LIKE A HURRICANE ⭑ - Billy Hargrove ⭑

09 | Love Will Get You Nowhere

Mike led Hopper, Steve, and Billy out to the shed in the backyard. The structure looked as though it were sinking into the earth with how much it had settled since it was first built probably close to twenty years ago and it looked about half-rotted with the way the siding was warped and how the roof dipped in the center. Vines were growing up the side that probably faced the sun and moss coating the opposite side. But once Hopped opened the door it didn't look near as bad as Billy initially thought. Yes, it was filled with junk and yard stuff, but it was dry and free of large cobwebs.

"Yeah, this'll work," Hopper had said before sending Mike and Steve back into the house to gather old sheets, the car tarp, and old, empty boxes Joyce kept in her small attic. Then elder man quickly set to work clearing the space out and Billy helped where he could. However, the elder man seemed determined to do most everything on his own. Hopper wasn't very careful with a lot of the stuff, but they had bigger concerns at the moment.

In less than an hour, the shed was entirely cleared out. By this point, Steve had returned with the car tarp and a couple of old sheets in boxes and Nancy managed to find a roll of duct tape and a stapler. They began tacking up the tarp and sheets to the walls inside the shed while Billy broke down the boxes into usable sheets of cardboard. It wasn't much, but at least he felt useful. He was just glad he wasn't digging through the trash looking for anything to use like the pre-teen boys.

Within a few minutes, everyone gathered outside the shed with the materials they had found: Paper, foil, more cardboard, sheets that were hanging on lines, more duct tape, a hammer with a few nails, and another stapler. Working together, they disguised the entire inside of the shed in about five minutes. Then, Max and Mike brought out a couple of chairs covered in cardboard and Steve set up the brightest lamp Joyce had and directed it at one of the chairs as if it were some interrogation light. Once these were set up, Hopper brought the small boy out to the shed and both he and Joyce strapped him down with a cord. Through all of this, Billy felt out of place. He isn't used to working with others. He feels jittery. It's strange. It doesn't feel right. Maybe it was the fact that they were going to interrogate a kid. Possessed or not, it doesn't feel moral to him. What a time to grow a conscious, huh? So Billy shoves the feeling away because these people actually look as though they do care for the boy and are trying to do their best considering the circumstances.

"All right, you ready?" Hopper asks, his question directed at Joyce. The woman nods as a look of determination hardens on her face. She doesn't want to do this but she needs to. She wants her son back and she's willing to do anything for him. It makes Billy wish his mother would have done the same and taken him away from Neil. Though now he knows he never would have met Max.

Hopper takes the Ammonia from Mike and pulls a handkerchief from his pocket, "Alright, everyone but Mike, Jonathan, and Joyce back to the house. We'll call you if we need you." Reluctantly, they all leave the shed and make their way back to the house.

Unsure of what to do, everyone finds somewhere to sit or stand and if they can't sit still, they pace or find something to do with their hands. Dustin watches the shed from the kitchen window, Nancy lingers by the door, Steve practices swinging his bat alone in the living room, and Billy finds himself sitting at the dining table. The house is too quiet. Screaming echoes from the shed and the lights begin to flicker. The boy is awake and Billy has never felt more terrified. But as quickly as the lights began flickering, they stop. It puts everyone on edge and yet, they can't do a thing.

Billy puts his face in his hands. How the hell did he and Max get wrapped up in all this shit? They've barely been here for a week but it has felt so much longer than that. At first, Hawkins was everything he thought it was going to be but then it took a turn he never saw coming. For the worst or best, he isn't sure. Yes, he feels lighter but now he knows that monsters are real. He knows they are out there and that they can and have stolen people from this very town if not others as well. There's no going back to a semi-normal life now that he knows about all of this shit. He and Max both. There is no going back. There is no semi-normal now.