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Chapter 40: THE CALM
The quarry held silence like a cupped palm holding water.
I sat at the edge, legs dangling over the drop, watching the last light fade from the Indiana sky. Somewhere in the distance, Hawkins was settling into its evening routines—dinners being served, televisions flickering to life, families going through the motions of ordinary existence without any idea what lurked beneath their feet.
Three months. That's how long it had been since I'd woken up in a body that wasn't mine, in a world that shouldn't exist, with fire burning in my chest and the knowledge of horrors yet to come. Three months since I'd looked in a mirror and seen Billy Hargrove staring back at me, all blonde hair and blue eyes and the face of someone I'd watched die on a screen in another life.
It felt like longer. It felt like forever.
The summer seemed impossibly distant now—those early days in California, learning to control the fire, building a relationship with Max brick by careful brick, breaking Neil so thoroughly that he'd never raise a hand to anyone in this family again. The road trip across America, the wrongness growing stronger with every mile closer to Hawkins. The arrival, the recon, the training.
The first kill.
I flexed my fingers, remembering the Demo-dog's death shriek, the way its flesh had blackened and curled under Phase 3 temperatures. Real. The monsters were real, and I could kill them. That knowledge settled something inside me that had been uncertain since the moment of transmigration.
I wasn't helpless here. I wasn't just a passenger in someone else's story.
I could change things.
The stars were coming out now, scattered across the darkening sky like diamonds on black velvet. I leaned back on my palms and let myself appreciate them—really appreciate them, the way I hadn't since arriving in this world. In my old life, the light pollution of the city had made stars a luxury. Here, in 1984 Indiana, they blazed with an intensity that made the universe feel close enough to touch.
Martinez had told me not to waste what I had on anger. Good advice. But he hadn't been talking about moments like this—quiet moments, peaceful moments, the spaces between crises where a person could just exist without fighting or preparing or planning.
I'd had so few of those since arriving. Maybe it was time to start collecting more.
After a while, I stood. The reflection was nice, but I hadn't come here to stargaze. The crisis was coming, and every day of preparation mattered.
I focused inward, finding the fire that lived in my chest. It responded instantly, eager as always, that living heat that had become as much a part of me as my heartbeat. Phase 1 came easily—the warmth spreading through my limbs, the faint glow that meant I could withstand temperatures that would kill an ordinary person. Phase 2 was almost as natural now, flame blooming in my palms with a thought.
Phase 3 was still hard. Still costly. But it was getting better.
I let the fire build, pushing past the comfortable orange of Phase 2 into the dangerous territory beyond. Yellow. White-gold. The air around my hands began to shimmer with heat distortion.
Fifteen seconds. I counted in my head, maintaining control, keeping the temperature stable. The hunger was building—that familiar demand for fuel that came with serious power use—but I could manage it for another few seconds.
Twenty seconds. A new record. The fire danced across my skin like it belonged there, like it had always been waiting for me to claim it.
I let it fade, dropping back through the phases to baseline warmth. The hunger remained—I'd need to eat soon, replace what I'd burned—but the accomplishment was worth it. Twenty seconds of Phase 3 was enough to kill multiple Demo-dogs. Enough to make a difference when the real fighting started.
Next, I worked on shaping. This had always been the harder skill—raw power was one thing, but precision was something else entirely. I reformed the flames and began experimenting.
A wave, spreading outward like a fan. It held for maybe three seconds before the shape collapsed into formless fire.
A blade, narrow and focused. Better—nearly five seconds before it dissolved.
A shield, curved around my forearm like armor. This was new, something I'd been attempting since arriving in Hawkins, and it held longer than the others. Seven seconds. Eight. Then gone.
Progress. Slow, frustrating, but real.
I ran through a few more exercises—projection range (still maxing out around four meters), duration tests, heat modulation. By the time I finished, the stars had fully claimed the sky and my stomach was growling loud enough to echo off the quarry walls.
I ate one of the granola bars I'd started keeping in the Camaro, not enough to satisfy the hunger but enough to take the edge off. The drive home would be short, and Susan usually had leftovers I could raid.
Before leaving, I stood at the edge of the quarry one more time. Looked out over Hawkins—the scattered lights of houses, the dark bulk of the school, the distant glow of the town center.
Somewhere out there, Will Byers was fighting a shadow inside his own mind. The Mind Flayer's influence was growing, spreading through the boy like cancer, preparing him for some purpose I could guess at but couldn't fully predict.
Somewhere beneath the town, tunnels were spreading. The Upside Down was bleeding through, corrupting the soil, killing the crops, preparing the way for whatever came next.
Somewhere in the woods, a girl with powers waited in hiding, protected by a police chief who carried too many secrets and not enough help.
"I know what's coming," I said to the night. The words felt right, felt necessary—a declaration to the darkness that I wasn't afraid. "And I'm going to change it."
The wrongness pulsed in the distance, that familiar cold pressure that had been my constant companion since arriving in Hawkins. Stronger every day. Closer.
Soon.
I climbed into the Camaro and headed home. The wrongness faded behind me as I drove, but it didn't disappear. It never disappeared anymore.
"Come on then," I murmured, gripping the wheel. "Let's see what you've got."
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