Always (Steve Harrington X Reader)

Chapter 020

"This is a code red. Do you copy? This is a code red. Max. Do you copy?" Max's walkie continues to go off.

I nudge her sleepily, "Turn that shit off."

Max groans and reaches down to grab the walkie, "Shut. Up." She turns it off and I sigh in relief and start to drift off to sleep.

The phone starts to ring and I whine as Max gets out of bed to get it.

"I'm sleeping. Go away." She answers, "...What are you talking about?" El and I sit up as Max continues to talk to the person on the other line. She hangs up the phone and turns back to us, "It was Mike."

"What did he say?" El questions.

"He said we need to meet him at his house. Something about our lives being at stake."

I climb out of the bed and stretch, "Okay. Get dressed."

We all change quickly and head over to Mike's house.

//Timeskip//

"I didn't think it was anything at first," Will continues, "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." Mike adds.

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

"What does it feel like?" Max asks.

"It's almost like...you know when you drop on a roller coaster?" Everyone let's out small affirmations except El, who shakes her head, "It's like...everything inside your body is just sinking all at once, but...this is worse. Your body, it goes cold and— and you can't breathe. I've felt it before, whenever he was close."

"Whenever who was close?"

"The Mind Flayer."

El shakes her head, "I closed the gate."

"I know, but...what if he never left? What if we locked him out here with us?"

Will grabs a piece of paper and a pencil, "This is him," He starts to draw the Mind Flayer, "But that Day in the field, a part of him attached itself to me," Will wipes his hand across the paper and the graphite stains his hand, "My mom got it out of me...and Eleven closed the gate," Will flips the paper over, "But the part that was still in me, what is it's still in our world?" Will slams his hand down on the paper, leaving an imprint from the graphite, "In Hawkins."

Max shakes her head, "I don't understand. The Demodogs died when El closed the gate. If the brain dies, the body dies."

Mike looks at her, "We can't take any chances. We need to assume the worst. The Mind Flayer's back."

"Yeah. And if he is, he'd want to attach himself to someone again. A new me." Will adds.

Lucas nods, "A new host."

I feel fear rising, "H-How can you tell if someone's a host?"

//Timeskip//

"I don't know," Max says, watching Billy through the binoculars, as we all hide behind my car, "He looks pretty normal to me."