"Kim!" Max yelled, shaking the older girl awake. "Kimmy, you have to get up!"
Kim's eyes slowly opened. She wondered how her body was still intact. Every muscle in her body burned, and she could practically feel her brain moving around as she struggled to sit up. "He took El?"
Max and Mike exchanged a look, wondering how Kim would react. "Yeah," Max finally said, her voice barely a whisper. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Kim lied. She couldn't even bring herself to be sarcastic and that's what really showed the other two how much pain she was in.
•••••
The rest of the kids were starting to run out of fireworks. Steve knew that the fireworks were only a temporary distraction, but he still hadn't figured out what they would do once they ran out.
"Seven feet," El whispered to Billy. She tried to picture the memory of his that she had seen earlier. "You told her the wave was seven feet. You ran to her, on the beach. And there were seagulls. She wore a hat with a blue ribbon, a long dress with a blue and red flower, yellow sandals that were covered in sand. She was pretty. She was really pretty. And you, you were happy."
Billy closed his eyes, able to picture that day at the beach as well.
Up above, Steve took a deep breath as he threw the last firework. It exploded in the Mind Flayer's face, but once the sparks cleared, it was ready to charge at Eleven again.
Billy turned his head to look at the Mind Flayer as it roared in fury. He slowly stood up and faced the oncoming, snarling monster.
Kim, Max, and Mike ran out of the delivery hallway just as Billy extended his arms and prevented the Mind Flayer from attacking El. Max tried to run forward to aid her step brother, but Kim wrapped her arms around the redhead and pulled her back.
"I have to help him!" she screamed as one of the Mind Flayers claws pierced Billy's side.
"W-we can't," Kim replied. Billy was a total ass hole who she had never seen eye to eye with, but he was still just a boy. He still had time to turn his life around, time to be a better person. Kim realized that that was what he was doing. He was spending his last moments alive to finally do the right thing. Whatever the Mind Flayer would decide as his painful death, he didn't deserve it. Kim squeezed Max closer to her, trying to shield the girls eyes from the inevitable.
Despite Kim's efforts, Max saw what happened anyway. She watched helplessly as the Mind Flayer sent one last claw through Billy's chest. "Billy!" Max screamed. It was a heart wrenching scream that made tears run down Kim's bruised face, but she refused to let go of Max.
Miles below them, Joyce made the hardest decision of her life; closing the gate and ultimately killing Hopper. As the gate sealed itself shut again, the Mind Flayer screeched in pain. It flailed around creating a great deal of chaos and debris before collapsing to the ground.
Once she was sure the Mind Flayer wasn't a threat anymore, Kim let Max run to Billy's side. The boy looked up at his younger sister, wondering if she was proud of him for his sacrifice. "I'm sorry," he whispered, apologizing for the hundreds of times he had been an ass to her. As he drew his last breath he pondered how he would be remembered: as a hero or as the treacherous villain he had been to so many people?
Mike and Kim slid across the floor and pulled El into their arms. The three clung to each other, still unsure if their friends were still alive or if they were only hallucinations. Kim separated herself so that the young couple could have a moment alone and turned to Max. The red head looked at Kim with teary eyes before throwing herself into the older girls embrace. Kim squeezed Max tightly, unable to express through words how sorry she was about Billy.
Kim tensed up at a pair of strong arms wrapping around her from behind before she realized it was only Steve. She let herself fall into his arms, utterly exhausted. He brought his lips down to hers and she was finally sure it was all real; a kiss could never feel that good in a dream.
"Are you okay?" he asked, his lips brushing against her ear.
Kim nodded weakly. "I'm just glad it's over with."
•••••
Kim and El walked hand in hand through the rainy parking lot, eyes darting around for any sign of their shared father figure.
"I-I don't see him," El stuttered.
"He's got to be here," Kim replied, giving the other girl's hand a slight squeeze.
Steve walked over from an ambulance carrying two blankets. He wrapped one around El and the other around Kim.
She smiled gratefully at him, brushing some of her sopping wet hair out of her eyes. "Have you seen Hop?"
"No. Why?" Steve asked. The chief and Steve had never liked each other very much, but he knew Hopper wouldn't just purposefully leave Kim and El looking for him out in the pouring rain.
Kim's eye did another sweep of the parking lot, this time connecting with Joyce's. The sad look on her face, and then small shake of her head signified that Hopper was gone. He had been in her life for so long, either arresting her for a petty crimes or giving her life advice, that Kim had just assumed he would always be there.
Steve noticed the silent exchange between Joyce and the two girls. He gently pulled both Kim and El into his arms, resting his chin on top of Kim's wet hair.