𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐄𝐒 | b. hargrove ²

𝟴| 𝘽𝙊𝙄𝙇𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙋𝙊𝙄𝙉𝙏

Lili caught someone waving wildly in her peripheral. She turned her head slightly to see Max and Mike waving their arms around frantically.

"I'll talk to you later," Lili said to Billy. Billy only nodded before turning his attention back to the pool.

Lili eyed the kids to follow her into the pool house. She touched her ear and pulled it, a nervous tactic she picked up.

"Where's the girls?" Lili asked when Mike, Will and Lucas met her by the lobby.

"They stayed back," Mike said quickly. "Listen, if Billy is Flayed, then you are in danger. You can't go near him until we know for sure."

"I can't go near him? That's like asking me to breathe without oxygen," Lili retorted and she crossed her arms. She looked at the boy with an annoyed expression but Mike didn't care.

"Lili, we know you love him, but for your own protection you have to listen," Mike sighed. "We might have a plan to find out for sure."

"Okay," Lili shrugged. "Tell me."

"We could lock him in the sauna," Will piped up.

"Yeah, then we'll just set the thermostat to the highest degree and wait," Lucas said.

"If it's anything like last year, the Mind Flayer will show up," Mike nodded. "Then we'll know. We'll know for sure."

"Okay," Lili nodded as she chewed her bottom lip. She pulled her ear again. "We just need to do it after hours."

"Yeah, of course," Mike nodded.

"Alright," Lili nodded again and folded her arms. Her eyes were locked on Mike's. "What do we need?"

"Okay, so, we need to lock Billy in the sauna and that should activate the Mind Flayer?" asked. She and Lili were all walk-in down the corridor of the pool house to get a CPR dummy to use as a fake kid.

"Essentially, yes," Lili nodded.

"And this is gonna work?" El sucked in a breath.

"With the both of us," Lili looked at her. "Yes. It should."

"Great," El sighed and held her head in her hand.

"El," Lili said to her sister. The girl turned to look at her. "The dummy is in that gated area here. You should be able to unlock it."

"Okay," El nodded and she turned on her heel and left for it. Lili rummaged through a box next to her for a good, sturdy lock they could use for Billy. She found a LockMaster and decided that it was good enough. She couldn't help the guilty feeling of looking at the lock that was supposed to trap Billy. She never thought that she'd be in this position.

"El?" Lili called for her sister and walked over to the storage closet.

"Did you spy on me? That's totally against the rules!" She heard Mike gasp.

"I make my own rules," El snapped. She walked out and almost rammed into Lili.

"What happened?" Lili asked.

"I dumped his ass," El said to her with a straight face. Lili couldn't help the laugh that erupted from her.

"You broke up with Mike?" Lili laughed. El looked at her sister with a disgusted expression. "You broke up with Mike? Mike and you aren't together?"

"Lili," El sighed, shifted her weight from one foot to the other while grilling the dummy harder.

"I'm sorry," Lili sputtered between laughs. "I just never thought I'd see the day!"