Hey guys! Here's the calm before the storm (because believe me, the next chapter shall be fucking intense)! The image above is Dylan's outfit for this episode. Hope you enjoy!
———————
Once the three arrived back home, Dylan explained to the girls what he felt—or lack there of—and how Heather seemed somehow jointed to Billy. But even with this Max still displayed skepticism.
"Dyl I think it's just your worry getting to your head again," she said in a pitying tone that made him scowl. "Just relax, okay? We checked and nothing was wrong."
"But it doesn't make any sense!" Dylan presses, running a frustrated hand through his hair. "Why the fuck would Heather give off a conjoining vibe with Billy?"
Max sighed. "I'm telling you, it's just nerves," she placated, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Everything's fine now—Heather's fine; Billy's fine; you can relax." She turned to El and gave her a smile. "The two of you."
El frowned. "He's right," she murmured. "It doesn't make sense: Heather; the blood; the ice...."
The fucking conjoint sense, Dylan thought bitterly in his mind.
Max twisted her lips and shrugged. "Heather had a fever, so she took a cold bath, but she's better now," Max suggested casually, "that has to be it; I don't know where that blood came from but—" she took a deep breath, "we saw her—we both saw her—she's totally fine."
Dylan made a face. "None of that explains the—"
Max groaned. "Dyl, would you knock it off with the sense thing?" She asked exasperatedly. "You said so yourself, you couldn't sense either of them so how would you be able to sense that?"
Dylan glowered. That was the problem—that was what he didn't fucking know.
But he wasn't gonna vocalize that. He had before and Max still didn't understand—and he doubted El would as well, to not fault of her own. Or Max's, he supposed. If they had the Sense, he guessed they would be able to understand the utter turmoil going on in his brain right now.
"You're right," he lied, rubbing his face. "You're right, sorry, I'm just—tired, I guess."
Max smiled at him. "It's okay," she murmured, rubbing his shoulder. "In a day or two we'll all forget this stuff ever happened."
Oh, if only that were true.
Dylan gave her a weak smile before slowly getting up off her bed.
"I think I'll sleep in my room tonight," he mumbled, causing Max to frown.
"Are you upset with me?" She asked, looking guilty. "I didn't mean to be rude Dyl, I just—"
Dylan shook his head. "Max, I'm not upset," he said solemnly, smiling assuringly. "I'm just tired and I wanna go to sleep early. Plus I don't want to intrude in this little girls night your having," he said gesturing to the two of them.
Max rolled her eyes with a smile while El looked up at him with doe eyes. "You never in-trude," she said, sounding out the semi-foreign word. God, she was cute.
Dylan smiled softly at her. "Thanks El, but I think I want to sleep in my own bed tonight if that's okay with you guys."
"Of course," Max said soothingly. "We'll talk in the morning?"
Dylan gave her a tight-lipped smile and nodded. Fortunately for him it wasn't noticeable to them.
"Goodnight," he murmured, walking out the door.
"Goodnight." "Night Dyl," El and Max bid as he finally shut the door behind him;
And made a beeline for not his own room, but Billy's.
Dylan sat himself down onto the man's bed, holding his sheets tightly to him. They still had remnants of his sense within them. Closing his eyes, he inhaled deeply and locked onto it, embellishing wholly in the sense of his brother to try and detect at least the smallest aspect of him.
All he got in return was a bunch of nothingness.
Huffing out a breath, Dylan tried again. He squeezed his eyelids shut and thought heavily of Billy, once again trying to tether his own Sense to his brothers, have the mental tendrils stretch and reach out to mesh with the other's—but the tendrils stared to split before they could even make it half way.
Angered, he tried to stretch his consciousness more but the further he pushed, the more they splintered—until they were rendered to nothing but lowly, useless strands wallowing at the deepest parts of his cerebrum.
Dylan gasped, opening his eyes hard. His head starting to ache and pound in a vindictive manner and he could feel the smallest droplet of blood emit from his right nostril.
Fuck, he thought, wiping the blood away. That had never happened before—he'd never had to work his Sense this hard in his entire life. It was almost disconcerting.
And what was worse—he still couldn't reach Billy.
Dylan closed his eyes and sighed, feeling absolutely hopeless. He desperately wanted to help his brother, but he didn't know how. He didn't know what was wrong with him or what to do to make him feel better. He was useless, all while he was sure his brother was in need; and it pained him.
It pained him so fucking bad.
A decrepit whimper escapes his lips and he flopped back onto the bed, shuffling into it. His shudders breaths hit the corner of the pillows as his head rested on it. It smelled like Billy's hair, which gave him a comfort he hadn't needed in a while.
Swallowing his sorrow, he tried to Will himself to sleep and the tears to keep within their ducts as he closed his eyes. He tried to help himself by focusing on Billy's sense amidst his bed—focusing on its comfort, and not the utter helplessness that it was additionally feeding into him.
He just needed some sleep—some sleep would do him good. He'd be well rested and have a better (less painful) mindset to help figure out what was wrong in the morning.
•••••••
Let's just say his consciousness did not want to wait until morning to be active.
The minute he drifted off into slumber, his mind had subconsciously tried to find its way to Billy again—and once again, it struggled—but surprisingly enough, he made a breakthrough; he could feel it.
Dylan's heart jumped in anticipation. He felt triumphant—he'd finally be able to figure out what was wrong with his brother!
.....Only it wasn't his brother that his mind came in contact with.
To Dylan's absolute horror, he felt the overwhelming presence of the Mind Flayer in Billy's essence.
And as if that wasn't enough to get his heart to stop beating? The flash of the monster staring directly at him was.
Dylan gaped up at it as it looked over him. He then heard a loud screech—a thunderous, shrill shriek that nearly caused his ears to bleed.
He woke up.
Dylan gasped, sitting p in the bed with heavy breaths. He was sweating—a lot—and his whole body was shaking with nerves. Large, beady tears were streaming down his face and he wanted to scream.
But he couldn't—because it was only 3:00AM in the morning.
Dylan's breaths became shaky and fitful as he slowly moved to sit on the side of He bed. He ran his hands through his locks, the nerves and fear refusing to vacate his body. And Dylan hates it; he hated it because the fear meant it was real.
That his brother really did have the....
Holy fuck, he needed to throw up.
And that's what he did—but he didn't make it to the bathroom.
He made it to his brother's window though.
Dylan leaned over the window, throwing up what seemed to be.....bile—red, bloody bile, as if the thought of the sense of the Mind Flayer poisoned his existence.
Shit, it might as well had—because Dylan was throwing that shit up so much you might think that he was trying to throw up any traces of the Mind Flayer from his being.
Even though it wasn't him who it was in.
Dylan shook as he rose his head to look out the window. The entire situation—what he'd just felt—it was way too fucking much for him.
The Mind Flayer was back—and it was in—it was in Billy...
Christ, he had to leave.
He had—he had to find Will.
He needed to know if he knew.
Closing his eyes, Dylan let his Sense dwindle on that of Will—and with the felt a bucketload of distress and fear; a special kind of fear, one that had only been reserved for one thing.
One inter-dimensional thing.
Dylan breathes out a sigh. He didn't know if that was good or bad that Will was aware.
He settled for bad because that meant his Sense had been right, like always, and that this shit really was all true. That Billy...
Dylan retched again.
God, he really needed to stop thinking about his brother; otherwise he'd throw up his pancreas.
Wiping his mouth, Dylan quickly moved away from the window and slipped on a pair of his brother's shoes. He was going to go find Will—he needed to let him know that he knew as well.
He stopped befor the window, looking over at the door. Max; El.....
He briefly wondered if he should tell them now; but he could tell that the girls were sound asleep. He didn't want to wake and worry them.
He'd save that for the morning we're they could process the information better and emote accordingly.
Although he did feel a little bad, it was nothing in comparison to the utter mount of dread he felt as he slipped out through his brother's window and let his Sense guide him to Will as he ran. For once, he didn't like how it felt—every step he took felt like a step closer to admitting this reality; and he wasn't fond of that.
Plus it was raining—which was blearily apt to the current mood.
Dylan was half surprised when his Sense (and feet) led him to the Wheeler's house—only half because he wants capable of feeling any full emotion right now other than complete dismal.
Ugh, wait; he'd have to deal with Mike....
Oh, whatever. He had worse things to worry about right now than his ex and his pettiness.
Dylan ran to where he knew the back basement door was and knocked on it loudly. He wouldn't be surprised if he'd woke the whole house up (well other than Ted—that man could sleep through the apocalypse).
He could barley hear the tired murmurs over his heavy breathing. He tried to feel somewhat regaled by the sound of footsteps coming to the door, but right now he was just too upset to feel otherwise.
The door knob twisted before it flew open at alarming speed that probably would've hit anyone other than Dylan in the face. Before him was Mike and Lucas standing in front of Will; Mike holding a bat, and Lucas, his slingshot.
Jesus, these dorks.....
Mike gasped, the bat dropping form his hands in an instant. "Dyl," he murmured, reaching for him, but Dylan moved past him and straight to Will.
He didn't need his Sense to know that Mike was probably offended by that but right now he couldn't care less. He looked at Will deep in the eye and the boy gaped slightly.
"You know, don't you," he said in a grave tone.
Dylan frowned and nodded, looking pained. "And I know who it has," he muttered in a near incoherent tone.
Will's eyebrows shot up. "You do?" He asked frantically. "Who?"
Dylan opened his mouth to say "Billy" but nothing came out other than choked, empty sobs. The heaviness of the situation was now hitting him tenfold and he couldn't stand it.
Literally—he couldn't stand it; he crumbled to his knees like his legs were made of stacks of pebbles.
Each boy dived for him, Will getting the brunt weight because he'd been closest to the boy. Dylan shook as he sobbed quietly, never the one to be excessively loud, even when he felt like his head was being probed.
"Dyl? Dyl what's wrong? Is everything okay?" Mike kept asking over and over, even though it was evident that nothing was actually okay. Dylan didn't give it much thought though, nor was he annoyed by the boy's arms being wrapped around him even though he should've been. It wasn't like he was the only one—but he knew even if he had been, he still wouldn't mind. The only thing that was occupying Dylan's mind was his brother.
"Billy...." he mumbled sorrowfully after a whole. All the boys' eyebrows pinched in confusion.
".....What about Billy?" Lucas inquired, looking at the others with a shared curious expression.
Dylan said nothing. All he could do was let out a shaky, sullen breath between his quivering lips, more salty tears falling down his face and to his neck.
Suddenly Will gasped. "No...." he breathed out, looking askance.
The other two were lost. "Will? What's wrong, what does he mean?" Mike asked hurriedly, looking and sounding the most frantic out of all of them.
Will pursed his lips, looking at them with sadness. "The Mind Flayer," he murmured poignantly. "It has—"
"Billy," Lucas and Mike said in unison, both of their eyes widening in realization and horror. Because Billy was already strong by himself—so if the Mind Flayer was in him....
He'd be nearly unstoppable.
".....Shit," Lucas mumbled, running a hand through his hair. The others couldn't agree more.
Dylan slowly brought his head up, leaning against Will. Mike had to choke down his rising jealousy because of it. He knew Dylan was hurting right now and he felt bad for him—he might not like Billy but he'd never ever wish the Mind Flayer on anybody—but he wanted to be the one who was comforting him; the one Dylan would go to for it.
But because of Billy and his stupid mouth, it wasn't him.
Mike winced at the animosity he felt towards his boy—ex-boyfriend's brother. Now was most likely not the time to be feeling that way about Billy, especially if what Dylan said was true.
"We need....a plan...." Dylan murmured, sounding heavily drained. "Fast....we need one fast...."
Will looked at Mike and Lucas before sighing. "Dyl, you're exhausted," he told the boy with pity. "You need to rest."
Dylan glared at him—we'll not so much towards him as much as a way to elicit his frustration with the current situation.
"I can't," he sneered between gritted teeth. "Not until that thing is out of my brother. I want it dead!"
"And so do we," Will placated. "But we can't think to our full potential at this time." Dylan grimaced. He had a point—didn't mean he liked it though.
"The Mind Flayer won't wait," he tried, attempting to stand himself up—but Will was right; he was too mentally and physically exhausted.
Will twisted his lips, before telling him, "I can feel when it's activated." Dylan looked at him with raised eyebrows, as if asking for clarification. Will nodded. "Right now, it's dormant—but I'll be able to know whenever he's plotting."
Dylan closed his eyes and let out a hefty sigh, nodding idly. "Good, because I won't," he murmured, making everyone's eyebrows shot up.
"What do you mean "you won't?"" Mike asked in concern. "I thought you'd be able to sense it."
Dylan pursed his lips. "Not anymore," he grumbled irritably.
The boys were shocked. "What?" Lucas asked, looking taken aback. "How?"
Dylan looked over to him. "It's connected to Billy," he explained, "and Billy can turn his Sense off, which means I can't sense him at all. So now that the Mind Flayer is in him—"
"—you wont be able to sense it," Will finished, looking perturbed at the information. Dylan couldn't blame him. It was anything but good news.
"Hold on—wait," Lucas said, raising his hands. "Do Max and El know about this—like, any of this?"
Dylan sighed, shaking his head. "No. We spent all day yesterday searching for clues about Billy because El and I saw him in the void," he told them.
Mike frowned. "What were you guys doing looking for Billy in the first place?" He asked.
Dylan waved him off. "Not important," he said, because really, it wasn't. "Anyways, we saw him doing weird shit with a girl—and before any of you even say it or think it, no, it wasn't that," he said, glaring them while they all looked sheepish to some extent.
Dylan sighed. "Turns out the girl was Heather Holloway, a girl he works with at the pool, and—" he stopped, looking enlightened.
Will arched an eyebrow. "What is it?"
Dylan looked at him with wide, querying eyes. "Heather," he mused, "she didn't have a sense either....."
The boys look at him with surprise. "What do you mean she didn't have a sense?" Mike asked wildly. He thought everyone had a sense, according to Dylan.
Dylan closed his eyes. "Exactly what I just said, Mike," he sighed. "She didn't have one. She and Billy; they were acting....off....." he explained, furrowing his eyebrows in disturbance. "She—we realized she didn't go into work so we went looking for her. In the void." He played with his hands. "I could sense her there—she looked like she was drowning in it....."
The boys eyes him curiously. "How do you drown in the void?" Lucas asked, very perplexed. "I thought there was a floor or something—"
"There is," Dylan attested, "but it was like she—fell through?" He sighed heavily. "It's really hard to explain. All I know was that she was asking for help but we—we couldn't get her." He squeezed his eyes shut at the familiar sense of hopelessness before shoving it away and continuing. "So we went to her place and Billy was there. So was she. Billy claimed that they skipped worked because Heather wasn't feeling well. But neither of them had a sense to them."
The boys looked at him intently, hanging onto every word. Dylan twisted his lip. "And that's when I felt it," he said, "when I touched her—I could feel the joint connection to Billy. I didn't know how it was possible at first, but now I think...."
Will widened his eyes, recognizing where he was getting at. "You don't think...." he murmured, looking disconcerted. He eyed Dylan with fear. "There's more than one possessed?"
Lucas and Mike widened their eyes while Dylan just nibbles on his lip. "Sure as hell seems like it," he mumbled petulantly.
"So wait," Lucas interrupted, "Max and El—they know none of this?"
Dylan looked thoughtful. "Well, Max seems to believe that it was all nothing but El isn't convinced," he said, "I can tell—she's still unnerved by what happened. And I get Max's skepticism because, well, she's not like El and I; she didn't see what we saw." He looked at his lap and frowned. He did feel rather bad leaving them there. But he didn't want to bother them—and he could feel the slight relief Max had about Billy being 'okay.' He didn't want to worry her.
Why did shit like this always backfire with him?
Mike ran a frantic hand through his hair. "We need to let them know," he said, standing up and moving towards his supercomm.
Dylan looked at him painstakingly. "Mike, it's half past three in the morning; they're probably sleeping," he told him wisely.
Mike looked defeated, his shoulders slumping with a sigh. "So what do we do now?"
Dylan moued. He knew exactly what they had to do now—and he wasn't fond of it.
Scratching his head, Will sighed. "We wait," he said solemnly.
•••••••
And they did; they waited three hours (they all wanted it to be two hours but Dylan had reluctantly convinced them to make it three to escape the heavy wrath of a sleep deprived Max), the longest, most tantalizing three hours Dylan had ever experienced in his life. But they made it (just barely).
Will, Lucas, and Mike sat on the couch while Dylan sat by Lucas' feet as the dark skinned teen tried repeatedly to get ahold of Max via supercomm. They'd tried Dustin earlier but he hadn't responded so they were now giving Max an attempt.
"Max, this is a code red, do you copy?" Lucas asked over and over again in different variations. Knowing Max, she was most likely doing her best to ignore him—she hated not being able to sleep in.
Dylan was rubbing idly at his temples. The entire morning he'd been trying to occupy his mind with something other than the idea of his possessed brother, which turned out to be more or less futile. The boy's tried to assist him, attempting to distract him in varying ways, but nothing seemed to outweigh the harrowing idea of his brother suffering at the hands of the inter dimensional mind fucker.
"I repeat: this is a code red," Lucas said again, sighing when all he got was static for the seventh time. "Max: do you copy? This. Is. A code. Red!"
Finally, there came a reply: "Shut. Up."
Ooh. A grump reply.
How lovely.
And entirely unhelpful.
The line went dead and Lucas looked at his supercomm in shock. "She turned it off," he said airily, as if he couldn't believe it. Dylan could though—that was right up Max's alleyway.
Dylan sighed before getting up and going to the telephone in Mike's basement. He dialed Max's number and it rung a few times before a sleepy Max finally came to answer it.
"I'm sleeping, go away!" She said, probably seconds away from hanging up, but Dylan was faster.
"Max, it's Dyl," he said, and he could feel the shock emanating through the phone.
"Dyl?" She asked incredulously. There was a pause, before she continued. "What the hell, I thought you were in your room—"
"I left last night," he said, before considering, "actually, early morning; 3:00 to be exact."
"What??" Max asked in shock. "Why would you—"
"Listen—something terrible has happened, and we need you guys to come over to Mike's as soon as possible," he told her in a rush. They had absolutely no time for stalling.
"You're at Mike's??" She questioned wildly. "Why—"
"This is serious Max," Dylan reiterated firmly. "Just trust me, okay? Bring El," he shifted on his feet, "and some clothes for me, will ya? I kinda need to change." He was still in his pajamas while the rest of the boys had gotten changed a while ago.
Max sighed a bit. "We'll be over in a few," she said before hanging up. Dylan did the same, turning around to see a bunch of inquiring faces.
"Well?" Mike asked expectantly.
Dylan nodded. "They're coming," he said, walking back over to them. "In about thirteen minutes."
Mike nodded, looking back at Lucas. "Try Dustin again," he told him.
Lucas sighed in annoyance. "He's not picking up," he informed Mike, who didn't look the least bit wavered by the news.
"So try him. Again," he reiterated, looking at him pointedly.
Lucas grunted but did. as he was told. "Dustin, do you copy?" He spoke into the supercomm idly. "I repeat, this is a code red!"
No response.
"Dustin, do you copy? This is a code red!"
Again, silence.
Sighing irritably, Lucas looked over to Mike with raised eyebrows as if to say 'see what I mean?' Dylan twisted his lips before getting up to look outside the door window.
Mike furrowed his brows. "What're you doing?" He asked the boy.
Dylan looked back. "I'm finding Dustin," he explained casually before blocking everybody else out to focus on their curly haired friend. His eyesight expanded, travelling vagaries distances that led him to—
The roof of the mall?
Dylan frowned, gauging the sight of Dustin holding a pair of binoculars to his eyes and looking at what seemed to be delivery guys dropping off parcels to dudes dressed in black....
.....and armed with machine guns......
Dylan blinked. Okay, what the fuck was Dustin up to??!
"Do you see him?" Will asked curiously.
Dylan continued to stare weirdly at the scene. ".....yeah, I see him," he spoke in an idle tone, still very confused.
"Well?" Mike questioned. "What's he doing?"
Dylan'a eyebrows pinched, feeling more bewildered with the more he reached his sense out to try and decipher what he was seeing? Why was he picking up something about Russians? And a secret code??
"Honestly, I don't know," he told them truthfully.
"What?" Lucas asked, confused. "How could you not know??"
Dylan sighed. "He's on the roof of the mall, spying on some shifty behind-the-scenes exchange of goods between what seems to be 'ordinary mall workers' and men with machine guns," he explained, detailing exactly what he saw.
There was an acceptable silence for a few moments.
".....I'm sorry, what?" Lucas spoke up, sounding incredibly perplexed.
Dylan shrugged. "For once, I'm just as confused as you guys are," he said, allowing his sight to travel back within normal range. He walked away front eh window and shrugged again. "I don't know, I think we should just leave him be."
Will looked at him incredulously. "But the Mind Flayer," he pressed urgently.
Dylan looked considerate. "I know, but whatever the fuck Dustin's doing? It feels important," he said to them honestly. "Like, real important. And it somehow felt connected to the upside down?"
Mike frowned. "What?"
Again, Dylan shrugged. "I could be wrong," he said idly. "Still though, I don't think it's worth it wasting any time bothering him. If the situation worsens, we call him; until then, leave worrying about Dustin's safety to me—I'll know."
The boys seemed a bit skeptic, but ultimately agreed that solving the Mind Flayer Problem first was an order.
There was knocking on Mike's basement, which revealed the girls (sure enough, thirteen minutes after they called them, just like Dylan had said) and a change of clothing for Dylan with them which he accepted gratefully. After he dressed himself quickly, the boys were quick to fill the girls in on everything.
"I didn't think it was anything at first," Will spoke softly. They were all huddled around him as he explained the every feelings he got behind his neck in regards to the Mind Flayer.
"I mean, I think I just didn't want to believe it." Dylan couldn't blame him for that—he was still in half-denial himself about the whole Billy-being-possesses thing. After all, who would want to believe something so awful?
Will sighed wistfully. "The first time I felt it was at Day of the Dead," he informed them. Mike and Dylan shared a look. So he really had been off that day....
"Power went it that night too," Mike added, which Will nodded to. "And then I felt it again at the field near the Nelson farm the next day," Will said, this I'm revoking the face of realization that Mike and Dylan just had, from El, who looked at him with growing concern; the concern everyone was feeling right now.
Will pursed his lips. "Then again, yesterday outside Castle Byers," he told them. Dylan wondered idly why there were feelings of guilt radiating off of both Mike and Lucas when he mentioned Will's little hub, but he didn't think too much of it. There were bigger matters at hand than whatever the fuck those two doofuses did to upset Will this time.
"What does it feel like?" Max asked curiously.
"It's almost like...." Will trailed off for a moment, thinking about it. "You know when you drop on a roller coaster?" He asked them. The responses came in tandem.
"Sure," Mike said.
"Yeah," Max added directly after.
"No," El said, shaking her head slightly.
"I fucking hate roller coasters," Dylan murmured resentfully, before gauging the looks forever towards him. He cleared his throat. "But that had absolutely nothing to do with anything," he added sheepishly, "my bad. Continue."
Will nibbled on his lip, thing to find a good explanation to help El understand. "It's like....everything in your body is just, sinking, all at once, but...." he sighed, "this is worse. Your body—it goes cold and- and you can't breathe." Dylan frowned. Hell, that did sound bad. But it was all to easy to imagine—because Dylan had felt it before.
Inside of Will.
Which was exactly what Will shared with the group. "I've felt it before," he murmured anxiously, "whenever he was close."
"Whenever who was close?" Max inquired cautiously.
Dylan scowled. "The Mind Flayer," he spoke with such animosity that it made everyone eye him warily. He didn't care though—he was angry.
And vengeful.
First this thing messed with his friends—now it was messing with family.
Dylan wasn't known to forgive for messing with family.
El looked (acceptably) worried. "I....closed the gate," she said in a firm, yet wary tone.
Will exhaled shakily. "I know, but—" he paused, distress spiking through the roof. "What if it never left?"
He turned towards El and shared her look of duress. "What if we locked it out here with us?"
Dylan felt everyone's rising worry and fear and it was lowkey smothering him. He didn't take much notice of it though because his anger and irritation at the mere thought of the Mind Flayer was simmering dangerously within his gut.
Will gulped. "He'd want to attach itself to someone again," he murmured. Dylan felt his heart stop. Here came the punch line.
"A new me." Will, Lucas, and Mike all looked towards him with sympathetic expressions.
"A new host," Lucas mumbled, to which Dylan rose his previously lowered head to stare Max directly in the eye.
"It's Billy," he said, making El gasp and Max stare at him with awe.
"Wh-what?" She stuttered, sounding as scared as she was feeling. She stared to frantically shake her head.
"Wh-what do you mean, no, he-he's fine! He was fine yesterday, I—"
"Max," Dylan sighed, looking at her solemnly. "Trust me, this is in no way easy for me to swallow either. But I know what I saw," he told her, eyes narrowing. "And felt."
Max continued to stare at him in horror, so Dylan continued. "Last night, I had a—what you may call a premonition of sorts," he said , shuffling idly. Talking about this stuff was weird—especially when he didn't know how to word it properly so that people could understand.
"When I was asleep, my Sense tried to reach out for Billy again," he explained. Max looked at him with furrowed brows.
"It does that?" She asked bewilderedly.
Dylan shrugged. "Only a couple times before when my—" he stopped, clearing his throat. He didn't want to talk about that time.
Luckily Max knew what he was insinuating so she stayed silent, looking at him sympathetically. He wasn't so lucky with the others though.
"When what?" Lucas inquired curiously.
Dylan sighed. "Doesn't matter, he muttered, fighting away the reminiscing feels. "The point is that it happened last night—or early morning technically. Whatever," he said, shaking his head. "When I tried to reach Billy, my Sense reaches the Mind Flayer instead."
He looked around, seeing their shocked gazes and met hem with a hard stare of his own. "Now that can't be a fluke—why would my Sense directly reach the Mind Flayer if it wasn't back in our world?" He looked over to Max, who was frowning deeply. "Or not residing in Billy? Because I know it was Billy—I felt his essence."
"But you said his Sense was turned off," Max argued, eyebrows still knitted together.
"That's the thing—I feel like....I feel like Billy had turned it on for a second," he said, receiving confused and intrigued looks. "As of to warn me somehow. That the Mind Flayer was back and that it has him."
"But if he's really possessed, then wouldn't the Mind Flayer try and stop him?" Mike inquired.
Dylan pursed his lips. "You know how last year, when Will was possessed, he was initially able to communicate with us? Like when he helped find Hopper, or later, through Morse code," he explained, "that was to help those he cares about. And Billy cares about me—he also knows I'm the only one he can actually communicate with and will be able to understand." His face darkened, remembering the other person with no Sense from yesterday.
"That's not all," he mused in a perturbed tone. He looked over to El. "Remember yesterday? When we went to Heather's house and talked Billy and Heather?" He asked and El nodded slowly. "Remember how I said that they were both off? That neither had any sense?"
El's eyes slowly began to widen. "You think..." she trailed off and Dylan nodded, knowing she understood what he was alluding to.
"It would explain why they felt conjoint," He said.
"Whoa, whoa, hold on," Max said, finally catching on. She looked at Dylan with shock. "You think that Heather could also be...?"
Dylan looked at her with raised brows. "Think about it Max—it makes sense," he told her, "it explains a lot—why I sensed Heather in the void....why she asked for help..."
"Why she was scared." El added. "Plus, the ice..."
"He likes it cold," Dylan murmured.
Will frowned. "Wait. what ice?" He asked, the confused looks on his, Mike's, and Lucas' faces making Dylan realize that he'd forgotten to mention it to them earlier.
"Yesterday Max, El, and I found ice water in Billy's bathtub," He told them.
"And later when we looked for Heather in the void, she was in a tub filled with ice water," El explained, seeming shaken. The sight still bothered her, for reasons that Dylan could empathize and understand.
"I don't get it," Lucas murmured, looking confused. "Last year only Will was possessed."
Dylan shrugged. "You guys said that this thing controls more than one being?" He asked, to which he got nods in response. "Maybe he's expanding his army this time." He lowered his gaze. "Listen, I could be wrong about Heather," he said, "But we can't deny that there are connections here."
"Well either way, we have to assume the worst; that it is back and that it has Billy," Mike said, looking at them intently.
Max still seemed unsure—or in denial, really. "Dyl, are you sure you sensed it in Billy?" She asked warily. "After all, you were sleeping—maybe it was just a dream—"
"Max, I know what I sensed," Dylan said with a forlorn sigh. "There's less than a two percent chance that I'm wrong. But it'd be safer to assume that it does have him because he might be the most dangerous host the Mind Flayer could aim for, other than El." At their curious glances, he explained further. "Billy's enhanced—he has a lot of endurance, he's fast, and he's really fucking strong." He looked up them with an intense stare. "Now from what I remember, the Mind Flayer already gives you enhanced strength—so bonded with Billy, he basically has double that."
Everyone shared askance looks. "Well, that's not good," Lucas murmured idly, rubbing the back of his neck.
Dylan nodded in agreement. "It's terrible—he'll be nearly impossible to stop unless we manage to get it out of him," he informed them gravely.
Max twisted her lips. She still seemed unnerved by this thing, but ultimately felt compliant to the matter; that the Mind Flayer was back and that it needed to be stopped. "So what do we do?" She asked, looking directly at Dylan.
Dylan pressed his mouth into a tight line. "We find Billy and we get the thing out of him," he spoke in a determined tone, "and then figure out a way to destroy it for good."
A shoddy plan, and he knew it—but there was so much conviction in Dylan's voice that it didn't leave much room for the assumption that anything else could happen other than what he'd just said,
Because Dylan was angry—no, he was fucking furious. The Mind Flayer had thoroughly messed up when it'd decided to target one near and dear to his heart.
And Dylan wouldn't rest until it payed for it.
Heyo! Hope that you don't mind I tweaked a bit of the dialogue so that it would make more sense in terms of this story because it would be unlike Dylan to not draw the connection between Billy and Heather. Sorry if that part was hella sloppy, I just wanted to get it over with. I cannot WAIT for y'all to read the next part, I'm working on it right now. It's so freaking intense in my mind, so hopefully I can convey that with my words too! Until then!
-Someonewhoisnthere.