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chapter fourteen
WHEN THE NEXT MORNING CAME AROUND, Diana found herself taking a deep breath and grabbing Eleven's hands once more. They were sitting cross-legged across from each other, and their eyes were covered by blindfolds. Diana had never scried that way before, but, in her opinion, it felt very similar to looking into the blackness of a scrying bowl.
The two girls had been having trouble finding the flayed on their own, and, unsurprisingly, they were having trouble finding them together. A few pictures of the flayed were spread out between them and even that was proving to be of no help.
"There's too much to look through," she whispered to Eleven as their minds walked through nothingness. The sound of the static from the TV was merely a distant buzz and their friends' voices on the other side of the door were forgotten.
"We have to." In the physical plane, Eleven's left hand slivered out of hers. She could hear the younger girl grabbing a tissue and wiping the blood from beneath her nose. Diana herself rarely ever bled when scrying or using her gifts, but she and Eleven had been under so long that she too found herself reaching for a tissue and swiping it beneath her nose.
Their hands linked again.
"Maybe we're looking for too many at once," Diana suggested, looking to the younger girl, her yellow shirt contrasting greatly with the blackness of their minds—the void Eleven had called it.
"Maybe...maybe we should try just one?" The girl asked uncertainly. They both decided on Billy, someone they were more or less familiar with, and at the very least, he was one point to focus on.
Within minutes they could see a blip in the never-ending darkness, and as they approached it, it was clear that it was Billy sitting alone and unaware that he was being watched. They shared a look and in the physical plane they slid their blindfolds off.
The room was too bright. Diana rubbed the pain from her eyes and wiped the blood from beneath her nose once more. She saw Eleven doing the same and adding the tissue to a significantly large pile of used ones.
Diana glanced at the clock. Nearly three hours had passed. "Are you ok?" She asked to which the girl in question nodded her head. "Do you know where he is?"
She nodded and Diana nodded too, answering her own question. "His room. You think if we go back under he'll lead us to the source?"
"He'll be there." Diana didn't have to ask who exactly was the 'he' the girl was referring to. Before she could reply she heard faint yelling outside of the door. It sound like Mike and she and Eleven barely caught the end of what he said.
"...because I love her and I can't lose her again." His voice was angry. When she turned to see Eleven's reaction, the girl's expression was one of surprise but she schooled it into some sort of subdued confusion and exited the room, Di following close behind.
Everyone looked to them, as if they'd forgotten the two girls were even in the cabin.
"What going on?" Eleven asked, seemingly determined not to acknowledge or even let on that she'd heard what he said.
Mike looked like a deer in head lights as he shook his head and answered quickly. "Nothing. Nothing."
"Just a family discussion," Lucas replied, ever calm.
"Oh." Eleven paused for a second and swallowed. "We found him." Diana could practically see the question in their eyes.
Nancy was the first to ask it. "Found who?"
"Billy." Diana sat on the arm of the couch. "He's in his room. Just sitting for now."
"And the source?" Jonathan asked.
They couldn't find it because the Mind Flayer was putting a lot of his strength into hiding it. "A mystery."
"Eleven can watch him and maybe he'll lead us there," Will offered, and Diana looked to Eleven who was silent but clearly considering. Eleven eyed her, trying to gauge her reaction.
"It's up to you," Diana told her. "If you want me to watch with you, I can."
Eleven shook her head. "I'll do it alone."
The two girls shared a look, and Diana saw something in El's face that felt reassuring.
"Eleven doesn't need to do it at all," Mike added worriedly and a bit unhelpfully. Diana didn't have a word to say about that comment because it seemed to ignite something in both Eleven and Max.
Max let out an exasperated breath and raised her hands in frustration.
"Please you two, don't start again," Diana begged. She was beginning to have a headache but she'd decided she would do a bit of searching into what was to come. "If you guys want a look into the future, you'll be quiet." She fell back onto the sofa.
Nancy nodded. "Diana's right, we don't have time for any more arguing. El will watch Billy, Di will do what she does, and we can end this."
Diana sighed and closed her eyes as she rested her head against the back of the couch.
She relaxed and cleared her mind. The surrounding noise and input faded quickly, and behind her lids she could see Steve. His face was bruised and bloodied, and he looked so happy to see her. Then she could see the Mind Flayer, and a wave of horror swept over her. Something was wrong, and she couldn't make out exactly what—even then he managed to hide parts of himself from her—but he felt stronger in this version of the future. More real. More whole.
And then she saw Billy: desperate and dying. She could feel the desperation and see the life leaking from his eyes.
Somewhere far off she could hear Eleven screaming, and it took her a moment to realize that it was not apart of some vision but a call for help right into her head. Diana's eyes shot open and she looked to Eleven who was seated on the floor. A blindfold was tied to her eyes, and her body very still. Too still. Mike was trying to get her attention, but Diana knew the girl couldn't hear. The Mind Flayer had sunk its hooks into her mind, and she needed help.
Diana sprung from the couch, ignoring her friends, and rushed to sit before Eleven. She placed both her hands onto the front of the girl's shoulders, and she was immediately descended into darkness.
Diana could feel him. In the darkness of Eleven's mind, she could feel him. "Let her go," she said.
"You should've never looked for us," a voice came from behind her. She whipped around.
Billy.
But it wasn't just Billy.
Diana had spent most of her life building a fortress around her mind and as long as she could see it, it wouldn't fall, not even for a being older and more powerful than her. Maybe there was something she could teach Eleven.
She could feel him probing at her mind. "We can see you now."
Diana was afraid, but she wasn't stupid nor was she a coward. "Good," she muttered as a wave of adrenaline sunk into her blood. "Because I've always been able to see you."
"And what more can you do than watch?" He asked taking a step toward her.
"I don't need to do anything else." She reached out to Eleven, searching. Somewhere, she could feel the girl fighting. "Because I've seen how this ends."
He lunged for her, and she screamed to Eleven, "Wake up."
Diana's breaths were escaping too quickly when she came to. She could feel someone's—Lucas's— hands on her shoulders as Eleven shakily and tearfully fell bout of her grip and into Mike's awaiting arms. The girl had ripped her blindfold from her face and was allowing the blood to leak freely from her nose as she tried to register whatever had gone on in her head. The girl sobbed into Mike.
Diana slightly leaned onto her brother's legs and waited for her body to calm. She watched as Mike helped Eleven onto the couch and allowed both Lucas and Jonathan to help her onto the edge of the recliner.
"Why?" She asked into the silence of the room, filled only by quiet sobs. "Why were you in his head?" Diana looked directly at Eleven who was wiping at her nose and her eyes. That wasn't a plan anyone had let her in on.
"She was looking—" Diana shot Mike a glare, and his mouth shut. She looked back to Eleven and awaited an answer.
The girl answered slowly, trying to calm her breathing. "To find the source."
Diana swallowed hard. "But you knew he would see you."
"I tried," the girl said, more tears spilling onto her cheeks. She'd tried to avoid being seen, Diana understood.
"And now you have the source, but it might not matter."
"Why wouldn't it matter?" Lucas asked, grabbing her arm.
"Because," she said, sliding out of his grasp and pushing herself to her feet. Her stomach turned. "We won't need to find him if he finds us first."
"Will he? Will he find us first?" Jonathan questioned.
"I can't see everything, but I won't rule it out."
Without bothering to gauge their reactions, she quietly walked to the bathroom, shut the door firmly behind her then proceeded to empty all the contents of her stomach.
It was dark out when she emerged from the bathroom. Her face was covered in a sheen of sweat. Her skin had a sickly pallor.
The noise of distant fireworks were easily noticeable.
The conversation fell silent at her appearance. She could see some worried looks, but above all else she could see their fatigue. She'd overheard them talking about what the Mind Flayer had said to Eleven. He promised her death and promised her friends' deaths. He also explained that he'd done all of this—built something— for Eleven. To kill her.
"Don't stop on my behalf," she rasped. Will handed her a glass of water, as if he'd been waiting to give it to her. She whispered a 'thank you'.
"Did you see anything? Did he tell you something?" Mike asked.
Diana took her seat in the recliner, weakly sinking into the seat. She took a big gulp of water. "I—I saw Steve. The Mind Flayer too—we'll see him for what he truly is before this is over. And Billy—" She cut herself off, eyes darting to Max.
"Whatever it is, you can say it," the girl said with false confidence. Her voice was too hollow to truly convey anything, though. Lucas put his hand on her shoulder and, surprisingly, she let him. Nancy and Jonathan were standing near the kitchen together and Will and Lucas were standing behind the couch which Mike, Eleven, and Max were seated on.
They all were awaiting answer, and she could've lied—she should've lied— but she didn't. "I see—I see him dying. There's blood, and he can't breathe. And his eyes—" She stopped, griping the glass in her hand tightly as the image of him shown in her mind bright and undeniable. There were horrified faces all around the room, and she shrunk away a bit then placed her cup on the side table and knocked on the wood. Speaking things into existence wasn't her wish here. "He isn't ready to go."
Lucas looked at his sister and then the girl who was, oftentimes, his girlfriend. "We can still save him." Diana knew he'd said it mostly for Max's benefit, but she also knew that despite how Billy treated him, her brother hardly had an evil bone in his body, and he wouldn't wish death on anyone like this.
Diana loved Max like a little sister so she said, "There's always hope, and there's always a chance."
Just then a particularly loud firework went off and she saw Nancy stand up straight and walk over to the window. "Did you guys hear that?"
Jonathan murmured, "It's just the fireworks."
It was almost as if Nancy didn't hear him. "Billy," she began, turning to Eleven, "when he told you those things, was he in this room?"
Eleven nodded and as she did there was an undeniable growing thud coming from outside. "He knows we're here," Will let out, touching his neck.
"See," Diana murmured. "We won't have to go to him after all."
hi! i just wanted to thank everyone who has read and continues to read this story. i see everyone's comments about how excited or happy they are to see a black oc in a steve h. fic, and i wanted to say that that's one of the main reasons i started this story almost three years ago because i could hardly find a fic for him that had a black oc. i wrote this not really expecting so many people to read it, and i'm happy you guys are enjoying it!
i'm gonna wrap season 3 up within the next few days and we'll be getting more steve and diana next chapter. thanks for reading!
-syd