Chapter Twenty-Two | The Never-Ending Story
Steve's driving scared me. Just a bit. He was going full speed down the road. We finally reached Starcourt and there were the others at the car outside.
I noticed Billy's car driving straight towards them making my heart pound. Nancy was standing there with a gun, shooting at Billy's car.
"Steve!" I yelled desperately and he speeds up even faster.
"I know! I know!" Steve yells back at me, it was a little bit of a blur to me what happened next. Steve drives straight into Billy, knocking him out of the way from the others.
My head bangs against the seat and I gasped, holding my head. I let out a few pants my heart racing once again.
Nancy gasped, looking over at us. The others were in the car. I looked over at Billy's car, it turns into flames.
"Oh, my God," I mutter in shock.
"Are you guys okay?" Steve looked over at me and Robin.
Robin looked over at Steve. "Ask me tomorrow?"
"Or next year," I add in before climbing out of the car. I stopped when I heard a loud screeching inside. For a split minute, I'd forgotten about the Mind Flayer.
Robin gasped and the stand up in the car. "Holy shit." The Mind Flayer climbs over Starcourt and my eyes widen.
It leats out a loud screech at us. The car honks and pulls over to us. "Get in!" Nancy yells at us and I sprinted my way towards the car, Robin lets me go in as she climbs out of the car and Steve follows.
"Go, go, go, go!" Lucas ushered us. Will was in the back and I quickly climbed over to him, Robin and Steve joined us, squishing in before they shut the door and Jonathan drives off.
I looked behind us, the Mind Flayer was coming for us. And if Jonathan doesn't hurry the hell up; it will get us.
I gulped and laced my hands with Will naturally. I cuddled up to Will, feeling exhaustion now. I slowly realised that Max wasn't here.
"Where's Max?" I demanded suddenly.
"She's okay, Aspen," Will reassured me. "She's with Mike and El back at Starcourt." I relaxed a bit, chewing on my lower lip. At least with that thing chasing behind us, there's no way it'll be able to reach her.
It's been a while, my head resting on Will's shoulder, watching the monster chase us. It really doesn't want to give up, does it?
"Dusty-bun, you copy?" A girl's voice speaks over the radio.
"I copy, Suzie-poo," my eyes widen at Dustin's voice. Suzie. "It sounds much better now, thanks."
Steve, Robin, and I glanced at each other. "Suzie," we all speak in sync.
"Okay, so, listen, do you know Planck's constant?" Dustin continued over the radio.
"Do you know the Earth orbits the sun?" Suzie retorts jokingly.
"Okay, so I know it starts with two sixes, and then a... w-what is it?" Dustin asks.
"Okay, let me just be clear on this." Suzie started and I groaned. Just give us the goddamn numbers! "I haven't heard from you in a week, and now you want some mathematical equation that you should know so you can... save the world?"
"Sounds about right now let's move on, shall we? Give Dusty-bun the god damn numbers." I murmur in frustration. Will chuckled beside me.
"Suzie-poo, I promise, I will make it up to you as soon as possible," Dustin says.
"You can make it up to me now," Suzie compromises. I raised an eyebrow.
"What?"
"I want to hear it," Suzie pushed further. Oh, now I want to hear it as well whatever the hell she's talking about.
"Not right now." Dustin declined. Oh, it must be really embarrassing if he doesn't want us to hear it. I smirked a little.
"Yes, now, Dusty-bun," Suzie demanded.
"Suzie-poo, this is urgent." Dustin pleads.
"Yes, yes, you're saving the world, I heard you the first time," Suzie remarks. "But Ged is also saving Earthsea and he's about to confront the shadow, so this is Suzie, signing off."
"Wait, wait, wait. Okay," Dustin agreed. it went radio silent for a second. "Turn around. Look at what you see, in her face, the mirror of your dreams." Dustin was singing a god damn song.
"Make believe I'm everywhere," Suzie joins in. They both don't have terrible voices but I never knew Dustin could sing. I snicker a little. "Given in the light. Written on the pages is the answer to a Never Ending Story!"
"Ahhh, reach the stars, fly a fantasy, dream a dream, and what you see will be, rhymes that keep their secrets," my friends all looked each other, in confusion. "Unfold behind the clouds."
"And thereupon the rainbow is, the answer to a never-ending story, ahh, story, ahh," they finally finished... well, whatever the hell that was and Dustin chuckles.
"Planck's constant is 6.62607004." Suzie answeres the questions.
"You just saved the world," Dustin tells his girlfriend.
"Gosh, I miss you, Dusty-bun," Suzie tells him.
I small smile grows on my face. I have a huge disadvantage here. I can somehow finally get him to stop calling me 'redhead'. I'm gonna just keep calling him Dusty-bun until he agrees to stop calling me redhead.
"And I miss you more, Suzie-poo," Dustin cooed her. I faked a gag.
"I miss you more, multiplied by all the stars in our galaxy,"
I frowned. "What fuck is this flirting?"
"Aspen!" Robin frowned. "Language."
"Sorry dad," I rolled my eyes.
"You're grounded," Robin teases, giving me a smile.
"God! Please! I'm done with shit." I mutter, glaring at the Mind Flayer who was still chasing us.
"No, I miss you..." It was then switched off by, I'm guessing, Erica.
"It's turning around." Steve suddenly said and I looked out the back window, indeed the Mind Flayer was turning around.
"What?" Nancy asked, turning around.
"It's turning around!" Steve repeats louder.
"Maybe we wore it out," Lucas suggested.
"I don't think so," Jonathan speaks. "Hold on," he then turned us around, doing a U-turn and we started to follow the monster.
"Not meaning to be a pussy or anything," I started. "But shouldn't we be trying to get away from the Mind Flayer?"
"No, if it's turning around that mean something's wrong," Jonathan concluded. I let out a sigh. Must everything be so hard?
-
We got the Starcourt mall. Everyone ran inside, Will and Lucas somehow have fireworks in their arms and we rushed upstairs, leaving everyone else.
My heart hammers as I watched the Mind Flayer hover over El, with Billy beside her, the Mind Flayer it lets out a loud screech. The boys got ready and threw the fireworks at them. I was gonna question them at first but decided against it.
The creature wails in shock. "Flay this, you ugly piece of shit!" Lucas insults the Mind Flayer. The Mind Flayer looks up at us, inching closer and screeches when I threw another firework right in it's mouth.
"I think that deserves a bonus point." I nudged to Will jokingly, he lets out a small chuckle. The Mind Flayer crashes into the pole and keeps on screeches which are making my ears bleed. Not literally, don't worry.
Nancy and Jonathan on the other side were throwing fireworks too. "Hey, asshole, over here!" Steve cried out to the Mind Flayer, who looked over in Steve and Robin's direction.
Steve chucks a firework in the Mind Flayer's face, it lets out another wail of pain. We continued to do this back and forward, shouting at the Mind Flayer, as a distraction for El to run, even though her leg is injured.
I gasped softly when I saw Billy clutch onto El's leg who was trying to crawl away. Eleven screams as she was being pulled back to the Mind Flayer by Billy.
Nancy on the other side fires a firework towards the Mind Flayer. "We're almost out!" Will suddenly cried out and I looked down at our stash. He was right.
"I know!" Lucas yelled over the screeching of the Mind Flayer. I could see that Nancy, Jonathan, Robin, and Steve's stash was almost gone, too.
I throw our last firework at the Mind Flayer. "We're out!" I informed the boys in panic.
"Damn it!" Lucas muttered. Fireworks at stop exploding over the Mind Flayer and now we got a clear view of what was going on.
Billy was hovered over El, his hand on her chest and he looked up at the Mind Flayer. Billy suddenly stands up and faced the Mind Flayer.
The Mind Flayer snarls at Billy, looking at him directly in the eyes. And then the Mind Flayer out a big roar.
I noticed Mike and Max run in but paused, watching the showdown. Well, at least she's safe, that makes me slightly better. Only slightly.
The Mind Flayer roars and Billy again, Billy looks at him, with no facial expression. The Mind Flayer went to grab El, his tentacle shooting out from his mouth but Billy grabs ahold of the tentacle, making me gasp in shock.
"No!" Billy screamed out. Billy continued to yell, grabbing the Mind Flayer's tentacle. Another tentacle grabs Billy's side, Billy screamed out in pain.
Another tentacle grabbed Billy's other side, my mouth opened wide in pure shock. More and more tentacle's grabbed Billy, I gasp in shock, hearing Billy's screams of pain.
Billy was put to his knees by the Mind Flayer, the Mind Flayer lets out one last screech at Billy. Billy screams back. And with that, the tentacle out from his mouth shoves it into Billy's stomach, making my heart drop.
I let out a scream in shock, my sister doing the same thing. The Mind Flayer lets go of Billy, he dropped the floor; dead.
My scream died down and it slowly turns into deep and hurtful sobs. The sobs that came out from me actually hurt, so damn much.
Will tried to pull me in for a hug but I ran, I ran down the stairs, almost tripping and went to Billy's side, Max came beside me, dropping on her knees, tears were streaming down her face.
"Billy!" I scream, grabbing ahold of his white shirt that's now covered in blood. My hands were shaking, my whole body was shaking and I scooched back.
I watch in front of me as the Mind Flayer screeches and falls back, then falls down on the ground. There was no more screeching from the Mind Flayer. It was dead I then realised.
I watched as El and Mike reunited, everything was ringing loudly in my ear and I let out a few more sobs.
Will had come beside me now, hugging me tightly, pulling me in his arms and I let my tears stream down my face.
"Billy, please get up, please, please," Max whispered to Billy. He was struggling to breathe. Black liquid throughout his entire mouth.
"I'm sorry," Billy whispered to the both of us.
"Billy..." I let out another few sobs when Billy stopped breathing and struggling.
"Billy, wake up." Max shakes his head shoulders. "Billy, get up. Please, Billy..."
"Max," my voice cracked and she looked over at me with teary eyes. I pushed away from Will and crawled towards my sister. I let out shaky breath. "He's gone,"
Max lets out another sob, and another one, embraced each other, keeping each other at all costs as we cried over our brother's death.
Sure, he wasn't a good brother, but that doesn't mean he deserved to die. In this last holidays, he was getting better at being a better brother. Slowly, but I could tell he was trying.
My whole body shaking with fear. I noticed Robin coming towards me, she bends down and begins to rub my back, telling me soft and kind things.
"It's going to be okay, Aspen." Robin murmured. "Everything's going to get better."
A/N
Hello ladies and gentleman, boys and girls.
It's me again with another late update :)
I'm sorry if you wanted Billy to stay, but I decided against it. It's how the plotline goes with the story, I'm sorryyyyy.
Also, Aspen and Max broke my heart by crying.
This is the second to last chapter, I know, I know. I'm going to cry writing the next bit.
If you want more of this, make sure you vote, comment, and share!
Would you like the chapter tomorrow or next week?
Thanks for reading!