Now I see

Epilogue: Lost and found

Last thing Billy remembered was Steve, then light and then a facefull of fire. He couldn't feel anything. If this was death, it was fine.

It wasn't fine. He was bored. Can you be bored after you die? asked Billy no one in particular (God) on the daily.

Then slight pain came. Not a lot, at first. But some did anyway. It wasn't a lot of fun.

Sometimes Billy heard voices. Sometimes it was a lot of voices, all of them merging into a cacophony of voices that made Billy's head hurt. Sometimes it was a single familiar voice, male or female.

After what felt like years, Billy started to recognize the voices.

"It... not... ike... he's gonna.... ake up. Why ...r... ere... eve...day?" some unfamiliar voice asked.

"I... I wanna ... with him... case he... akes up."

"Then go ... Max. Don't... rag me in... this. ... work to do."

Max? He knew Max! Is she doing okay?

Something was dragging Billy up. There were two ends in the floaty nothing where Billy was, light and dark. Billy didn't see a point in going anywhere so he spent most of his time floating around, doing backflips. But now something was actively dragging him towards the light. At first, Billy had no intention of fighting it. What was the reason for that anyway? But then the voices started again. Someone talking in a quiet voice. He didn't understand a word. But it came from the dark part. The light one was quiet.

Was he supposed to let go? He didn't want to be bored anymore though. And voices mean other people, don't they? The peace and quietness seemed great, but for the first time in his life, Billy didn't want to let the current drag him along.

So it was decided. He fought his way through and dove head first into the darkness.

---

Heavy. His body was heavy. His head hurt and he couldn't see. He heard machines around him. Panic flooded through his body. Did he make the wrong choice?

"Billy? Steve I think he moved!"

"Ngh... what?"

"Quit sleeping, Billy moved! Oh God, please, you moved you fucker, didn't you!

Max. Billy smiled internally. "Watch..." Oh, jeez, talking hurt like a bitch.

"He is trying to say something!"

"Max, quit bugging him, Billy don't talk, I am gonna call the nurse."

Max came closer to Billy's bed as Steve ran out of the bed calling for a nurse. "What do you want to say? Is it something important? Does something hurt?"

"Watch... watch your... profanity," whispered Billy, his throat burning.

Max stayed silent for a moment and then started laughing. "Leave the mothering to Steve, okay? He fretted us so much while you slept, imagine the chaos if you died! You scared all of us."

Billy laid in silence for a second, his memories coming all back to him. All the things he told to Max, to Steve... There was another more urgent problem though, so Billy decided to focus on that.

"Max... why... dark?"

Max frowned. "You have all of your face bangaged, Billy. When you switched with me, I was just about to get hit by a log on fire, so I suppose you got hit by that. I... I don't know if I am the right person to say it, but the doctors say you will have permanent scarring on your right hand all the way to your elbow and your face is also in a pretty bad state. Your leg is healing mostly fine. It wasn't a clean break but compared to the burns..."

Billy tried to process everything. In the end, it wasn't that big of a deal, he can be lucky he survived.

"Billy, I am so sorry," blurted out Max. "I should have been more careful, I am so sorry."

Rolling his eyes hurt too. "Shut up, moron. Not your fault. It's okay."

Max wanted to say more but at the moment Steve returned with a nurse.

"God, Billy I am so glad you are okay," Steve whispered and Billy knew everything would be fine.

a couple months later

"Can I come over?" asked the voice in the phone.

Billy suppressed his smile. "Is there a way to stop you?"

"Nope. I am already outside your door," responded the voice, as three loud knocks from the main door carried themselves into Billy's room.

"Coming!" Max responded. "Oh, hi Steve!"

The door to his room opened, two people in the doorframe. "Billy, you have a visitor. Steve, I haven't done his exercises with him today yet, so you can do that. Don't do gross stuff and be careful, Billy is still healing."

Steve's ears went red and Billy laughed weakly. "Okay, mom, we will behave."

Max rolled her eyes back to her skull. "I am going out with friends, you do what you want."

The door slammed with a bang as the siblings yelled out their goodbyes.

"Hi," said Steve after the silence filled in with a slight blush on his cheeks. He raised his hand in which he held a couple of beer cans. "Wanna have some beer with me?"

Billy smiled. "I would love to."

Because in the end, it's gonna be okay.

So here we are! The end! There are probably some plot holes that I am not gonna bother fixing, sorry. 

Note to Billy's apperance after in the last segmet - he has a burn scar covering all of his right forearm, left half of his face and parts of his chest. He can barely see out of his left eye, his cheek and a part of his nose are all scar tissue. He has to do exercises to regain full movement in his left leg (the broken one), his right arm and neck/shoulder movement. Honestly you can imagine ow howewer you want, this is just the image I had in mind and there wasn't really a moment to let y'all know he actually has scars, so here it is. 

I am thankful to everyone who sticked with me until the very end. I know I uploaded like shit, I apologize. I appreciate and love every single one of you. Let me know if you enjoyed the story!

Also lastly - yeah really last one of these - I am moving to a new account because of technical issues and also a friend found this account so I am too embarassed to keep posting here. Form now on you can find me at unlucky_rat ! There is nothing yet, but I already have a couple of ideas ready (probably not stranger things related thing anymore though, sorry)

Anyways, bye!