Chapter Text
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NOVEMBER 6TH, HAWKINS, INDIANA, 1983
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The Hawkins laboratory was picked out in the middle of the night, picked out by fluorescent lighting. If anyone actually saw the lab in the dark of night and actually bothered looking through the scandals that surrounded the place, they would see the lab for what it was: a prison, and that's exactly what it was.
The residents of the nearby town didn't know for sure what the lab was for; the lab workers never spoke about their work, and as a result there was an air of mystery surrounding the lab. Many believed the lab were developing weapons to use against America's enemies like Russia, the Department of Energy which ran the place, didn't correct them; in fact they encouraged the illusion.
The reason nobody actually spoke about what the lab did was mostly down to fear.
The lab workers, the guards, the orderlies, doctors and nurses inside were terrified stiff of the head, Dr Martin Brenner. Brenner was a brilliant and driven man, an ambitious man, but he had a gift for finding ways of terrifying people into submission.
On the inside, the usually unblinking and overly bright fluorescent lights flickered and alarms blared as a man in a lab coat ran through in a hurry, face flushed with panic as he tried to escape the….things coming out, after him. As he raced through the corridors, the scientist kept looking over his shoulder, eyes wide with fear, expecting to see one of those things which had already killed so many of his colleagues behind him.
But there was nothing there.
He clicked the button for the elevator rapidly, cursing to himself - why did the stupid thing have to be so slow? - looking over his shoulder a few times before the lift came to a halt and the doors opened.
Sweat poured from his face as he hurried inside and clicked the button for it to go down. He was relieved to see the hallway he came from was empty.
But as the elevator doors began to close, the man heard growling and slowly looked up.
Something grabbed him and dragged him up to the ceiling with terrifying speed and strength out of sight as he screamed.
The elevator closed, and the man was no more.
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Ten Minutes Ago…
The two children raced through the corridors. One was a girl, with a shaved head with brown eyes which were wide with fear. The boy was taller, and while he was dressed in the same tunic, his hair was thick, messy, jet black, but if was up to Brenner, his hair would be shaved as well, and they'd tried, multiple times before they gave up. Around them, guards and doctors raced in panic. But the boy and the girl didn't care about them before they used their powers to rip off the watertight suits they'd worn before the psychic backlash destroyed the baths.
One or two of the guards and doctors had tried to stop them after Eleven touched that thing in the void, but the boy had flicked his hand at them, there was a flash of green light and a rushing sound, and they were lying on the ground, stone dead. Now, they were free, but behind them was utter chaos, but neither of the children had a clear idea of what was happening.
The boy, Eighteen, glanced at the girl, his emerald green eyes seeming to go through her mind, reading it like a book. Which he was, but he wasn't invasive about it. Physically, both children were completely different from each other, but they were raised here, so they saw each other as siblings.
In her mind, he could see a route, a route of escape. He was curious about how she had known about it, and why they hadn't both escaped long ago, but it was irrelevant now.
The girl, Eleven, was clinging to him, eyes wide and terrified. He couldn't blame her. The two children were supposed to be a guarded secret; in Eleven's case, it was because of the obsession the United States government had towards the field of psychic manipulation for their own petty gain. In Eighteen's case, it was more complex. The boy had proven to have a power that nobody in the lab, not even Dr Martin Brenner, who was both respected and feared in the lab, understood. Eighteen had powers greater and more mysterious than Eleven, but it never occurred to them he was more aware of them than they imagined.
And right now, he knew she was scared. Eleven was more than aware of how much the lab and Dr Brenner, or "Papa" as he encouraged them to call him, was responsible for stealing her childhood, her identity and now they wanted her gifts.
Eighteen was the same, but at the same time, he knew that he was different from Eleven; he was very different from her. But both Eleven and Eighteen were survivors; she had begun to understand her powers. Psychokinesis, telepathy, and the ability to manipulate the physical world around her became her reality. In Eighteen's case, with each experiment he went through, he remembered more and more of his powers, and he had begun to practice.
Dr Brenner was fascinated with Eighteen's powers.
Already the boy had shown he was capable of many of the same powers Eleven was, but he also had the power to change his face, eye colour, skin tone, and hair length and colour, but what truly fascinated Brenner was how the boy didn't show the same signs of psychic manipulation Eleven showed when she used her powers; he never went through the same nosebleeds, and he never found out why.
His powers were similar to Eleven's in many ways. He, too, could move things with a thought, and he could read minds in ways Eleven couldn't do, but he also had the means of creating light, fire, and he could transform objects into something else.
Dr Brenner had spent many hours trying to understand him, but he had failed, because Eighteen knew his powers instinctively were nothing like Eleven's. They had both been put into the bath together, and that had been a massive mistake, and now they were both free.
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Meanwhile, at Mike Wheeler's house, he and the boys were playing D in his basement. Mike, his sister Nancy, his parents and his little sister, to say nothing about his friends - Will, Dustin, and Lucas - and everyone in Hawkins, had no idea what had just happened at the lab; they didn't know about the exploitation of children for their country's selfish gain, or what had been unleashed.
When they looked back on this moment, they would reflect that it was when everything was kinder.
"Something is coming. Something hungry for blood." Mike explained. "A shadow grows on the wall behind you, swallowing you in darkness. It is almost here."
"What is it?" Will asked excitedly, clearly, deeply invested.
"What if it's the Demogorgon?" Dustin asked nervously.
Lucas rolled his eyes. "It's not the Demogorgon."
"An army of Troglodytes charges into the chamber!" Mike exclaimed as he slammed the piece down on the table.
Dustin looked amused. "Troglodytes?"
"Told you," Lucas smirked.
They all laughed, but Mike suddenly looked nervous. "Wait a minute…did you hear that?" He looked around the room. "That…That sound… Boom, boom, BOOM!"
He slammed his hands on the table to make them all jump. He grinned inwardly; he loved these moments. Mike was great when it came to dramatic entertainment.
"That didn't come from the Troglodytes, no, that came from something else." He told them.
He slammed a new piece on the table. "THE DEMOGORGON!" The boys groaned.
"We're in deep shit." Dustin hissed.
"Will, your action," Mike said.
He hesitated. "I don't know!"
"Fireball him!" Lucas insisted.
"I'd have to roll a thirteen or higher!" Will protested.
"Too risky, cast a protection spell." Dustin chimed in.
"Don't be a pussy, fireball him!" Lucas snapped.
"Cast protection!"
Mike slammed his hands on the table again. "THE DEMOGORGON IS SICK AND TIRED OF YOUR SILLY HUMAN BICKERING. IT STOMPS TOWARDS YOU, BOOM!"
"FIREBALL HIM!" Lucas shrieked.
"PROTECTION!"
"IT ROARS IN ANGER!"
Will panicked and threw the dice. "FIREBALL!"
But he threw the dice a little too hard and they went flying. The boys scrambled to search for them, only for Karen Wheeler, Mike's mother to call for Mike. She opened the door and stared down at him from the top of the stairs. She sighed under her breath when she realised her son and his friends were still doing their thing.
Karen wasn't interested in her son's hobby, she just saw it as his thing.
"Mom, we're in the middle of a campaign!" He complained.
"You mean the end? Fifteen after." She snapped and closed the door without going any further.
Mike hurried upstairs to talk to her in the kitchen. "Mom, wait, just 20 more minutes."
"It's a school night, Michael." She sighed. "I just put Holly to bed. You can finish next weekend."
"But that'll ruin the flow!" He insisted.
"Michael-!" Karen began, already feeling her migraine getting worse. Why couldn't her son see he not winning this one? All her children had inherited her stubbornness; in fact, she was glad her kids were more like her instead of like Ted, who was the most apathetic man alive, but there were times it grated.
This was one of them.
"I'm serious Mom. The campaign took two weeks to plan!" Mike groaned. "How was I supposed to know it was gonna take ten hours?"
She froze and looked at him. "You've been playing down there for ten hours?"
She couldn't believe it.
Mike paused and turned to his dad, who was fiddling with the TV. "Da,d don't you think 20 more minutes-?" He asked hopefully, but Karen knew he was wasting his time since Ted didn't give a damn.
"I think you should listen to your mother." He stated simply before turning his attention back to the TV.
Mike got frustrated to see that both of his parents had gone back to their own devices, as if he wasn't even in the room anymore. He should have known better to expect miracles. Back down in the basement, Will found the dice. "Does the seven count?"
"Did Mike see it?" Lucas smirked.
"No."
"Then no."
The boys grabbed their stuff, and Dustin took the rest of the pizza with him.
He went upstairs to see that the door to Nancy's room was open, she was talking on the phone. Dustin just stood in the doorway while Nancy was in the middle of her call. It never even occurred to himthat he was disturbing her.
"Hey Nancy, there's a slice left if you want it." He insisted kindly.
Nancy smiled and got up, and then slammed the door right in his face.
When he got outside with the others, he spoke. "There's something wrong with your sister."
"What?" Mike frowned.
"She's got a stick up her butt."
"It's because she's been dating that douchebag Steve Harrington." Lucas huffed. "She's turned into a real jerk."
Mike rolled his eyes. "She's always been a real jerk."
"She used to be cool, like that time she dressed up as an elf for our elder tree campaign." Dustin insisted before riding off on his bike. Lucas followed but Will held back a moment.
"It was a seven," Will confessed.
"What?" Mike looked at him with confusion, wondering what he was talking about.
"The roll was a seven," He explained. "The Demogorgon got me. See you tomorrow."
He rode off, and the lights on Mike's house flickered briefly, but he paid it no mind and went back inside.
The boys rode their bikes together, and Lucas parted off to go to his house. "Race back to my place?" Dustin asked. "Winner gets a comic."
"Any comic?" Will questioned.
"Yeah." They sped off.
Will got ahead of him, though, and Dustin stopped at his house, sulking about the comic he was gonna owe him. Will continued on his own, but he didn't spot the signs on the metal fence saying the area was Hawkins' lab territory. Like everyone else in Hawkins, Will had never really paid any attention to the lab, he had heard the rumours, but like everyone else he stayed away.
The light on his bike flickered, and Will spotted a strange figure up ahead that startled him badly. He made a sharp turn off the road and fell off his bike.
The creature growled and began to chase after him, leaving him no choice but to run and leave his bike behind.
He managed to get back home and screamed for his mom and brother, but the only one there was his dog. He tried to use the phone but it wasn't working, and he soon spotted the large figure outside the house. He paled as it seemed to force the lock open. Will ran outside for the shed and grabbed the rifle, hurrying to fill it with ammo.
But as he waited for whatever it was to open the door to the shed, something appeared behind him.
Will didn't even have time to scream before the monster grabbed him, and he vanished from the world.
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A little drawing of a girl and her parents was hung up on the wall. Beer cans littered the house and the TV was on, talking about a strange power outage that happened the previous night. Passed out on the couch was Jim Hopper, who was awoken by a dog barking outside. He checked his watch and groaned.
He had a cigarette, took a shower and put himself together before leaving the house to go to work, but on his way out, he felt the familiar pain in his heart when he saw the pictures, and then he was gone.
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Meanwhile, at Joyce's house, she was trying to find her keys. "Where the hell are they? Jonathan?" She hollered through the house.
Jonathan was cooking breakfast. "Check the couch." It was like this all the time, every morning; his mother would forget where she put the keys, but he was used to it.
"Ugh, I did," But she complied anyway and paused when she found them. "Got them."
Jonathan rolled his eyes, hiding a chuckle.
"Sweetie, I'll see you tonight." She told him as she hurried to leave.
"See yah."
"Where's Will?" She paused when she noticed her youngest child wasn't here.
He shrugged. "I didn't get him up yet, so he's probably still sleeping."
Joyce groaned.
"Jonathan you have to make sure he's up!"
"I'm making breakfast!" He snapped back.
Joyce sighed and went to his room. "Will, honey, it's time to get up-" She froze when she realised he wasn't there.
She went back to Jonathan. "He came home last night, right?"
"He's not in his room?" Jonathan frowned.
"Did he come home or not?"
"I don't know." Jonathan sighed.
"You don't know?" Joyce snapped.
He set the breakfast down. "I-I got home late, I was working. Eric asked me to cover, and I said Yeah. I thought we could use the extra cash," Jonathan confessed, knowing he had to be honest, and he couldn't throw his mother off.
Money had become tight for the Byers for a long time; it wasn't helped that Lonnie Byers, Jonathan and Will's father, was forever throwing the money away either on crazy harebrained get-rich-quick schemes because he was too much of a lazy bastard to actually find work, on having fun without caring it was at someone else's expense, or spending it all on booze, but things had come to a head when Lonnie actually left them and he had taken everything with him while leaving everything up to Jonathan and Joyce, who were now forced to try to clean up the mess.
Jonathan had learnt quickly as a child to never depend on Lonnie for anything. It wasn't worth it. More than once, Jonathan actually openly asked why his mother had even married the bastard, as Lonnie had never really done anything for them. Not once. He had beaten and abused Jonathan as a boy, and he'd traumatised Will.
Neither Jonathan nor Will cared for Lonnie's hobbies, and Jonathan himself was the one to tell Will to stop going to baseball games with the man, since he hated the sport. But Jonathan was relieved Will hadn't been taken out into the woods, and forced to shoot a rabbit, all to become a 'man,' as Lonnie claimed.
Jonathan had gone through the experience himself as a kid, and it traumatised him since. Jonathan knew if Will had been forced to shoot a gun at a living thing it would destroy him. Will was sensitive, and he was artistic. Finally, Joyce had had enough of him, and the fights between them had gotten worse before Lonnie cleared out, clearing them out as well.
"Jonathan, we talked about this!" Joyce snapped. "You can't take shifts while I'm working!"
"Mo,m it's not a big deal, he was at the Wheelers' all day." Jonathan insisted. "I'm sure he just stayed over."
But Joyce wasn't having it and hurried to call Karen.
At Mike's, Mike was pouring syrup on his eggs, which made Nancy gag. "That's disgusting."
"You're disgusting." He replied without missing a beat. Nancy rolled her eyes, deciding to just ignore her brother. Maybe if she did, he would just leave her alone.
Karen grabbed the ringing phone while holding Holly. "Hello?" She asked.
"Hi Karen, it's Joyce."
Mike poured syrup on Nancy's eggs, making her scowl. "What the hell, Mike!?" So much for ignoring him, the little brat!
"Language," Ted warned her absentmindedly, nose in the paper. He hadn't seen what his son had done to his eldest daughter, and he truly didn't care. Ted Wheeler wasn't emotionally connected to any of his children; in his head, that was for his wife to do.
"Quiet!" Karen snapped at all of them as Mike cackled.
"Was that Will I heard back there?"
"No, just Mike." Karen sighed.
"Will didn't spend the night?"
"No, he left a little bit after 8. Why, he's not home?" Karen asked with concern.
"Um, you know, I think he just left early for school. Thank you so much, bye."Joyce hung up.
Back at the Byers, Jonathan and Joyce exchanged worried glances.
Something was obviously wrong.