After a night's sleep, Richard felt refreshed. His body seemed to have adapted to the power of the Phantom Haunting Spirit, and he no longer felt any discomfort.
Leaving the room, Richard discovered a familiar silhouette lying on the sofa. Robin had fallen asleep at Richard's place as usual. He couldn't help but move more quietly as he finished washing up.
Sometimes, Richard was curious about Robin's relationship with her family. Although she had different preferences, she was still a young woman. Logically, her family should be curious or concerned that she always stayed overnight at a boy's house so defenselessly.
Or was it that they trusted me too much?
Richard loosened his waistband. While this was a sign of a healthy boy, he still needed to pay attention to his personal privacy.
Only when Richard had finished making breakfast was Robin woken by the irresistible aroma. For her, the best alarm clock for school every day was the scent of Richard's cooking... "Let's go play games at the arcade after school today and try to break another record!" Mike said to his friends during lunch, imagining the joy of breaking a record again.
Upon hearing this, only Will and Lucas looked excited, waving their arms in agreement; they had the same idea.
Only Troy and Dustin were in low spirits today, appearing somewhat dejected.
Troy seemed confused, his eyes a bit dull. Lately, the frequency of his hallucinations had increased. He followed everyone's advice: when facing terrifying visions, he didn't fight them but chose to run away decisively. However, the result of this was that as the hallucinations triggered more often, his mental exhaustion grew. Now, he couldn't concentrate on anything in his daily life.
Dustin said gloomily, "My MewMew died this morning. It was bitten to death by some unknown beast... I... I'm not really in the mood today."
MewMew was the cat at Dustin's house, a somewhat tsundere Orange Tabby.
"Holy crap, it couldn't be a Demodog, could it!?" Lucas shouted in surprise, using the classic Chinese curse he had learned from Richard with perfect pronunciation.
Dustin grit his teeth. "I don't know, but I think so. My mom has been sad for a long time because of it. She treasured it, second only to me."
Will patted his good friend's back. "Are you okay?"
"I just need a moment to recover. Sorry, everyone, for ruining our plans." Dustin said with a face full of apology.
Mike: "Don't say that. We're also sorry about your cat."
"By the way, why don't we go find that Demodog!" Mike, the clever one, suddenly came up with a brilliant idea.
"Looking for a monster!?" The dazed Troy suddenly snapped awake, his eyes filled with horror. "This... this isn't a good idea."
Mike hissed "shh," signaling his friends to lean in, and whispered, "Didn't Chade say that Dimo Creatures are fond of places where they've caught prey? If they've been there once, they'll dare to come back. And maybe there's a temporary gate to The Upside Down near Dustin's house right now. We're doing this to ensure the safety of Dustin's home."
Dustin was taken aback, finding it very logical, and decisively offered his opinion: "But if that's the case, we need someone stronger..."
"So this is why you brought us here?" Richard and Steve looked expressionlessly at the five boys surrounding them, who were all grins and giggles.
"Hehe, I originally wanted to find Eddie, but considering his style might not be acceptable to Dustin's mom, I called you two instead," Michael chuckled.
Will: "And you guys are relatively free."
Richard and Steve felt like they'd been hit in the heart. The two of them, who had no plans to continue college for the time being, indeed had no heavy academic burden. Now that Nancy and the others were seriously considering their futures and focusing on their studies, the two looked at each other and sighed inwardly.
It was also impossible to just leave these unlucky kids alone.
So that night, Richard and Steve moved into Dustin's house with some gifts. The gifts had been carefully selected with Dustin's help and were a pleasant surprise for Mrs. Henderson, who naturally welcomed them warmly.
Although Mrs. Henderson was very curious as to why Dustin knew friends several years older than him, she was a very gentle person towards children.
Perhaps because she had been taking care of Dustin alone for years, she loved her son dearly. She often gave him great tolerance and freedom, never interfering with Dustin's sometimes unique interests, but silently staying by his side and offering her full support when he needed it.
Growing up in such an environment, Dustin's EQ and IQ were always the highest among the quartet, and his interests and future achievements were also above the others.
Dustin's house wasn't very big. Richard and Steve could barely manage to sleep on the floor in a cleared area of Dustin's bedroom.
By the way, Troy couldn't make it tonight. It seemed that on his way home, he had fallen into a hallucination again, so he was resting at home due to severe mental exhaustion.
Although Mike and the others were worried about Troy's situation, they weren't necessarily safe here either, so they focused more on Dustin's house.
"Do you have any weapons prepared at home?" Richard asked the four youngsters on the bed while lying on the floor, resting his head on his arms.
Dustin grinned widely. "There are hockey sticks in the storage room, and a shotgun."
"What about fire?"
"There might be spare gasoline in the garage," Dustin smiled.
Richard sighed. "If we run into the real thing, you guys hide in the room and run if necessary. Steve and I Will take the gear and fight. By the way, won't it wake your mom?"
"No, my mom has a habit of wearing earmuffs and taking medication to sleep. It's hard for any noise to wake her up."
"Then I'm relieved. We'll try not to shoot. If there's gunfire at night, even with Chief Hopper's help to cover it up, it'll be hard to settle things." Steve breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn't as brave as Richard, who could easily chop down those monsters with a machete; there was no guarantee he wouldn't need a gun.
"Steve, Chade, tell us about your trip to Illinois. I heard you encountered something strange." Will rested his face in his hands, full of anticipation.
The night was still long, and Richard didn't sense any movement nearby. So, he and Steve took turns telling the story of their experience in the "1408 Phantom Room." Steve embellished his own image to make himself look heroic. Richard smiled secretly and didn't expose him. After all, watching the boys' admiring looks and Steve trying his best to look cool was quite interesting.
In the early hours of the morning, the four boys started nodding off. Although they were full of energy during the day as they were still growing, almost none of them could handle staying up late.
Steve was also a bit sleepy but could still hold on. After all, these days he had to catch up on the books in his father's study to prepare for becoming a boss. After staying up late for a long time, he had gradually gotten used to a late-night lifestyle.
"It's here," Richard said softly. He pulled a machete from his backpack and gave everyone a moderate warning.
Steve snapped out of it and hurriedly put on his shoes to follow. The boys were also startled awake by Steve's movement. After a brief moment of panic and confusion, they finally realized that something bad really was at Dustin's house.