Jude held onto Mikes waist as he peddled through the rain, Lucas riding next to him. It had gotten worse as they went, going to the Byers and calling out for Will. Jude got off Mikes bike first. "Will! Dude!"
"Come on, man! We're sorry!" Lucas knocked on the door.
Jude pulled on the door knob. "It's locked."
"Will!" Mike called.
"Hang on." Jude pulled his jacket off, securing it around his wrist before hitting the little window on the door.
"Jesus!" Mike jumped as Jude broke through the glass, clearing the area as he unlocked the door from the inside. "What the hell?"
Jude flashed him a smirk. "I'm pretty cool, right?"
"Will!" Lucas yelled they hurried into the empty house. "I don't think he's here."
"Yo!" Jude looked into Wills room. "Ah, shit."
"Wait." Mike had a look of realization. "Come on!"
Jude left his jacket that had been covered in glass on the ground, following close behind as he grabbed Mikes shirt sleeve to keep up, his two inch growth spurt has once again gone to Mike as well.
They ran out into the rain, seeing Will destroying Castle Byers. Mike and Jude stopped, bumping into each other as Will cried. Lucas next to them. "Will, what happened? Are you okay?"
Jude grabbed his shoulders to turn him around quickly, Will breathing heavy with wide eyes. "Talk to me."
Will stared. "He's back."
"Bob!" Jude yelled out, standing in the dark room as he saw the man. "Bob, what are you doing here?"
"Hey, kid." Bob hugged him tightly. "What's going on?"
"Where are we?" Jude looked around.
"You don't know?" Bob asked, his voice cracked.
Jude looked back, seeing Bob covered in blood. He gave a stumbled backwards, Bob fell to his knees. "You voted for someone to go, Jude. You killed me."
"I'm sorry." Jude shook his head at him in a minor panic. "I'm so sorry, Bob. It's my fault."
"Now i'm gonna kill you!" Bob called, his voice demonized as he lunged at him.
Jude woke with a gasp, sitting up straight. The sudden motion making his head spin. Mike looked over, Jude's legs across his lap. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah." Jude held his chest for a second. "Yeah, i'm good."
Mike reached his arm out, Jude turning to curl under it for a second. "What's Lucas doing?"
"Trying to get ahold of the girls and Corey." he said, rubbing his arm. "Do you always get nightmares?"
"It wasn't a nightmare, I just heard something." Jude lied, keeping his head on his shoulder and finding his normal heart rate again. "Where's Will?"
"Taking a minute." the Wheeler boy said back.
It wasn't long before the girls and Corey showed up, a fight breaking out immediately.
"How could you tell him! You're risking his life!" Jude yelled at Max and El after Corey showed up with every information they knew. "The government can kill him!"
"Jude, the government won't know." Max rolled her eyes in annoyance.
"El." Jude looked at his cousin. "I told you that telling people can lead to danger. Not just for him, but for you too. For all of us."
"It's okay." she gave him a nod. "Serious."
"No, it's not okay." he grabbed her arms with a head shake. "You can't tell anyone else. They can tell someone and they'll take you away again. I can't handle that, I don't want you to go away again."
"Not gonna happen." she grabbed his hands with a frown of her eyebrows. "Not leaving."
"Jude, man, I'm not gonna tell anyone." Corey cut in with a head shake. "It's safe with me. Seriously."
"I can't believe you." Mike looked in annoyance at Max.
"You have to swear on it." Jude looked to Corey. "Spit swear."
"What?" Corey gave an odd look. "What does that mean?"
Jude spit in his hand, holding it out. "If you spit swear, it's serious. You can't break it no matter what."
"Break the spit?" Corey looked in confusion.
"The promise." Jude corrected, waving his hand slightly.
"You gotta do it, man." Lucas encouraged.
Corey cringed, spitting in his hand before shaking Jude's hand. The Mackenzie boy inhaled. "Don't give me that look, most people would be lucky to do this."
"Oh my god." Max spoke in annoyance. "You need to humble yourself."
"I'm not gonna listen to a fake redhead." Jude snapped back at her.
"How many times do I have to tell you it's not fake!" she yelled.
"I simple do not believe you, Maxine." he shot her way with a dumb look.
"Guys!" Will cut in with a serious look. "This is serious."
Jude sat down next to Mike.
"I didn't think it was anything, at first. I mean, I think I didn't want to believe it." Will began to explain, sitting high on his chair, "The first time I felt it was at Day of the Dead."
"Power went out that night, too." Mike spoke up, his knee pressed to Jude's.
"And then I felt it again at the field near the Nelsons farm the next day." Will went on, twisting his fingers as he spoke, "Then again yesterday outside Castle Byers."
"What does it feel like?" Max asked him between a mix of curiosity and not wanting to know.
"It's almost like... you know when you drop on a roller coaster?" Will asked the party.
"Sure." Mike agree.
"Yeah." Max right after.
"Duh." Jude shrugged.
"No." El admits.
"Me either." Corey agreed with her.
Wills looked at the two. "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?" Max asked.
"The Mindflayer." Will admited.
Jude looked to his cousin as she spoke, "I closed the gate."
"I know, but... what if he never left? What if we locked him out here with us?" Will looked over at her with fear and worry dancing within his hazel eyes, "I need paper, and maybe a pencil."
Mike grabbed a thing of paper from behind him. Jude found a crayon in the couch cushion, giving it to Will and pressing in next to Mike again.
They watched as he made a large scribble on the paper, "This is him. All of him. But, that day on the field, apart of hm attached itself to me."
Will rubbed his hand across the mindflayer drawing, the black left over color spreading across his palm, "My mom got it out of me and Eleven closed the gate. But the part that was still in me, what if it's still in our world?"
Will flipped the paper, slapping his palm down on the clean side to make a black smudge, "In Hawkins."
"I don't understand. The Demodogs died when El closed the gate." Max looked up from the paper, "If the brain dies, the body dies."
"We can't take any chances." Mike looked her way, "We need to assume the worst. The Mind Flayers back."
"Well, how fantastic is that." Jude tossed his hands up.
"Yeah. And if he is, he'd want to attach himself to someone again. A new me."
Will looked around at each of them.
"A new host." Lucas confirmed.
"How can you tell if someone's a host?" El spoke up.
Jude looked her way. "What are you thinking?"
"Jude, are you kidding me?" Mike gapped at him, "Are you seriously putting tanning lotion on right now?"
"I have to get tan before high school." Jude defended himself, rubbing the tanner on the part of his stomach that was short from his shirt. "All the guys on the baseball team are tan and beefy."
"Beefy?" Corey questioned.
Jude gave a fake growl, flexing his muscles. "Beefy."
"I don't know. He looks pretty normal to me." Max lowered the binoculars.
"Normal? How many times have you seen him with a shirt on?" Lucas gave a look of disbelief.
"I guess it's a little weird." Max admitted.
"More then a little." Mike cut in, "He was in a tub with ice. The Mind Flayer likes it cold. Plus everything El saw."
"But he's lounging at the pool, which is, like, the least Mind Flayer thing ever." Max explained with a shrug of her shoulders.
"Not necessarily." Will spoke up.
"How so?" Corey looked at him in questioning.
"The Mind Flayer likes to hide. He only used me when he needed me." Will looked down the line at each of them, "It's like... like your dormant. And then, when he needs you, you're activated."
"Okay, so we just...wait until he gets activated." Max nodded in confirmation as she stared over at Billy.
"No. What if he hurts someone?" Mike spoke up, his hand nearly grabbing Jude's for a second before letting it go.
"Or kills someone." Will added.
"Eats someone." the Mackenzie boy nodded.
"Oh, woah." Coreys eyes widened.
"We can't take that chance." Mike agreed, looking back at Billy, "We need to find out if he's the host."
Mike did grab Jude's hand then, pulling him away. Max looked in disbelief. "Where are you going?"
"I have an idea. Boys only." Mike called as Lucas and Will trailed behind the two.
"Come on, Corey! You're a boy!" Jude called as Corey hesitantly left the girls.
•
kylie speaks
smh, writing corey into
the book made me miss
my baby peter.
my favorite thing about jude
is definitely his confidence. he
went from not totally getting
the hype about her himself in
season two to being totally
self obsessed and i love a good
little self obsession