Chapter 27: Halloween Night
On Halloween evening, inside the cabin's living room, the kerosene lamp cast a warm, soft glow, pushing back the encroaching darkness.
Andy and Eleven sat on the old couch, watching the Halloween special playing on the television in front of them.
A group of children dressed as monsters and superheroes played silly games under the host's guidance, their laughter mixed with a laugh track, sounding both joyful and fake.
Eleven sat cross-legged on the couch, clutching a bag of Lay's potato chips in both hands, her eyes fixed on the TV screen, but her gaze was distant, clearly showing little interest in the program.
Andy sat beside her, his posture much more relaxed, leaning back against the couch with one arm draped over the backrest.
His eyes were also on the TV, but his attention was clearly elsewhere.
His psychic abilities extended like invisible tentacles out of the cabin, through the forest, reaching toward Hawkins.
Over the past few months, as his body gradually recovered and with Hopper's strict training, Andy's abilities had become more refined and stable.
He could now connect to multiple targets simultaneously, maintain the connection for longer periods, and wouldn't immediately get a nosebleed or pass out.
Just like muscles growing stronger with exercise, his psychic powers were also developing.
At this moment, he was observing Hopper.
The Police Chief was at the other end of town, in a newly built subdivision, carrying out some kind of task.
Through the connection, Andy could see from Hopper's perspective.
Hopper was currently bent over, holding small yellow triangular flags, mechanically planting them along a tree into the grass. His movements were robotic, his expression irritable, clearly very impatient with this task.
The corner of Andy's mouth lifted slightly; he could sense Hopper's fatigue and frustration.
But Andy also saw the watch on Hopper's wrist—5:05 PM.
Oh boy.
Hopper had promised to return to the cabin by 5:15 tonight to bring Eleven Halloween candy.
This was her first Halloween. She had heard about the trick-or-treating tradition and was very interested, but Hopper wouldn't let her participate. As compensation, he promised to bring her some candy.
But now, it seemed the Police Chief might be late.
Andy decided to kindly remind him.
He concentrated, projecting his consciousness directly onto the surface of Hopper's thoughts.
"Hopper, need I remind you that you're about to be late?"
The message, like an invisible ripple, traveled miles and appeared directly in Hopper's consciousness.
Hopper's body stiffened slightly, and he stopped planting the flags.
But he showed no surprise. Over the past few months, he had grown accustomed to Andy's method of sudden telepathic calls.
At first, it would startle him. Imagine focusing on a task when a kid's voice suddenly rings in your head—it could scare the hell out of you! But now he could accept it calmly.
He had even developed a set of rules for brain calls: don't suddenly shout loudly, don't disturb him during dangerous moments, don't connect when he's using the bathroom...
"What do you want?" Hopper replied while continuing to plant flags.
"It's Halloween."
"Halloween, so? Wait... Halloween!"
"Oh, shit!" Hopper's response was direct and crude.
He glanced at his wristwatch to confirm the time, then muttered a few low curses.
He had clearly completely forgotten the time, held up by this stupid flag-planting task.
Andy could see Hopper hurriedly packing up, tossing the remaining flags into the car, and jogging to the driver's seat.
But just as Hopper pulled the car door open and was about to get in, Andy suddenly sensed something.
"But... where exactly are you?" Andy asked telepathically, a trace of confusion in his tone. "Why do I sense a familiar feeling?"
Hopper's movements froze instantly. He closed the car door, one hand instinctively moving to the holster at his waist, his eyes scanning the surroundings warily.
Dark streets, quiet houses, an empty field—everything looked normal.
But Hopper knew Andy's feelings were never unfounded.
"Familiar feeling? What do you mean?" Hopper responded in his mind, his voice clearly tense.
Andy carefully perceived that fluctuation. It was faint, unstable, like something... wrong.
"A bit like... the Upside Down?" Andy said, his tone uncertain. "That kind of spatial... connection, but not exactly the same. And, I don't sense any monsters. No cold, evil presence."
Hopper's heart sank. A gate to the Upside Down? Here? In a field in Hawkins?
"Wait, I don't quite understand," Hopper said, maintaining vigilance, his eyes continuing to scan the area.
"Are you saying you sense that world, near me? But I'm pretty sure I'm not in the Upside Down. I can see normal houses, normal trees, and... weird-looking pumpkins..."
Hopper seemed to think of something and immediately intended to get out of the car to investigate, but then Andy's voice sounded again.
"I know," Andy interrupted him, a hint of teasing in his tone. "Otherwise, I couldn't talk directly in your head. Relax, I don't sense any monsters near you.
It's just... I've been sensing this feeling near the Lab lately. Maybe they're up to something again."
The Lab—that word made Hopper's nerves tighten even more.
Although since that incident, the Lab seemed to have gone quiet, no longer sending armed personnel into Hawkins, and the doctor had been replaced by someone who appeared normal.
But Hopper never believed they would truly give up. A secret, government-funded project researching superpowers and interdimensional phenomena couldn't just stop completely because of one failure.
They might be preparing a new plan, they might be monitoring, or they might even be... experimenting.
"Hey, Andy, could you please make fewer jokes like that?"
Hopper said, a note of reproach in his tone, but more than that, worry. He didn't like Andy discussing such dangerous matters so lightly.
"Ha, who told you not to let me go trick-or-treating and then almost broke your promise?" Andy's response carried a childish sense of payback.
It was true.
Andy had once asked Hopper to allow him and Eleven to go out trick-or-treating on Halloween night.
He would use his ability to disguise himself, making anyone who saw him have the illusion that he was just an ordinary kid, drawing no attention.
But Hopper had firmly refused because the risk was too great. What if the ability failed? What if someone from the Lab recognized him? What if some other accident happened?
That's why Hopper had promised to bring them candy as compensation.
But now, he had almost broken even that promise.
"I'll be back as soon as possible," Hopper said in his mind, his tone softening a little. "Twenty minutes at most. You two wait in the cabin, don't come out."
"Got it, got it," Andy responded with typical teenage impatience. "Hurry up, don't keep Eleven waiting too long."
The connection severed.
Hopper took one last wary look around, then gave the field a long look, got into the car, started the engine, and drove toward the forest.
Back in the cabin, Andy opened his eyes, returning from his observation state.
He looked at Eleven beside him. The girl was still staring at the TV, but her lips were slightly pursed, and she wasn't even eating her chips anymore. Clearly, she was very bored and restless.
Andy knew Eleven was looking forward to Halloween.
She had heard him describe the fun of trick-or-treating, heard Andy talk about his own past experiences sneaking out to participate.
She imagined herself draped in a white bedsheet with two holes cut out for a ghost costume, holding a pillowcase, going door-to-door, saying "trick or treat," and receiving candy...
But now, she could only sit in the cabin, watching boring TV, waiting for Hopper to return.
It wasn't fair.
Andy looked at Eleven's profile, then at the TV playing its program. Suddenly, an idea formed in his mind—a safe and feasible method.
"Hey! Eleven," Andy sat up straight, turning to Eleven, excitement shining in his eyes.
"Do you remember Number Eight, Kali's mind-sharing?"
Eleven turned her head to look at Andy, clear confusion on her face. She blinked and shook her head.
"Don't remember? That's okay," Andy, undiscouraged, continued to explain. "Kali's ability is... well, how to put it... she can create illusions in people's minds. Makes you directly see the scenes she creates. It's like... a TV show, but live."
Eleven was still confused, but a flicker of curiosity appeared in her eyes.
She liked hearing Andy talk about the other children in the Lab, those fragments of lost memories. Perhaps through Andy's descriptions, they could be pieced together bit by bit.
"That's not important," Andy waved his hand as if brushing away a complicated explanation. "What's important is, she can use that to share consciousness with others.
Later, I somehow managed to learn a similar trick. It might not be exactly the same, but... we can try."
Looking into Eleven's bewildered but trusting eyes, his resolve grew stronger.
He got up from the couch and walked to the front of the TV, which was still playing that boring Halloween program.
Andy casually swiped his hand through the air, instantly adjusting the TV's signal reception. The screen instantly turned into flickering black-and-white static, emitting a hissing white noise.
"Like me," Andy said, sitting cross-legged on the carpet in front of the TV, turned sideways to the screen, "get into a meditative position. We'll sit back-to-back."
Eleven didn't hesitate. She slid off the couch, walked behind Andy, and sat down cross-legged, mimicking his posture, her back leaning against his.
She could feel Andy, could hear his steady breathing.
This intimate, trusting position made her feel at ease.
"Now," Andy's voice was soft, carrying a guiding calm, "clear your mind. Don't think about anything. Then... enter the psychic connection I've established. Just like when we usually communicate, but this time, don't speak. Just... follow."
Eleven closed her eyes. She trusted Andy.
Over the past few months, they had engaged in psychic communication every night. Sometimes, like now, Andy would teach her how to control her abilities, how to build barriers, how to perform simple telepathic communication without getting a nosebleed.
For her, entering Andy's mind was like opening a familiar door.
She relaxed, her consciousness flowing like water, extending and merging toward Andy's awareness.
A few seconds later, she opened her eyes again and found herself in that familiar Void.
"What are we doing here?" Eleven asked in her mind, a trace of confusion in her voice.
She looked around. Besides the feeling of connection that came with using telepathy, nothing seemed to be happening.
"In the Upside Down," Andy's voice rang out in the void, calm and clear, "we were only telepathically connected at the time, so I couldn't share what I was seeing, I could only let you see me. But that was an emergency, an instinctive reaction."
He paused, then continued explaining: "But in the real world, my abilities... are more refined.
You know I can perceive reality through psychic power, enter other people's minds, and observe the outside world through their eyes.
So, in theory, I can construct a representation of the outside world within my consciousness, share with you the things I see through others' eyes."
As his words faded, the void began to change.
Like ink diffusing in water, like a camera lens slowly focusing, the darkness gradually faded, replaced by color and shape.
A few seconds later, Eleven was standing on a street, a street in Hawkins on Halloween night.
She could see children dressed as various monsters running in groups, could hear their laughter and shouts of "trick or treat," could smell the sweet scents of pumpkin pie and candy apples in the air, could feel the cool night air brushing against her skin.
It was all so real, so vivid, a hundred times more real than images on TV.
Eleven's eyes widened, her lips slightly parted, her face a picture of pure, childlike wonder.
"This... this is..." she murmured, in her mind.
"This is Hawkins," Andy's voice sounded beside her, "Hawkins on Halloween night. I simulated it through... sensing the minds of some people."
He didn't specify through whose minds, and Eleven didn't need to know the details. She just needed to enjoy this miracle.
"I know," Andy continued, a hint of teasing laughter in his voice, "you must really want to see what Mike is doing."
Eleven's heart gave a little jump.
Since Hopper had hidden her away, she hadn't seen Mike at all.
Hopper said it was to protect them, to protect Mike and the others, but she still missed him, missed the expression on Mike's face when he spoke seriously, and that... kiss.
Now, she might be able to see him, even if only through someone else's eyes.
Andy's psychic power extended and searched through the street network of Hawkins, like a radar scanning for signals.
Soon, he found them.
On the lawn in front of the Wheeler house, they were roughhousing. Their mental patterns were like beacons to Andy; four years of observation had made him intimately familiar with their thought signatures.
Andy didn't alert them. He simply attached his psychic power like fine threads to the surface of their consciousness, saw the world through their eyes, then integrated and constructed this visual information, broadcasting it live in this shared mental space.
And so, Eleven saw Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and... Will.
At that moment, Mike was roughhousing with Dustin and Lucas. Seeing them, Eleven's eyes filled with longing. In this scene, she moved closer to them, as if she were roughhousing with them too.
And Andy, watching the now-happy Eleven, smiled. With a shift of his psychic power, he suddenly found himself viewing from inside the Byers family car.
At that moment, Jonathan stopped the car and looked at Will, who was about to go play with his friends.
They seemed upset about something, but Andy, who had secretly observed them for almost a whole year, of course knew why.
Because of that incident, Will's mother Joyce had become extremely protective now. Even if Will was just in the bathroom in the morning and she couldn't find him, she would panic.
But just as Will was about to get out of the car, Jonathan called him back.
"If I let you go by yourself, you promise you'll only go trick-or-treating nearby?"
Hearing his brother's words, Will was overjoyed: "Promise, I promise, of course!"
"And be back at Mike's house by nine!"
Will tried to bargain: "Nine-thirty?"
"Nine." Jonathan left no room for negotiation. He held out his hand: "Deal?"
"Okay, I promise!"
Before leaving, Jonathan even handed the camera to Will: "Hey, Will, don't let your goofball friends use this too, okay?"
Will happily took the camera and agreed cheerfully. Andy, watching them, also felt happy.
Following Will, Andy also brought the view to Eleven's side. Andy looked curiously at the names on their chests.
They were all wearing matching costumes, tan jumpsuits, with a prominent logo on the back and name tags stuck on their chests.
Mike's chest had "Venkman," Lucas also had "Venkman," Dustin had "Spengler," and Will had "Stantz."
"Stantz?" Andy tried hard to recall this name.
"Venkman?" Eleven read the names on Mike and Lucas's chests again, clear confusion in her tone, "Why are they both Venkman?"
Andy blinked. He remembered these names; they seemed to be from some movie.
"Oh, I remember now," Andy said, a note of realization in his voice, "It's Ghostbusters, a movie. These names are characters from the movie. They're dressed as the Ghostbusters."
Eleven turned her head to look at Andy: "Ghostbusters?"
"It's... people who catch ghosts," Andy explained, "In the movie, these people form a team and catch ghosts with special equipment. Pretty cool."
Eleven nodded, but her confusion wasn't completely gone.
She pointed at Mike and Lucas's chests: "Then why is Lucas also Venkman? Are there two Venkmans in the movie?"
"Uh..." Andy was momentarily speechless.
He hadn't actually watched Ghostbusters in its entirety; he only knew the general plot and characters.
He recalled his fragmented memories, "I think... Venkman is the name of one of the Ghostbusters, but there should only be one Venkman in the movie."
"Then why are they both being Venkman?" Eleven pressed, her logic direct, "Aren't there different characters in the movie?"
Andy's brain raced. He tried to understand Mike and the others' choice.
"Maybe..." Andy said hesitantly, "maybe they both like the Venkman character? Think he's cool? Or... they want to look the same? Like twins?"
Eleven blinked, clearly not understanding this explanation either.
She looked again at Will's chest: "Then Will is Stantz, Dustin is Spengler. What... what's their relationship?"
This question stumped Andy. Relationship? Their relationship in the movie? He desperately tried to remember.
It seemed... they were just teammates, right?
"I remember..." Andy said uncertainly, "in the movie, they're all just... part of the same team?"
"Oh," Eleven seemed to accept this, then asked, "Why do they want to be the same team?"
"Because they're friends," Andy explained, feeling on safer ground. "Like you and Mike and the others. Friends stick together."
Eleven nodded, seeming satisfied with this answer. Her attention returned to watching Mike and the others.
Andy felt relieved he'd managed to steer away from that confusing conversation.
In the psychic space, Eleven followed the four boys as they walked along the street.
She saw them laugh, run, and mess around, enjoying the Halloween night like all normal children.
And she, like an invisible ghost, walked beside them, sharing in their joy.
Even if it was only virtual, for her, this was enough.
The four boys had finished trick-or-treating at one house and were now walking along the street to the next one.
Their pillowcases were already filled with quite a bit of candy, making a rustling sound as they walked. Will was still holding the camera, occasionally filming the roadside decorations or his friends' antics.
"Are they going to trick-or-treat again?" Eleven asked, her tone carrying a hint of longing.
"Yes, this is the fourth time you've asked me," Andy replied, a trace of weariness in his voice. "...I'm getting really tired. Let's rest for a bit before connecting again."
Maintaining this complex psychic sharing, connecting to multiple targets simultaneously, integrating visual information, constructing a virtual scene, and dealing with Eleven's questions took a heavy toll on Andy's energy.
If it were just simply connecting to one person and seeing the world through their eyes, Andy could maintain it for a long time.
But like now, constructing an interactive, multi-perspective virtual space was like running multiple high-load programs at once, placing a huge burden on the brain.
Eleven turned around, and only then did she notice Andy's condition.
In the psychic space, a trickle of blood had already flowed from under Andy's nose, indicating that in the real world, Andy's body was also bleeding from the nose.
"Stop it," Eleven said immediately, clear concern in her voice.
Without hesitation, she actively severed the psychic connection and woke up.
She turned to look at Andy behind her.
The boy was still sitting cross-legged on the carpet, his back to her, but his body was leaning slightly forward. One hand was propped on the ground, while the other casually wiped away the nosebleed.
Andy looked up. His complexion didn't seem too bad, and his eyes still had some life.
He took the Kleenex Eleven handed him, pressed it to his nose himself, and gave Eleven a tired but reassuring smile.
"I'm fine," he said, his voice somewhat muffled. "Just... a bit tired. I'll be okay after resting."
Eleven looked at him, her eyes a mix of gratitude and worry.
She knew Andy did this for her—to let her see the Halloween sights, to let her see Mike and the others, to try to make her happy.
"Thank you, Andy," she said softly, simultaneously reaching out her arms and hugging him.
Andy was taken aback for a moment, then also raised his arms and gently hugged her back.
This feeling of being needed was strange, but... good.
A few seconds later, Eleven released the hug. She stood up, walked to the kitchen area, took a plate of Eggo waffles and a bottle of Coke from the refrigerator, and handed them to Andy.
"Replenish energy," she said, her tone imitating Hopper's seriousness. "Hopper says so."
Andy smiled. He wiped the blood from his face, threw the bloodied tissue into the trash, first took the Coke and drank a few sips, then ate a few bites of waffle.
Then, leaning against the edge of the couch, he closed his eyes and began consciously recovering his psychic power.
Eleven sat beside him, not disturbing him. She picked up the remote and turned off the TV.
The static screen disappeared, and the cabin returned to quiet, with only the faint sound of wind from the distant forest.
She looked at Andy's calm profile, at his unusually long eyelashes now that his eyes were closed, at the relaxed corners of his mouth due to exhaustion, and a complex emotion surged in her heart.
Her brother, for her sake, was willing to use his own power, bleed from the nose, and endure pain.
And what could she do for him?
She didn't know, but she wanted to learn how.
Just as he took care of her, she wanted to take care of him too.
A few minutes later, Andy opened his eyes. His complexion had recovered somewhat, and his eyes had become bright again. He looked at Eleven and gave a genuine, relaxed smile.
"Feeling much better," he said. "Just needed some time to recover. Later... if we still want to keep watching, I can connect to Nancy and Barb. I sensed their mental signatures earlier, somewhere in town. It seemed pretty lively around Nancy; she might be at a party."
Eleven's eyes lit up. A party was also something unfamiliar.
Meanwhile, on the other end of Hawkins, Hopper's pickup truck finally left the subdivision and accelerated toward the forest.
On the passenger seat sat a bulging plastic bag from Melvald's filled with various candies—Hershey's bars, Skittles, gummy bears, Tootsie Rolls, candy corn, and a few specially prepared surprises—a battery-powered jack-o'-lantern and the latest issue of an X-Men comic book.
Hopper glanced at the bag, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.
Even though he was late, he hadn't completely broken his promise.
He would bring the candy back and give those two kids a little Halloween celebration.
Hopper stepped on the gas. The pickup sped through the night, heading toward the cabin deep in the forest, toward those two children waiting for him.
The Halloween night was still continuing.
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