steve remembered the medications he had shoved into his bag when they were in the lab.
Oxycodone
stressed with sharp pains of worry, steve took the pain killers.
"fuck" "fuck, billy" he was just here, how is he gone?
steve looked around the room, almost expecting something to happen.
he grabbed his bag and limped briskly down the hall, "max?" "max!" steve called out.
"ugh, what the hell is happening?" he muttered to himself.
"everything okay?" steve jumped, turning around to see max's concerned expression.
"kid, you really gotta stop sneaking up on people"
she shrugged in response, "billy's missing" he said, grabbing his car keys.
"where are we going?" max asked, grabbing her backpack.
"you, are going to school" he forced a small smile while they drove down the empty road towards the school, "i'll worry about your stepbrother, okay?"
she nodded, "thanks steve, see you later" and just like that, steve was on his own again.
he laid his head on the steering wheel briefly before driving away. the passing trees and corn fields gave him no hope of coming anywhere close to finding billy.
"fuck!" steve slammed on the breaks, frustrated and flustered.
he and his car ended up scraping through a corn field, probably angering the farmer in the near future.
but steve didn't care, all he cared about was keeping the people he loved safe. steve hated to admit the fact that he loved billy, billy hargrove.
"how did all this even happen?" he thought to himself, sitting in field with his head in his cold hands.
steve sat up and sighed deeply, before looking around. it had sounded like an animal was hurt on the side of the road, but he couldn't see anything.
he stood up slowly and made his way through some of the fields before he saw a bunny limping away from him.
"oh, poor thing" he frowned
"oh fuck"
a torn white shirt hung loosely from billy's body with distressed jeans. the black ink was spread around on the ground near his arms.
"billy?"
tears built up quickly, almost falling, as steve knelt down. he turned over billy, "h-how? i never even got to tell you how much i-i love you" "i need you!"
streams of anger and sadness intertwined, running down steve's face.
"steve?" eleven laid a hand on his shoulder, "why are you crying?"
"he- he's"
"oh!" "no, hopper and i were able to extract the traces of the upside down from him" "it was just messy"
steve looked up at the girl with a past bloody nose smeared down her upper lip.
"but of course it didn't come with cost" her voice lowered, "we lost quite a few civilians, unfortunately because of him- or rather what was possessing him"
steve sighed a breath of relief, "will you help me?" he glanced down at billy.
she nodded, "car?"
"yeah, thanks" steve grunted, struggling, but managing to get billy into the back seat.
before starting the car, steve popped another pill into his mouth.
he waved at eleven as hopper approached and drove off. 'but this is only the start', a voice in his head echoed, twisting his thoughts.
a/n july fourth really couldn't come any s l o w e r