Thread: Coffee and Contemplation | tempted halo

Hawkins National Laboratory Department of Energy. November 23rd, 1983. While Dr. Brenner and his team of Staties tore through Hawkins High School in a desperate search to capture subject Eleven, another group of state agents stood guard in the lab, watching over the portal . A separate team of specialists sat before their computer screens hidden behind a glass window that maintained an oversight on the gateway to Upside Down. They watched for thermal conductivity, thermal heat ratings, magnetism, and most importantly, radioactivity, as they awaited for Chief Hopper and Joyce Byers to return from their rescue escapade. Every single person in that lab held zero belief that neither Joyce nor James would emerge again from the guck mess that was the portal. No one who went in, ever came back out. To them, this scenario would be no different. Except, this scenario was vastly different. The one cause of death among every being to ever go through the portal previously has been the Monster - the infamous beast Eleven had made contact with during her last interaction with the creature in her mind. This time, however, the beast had come out of hiding, currently terrorizing the Hawkins present-time reality in search for what it was really looking for... Eleven . Despite belief that Jim and Joyce would die in this dark underworld alongside Will Byers, the three of them were momentarily free of the monstrous threat while Dr. Brenner and his team attempted to end this all. Agent 13 to Dep. 00, do you copy? Over. A guard awaited for his response, hovering the com device over his lips, ready to engage. The advanced walky-talky beeped before a semi-muffled voice chimed back. 'Dep. 00 to Agent 13, Affirmative. Over.' The voice on the other end blared. The guard turned his head to look at the box-shaped room hanging above him just four panels of glass that appeared as two-way mirrors. You couldn't see in, but you could certainly see out. There rested Department 00, a board of scientist and various specialist, all in front of computer screens, monitoring the portal's every move. The guard swallowed roughly. Agent 13 to Dep. 00, we've got movement. Over. The com began to shudder, white noise emitting from it to break the clarity of its function. The lights began to flicker in the building, the computer ratings beginning to spike there was activity. The portal began to pulse, like a lung breathing, the slimy texture of its alien-like flesh protruding then receding. It's sticky strings were shifting, fusing together one piece at a time as if to close the portal. Another Statie, standing beside Agent 13, instantly raised his own com device. Pressing the button to connect its signal to the biosuit of Jim Hops, he urgently barked, The portal is shutting. ABORT MISSION. I repeat, the portal is CLOSING. ABORT. The signal was choppy, only transmitting through the unit in fragments of a message. The State agent continued to repeat, this time louder, and more desperate as he watched the skin of the life-like gate mutate faster and faster. THE PORTAL IS CLOSING. ABORT MISSION. THE PORTAL IS CLOSING. GET OUT OF THERE, NOW!!! A single bead of sweat fell from the crevice of Agent 13's hairline. Jim Hopper, Joyce Byers, and her son Will - the three of them were out of time. The portal was morphing shrinking in size as the gate began to worm all of its being back into its own disturbed reality. Little did anyone know, that in just several minutes, the portal would fuse together completely closing its metaphoric doors and subsequently terminating the otherworld connection indefinitely. With blood seeping from my nose, I had made my decision. I rose my hand to the monster, facing my nightmare head on to finally fight the fear. The beast squirmed and squealed in its attempt to squander, but he could not escape my abysmal wrath. I hit it without every bit of energy I had left in me. It now lay pinned to the wall, groaning as I sent waves of pains over its entire form. He could not move. He could not escape. Not anymore. There was a darkness inside of me. A darkness inside my mind. It tormented me it tortured me. It controlled my every thought, my every move, and my every breath. But now I was taking back control, I was unleashing the darkness within me pulling it back into my reign. I closed my eyes to focus my powers. The moment I made contact with the Demogorgon , the darkness seemed to lift. The monster vanished as it disintegrated to but a cloud of ashes before me. I opened my eyes again. But this time, my heart sank. Darkness. There was darkness again. My eyes widened as a distorted reality surrounded me. Upside Down - I had returned. My breaths were heavy, increasing in their intensity as panic set in. I was alone virtually deserted in what I had previously thought were the confines of my own mind. But this strange world was no longer familiar. It was foreign so foreign that it could not have possibly been a product of my own subconscious. I was left not only confused, but completely lost. I turned around again and again, shifting my body in circles as I tried to identify this black abyss of a wasteland. I was no longer in Hawkins. Not in its present time nor its altered dimension. I felt this overwhelming need to cry. I needed to cry. I wanted to sob, but in this place I felt void of that ability. As hard as I tried amidst an increasing panic, I was physically incapable of shedding a tear. I was like a a ghost... now just an empty shell. Mirkwood Forest, Hawkins. December 24th, 1983. You really think this bloke will show? It's fuckin' Christmas Eve. What the hell are we doing here, man. A man grumbled. Hey Scrooge, will ya keep ya fuckin' voice down? Another snapped back, You know the orders. And he'll show. I know it. The agent grumbled again at that response, shifting over in his seat as they stared out into black nothingness. The forest was bare of any light. In order to maintain their secretive status, the two agents were sitting in their undercover vehicle waiting. What's this guy's connection to the girl, anyways? He turned to the folder in his hands, flipping it over to read the file on Chief James Hopper. Pfft, of course. He snuffed, Daughter issues. Dude's got a dead one. Cancer. Just a kid, too. He flipped the folder shut. His partner, ignoring him entirely as he glared through binoculars, finally responded. There . He lowered the spectacles, pointing out the window to a fair distance half a mile away. Well whatdyaknow, Jimbo strikes again. The annoyed agent mocked, What a joke. He took the binoculars from his partner's hand, seeing for himself the lonesome Chief of Hawkins Police park his car by Mirkwood, the two roads where Cornwallis and Kerley met. The Chief exited his vehicle, hands full of holiday goodies. The two waited for Hopper to return and leave ensuring he was long gone before emerging from their own vehicle. The two tread through the musky forest to reach the drop-box. Arriving at the wooden bin, the partner opened it up, seeing the two eggos and tupperware of homemade food. Does he think she's really crawling into the woods to collect this shit? The guy's nuts. He picked up the eggos, flipping it over to examine the stiff plastic. Still frozen from being freshly unpackaged just 15 minutes before. If you ask me... Finally adding his two cents, the partner popped open a transport container to allow the agent to submit the evidence. ... the lab's little science freak is dead . He snapped the ziploc shut. Just like that Chief's daughter . Hopper Household, Hawkins. May 23rd, 1984. The storm had long flooded the small town streets of the City of Hawkins. It was a long cry from the start of the summer anyone wanted in this suburbia, but it was the sad reality nonetheless. Things had returned more or less to normal. No more strange things had occurred since that fateful day exactly six months ago. The torrential down poor well-past April was about as unusual as it came, and even then, it was a big slice of normality in comparison to that memorable week in November of 83. Despite the electrical repercussions of the United States Department of Energy, most Hawkins citizens were healthy and they were happy. A flash of lightning tore through the sky, bearing its wicked might down onto a near-by electrical pole. Striking the post, the distribution transformer completely fried. The unit sparked and sizzled, nearly exploding from the electrical shock of the lightning strike. The unstoppable tide of nature left the entire block and housing district void of any electrical current. Without any power, citizens like Jim Hopper were left in the dark. Any electrical device now null and ineffective. The clock that once flashed the time in big bold red numbers now lay unlit and useless. Although everything seemed to stop amid the barren storm, suddenly the vintage television propped in the living room right near the entrance of the door came to life. With its volume on full-blast, the TV instantly tuned into an unknown channel blasting the 1974 classic film, Where The Red Fern Grows based on the book of the same title. On the stereo's loudest setting, the film's opening monologue as well as its renowned theme song, could be heard clear as day inside and out of the home. When I was a boy, I grew up in the Ozarks of Oklahoma. My folks were poor, and the partial land we lived on was allotted to my mother because of the Cherokee blood that flowed in her veins. Except for one thing, I was the happiest boy alive. But it's hard for any boy to be completely happy when he wants something so bad, it gnaws on his heart and gets all mixed up in his dreams. In the morning of my life, I ran through the hills, and the whippoorwills sand their songs just for me And each brand new day, was a sweet melody In the morning of my life, We'd swim in the creek, playing hide and seek Like the wind wild and free, And each brand new day, was a sweet melody But now the world has grown so old The songs have been sung There's no one left for me to hold But all of my memories remain so young In the twilight of my life, I dream of the hill, And whippoorwills who once sand just for me Day is fading fast and now alas Evening is here! Evening is here! How I long for one more song Out of the sweet... Morning of my life The TV instantaneously began to bug as the song ended. Just 2 and a half minutes into the film, it black-screened, completely shutting down as it should without any power or electric current to the house. However, the dead TV would last only mere seconds before flashing back on again, this time displaying a static, no-signal screen. The previously flashing clock did not re-illuminate. Neither did the microwave, stove, or any other electronic in the house. However, the stereo connected to the television did. Although the nobs did not physically slide back and forth, the radio was tuning - on its own. Aside from the static and white noise, strange sounds were being transmitted through the radio. As if the unit itself were possessed, the sound of heavy, distorted breathing resonated over the entire living room. It sounded as if someone was suffocating, even drowning amid the sound of sloshing. It was enough of a disturbing combination of noises to make the hair on even the most grown man stand up on the back of his neck. It was the sound of someone drowning gasping unsuccessful for oxygen. It was a struggle for life. Suddenly, a black mold appeared to grow out from the TV. It glossed over the screen like a thin sheet, fingers of some kind seemingly protruding from it as if something within it needed to escape. The hand was held open, pushing out hard until the black sheet began to molten finally breaking apart to reveal a human figure. The hand was slender and feminine, though the nails were longer, almost unnaturally sharp. There was a toxicity in the air, the kind of eerie feel that caused a sinking feeling in the stomach. As if it needed an exorcism, the TV continued to spew out black gunk. Another flash of lightning erupted nearby, sending a wave of strikingly bright light to wash over the figure. Along with another hand, a head emerged with shoulders perched forward. Within seconds, the television was vomiting a hauntingly familiar goo. It gushed out onto the floor nearly flooding the entire room with an inky water. As the body pulled itself out of the parallel portal, the naked curvaceous physique was visibly undeniable. This was no monster from Upside Down , this was a human. This thing was a woman . With a coat several inches thick of mucus over my face, I could not breathe, I could not see. My senses were overloaded. A loud ringing filled my ears, deafening me and only intensifying my increasing panic. The lack of oxygen was causing my body to spasm. With my entire body exposed to the real world for the first time in years, it went it to total physical shock. I began to convulse uncontrollably. Although my mind went black, my slimy body was still completely out of control. I was launched into an explosive seizure, my muscles stiffening and my body becoming rigid with the hyper tonic movements as I shook. My brain felt as though it was being electrocuted, and as a knee-jerk response, my hand erupted to grab the nearest aid. With unparalleled strength, I latched onto whatever was closest to me. The layer of slime that previously confined my hand and arm broke free, revealing a single speck of black imagery against the grey color of my cold skin. The paroxysm lasted many long seconds, but paired with the suffocation, lead to a loss of oxygen to my brain. I fell unconscious, my death grip relinquishing as the life from my body left me. I sank to the ground, the struggle ceasing as I lay there naked and motionless. There was darkness within my mind again, except this time, it wasn't because I was trapped in an alternate dimension this time, it was because my heart had stopped beating. Another strike of lightning illuminated the room again, shedding a beam of light on the tattoo printed on my left wrist. Zero-One-One. 011 Zero Eleven . Elle .