Chapter Forty:
"You both are insufferable."
ANOTHER night of Violet and the party having to experience something horrendous and nightmare fueling, and none of them felt comfortable enough going back home. They camp out in the Wheeler home's basement again, only this time Nancy and Jonathan have joined them and share the sofa.
The next morning rolls around and Mrs. Wheeler was generous enough to make them all breakfast again, then they all took turns to shower before heading out and climbing into Mrs. Wheeler's car which she had graciously loaned to Nancy.
All she had to do was tell her mom she was taking Violet and the others to the carnival tonight, then she's handed the keys and told to enjoy herself before she left.
With all of their bikes propped on the bike carrier of Mrs. Wheeler's car, Nancy pulls out of the driveway and made a few stops to each of their houses. They rush inside and change their clothes, then they'd come back and hop in the car before Nancy stepped on the accelerator.
Violet, Max, and El made their change quick once they were inside of the empty Mayfield home, having already showered back at Mike's place making things easier. She's the last person to get ready as she stood infront of the bathroom mirror, she was sporting a long sleeved NIKE red and blue training polo, blue denim shorts, striped red thigh high socks, and her red pair of Chucks.
She quickly brushed and flossed her teeth before getting started on her hair, although there wasn't much she wanted to the glossy raven waves. She quickly decided to throw her hair into a messy bun, then she ties her spare red bandanna around the crown of her head.
She adjusts the messy bun one last time for good measure, then she heard the sound of soft knuckles rapping on the door. Knowing that meant they had to go, she flicks off the bathroom light and exits the room as she heads back to Max's room to grab her overnight bag and her spare backpack. Once the trio gather their belongings, they rush out of the Mayfield home and climb into Nancy's station wagon with the party and Jonathan.
Now that everyone had changed and grabbed all of their things, they were headed off to the woods. Since Hopper isn't home and was presumably in Illinois with Joyce, that left his lodge cabin unattended. Which made it the perfect hide out for all of them to camp out in while they formulate a game plan.
When they arrive at the lodge cabin, they all walk inside and make themselves at home in the huge front living room. Over the past couple months, Hopper had been doing improvements to their home. It was now ten times bigger than it used to be, with a spaced out living room, El's room being a little bigger than before, he even constructed his own bedroom. There was plenty of room in the once small cabin.
Now that she thinks about it, the party should hangout here more often.
Not just Mike.
From the moment they all sat down on the sofa and stood around in the living room, El was already getting to work on what she does best, finding people. And the people in question? Heather Holloway, both her parents, Mrs. Driscoll, Bruce Lowe, and Billy Hargrove.
All of them victims of that sludge monster, the Mind Flayer bitch.
She was locked away in her bedroom, needing privacy to focus completely since there were entirely too many people in the room. Violet was sat against the wall next to the door, her legs pulled up to her chest as her chin is propped on her folded arms.
She's got a headache and Mike and Max won't stop arguing, and the annoying thing about their argument is that they're both debating El and her power limit. If anything Violet would be the one to know how far that she can go, considering their powers are of equal strength.
"What if she get's brain damage or something?" Mike questions as he paced the floor, the wood floors beneath his sneakers squeaking with every step.
"Oh, shit." Lucas pipes in worriedly, "Is that, like, a real thing?"
Violet simply couldn't help herself, so she joins the discussion. "No, it's not."
"See, even Vi agrees." Max responds, narrowing her eyes at Mike. "He made it up. Mike doesn't know what hell he's talking about."
"Oh, and you do?" Mike retorted, his features etched in annoyance.
"Actually, neither of you do." Violet mumbled, as her head thumps against the wall.
"You're right." Mike nods as he turns to her, "You're the telekinetic, don't you agree that El is using too much of her power?"
Max groans with a roll of her eyes, "Vi, can you just tell Mike that El can do whatever she wants and that he should just butt out? She knows her limits."
Violet moans miserably, the dull pain in her head raging on relentlessly. "How about both of you just shut up for 2 minutes, please."
Unfortunately for her, it doesn't stop, and the more they argue the louder they get. And at some point she can't take it anymore, and she lifts up from her spot on the floor and makes her way to the kitchen where Nancy's on the phone, and Jonathan and Will are sitting.
Will frowns in concern as she walks over, seeing the look of pain on her face. "Hey, you okay?"
Violet nods slowly, caressing her temples. "I've got a killer headache, and Mike and Max won't shut the hell up."
"I saw some Tylenol on the counter, you need some?" Jonathan asked, walking over to the countertop and picking up a bottle of pills.
Violet smiles softly in relief, "Yes, thanks." He hands over the pills and she unscrews the top, then she walks over to the sink and turns on the water. She pours two pills into her hand and pops them past her lips, she dips her head under the faucet to drink the water and once she's had a mouthful she swallows the pills, then she turned off the sink faucet and head back over to Will. "Okay, that should do the trick."
Nancy hangs up the phone and walks back over to them, she heaves a sigh as Jonathan scribbles out a page in the phonebook. "Who's next?"
"There is no next." Jonathan replied glumly, "Unless you want to start calling random people's homes."
Nancy sets down a notepad, Violet noticed a phone number and the name of the business on the page that Jonathan just scribbled out. Blackburn's. "It doesn't make sense."
"What part of any of this makes sense?" Jonathan asked rhetorically.
Violet's lips pursed, "Things stopped making sense in 83', let's be honest."
"There's a pattern, okay?" Nancy cries out frustratedly, "A consistency to their behavior. They've been feeing on these chemicals since this started, and- and, what, they just stop, out of the blue?"
"Maybe they have all the chemicals they need." Will suggests, "Maybe they've all turned into those... things."
A roll of chills goes down Violet's shoulders as she remembers last night, that sludge monster was gonna be permanently ingrained in her brain. "Guys, it smelled like death. Like... actual rotten corpses or something. I think Will's right, they did turn into those... things."
"Okay, but what about the source?" Nancy inquired, "I mean, did the Mind Flayer just suddenly stop infecting people? And even if the flayed are monsters now, why can't El find them?"
Before anyone could reply to her inquisition, Max and Mike were making their way over.
"Okay, Vi, you got your two minutes." Max reminds her. Lovely, just when the pills are kicking in. "Can you please settle this argument for us?"
Violet whines dramatically, "God, do I really have to?" Max sends her a sharp look, and she sighs heavily and gives up as she folds her arms over her chest. "Fine, go."
Max smiles tightly, "Great. Now, who do you think should decide El's limits? Mike, or Eleven?"
Violet rolled her eyes, "God, you both are insufferable."
"The way that you frame that is such bullshit." Mike argued, glaring at the redhead.
"It's not bullshit, Mike." Max snapped, "This is your whole problem. And it's also precisely the reason why she dumped your ass."
Nancy's eyes widened, "El dumped you?"
"Yeah, because she and Violet are conspiring against me." Mike accused them.
Violet's brows raised in offence, "Wait, don't drag me into this!"
"I am dragging you into this, you're both corrupting her!" Mike insisted.
Violet gapes, her irritation flaring. "Corrupting her? Just because we took her to the mall?" She scoffs harshly, rolling her eyes. "Wow, Mike."
"We're not corrupting her, we're enlightening her." Max corrected snappishly, "The fact is, she's not yours. She's her own person, fully capable of making her own decisions."
"Especially when it comes to her powers." Violet states firmly.
"She's risking her life for no reason." Mike declared.
"For no reason?" Nancy's asked, shooting her brother an incredulous look. "Mike, the flayed are out there doing god knows what."
"Killing, flaying..." Lucas trailed off.
"Transforming into monsters." Will imparted.
"Giant sludge monsters." Violet mentions.
"And El's not stupid." Nancy states as she shook her head, "She and Violet know their own abilities better than any of us."
"Exactly, thank you." Max nods, sighing in relief. "That's what I told him."
"And she is her own person." Nancy goes on, nodding her head. "With her own free will."
"Exactly." Max agreed, "El has saved the world twice, and Mike still doesn't trust her."
Mike's jaw drops, his features etched in disbelief. "You wanna talk about trust, really? After you and Vi made El spy on us?"
Violet visibly grimaced, she knew they'd get busted for that eventually.
"Wait, what?" Lucas questions cluelessly.
Mike turns to him, "Oh, you didn't know? They used El's power's to spy on us."
"Okay, technically we didn't make her do anything." Violet asserted.
"It was practically her idea." Max disclosed, "And why are we even talking about this, seriously?"
"Yeah, who cares?" Will asked rhetorically, clearly unbothered by this entire situation.
"I care." Lucas admits.
"Yeah, I guess girlfriends don't lie, they spy." Mike spits out annoyedly, turning back to the ginger and raven haired duo, "And you two are encouraging that shit."
Max rolls her eyes, "We were just joking around."
"Honestly, it was just a bit of fun, Mike." Violet sighs heavily, she was just about done with his bullshit for one day. "Nothing bad even happened."
"Wouldn't it have been so funny if I was taking a massive shit or something?" Mike demands over-dramatically.
Violet drops her head in her hands, she groans loudly. "My god, Mike."
"You weren't." Max replied, her tone edged in disgust.
"But what if I was?" Mike asked.
"Then gross!" Max cried out.
"Seriously, Mike?" Nancy complains.
"I'm just trying to demonstrate how careless Max and Vi are with Eleven's powers when they're together." Mike attempts to reason, "In-fact, how careless all of you are. You're treating her like some kind of machine when she's not a machine, and I don't want her to die looking for the flayed when they've obviously vanished off the face of the Earth. So can we please just come up with a new plan because I love her and I can't lose her again."
Mike's outburst and apparent love declaration for the girl in the other room stuns everyone in the room to silence. Violet's gaze lingers on the wooden planks on the floor, she can't help but feel a bit ambivalent about his confession.
Violet and El know each other much better than they know themselves, and she knew without a shadow of a doubt that El loves Mike. Despite them breaking up and not talking to eachother for awhile, she could tell that El was missing the raven haired idiot and wanted to be with him more than anything.
And sure, she liked El and Mike together, she did. He made her happy, and that was the only thing that she cared about. She just wished he would stop being such a godamn idiot all the time. El needs someone who wont lie to her, who's going to let her be her own person, who will let her make her own decisions. But most importantly, she needs someone who's going to trust her completely, no matter what.
Was Mike that person? She didn't know, but in the end it's up to El to figure out.
Suddenly the bedroom door creaks open, Violet glanced upwards and her gaze fell upon the chestnut brunette who wanders out of the room. Her brows furrowed as she walks further into the open room, "What's going on?"
"Nothing. Nothing." Mike rushed out, as a rush of crimson floods his pale skin.
"Just a family discussion." Lucas responds quietly.
"Oh." El uttered softly, doe eyes wide as she blinked once. "I found him."
"Found who?" Nancy asked.
El pursed her lips tight, "Billy."
Everyone in the room gathered near the couch and took their seats on the sofa, Violet was busy switching the knobs on the TV with her mind to get to the static channel that El needed. Once she got to the right one she wipes away the crimson that spilled under her nostril, she leaned forward in her seat between Max and Will, watching intently as El prepares herself to go back into the void to find Billy.
The only sound in the room was the faint static coming from the TV, and El's rapid and heavy breaths as she searched for the flayed Hargrove boy. But after a few moments passed El pulls her the blindfold from her head, she pants heavily as she reached for the box of tissues that Violet left there for her.
"What's he doing now?" Max asked curiously.
El turned to face her, she shrugs her shoulders. "He's just... sitting there. In his room."
Max frowned, "That's it?"
El nodded before she rose to her feet, "I need water." She announced, making her leave from the room and wandering to the kitchen.
Violet's brows furrowed as she glanced at the party, "So, Billy is just... at home?" She turns to Ma, "Would he do that? Does that even sound like him?"
Max shook her head, "No, no way. Billy staying home on the 4th of July? No, that's not normal."
"He wants us to find him." Will states surely.
"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of." Nancy replied, "If we go to Billy, then the rest of the flayed know where we are."
"It's a trap, I agree." Mike nodded, "We'll be ambushed."
"We won't be surprised." Lucas insists, "We'll know that they're coming, and we will kick their flayed butts."
"Correction, Me and El will kick their flayed butts." Violet revised, "You guys will stand back so you don't get yourselves killed."
Mike shook his head as he paced the floor, his typical reaction to stressful situations such as these. "It's too risky."
"Yeah, and unnecessary." Nancy added to her brother's point, "Killing the flayed won't stop the Mind Flayer. We have to find out where it's spreading from. We have to find... the source."
"Billy knows it." El's voice joins in, grabbing everyone's attention as she enters the room. "Billy's been there. To the source."
"Yeah, but-"
"It's a trap. I know." El reminds Mike, letting him know that she heard him before. "We can't go to Billy, but I think there's another way. A way for me to see where he's been."
"Okay." Violet nods as she heaves a heavy sigh, "Let's do it."
While Will and Lucas head to the kitchen to refill El's glass of water, Violet and Max sink down from the sofa and sit on the floor behind the coffee table. As El got ready to to search through Billy's flayed subconscious, Mike rushed over and drops to a crouch alongside her.
Max and Violet share a knowing look, naturally the duo can't resist the urge to eavesdrop.
"El, I know you think you have to do this, but you don't." Mike tries to convince her, Violet and Max shared an eye roll with each other as they listen in. "It's just, you've only done this before once. And your mom, she loved you, and wanted you to know what happened. And Billy's mind is- is sick, diseased. The Mind Flayed is in him."
El turns to him, "He can't hurt me." She assured, "Not in there."
"We don't know that." Mike replied stubbornly.
"Mike." El moves her body to fully face him, she takes his palm in hers as she looks him right in the eyes. "I need you to trust me."
Mike falls silent at her words, then he glanced over at Violet and Max. The raven and ginger haired duo stare at him expectantly, arching their brows until his gaze shifts back to El.
"Just... be careful." Mike gently forewarns her, El nods wordlessly and he rises to his feet and made his way back to the lounge chair beside the sofa.
Now that all interruptions are gone, El ties the blindfold around her head again and gets herself ready to go back into the void once more. Violet leans froward and folds her arms on the table, she sets her chin onto them as she waits patiently for El to do what she does best.
A minute or two of silence goes by and Violet thinks it's time she check in on her, she leans up and goes to speak but before she can even get a word out she hears El whimpering helplessly.
Her brows furrowed worriedly as she quickly sat up straighter, "El, are you okay?"
"Something's wrong." Mike expressed in concern, nervously leaning on the edge of the chair.
El doesn't reply with anything but quiet whimpering for awhile, but after a certain amount of seconds passed by she falls silent, the only sound that leaves her is a few sniffles that she heard.
Mike glanced over to Violet, then his gaze flickered over to El. She figured he was asking permission to check on El, so she nodded her head wordlessly at him.
"El, are you okay?" Mike gingerly asked her, but he got no response. "El, are you okay?"
El sighed heavily, she sniffles again softly. "I'm okay."
"What's going on?" Mike queried.
"I'm... on a beach." El replied, her tone filled with confusion.
Violet frowned, "A beach?"
"Okay, I may be dense, but the last I checked, there weren't any beaches in Hawkins." Lucas informed.
"What else do you see?" Max questioned, as her thin red brows furrowed in concentration.
"A woman." El responds, "She's... pretty. I... I think she's looking at me. There's... a boy. It's Billy."
"It's California." Max utters, Violet glanced over and frowned at the saddened look set on her freckled features. "It's a memory." Violet wraps an around Max, the ginger girl leans into her embrace as a tiny smile curls on her lips.
"I think I see it. The source." El declared assuredly.
"Where El?" Max asked urgently, "Where are you?"
"Brimborn Steelworks." El replied.
Jonathan shoots up from the couch and they all watch and Nancy followed as he rushed to the kitchen, he picks up the phone book and pulls it open as he flipped through the pages and searched for the name. "Here. Okay, uh, steelworks, steelworks...uh... Here, steel. Uh... found it." He announced, "6522 Cherry Oak Drive."
"That's close." Nancy states in realization.
"El, El, we found it. Get out of there." Mike alerted her.
Violet leaned forwards, "You did great, El. You can come back to us now."
"Get out!" Mike urged in a rushed tone, his eyes wide and frantic.
A solid minute passed by and nothing happened, there was dead silence and El didn't move a muscle. Violet frowned in puzzlement, it was already established that El can hear them and they can communicate, so why did hasn't she come out when they told her to?
A look of worry quickly floods the raven haired boy's features, "I don't get it, why hasn't she come out of it yet?" He turns to Violet, his gaze desperate. "What's wrong with her?"
Violet shook her head cluelessly, "I-I don't know. Let me see." She shoots up from her seat on the couch, making her way over to El. After dropping to her knees in front of her, she grabs ahold of the brunette's shoulders. "El? Can you hear me? El!" There's no response, El doesn't so much as flinch to her attempt to bring her back. "Shit, someone get me a blindfold!"
Max raised up from the floor almost instantly and makes strides to El's room, in mere moments she returns and drops beside Violet to hand her the blindfold that she requested. She looks to her with a wide eyed and puzzled look, "What are you gonna do?"
Violet pursed her lips tight as she held the blindfold her grasp, "I'm going into the void."
Mike shot her a bewildered look, "Wait, I thought you couldn't go into the void on your own?"
"I can't." Violet admitted as pulls the ties the blindfold over her eyes, "But, if El is in there and I take her hand then I can tune into where she is."
"What?" Mike questions, looking beyond confused.
Violet huffs loudly as she set her hands upon her thighs, "It's a connection thing, Mike. Me and El have always had it, I don't understand it anymore than you do. Now, shut up and let me find her, I need to concentrate."
"But you-"
"Shut up, Mike!" Max hissed beside her.
Violet sighs as she shook her head, "You two give me a migraine, both of you be quiet." She ordered, taking El's palm in hers before pulling her blindfold over her eyes. "Okay, El. I need you to help me out here. Show me where you are."
A few seconds pass her by and Violet laced her fingers with El's, she clears her mind of any and all thought except for the brunette girl that she's desperately trying to find. Just when she thinks it's no use, she gets flashes and images that push to forefront of her mind. Her brows wrinkle as she tries to figure out what these visuals mean, but then her eyes open and she finds herself in a place that's all too familiar to her.
The void.
Her feet slosh in the shallow and reflective water, and her eyes wandered her surroundings as she looks for El. With each step she hears a sound reach her ears, a voice that both sends a roll of chills down her spine, and makes her fist clench at her sides.
It's Billy.
She follows the sound of the voice, until eventually it leads to a door, Hopper's front door of the cabin home to be precise. She grabs the handle and pulls the door open, and when she makes her way inside she finds something that sends her heart to her throat. El is all alone inside of the living room, and stood before her is Mind Flayer possessed Billy.
As she walked into the cabin it became glaringly obvious that her presence is known, possessed Billy noticed her first and a sinister grin curls on his lips. "Well, look who it is."
El's head whips in her direction and the moment their eyes meet the brunette's gaze fills with disbelief. "Vi?" She whispered, "H-How are you here?"
Violet rushed over to El, taking her palms in hers. "We're connected, remember? I can always come and find you."
"Aww, isn't that sweet." Mind Flayer Billy mocks them, Violet glares heatedly as she pulls El behind her. "Well, I'm glad you're here, Violet. I was hoping I'd see you again."
Violet scoffed, "Yeah, well I was hoping you'd drop dead."
Possessed Billy shoots her a malicious smirk, "Keep talking like that, and I'll make sure your little girlfriend dies first. And by her own brother's hand, how poetic would that be?"
Violet's eyes widen, she feels a knot forming in her throat. "L-Leave her alone."
Possessed Billy inhales sharply, "Sorry, no can do. You see, this is what I was telling sweet El here, before you rudely interrupted our nice little conversation. She opened the gate. She let us in. And now she has to let us stay."
"No!" Violet spits angrily, "She doesn't have to do shit! You demonic interdimensional freaks need to crawl back to whatever hell hole you came from, and leave our town alone."
Possessed Billy tuts softly, "Not gonna happen. We've put too much work into all of this to stop now." He slowly and eerily begins to approach the duo, Violet stumbles back as she protects El who's mostly hidden behind her as she clutched her hand. "All that work... all that pain... all of it... for her. And now it's time. Time to end it. And we're going to end El."
Violet's jaw clenched tight, "Over my dead fucking body will you do anything to hurt her." Even though her words were sharp and unflinching, she could feel her fear beginning to form a pit in her lower stomach.
She was terrified.
Possessed Bill's gaze narrowed on her, "That can be arranged, because your powers are nearly identical to hers, which means you have to go too." His once blue eyes darken as he resumes his slow approach towards them, "And after you both are gone we are going to end your friends." And then, we are going to end... everyone."
Violet hears El sobbing behind her, she quickly turns to the brunette and pulls her into her arms. As she held her tight possessed Billy chuckles menacingly as he watched the two, after hearing that the raven haired girl shot him a determined look. "We've defeated you before, I think I like our odds on doing it again." She pulls back from the hug and grabs El's shoulders, "El, ignore him. He's not real, but I am." She looks her dead in her teary brown eyes, "You have to come back with me. You have to pull yourself out, okay?"
El nods shakily, "O-Okay."
Violet nodded and her eyes fluttered shut, her plan is to get out the way she came in. She clears her mind of any and all thought except for one thing, Max and her friends. As the process of leaving the void unravels, she feels as if she's seeing her life flash before her eyes in images.
There are moments she had growing up with the boys, the very few moments she had with El in Hawkins Lab, and finally, all of the moments she's had since she met Max Mayfield.
Her eyes flutter open as a gasp escapes her lips, all she sees is blackness , which makes her reach up and instantly rip the blindfold over her eyes. The first face she sees is Max, and her body moves on it's own as she surged forward and throws her arms around her.
Max's arms curl around her frame instinctively, "V, what happened in there? Are you okay?"
"No, I'm not okay." Violet shook her head, tears brim in the corner of her eyes as she tucked her face in Max's neck and clung to her tighter. "None of us are."
—micaela speaks
Yo !
So uhm, sorry for the lack of updates in this fic, I started writing a Cobra Kai fic and was basically trying to squeeze out as many chapters as I could before writers block and un-motivation got my ass. Because 9 times out 10, I delete books after I lose motivation.
But yeah, I am BACK.
I'm also writing this on a godamn MacBook Air rn, like, holy SHIT. My mom got me a MacBook for my upcoming 21st birthday, and honestly it's sooo cool. It's a lot smaller than my last computer, which helps because I can just use it while sitting in bed.
So YAY.
Still got writers block, that's for sure, but I tried my best on this second half of the chapter, so I hope that you guys appreciate it when I update it.
I found a fucking friend on here, ROGUEANDOR and they've made me a book cover for this book for season 4 and it is the coolest and most INCREDIBLE thing I have ever seen. Like, I can't believe they made it for me. I'm so lucky. I cannot wait for you guys to see it when I finish season three and get to season 4.
But anywhoosieee, I hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter. Please leave your comments and let me know how you feel about this chapter, I really love hearing from you !
Thank you so much for reading, and I will see you all in the next one !
Byeee <3