"Come on, come on," Prue muttered as the dial tone died out again. The phone receiver shook in her hand and she gnawed at her bottom lip, waiting for someone, for anyone in the Hargrove house to pick up. The sun was scaling high in the sky the following morning and shadows hung under her eyes that were still fragile from crying last night. She slammed the phone back onto its hook on the kitchen wall, blowing out frustration from her cheeks. She had left a few messages for both Max and Billy, clogging up the Hargrove's message bank, but she hadn't heard a peep from the family. That only provided more proof to Prue that something was wrong, dead wrong. She knew biking over to the Hargrove house was useless because clearly, no one was home. She considered ringing Hopper but she wasn't sure what she would tell him and she still hadn't spoken to her father since he found out she had gone into the Upside Down. Both were keeping their distance: Prue from shame and Sam from anger. Yet the Owens house wasn't that big.
"Between you and your mother, I swear the phone bill is going to be outrageous," Sam humoured out as he moved through the kitchen to pull a beer out of the fridge.
Prue scoffed. "And how many secret calls have you made to the Morgantown Lab or your government pals again?" She leered over her shoulder at her father, trying to conceal her trembling hands: they had been shaking since last night.
Sam sighed, finding no chilled beers in the fridge. In reality, Caroline had tipped them all down the drain as a resentful strike at her husband over indirectly putting their daughter and son in harm's way again. "You're a teenager, Prue. Why can't you just be a teenager?" There was a pleading in his voice, in his eyes. He regretted moving to Hawkins, regretted taking the job at Hawkins National Laboratory. All of this strangeness and trauma that had befallen his family was because he had wanted to further his career, to study a new world. Through the kitchen window, both Prue and Sam could see Grey and the girls playing in the pool freely and happily. Alice had tied a plastic bag around Grey's cast so he could swim. Madison and Cynthia were both pretending to be mermaids and Jackie was lining up for a cannonball. The sun even made the water shimmer with rainbows as the surface rippled with movement: it was a perfect summer scene. "At least your brother is trying to be normal," Sam added with pointed words. Prue didn't have a response to that, but her throat was tight and she wasn't sure if it was from pity or fury. A part of her was desperate for normalcy, for the life she had before the strangeness embedded in Hawkins had invaded her life. Late at night when sleep would abandon her, she would wonder why she couldn't have just been happy with being a cheerleader, with Patrick Turner as a steady boyfriend itching for more from her like the way all boys do. She would wonder why she couldn't have just left the strange world alone. But that just wasn't who Prudence Anna Owens was. She was a girl on the threshold of womanhood that was curious, that had wanted more out of this world so had searched for it in another world and she had found herself in the dark returning to the light with a slice on her cheek and a racing heart that knew anything was possible. She hadn't asked for the strangeness, she had sought it out with flashing eyes and parted lips, a storm brewing inside of her, thunder rolling from her bones and lightning falling from her tongue.
The phone shrieked beside Prue and she hastily turned away from her father, frantically picking it up and pressing it against her ear. Please be Billy. Please be Max, she prayed. Sam settled for a cup of orange juice before moving into his office, picking out a new puzzle.
"Prue, thank god!" Selena Moreno expressed down the line. "Ronnie is with Patrick again and I need advice about an article I wanna pitch to the paper," she added, voice silvery.
Prue's heart dropped but it was nice to hear Selena's familiar and normal voice. "Sure. What's up?"
"Okay, get this," she started as Prue leaned against the wall. "That new girl in town, Jesse Fontana, she was the sole survivor of a serial killing spree at a summer camp. And I kinda wanna do an article about it," Selena explained and her overzealous was colourful.
The information stunned Prue; she had no idea that the girl she had met in an independent bookstore listening to ABBA had survived a serial killer. "Really?" she settled on, astonished.
"And it gets better. She killed the psycho. She's a godman badass!" Selena exclaimed done the line, her voice loud in Prue's ear, drumming around at a hyper pace.
"What would your article be about exactly?" she prompted, twisting the phone cord around her shaking fingers. At the back of her mind was Billy Hargrove, tears in his eyes as he held her arm tight in a warning. Lock the door, Prue! Please!
"Expanding the bounds of femininity and being a survivor," Selena informed her friend. She had already given the article quite some thought and she believed it would make for an insightful and powerful piece, not that men at the paper would agree.
"You sound so passionate about this and I think you should continue with it, but you have to consider if Jesse even wants to talk about something so... dark," Prue commented back.
"Oh, yeah, of course. I just wanted to run the idea by someone first." While Selena had never been without confidence before, it was lacking when it came to her ability as a journalist and she was seeking support from her dear friends.
"You're gonna make a wonderful Lois Lane!" Prue encouraged her friend, believing in Selena's passion and dedication.
"Shit! My boss is back. Weirdly enough, Nancy and Johnathan keep disappearing so I have to shoulder their workloads too! Chat later, sweetie!" Selena spat out in a hurry before hanging up. Prue didn't get the chance to wonder why Nancy and Johnathan weren't at the Hawkins Post before the phone was ringing off the hook again.
She answered on the first ring. "Hello?"
"Prue? It's Max," the younger redhead offered up. Prue sent a silent thank you to the heavens as she squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. All she could see was Billy in the darkness, teeth clenched and eyes drowning in tears.
"I've been ringing you all day. I think something is wrong with—"
"Billy? Yeah about that," Max interrupted. "Can you meet us at the pool?" Her youthful voice was quivering with worry and it made Prue's heart pause and her hands shake almost violently; she gripped at the phone receiver harder, trying to tame her fear.
"I'm on my way," she stated without hesitation.
◈
The sun was harsh and sweat made Prue's shirt cling to her back, outlining her spine. Prue had dumped her bike next to the rest of the pile of bicycles belonging to Hawkins's strangest kids. The teenagers were gathered in the carpark, watching the pool from a distance.
"Did he say anything?" Mike asked Prue after she had explained that Billy had shown up at her house last night acting differently and nearly breaking the door down trying to get to her. Trying to take her.
"That no one can hide from him," she echoed, the twisted memory haunting her mind. She was wearing her old short denim overalls and her slogan shirt with MTV printed on the front in faded neon colours.
"That doesn't mean anything. Billy can be scary sometimes," Max pointed out, taking the binoculars from Lucas. Through the chain-link fence, they could spot Billy sitting up in the lifeguard chair.
"This was more than scary," Prue told the group. Eleven's eyebrows were pulled together and she kept sharing looks with Will, his forehead glossed with sweat.
"Would you say he was possessed?" Mike retorted next to El. He was pretty hellbent on Billy being the Mind Flayer's new host. The party had explained everything to Prue and it made her skin prickle and was she overcome with a sense of doom for Billy. She knew deep down that something was wrong with Billy but she didn't want it to be the Mind Flayer, anything but that.
"Maybe," Prue admitted in a defeated tone. "It looked like he was struggling with something."
"Yeah, the Mind Flayer," Lucas bit out hard.
"I don't know. He looks pretty normal to me," Max noted, peering through the binoculars at her big brother.
"Normal? How many times have you seen him with a shirt on?" Lucas blurted, his eyes wide under the brim of his hat.
Max scrunched up her nose. "I mean, it's a little weird."
"More than a little. He was in a tub of ice. The Mind Flayer likes it cold! Plus with everything else—" Mike concluded.
"But he's lounging at the pool, which is like, the least Mind Flayer thing ever," Max rebutted, coming to Billy's defensive.
"Not necessarily," Will piped up. The group turned to look at only other boy that had been possessed by the Mind Flayer before. "The Mind Flayer likes to hide. He only used me when he needed me. It's like... like you're dormant. And then, when he needs you, your activated."
"Like a sleeper agent," Prue muttered out as a shiver crept down her spine, spilling the sweat on her back.
"Okay, so we just want until he gets activated again," Max suggested, the hope in her voice was painful.
Mike shook his head, his chestnut waves shifting across his forehead. "No. What if he hurts someone? Like Prue?"
"Or kills someone?" Will exclaimed, eyes trailing to Prue again. The unsaid words were: or kills Prue.
Mike nodded. "We can't take that chance. We need to find out if he's the host." Mike was on the move already, skirting around the party.
"Where are you going?" El called out.
"I have an idea!" Mike declared, hurrying off with Lucas and Will. Prue's eyes swung back to Billy up in the chair, seeking shade under layers, chewing at a cup of ice.
◈
The idea was to get Billy into the pool's sauna after closing and use the heat to test if the Mind Flayer was indeed dwelling in his body and his mind. All much the same as to when Prue's father had tested Will back at the laboratory last year. And that hadn't been pleasant at all and it nagged at Prue, like a hook nagging at her chest.
"Why can't I just lead him into the sauna?" Prue asked, scanning the group of teenagers for backup. "He won't see me as a threat." And Prue wasn't a threat to Billy Hargrove, only the Mind Flayer that wanted to steal into her body too.
"Because we're not gonna use you as bait," Mike insisted as he explained the plan they had thought up to the girls clustered around their bikes, half-hidden in the shade of some trees.
"Plus we don't know what he'll do," Lucas agreed. He didn't care about Billy but he did care about Max and that showed in his chocolate brown eyes.
"So... our best option is to lure him into a trap?" Prue questioned, the sunshine still hot on her shoulders, but the sunshine was dimming.
"Best option?" Mike's eyes pinched together. "It's our only option here, Prue. We need to know if he is the host."
"No matter the cost, right?" she bit back, her words sharp like teeth.
"Right." Mike didn't see the problem, didn't see the possible danger to the party or the teenage boy that was draped in shadows.
"And what happens then? What happens if Billy is the host?" Prue pandered Mike, her blood rising. Noise from the lively pool floated on the sweltering air as the two teenagers stared off at each other.
"Well, we'll know and that's the main priority at the moment," Lucas butted in, backing up Mike. Prue's gaze slid to Max, but she was silent.
"Come on, we have an operation to prep for," Mike ordered, picking up one of the Walkie-talkies and the boys and El followed, leaving Prue and Max to keep watch in the carpark. Prue lifted the binoculars up to her eyes, checking on Billy. He was completely covered up in a long-sleeved sweatshirt and a baseball cap, his eyes shaded with sunglasses. He almost looked sleepy, drained of energy. She wondered if he really was in some sort of dormant mode.
"You know, I always wanted a brother. And I had been excited when my mum told me about Neil and Billy," Max admitted, her voice gentle with memory. Prue lowered the binoculars, eyes falling to the young, fiery girl standing at her side. "I thought he was the coolest person out, cooler than my dad even," she continued on. "But that didn't last. And it got worse, Billy got worse, when Neil decided we were leaving San Diego." Prue knew that Billy hadn't been thrilled about the idea of Hawkins but what Max was saying was all new information to her and it made her heart ache for the blond boy that knew more about the ugly parts of life than the beautiful parts. "He got into fights at school. Stopped showing up for family dinners. He blared his music so loud that I thought my ears would bleed," Max's voice was clouding over. "And then Neil put a lock on Billy's door, not on the inside but the outside. He'd lock Billy in his room sometimes and Billy would scream and bash at the walls." The image in Prue's mind was so painfully clear, so terribly vivid. A deadbolt sliding across its track, trapping a boy inside a tiny room where the walls would creep in, suffocating him to the point to he needed to break out and he would try using his fists till his skin split open and blood would spill.
"That's—" Prue tried, but no words formed on her tongue and she just passed the binoculars over, her heart weeping.
Max accepted them, bringing them up to her eyes. "I know." Prue blinked away her tears, staring through the gaps in the fence at Billy Hargrove. "God, I hope it's not you. I really hope it's not you," Max whispered to herself. Prue hoped the same as the sun started to set over the small town of Hawkins. It was almost closing time at the pool.