Risky Business ｡ Stranger Things

41 : The Goonies

The information stunned Prue; she had no idea that the girl she had met in an independent bookstore listening to ABBA had survived a serial killer. "Really?" she settled on, astonished.

"And it gets better. She killed the psycho. She's a godman badass!" Selena exclaimed done the line, her voice loud in Prue's ear, drumming around at a hyper pace. 

"What would your article be about exactly?" she prompted, twisting the phone cord around her shaking fingers. At the back of her mind was Billy Hargrove, tears in his eyes as he held her arm tight in a warning. Lock the door, Prue! Please!

"Expanding the bounds of femininity and being a survivor," Selena informed her friend. She had already given the article quite some thought and she believed it would make for an insightful and powerful piece, not that men at the paper would agree.

"You sound so passionate about this and I think you should continue with it, but you have to consider if Jesse even wants to talk about something so... dark," Prue commented back.

"Oh, yeah, of course. I just wanted to run the idea by someone first." While Selena had never been without confidence before, it was lacking when it came to her ability as a journalist and she was seeking support from her dear friends. 

"You're gonna make a wonderful Lois Lane!" Prue encouraged her friend, believing in Selena's passion and dedication.

"Shit! My boss is back. Weirdly enough, Nancy and Johnathan keep disappearing so I have to shoulder their workloads too! Chat later, sweetie!" Selena spat out in a hurry before hanging up. Prue didn't get the chance to wonder why Nancy and Johnathan weren't at the Hawkins Post before the phone was ringing off the hook again.

She answered on the first ring. "Hello?"

"Prue? It's Max," the younger redhead offered up. Prue sent a silent thank you to the heavens as she squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. All she could see was Billy in the darkness, teeth clenched and eyes drowning in tears. 

"I've been ringing you all day. I think something is wrong with—" 

"Billy? Yeah about that," Max interrupted. "Can you meet us at the pool?" Her youthful voice was quivering with worry and it made Prue's heart pause and her hands shake almost violently; she gripped at the phone receiver harder, trying to tame her fear. 

"I'm on my way," she stated without hesitation.

◈

The sun was harsh and sweat made Prue's shirt cling to her back, outlining her spine. Prue had dumped her bike next to the rest of the pile of bicycles belonging to Hawkins's strangest kids. The teenagers were gathered in the carpark, watching the pool from a distance. 

"Did he say anything?" Mike asked Prue after she had explained that Billy had shown up at her house last night acting differently and nearly breaking the door down trying to get to her. Trying to take her. 

"That no one can hide from him," she echoed, the twisted memory haunting her mind. She was wearing her old short denim overalls and her slogan shirt with MTV printed on the front in faded neon colours. 

"That doesn't mean anything. Billy can be scary sometimes," Max pointed out, taking the binoculars from Lucas. Through the chain-link fence, they could spot Billy sitting up in the lifeguard chair.

"This was more than scary," Prue told the group. Eleven's eyebrows were pulled together and she kept sharing looks with Will, his forehead glossed with sweat.

"Would you say he was possessed?" Mike retorted next to El. He was pretty hellbent on Billy being the Mind Flayer's new host. The party had explained everything to Prue and it made her skin prickle and was she overcome with a sense of doom for Billy. She knew deep down that something was wrong with Billy but she didn't want it to be the Mind Flayer, anything but that.