Chapter 51: Unanswered
Will swallows. He'd almost completely forgotten about that drawing. The one that made him do a double take when he'd been in Bill's house the first time. It made him have flashbacks and the fear that Eleven had not killed it. The crayon image scribbled on the paper looked like a Demogorgon, just done by a child and called the Shadow Monster. But when Bill had said that it was something his brother had had a nightmare about and nothing else, he'd slowly let it drift from his mind once more focusing on more important things like school and the graphic novel he was planning. Now… now he had to take it seriously.
"Holy shit…" Max says, echoing Dustin's words.
Eleven steps closer and looks at both images. Her entire body tenses up and she can feel the urge to use her powers come over her.
"When… when did he draw this?" she asks him, needing more information.
"A-A-A few w-weeks a-ago," Bill replies, trying to get his emotions back into check. The guilt inside of him had maximized tenfold. All this time, Georgie had seen something, and no one would believe him. He'd done what his parents and all the grown-ups in Derry had about Pennywise. He knew how that felt. How helpless you were when no one would believe you. "B-but he'd been s-seeing it s-since we moved in…"
"Where?"
…
The entire group stands outside Georgie's room. No one wants to make the move to go any further. All the information that they'd shared with each other still weighed heavy on them, but the most pressing matter is what Bill's little brother had seen in the house.
The leader of the Loser's Club's lip is trembling. His entire body was tense and wracked with guilt and fear. Whatever this… Demogorgon was, it had killed before. How had it not attacked any of them before this? Will had escaped with his life from it, but what if others weren't so lucky?
Beverly reaches forward to open the door but Dustin grabs her hand.
"Are you crazy?!" he hisses.
"What? It's just a door."
"You can't just… you can't just go in there!" he whispers.
"Why not?"
"Shh!"
"Why are we whispering?" Ben asks.
"SHH!" the curly-haired teen insists. "We don't want it to hear us."
"Dustin is right," Will says in a soft voice. "We can't let it hear us."
While putting on a brave face, the one who'd entered the Upside Down before is trembling. He doesn't want to see this creature again… not even in pictures and yet here they are again.
"You guys don't know what this thing is and what it does," Dustin continues. "Its face opens with teeth to eat you. It has long claws to grab you and it also has psychic powers."
"What do you mean psychic powers?" Beverly says.
"It can move between our world and the Upside Down," Will explains. He'd heard his mom and brother talking about the thing coming through the wall. "And it can move stuff with its mind." He remembers the lock on the door moving when he'd tried to hide from it.
"That's not possible," Bev says, shaking her head.
"You've met a shapeshifting demon clown that eats children and another monster moving stuff with his mind is impossible?" Max retorts skeptically.
"Max…" El calls her out.
"I'm sorry, but if that kind of shit exists, why can't psychic powers?"
Eleven swallows. She wishes that her friends stopped mentioning psychics and powers. While they never directly said she had them, they're leaning pretty close to it; she just didn't want anyone else to know right now. For their safety and for her own. She knew that she might have to if the Demogorgon was really in Bill's brother's closet, but for now, she wanted to appear normal.
"All I'm saying is, you can't just open the door and hope it plays nice," Dustin says. "We need weapons or something. Just in case."
"And what if this isn't real?" Will asks. He wants… hopes that Bill's brother just had a nightmare after watching a scary movie and that was all. "What if your brother just imagined it?"
"How could he imagine the exact same thing?" Max asks. "Like right down to the face? I couldn't draw a monster from my nightmares if I tried, but this kid saw something."
"Then it isn't real, but we need to be sure," Dustin says. "You know we have to be sure."
"M-My dad has gardening t-tools out back," Bill suggests. "Could they work?"
"Anything sharp is useful," Dustin says. He wants to go and call Steve for the bat with the nails in it. "We need to be ready for anything it might throw at us."
Within a few minutes, Bill returns with whatever tools he can find, including the fire poker from downstairs and the axe his dad's been using to chop firewood in preparation for the winter.
"W-Will these w-work?"
Dustin picks up the fire poker and examines it. "Yeah, these will work. Everyone grab something."
"Seriously? An axe?" Bev says. She's beginning to think they're taking this a bit too far. "What is this a horror movie?"
"Bev, let me tell you this right now," Max says, ready to get real with her. "This thing does not hesitate to kill. I don't know what your clown does, but these things… the only thing they care about is eating."
"Unless the Mind Flayer says otherwise," Dustin adds.
"Shut up!" she snaps at him, rolling her eyes. "While they've dealt with a full-grown Demogorgon, a bunch of little ones aren't helpful either. So, unless you've got a better idea, grab something and pray."
Everyone reaches over and grabs a weapon, except Eleven. Dustin keeps the fire poker, Will goes for the gardening shears, Max wields a mini sickle, Ben holds the "axe" (actually a hatchet), Bill the end of an auger and Beverly the cultivator, which looks like a bent handheld rake.
"Jane…" Ben asks. She looks at him. "Aren't you going to grab a weapon?"
For a split second, she almost says no but nods. The only weapon left is a weeder, a tiny metal tool that looks like a screwdriver. The least effective weapon, but if there was a Demogorgon, she wouldn't need it.
"Okay…" Dustin says. "Let's do this carefully. What's the layout of the room? Where's the potential point of entry?"
Max and Will roll their eyes, Dustin begins treating this like a spy mission, but when it comes to anything from the Upside Down, it's better to be safe than sorry.
"The c-closet is on the… the left wall, n-next to the door," Bill answers.
"Okay, we go in carefully. Long-range weapons first and at the ready. We have one person open the door and then we see if it's in there."
"And if it is?" Beverly asks.
Dustin's eyes flicker to El, but she gives him a look not to say anything else.
"Then we use our weapons to defend ourselves and then run like hell."
"Great plan," Ben mutters sarcastically.
"Do you want this thing to eat you?" Dustin snaps. "Because it will. If we go into this blindly, we're a goddamned buffet!"
"What the hell is your problem?" Ben barks.
"I just find it ironic your lack of belief in us and what we've dealt with, when what you said about the shapeshifting cannibal clown sounds like insanity to us."
"You heard it," Ben reasons. "All we're going off of this is Georgie's drawings."
"All I heard was carnival music and a creepy voice over a radio. Could be anything right? The lack of proof is a two-way street buddy."
"Guys!" Bev says, becoming the rationale one once again like she was for the former Loser's Club. "Let's just get this over with."
"Bev's right," Bill says. "If m-my parents or c-cousin come back and see us l-like this…"
"We'd be locked up," Max agrees.
"Okay, let's get into positions."
"What positions?" Will asks. His heart is beating, he's breathing heavily, and he can feel sweat coming on his brow and on the back of his neck. He doesn't want to see this thing again. Never again. He wishes that his friends would change their minds. There haven't been any goosebumps down his spine that seem to come when anything from the Upside Down is nearby, which gives him hope that it's all just imagined.
"Just follow…"
The sound of the door opening makes all of them jump and turn, weapons at the ready. However, Eleven simply opened the door and entered the six-year-old's room, no longer wanting to wait.
"EL!" Dustin says in a panic. "El Wait!"
They all hesitate before rushing in after her.
El stands in front of the closet door, she stares intently at it. Her heart is racing, and she inhales, preparing to use her powers if needed.
The room was covered in all the things you'd expect a kid's bedroom to have. Toys cover every surface including his dresser, bed, and floor and overflowing in his toy chest. A stack of kids' books lays next to the bed, there for practicing with Mia. His tiny desk has discarded candy wrappers and stacks of papers on it, along with assorted crayons, markers, scissors, and glue.
Dustin sucks in a deep breath, putting on a brave face despite how nervous he feels.
"All right. Will; you, Bill, Bev and I will flank the others. Max, Ben and Eleven…"
"What was that?" Bill asks.
"El…" Dustin corrects himself. Internally, he groans knowing he likely just blew El's secret. "You guys will be the first wave."
"No, no, no, wait a minute. Why did you just call Jane eleven?" Beverly says.
"I didn't," he says, deciding to play dumb.
Max bites her lip in frustration. For someone so smart, Dustin can sure be an idiot.
"Yes you did, I heard it," Bev insists.
"No, I didn't." the curly-haired teen denies.
"Uh yeah, you did," Ben says. "I heard that too."
"No, I didn't," he insists. "I called her El."
"No, you called her E-Eleven," Bill argues.
"Why would you call her that?" Beverly asks.
Dustin swallows. While the members of the Loser's Club were looking directly at him, El stand behind. He tries to convey his apology through his eyes.
"It's a nickname Jane has for D & D," Will cuts in. The teens from Derry look at him in confusion.
"W-What?" Bill utters.
"Jane plays D & D with us sometimes and in every game, you have the name that goes with your avatar. Mine is Will the Wise. Dustin's is Nog, our friend Lucas is 'Sundar the Bold' and when Jane plays with us, we call her Eleven."
"Why?"
Will shrugs, praying that the other kids are buying it. "She just decided to call herself that. Maybe to annoy us a little bit by not picking a fantasy name. I mean if Max played with us, she'd probably call herself Cool or 'thisislame' or just Max to mess with us."
The redhead rolls her eyes that she had to be dragged into it, but if she did play this nerd dice game, it would be something that she would do. At least Will was quick on his feet and came up with a reasonable explanation for why they might call her Eleven.
"Its kind of just stuck after that," Will finishes. "He just called her it by accident."
The Hawkins teens inhale, hoping that the others will buy the story. Dustin looks at Will, thankful for his
"Guess it's another reason people call you El," Bev finally says. While she's a bit skeptical about the explanation, they do call Richie and Eddie names all the time, and Richie called Ben 'Haystack' on occasion, a reference to an old wrestler, so the group of friends just had nicknames for each other.
Eleven nods and turns her attention back to the closet.
"Okay, getting back to the task at hand," Dustin says. "Max, Ben and El, you're the first wave."
"Why are we the first wave?" Max asks.
"Because your weapons can inflict the most damage at close range."
"D-Didn't you s-say long-range weapons f-first?" Bill asks.
"Yeah, and a fire poker is the longest weapon," Ben adds.
The teen pauses, regretting his words immediately. "Shit…"
"So that means you're opening the closet," Max says.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, you don't put the strategist out front," he tries to backpedal.
"W-Who said you were the strategist?" Bill asks.
"I'm the one with knowledge here."
"We all are. You think you're such a genius but you're not," Max continues. "You're…"
The only ones not listening are Eleven and Beverly. They stand next to each other in front of the closet. They're tired of the arguing and the delays. It's time to just get it over with.
With a nod, Jane reaches forward and twists the handle to open the door. Beverly has her weapon up and ready.
The ominous and cliché creaking causes everyone to stop and go into silence. The weapons go up, but all they see are clothes. Ugly knitted sweaters from their great aunt, jeans that are hand-me-downs from Bill, button-down shirts and Georgie's yellow raincoat hang in there. Some boxes are on the top shelf and some shoes are scattered on the hardwood floors at the base of the closet. It looks completely normal.
But… they'd all seen movies. Normal could be hiding something. What was behind the clothes?
Mustering up her courage, Beverly reaches forward and parts the clothes down the middle, sliding the hangers to each side and all they can see is…
A blank wall. Bits of ugly old wallpaper still cling to the surface, but it's completely blank. Nothing to see. No cracks, no particles, no scratches, no slime… nothing to indicate that the Demogorgon had somehow come through.
Will sighs in brief relief. But… he thinks. He remembers being trapped in the Upside-Down version of his house and the small portal that he was able to talk to his mom through closed up and looked normal again. Unfortunately, they still couldn't rule it out.
"Okay…" Beverly says. "There's nothing here."
El is focusing on the back wall, using her powers to try and sense if there was anything trying to break through.
"So then how… how did Georgie know?" Bill asks, not ready to give up so suddenly.
"Maybe he just dreamed it up," the redhead suggests.
"There's no way," Dustin says. "It's too much of a coincidence, I mean look at the drawings."
"Maybe it's just a drawing," Bev shrugs.
"N-No. Georgie b-barely stays in here. B-arely sleeps in here and he'd afraid of what's in his closet,"
"Little kids are scared of their closet Bill," Beverly continues. "It's normal. Are you okay Jane?"
El snaps out of her sudden trance and looks at the others.
"Your nose is bleeding," Ben says. He rushes to Georgie's desk and grabs a tissue.
The shier girl smiles gratefully and wipes her nose.
Those from Hawkins are worried that Eleven may have felt something or sensed something, but having her nose bleed meant she was using her powers to do so.
"Just because we didn't find anything now, doesn't mean it hasn't before. The portals re-seal themselves. He must've seen something." Dustin insists.
"Dustin…" Will says. "It was just a coincidence okay."
"Bullshit," the teen says. "This doesn't make any sense."
"N-nothing makes sense," Bill agrees. He stares at the two drawings once more. It couldn't be a coincidence.
"Well, we're not in immediate danger, so let's put the gardening tools back," Beverly says. She nudges Bill and helps him collect the tools.
After the two go back downstairs, the others head back into the hallway. All except Eleven.
She continues to stare at the wall and even reaches out to touch it. She closes her eyes and concentrates. Blood begins to dribble from her nose as she tries to sense whether this is a gate or something.
Suddenly, a sinister face snaps into her mind, breaking her concentration and causing Eleven to back up and onto Georgie's bed. She does her best to remain calm, pushing some hair out of her face and calming her breathing. The face seems to continue to flash in her mind and she blinks intently to make it go away. She wipes the blood from her nose before thinking about how they were all going to tell Mike and Lucas. They would have to know about it. She wasn't sure if she'd tell Papa yet, it didn't seem like there was anything anyway. And yet she wasn't sure. El's worried that there's something wrong. The pictures meant something, that much she knew and they had to find out.
She gets up to leave the kid's room, intent on following her friends downstairs and not being left alone. Before she does, she ensures that no one is around and then uses her powers to fix the closet and shut the door.
A/N: A lot to unpack in this chapter. Lots of emotions and lots of confusion. I love writing the dialogue between all the characters. Thank you to everyone who continues to review and support this story. I enjoy responding to them
Responses to comments/review:
Gracie Miserables: Let's hope so. The thing is, he's been telling everyone about this for a while.
norozco772: Yes, let's hope so.
GlaringEyes: Eleven's past is such a dark and traumatizing thing. I'm not surprised that she wants to keep it hidden as well as her powers. I've viewed it as her wanting to be normal for as long as possible and not scare away some potentially new friends. We know that Eleven is far from normal and as we saw in Season 4, it doesn't work out the best for her being normal.
Yes, Max pointing the finger is to be expected. She may have some trust with Bev, but she doesn't know Bill or Ben so the attitude and sarcasm come right back out. The two groups are literally squabbling like siblings, which is so much fun to write.
I do explain why Will didn't put the connection together in this chapter. He wants to forget and he buys the "rationale" explanation. There are a lot of sinister things going on and we know it's not a coincidence. Always enjoy responding to your detailed comments. I appreciate them.
Larry: Me too. I've already begun to plot that part of the story out.