YOUR SONG | steve harrington

045

Carmen, Mike, and Max helped Eleven walk as the gate buzzed and opened up. They had heard the spider monster run off and they assumed that it was chasing after someone else, so they wanted to get out of the mall when they had the chance.

"Shit!" Max exclaimed once they saw Billy standing near his burning car, his veins popping out of his discolored skin.

"Go, go, go, go, go, go!" Mike shouted and they all ran back where they came from, Eleven hopping on one foot since her leg was killing her.

Max quickly let go of Eleven and ran back towards the gate, pressing the button to shut the door again so Billy couldn't get through. Carmen took Max's place, helping Eleven as Max quickly ran back.

On the other hand, Jonathan continued to speed the car down the road to try and get away from the flayed. "It's turning around!" Steve shouted from the back of the car once the spider monster had stopped chasing them.

"What?!" Nancy exclaimed.

"It's turning around!" Beverly repeated.

"Maybe we wore it out," Lucas suggested.

"I don't think so. Hold on," Jonathan said as he swung the car the other way, making everyone fly over in their seats. He then started to drive the car back.

"Wait, why are we following it?" Chris questioned since he didn't want to just walk right into death.

"It's not after us, it's after El. So that must mean something happened back wherever El is to trigger it to stop following us," Nancy explained.

"Wait, do you think Billy did something?" Alicia asked fearfully.

"We knocked him out, though," Robin pointed out.

"But he's flayed. He's stronger now," Will said, speaking from experience. "So instead of being knocked out for an hour, it could be, like, ten minutes."

"Shit," Beverly breathed out, and Steve placed his hand on her's to try and calm her down. She hoped that Carmen and others would be okay, but with Billy there and now the spider monster going back...she was becoming even more worried.

Carmen, Mike, Max, and Eleven ran through the back hallways of the mall, trying to find somewhere to hide or somewhere else to escape from.

"In here. In here," Mike breathed out before he started to tap on a button to get the doors opened.

Max heard a door open and she stepped out in the hallway, seeing that Billy had found them. "Billy," she began, and the other three turned around, their eyes wide. "Billy, you don't have to do this. Billy. Your name's Billy, Billy Hargrove. You live on 4819 Cherry Lane. Billy, please, I'm Max, I'm your—"

Billy punched Max in the face, sending her down on the ground. Carmen gasped and instinctively stepped forward, trying to punch Billy in the face. But, it didn't seem to work and he whacked her right in the nose, sending her down on the ground where she hit her head, passing out.

Jonathan sped the car all the way to the mall where the spider monster went back to and he quickly parked outside, seeing that Billy was no longer unconscious in the front seat. "Shit!" Jonathan exclaimed.

"O-Okay, what do we do?" Robin questioned, her throat running dry. "Because we clearly can't fight that thing with just ourselves. I mean, have you seen it? It's just one huge, blob of blood and bones and whatever the hell is in there! Like, I've never seen anything like it before and I've seen some weird shit lately but nothing like that and—"

"Robin!" Alicia quickly said, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder to calm her down.

"I was rambling, wasn't I?" the Buckley girl asked, her eyes wide out of fear.