The Great War | Billy Hargrove

29 | Finding the Flayed

"Hi, Isa," Hazel said, as she walked outside and sat down beside the blonde.

"Hi," Isadora said, as she looked towards her best friend before furrowing her eyebrows together, "I would've thought Ellie would be here."

"I don't know, she might be staying at one of her friends' houses. Although, normally she would be hanging out with Max and seeing as Max is here with us, she must be another one of her friend's houses," Hazel said, although she avoided making eye contact with Isadora and the blonde shook her head.

"Stop lying to me! Just cut the crap and tell me the truth, Hazel. Does Ellie know about this, any of this?" Isadora snapped.

"Yeah, she does. She found out about all of it when Dad brought Eleven home. Ellie and Eleven have never really gotten along," Hazel told the blonde.

"And let me guess, I'm the last to know about of this?" Isadora asked, as she clenched her hands together.

"Isa, we were doing what we had to do to protect you," Hazel said. At the mention of we, Isadora scoffed and clenched her fists together.

"You were all lying to me!"

"We were trying to protect you!"

"Well, I never asked you to do that! You know what, I'm going to bed," Isadora said, as she stood up.

"Isadora —" Hazel tried, but the blonde ignored her as she made her way inside and over to the bed that had been made up for her, before lying down and trying to get some sleep. By the next morning when she woke up, Isadora was still annoyed and also exhausted from getting minimal sleep. As the group woke up, it was decided that Eleven would try and go into Billy's mind and as she listened to the plan, Isadora folded her arms across her chest, as she looked between the teenagers.

"How — how is any of this possible?" Isadora asked, as Eleven went into the other room to try and go into Billy's mind. Hazel looked over at her and hesitated before answering.

"I have asked myself that every day, ever since Will disappeared," Hazel told her. Isadora looked at Hazel blankly before seeing Laura standing beside Max and she walked over to where the younger girl was standing.

"Can we talk?" Isadora asked.

"Y-yeah," Laura nodded. Max looked between the two before walking over to where Mike and Eleven were standing.

"I just ... I wanted to say I'm sorry for being so harsh towards you when you told me about your crush on Billy," Isadora said.

"It's ok, and you're right. I know he's too old for me but ... I don't know, I guess I just wish he'd notice me," Laura shrugged, as she looked down at her hands.

"I understand," Isadora nodded, as she smiled at Laura and the younger girl relaxed as she smiled back.

"It can't be good for her to be in there for this long," Mike said, as the group waited for Eleven, who had been in the bedroom for what seemed like hours.

"Mike, you need to relax."

"What, if she gets brain damage or something?"

"Oh, shit. Is that like a real thing?" Lucas asked.

"No, it's not. He made it up. Mike doesn't know what the hell he's talking about," Max said.

"Oh, and you do?"

"No, I —"

"Yes, from the Hawkins Post," Nancy said and Isadora looked over to where she was speaking on the phone, "I called a couple days ago about the — yes, yes, um — I was just ... following up to see if anything else had gone missing or if — okay. Um, sorry to bother —"