"Is this it?" Max asks, Alex nodding in response. They had just stopped in front of a white mailbox. The same white mailbox that Alex saw in her void. The address was written right below it. 1438.
The three girls then walk over to the front porch, El immediately unlocking the door with her powers. They walk into the hallway and see a photo on the wall with Heather and her parents.
"It's her house." Alex looks at the two.
"What?" Max and El both ask in unison.
"Heather's house." Alex clears out.
Just then a loud and fake laughter was heard from the dining room which caught their attention.
Alex then leads the two girls over to the dining room and they see Billy having dinner with Heather's parents, but Heather wasn't there.
"We didn't mean to barge in." Max speaks up awkwardly once they noticed them.
"We tried knocking, but maybe you didn't hear us over the storm." Alex lies.
"I'm sorry, who is this dripping all over my living room right now?" Heather's father, Tom asks.
"Janet, Tom, this is my sister, Maxine." Billy smiles at the two adults and then turns to his sister, giving her a dirty look. He then gets up and walks over to the three smaller girls. "What on earth are you doing here? Is something wrong?"
"We just wanted to make sure everything was okay." Max explains.
"Okay? Why wouldn't it be okay?" Billy speaks in a fake tone, acting nice and polite.
"Where is she?" El suddenly asks.
"I'm sorry? Where is who?" Billy turns to her now.
Just then, Heather comes out of the kitchen with a tray of some fresh baked cookies in her hands. "Well they're a little burnt, I'm sorry-" She then notices the three girls standing in her dining room.
"Heather!" Billy smiles at the girl. "This is my sister Maxine." He introduces her. "And I'm sorry, I didn't quite get your names?" He then turns to Alex and El.
"Alex." Alex death stares him. "And El."
"Right. Alex and El." He stares at Alex for a few moments "Now what is it you were saying El? You were looking for somebody?"
The girl then looks over at Heather. "Alex saw you... you-"
"Your manager." Alex quickly stops her. "At the pool."
"Yeah. He said that you guys didn't come in to work today, so we got worried." Max adds.
"Heather wasn't feeling so hot today, so we thought we'd take the day off to nurse her back to health." He then looks at Heather. "But you're feeling just fine now, aren't you Heather?"
"I'm feeling so much better." The girl grins.
Billy then locks eyes with Alex, just like he did in her void, which made her slightly panic once again.
"Do you girls want a cookie?" Janet then breaks the silence.
"They're fresh out of the oven." Heather puts the cookie tray up.
"No thanks, we're good." Alex fakes a smile and then rushes the two girls over to the front door.
-
Alex was now in her bathroom, washing her teeth.
Max and El were going to sleep over at her place, but the only thing she could think of right now was Billy and Heather. Something was off about both of them.
Once she finished, she changed into her pajamas and flopped on her bed right in between Max and El.
"Hey, I brought some comics, which one do you want?" Max holds two comics. Green Lantern and Wonder Woman.
"I don't know." Alex mumbles.
"Hey, there's nothing to worry about anymore, okay?" Max looks at the girl.
"It just, doesn't make any sense." She sighs.
"What doesn't make sense?" El asks.
"Heather. The blood. The ice?"
"Heather had a fever, so she took a cold bath, but she's better now." Max connects. "That has to be it. I don't know where that blood came from, but we saw her. We both saw her. She's totally fine."
"What about Billy?" Alex asks again. She was definitely not convinced.
"What about him?" Max tilts her head.
"He seemed, wrong."
"Wrong is kind of like his default." Max chuckles. "But it's nice to know he's not a murderer, because that would've totally sucked."
Alex then forms a small smile, brushing her thoughts off.
"Who's that?" El then points at the Wonder Woman comic.
"See, this is why we should hang out more." Max opens up the comic, laying in the middle of Alex's bed. Alex on the left and El on the right. "This is Wonder Woman."
"AKA, Princess Diana." Alex adds.
"Yeah." Max grins. "She's from paradise Island which is like, this hidden island where there are only women Amazon warriors." She explains and starts reading the comic until the three girls eventually fall asleep.
-
"This is a code red, do you copy?" Lucas voices through Alex's intercom. The three girls were still asleep, so they didn't hear him. "I repeat, this is a code red. Do you copy? Alex, Max, Eleven, do you copy-"
"Shut up." Max then speaks into the intercom and lays back down. Just then, the phone starts ringing.
"God damn it!" Alex curses since the phone woke her up. She then gets up and stomps over to the phone. "We're sleeping. Go away." She speaks, ready to hang up the phone, but Mike's voice caught her attention. "This is Mike, don't hang up, please. Something happened. Something bad."
"What do you mean?" Alex raises the phone back to her ear.
"Just, come over to my place. We'll explain everything."
-
"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 the Day of the Dead" Will explains. The whole party was gathered around the coffee table in Mike's basement, the boys explaining what had happened.
"The power went out that night too." Mike adds.
"And then I felt it again at the field near the Nelson farm the next day." Will continues.
"What does it feel like?" Alex asks.
Will then stops to think for a moment. "It's almost like... you know when you drop on a roller coaster?"
"Sure."
"Yeah."
"No."
"It's like... everything inside your body is just sinking all at once." Will explains. "But this is worse. Your body, it goes cold and- and you cant breathe. I've felt it before. Whenever he was close."
"Whenever who was close?" Max asks.
"The Mind Flayer."
"I closed the gate." El speaks.
"I know... but what if he never left? What if we locked him out here with us?" Will theorizes. He then grabs a piece of paper, a few water colors and starts drawing.
"This is him. All of him." Will points to his drawing of the Mind Flayer. "But that day on the field, a part of him attached itself to me."
He then smears the drawing, covering his hand with some black paint. "My mom got it out of me and then Eleven closed the gate. But the part that was in me, what if it's still in our world?" He flips the paper and places his colored hand on it. "In Hawkins?"
"I don't understand." Max shakes her head. "The demo-dogs died when El closed the gate. If the brain dies, the body dies."
"We can't take any chances. We've got to assume the worst." Mike speaks. "The Mind Flayer's back."
"Yeah." Will agrees. "And if he is, he'd want to attach himself to someone again. A new me."
"A new host." Lucas simplifies.
Alex then immediately turns to El and Max girls giving them a look. "How can you tell if someone's a host?"