Chapter 19: Boundaries
Time passed in the laboratory with a precise and monotonous rhythm.
Breakfast, morning training, free time, lunch, afternoon rest, more training, dinner, free time, bedtime.
Every day was an exact copy of the previous one.
To Andy, this repetition itself was a form of torture.
Every movement, every word, every expression had to conform to the "norm."
He was like a programmed robot, executing a pre-written script.
But beneath this surface obedience, Andy's brain never stopped working.
He was always looking for an exit, an exit from this world.
Every day, during free time, while lying in bed late at night, and during brief "relaxation" gaps in training, Andy quietly and cautiously expanded his range of perception.
Although he'd already experienced much greater power in the Upside Down, in this body, he had to start growing from scratch.
Slowly, with practice, his range gradually expanded.
It was a slow and painful process. The limits of an eight-year-old's body were like an invisible wall; every time he tried to stretch further, a sharp pain would shoot through his brain, his nose would start to bleed, and his consciousness would blur.
But he forced himself to continue, a little more each day, like exercising muscles and increasing the weight bit by bit.
Finally, on a certain night in the fourth week, his psychic power once again touched the edge of Hawkins.
He perceived the lives of ordinary people—that mundane, trivial, flawed yet real breath of life—which made Andy feel a longing that almost suffocated him.
He also perceived Will Byers.
When he first sensed Will, Andy's heart almost stopped beating.
But everything was normal; Will and Mike and the others went to school, came home, and played games together every day.
It was all so real, as if this were the true Hawkins.
In the following days, Andy observed Will day after day.
He saw that when Will was bullied by Troy and his goons, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin would step up to protect him.
He saw Will and his friends playing Dungeons & Dragons in Mike's basement; Will played the wizard and always came up with clever strategies.
He saw Will and his brother Jonathan frequently talking about everything, sensing their mutual care.
Everything was so... normal.
So normal that Andy began to doubt his own memory.
If this was an illusion, why were the details so rich?
Why was the logic of this "world" so self-consistent, without any obvious flaws?
Could he really be overthinking it? Could everything from the Upside Down really just be a "precognitive hallucination" produced when his powers went out of control, just like Number Six?
And because of excessive fear, he'd mistaken the illusion for reality and scared himself?
This thought wrapped around him like poison ivy, nourished by the images of Will's normal life he observed every day.
But Andy still didn't let down his guard.
Because he had another subject to observe—Henry.
In the daily life of the laboratory, Henry played an impeccable role.
He was a friendly, patient, and eternally calm orderly.
He would help the children with their training, encourage them, say "It's okay, try again" when they failed, and say "Well done, I knew you could do it" when they succeeded.
He treated every child equally, but Andy could feel that Henry paid special attention to him and Eleven.
Toward Eleven, Henry's attention was more obvious.
He would spend more time with her and gently help her wipe her nose when it bled from overusing her abilities.
Toward Andy, Henry's attention was more... subtle.
He would also give guidance during training and have private conversations, but the topics always revolved around control, stability, and safety.
He would ask Andy if he'd had any strange dreams lately, if he'd seen anything, or if he felt any changes in his abilities.
Andy always answered cautiously. He showed appropriate confusion, appropriate obedience, and an appropriate "I'm trying hard to control it."
He didn't want to raise Henry's suspicion, but he couldn't completely hide his own wariness.
And Henry seemed to have noticed something.
Several times, while Andy was secretly expanding his perception range, he felt a gaze fall upon him.
When he turned his head, he would see Henry standing in a nearby hallway, watching him, with an indecipherable light in his blue eyes.
But Henry never questioned him face-to-face.
He continued to play the perfect orderly, continued to show concern for Andy, and continued to speak well of Andy in front of Dr. Brenner.
The more he did so, the more Andy felt afraid.
Because this "perfection" itself was the biggest flaw.
In Andy's memory—whether it was a real memory or a precognitive illusion—Henry was never "perfect."
He had a dark side, twisted beliefs, a desire for control, and that cold core hidden beneath a gentle surface.
But the Henry before him was too clean.
Too much... like a character, rather than a person.
More importantly, Andy's psychic perception told him something else.
When he tried to touch Henry with his psychic power, he felt a kind of... emptiness.
Or more accurately, there was something there, but it was blocked by a thick barrier, unreachable.
Andy remembered that in the Upside Down, the spirit of that monster Henry was murky, twisted, full of aggression, yet exceptionally powerful.
But the Henry before him had a spirit that was clear, steady, almost like a blank slate.
This couldn't be the same person.
Unless... unless the Henry before him was a disguise, an illusion carefully maintained for some purpose.
And this world itself might also be part of that illusion.
This realization made Andy both terrified and... relieved.
If this was an illusion, then the monster Henry who created it possessed unimaginable power. The relief came because, at least his memory wasn't confused, at least everything that happened in the Upside Down was real, and at least Will being transformed, Barbara searching, and himself being imprisoned—these were not his wild imagination.
But this also brought new questions: if this was an illusion, what was the purpose?
Why bring him back to an eight-year-old body, put him back in the laboratory, and let him observe a normal Will and a perfect Henry?
Was it to make him believe everything from the Upside Down was fake, so he would give up resisting?
Was it to make him accept the "precognition" explanation, so he would believe the future could be changed, and then... make some kind of choice?
Or was it for something else?
Andy didn't know.
But he knew he had to stay alert and keep searching for an exit.
The real world, Hawkins, the living room of Joyce Byers' house.
It was already the fifth day since Will's disappearance, and anxiety hung over everyone involved like a thick fog.
"...This is the Upside Down where Will is hiding. Mr. Clarke said the only way to get there is through a rip in space-time."
Mike spoke first, his voice somewhat hurried from tension.
He looked at Chief Hopper, trying to explain the information they'd pieced together over these past few days in the simplest language.
"The gate!" Lucas added immediately.
"We tracked the gate to Hawkins Lab using compasses," Dustin said.
Joyce looked at the three kids, her face showing obvious confusion.
Her worldview was being forcibly expanded, but it was really hard to accept.
"Okay," Dustin said, reading her expression. He pushed up his hat and spoke in his "explaining scientific principles" tone.
"The gate has a really strong electromagnetic field, so it messes with the compasses' direction. Therefore, we figured out the gate is inside the lab."
Chief Hopper sat with his hands crossed on his knees, leaning forward.
His expression was more serious than Joyce's, but also more... accepting.
After all, as the Chief of Hawkins, he'd seen too many strange things, and he'd personally entered the laboratory and seen things that couldn't be explained.
"Is the gate underground?" Hopper asked, his voice low.
"Yes," Eleven answered.
"Next to a big water tank?" Hopper confirmed again.
"Right," Eleven said.
Joyce finally spoke up, her voice urgent: "Do you have any way to contact Will, to talk to him in that place?"
This was her main concern now. Was Will still alive? Was he hurt? Was he scared? Was he still... him?
Eleven nodded, but the movement was slow, as if she were carrying a heavy weight.
"And my friend Barbara," Nancy added, "can you find her too?"
A group of highly capable people gathered together and immediately began the experiment.
On the table lay photos of Barbara and Will. Eleven took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
The room fell silent. Everyone held their breath, eyes fixed on Eleven.
At first, there was no movement.
Then, the electric lights on the ceiling began to flicker.
Eleven's brow furrowed, her lips pressed tight. Her breathing became rapid and shallow, and fine beads of sweat broke out on her forehead.
Just when everyone thought she couldn't hold on, Eleven's eyes snapped open.
But there was no focus in her eyes, only a vacant look staring into the void.
Her lips moved, letting out a barely audible sound:
"Andy..."
"What?" Mike leaned in immediately. "El, what did you say?"
"Andy..." Eleven repeated, her voice a bit louder but still distant, as if coming from far away. "He... was caught..."
"Andy? What happened to Andy?" Mike's voice rose, filled with shock and fear.
But Eleven didn't answer. Her eyes remained hollow, as if she were seeing a scene she couldn't fully understand or describe.
In her consciousness, within that dark, twisted dimension she connected to through her abilities, she saw an image:
Andy was bound by countless thick, pulsing fleshy vines, suspended in mid-air like an insect caught in a spider's web.
His eyes were tightly shut, his face was pale, and there was dried blood at the corner of his mouth.
He looked... lifeless.
And surrounding Andy was that space: the walls were writhing organic matter, their surfaces covered in dark red veins like the internal organs of a giant creature. Grayish-white particles floated in the air like a bizarre, never-ending snowfall.
This image only lasted for a few seconds.
Then, like a TV with a lost signal, the picture began to distort, turning into static before disappearing completely.
Eleven's body trembled violently, as if struck by an invisible force.
She fell back onto the couch, her eyes refocusing but filled with terror and tears.
"El!" Mike supported her. "What did you see? What happened to Andy?"
Eleven shook her head while crying. "He was caught... tied to the wall... it's dark there... it's scary..."
"What about Will?" Joyce rushed over and grabbed Eleven's hand. "Did you see Will? Where is he? Is he safe?"
Eleven looked at Joyce's anxious face, seeing the despair that was almost overflowing from her eyes, and felt a deep sense of guilt and powerlessness.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, her voice breaking from crying. "I can't find them... I..."
She didn't finish, but everyone understood.
Eleven had tried her best, but she'd used too much energy to maintain the connection any longer, to find a more precise location, or to confirm the status of Will and Barbara.
A heavy silence fell over the room.
Eleven went to the bathroom and washed her face with cold water, trying to clear her head.
In the living room, the adults and kids sat together, the atmosphere somber.
"She gets weak whenever she uses her power," Mike said, his voice low.
"The more energy she uses, the more tired she gets," Dustin added.
"She's exhausted," Lucas supplemented.
"Like a drained battery," Dustin used a metaphor he liked.
"Then how can we make her better?" Joyce asked, her voice filled with urgency.
"And didn't she just contact... Andy?"
Mike looked toward the bathroom; Eleven hadn't come out yet.
He lowered his voice and explained quickly, "Andy has superpowers too. He escaped the Lab three years ago and has been looking for El. For some reason, he also entered the Upside Down, and..."
He paused, not saying the worst possibility, "...is also trapped."
"He has superpowers too? But even he was caught..." Nancy said, her voice full of worry. She didn't finish, but everyone understood her meaning: if even Andy, who has superpowers, was caught, then the situation for ordinary people like Will and Barbara might be even worse.
"If we can contact Andy again," Joyce repeated, as if grasping at the last straw, "maybe we can find out where Will and Barbara are. Maybe Andy has seen them and knows their location."
"That way, we might be able to meet them through the Lab's entrance," Mike followed up.
"But we don't know how to restore El's energy," Hopper said, looking at Mike. "What does she need? Rest? Food? Or..."
Just then, the bathroom door opened.
Eleven walked out, her face still pale, but her gaze was a bit steadier. She walked to the center of the living room, looked at everyone, and then spoke slowly:
"The pool..."
"What?" Joyce immediately turned back to look at her.
"I can find them in the pool," Eleven said, her voice soft but clear.
Meanwhile, inside the Illusion Space, in the Rainbow Room.
Andy sat at a low table, a piece of white paper spread out before him and a crayon in his hand.
He was drawing, which was one of the standard activities for free time.
He was drawing a forest. Dead trees, a dark red sky, and grayish-white particles scattered on the ground.
In the corner of the drawing, there was a small, blurry figure tangled in vines.
On the surface, he was focused on drawing, his movements slow and careful, conforming to the "regulations."
But in reality, his psychic power was operating at full capacity.
He was expanding his range of perception, trying to find the boundaries or flaws of this world.
His psychic power was like invisible tentacles, passing through the walls of the Rainbow Room, through the corridors of the Lab, through the ground-level buildings, and extending toward Hawkins.
He could already steadily perceive the area of the Byers house.
Today, Will seemed to have a cold; he didn't go to school and was resting at home.
Joyce had made him chicken noodle soup before going out to work. Jonathan also stayed home from school to be with him. Will lay in bed, listening to music and coughing occasionally.
Everything was normal.
Too normal.
Andy felt a deep sense of powerlessness. No matter how hard he searched or how carefully he observed, he couldn't find any obvious flaws.
This world was like a flawless imitation; every detail was meticulously designed, every logic was self-consistent, and every "character" acted according to a set script.
Maybe... this place is real?
Maybe the Upside Down was the hallucination?
This thought appeared again, stronger than ever before.
But just as he was about to be convinced by this thought, a voice sounded in his ear.
It wasn't a physical sound, nor was it Eleven's psychic communication, but a voice that was more blurry, more distant, more like an echo or a hallucination:
"Andy..."
Andy's body stiffened instantly.
The crayon slipped from his hand, leaving a crooked red line on the drawing paper.
He snapped his head around, looking toward the other side of the room.
Eleven sat there, playing with a toy. She had her head down, focused on the pegs, showing no signs of anything unusual.
Was the voice just now... an auditory hallucination?
Andy turned back and picked up the crayon, trying to continue drawing. But his heart was racing, and his fingers were trembling.
"Andy..."
There it was again.
This time it was a bit clearer. Moreover, Andy recognized that voice.
It was Eleven.
But it wasn't this seven-year-old Eleven playing with a peg toy.
It was... an older Eleven? There was more emotion in the voice, more exhaustion, and more... power.
He turned to look at Eleven again. She was still playing with her toy, unchanged.
It wasn't coming from here.
Then, from where?
Andy closed his eyes, shifting his psychic power from external exploration to internal exploration.
He sank into his own consciousness.
Not the surface consciousness, but the deeper Void.
Yes, this was the real reason Andy had true doubts about this world.
This ability—he shouldn't have possessed it at the age of eight.
He'd only entered the Void in the Upside Down by learning Eleven's method.
At this "point in time," he shouldn't have developed this ability yet.
But at this moment, he found he could enter it easily.
Like pushing open a door that was already open.
In the darkness of his consciousness, he "stood" in a piece of void. There was no light, no sound, no objects—only boundless darkness and silence.
But he could feel something.
Some... ripples.
Like ripples on the surface of water, coming from very far away, passing through layers of dimensions, becoming faint and blurry.
One of those ripples, he recognized.
It was Eleven's spirit, but different from the Eleven in the Rainbow Room.
Andy walked toward that ripple.
In the Void, movement wasn't physical movement, but the focusing of consciousness.
Like adjusting the focus of a telescope to make a blurry image clear.
He concentrated his mind, casting all his attention toward the direction the ripple was coming from.
"Eleven?" he called out in his consciousness, his voice traveling through the void but having no echo. "El, are you here?"
There was no direct response.
"Eleven!" he shouted in his consciousness, this time using all his psychic power. It wasn't a directionless shout, but one directed toward the source of the ripple. "El! Are you here?"
"Can you hear me?"
"I'm in a... fake place! The Lab!"
"What about Will? What about Barbara? Did you find them?"
"Eleven—"
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