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it felt like they had been sat there for hours, the Mind Flayer getting closer and closer to where they were hidden. It wouldn't be long before he finally found them. On of its fleshy arms appeared besides Mike's head slowly reaching forwards.

The three jumped as there was a loud bang from somewhere behind them, but luckily for the four the noise captured the creatures attention and it scrambled away from them towards where ever the sound had come from. 

They quickly jumped to their feet running towards the exit, Mike shoved the door open glancing behind him to check everyone was following. They'd finally made it out into the car park, Riley and Mike rushing forwards to help El who was still struggling with her leg while Max pressed the button to open the gate.

They didn't make it very far though, as the second they looked up, Billy, who was stood in the flames of his broken car, started towards them. They turned rushing back through the door they had came from, Max pressing the button once more, hoping to close the gate before Billy could get through.

They hurried through the hallways, not managing to get anywhere very fast sue to El's injured leg. It seemed every way they turned seemed to be more endless corridors, until Mike finally led them into a room where there was an elevator which could get them out.

Both Mike and Riley were frantically pushing any button they could see, but the door just wouldn't open. Max slowly walked back into the hallway upon hearing the doors down the corridor from them burst open. 

"Billy." Riley turned upon hearing Max's voice, "Billy, you don't have to do this. Billy. Your name is Billy, Billy Hargrove. You live on 4819 Cherry Lane. Billy please, I'm Max, I'm your-" 

Max's attempts of bringing her step-brother back were suddenly cut of as Billy appeared into the doorway smacking Max so hard across the face that she fell straight towards the floor. Mike quickly pulled Riley behind him standing her next to El, before rushing forwards trying to shove Billy backwards.

Which only led to him being shoved towards the floor. Riley looked around frantically, for anything she could use to protect herself and El from Billy. But it was no use, within seconds Billy had grabbed her head shoving it harshly into the wall besides her. 

She could faintly hear El whimpering from where she was led on the floor. But it didn't last long before everything went dark.


"Riley. Riley, come on, wake up. Riley!" The girls eyes slowly peeled open, only just making out the blurry figure of Mike leaning above her, shaking her shoulders concern written all over his face. 

She reached her hand up towards her head, where there was a non-stop pounding coming from, her hand came ran across something sticky. Mike quickly grabbed her hand bringing it down from her head, placing her glasses upon her face.

There were cracks all over the lenses which weren't helping very much with her vision, but it was clear enough to see the red which now stained her hands. Mike carefully helped the Harrington to her feet, grabbing her arm when she nearly fell over again. 

"We gotta go find El." Mike whispered in her ear leading her out the room to where Max was standing in the hallway waiting. Everything still felt fuzzy and there was an annoying ringing in her ears which wouldn't leave.

But there were bigger things to be worried about, like where El had disappeared to. They ran as fast as they could towards the main room, where they found Billy stood above El, who was crawling backwards away from the Mind Flayer, one of its tentacles moving towards the girl.

But before it could get to her, Billy suddenly moved using his full force to grab ahold of it pushing it backwards away from the scared girl. He yelled out in pain as more of it's arms came forwards stabbing into his sides from all angles. 

And then came the last one, slamming straight into his chest. He fell limp still being held upright by the Mind Flayers arms. Slowly the creature retreated leaving Billy to fall towards the floor. In all the chaos Riley could make out Max yelling Billy's name before slowly walking forwards falling at her step-brothers side.

Riley followed as fast as she could, which wasn't very fast since the whole room was still spinning for her. The Mind Flayer suddenly screeched out in pain, quickly moving around the room before also falling to the floor.

"Billy, wake up, please Billy." Max sobbed shaking his shoulders. but it was no use, "Billy!"

Riley lent down besides her pulling the shaking girl into a tight hug, resting her head on her shoulder rubbing her back soothingly. Mike carefully helped El to her feet moving towards Max and Riley, standing behind the two girls.

"It's okay. It's okay." Riley whispered, stroking Max's hair trying to stop her own tears from spilling down her cheeks. She had no reason to be upset, Max was the one who had just lost her step-brother, El was the one who was being attacked by the Mind Flayer.

So she pushed her own thoughts to the side focusing on Max, who was clutching onto her for dear life, like she was the only thing keeping her alive. She stayed with Max while the military arrived, she stayed with Max as Steve helped the two out towards where the paramedics were. She stayed with her right up until Max's mum came to pick her up.

She'd been sat in the ambulance for what felt like years. Steve had told her that the paramedics had said she'd gotten a grade two concussion from where she'd hit her head, he'd taken one of the plasters covering the giant cut on the top of her forehead. 

At some point, Riley wasn't really sure when, Dustin had arrived. He'd stayed with her while Steve had tried talking the paramedics into letting them leave without calling their parents. But it hadn't worked, and although it was a ten minute drive at most from their house to the mall, half an hour later they finally arrived.

Their mum refused to get out the car, which led to their dad grumpily walking over, signing the paperwork so he could take his kids home. Riley was tempted to ask if she could stay at Dustin's, but she knew that would never work. 

They'd interrupted her parents day off work, their relaxing day, that never ended well. Dustin had tried to offer to walk Riley to the car, but Steve had turned down the offer ensuring him that he'd look after Riley and that it would be better if he found his mom. 

Steve had made sure she'd stayed awake the whole ride home and the second they entered the house he'd made sure to take her straight to her room. Riley knew that he was just trying to stop her from being involved in the fight that was no doubt about to start downstairs.

And if her head wasn't pounding as much as it was, she would have argued to stay with him. But instead she let him tuck her into bed and turn out the lights, before leaving to deal with their parents who were already yelling for him to hurry up.

Someone to you - Dustin HendersonWhere stories live. Discover now