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Connie had just ended a phone call with the doctor who was monitoring Chris's condition. For a moment, she stood still in the middle of the hallway, contemplating whether she should return to the hospital or not.
But the information she had just received lingered in her mind.
Chris… had treated what happened last night as nothing more than an animal attack.
That alone was enough to make her suspicious.
Connie didn't believe it, not entirely. In her eyes, Chris wasn't just some reckless teenager caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was observant… and careful. The kind of person who could read a situation and adapt to it.
And right now, it felt like he was simply playing along with the narrative being handed to him.
Unfortunately, she couldn't confirm anything yet. She hadn't spoken to him directly.
Which meant one other thing, she needed to report this to Dr. Brenner first.
Connie exhaled quietly and began walking down the corridor. The hallway was still busy, filled with scientists moving between rooms, agents stationed at every corner, and MPs monitoring every movement with rigid discipline. The air itself felt heavy, controlled and contained… like something was gonna come out sooner or later and they need to prepare.
"Where's Dr. Brenner?" Connie asked one of the agents who had just noticed her arrival.
"He's in the east wing," the agent replied casually, a faint smirk tugging at his lips. "There's another agent sent by the government."
His eyes lingered on her for a second before he added, half-amused, "You look tired. Is watching over those kids really that exhausting?"
Connie glanced at him briefly, her expression unreadable. "I haven't rested since last night," she said flatly before continuing her walk toward the east wing.
The agent chuckled under his breath and decided to follow her anyway. Curiosity got the better of him.
He wanted to know what really happened to those kids…
How they managed to survive something that had already cost them men one after another.
They reached the entrance to the east wing, but the moment they approached, the restriction became clear. Access was limited. Guards stood firm, denying entry without hesitation.
Connie didn't argue.
Instead, she stopped just outside the curtain that marked the restricted area, waiting patiently.
It didn't take long.
The curtain shifted, and Dr. Brenner stepped out, already giving quiet instructions to his subordinates, his presence immediately commanding the space around him.
"Dr. Brenner," Connie called as she fell into step beside him and followed him.
"The little kid is awake," she said, her tone steady as Brenner gave a small nod, acknowledging the information without slowing down.
"What happened?" he asked, his voice calm like he didn't really care about the kid's condition, as he continued walking.
Connie began recounting everything.
She told him exactly what Will had said, every detail, every fear, every description. She didn't add anything, didn't twist anything, didn't soften anything.
Just the truth, as it was given.
She also informed him that no one believed the boy.
Not the doctors.
Not the people around him.
Not even the Chief of Police.
To them, it was simple.
Will had been attacked by an animal.
Nothing more.
"What about the older one?" Dr. Brenner asked as he stepped into his office, his tone calm and controlled as always but there's something flicker-like curiosity in his tone when talking about the older kid. Connie and the agent followed him inside without hesitation, the door closing softly behind them.
Connie let out a quiet breath, the exhaustion from staying awake all night finally settling deep into her body. Waiting for both Will and Chris to regain consciousness had drained more from her than she expected, and now that she stood here, the fatigue felt heavier than before. "The older one was still unconscious when I left… I'm sorry," she said, her voice steady despite the tiredness.
Dr. Brenner simply nodded, showing no disappointment, as if the outcome had already been within his expectations. Seeing that, Connie continued without needing to be prompted further, explaining what the doctor had reported to her earlier.
The room fell into a brief silence as Brenner processed the information, his fingers lightly tapping against the desk in a slow, deliberate rhythm, a habit that often appeared when he was thinking.
"The kid knows something," he finally said, his voice low and thoughtful, "…but he doesn't want to be seen as insane." His words weren't directed at anyone in particular, more like a conclusion he had quietly arrived at on his own.
Connie had already considered the same possibility, and that realization made things more complicated than it should have been. For the first time, she found herself uncertain whether extermination was truly necessary in this situation.
The agent beside her shifted slightly before speaking, his eyes fixed on Dr. Brenner as he waited for direction. "What should we do?" he asked, ready to carry out whatever order was given. Even if the target was just a teenager, there was no hesitation in him and only obedience.
Dr. Brenner's answer came without delay. He shook his head slightly, his expression unchanged. "No. Leave the boy alone for the moment." He stepped past them, moving with quiet certainty as he continued, "We need to find Eleven first. That is our priority now." His voice remained calm, but the weight of his decision was clear.
Connie and the agent both nodded, understanding immediately. Brenner then added, almost as if reinforcing his reasoning, that no one would believe the boy anyway. From what Connie had reported, even the Chief of Police had dismissed the story, reducing everything to a simple animal attack. More importantly, they had learned something crucial, something far more valuable than the boy's testimony.
Even a shotgun, fired directly at the creature, hadn't been enough to kill it. It only managed to wound it, forcing it to retreat rather than ending the threat entirely. That alone was enough to make one thing clear, handguns or maybe submachine guns were useless in this situation. They needed something stronger, something more effective if they intended to deal with that monster properly.
Dr. Brenner grew quiet again, his mind connecting the pieces of information one by one. He now knows that the teenager is nothing ordinary, then, almost absentmindedly, he spoke a single word, "...Fire." The word was soft, yet it carried enough weight to draw both Connie's and the agent's attention. He looked at them, a faint smile forming on his face as the idea settled into place.
"If that wasn't truly a coincidence," he continued, "then that boy wanted to fight with it." The molotovs found in the saddlebag, the smell of gasoline, it all pointed toward the same thing. Fire. It made sense now, more than before. Connie and the agent both nodded slowly, acknowledging the logic behind it.
But the thought didn't stop there. If it wasn't a coincidence, then the implication was far more unsettling.
It would mean the boy already knew what he was facing even before the encounter happened.
Dr. Brenner cut through that possibility before it could fully form. "That's impossible," he said calmly, shaking his head as if dismissing the idea outright. "I've already checked everything. There has been no leak." His certainty left no room for doubt, closing the door on that line of thinking completely.
"For now, our focus remains on the girl," he added, his tone returning to its usual composed state. Then his gaze shifted briefly toward Connie, his eyes sharpening just slightly. "After you've rested, go back there. Observe again… and find something useful this time."
Connie gave a small nod in response. "Alright."
Without adding anything further, she turned and left the room, her steps steady despite the exhaustion still weighing on her.
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Inside Chris's room, after he dropped something that heavy so casually, no one spoke right away. The air itself felt thicker, like everyone was still trying to process what they had just heard.
Jonathan stared at Chris in disbelief, his mind struggling to accept that those words had actually come out of his mouth. Since when did monsters exist in this world? Was this some kind of joke? Or worse, had everything people dismissed as myths suddenly become real? Loch Ness. Bigfoot. All those stories that were supposed to be nothing more than imagination…real?!
He shook his head almost immediately, trying to reject the thought before it could settle. But then his eyes shifted toward Will and that's when everything became harder to deny.
Will wasn't scared in the way Jonathan expected.
He was wide-eyed… almost relieved.
"Shit! You really shot the monster?!" Dustin suddenly blurted out, unable to hold himself back anymore, his voice filled with pure disbelief. "Then why isn't it dead yet if you shot it with a shotgun?!"
Right now, he sounded like someone who had already crossed that invisible line from doubt… into belief.
Chris had said it himself.
'The monster was real.'
And once that line was crossed, there was no reason for Dustin to not believe it.
Since he had already said this much, Chris didn't bother holding anything back anymore. He began explaining what he had seen, what he understood, and what he could piece together from that encounter.
"Yes… I believe that thing has a very fast healing ability," Chris said calmly, even though the weight of his words pressed heavily on everyone in the room.
"Wait! Hold on for a minute, Chris." Joyce finally stepped in, her voice trembling slightly as she tried to slow everything down. Her eyes moved quickly between Chris and Will, seeing how fully her son was absorbing every word. "Is this… really real? A monster… is real?"
Chris nodded.
That simple motion was enough to leave Joyce speechless again.
She didn't know what to say, what to believe, or what to hold onto anymore. Her gaze shifted toward Claudia, searching for something, maybe denial or anything but Claudia remained silent.
Even if Claudia didn't fully believe Chris… she didn't interrupt him either.
She simply listened completely.
"…Will, monsters aren't real," Jonathan finally said, forcing himself to speak, his voice tighter now as he tried to pull his brother away from this spiraling madness. "It's just something in your head."
"No! It's real!" Will snapped back immediately, his voice filled with fear and urgency as he turned back toward Chris. "What should I do, Chris?! What if that monster comes back?!"
Chris closed his eyes for a brief moment, as if weighing his answer carefully before opening them again.
"I don't know," he admitted quietly.
Then, after a short pause, his expression hardened just slightly.
"…You can arm yourself."
The words landed heavily.
This time, his gaze shifted toward Joyce and Jonathan.
Joyce felt it immediately, that invisible weight pressing down on her shoulders, as if a responsibility she never asked for had just been handed to her. She couldn't hold his gaze for long and instinctively looked away, her mind racing in confusion and fear.
Jonathan didn't want to believe any of this. It would've been easier to just call Chris crazy and end it there, to dismiss everything as nonsense and move on. But he couldn't do that, not without dragging Will into it as well. Because if Chris was insane for saying those things… then Will, who had seen the same thing, who was reacting the same way, would be no different.
And Jonathan couldn't bring himself to label his own little brother like that.
"…Fine."
The word slipped out of Jonathan almost reluctantly, pulled out of him by the panic in Will's eyes rather than any real belief.
Chris gave a small nod.
"Good."
Then he turned his attention toward his mother.
"Mom, you can go home and give them the shotgun I have," he said, his tone steady, almost matter-of-fact despite what he was asking. "I'm sure a handgun isn't going to work on that thing."
Claudia let out a long breath as she looked at Chris, her expression caught somewhere between relief and frustration. "Honestly, what were you even thinking, fighting something like that?" she complained, though her voice carried more worry than anger. After a moment, she pushed herself to her feet and glanced at Dustin. "Dustin, take care of your brother, alright? Don't let him do anything stupid."
"Fine, Mom…" Dustin grumbled, already reaching for the TV remote as if this entire situation had somehow become part of his daily routine.
Joyce offered Chris a small, tired smile before giving him a gentle wave, while Jonathan let out a quiet grumble, still clearly annoyed, whether at Chris, the situation, or the fact that Will was now even more convinced, it was hard to tell.
Meanwhile, Will stepped closer and wrapped his arms around Chris in a careful hug, his expression bright despite the faint tears in his eyes.
"Chris… thank you so much…" Will said softly.
"Don't worry, kid," Chris replied, his tone lighter now, though his body still ached beneath the bandages. "Now go, before I have to replace these again."
That earned a small chuckle from Will before he finally pulled away.
As the Byers family began to leave, Chris suddenly remembered something. His eyes opened again, sharper this time.
"Before you all go," he said, his voice low but firm enough to stop them mid-step. Even Claudia paused at the door.
"Don't talk about this outside this room. Not even a word. Pretend you don't know anything… just act like your day is normal." His gaze moved between them, making sure they were listening. "And if you have to mention it… don't say 'monster.' Call it an animal."
"The bugs!" Dustin suddenly blurted out, eyes lighting up as he finally caught on.
Chris clicked his tongue and glanced at him sideways, lowering his voice into a sarcastic whisper. "Tsk… you're pretty smart, huh…"
Dustin ignored him completely and instead looked at the others, taking it upon himself to explain. "Remember when this idiot said it might be a government thing? He's scared our house could be bugged, like, you know, spying and stuff. That's why he told us to look around earlier."
The explanation seemed to settle things. The Byers family nodded, Claudia included, before they finally stepped out of the room.
The door closed and silence followed.
Chris watched the empty doorway for a moment before slowly letting his eyes fall shut again, his voice barely above a murmur. "…They're not going to believe us."
"Of course not," Dustin replied without even looking at him, his attention already back on the television. "Who wants to trust a bad guy like you?"
Chris opened one eye and turned his head slightly, a grin forming on his face. "You're trusting me."
"Yeah," Dustin shrugged, still watching TV. "I kinda feel bad since nobody else does. Even Mom."
There was a brief pause before Chris snorted quietly, shaking his head as he closed his eyes again. "What, should I hug you or something for that?" he muttered, clearly unimpressed. Then, after a second, his tone dropped slightly, more serious beneath the sarcasm. "Don't trust outsiders, dipshit."
"Tsk! I won't, shithead!" Dustin shot back immediately, not even missing a beat.
And just like that, the room settled into a strange kind of normal again, TV noise filling the silence, insults thrown like casual conversation…
As if none of them had just talked about a monster that shouldn't exist.