrigued the telekinetic who had begun exploring the amazing potential they possessed, he had discovered there was a dark, uninhabited, and twisted version of Hawkins right here, too.

There was nobody else here, there weren't any people, and there were no animals or plants he could identify.

But there was something else about this environment which intrigued him; when he had arrived, his body had been blasted with lightning, and it had begun mutating, and the mutation merely accelerated whenever he used his mental powers to control the hive-minded creature that resided here, although there were other entities of near or equal power, that he could not so easily manipulate. When he had tried, he had been badly beaten off, however, Creel knew they were aware of how he was different here, that he didn't belong, but he twisted that to his advantage.

And his body continued with its evolution, as he referred to it.

Tentacles like the ones suspending him in mid-air moved slowly throughout his body. Many of the tentacles resembled the ones he had seen in other parts of this strange world, further his fascination; he wasn't sure if there were plant spores in the air like there were on Earth as he had known it, or if it was the general effect of this world on his body, but no matter what it was, Creel didn't care. In his mind, he had become something far more than human, and he now considered himself no longer human.

Creel planned to return to his own world, he was aware that Brenner, being the mediocre scientist he was would never allow him to be away from the Lab forever. No, he would try to get Eleven to reopen the hole which pushed him into this other world and then work out a way to recapture him again.

As he hung in the attic, suspended in mid-air by the strong tentacles he now possessed like one of the godlike spiders he had discovered as a child, Creel had his eyes closed as he concentrated and projecting his mind into his void, he started examining the barriers between worlds.

He spent a lot of his time doing this, where he could then explore this new world, discover the hold he had over the hive mind that seemed dominant here, and go further out.

While he couldn't exactly reach out too far, Creel was capable of peering into his original world, and because of how it was the closest point of reference for him, Creel focused on Hawkins. A physical grimace crossed his face as he hung suspended, but on his original human visage, it would have been more of a sneer than anything else.

The people of Hawkins.

If there was ever a true example of how right his philosophy was, Creel had it. He had never liked Hawkins, deeming it extremely dull with its mediocre shops which sold dull goods, with dull people raising dull children, who would grow into the next generation of dull people. While other places were more interesting, the pattern was repeated over and over again until Creel became increasingly convinced that the human race just did not want to grow, and that deep down they would enjoy being cleansed.

Such a day could not come any more quickly.

To Creel's delight, recently his dreams of transforming the Earth into a cleansed wasteland where all life was purged, looked like it was going to come to pass when he felt another hole rip into the two worlds, and a gate was opened.

In the void, images of Brenner appeared. It was impossible for Creel to focus on Brenner and the Lab, and not wish he could reach out, and break him into pieces or tear his mind out and leave his body as a deformed, twisted caricature. To his surprise, however, he watched as Brenner was almost mauled by one of the creatures that lived here in his new world, but it was killed quickly before it could really injure him. Pity, although a part of him wished he could rip Brenner's mind of all his knowledge, and then kill him.

Other images sprang into his mind; he could see the friends of Will Byers, the boy that he had stalked for a brief time in flashes before he actually kidnapped him; young Will Byers, so much like Eleven, actually possessed some powers of his own although they had never been enhanced, which was one of the reasons why Creel selected him to act as a spy and a pawn for later, playing games of Dungeons and Dragons; Mike, Dustin, and Lucas searching for Will before finding Eleven…

A snarl bubbled within Creel, through to his physical body.

Just thinking of the treacherous little bitch whom he had offered a place by his side, someone like him, someone who would keep him company was now enough to make him furious but Creel watched with astonishment as the weakened Eleven, already terribly exhausted after expending her powers too long, managed to discover hidden reserves she didn't even know she possessed and was able to destroy the creature and create a new gate in a school.

Creel watch with delight and astonishment as he watched the girl whom he and Brenner had always seen and known was capable of matching him, the girl who had been so tired and so small, overpower one of his hordes, and create a gate. But he also became aware of something important; Eleven had soon left Hawkins completely. Creel was not surprised; after what happened with him and with Eight when she'd escaped, the last thing the Lab would want would be one of them escaping again. They knew how dangerous they were, and what's more they wanted to control every child test subject.

Control had been important to them, to the point of insanity.

So…Eleven had left, had she?

Well, Creel would keep watch out for her. In time they would meet again, and he would make her regret what she had done to him, even if he felt no malice towards her for what she had done.