...
"Because she's my girlfriend and I love her!"
...
The next day Mike, Lucas, Will, El, and Liv were all in Mikes basement. Liv sat on the couch while El got ready to find Hopper in the void.
During the night a big bruise had formed under Liv's eye from when Billy punched her in the face.
Max sat down next to Liv on the couch with an ice pack. "I got you some ice, baby."
Max put the ice pack under Liv's eye right on the bruise causing her to wince in pain.
"Ow, Max!" Liv pushed Max's hand away.
"Hey!" Max scolded before putting the ice pack back under Liv's eye.
"Max, I don't need ice." Liv rolled her eyes.
Max sighed. "Livie, its starting to swell."
"So?" Liv asked.
"So, the ice will help with the swelling. Now, stop being a baby." Max told her.
Liv sighed as she gave up on trying to argue with Max. El tied the blindfold around her eyes as she got ready to go into the void.
"I found him." El said after a couple minutes of silence.
"Where is he?" Max asked.
"Woods." El answered.
"Woods?" Lucas repeated.
"He's with... Will's mom." El added.
"My- My mom?" Will leaned closer.
"What are they doing?" Max wondered.
"Ill... annoy. They're going to Ill-annoy." El answered.
"Mike! Breakfast!" Karen banged on the basement door.
"Not now, Mom!" Mike shouted. "Illinois? Illinois, like the state? The state of Illinois?" Mike asked as El took off her blindfold.
El shrugged as blood came out of her nose. "Ill-annoy."
Max sighed and stood up from the couch. "Let's clean up your bloody nose." Max turned back around to Liv and handed her the ice pack. "Keep this on your bruise."
Liv took it and rolled her eyes. "Yes, Mom."
Max pointed her finger at her and looked at Liv with a stern look. "I mean it. Keep it on."
"I will." Liv promised her as she put it under her eye. Once El and Max walked into the bathroom and shut the door, Liv immediately removed the ice pack and put it on the coffee table. "Not."
"Something's not right. I can't get Hopper off my back all summer, now all of a sudden, he's hiking with Will's mom to Illinois?" Mike started. "And Dustin's MIA, too?"
"So's Steve." Liv threw in.
"I mean, this can't be a coincidence." Mike continued as he paced around.
"What does it matter?" Lucas asked. "The bottom line is, they're not here. It's up to us."
"Up to us to do what exactly?" Mike asked.
"Find Billy and stop him." Lucas answered.
"Okay, yeah, that's a really nice sentiment, but even if El could find him again, and that's a pretty big if, then what?" Mike asked.
"We burn the shit out of him and make sure he doesn't escape this time." Lucas said as he started to eat out of a box of cocoa puffs.
"Okay, then what?" Mike wondered.
"Then we win." Liv said.
"No, see, that's the problem. We don't. We don't win. We got the Mind Flayer out of Will before and he just came right back. We don't just have to stop Billy, we have to stop the Mind Flayer." Mike told Liv.
"How in the hell do we do that?" Liv asked.
"I don't know." Mike said.
"Wow, Mike. You really thought of everything." Liv sarcastically said with a fake smile.
"Maybe El knows." Will suggested.
Mike, Lucas, Liv, and Will looked at the closed bathroom door.
"What are they still doing in there?" Mike asked.
Lucas stood up and stood next to Mike. "I don't know. Girls just like hanging out in bathrooms."
Liv stood up from the couch and stood next to Lucas. Lucas held the box of cocoa puffs for Liv. Liv took some and put them in her mouth.
"Why?" Mike asked as he looked at Liv.
"Don't look at me." She told him.
"They're conspiring against me." Mike accused.
"Are you serious? They're not conspiring against you." Liv told him.
"Yes, they are. And you're in on it." Mike told her.
"What? I'm not in on anything!" Liv raised her voice.
"Yes you are. Max is corrupting you. That's why you spend all your time with her." Mike raised his voice.
"She is not corrupting me!" Liv defended Max.
"Then why are you always with her?" Mike asked.
Liv looked at him in disbelief. "Because she's my girlfriend and I love her!"
Mike and Will widened their eyes at what Liv just said. Liv opened her mouth but nothing came out as she was taken back by her own words. Lucas smirked. Lucas knew Liv was in love with Max ever since Max first moved here.
"Um, anyways." Will took the spotlight off of Liv which Liv mentally thanked him for. "Them conspiring against you shouldn't be your main concern."
"It's not my main concern. It's just a sub-concern." Mike told him.
"I thought it was already over." Will said.
"It's not over, okay? We're just taking a break." Mike said.
Liv crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "She said she dumped your ass. That doesn't sound like a break."
"It wasn't!" Max yelled from inside the bathroom causing the boys and Liv to snap their heads towards the bathroom door. "You guys do realize we can still hear everything you're saying, right?"
Liv widened her eyes. Did Max hear Liv confess her love? And if she did... does she love her back?
"Conspiring. I told you, they're conspiring." Mike whispered.
"Oh, my God." Liv facepalmed.
There was a knock on the basement door as Liv and Will walked over to the couch and sat back down.
"Not now, Mom!" Mike yelled.
"Mike, open the door." Nancy's voice came from behind the door.
Mike furrowed his eyebrows before running up the basement stairs and opening the door to see Nancy and Jonathan.
"What's going on?" Mike asked as Nancy and Jonathan pushed past Mike to go into the basement.
"We all need to talk." Nancy said.
El and Max came out of the bathroom and looked around at everyone. Liv quickly picked up the ice pack and put it under her eye.
"Sit down." Nancy told the girls.
Max and El walked over to the others and sat down. Max sat next to Liv while El went to sit on the other side of Liv.
"Have you been keeping that under your eye?" Max asked.
"Mhm." Liv lied with a smile.
"Alright. You can take it off then." Max told her.
Liv put the ice pack on the coffee table while Nancy started to explain what happened.
"It was the same thing, the exact same thing that happened to Will last year." Nancy picked up a piece of paper and set it down on the table. "And look at this. Look at the body temperatures."
Will looked down at the paper to see the unusual temperature. "He likes it cold."
"Okay, so this crazy old woman who was eating fertilizer-"
"Mrs Driscoll." Nancy corrected Mike.
"Right, yeah, Mrs Driscoll. What time was this attack?" Mike asked.
"Last night." Nancy answered.
"Right, but what time last night?" Mike clarified.
"Around 9:00." Nancy replied.
"You waited all night to call?" Jonathan asked.
"I was waiting for the doctors to run some tests." Nancy told him.
"You weren't there?" Will furrowed his eyebrows at Jonathan.
Jonathan threw his arms up. "Well, I'm here now, aren't I?"
Nancy scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Hallelujah!"
"Ooh." Liv commented and Max put her hand on Liv's thigh.
"Um, so, wha- what time was your... sauna test?" Nancy got everyone back on track.
"Around 9:00." They all answered.
"Well, that proves it. That proves my theory." Nancy said.
"She's flayed, just like Billy." Mike nodded.
"Flayed?" Jonathan repeated.
"The Mind Flayer. He flays people. Takes over their mind. Once they do that, they basically become him." Mike explained.
"If there are two flayed-"
"We have to assume there are more." Liv finished.
"Heather." El realized and Liv and Max looked at her. "Billy was doing something to her. She was scared. She was screaming. Bad screams."
Lucas furrowed his eyebrows. "What's a good scream?"
"Max said-"
"Doesn't matter." Max shook her head and Liv bit her lip to try and hold in her laugh.
"I'm sorry, I'm lost. Who is Heather?" Nancy wondered.
"She's a lifeguard at the pool." Max informed her.
"Heather Holloway?" Nancy asked.
Liv, El, and Max nodded.
Nancy and Jonathan shared a look. "Tom."
Everyone quickly left the basement and went out to Nancy's car. El, Liv, and Max got in the backseat and since there wasn't enough room for everyone Mike, Will, and Lucas sat in the trunk.
"Seat belts." Nancy looked back at everyone.
Everyone quickly buckled as Nancy started the car and backed up, knocking over a few bikes. She pulled out of the driveway and sped off.
...
When Nancy pulled into the Holloway's driveway everyone quickly got out of the car and ran up to the front door. Nancy rang the doorbell once but no one answered so she rang it again. When no one answered, Nancy and Jonathan looked at El. El knew they wanted her to open the door with her powers, so, she did.
"Tom? Heather?" Nancy called out as she and the others entered the house.
"Jesus, it's freezing." Max whispered as she moved closer to Liv for warmth.
"Do you guys smell that?" Nancy asked, getting a whiff of chemicals.
They all turned around to the kitchen to see empty chemical bottles and spilled chemical bottles.
"Oh." Jonathan said.
"Oh, God." Liv scrunched up her nose.
"More chemicals." Nancy said as she and the others walked over to the fridge that was knocked over.
Jonathan picked up an empty bottle and furrowed his eyebrows. "You think they're guzzling this shit?"
"Yeah, either that or they just went on a hell of a cleaning spree." Nancy answered.
"But last year, Will didn't eat chemicals." Max looked at Will. "Did you?"
"No." Will shook his head. "This is something new."
"Mr Clarke, fifth grade. Posit. What happens when you mix chemicals together?" Mike asked Lucas, Will, and Liv.
"You create a new substance." Will, Lucas, and Liv answered in realization.
"What if they're making something?" Mike thought.
"In themselves? I mean, come on, if you drink this crap, it'll kill you." Max said.
"Yeah, if you're human." Lucas said.
Nancy walked out of the kitchen and into the dining room. Liv stopped to look at the dining room table that still had the dinner from the other night still sitting on the table.
"Come on." Max whispered as she lightly took Livs hand in her own and started pulling her back to the others.
Nancy walked into the living room, with the others trailing behind her. She kneeled down and looked at a blood stain on the carpet.
"Blood." Nancy whispered. "Yesterday, Tom had a bandage on his forehead." Nancy picked up the wine bottle that was next to the blood stain. She looked closer at it and noticed more blood on the bottle. "He was attacked."
Nancy stood up from her spot on the floor and noticed that the carpet was in a weird position. It looked like someone had been dragged. They all followed the carpet and saw more blood on the floor that lead into the garage.
They all went into the garage and saw some rope on the floor. Jonathan knelt down next to it and picked it up to show everyone.
"They must have tied them up." Jonathan guessed as he dropped the rope and stood up. "They must have taken them somewhere."
"Mrs Driscoll. She kept saying... 'I have to go back'." Nancy remembered. "What if the flaying, it's taking place somewhere else? There must be a place where all this started, right? A source."
"Somewhere he didn't want me to see." El added.
"If we can find the source, then maybe we can stop him. Or at least stop it from spreading or doing whatever the hell he's doing with those chemicals." Nancy continued.
"How do we find it?" Liv asked.
"Mrs Driscoll." Will spoke up, causing everyone to turn and look at him. "If she wants to go back so badly, why don't we let her?"
...
Nancy had driven everyone to the hospital where Mrs Driscoll was being held. As they walked inside Nancy whispered to everyone to not make eye contact with the lady at the desk, who was talking on the phone.
They all started to walk past the lady at the desk, not making eye contact just like Nancy said.
"See you're the only one who gonna tell- Whoa, whoa, whoa! Excuse me!" The lady stopped them, putting down her phone and standing up from her chair. "Where do you think you're going?"
Nancy turned to face her. "Oh, um... I was just going to visit my grandma again. And- And this... this is my family."
The lady at the desk looked down the line of people before her eyes landed on Lucas.
"Extended." Lucas smiled.
"I don't care who they are. You know the rules. Two visitors at a time." The lady told Nancy as she put her hand on her hip.
"Yeah, but-"
"Two!" The lady held up two fingers before picking up the phone and going back to talking to whoever was on the other line. "Girl, this child has lost her mind. She brought a whole zoo in here."
"What do we do now?" Mike asked.
"You guys stay here. Jonathan and I will go up to Mrs Driscoll." Nancy told them before leaving with Jonathan while the teens went to wait in the waiting room.
El and Max went over to the pile of magazines, Will went to go sit in a chair, and Lucas, Mike, and Liv went up to the vending machine.
"Either of you have a quarter?" Mike asked.
"Yeah." Lucas took a quarter from his pocket and handed it to Mike.
Mike took the quarter from him and put it into the machine. He pressed on the buttons D3. The three of them waited patiently while the kit kat bar slowly made its way to them. Write before the kit kat bar fell, the big spring stopped moving.
"Oh, come on, you piece of shit!" Liv groaned before hitting the side of the machine.
Lucas and Mike joined her in hitting the machine, hoping that the force would make the kit kat bar fall. The machine shook and all of the snacks fell out of the machine. Liv, Lucas, and Mike looked over at El to see her wiping her bloody nose. Lucas shrugged before he and Liv bent down to pick up all the snacks.
"Thanks." Mike said to El before kneeling down next to Lucas to help pick up the snacks.
"Dude, I think that was it." Lucas said.
"That was what?" Mike asked.
"The olive branch." Lucas whispered.
Mike furrowed his eyebrows. "The what?"
"Oh, my God. You're hopeless." Lucas put his hand on Mike's shoulder. "Okay, you go talk to El. Livie can you distract Max."
"No and don't call me that." Liv said.
"Please, Liv." Mike begged.
"Fine. But I'm only doing it because I wanna talk to Max. Not because you two nitwits asked me to." Liv grabbed a pack of skittles and went over to Max. "Skittles for my love?" Liv smiled and held out the pack of skittles for Max.
Max took the pack of skittles with a smile. She opened the bag as Liv sat down in the chair next to her while El went to go sit near Will. Max looked up from her pack of skittles and saw the frown on Liv's face.
"What's wrong, Livie?" Max asked.
Liv started to fiddle with the bracelet Max got her. "Nothing."
Max looked down to see Liv playing with the bracelet. "You sure?"
Liv sighed. "I'm just worried about Steve. I haven't heard from him in a few days."
Max intertwined her fingers with Liv's. "I'm sure he's fine. Think of it like this. He's not here to ruin our alone time."
Liv laughed. "Yeah. It is annoying when he does that."
Max nodded and smiled. "Very annoying."
The two girls sat in comfortable silence for a few seconds, just enjoying each others company, until Max spoke up.
"Hey, um, Livie?"
"Yeah?" Liv said.
"Remember earlier today, in Mike's basement, you were talking to Will, Lucas, and Mike while El and I were in the bathroom?" Max asked.
"Yeah...?" Liv slowly said, not knowing where this was going.
"You talked about your... feelings." Max reminded her.
"I- I mean... it was just really heat of the moment, we were arguing. What- wh- what did I say?" Liv stuttered and started to play with her bracelet again.
"I love you, too, Livie." Max leaned in and gave Liv a long and passionate kiss.
Liv's eyes widened in shock as her face went as red as a tomato. When Max pulled away she noticed shocked look on Liv's face which made her laugh.
"Are you gonna sit there and gawk or are you gonna kiss me?" Max smiled.
Liv smiled before leaning in and kissing her. The lights starting to flicker is what made them both pull away and look up at the ceiling in confusion.