"Eleven doesn't seem to be home right now." After school, Mike and his group arrived at the place where Eleven lived, but after knocking for a long time with no response, they looked through the gap in the window and realized no one was home.
Mike, who had been feeling stifled for a while, was suddenly filled with joy. A beam of delight crossed his face as he jumped out and said, "Alright, alright, El isn't home today. Let's go."
"You're happy she's not home?" Lucas looked at Mike askance.
Mike's smile faded, and he let out a cough. "No, I just feel it's a bit of a pity, yeah."
Dustin and Lucas both rolled their eyes secretly, too lazy to argue with Mike. They both moved to either side of Maxine.
"Sorry, we originally wanted to introduce you to a friend, but unfortunately she's not home. You made the trip for nothing," Lucas apologized.
Maxine shook her head. "It's fine." She was also quite curious about the girl named "Eleven." What kind of parents would give their child a number for a name?
Moreover, from the sound of it, that girl named "Eleven" was highly regarded by the boys. Maxine didn't know what kind of extraordinary abilities that Eleven possessed to be able to help her teach Billy a lesson.
Ding-ling-ling—
While leaving the cabin and heading down the hill, everyone heard a bicycle bell ringing from the woods. They looked around curiously and soon saw the "celestial being" who was riding uphill without even touching the pedals.
"Chade." Maxine called out the person's name, her eyes widening in disbelief. She felt like she had seen a ghost—what kind of high-tech bicycle could go uphill on its own without any power?
Richard heard someone calling his name and looked back. Seeing Mike and the others standing near Hopper's house, he turned his bike around and approached them.
"Hey, what a coincidence." Richard looked at the five strange teenagers with a smile. "Looking for Eleven? She went out with Hopper today."
Lucas and the others nodded, staring intently at Richard's bicycle along with Maxine. Maxine asked with a face full of curiosity, "What is this bike made of?"
"Metal and plastic," Richard replied solemnly.
"We know that, of course, but you didn't even step on the pedals. How did it get up here? Is it electric? But I don't even see a battery." Dustin felt that Richard was hiding something, then asked mysteriously, "Did you learn some special... technique?"
"I don't have that kind of ability," Richard said with a laugh. "This bicycle, well, it's got some years on it. It's a mature bicycle; it's normal for it to have a few thoughts of its own."
Hearing Richard's explanation, the boys were very dissatisfied. Was this guy trying to fool children?
"What are you doing now? We see you running around the woods," Mike felt that Richard probably didn't want to explain much about the bike, so he simply asked something else.
"I was planning to call you guys after I got home, but since I've run into you now, I'll tell you first. Go back and tell your families." Richard put on a more serious expression and said, "Things have been a bit unsettled at night lately. Go home early, don't go out alone at night, and try not to go out at all."
Maxine didn't know about The Upside Down yet. Her first reaction was: "Are there wild animals like wolves or bears?"
Mike and the others, however, suddenly felt a chill run down their spines. Dustin pressed, "Has that thing made a comeback?"
Mike felt it wasn't appropriate to discuss this with Maxine present, but Richard spoke up quite openly: "Yeah, I just cut down a few Demogorgons yesterday. There's also some black substance that's part of the Mind Flayer. That thing can possess and grant dangerous power to both living and dead things, transforming them into even more troublesome monsters."
Hearing Richard's account, Mike and the others gasped. It sounded like the things from The Upside Down had evolved their abilities.
But soon, Mike noticed the bewildered Maxine and looked at Richard. "You just said it like that." He pointed at Maxine, who was completely unaware of the situation.
"This kind of thing can't be hidden. And if you're true friends, you wouldn't dare hide this from each other. Your silence might accidentally harm your friend." Richard saw that Mike's petty side was coming out.
Looking at the whole story, Mike was a rather self-centered person. You couldn't say he was selfish, because he would indeed put in his greatest effort and action to help his friends and was happy to share. His self-centeredness manifested in his refusal to listen to advice, only acknowledging what he felt was right. And what he felt was right was often limited by his age, experience, knowledge, and ability; objectively speaking, it was actually quite one-sided and not correct enough. If a friend opposed his opinion, he would feel very unhappy about it.
But Mike was also a person brave enough to admit his mistakes. He would realize his shortcomings after making a mistake and apologize to others.
However, what some people disliked about Mike was mainly that his "petty temper" was only ever shown to his own people, while he appeared timid and afraid to speak up when dealing with others.
Mike scratched his face, thinking it made some sense. He then exchanged glances with the boys, and finally, they all looked at Maxine, feeling it was necessary to reveal some things to her.
The conversation needed a change of scenery. Richard also happened to have found some clues and could temporarily stop his investigation to find a place to rest. So, everyone went to the Heihe Tea shop, chatting while drinking milk tea in the employee lounge.
But everything they said about The Upside Down felt like a wild, imaginative science fiction story to Maxine, making it very hard to believe.
It wasn't until Richard pulled out a test tube containing flowing, black quicksand that seemed alive that Maxine slowly fell silent.
"Is... is this a part of the Mind Flayer's body? It's the same as the thing that came out of Troy's body back then." Mike and the others looked at the black quicksand, feeling it was extremely familiar. Wasn't this the thing they saw escaping from Troy's body after performing the "high-temperature electronic exorcism" on him in the Sauna Room that day?
Richard took a large gulp of milk tea. "That's right. I went to The Lab again yesterday, broke through the floor, and went to the underground void. It took a lot of effort to capture just this little bit. Currently, it can only parasitize some spirits, dead things, and Dimo Creatures. I'm very worried that one day they will awaken the ability to parasitize humans. By then, the parasitized person will be transformed, and whether that person can still be considered human will be hard to say."
Richard's tone was gentle, yet it made everyone involuntarily imagine themselves being parasitized by this thing. Thinking back to Troy when he was parasitized—how he suffered for an entire semester—and now that this thing even had the ability to transform organisms, the thought of them turning from humans into monsters made them feel terrified, their skin crawling.
"Are you guys serious?" Seeing that everyone was so solemn and didn't seem to be faking it at all, Maxine also began to believe it, feeling uneasy all over.
Richard thought for a moment. "Although I can't directly show you evidence of The Upside Down's existence—because I believe you wouldn't want to see those ghostly things, they'd give you nightmares—at the very least, I can make you believe that there are powers in this world that only exist in horror movies."
He took a piece of paper and a pen out of his backpack and said, "I'm not joking with you anymore. There's an Evil Spirit residing in my bicycle, and there's also one in this pen. Do you dare to hold it? You don't need to use force; it will write or draw what you are thinking in your heart."
Richard pushed the paper and pen in front of Maxine. Looking at them, Maxine's heart couldn't help but thrum. There seemed to be two voices inside her: one telling her to try it, and the other advising her not to step into that realm.
Regardless of which voice it was, Maxine's restless heart was a sign that she already believed there were strange factors beyond her imagination existing in this town.