The Long Game━ (l. sinclair)

sam snaps, mike breaks, and corey's a stubborn bastard

"Well, I was just trying to be polite even though you guys rudely woke us up," Sam grumbled. "What are you even talking about?"

"Just come over to my house. We'll explain everything."

"What—?"

"Hurry."

And then he hung up, leaving a confused Sam on the other line in the process.

◦☆＊★ ━━━━━━ ★＊☆◦

Sam, Max, and El were eager to find out what the hell the boys contacted them so desperately for. They got dressed and ready as quickly as they could — El wearing the other, new outfit she bought from the mall, Max wearing a purple shirt with rainbow striped short-sleeves, and Sam wearing a chunky yellow and green oddly-pattered sweater with overall shorts on top. Luckily, the sun was shining today, so they didn't need to put on their raincoats. When they biked outside this time, they weren't being drenched by rain in the process.

The trio of girls made it to Mike's house and were now sitting, tense, in the basement with Lucas, Mike, Corey, and Will. El was sat on a rocking chair, Mike, Lucas, and Corey on the couch, Sam on the armchair, Max on the floor between the rocking chair and armchair, and Will just sitting on a piece of furniture, for some reason.

Long story short, he was back.

To add bouts of confusion, Will knew he was back.

And that was sort of... it — if you didn't include tension that lingered between two Party members, separated by an oblivious Lucas. Sam's stare darted between Mike and Corey, studying their mannerisms. Her concentration was on them until Will actually began to explain.

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

Everything was okay, but, suddenly, the power went out.

Sam and Justin broke apart in surprise, looking up at the darkness around them.

"What the fuck?" Justin wondered while Sam's grip on Justin tightened.

"Something's not right," worried Sam; her chest was cold and there was a returning, sinking feeling in her gut.

Sam's brows furrowed at the connection she made in her mind. Holding the B on her necklace, she said, "The power went out that night, too."

"And then I felt it again at the field near the Nelson farm the next day."

Sam forced herself to keep walking up the hill, forced that cold feeling in her chest to go away. No one else seemed to feel that anything was wrong, so Sam pretended to remain oblivious, too. She shook it off, turned to see Will had paused in the hiking, and called for him to join her.

"Then again yesterday outside Castle Byers," continued Will.

"Oh," Billy smiled, amused, "I know all about you, Samantha."

He called her Samantha, just like how he had done the morning of Sam and Max's sleepover. That moment was the exact moment Sam had recalled in Max's bathroom, with the anxiety that his behavior was connected to what happened last year. Sam furrowed her brows and clutched her chest with her hand, sensing something was wrong.