Bound By Shadows 3 | Will Byers x Reader (Fem)

~ 16 ~

~ the next morning ~

The sky looked like it hadn't slept.

Heavy clouds dragged low over Hawkins, slow and mean, and the whole morning smelled like wet pavement. 

I stayed in bed as long as I could, cocooned in my blanket like a burrito that had given up on life. The wind scratched leaves against the window like fingernails, and I thought, yep, that's the mood for today. Gross.

Three sharp knocks rattled the front door. Too deliberate for some Girl Scout. Too loud for a Jehovah's Witness.

"Ughhh," I groaned, peeling myself out of bed. The blanket came with me, trailing across the floor as I shuffled down the stairs.

My hair felt like a bird's nest. My socks slid on the wood. If it was Steve, back for his stupid sailor hat, I was locking the door in his face.

I pulled the door open, squinting into the dull light.
Not Steve.

Max stood there, arms crossed, expression flat but sharp. El beside her looked pale, eyes wide like she'd seen a ghost.

"Hey," Max said, giving my blanket a once-over. "You look like garbage. Respectfully."

"I feel like garbage," I croaked, rubbing my eyes. "Why are we doing this at... whatever time it is?"

El stepped forward, her voice soft but steady. "We need your help."

That woke me up faster than coffee.
"...Come in."

They followed me into the living room. I collapsed onto the couch, burrito-mode engaged again, while they perched like they were about to pitch a crime scene.

"Okay," I sighed. "Talk."

El glanced at Max, then back at me. "Last night... we spied again. After you left."

"On who?"

"Random names," Max said with a shrug. "We spun the wheel. It was stupid fun. Until Billy came up."

That name pulled me straighter.

"I thought it'd just be him yelling at someone," Max muttered. "You know. Normal Billy."

El cut in quickly. "There was a girl. Screaming. She looked... scared. And Billy—he was standing over her." She hesitated, then added, "And then he looked at me."

My blanket suddenly felt suffocating. "What do you mean looked at you?" My voice came out sharper than I intended.

"Like he saw me," El whispered. Her hands twisted in her lap. "Like he knew I was there."

A cold drop hit the centre of my chest. Fear. Heavy, sinking.

"Directly at you?"

She nodded. Slow. Certain. "He knew."

Max scoffed, but it didn't sound as confident as usual. "Or maybe he didn't. I mean, El could've misread it. It was probably just some girl he was with."

"No," I said, already shaking my head. My legs felt restless, like I needed to move. "No one's supposed to see her in the void. If he saw her, then something's wrong."

El's shoulders loosened a little at that, like she'd been waiting for someone to believe her. But the look in her eyes — I hadn't seen that kind of fear since the Upside Down.

I pushed out of my blanket, climbing the stairs two at a time. My heart wouldn't stop pounding.

The headaches. The ringing. The goosebumps that felt too much like static under my skin. Will and I hadn't told anyone else — not Max, not El, not even Steve. We didn't want to start alarms over nothing. But this? Billy seeing her? It didn't feel like nothing anymore.