Chapter 50: A Land of Both Shadow and Substance
The trio from Derry look at one another in confusion and interest. They had just admitted their darkest experiences to people who were barely their friends, but it felt so strange to be believed. Anyone else would scoff at it or call them liars, but the kids from Hawkins believed them… and that they had their own experiences. How similar they were to a shapeshifting clown that fed on fear and lived in the sewers remains to be seen.
"What do you mean we're not alone," Ben inquires. He sits down and gives them his undivided attention. His research into the town hadn't given him much, only that the government had been stationed here and some tragedies had happened including several deaths and a chemical leak. He'd hated how vague the articles had been, but if these guys had more information, he wanted to hear it.
"You guys have been through some shit," Max whispers. "But so have we."
"It's different," Eleven says. "But just as bad."
"Y-You going to t-tell us or.. or b-beat around the b-bush?" Bill manages to say.
"Bill!" Bev reprimands him. "Let them tell us when they're ready."
"The thing is, it's kind of hard to know where to start," Will says.
"According to my research, a few people have died in Hawkins due to a chemical leak and it caused bad pollution," Ben prompts.
"Yeah, like your poisoned water, it's all bullshit," Dustin replies. "Hawkins has become a place where weird stuff just seems to happen. A place with its own secrets like Derry."
The mentioning of secrets jogs Beverly's memory. "That guy at Scoop's Ahoy. He said that small towns hide lots of secrets."
"That's Steve. Both he and Robin know about what's really happening in Hawkins and they're friends of ours," Dustin adds.
"H-How many people know?" Bill asks. "T-These secrets?"
"Everyone in our Party," Dustin says. "So Max, Will, El, myself, Mike, and Lucas. Then there's Mike's sister Nancy, Will's brother Johnathan, Lucas' little sister Erica, our friends Steve and Robin. Also, Will's mom and the Chief."
"Your dad knows?" Bev asks.
Eleven nods. "And now you."
"Which you cannot tell anyone about," Max warns sharply.
"H-Hey, we kept what w-we went through and it was something we were going t-take to the grave."
"No Bill seriously," Will hisses to keep them from being overheard, fortunately the rain is still falling, providing a slight sound buffer for what they are about to share. "You can't tell anyone about this."
"Why?" Bev asks.
"Bad men," El says.
"Bad men?" Ben asks.
El does the gesture of a gun to emphasize the point.
"She means the government. This involves the government so unless you want to be silenced forever…" Will translates Eleven's vague warning.
Bill swallows, getting the message.
"So, what is it about Hawkins that's… weird?" Ben asks. "What kind of secrets are there?"
"You know that old building outside of town?" Dustin begins.
"That old office building?" Bev asks, she remembers passing by it on their way into town. It certainly stood out amongst the trees and other parts of the natural landscape.
"Yeah, that's actually a lab… or was a lab. It's been shut down for years. But it was a place where they experimented on people and tried to find ways to other dimensions."
"W-What kind of experiments?"
Dustin gives a quick glance at El. She inhales sharply and gives him a look that communicates to others that she doesn't want the Derry kids to know about her past or her powers. It might be too much, especially right now. She was unsure about how they might react
"Mind control, stuff like that."
"And the dimension thing… did they succeed?" Ben asks.
The Hawkins group nods.
"Some freakish monster escaped through the portal that those assholes created…" Max says.
"Gate," Dustin corrects.
"Does it fucking matter?" she snaps, hating how much of a know-it-all Dustin has to be. It wasn't even that important to what they were telling the other kids.
"It was a gate," Dustin insists. "And it… attacked Will."
All eyes land on the currently quietest member of the group.
"Y-You faced the monster?"
Will nods, swallowing hard. He prepares to tell his story. He still wakes up every so often from nightmares of being in that horrible place and being under the Mind Flayer's control.
"It chased me home one night and then it took me into the Upside Down."
"The what?" Bev asks.
"It's what we call the other dimension," Dustin adds.
"W-what w-was it like?" Bill asks.
"It looked like Hawkins. It had all the buildings, the cars, the roads, the trees, the plants, but it was empty. It was just like our world except it was dark, it rained ash, and everything was dead and covered with vines. No one lived there except the monsters."
"Which we call the Demogorgon," Dustin clarifies.
"And the Mind Flayer," El adds.
"So how did you escape?" Beverly asks.
"My mom and Chief Hopper rescued me and El…" he stops short remembering that she didn't want to share her powers with them. "Helped get rid of the Demogorgon along with Dustin, Mike, and Lucas. We thought that was the end of it, but it wasn't."
"What happened next?" Bill asks.
"The gate wouldn't close, and these new creatures came through," Will continues. Looking back, he is convinced that the slug he'd coughed up back at Christmas in 1983 became one of the Demodogs.
"Demodogs," Dustin says. He takes a moment to remember Dart, the only good one, even if it did eat his cat. "Which in hindsight was just baby Demogorgons."
"And this huge shadow thing. It kept reaching out through the portal to me because I'd been exposed to the world. I was having visions of this giant spider made of dust in the sky and it eventually possessed me… made me connected with the hivemind."
"Hivemind?" Beverly says in confusion. "What's a hivemind?"
"It means that every aspect of something, like the creatures and the environment are connected to one brain," Dustin explains. "And in the Upside Down, the main brain is the Mind Flayer."
"He made me spy on everyone and bring an attack on the lab," Will inhales. He barely had any memories of that time, flashes. Mike filled him in later about what went down. Even if he was possessed, he still carried the guilt of getting all those people killed in the lab including Bob.
"The world was like bleeding through into ours," Max continues. "Making underground tunnels and shit."
"Max, Lucas, Steve, Mike, and I managed to burn down the tunnels and stop the Demodogs from advancing. Will's family managed to get the Mind Flayer out of Will and E…" Dustin catches himself as well. "And the gate was finally closed… by the military."
It felt weird to give the government any credit, especially considering they're the reason that Hawkins had become the centre of Monster City. It was to respect El's wishes.
"Life was pretty normal until this summer," Max adds.
"What happened?" Ben asks.
"I discovered a secret Russian code being broadcast over radio waves. Steve, Robin, Erica, and I managed to decode it and discovered a secret Russian base under Starcourt Mall."
"T-T-There's a base u-under the mall?" Bill stammers. He tries to wrap his mind around the information.
"Was. They were opening their own gate to the Upside Down and a few creatures leaked out. We managed to stop the creatures and the Russians, and the American military shut down the base."
"But it was all covered up," Will says. "To not hurt the sales of the mall."
Everyone rolls their eyes at capitalism is always number one when it comes to the malls.
"And that's everything," El says.
"Holy shit," Bill says, having to sit down to process it.
"Told you," Max says. "We've been through just as much as you have."
"It's not a contest," Beverly frowns, a little annoyed with Max. It felt almost like she was bragging and comparing their two experiences.
"But your problem has followed you here to Hawkins," the redhead points out.
"W-We don't know that!" Bill snaps.
"Yeah, we do. Dustin heard the creepy carnival music and the floating shit. That demon clown has followed you here and we're not going to help you beat it."
"Max stop," Eleven glares at her best friend who was continuing to be a jerk for no reason.
"I'm sorry, but I don't want to be eaten by this demonic clown."
"Is it any different than not wanting to be eaten by your Demodogs?" Bev snaps back.
"They're all dead."
"Are you sure? They seem to have a habit of coming back."
"GUYS!" Bill shouts. He wants quiet to let them gather all the information.
Ben has been deep in thought and has a question. "What did the creatures look like?" Ben asks, wanting to circle back.
"Which one?" Dustin asks.
"Let's start with the Demogorgo…"
"Demogorgon," Dustin corrects.
"Right sorry. What did it look like?"
"Tall. Really tall. Thin. Long claws and no face."
"No face?" Ben says.
"It has more like face flaps that…" Dustin struggles to describe it and even tries to act out how the face opened up.
Will gets an idea. He reaches into Bill's still-damp backpack and pulls out a sheet of paper and a pencil.
"It looked like this," Will says sketching it out. His hands move quickly as he scribbles the outline, being sure to add all the necessary details to aid his friend in his description.
As the creature comes into shape, Bill swallows and takes a step back. His heart skips a beat, and his hands begin to tremble. The picture of the Demogorgon looked familiar… way too familiar.
"It has these flaps that open and close," Will explains. "The flaps have teeth, so we assume that's how they eat."
"But how does it see without any eyes?" Ben asks. "Or hear?"
The others look at one another in surprise. No one had asked that question before.
"Holy shit…" Dustin says. "How does it see?"
Bill's heart is hitting overdrive when Will finally finishes his illustration. He swallows a large lump in his throat that's threatening to choke the air out of him. He leans against the post of the gazebo unable to think about anything except one thing.
"That's pretty scary," Bev comments. "Terrifying."
Bill jumps forward and grabs the drawing.
"Bill what the h…" Will says.
The leader of the Loser's Club has tears in his eyes and everyone sees the panic on his face. He's white as a sheet and his whole body is shaking.
Without a second thought, Bill goes for his bike. Fortunately, the rain was beginning to let up so he wasn't worried about getting wet. He picks up his bike and pedals down the road.
"BILL!" Beverly calls out.
"What the hell man?" Dustin shouts.
"Bill come back!" Will hollers.
But he doesn't respond, he begins biking towards his house.
"He knows something," Max says.
"Come on," Will says. "We need to follow him."
…
Once his house comes into view, Bill slows his bike. He gazes upwards at the windows, afraid that he might see it there in his brother's room. He prays that Georgie isn't up there right now. He ditches his bike on the front lawn and races inside. The car was gone and there was no sign of anyone in the house, even as he got the key from under the mat.
"MOM?!" he calls out, his voice loud enough to wake the dead. "G-GEORGIE!"
Nothing. The house was completely empty. His dad is still at work, Mia is likely at the library working on her upcoming essay, and hopefully… HOPEFULLY, Georgie is with his mom out on errands.
He was grateful no one was home, especially his mother because he knew the others would follow him and she would just go crazy over his "new friends." He didn't need that right now.
With the paper shaking in his hands, he slowly goes to the fridge and pulls down the drawing that his brother had done. The minute he sees the crayon drawing and the pencil one his heart sinks and panic begins to overcome his whole body.
He stands completely still, his ears perked up to see if he could hear anything above him. The house was dead silent…
The floorboard creaks before Bill bolts out of the house, slamming the door on his way out. He can't deal with the reality of the situation. He collapses onto the steps of the porch and just hangs his head, trying to catch his breath and deny what was the truth. He cries while still shaking like a leaf in the wind. His mind is aghast with what's in front of them. They had more than just Pennywise's appearance to worry about.
Eventually, he hears the others coming up the driveway. He looks up to see everyone looking confused and angry at him. Some of that anger might've come from him biking home while they had to run.
"Bill," Beverly pants slightly out of breath. "What the hell?!"
"What's the matter with you?" Max asks. "You ran out of there like a bat out of hell."
The rest of the group can all see that Big Bill has been crying and that he now holds two pieces of paper not one. He might've had a panic attack; it was hard to tell.
He says nothing holding up the two images.
It takes a moment for everyone to view the images and make the connection.
"Oh shit!"
A/N: The truth is out (most of it). Everyone knows. It's a nice way to mark 50 chapters! I can't believe it! I want to thank everyone who has followed and enjoyed the story. I love responding to your comments as well and seeing your theories and ideas come to light. Please keep it up and thank you so much.
Responses to reviews/comments:
norozco772: Yes 100%. Thank you so much for your support.
GlaringEyes: Yes it is the Party's turn to share what they know. Can't confirm anything yet about what El has seen but Bill made the connection to the drawing. I don't know if I'll do the 'Mr. Baldo' thing. Maybe I'll just give it a mention, but I am interested that was an Easter egg for the fans. Thank you so much for your support.
Larry: Neither can I. Thank you so much for your support.
2024: Yes, poor Billy. Thank you so much for your support.