BILLIE JEAN ( eddie munson.. ) ✔

015. Everybody's Stayin' Alive..

"But you exorcized the demon," he reminded everyone while looking at Billie. "Sent it back to Hell or some shit, right? So why are we sitting around talking about Mirror Man when we should be focusing on Vecna now?" In the heat of the moment, he threw a glance at Max, whose headphone, around her neck, still blasted her song for her to hear.

Billie didn't know how to put it yet but her grimace was enough of a telltale whispering this was far from over. Seeing the look on her face, Dustin cut in and nudged his friend, "Damn, you haven't played D&D in a while and it shows. Demons have to be conjured in order to systematically target people."

"You're thinking a Demon Lord?" Eddie, presented with his natural habitat, raised his eyebrows. Hanging from the middle of his collar onto his chest was the pair of black sunglasses.

"A cult," Billie corrected Eddie. "It's a cult."

"Vecna," Dustin nodded along, "and the Cult of the Mirror Man."

"The point is," Billie sighed, switching her weight from one foot to the other; she leant closer to Eddie. "I don't think Mirror Man is gone."

Steve stiffened. His breath hitched. Under the blanket and his new clothes Billie stole from Barry's closet and let Steve borrow in order to replace those shredded and bled on, he felt the chill of the bruises the possession left behind.

"It's no longer in you," Billie quickly added for him. "I mean, you wouldn't be able to have that rosary around your neck if the demon was still in you."

"Then what? It just left Steve, without the exorcism's push?" Robin rested her elbows on her knees, leaning forward.

"Are we going to ignore the part where she said this is about a cult?" Lucas panicked in a louder voice. "An actual cult."

"I think Mirror Man was weaker, that's why it got out of Steve's body that easily," Billie voiced the thought which has been torturing her since they left the Creel house.

"You call that easily?" Steve gasped.

"No, she's right," Dustin nodded, pleasantly surprising Eddie. "Mirror Man manifested in the hallway with us too, as well as in the basement with Steve..."

"And back home here," Sam completed.

Dustin brough the conclusion with a flat smile, "Then its power was divided."

Nancy watched the whole basement footage while they talked, paying attention to two things at once. However, though her gut feeling told her this footage was important, she caught no clues in it. On a whim, she decided to give it another shot, so she played back the video, at which point, though remarkably fast, some words distinguished through, making everyone turn their heads towards her.

"What was that?" Billie asked, eyes wide.

"I went... backwards."

"Do it again!" Eddie demanded, gesturing with his hand for her to hurry up.

Nancy pressed one button to fast forward, another to pause, and then looked up at her friends, all watching while she made the video go backwards again, sound all the way up.

"The curse is in my car keys!" clearly spoke through the roars and screams of the demon. The pause button was pressed again.

"It wasn't Mirror Man doing the talking," Billie breathed out, arms unclenching and hanging on both sides of her body now. "It really was Steve and the demon was just trying to block him by mirroring all he wanted to say."

"Mirror Man," Robin grinned.

"Then he erased his memory of all of it."

"Steve," Nancy spoke over, "where are your car keys?"