The Great War | Billy Hargrove

27 | The Sauna

"Issi?" Max asked sleepily, as she opened the bedroom door.

"I'm sorry to wake you. I had a bad nightmare about ... well I had a bad nightmare and couldn't sleep, and I just —"

"Yeah, come on in," Max nodded. Isadora thanked her as she made her way into the bedroom and soon she got comfortable on a spare mattress on the floor of Max's bedroom before falling back to sleep.

"Do you copy? This is a code red. I ready, this is a code red. Max, do you copy? This is a code red," the sound of Lucas's voice woke Isadora up in the early hours of the morning and she groaned as she sat up and looked towards Max.

"Shut up," Max snapped before turning the walkie talkie off. Isadora saw Max roll over and go back to sleep, and Isadora attempted to do the same but moments later the phone rang and Max groaned, "You've got to be kidding me."

"Max, it's so early," Isadora grumbled, as Max got out of bed and went to answer the phone.

"I'm sleeping. Go away," Max snapped, before she lowered the phone but a moment later, Isadora saw her lifting the phone back to her ear, "What are you talking about? What?"

"What did he say?" Eleven asked.

"What's going on?" Laura asked sleepily.

"We need to go to Mike's house. Apparently the boys have something they need to tell us," Max told the girls. Isadora wasn't sure what she was being dragged into right now, but she decided she was going to join them at Mike's house, figuring she could always just go back to her house if she needed to. The girls went and changed with Isadora deciding to continue to wear Billy's shirt, feeling a sense of closeness to him. After changing, the girls headed to Mike Wheeler's house and as Isadora followed them down to Mike's basement, she was surprised to see Hazel was here.

"What's going on?" Isadora asked.

"Will has something he needs to tell everyone," Hazel said, although she was really surprised that Isadora was even here, but before she had a chance to ask the blonde why she was here, Isadora went and sat down beside Max.

"I didn't think it was anything at first. I mean, I think I just didn't want to believe it. The first time I felt it was at Day of the Dead."

"Power went out that night, too."

"And then I felt it again at the field near the Nelson Farm the next day. Then again yesterday outside Castle Byers."

"You were out there in the storm?" Hazel asked Will.

"What does it feel like?" Max asked, as Isadora looked between the group, trying to work out what they were even talking about.

"It's almost like ... you know when you drop on a roller coaster?"

"Sure."

"Yeah."

"Yes."

"No."

"It's like ... everything inside your body is just sinking all at once, but this is worse. Your body, it goes cold and — you can't breathe. I've felt it before, whenever he was close."

"I'm sorry, whenever who was close?" Isadora asked Will.

"The Mind Flayer," Will told her.

"The Mind what?" Isadora asked. Hazel saw her best friend furrowing her eyebrows together as she tried to work out what Will was talking about, and Hazel understood why Isadora was confused, for the blonde knew nothing about what had been going on in the town of Hawkins.

"I closed the gate."

"I know, but what if he never left? What if we locked him out here with us?" Will asked them. Isadora looked over at Hazel, who mouthed to her that she would explain later, as Will grabbed some paper and started drawing something, "This is him. All of him, but that day on the field, a part of him attached itself to me. My mum got it out of me and Eleven closed the gate, but the part that was still in me, what if it's still in our world? In Hawkins?"