At 4819 Cherry Lane, rain was coming down. Hard. Max had insisted that El stay overnight and have a double sleepover and Julie didn't have the heart to say no. El was getting ready for bed in the bathroom, while Julie begrudgingly changed Max's sheets for the girls to sleep in.
"You okay, JJ?" Max asked from her spot on the floor, sifting through her comic book collection.
Julie merey nodded, and continued covering the bed with Max's duvet. "I'm fine." Julie was not fine. It had been a wild day, and all Julie wanted was to skip the upcoming conversation with Max and go to bed.
Max crinkled her brows. Julie was great at convincing others that she was fine, but she always failed to do so with Max. The redhead could read Julie like a book, and Julie hated it.
"Are you sure?" Julie was now stuffing Max's pillows into fresh pillowcases, rather agressively, one might add.
"Yeah." Julie gave a glance to Max, who held two comic books in her hands. "Are you sure you're fine with me sleeping in here?" El had insisted that Julie stay in the room that night. She didn't want Julie to have to sleep on the couch, and Max just went along with it.
"Yeah, it's fine. Before, I would've made you leave, but not anymore." Max's answer sparked curiousity into Julie. It was a weird answer, even for Max.
"Before what?" Julie asked as she stepped over Max to get to her own bed where her seagull and her walkman resided.
Max's eyes widened, and before she could speak, El walked in from the bathroom in an old striped shirt she borrowed from Julie. Julie planned to let her keep it. Max climbed into her bed, patting the spot next to her for El, and dragging Julie down next to her. Max held up her two comic books to El as she got settled.
"Which one?" Max asked. El's choices were Wonder Woman or The Incredible Hulk.
"I don't know." El answered. She seemed distracted, and both sisters sensed it. Max put the comic books down, and Julie inched closer to the girls.
"Hey, there's nothing to worry about anymore, okay?" Max said to her friend. El's eyes darted between Max and Julie as she found the words she needed.
"It doesn't make sense." El said.
"What doesn't make sense, El?" Julie asked, her eyes ripe with concern for the girl in front of her.
"Heather." She paused, making eye contact with Max and Julie again. "The blood. The ice."
"Heather had a fever, so she took a cold bath, but she's better now." Max said calmly. She refused to believe that something was wrong, even though Julie had explained what she had heard two days before. "That has to be it. I don't know where that blood came from, but... we saw her." Max gestured to the three girls. "We all saw her. She's totally fine."
El looked away as she thought for another second. "What about Billy?" She turned her head to Julie as she asked the question.
"What about him?" Julie asked. She guessed that El had picked up on what she noticed about the boy who happened to share a birthday with herself.
"He seemed wrong." El said.
Max chuckled. "Wrong is kind of like his default, and I've only known him for like five years." She said, nudging Julie. Julie wasn't smiling.
"Max is right, and Billy is all kinds of messed up." Julie admitted. It was true, after all.
"It's nice to know he's not a murderer, because that would've totally sucked." Max joked, making El smile.
"Like royally." Julie chimed in, getting an image of Billy clad in an orange jumpsuit in prison.
El sat up and looked to Max's comic books on the bed. "Who... is that?" She pointed to Wonder Woman.
"And, that's my cue. Enjoy." Julie quickly kissed both girls on the tops of their heads and retreated to her own bed, pulling back the covers and slipping in. She turned her walkman on and put her headphones on, successfully drowning out the girls' voices with Madonna's voice.
As she started to fall asleep, Julie was left to wonder what everyone else was doing at this moment. The boys were probably in Mike's basement, Nancy and Jonathan were probably screwing, Joyce was probably home, Hopper was probably watching Magnum P.I., Robin was probably waiting for hers and Julie's favorite show to come on, and Julie didn't care about what Steve or Billy were doing.
She should've wondered more about what Billy was doing, but she didn't.
•••
The next morning, all three girls were sound asleep. Julie had fallen asleep quickly the night before, even though El and Max were giggling the whole night in the other bed.
Julie was laying on her stomach, with her head turned towards Max's bed. Her eyes were closed, and her arm brushed the floor where comic books, mix tapes and Max's annoying radio that was going off rested.
"Do you copy? This is a code red." It was Lucas, and boy was he pissing Julie off. There was radio static, before Lucas continued trying to get Max's attention. "I repeat, this is a code red. Max, do you copy? This is a code red."
"Shut... up." Max said loudly into the radio, turning it off and tossing it to the floor. Julie was barely awake, so there was still hope that she could go back to sleep before she had to be up for work.
But moments later, the phone rang. Max shot up in bed, and Julie groggily opened her eyes. "You've got to be kidding me." Max scoffed, getting out of bed and stomping over to the phone which was still ringing.
"Max!" Julie groaned, rubbing her tired eyes.
"I know, I'm sorry." Max apologized, lifting the phone to her ear. "I'm sleeping. Go away."
From Julie's close range, she could hear the voice of Mike Wheeler on the other line. "This is Mike. Do not hang up. Something happened, something bad. Our very lives can be at stake." He said, his words making Julie flop over onto her back and cover her head with her pillow.
"What are you talking about?" Max asked.
"Just come over to my house, and bring Julie."
"Bring Julie? Why?" Max asked again, glancing at Julie, who was trying to go back to sleep
"Just come over and we'll explain everything." Mike pushed.
"What?"
"Hurry." Mike said, hanging up the phone.
El, who was still laying in Max's bed raised her head towards the ginger. "What did he say?" She asked.
Max sighed. "I guess we're going over to the Wheeler's. Get dressed, J." Max walked to Julie's bed, shaking a half-asleep Julie's arm.
"I have work, Max." Julie grumbled, removing the pillow from her face.
"This is more important. Call your boss, and get dressed."
•••
Once all the girls were dressed and had eaten a small breakfast that Julie made, they took bikes to Mike's house. Julie had her hair tied into a small ponytail, with denim shorts and a vibrant colored striped shirt on. Her converse were on her feet, which were on the pedals of the bike her and El were riding.
They parked their bikes in the driveway, and knocked on the front door. Mike pratically pulled the trio inside and down to the basement, where Lucas and Will were waiting.
Lucas and Mike took seats on the couch, Will was seated on a desk with his feet on the coffee table, El was in an armchair, Julie was sitting on the arm of that chair, and Max was on the floor.
When everyone was settled, Will began speaking. "I didn't think it was anything at first. I mean, I think I just didn't want to believe it. The first time I felt it was at Day of the Dead." That was the night the sounds came back.
"Power went out that night, too." Mike added.
"I heard things that night as well." Julie piped in, her gaze on Will. Ever since Julie's family had moved to Hawkins, she had drifted away from Will, and she hated it.
"And then I felt it again at the field near the Nelson farm the next day. Then again yesterday outside Castle Byers." Will continued. Julie made a list in her mind of the times she heard the sounds. It matched up with Will's experiences.
"What does it feel like?" Max asked.
Will didn't need much time to think. "It's almost like... You know when you drop on a roller coaster?"
"Sure." Mike said.
"Yeah." Max added.
"No." El said, Julie lightly chuckled at the girl's response.
"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." Will described. At a certain point, Julie absentmindly reached for the boy's hand, encasing it in her own to offer him comfort.
"Whenever who was close?" Max asked. Julie rolled her eyes.
"The Mind Flayer." Julie answered. Will nodded.
"I closed the gate." El spoke up.
"I know, but... what if he never left?" Will paused, turning to look at Julie and El. "What if we locked him out here with us?"
Julie didn't want it to be true. She wanted all of this to be a bad dream that she would wake up from. She wanted to run to Steve and have him hold her, and tell her how special she was. She wanted everything to be a cruel joke, because that woud be better than the truth.
But when the five of them crowded around Will while he drew the Mind Flayer, Julie knew it was all real.
"This is him. All of him." Will said, starting to draw. "But, that day on the field, a part of him attached itself to me." Will ran his hand across the drawing, holding up the color dust on his hand. "My mom got it out of me... and Eleven closed the gate."
"Julie killed a couple Demodogs and tentacles with her badass scream." Lucas gushed, a boyish grin on his face.
"Not relevant, but okay." Julie shrugged.
Will flipped his paper over to the blank side. "But the part that was still in me, what if it's still in our world?" Julie and El froze up, and Will placed his hand on the paper, leaving a handprint of dust. "In Hawkins."
"I don't understand. The Demodogs died when El closed the gate. If the brain dies, the body dies." Max brought up.
"We can't take any chances. We need to assume the worst." Mike said.
"He's back. It's the only explanation for what I've been hearing." Julie said quietly. Max had comments, a lot of them, but this wasn't the time or place.
"Yeah. And if he is, he'd want to attach himself to someone again. A new me." Will added in.
"A new host." Lucas said.
Max and Julie made eye contact, before they both looked to El. "How can you tell if someone is a host?" She asked. Julie knee who El suspected, and Julie hoped that she was wrong.
It couldn't be him. It shouldn't be him.
•••
"I don't know. He looks pretty normal to me." Max said, looking through binoculars.
It was a horrible plan, but it was the only one they had. The children and Julie were spying on Billy, who was working at the pool. They suspected Billy as a host. Max and Julie did not. Maybe they did, but maybe they didn't want to admit it.
"Normal? How many times have you seen him with a shirt on?" Lucas said, while Max lowered the binoculars.
"Yeah, it's kinda weird, considering he's Billy, but that could mean nothing." Julie was hellbent on defending her twin, and everyone knew it. Mike just had to keep pushing.
"It's more than kinda weird, Julie. He was in a tub with ice. The Mind Flayer likes it cold. Plus everything else--" Mike said. Max cut him off.
"But he's lounging at the pool, which is like the least Mind Flayer thing ever." She said. Julie didn't know why Max was defending Billy, but she was grateful.
"Not necessarily." All heads turned to Will. "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."
Julie furrowed her brows. "So we just wait until he gets activated, right? That's our only option." She said. Mike shook his head from beside her.
"Don't be stupid, Julie. He's your brother. What if he hurts someone?" He said. Julie bit her tongue to keep her from lashing out at the Wheeler boy.
"Or kills someone." Will pushed.
"We can't take that chance. We need to find out if he's the host." Mike finished his speech and walked off, leaving everyone confused.
"Where are you going?" El called after him.
"I have an idea. Boys only." Mike answered, walking backwards between parked cars.
"Seriously?" Max asked him.
"Just trust me on this one." Will and Lucas jogged after Mike, leaving three annoyed girls behind.
A moment or two after the boys left, Julie finally realized something. Something kind of stupid, but also important.
"Hey, where's Dustin?"
•••
Everyone had split off into different directions, gathering the materials needed to lock Billy in the sauna. Julie hated that they had to do this, but she couldn't walk away now, especially not when it was about Billy.
Max and Julie were on Billy watch, and were standing together by the parking lot to keep an eye on the mullet wearing asshole.
"They're taking too long." Max mumbled, sighing deeply.
Julie was using the binoculars to look at Billy. "Radio them, then." She shrugged.
"Mike, are you there?" Max asked into the radio a moment later.
"Yeah!" Mike responded in kind of a yell.
"Where are you guys?" Max asked, glancing at Julie watching Billy.
"I'm coming. Just... hold on a second." Mike seemed to have turned the radio off, so Max placed hers on the hood of a car and melted into Julie's side.
Julie wrapped an arm around Max, her eyes still on Billy. "God, I hope it's not you." The teen muttered, her fingers going through Max's hair.
"I really hope it's not him, J." Max said quietly, playing with a bracelet that Julie had on her wrist.
"I know. Believe me, I know."