"I really don't want to be here."
Billy sighed, tapping a knuckle on the steering wheel of Jolene parked outside a house halfway down their snowy neighborhood. "Are these guys duds or what?" A stream of smoke spilled out of his mouth, cigarette pinched between his lips as he evaluated the warmly lit suburban dream home. "Seems very...book clubby."
"The dud-iest," Nina groaned, resting her head back on the seat. "They only listen to classical music, their kids don't eat sugar and most of the night Jordan just sits there smirking as they compliment his books without knowing he wrote them."
He tipped his head side to side in thought, taking another drag. "Well, he did only say that you have to go."
Nina's eyes widen, whipping her head to the side in panic. "No, no way. You cannot leave me here. It's New Year's. We won't get to leave at a reasonable time when Jordan can politely see himself out from hours of ego-boosting. It'll be all night."
"So why would I want to stay?" he asked with the same taunting tone he used on Max. He laughed after a moment, taking a last deep puff of the cigarette before snubbing it out. "Let's see what this suburb freak show has to offer."
Nina and Billy hauled ass out of the Jeep, shuffling to the door as the winter wind nipped at their skin. They approached the neatly kempt and ordinarily plain house. The door swung open before either could reach to knock, Jordan's bright face appearing.
"She didn't talk you out of bringing her here," Jordan mused, lighting a fresh cigarette as he stepped aside and ushered the teens into the foyer. He pulled the cigarette from his mouth to kiss the top of Nina's head. "How was rehearsal, hun?"
Nina shrugged, shimmying off her jacket to drape it over a nearby coat hanger. "It was all right."
"All right?" Billy asked with a quirked brow before shaking his head as he looked to Jordan. "I saw the last five minutes and she was awesome. She showed up every upperclassman there."
The brunette groaned, glancing around the house as chatter billowed in from the living room. "More like pissed them off."
Jordan huffed, waving a hand as he took a drag. "I doubt that honey."
"No, like I felt it," Nina reaffirmed with lackluster, sighing as her eyes wandered to the kitchen. "Please tell me they have something in there with sugar."
"Wine," Jordan replied with a shrug. His eyes widened after a moment, finding a blinding smile on his youngest daughter. "Wait, no I didn't mean it like that. You may not have wine." He patted his loose suit jacket before producing a pouch of skittles and holding them out to her. "But I brought reinforcements for you. There's a kit-kat if you can make it to midnight."
Nina let out a quiet cheer, wiggling happily as she tore open the bag. She bounced off, likely to find a place free of emotional auras to distract from her candy.
Jordan squeezed a hand onto Billy's shoulder, nodding towards the den. "Obligatory introductions?"
"Sure," Billy agreed despite his distaste for suburbia, allowing Jordan to guide him into a room neatly clustered with plainly dressed husbands and wives. His leather jacket suddenly felt hot on him as he tried to muster a welcoming smile.
"Everyone," Jordan addressed in a cheery tone, "this is our family friend Billy. He's visiting from Indiana University for the holidays."
"Indiana!" a woman expressed. "That's so lovely. What year are you in?"
Billy was socially parked in an empty space on the sofa, dozens of middle-aged eyes focused solely on him as Bach hummed on a radio in the corner. "Just a freshman," he replied, unable to remember a time he had willingly been in a room with so many adults.
He amused their questions with light answers for twenty minutes, careful of every word to leave his mouth. They found his job at the record store "spunky" and his grades impressive, the blandest of information delighting to them.
"Are you from Indiana?" another asked, swirling a low glass of brandy in his hand.
"No, California actually," Billy said with a soft nod. "I moved to Indiana my senior year."
"Oh, I have some friends in Indiana. Whereabouts did you go to high school?"
A flush of panic crossed Billy and he prayed it didn't show on his face. "I-"
"Hey, Jordan?" Ben suddenly surfaced in the doorway, offering a timid smile for disturbing the circle. "Can I borrow Billy for a second?"
Billy rose from his seat without a second thought, apologizing for his exit but offering no answer to the last question as he slipped out of the room with Ben. He let out a sharp breath as the two stalled in the empty kitchen, running a hand along his jaw. "Oh my god," he murmured.
"Yeah, you looked like you needed to get out of there," Ben mused.
"I'm glad you did," he replied with a quick glance over his shoulder. "I should've just stuck with saying I was from California. They were asking where I lived in Indiana before college and I...I knew that if I said Hawkins that it might cause some kind of trickle down thing. Hawkins was just a random ass town before, but even people out here got new broadcasts about the mall. And then it was just a jump to Jordan's named being included in all of the articles, and I thought that if people here connected the town to your real last name, then it wouldn't be too far off from getting too suspicious about his author picture."
"Woah," said Ben with slightly raised brows once Billy's frantic voice ceased. "You are..." He reached into the pocket of his sport coat and produced a slim, silver flask. "In need of this. I've never heard you talk that fast."
For once in his life caring what adults might think, Billy took another tentative glance around before taking the flask from Ben and swigging it. "Thank you," he mumbled as the lingering liquid scorched his mouth and handed it back. "I...I don't know where my head's at."
"It's the Jeep."
I'm not in there.
Billy's eyes narrowed as what he assumed was vodka burned its way down. "What?"
"The Jeep," Ben repeated casually, taking a quick drink from the flask before tucking it away. "You drove it for the first time today, right?"
He nodded, craving a cigarette as a strange wave of anxiety fluctuated through his veins.
"Weird shit always happens when Jolene wakes up." Ben shook his head gently in thought. "I'm not sure how to explain it. I'm honestly scared to drive it sometimes. It's like T's in the backseat or something." He shrugged. "I don't know."
"No, I know the feeling," Billy replied, his words trailing off as a fresh set of footsteps approached.
Elena wiggled her fingers in warm greeting as she turned into the kitchen. "Hi, loves."
Billy's eyes flickered over her shoulder to the hall leading to the den, suddenly regretting his choice of downing a double shot and needing to go back in there without blowing a government sanction cover. "Sorry, am I taking too long?"
"Oh, no," she immediately insisted, her presence ever calming. "No, actually, I was wondering if you boys might want to take Nina back to the house. Nina never likes coming over here and it does not take the distant smell of vodka to tell me that neither of you are particularly interested." She offered a shrug. "The pool's warmed up and the fridge is stocked. You could have a little New Year's thing of your own without the..." she glanced around the room, gesturing mildly, "drab. You're more than welcome to stay if you like, but-"
"No buts!" Nina announced as she wheeled into the room, a pointed finger stained with red and green. "We're going. Thank you, Elena," she chirped in a sing song voice before grabbing Billy and Ben by the wrists.
"Don't touch the Perignon!" Elena called lightly after them as the boys were dragged towards the front door. "And don't let her have more than a glass!"
Nina giggled demonically, letting go of Billy and Ben's sleeves to open the door. Still dressed to leave as if she never had the intention to stay, she bolted for the Jeep.
"Jesus, she runs fast," Billy said as he snagged his jacket from the rack and slipped in on as he followed Ben outside. His brows rose slightly, tilting his head in thought as he fished for the keys. "Well, I guess she needed to over there."
Ben paused just shy of the Jeep before they could split for their respective doors, Nina already locked inside. "What does that mean?"
Nina rapped on the inside of the Jeep, already nestled in the back bucket seat.
"Is she always this impatient?" Billy asked, Ben's question slipping from thought as he rounded to the driver's side and hopped into the steel trap. He revved the engine to life as Ben climbed in beside him, thankful for the short trip through the neighborhood.
"Elena must really love Dad," Nina said, poking between the front seats as they coasted out of the driveway.
Ben's brows drew in mildly. "It's true, but what makes you say that?"
"Well, she's a fun and stuff, but she still hangs out with Dad and his lame friends," she explained. "He's all books and Bach and shit."
"Given that he was doing coke before, I'd say it's an improvement," Billy said with a light shrug.
Only the engine rumbled as they drove on, two sets of eyes falling silently on the college freshman.
Billy glanced to his side, having to look twice before he registered the bewildered expressions on the stepsiblings. "Oh, shit, did you guys not know that?" He ran the numbers back in his head, grumbling as they clicked. "Yeah, no that was before you guys got there. Shit, I'm sorry. Please don't tell your dad. I actually like school now and would like to stay there."
"That's the powder one, right?" Nina asked quietly.
Ben's head snapped to the backseat. "Why would you know that?"
"Dude, she goes to public school," Billy replied with a wince. "But, uh, seriously. Don't tell your dad that I...gave away his most important secret. Fuck." He groaned. "Sorry, Nina."
"I hear it all the time at school," she said, shrugging as the Jeep pulled into the Cooper driveway. "But I can't imagine Dad doing drugs. That's insane."
Ben scoffed, despite his astonishment in his stepfather's relapse. "Says the government lab experiment."
"Says the double jeopardy government traitor."
Billy's brows rose as he killed the engine, glancing between the two.
"Don't worry, we're usually like this," Nina assured before slamming a hand down on his shoulder. "Now haul ass, Hargrove. Elena said I could have wine."
Ben rolled his eyes as slipped out of the Jeep. "Only one glass," he countered, only to be swatted away when he offered help as Nina climbed over the front seats.
"Can I trade it for whatever Soviet gasoline you keep in your room?" asked Nina as she flounced by, a quick wave of her hand sending the front door of the house wide open before she could stroll through it.
"You absolutely may not." Ben's nose scrunched, last in the door. "Have you been in my room?"
Nina sprinted up the stairs, shouting, "Swimsuits!"
Billy laughed as he ran a hand through his hair. "If you were worried about the sibling stuff, the two of you definitely have it down."
Under orders, Billy and Ben were quick to change into swim trunks and relocate to the pool house, Nina already bounding off the diving board by the time they arrived with a myriad of wine and beer grappled between them.
"All right, Nina," Ben announced as the freshman surfaced from under the water, wiggling a bottle of Elena's low percentage wine. "You get one. Do you want to wait until New Year's or-"
"Pour it," she replied, propping her forearms up on the edge of the pool.
Ben blinked several times, shaking his head. "You are going to be a nightmare in college," he sighed as he poured half a glass of dark red liquid.
Nina narrowed her eyes, waving two fingers.
"Hey!" Ben shouted as the bottle in his hand was forced back down to fill the glass to the top, his resistance futile. "Nina-"
Billy couldn't help but laugh, cracking off the top of a beer.
"Thank youuu," she sang, drawing her fingers inward as the glass lifted out of his hand and floated over to her. Her shoulders wiggled as she took a sip, letting out a pleased, "Ah."
Ben's lips pursed, hand still outstretched. "My mum is going to kill me if you're wasted when they get back."
"Don't kids in Europe get to drink really early?" Billy asked, plopping down on the edge of the pool not too far off from Nina and submerged his legs in the water.
"Which is why Mum said just one," Ben replied as he flanked the opposite side of Nina, taking Billy's same position. "Eighteen is the legal drinking age in England but it's a very loose eighteen."
"When were you first allowed to drink?" asked Nina between sips, bobbing in the water.
"Allowed?" Ben hummed in thought as he took a drink. "Fifteen, I think? If we went out to dinner at a nice restaurant Mum would let me have a glass of wine." He paused, tracking a ripple in the pool as it stretched towards the deep end. "I'd always sneak Tate some."
A soft smile crossed Billy's lips. "So you're the one who trained her to be the Keg Queen."
"Keg Queen?" Nina and Ben questioned.
"It was a Hawkins thing." He laughed softly. "At all the major parties there were keg competitions of who could drink for the longest. Harrington was the standing king and I knocked him out of his spot on Halloween, but Tate beat me immediately after with a whole crowd watching."
All hail the Queen.
The words knocked around in his head, diminishing the momentary warmth of the memory.
I'm not in there.
Nina's head tipped to the side as she studied the distant expression on Billy's face, his gaze trailed off on the water. Her brows furrowed gently. "What just changed?"
Billy lifted his head, looking to Nina. "What do you mean?"
"Your aura just shifted," she said, the statement sounding so casual out of her mouth. "It feels like when we were at the high school, that weird feeling you were giving off when I found you in the hall."
Ben's brows raised as he glanced between the two. "Did something happen at the school?"
"I..." Billy hesitated, the figment of Tatum in the halls of Nina's high school lingering behind his eyes. "I really can't tell if it happened or I'm just losing my mind."
"Did it...did it have something to do with Tate?"
Billy stayed quiet for a moment, absently picking at the label of his beer bottle. "It didn't make sense. I was on my way out and it was like I was sucked into a loop or something. The school started to look like Hawkins and even though I knew the hall was empty, I could see a single locker open." He chewed on his bottom life briefly. "It was Tate. Like a physical, fully present Tate."
A chill creeped down Ben's arms despite the warm pool water, the same unsettling feeling he had gotten when the record player started by itself growing.
"And it wasn't just a few moments. We had a conversation, but the way she was talking was as if we were still in high school. When we were at school, we didn't talk because no one knew we were still together, and at first she seemed upset that I was acknowledging her. I was talking to her as me now, but what she was saying was as if we were still in February or March. I kept trying to ask how she was there, but she looked at me like I was crazy. And when I said...when I said that she was dead, she laughed. She laughed at me."
Nina's eyes widened in slight horror, finally understanding why he had been so pale when she found him after rehearsal.
Billy blew out a slight stream of air, shaking his head. "I tried to tell her about Starcourt but she said that it wasn't even finished yet. I told her that it was New Years in 1985 and that it had been months since she died." His eyes pinched briefly. "And when she didn't believe me and I said she had a grave in Hawkins...she said, 'I'm not in there.'" He shook his head. "And then Nina showed up and as soon as I looked back, she was just gone."
Ben and Nina clung to his words, eyes wide.
"I don't know if I had a mental breakdown or..." Billy tipped his head back, sighing deeply. "I just can't stop thinking about it. Just, the way she said it and how she was looking at me, like it was the only moment that she wasn't this strange, high school version of herself. All of her responses were so confused and amused at what I was trying to tell her, but there was confidence when she said that."
"I'm not in there," Ben repeated in a murmur.
Nina caught her stepbrother's gaze as his eyes flickered to her and she shook her head. "Don't."
Billy's brows drew in as he glanced between them. "Don't what?"
"I..." The memory of the strange vinyl player and the Jeep's stereo lingered in Ben's mind. Mildly unnerved by Nina's intuition, the feeling left behind by Billy's story kept his attention. "Not too long after we got here, I was setting up the record player I bought for Tate when we were kids, I put a record on but Jordan called me out of the room. A Bowie song started playing while I was downstairs-"
"Ben," Nina tried.
"Just let me," he countered gently. "When I went upstairs, the needle I hadn't set down was playing the fourth track. Her favorite one. I could've let that go, but when I went to pick up Nina from school right after that, the stereo in the Jeep started to act up."
An image of a distraught Steve slumped outside his apartment an hour away from home crossed Billy's mind, sending a chill down his spine.
"First," Ben said, "it turned on by itself. Nina and I were talking about Hawkins and Home Sweet Home started playing. Halfway through the song, it rippled static and started playing the same song from the record player. We took the tape out, but those songs were on opposite sides. They couldn't have played together."
Nina sighed a little defeatedly, sipping on her wine as she continued to bob in the pool. "She could have written them wrong," she offered just as she had in the moment of the stereo fritz.
"But the stereo turned back on and started playing some song that was important to her and Will. Nina said she heard them scream it together when she could listen in from the Upside Down." Despite his younger sister's clear distaste for the conversation, Ben looked to her for help. "It was The Clash, right?"
Finishing her wine, she set down her glass on the edge of the pool. "Should I Stay Or Should I Go." She floated a little further out, tipping her head back to look at the stars glittering in the winter sky.
Billy's brow rose, able to recall a dozen times Tatum had played the song when he was teaching her how to drive. "Definitely one of hers." Anxiety spiked in his blood, pounding gently behind his ears. "I, uh...I've had something similar happen."
"Guys," Nina gently said, eyes still trained on the stars, "we watched it happen."
Ben quickly tilted his head back to Billy, a flicker of hope still coursing through him. "Go on."
"There were a couple times that my radio would turn itself on or suddenly change. And whenever it happened, it was always her songs. The ones she'd scream in the Jeep. It wasn't just me, either."
The reformed Soviet's brows raised. "Who else?"
Nina sighed, outstretching her hand towards the patio set as she floated on her back. The wine bottle on the table found its way to her but went unnoticed by the two sitting on the edge of the pool.
"Steve and Nancy," Billy replied. "They both had the same thing happen in different ways. It freaked Steve out so bad that he drove to my apartment to tell me about it." He paused, thinking of the Ouija board and the chaos it spit out. "When the three of us realized that we were all experiencing it, we...well we tried to use one of those spirit boards."
"A Ouija board?" asked Ben, earning a nod. "Did...did something happen with it?"
Billy laughed gently out of distress. He relayed the utter chaos of their attempt to contact Tate through the board, including the strain of numbers that they deciphered down to a specific date: November 6th, 1985.
Nina's head poked up, bottle gripped in one hand just enough above the water to keep chlorine out as she stayed on her back. "November sixth?"
Both boys turned their heads at the sudden interjection in a conversation the freshman had checked out of.
When Billy agreed, she hesitated. "That's the anniversary of the first gate rip."
"It's also when the music stopped."
Chills spiked up Nina and Ben's spines as their attention returned to Billy, gentle horror in their eyes.
"Did you notice that?" Billy asked, having said it aloud for the first time. "For weeks Nancy, Steve and I were having these weird occurrences and after we used the Ouija board, we expected something insane to happen on the sixth. But it was the opposite. It was quiet. Completely quiet. Nancy even called me about it, about how ordinary the day seemed." He shook his head. "I haven't had a single radio fritz since then."
Although Nina pulled herself vertical to take a deep drink from the bottle, she studied Billy over the curve of the green glass before lowering it. "There's something else you're not saying."
Billy's eyes flickered to her, a gentle guilt in them. "Now it's just...her voice."
Nina's ears drew back, stabilizing herself on the pool ground with the wine bottle half submerged. "Her voice?" she repeated quietly. Doubt swarmed her, but the softest touch of hope landed on her shoulder.
"Not like the library thing," Billy said. "It's only ever little things, like sound bites. Things I know she's said to me before or very well could have. Which is why I can't actually figure out if it's just in my head or if it's...something else."
"I'm going to get some water," Nina excused herself, the fresh wine rippling in her stomach from the tone on Billy's voice. She walked her way through the water and snagged a towel as soon as freezing air bit at her skin, leaving behind the near empty bottle on the deck table before slipping inside the house.
Tracking Nina briefly out of concern, Ben's focus returned to Billy once she was inside. "She was like this the first time it happened. She doesn't want to think about Tatum being anything but at peace."
"I mean, I don't either," said Billy. "I don't want to think about a lot of things, but it's...strange. I tried to ignore it and play it off as grief, but..."
"It's strange," Ben repeated with an agreeing nod. He ran a hand down his face, sighing. "I just...what does it even mean?"
Billy drained the rest of his beer, setting down the bottle with a clack. "That's what I've been asking myself for months."
"I know what we saw in the mall," Ben finally said after a pause. "But I also know that that monsters and magic are real, so...just because it sounds insane doesn't mean it might not be true."
The two sat there for a long moment watching the pool ripple in silence.
"Can Nina go into the Void like El?" Billy finally asked after letting the question press heavily on his chest, daring to be put out into the world.
Ben's gaze quickly averted back to Billy, their minds running on the same track. "She can, but she said that she and El never picked up on anything."
"Have they tried since November sixth?"
Before Ben had the chance to say no, the back door squeaked open and drew their attention to Nina lingering in the frame, her swimsuit replaced with sweats.
Nina gripped the red IU sweater between her hands, quiet as her eyes flickered between Ben and Billy. "On my birthday last month, just before I fell asleep, I could've sworn that I heard her tell me 'Happy Birthday.' I chocked it up to wishful thinking because...it's stupid but Elena told me that people make a wish when they blow out candle and, well, she was all I could think of." She looked down to the sweater freshly retrieved from the guest room bed, running a thumb along the loved fabric. "Part of me still wants to think that I tricked myself into hearing it because of the candle thing, but...maybe we could, um, take a look?"
Ben and Billy rose from the poolside without protest, collecting the empty bottles and towels on their way inside. They were quick to run upstairs and change into comfier clothes, Nina in the midst of setting the living room radio to static as they returned.
Once Nina found a blurred enough station, she lowered the volume just enough to block out the world. She turned over her shoulder, finding both of the boys standing tentatively with an unnerved aura radiating off of them in tandem. "Did you never see El or Tate do this before?" she asked, glancing between the two.
Ben exchanged a look with Billy, each of them giving mumbles and head shakes that signaled they were entirely out of their element.
"Okay," she said with a light nod, grabbing a bandana off of the fireplace mantle before she settled on the loveseat. "You guys can sit, just try not to make too much noise."
Billy's pulse thumped behind his ears as he and Ben took spots on the sofa across from Nina.
What if she could find her?
Nina folded her legs, draping the sweater over her lap. She took a breath in, looking between the boys as she wound the bandana into an eye cover. "I...I can't promise anything. I just don't want to get your hopes up and make everything hurt more."
"It's okay, Nina," Ben assured gently.
She nodded, raising the bandana to her eyes and tying it securely around her damp hair. Taking another deep breath in, she rested her hands on top of the sweater, pressing her fingers in.
Although Ben had seen Tatum in action during their escape from the Soviet base in Hawkins, this was entirely new. He ran his hands along his thighs absently, watching Nina's quiet form intently. He wasn't sure what he expected, and it only drew his anxiety higher.
Blood began to slowly drip from one side of Nina's nose, her fingers gently twitching over the red fabric.
Billy thought of the first time he met Nina properly, less than an hour after Tatum's body had been wheeled away.
Forced to be checked over by military medics in the parking lot of the destroyed mall, he sat in a haze as the worker evaluated him, any and all thoughts gone from the numbness vibrating in his veins. Nina had approached him alone, blood still staining her upper lip and hands, and stared for a moment before hugging him.
"She loved you so much," she whispered.
Billy's hands clenched, tucked inside the pocket of his hoodie. He felt like he couldn't breathe, eyes locked onto Nina as the blood trail began to fall from both nostrils.
"It's...cold," she said aloud, brow gently furrowed. "I don't...I don't understand."
Ben's chest wracked with nerves, his skin on fire as his patience wore thin. "Nina?"
"Underground," she whispered. Her head twitched hard to the side before a hand reached up to snap the blindfold from over her eyes. She tried to catch her breath, a tinge of iron on her lips drawing her to pluck a tissue from the box on her nightstand. As her eyes rose, she found Ben and Billy watching her with wide eyes. "I..." She shook her head gently. "I could barely get anything."
"But you got something?" Ben ran a hand along his jaw, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his thighs. "Cold? Underground?"
Nina wiped the blood from her upper lip, sighing as she looked to the IU sweater in her lap.
"I don't..." Billy's brows furrowed. "What does that mean? Is she-"
"I think," the brunette stood up sharply, unable to meet the boys' gaze as she gripped the sweater and bandana tight in her hand, "all that did was confirm what we already knew." She tossed the IU sweater to Billy. "She's exactly where we put her. In Hawkins cemetery."
Billy caught the red fabric as it hit his chest, mouth half open as Nina stalked out of the room. "I..." He glanced to Ben helplessly, scoffing gently out of his own confusion. "What just happened?"
"I think we just made it worse," Ben sighed, falling back into the sofa as he ran a hand along his face.
The two stayed seated in silence, staring off as Nina's words ran over and over in their heads.
They wanted more. They wanted Tatum back.
"But we watched it happen," Ben softly said, the moment the light left Tatum's eyes burned in his mind.
So they left it alone.