Ignoring Mike and Lucas, Emily and Will went inside of their house in order to clean off the dirt they had gotten on themselves when they fell. Mike and Lucas followed them in but surprisingly didn't say a word the entire time. After many long, quiet minutes, Emily turned to Mike and suggested that they go back to his house. He agreed, and the four of them went back out in the pouring rain and rode their bikes back to the Wheelers'.
Upon arrival, the four of them went immediately to the basement like they always did and began to discuss what had just happened at the Byers'. The twins came clean about what had been happening for the past few days and what they were now certain it meant. Mike now understood what Emily had been keeping from him and why, but with what had just been discovered, they both found it inappropriate to talk about something as insignificant as a quarrel, so things remained uncomfortable between the two of them.
At first, the group thought it best to try to contact the other party members, but when they were reminded of what time it was, they decided to put it off until the morning, since Dustin, Eleven, and Max would likely all be sleeping by now. The rest of them spent the night in Mike's basement that night, which was a bit awkward given the state of the relationships between most of them.
First thing the next morning, Lucas used his supercomm to try to get in contact with Dustin. After a few minutes, it was pretty much accepted that Dustin was unavailable at that time, so they moved on to Max, and by extension, Eleven, since Emily was sure the two girls were still together. She did, however, try to tell Lucas that Max would not respond to him, and if she did, it wouldn't be to listen to what he had to say, but he refused to listen.
"Do you copy?" Lucas said into the supercomm. "This is a code red. I repeat: this is a code red."
"Dude, she's not gonna answer you!" Emily told him again, annoyed with hearing him repeat the same thing over and over.
"But it's a code red!"
"Doesn't matter. She's not very fond of you right now. Besides, she doesn't know about any of this. She'll probably just think you're saying 'code red' to get her to talk to you."
Lucas still refused to see reason and continued on trying to get to Max. "Max. Do you copy? This is a code red."
"Shut. Up," said Max's voice. There was then a click sound followed by silence.
Lucas looked to his friends. "She turned it off."
"See? What'd I tell you?" Emily said.
"Just call her," Will suggested.
"I'll do it. She'll just hang up if she hears a boy's voice."
Emily got up off of the couch, where they were all sitting, and went over to the phone, holding it up to her ear and dialing the number of the Hargrove house.
After just a few rings, Max answered and said, "I'm sleeping. Go away."
"This is Emily. Do not hang up. Something happened after I left your place. Come over to Mike's as soon as you can. We'll tell you everything then. Hurry." Emily hung up, not giving Max the chance to ask questions or argue, and then turned to the boys, specifically Lucas. "Keep trying Dustin."
"He's not answering," Lucas reminded her.
"I said, keep trying."
"Okay. God."
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.
"We didn't think it was anything at first," Will explained once Eleven and Max had arrived. Dustin still had not gotten back to them.
"I think we just didn't want to believe it," Emily said. "Which is why we didn't tell anyone until last night."
"The first time we felt it was at Day of the Dead."
"Power went out that night, too," Mike remembered.
"And then we felt it again at the field near the Nelson farm the next day."
"That's when we knew that something was wrong," Emily added.
"Then it happened again yesterday outside Castle Byers."
"What does it feel like?" Max asked.
"It's almost like... you know when you drop on a rollercoaster?"
"Sure," Mike answered.
"Yeah," said Max.
"No," Eleven said.
"It's like..." Will began, "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, we both have," he motioned to his sister, "whenever he was close."
"Whenever who was close?" Max questioned.
"The Mind Flayer," both twins said at once.
"I closed the gate," Eleven reminded them.
"I know, but..." Will said, "what if he never left? What if we locked him out here with us?"
To better explain, Will got up and went to the table, grabbing a piece of paper and a black crayon on the way.
"This is him," he explained, drawing a rough sketch of the Mind Flayer as he talked. "All of him. But, that day on the field, a part of him attached itself to me." He wiped his hand across the drawing, leaving a coat of black dust on his hand. "My mom got it out of me... and Eleven closed the gate." He flipped the paper over on its blank side. "But the part that was still in me, what if it's still in our world?" He pressed his dust-covered hand onto the paper, leaving behind a black handprint. "In Hawkins."
"I- I don't understand. The Demo-dogs died when El closed the gate," Max brought up. "If the brain dies, the body dies."
"We can't take any chances," Mike said. "We need to assume the worst. The Mind Flayer's back."
"Yeah. And if he is," Will said, "he'd want to attach himself to someone again. A new me."
"A new host," Lucas said.
"How can you tell if someone is a host?" Eleven asked.
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.
The girls explained what they had found out about Billy over the past few days, and Max and Eleven told them all about what they had observed when they found the girl that Billy was with, whose name was Heather, at her house, having what looked like a normal dinner with her parents and Billy. Max insisted they were both fine, but Eleven seemed unsure but was confident in what she had seen when she spied on Billy. To confirm whether Billy was the Mind Flayer's new host or not, the group decided they would go to the community pool, where Heather and Billy worked as lifeguards, to observe Billy to see if there was anything off about him.
"I don't know. He looks pretty normal to me," Max said, looking at Billy through a pair of binoculars. They were all hiding out behind a car in the parking lot.
"Normal? How many times have you seen him with a shirt on?" Lucas pointed out.
"I mean, it's a little weird."
"Max, he bathed in ice. The Mind Flayer likes it cold," Emily reminded her. "Plus the things we found in his trash and what El saw-"
"But he's lounging at the pool, which is, like, the least Mind Flayer thing ever."
"Not necessarily," Will spoke up. "The Mind Flayer likes to hide. He only used me when he needed me. It's like... like you're dormant. And then, when he needs you, you're activated."
"Okay, so we just... wait until he gets activated."
"No. What if he hurts someone?" Mike said.
"Or kills someone," Will added.
"We can't take that chance. We need to find out if he's the host." Mike began to walk away, slightly confusing the others.
"Where are you going?" Emily asked him.
"I have an idea. Boys only." He motioned for Lucas and Will to come with him.
"Are you kidding me?"
"Just trust me on this one."
Emily looked at Eleven and Max and rolled her eyes.
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.
The boys soon came back out and informed the girls of the plan they had come up with. After the pool closed for the day, they would all stay, hidden from sight. Billy would undoubtedly be closing it all up, so he would be there as well. Using a combination of things, the kids would lure him to the men's sauna and lock him in. They would continually increase the heat until they no longer could, and this would tell them whether or not Billy was the new host.
For now, though, they had all split up to look for things to help them with this plan. Emily and Eleven had wandered into some sort of storage room and spotted a mannequin that the lifeguards likely used when practicing CPR. They decided to take this, thinking it could be useful. Eleven took it off of the shelf it had been resting on while Emily continued to look around the room, but a voice behind them made them both stop.
"Hey, I found the breakers," Mike informed them. As the girls turned to face him, he spotted the mannequin that Eleven was holding. "Woah, that thing is super creepy. Let me see it." He took the mannequin from Eleven, holding it to his side. "I think this'll work. Right, buddy? 'Right, Mike.'"
He looked to the girls with a smile, but neither of them returned it. Instead, they exchanged unimpressed looks and Emily took the mannequin back from Mike before she and Eleven made to leave the room.
"Hey, Em..." Mike spoke again. She and Eleven again stopped and turned to face him. Judging by the look on his face, Emily knew he wanted to talk to her about their argument, and not in front of Eleven.
"Hey, El, can you take this to the others?" Emily asked, handing her the mannequin. Eleven nodded and took it. "Thank you. I'll be there in a minute."
Once Eleven had left the room, Emily turned back to Mike, crossing her arms over her chest and waiting for him to speak.
"I just wanted to say..." he began, "you know when my mom told you I was busy? I wasn't. I told her to say that."
"I know," Emily said in a flat tone.
"Right. I just think it was important for you to know the context. I was just nervous that no matter what I said, I would just make it worse, but I guess that's what I ended up doing anyway. And the night before that, I shouldn't have gotten so mad at you. You obviously didn't wanna talk about it and I should have respected that and let you come to me when you wanted to. And now that I know what it was, I don't blame you for any of it. At all. The point is, I'm sorry. You're the most important thing to me in the world, and the last thing I ever wanted to do was mess things up with you."
Emily looked down for a moment. The truth was, she was touched by what he had said, and in her mind, she had already forgiven him for what had happened between them. But as much as she missed him, and as much as she wanted to make up with him, she couldn't excuse what he had said to Will.
"Have you apologized to Will yet?" she asked him, looking back up at him.
Mike appeared confused. "For what?" he questioned.
Emily let out a derisive laugh. "'For what?' he says. You're not dumb, Mike. You know what."
"But how would you know about that?"
Emily shrugged. "Instincts, maybe. You know, the ones that only my species have."
Because of the word 'species', Mike knew immediately how she had found out about what he had said to Will during their argument, and his eyes widened. "Did you have El spy on me? That's so unfair!"
"Yeah, well, so is using my brother's feelings against him."
And with that, Emily left the room.
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.
A few hours later, once night had fallen and the pool had closed, it was time for the teens to initiate their plan. They waited until after Billy had finished showering and was getting dressed in the locker room to do so, opening the door, which he couldn't see from where he stood, and therefore making a noise he could hear.
"Pool's closed," they heard Billy say. After hearing the sound of the door closing and then the kids locking him in, he continued, slamming his locker door shut and coming to see what the source of the commotion was. "Hey. Do you hear me? Pool is closed!" He tried to open the door, but quickly realized he was locked in.
Mike then pulled down a lever on the breakers, shutting off all power in the locker room. Then he spoke Billy's name into the supercomm; they had tied one onto the mannequin and placed it in the sauna so that when Billy approached the sauna after following the sound of Mike's voice, he would think someone was inside and that he had found the culprit. This part of their plan was successful, as Billy did exactly what they had expected him to, following Mike's voice and responding to it with threats.
"Got you," Billy said, coming upon the sauna and seeing the mannequin through the small window in the door. As he approached the sauna door, he laughed maniacally, clearly thinking he had won.
"Come and get me, you piece of shit," Mike spoke into the supercomm as Billy opened the sauna door and entered.
Upon doing this, Billy obviously realized that what he thought was a defiant teenager was just a mannequin. However, he still walked up to the mannequin and lifted it up to the ceiling by its neck.
"Hey," Mike said into the supercomm. "Behind you."
Billy dropped the mannequin and looked behind him to see Eleven standing there.
"Hi," she said. Billy made to charge at her, but she was faster, using her powers to send him flying back into the farthest wall and then slamming the door.
At this same time, the rest of the teens came out of hiding, and Lucas, Will, and Mike ran forward, using a pole, a chain, and a padlock to lock him in the sauna as he threw himself at the door, trying to get out. As soon as the boys finished, they retreated, joining the girls in standing a few feet away from the door.
Billy continued to try to break through the door for a few seconds but eventually stopped, looking up at the teenagers responsible. His eyes fell on his stepsister, and he said, "Max."
Without looking away from Billy, Max said, "Do it."
Will ran forward to the dial on the wall that controlled the heat inside of the sauna and turned it up to the highest setting.
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.
"Max! Let me out of here!" Billy shouted. "Let me out. You kids... you think this is funny? You kids think this is some kind of sick prank, huh?" He spit on the window in the door, and Emily continued to watch him, personally hoping that he never got out of that sauna. "You little shits think this is funny? What is this? Open the door. Open the door! Open the door! Open the goddamn door!"
Billy then fell out of their view and onto the floor, where he began to scream. Will took this opportunity to check the temperature inside of the sauna.
"We're at 220," he told the others before walking back and joining them again. 220 was the highest the temperature could get.
Billy's screaming then turned to crying, confusing the teens.
"Not my fault," Billy said. "It's not my fault. It's not my fault, Max. I promise you, it's not my fault."
Max had begun to walk towards the door, making Emily a bit uneasy.
"What's not your fault, Billy?" Max asked when she had reached the door, looking at her stepbrother through the small window.
"I've done things, Max. Really... bad things. I didn't mean to. He made me do it."
"Who made you do it?"
"I don't know, it's like a shadow."
At hearing this, Eleven, Will, and Emily exchanged looks: Billy was the new host.
"Like a giant shadow," Billy continued. "Please, Max."
"What did he make you do?" Max asked him, her voice a bit shaky now.
"It's not my fault, okay? Max, please. Please, believe me, Max, it's not my fault. I tried to stop him, okay? I did. Please believe me, Max. Please believe me."
Max put her hand to the window, and Emily could tell she was crying. "Billy, it's gonna be okay."
"Max, please."
"It's gonna be okay. We want to help you. We want to help you. You just have to talk to us, okay? You have to talk to us."
This was all that Will and Emily could pay attention to, because just then, they both felt the familiar, cold feeling.
"I feel him," Will said in a quiet voice that only those standing near him could hear. "He's activated."
Mike was apparently the only one that heard him, or just the only one not completely paying attention to Max talking to Billy, because he looked over at the twins, who had fear in their eyes as they looked back at him.
"Max, get away from the door," Mike said, not looking away from the twins.
"What?" Max responded.
"Get away from the door!"
Max ducked away just in time; Billy broke through the glass window, reaching for Max with a sharp piece of tile in his hand.
"Let me out, you bitch! Let me out!" he yelled at her. "I'll fucking gut you!"
Now that he had an arm outside of the door, Billy was able to remove the pole in the door handle that was helping keep him inside of the sauna. Thinking fast, Lucas got out his wrist rocket and shot Billy in the face with a rock, making him drop back down to the floor.
"Max, come on!" Lucas said to the girl, motioning for her to join him and the others. She did so at a run.
At that time, the lights in the room began to flicker rapidly. They all knew both from past experiences and from Billy's deep screaming inside of the sauna that they were now essentially fighting the Mind Flayer and not Billy at all.
Billy began to run at the door, repeatedly throwing himself at it and straining against the chain and padlock, which were now the only things holding him back. Eleven pushed her terrified friends behind her, looking towards the door with a determined look on her face, ready to defend them.
"He can't get out, can he?" Max inquired.
"No way," Lucas answered. "No way."
He was wrong. Just a few moments later, Billy broke through the door. The teens all backed away frantically, again with Eleven holding her arms out so that she separated her friends from Billy.
Billy straightened himself up, directly facing Eleven. For a few seconds, the two just stood there staring at each other, but Eleven then raised her right hand, lifting up one of the dumbbells that sat a few short feet away from her. She threw it at Billy, pinning him against the brick wall by his neck. She held it there, both of her hands lifted now to do so. It was choking him, but with every passing second that she used her powers, Eleven was weakening. The Mind Flayer used this and the great physical strength Billy already had to his advantage, pushing the dumbbell off of him and then throwing it at Eleven, who had no choice but to drop to the floor to avoid being hit by it.
Billy quickly ran at Eleven and grabbed her by her hair, pulling her up off of the floor. He then looked at her friends, who were standing there petrified, unsure of what to do and unable to think clearly. While he was looking at them, he put his hand to Eleven's neck and began to choke her. He then lifted her up by her neck, just like he had to the mannequin not too long ago. She began to hit and kick at him, but it did no good, and he just simply watched her as her face turned purple.
Just when it looked like Eleven was going to lose consciousness, Mike spotted the pole that had previously been holding Billy in the sauna and grabbed it, hitting Billy over the head with it, not only making him drop Eleven, but making him fall to the floor as well.
"Go to hell, you piece of shit!" Mike shouted at him, lifting the pole up to hit Billy again. He made to deliver another blow, but at the last second, Billy caught the pole, ripping it out of Mike's hands and throwing it to the side.
Because of this, Billy's focus was now on Mike, and it was obvious that he was going to kill him, and then go back to Eleven to finish her off. Although Emily was scared of what Billy was capable of doing to her, she was much more scared of Mike or Eleven or both of them losing their lives, so she quickly ran and put herself in between Billy and Mike. She knew it wouldn't stop him indefinitely, but it would definitely hold him off for at least a short while so the others could get themselves out.
It didn't end up being this way. Before Billy could do anything to her, he began to levitate, screaming out in pain. Behind him, Eleven could be seen struggling to lift herself up off of the floor while also using her powers against Billy. Stumbling slightly, she walked over so that she was standing in front of Emily. Both Eleven and Billy were screaming now, and suddenly, she threw him to the side, making him burst through the brick wall like it was nothing and land outside on the grass.
Eleven collapsed into Emily, sobbing. This caused Emily to fall back into Mike, and they all slid down to the floor. Emily held Eleven, wanting to comfort her so that she stopped crying, but she was in such shock from what she had just experienced that no words came out of her mouth.
This only lasted a few seconds before Mike got himself up and then helped the girls to stand up as well. The three of them joined the others in watching through the huge hole in the wall as Billy ran away.
[word count: 3688]
[written: 1/14/21]
[published: 1/14/21]
first f-bomb of the series. yay.