Chapter Text
November 6th was known to be one of the worst days in history for Hawkins. The whole party knew this. As the day slowly approached, they got ready to take their minds off it. A simple DND game couldn’t hurt, right?
Mike invited all his friends to play DND in his basement to get Will out of his head. He knew how much this day affected Will so he just wanted to distract him.
As Dustin and Lucas sat down at the table, Dustin could already feel something strange. He didn’t think much of it thought, considering everything was already strange from the previous years.
Max and El both sat on the floor, just talking while showing each other magazines.
”Hey Max, El, can you guys come to the table? It’s a group campaign. Not just us four.” Mike stated.
Max exclaimed, “No. We are not playing that boring game! Me and El are having way more fun sitting here.” She looked towards El who was staring at the ground.
”Yeah right, El is completely zoning out right now. She’s not even paying attention to you.”
”Well why don’t we ask her. El, do you want to play that boring DND game or do you want to sit here and talk about better stuff with me?”
El zoned back in confused as she missed that last conversation, “Wait, what did you say again, Max?”
“Okay well, El. I’m going upstairs to grab drinks if you want to come with me.” Max spoke irritated.
Silence filled the room while Max got up on her feet to grab a drink. She walked up the stairs and mumbled something before closing the door.
Mike quickly turned his head to El and spoke, “Come sit. We are about to start!”
She nodded while pulling up a chair to sit.
Mike spoke quickly about the campaign and jumped into the action, calling out for ‘Will the Wise’ to take down a Demogorgan. “Alright now Will the Wise, you have to roll a 13 or higher to fireball the demo. Roll now!” Mike screamed.
Will rolled the dice fast as it spun off the table, all the boys yelled out trying to find it on the ground then suddenly the floor started to shake. It wasn’t just the floor now, it was everything in the basement. El grabbed on to her chair while Will and Mike had each other in their arms. Lucas shielded himself waiting for the ‘earthquake’ to be finished. Suddenly a gate opened up sucking everyone up in a flash. One by one, everyone in the basement was in a new dimension.
Max came rushing down wondering what all the commotion was. When she got on the last step she paused in horror. There was the same people in the room except 4 years younger.
When the group got back on their feet after being sucked into a gate, they looked around.
”Did I just imagine this whole thing or did that really just happen?” Dustin questioned.
Lucas rubbed his eyes and pointed at a calendar from 1983, ”Dude, are we in Mike’s basement from 4 years ago?”
”What.. Holy shit I think we are! I got rid of that poster after Will went missing.” Mike couldn’t believe. This can’t be happening. This is impossible!
He looked towards El hopping that she would have an answer, just for her to be completely dumbfounded just like the rest of the group. Suddenly Dustin spoke again with an idea on how all of this happened, “Guys. What if when playing DND, Will rolled the 20 sided die at the same moment that he did the night all of this started! It would make sense that he somehow opened the gate that sucked all of us in.”
”Wait.” Lucas cut everyone off, “If we are here, back in 1983. What about us from this year. Are they in 1987 with everyone else?”
Will started breathing fast. He backed up a couple of times looking around the room, memories of right before he went missing flooded his mind. This seemed to catch the attention of El because she started walking towards him and whispering for him to sit down.
Mike, Dustin, and Lucas then turned to Will and El only to find a single tear drop to roll down Will’s cheek. Mike then rushed over to ask what’s wrong. Will looked at the dark brown haired boy, he spoke while taking deep breaths in, “If it’s actually November 6th, 1983 then that means the Demogorgan is coming to take me soon.”
Silence filled the room as it was just the five teens breathing in that suddenly small basement.
”Will,” Mike stuttered. “We are not going to let anyone take you. I promise.”
Will sniffled as he spoke, “you don’t know that. I mean the Demogorgan will kill to get to me.”
”We can’t let that happen. I mean we have El and she has powers, if anything she can just kick ass and then we will figure out how to come back.” Mike stated confidently.
”Okay yeah, but-“ Before Will could finish his sentence, Karen yelled out from all the way upstairs. “Boys! Start to pack up, it’s 15 after.”
”Shit.” Mike looked at everyone nervously.
”Mike! Did you hear me? It’s 15 after!” Karen opened the door slightly to make sure the boys heard her.
Mike grabbed Will as they ducked out of sight, leaving Dustin, Lucas, and El in plain sight. A second later they ran out of the way too.
”Mike, do you understand?”
Dustin whispered at Mike, “Just say yes!”
Mike nodded and spoke in a high pitched voice, “Okay! We are packing up!”
Karen closed the door slowly, as if she was a little suspicious on why he was taking so long to respond.
”That was a close one. My voice definitely doesn’t sound the same as it was four years ago.” Mike sighed.
They were stuck on what to do next, it’s not like they can go upstairs to stay. And they definitely can’t go outside to risk Will going missing again.
Max called Nancy down stairs and she was at a loss for words too. She eventually called Jonathan, Steve, and Robin to come to the basement.
The children looked at Max and Robin and question who they were.
Younger El sat down in a corner of the basement silent. It was clear she was scared. Meanwhile Lucas looked at Max admiring her.
“Okay so what do we do?” Nancy asked, “And why didn’t you get affected Max?”
Younger Will looked around and spoke, “Woah. Why is this basement different? We were in here all day and I didn’t see that painting at all.“
”Hey bud, what year is it?” Jonathan asked his brother.
”It’s 1983, why?”
The older teens looked at Will shocked.
”Is it November 6th, 1983.?” Nancy looked at him. Will nodded fast.
”Oh great.” Steve said sarcastically, “Do you guys think we have to deal with that Demogorgan who took Will?”
Dustin’s eyes widened as he looked up at Steve and asked, “You know what a Demo is? So you play DND?”
”Yeah no kid, I know about the Demo’s because I fought it.”
”You’re lying now. Demogorgans don’t exist.”
Steve and Dustin went back and forth for a solid five minutes while everyone else was trying to figure out what to do. Max turned to Nancy and spoke softly, almost like a whisper, “I didn’t get affected because I went upstairs to grab a drink. But I need them to come back soon because I don’t know how long I can survive with all my friends being children.” Jonathan started snickering at that line, Max turned to side eye Jon. “What’s so funny?” Max cleared her throat.
”I’m sorry, I’m not laughing at you,” Jonathan could barely get before chuckling some more. “I wonder how Steve manages.” Jonathan closed his eyes, wheezing for air.
Robin started to laugh as well. “Okay but in all seriousness, what are we going to do. I mean we can try to speak baby El but I doubt she’ll talk to us.”
“Max said that they were playing DND so how about we just get these kids to play again and then boom, they go back home!” Steve confidently spoke.
Younger Mike looked at Steve and gave him a nasty glance, “What do you mean kids. We’re twelve.” Steve sighed loudly in defeat as Nancy lightly smacked Mike in the back of his head. “Ow! What the hell was that for!” Nancy smacked him harder this time while mumbling ‘language’ under her breath. Mike stood up in a rush to run upstairs and tell his mother that Nancy just hit twice him. Before he could take another step, Robin grabbed him by the wrist.
”You can’t tell Mrs. Wheeler!” She stated.
”Why the hell not! And get off me.” Mike started to struggle with pushing a grown woman off his wrist while shouting profanities.
”Jesus! Does this kid have an off button?” Steve looked around.
Jonathan rushed to cover Will’s ears, he didn’t want Will to start repeating Mike’s horrific words. Max sat next to kid El in the corner where she was rocking herself back and forth. Robin sat on the couch listening to Dustin’s and Lucas’s conversation. Robin closed her eyes and took a deep breath in, wondering how the teens are in 1983. It couldn’t be as crazy as it is now, could it?
”Guys.” Jonathan uncovered his little brother's ears and suggested a crazy idea. “We are going to have to tell Hopper and my mom.”
”No way! It’s going to be a whole scene.” Steve shook his head. Jonathan checked his pockets for his car keys and signaled for Nancy to call Joyce and Hopper to come to the squawk. “I’m literally telling you. Don’t call them, Nancy!” Steve could hear the dial already. Robin stood up to grab Jonathan’s car keys and then dragged Lucas and Dustin to the car.
”What are you doing! Let go of me. Stranger danger!” Dustin shouted as Lucas flailed. Mike saw this and ran up to Lucas to get him out of the grip of Robin. However, he was no match for Robin’s strength.
”Calm down! I’m taking you to the car! Not kidnapping you.” Robin rolled her eyes and then looked at Nancy, “Are they coming?” Nancy hung up the phone and nodded. Jonathan then grabbed Will and Mike, leaving just Max, Steve, El and Nancy in the room. Nancy and Max soon followed with El as Steve was screaming, “Hey! Come on. This isn’t a good idea.” Steve realized he wasn’t going to win this battle so he ran up the steps to catch up with Nancy.
Mike knew what they had to do, they needed to go outside to make it look like everyone was leaving. He had no clue what to do after though. They closed the basement door loud enough so it could be heard through out the entire house.
They all started waiting outside. There was a little chill in the air which made Will shiver. Mike took off his jacket and wrapped it around Will in a hurry. Will blushed a little as Lucas rolled his eyes. “What?” Mike pressed Lucas.
”Nothing.. I wish Max was here.” Lucas sounded upset.
What Lucas said just clicked in Mike’s head, Max wasn’t here, he can’t go to his sister because she doesn’t even know what a Demogorgan is right now. I mean, he can’t talk to anyone here because no one knows anything yet. It’s just an ‘average’ night to them.
Will started to bounce a little just to distract him from the cold and what is going to possibly happen soon. He turned to El who was starring off into space and opened his mouth. Before he could get anything out, he felt goosebumps on the back of his neck. His breath picked up faster and his hand touched his neck. “It’s close.” He hesitated.
Everyone turned to look at him and rushed him back inside. They can’t risk him getting taken away again. While inside the basement they could hear the low yet loud growl in the distance.
”We can’t lead it here! We’ll risk my family discovering us or even worse, get hurt.” Mike turned to Dustin.
”Yeah but what do we do? I mean sure we can go outside but then what if the Demogorgan can sneak up against us and take Will.”
”El has her powers! We can use it to take down the demo.”
”Can El even use her powers? I mean her younger self just escaped the lab, what if they are coming to look for her?” Dustin makes a good point. They’ll definitely be screwed if the bad people take El, leaving them defenseless to fight the demo causing them to lose and get Will taken again. That also equals to them missing two party members and then they’ll never make it back home.
Will cut in the conversation, “What if I just go.. I-I know it sounds bad but you guys could just find a gate and then go. I lasted about s-seven days, what’s another seven.” He hesitated and immediately regretted what he said, hoping nobody takes him seriously.
They all looked at him in mixed emotions of sadness, disbelief, and anger. Mike raised his voice while moving his hands frantically, “Absolutely not. Are you crazy!? We are not doing that Will. I’m sorry to yell but that is a horrible idea.”
”Yeah.” Dustin looked up, “We are not doing that. We’ll find a plan.”
Lucas started pacing and sighed. Dustin started twisting his dark brown mullet while grinding his teeth. They were absolutely lost and had no clue on what to do. While everyone was talking about a plan, Will felt the demo come closer and closer. The goosebumps on his neck were crazy. He wanted to tell them what was going on but before he could, his vision went blurry and all he saw was familiar houses and the pavement. He knew the Demogorgan was coming really soon.
He was fading in and out of consciousness when Dustin turned to him to ask he had any ideas. Obviously, he couldn’t answer. Dustin repeated his name and then walked up to him to check if he was okay. When Dustin saw his face, his eyes were rolled back in his head and his breath was faster than before.
”Oh my god. Guys, something’s wrong with Will.” Dustin practically shouted. Mike, Lucas, and El all came rushing over, then shit really went down the drain. Will collapsed onto the floor, thankfully Mike caught him before he could bang his head on the ground.
Will was breathing like something was holding him back. His head tilting side to side, almost looking for a connection of some kind. El put his head on her lap as she rubbed his temples. Dustin and Lucas were at a lost for words, they had no clue what was happening until Dustin remembers the hive mind. Dustin starts shaking Will crazy in hopes that he woke up. There is another growl, but this time it’s at the basement door. The demo is here.
“Okay what happened.” Hopper loudly asked. “How bad is this.”
Nancy clenched her teeth as she brought in the children. “This bad.”
Hopped took a loud sigh as he put his head in his hands. Joyce noticed younger Will and kneeled down to him, “Will, honey. How did you get here?”
“I don’t really know, we were playing DND when suddenly a portal opened up and threw me, Lucas, Mike and Dustin in the basement again.” A tiny voice answered.
”Okay. And uh, do you know what year it is?”
”1983, I already told Jonathan that. How could you forget the year, mom?”
Joyce stood up and scratched her head. Hopper cut in the moment to ask, “Alright, so who’s going to tell them?”
All the kids looked confused at that statement. Kid Mike whispered something into Will’s ear that made him giggle. That caught Max’s eye.
”So even when they were kids, they were conjoined at the hip?” Max looked around. Suddenly Joyce, Jonathan and Nancy all nodded their heads.
”Guys,” Robin clapped her hands. “We should try to ask El if she can use her powers to get everyone back. And maybe she can check if there’s any demos coming our way.”
”Why is there a demo coming?” Joyce questioned, before she could get an answer Dustin interrupted. ”What is it and Demogorgans with all of you.”
Steve’s eye twitch as he turned to Dustin, “Dude. I’m telling you one more time. Enough with the Demogorgans. We actually fight them, not play around with what ever game you guys play.”
”It’s DND! And you don’t have to be an asshole about it.”
Nancy, once again, lightly smacked Dustin in the head.
”You have a serious hitting problem, Nancy.” Dustin backed up, rubbing the spot that Nancy hit him on. Mike and Dustin started to team up on Nancy and bicker at her.
“Okay that’s enough guys. We need to focus on getting them back to their proper world.” Robin pointed at the pre-teens.
Hopper asked, ”So what do we do?”
”I already stated how we should talk to El. But I don’t know how good that would work.”
Joyce agreed but spun back to her question about why there would be demos coming.
”Oh right, well I just figured because it is November 6th and Will did get taken the same exact day and year that they came from.”
Joyce’s expressions went from thinking to panic in an instant when she remembered that Will is supposed to go missing today.
”Wait Robin,” Steve looked up. “If the demo is coming for Will, wouldn’t it come for him in 1983. Older Will is in that year now, not younger Will.”
”Oh my.” Joyce looks like she’s about to break down crying and Jonathan is sitting down, bitting his lip while bouncing his leg up and down in a fast pace. They need to get to that group out of 1983 quick.
Will is on the ground reacting to the hive mind while the Demogorgan is here. El sadly let go of Will’s head and stood up, ready to fight the demo. Mike looks around and picks up a useless weapon while Lucas finds something to help as well. Dustin is still with Will, trying to wake him up from the hive mind. He’s taping, shaking, and is screaming for Will to wake up. He knows this isn’t doing anything so he decides to go to his last resort, smacking. He strikes Will cheek hard enough to leave a hand mark. “Shit.” He’s a nervous reck.
El opens the door and uses her mind powers to pin the demo against the garage wall. While she’s pinning, Lucas and Mike ran up to stab and hopefully hurt the demo. El is getting weaker with holding it up. Her nose is dripping blood like a running faucet that was forgotten to be turned off. In the basement, Dustin is repeatedly slapping Will. Three hard smacks got him up, he gasps and sits up faster than ever.
Will feels different than before. Like something changed within him. He wobbles as he stands up, Dustin is holding him by his shoulders. Will takes a step and is immediately buckled to the ground in pain. He feels everything that the Demogorgan is going through. He’s screaming and grunting on the floor, basically shaking too. Dustin knows that he is hooked up to the hive mind so he runs out to tell Mike and Lucas to stop stabbing the demo.
They look at him like he’s crazy but in the distance they can hear Will screaming his throat raw.
”Will!” Mike drops his weapon and bursts into the basement to see Will rolling on the ground with his teeth clenched and his hands gripping his stomach. He runs to Will and drops to the floor. “Will! You’re going to be okay!” Mike’s lip quivered.
Will’s gut still stung but the pain was less significant now. He bites his lip in order to not scream. He, once again, gets up and barely manages to get out the basement. He’s broken out in sweat and tears but there’s a nice chill in the air due to it being November. Will felt this urge to fight back for everything he lost. Pent up anger took over him, he felt the blood flowing through his veins.
El wasn’t that strong enough to hold back the demo for that long but she used every bit of strength for her brother and friends. She couldn’t hold on anymore and let go. She fell to the floor in exhaust. Dustin ran to her to try to pick her up. The demo was un pinned from the wall and lunged at Dustin and El. He jumped in front of her and hoped the demo wouldn’t attack her. He closed his eyes in a panic and raised his hands in front of his head.
Will’s eyes turned a milky white color as he stepped up and stopped the demo from hitting them. He raised his arm, lifting the demo with his hand. He saw what the demo saw, he yanked his hand to the side. Its bones snapped with every movement that Will did. Suddenly, the demo was dead and plopped to the floor. Right next to Dustin.
Will fell and hit the pavement at the same time the demo fell. His nose was bleeding and when he wiped it, Mike watched in awe. He ran up to Will to tell him about how amazing he was but then was taken by surprise when Will passed out.