"How was the food?"
"Delicious as always."
Richard took the cleaned lunch box from Hopper. Hopper gave Richard a peculiar look, signaling with his eyes toward Robin, who was sitting on the sofa watching TV, as if he could feel the disharmony permeating the air.
"What's going on with you two?" Hopper quirked an eyebrow, a strange smile hanging on his face.
Richard shook his head without explaining, then turned to hand the other freshly packed meal on the table to him. "This is today's meal. Fresh vegetables are scarce in the dead of winter, so the vegetable dishes might not be as tasty as the meat ones. Just make do."
"You're being too modest." Hopper couldn't help but purse his lips upon hearing that. No matter how bad the ingredients or the cooking, it was still far better than his microwave recipes. "Anyway, it's better than anything I can make."
Now, it wasn't just Eleven who loved Richard's cooking; Hopper was addicted too.
Hopper didn't linger; his scheduled time with Eleven was approaching. He took the dinner and excused himself, but as he turned to leave, he let out a snicker at the two inside the house.
"Time to eat." Richard set the table and began eating, speaking with a smile.
"Coming." Seeing Richard's unshakeable demeanor, Robin sighed. She couldn't keep up the act anymore. She had thought that by acting a bit more feminine, the guy might give some reaction, but it turned out he was exactly as he said—he seemed to have absolutely no thoughts about romance between men and women.
Well, except for getting into bed.
Robin was truly impressed with herself—that she could actually fall for such a punchable guy.
Sitting down at the table, Robin turned her grief and indignation into an appetite, polishing off three large bowls and settling her grievances with Richard over a meal.
Everything seemed to return to normal... Robin and Richard worked together to wash the dishes, one responsible for scrubbing and the other for rinsing. The whole process was smooth and seamless, showing perfect chemistry.
"Once the film is edited, what do you plan to do?"
Richard replied, "You might not know this, but several entertainment venues in town—arcades, movie theaters, video stores, and such—are owned by Keith's family, that big dummy from our high school. That guy doesn't plan to continue his studies after graduation and Will inherit the family business directly. He'll be managing the video store and the movie theater. I struck a deal with him, and he's very happy to help me."
"What kind of deal did you strike with him?"
"He likes beautiful women, so I gave him a few posters from my collection of beach beauties."
"Shi*t, you didn't take photos of me, did you?"
"I haven't even seen your belly button, how would I have photos of you?" Richard looked at her weirdly, amused.
Robin looked down at her stomach and gave an embarrassed laugh. "True. I'm not really used to wearing swimsuits anyway."
"Will you give your brother here a chance to feast his eyes sometime?"
"...I'm afraid you'll take a mile if I give you an inch."
"You look at mine, I look at yours. It's fair," Richard said with righteous indignation.
Robin puffed out her cheeks and pouted, "Can't you wait until summer, you bastard?"
Richard grinned. "Then I'll look forward to it. Until then, I'll feed you until you're plump and fair, and we'll see what kind of swimsuit you can wear then."
"Richard, you demon!"
Henry was about to be annoyed to death, truly annoyed to death. Do you know how miserable it feels to have a home you can't return to?
The Upside Down was perfectly fine—blood-red skies, dark and cold—yet his home was constantly lit up because the right side world was brightly lit all day long, making his house luminous. On top of that, there was that irritating 'Great Compassion Mantra' playing constantly.
He wasn't even dead yet, but he felt like he was being given a funeral service.
Because of this, Henry was forced to temporarily leave his 'cozy' old home and go to the underground incubation nest, pouring a massive amount of power into hatching the Demogorgon embryos.
It was originally estimated to take half a year to mature naturally, but now, in order to take the initiative to attack the right side world and kill that Richard who disturbed his peaceful dreams all day long, he had to accelerate the progress of the invasion.
A giant 'Spider Monster,' its body towering into the clouds and piercing the sky, unafraid of the lightning in The Upside Down and covered in flowing black particles, currently had one leg connected like a tube to Henry's left hand. The black particles passed through Henry's body, becoming stabilized through the conversion of his superpowers. As they were injected into those glowing red embryos, the things inside began to pulsate faster, and fleshy eggs as high as an adult man's knee began to swell.
When a fleshy egg exploded, spraying fluid everywhere, a Canine Demogorgon—shaped like a hairless dog but with a head like a flower bud—was born, directly skipping the other stages of its infancy.
Watching the monster suck up the scattered egg fluid due to hunger, a cold light emerged in Henry's eyes. "Richard, Will you be able to block this attack?"
...A week later, a large painted poster was pasted at the entrance of Keith's movie theater. The cover was thrilling and horrific, full of gimmicks: a desolate old mansion as the background, paired with a child with blue skin and a gloomy face. One look was enough to make people shudder. The title was 'demon child creel,' the subtitle was 'The First Horror Documentary in History,' and there were warnings: 'Not for the faint of heart, those with cardiovascular diseases should not enter'... The movie theater was the place most frequented by young people in this era. Whether they were teenagers or adult couples, everyone would occasionally seek new thrills for various reasons. Upon seeing the attractive poster and the various bold-font labels, their interest was piqued, and they pulled their friends or spouses into the theater.
Mike, Will, and other horror and sci-fi movie enthusiasts naturally wouldn't miss this film. Even if it weren't for the fact that Will starred as the demon child and his brother Jonathan filmed and starred in it, they wouldn't miss any horror film shown in the town's theater.
Mike and his group sat in the same row, each with a bucket of popcorn and a Coke. Before the show started, Mike couldn't help but tease Will beside him, "Will, you're going to be a big star now."
"Stop making fun of me," Will said with a shy smile.
As the lights in the screening hall dimmed until it was pitch black, the projector in the darkroom made a 'shh-shh' sound, and the projected image appeared on the screen. The opening animation wasn't the usual one from movie distributors, but a milk tea advertisement lasting about ten seconds.
The ad mainly showed the production process of a cup of milk tea and an enchanting woman tasting it seductively. Finally, it ended with a line: 'Heihe Tea, a taste you'll never forget.'
"Look, that's me!" Mike and the others vaguely heard a girl in the audience speaking excitedly. Everyone present turned to look and found that the girl indeed looked exactly like the one in the advertisement.
Facing the surprised looks from everyone, the girl was not at all stage-frightened. Instead, she laughed generously and said, "Hello everyone, I'm Tammy. If you want to get to know me, you can wait until after the movie. I'll be waiting in the lobby."
The audience smiled knowingly, feeling a slight liking for the girl, while also becoming more curious about the origins of the movie.
Soon the movie began. The image was a bit blurry, and the quality looked like it was shot with a home camcorder. Everyone was puzzled for a moment. Then, when the protagonist, a boy with long brown hair, walked into the shot and even reached out to hold the lens, everyone realized that this movie was indeed shot with a home camcorder.
Seeing this, some people in the audience immediately felt cheated. Some left on the spot with indignant expressions, but they were only a small minority. The rest maintained the attitude that since they had already spent the money, they might as well bear with it and continue watching.
The movie told the story of a group of high school students investigating mysterious forces, who accidentally offended an evil entity and were wiped out.
Hawkins High had a Ghost-hunting Club that formed an expedition team. They were going to explore the legendary Haunted House in town. That house was said to possess terrifying mysterious powers, and no one who went there ever returned. The club members went to explore with the attitude of debunking it. However, no one expected that on their first day there, before they had even explored the house for ten minutes, the female lead's boyfriend would somehow offend a taboo. He flew up into the air on the spot, suspended in the air, and had his limbs' bones broken by a mysterious force, finally dying with a snapped skull.
The members of the expedition team screamed repeatedly and scattered in terror.
The audience also felt panic along with the shaking camera and the hurried, panicked breathing of the camera owner. Because it was the first time everyone had experienced such a bizarre and wonderful perspective, they began to believe that this documentary was real, and fear naturally arose.