Chapter Text
NOVEMBER 6TH, 1983
HAWKINS, INDIANA
—Something is coming… Something hungry for blood… A shadow is growing on the wall behind you, swallowing you in darkness… It is almost here.
—What is it?
—What if it’s the Demogorgon? —Dustin asked. Will slumped back in his chair, looking defeated—. Oh, Jesus, we’re so screwed if it’s the Demogorgon!
—It’s not the Demogorgon! —Lucas replied confidently.
—An army of troglodytes charges into the chamber! —Mike shouted. Lucas looked triumphantly at Dustin, a bright smile gleaming under the lights.
—Troglodytes? —Alice asked with a stupid expression.
—I told you so —he mocked.
—Wait a minute —Mike’s voice dropped. He slowly turned in his chair, his expression confused. Everyone looked at him expectantly—. Did you hear that?… That… that sound?
—What?
—Boom… boom… BOOM! —he shouted.
Alice jumped out of her seat, but barely had time to react; thanks to Mike’s shout and the fright it gave her, she ended up biting her tongue. Almost instantly, she felt tears welling up in her eyes from the unbearable pain.
—Son of a… —Alice tried to speak, painfully holding the corner of her tongue between her fingers.
—That didn’t come from the troglodytes. No, that… that came from something else… —Dustin looked triumphantly at Lucas, who only shot him a cheeky glare.
Alice completely forgot about the pain she had been feeling as she lunged at Lucas.
—The Demogorgon!
—It wasn’t the Demogorgon, you stupid rambling idiot! —Alice snapped at an offended Lucas.
—Watch what you say, Missy!
—We’re in deep trouble!
—Will, your move!
—I don’t know!
—Cast a fireball at it!
—I’d have to roll a 13 or higher! —he said, frustrated.
—Too risky. Cast a protection spell —Dustin advised confidently, looking at Alice with a pair of bright eyes under the lamp.
—Don’t be a coward —Lucas sneered—. Cast a fireball at it!
—Cast protection —Will said firmly. He looked at them both with genuine anguish. Alice thought that, in his place, she would only be a coward and run far away.
Mike slammed the table once again, making the whole group jump.
—The Demogorgon is tired of your silly human quarrels! It stomps towards you! BOOM!
—STOP SHOUTING! —Alice screamed.
—Cast a fireball at it!
—Another stomp, boom!
—Cast protection!
—It roars in fury!
Will took the dice in his hands and, with a desperate motion, threw them onto the table as he shouted, “Fireball!” The dice rolled all over the surface until they finally scattered across the room. Alice remained seated, watching as the boys searched for them frantically, as if their lives depended on it.
—Is it a 13? —Dustin asked hopefully.
—I don’t know! —Will replied from somewhere—. Come on, Alice! Get out there and find it!
Before Alice could answer, Mrs Wheeler’s voice reached her ears and immediately all that peace she had built during her planned campaign vanished before her eyes. She had completely forgotten. Her mother was definitely going to kill her.
—Mum, we’re in the middle of a campaign!
Mike lifted his head from the floor to address his mother, standing in the doorway—.
You mean at the end? Fifteen afterwards —she said sternly—. Alice, dear, your mother is waiting for you. I think you’d better hurry.
Alice looked worriedly at Dustin, until Will’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts.
—Oh, now I get it! Does the seven count?
—Was it a seven? Did Mike see it? —Lucas asked. Will shook his head in reply.
—Then it doesn’t count —Alice told Will as she put on her coat and ran up the stairs at full speed.
The atmosphere in the Wheeler house was almost as boring as in her own, with the difference that it did not feel like a place of indoctrination. Everyone in that house was busy with their own affairs: Mike spent every day with them, Nancy was a teenager in every sense of the word, Mrs Wheeler seemed to live fragments of everyone else’s life except her own, and, of course, Mr Wheeler only knew his sofa. And then there was baby Holly, three years old, who for Alice was the best of them all because, unlike Mike, she only spoke once a week.
—Goodbye, Mrs Wheeler! —she said without waiting for a reply.
As she left the house, she saw Lucas and Dustin riding away on their bikes. She quickly mounted hers; she could not afford a single more minute without getting home. Will and Mike were the only ones left there, and just as Alice had guessed, Will confessed the secret.
—It was a seven. The Demogorgon caught me.
—You make too much noise, Byers! —Alice blamed him, holding back a laugh.
—And you cheat —Mike complained with mock anger.
Will laughed and finally got on his bike. Alice gave Mike a teasing smile before pedalling off at full speed, until they eventually caught up with Lucas and Dustin. The darkness of the sky stretching above them was fascinating, like an enormous curtain covered in stars, which to Alice looked like tiny particles of light on a canvas.
—Good night, ladies and Alice —Lucas said goodbye, making Will laugh beside him.
—Give your mum a goodnight kiss from me! —Alice shot back sharply.
She pedalled a little further until she reached the point where they separated and, with a tired voice, said goodbye to the boys, giving them a wide smile with shining braces.
—See you tomorrow!