The next morning dawned peacefully at Helen's house, the sunlight filtering through lace curtains and casting soft shadows on the wooden floor. Cassian was seated at the kitchen table, a cup of black coffee in his hand, his face as serene as ever, his dark eyes fixed on the steam rising from the drink. Helen, her blonde hair still tousled from the night before, entered with vibrant energy, holding a stack of papers and a laptop under her arm. Her expression was a mix of curiosity and determination, typical of her: clever, brave, but with a touch of sarcasm that never left her, as she had shown during her days facing nightmares in Woodsboro.
"Good morning, hero," Helen said, dropping the papers onto the table with a theatrical thud. "I hope you slept well after… well, last night. Because I didn't get a wink of sleep, and it wasn't just because of you."
Cassian looked up, a faint smile curving his lips, his calm demeanor unchanged even in the face of Helen's playful tone.
"I slept enough, Helen. What kept you up? More nightmares or something new?"
She sat across from him, crossing her legs and tapping her fingers on the table, a habit that betrayed her impatience.
"Something new, Cassian. I spent the night researching strange cases across the country, hacking into some police files and reviewing videos that shouldn't be in my hands. I wanted to see if there was anything worth our time before the Vatican sends us off to hunt demons again. And I found one that… well, blew my mind."
Cassian set the cup down on the table, his gaze fixed on her, silently inviting her to continue. Helen took a deep breath, her tone growing more serious, though with that sarcastic edge she never lost, as if she were always challenging the world.
"It's a small town, Hawkins, Indiana. Something strange happened there a few months ago. I don't have all the details because the police reports are a mess, and the government stepped in to cover it all up, but here's what I gathered: a boy disappeared, a kid named Will-something. His mother was convinced he was still alive, said he was communicating with her through the house lights, like some damn Spielberg movie. The police chief, a guy named Hopper, started investigating and found weird stuff near a government lab—something about secret experiments. There were rumors of a girl with powers, like telekinesis or something, who escaped from there. And then, out of nowhere, bodies started showing up—but one of them turned out to be fake, stuffed with cotton or some crazy thing like that. In the end, the boy came back, but no one talks clearly about what happened. I hacked some security footage from the lab—don't look at me like that, Cassian, you know I'm good at this—and saw strange installations: water tanks, wires everywhere, and something that looked like… I don't know, a portal or a rift in the wall, but it wasn't normal."
Cassian listened in silence, his expression unshaken, though his fingers tapped once on the table—a rare sign of interest. When Helen finished, he tilted his head slightly, his voice as calm as a still lake.
"A portal, you say? And a girl with powers? That doesn't sound like an ordinary case, not even by Vatican standards. What else did you see in those videos?"
Helen leaned forward, her eyes shining with a mix of excitement and caution, her natural bravery pushing her to delve deeper into the mystery, though her cunning kept her alert.
"Not much more—the quality was terrible, and they cut the recordings before anything clear showed up. But there were shadows moving, Cassian, shadows that didn't look human. And the police reports mentioned a 'monster,' something that attacked more people, including a girl who also disappeared. The police chief and the boy's mother went into the lab at some point, and after that, everything went silent. The government shut the place down, locked it up, and now it's like nothing ever happened. But those tanks, those installations—they weren't for normal scientific experiments. It was like they were playing with something they shouldn't."
Cassian took a sip of coffee, his gaze distant for a moment as he processed the information. Then he spoke, his tone measured and reflective, as if reciting a lesson learned decades ago.
"Parallel dimensions to ours aren't something we see every day, Helen. The astral plane is the most familiar, the one we've studied since the beginning at the Vatican. That's where lost souls wander, and sometimes demons try to cross over. But it's not the only dimension. There are others, some created by demons as their own realms, others independent realities that shouldn't touch Earth. What I was taught as a child, and what I saw in the oldest archives in Rome, is that these dimensions can't interact with our world unless something forces them. A portal, like the one you described, doesn't open by accident. Someone, or something, caused it."
Helen raised an eyebrow, resting her chin on her hand, her sarcasm peeking through again.
"So what? Do you think the U.S. government decided to play witch and opened a door to Narnia? Because if that's the case, I want to see it with my own eyes. I don't buy that some boring lab in Indiana has the tech for that without the Vatican sniffing it out first."
Cassian smiled faintly, his calm contrasting with Helen's restless energy.
"Don't underestimate what humans can do when they're obsessed with power, Helen. If that girl has telekinesis, they might have used her as a key, consciously or not. And if there's a monster, as you say, it's not a common spirit or a minor demon. It could be something native to that dimension, something that doesn't follow our rules. That's what intrigues me. If they forced a portal, and something crossed over, it could be a precedent—not just for Hawkins, but for the world."
Helen leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms, her mind racing as always, seeking the next step with that mix of bravery and cunning that defined her.
"Are you saying this could be bigger than the cases we've seen? Because, look, I've faced psychopaths with knives and nightmares that keep me awake, but parallel dimensions with monsters sound like another level. What do we do, Cassian? Do we sit around waiting for the Vatican to call us, or do we stick our noses in ourselves?"
Cassian looked at her steadily, his dark eyes gleaming with a spark of curiosity he rarely showed, though his voice maintained the serenity that characterized him.
"I don't wait, Helen. If there's a portal, and if something opened it from the other side or from here, we need to know what it is and how they opened it. The Vatican has its priorities, but I don't leave loose ends. Hawkins isn't far, and if that lab is still closed, we could go in, see what they left behind. The police reports and your videos are a start, but I need to see it with my own senses. If it's a demonic dimension, I'll know how to face it. If it's something else… well, we'll figure it out together."
Helen grinned, a wide and mischievous smile, her bravery shining as she stood up and began gathering the papers.
"That's what I wanted to hear, Cassian. No sitting around waiting for orders like good little soldiers. Let's go to Hawkins, then. If there's a monster, a portal, or a crazy girl moving things with her mind, we'll face it like always—you with your crucifix and me with my ingenuity. But I warn you, if something with tentacles chases me, I'm blaming you for dragging me into this."
Cassian chuckled softly, standing with the same calm that always accompanied him, taking his jacket from the back of the chair.
"I'll take the blame, Helen. But if there are tentacles, there are answers too. Pack your things—we leave at noon. Hawkins awaits, and whatever happened there, I don't like the idea of a portal being left open without us knowing."
She nodded, already walking toward her room with the papers in hand, her voice echoing from the hallway with that sarcastic tone that so defined her:
"Perfect, Cassian. I just hope we don't end up trapped in another dimension. Although, come to think of it, with you by my side, even that could be fun."
Cassian shook his head, a faint smile on his face as he finished his coffee. Serenity enveloped him like a cloak, but in his mind, the pieces were starting to fall into place. Parallel dimensions, forced portals, a government lab… Hawkins promised to be more than just a curious case.