Chapter Twenty-One
Darkness
Piper drove away from the curb, everyone sitting in silence and thinking over what Piper said. Billy didn't know El's name. Which would be hard to believe since he'd spent night at the cabin watching movies with the girl. Piper's fingers wrapped around the leather of the steering wheel till her knuckles began to ache from it. The fear that was creeping up the back of her neck the last couple of days began to sink it's teeth it making her stomach fill with dread. Something was wrong, very wrong, and she didn't know the first thing about stopping it. Minutes later she pulled up in front of the cabin and slammed her door with frustration before walking inside, El and Max following behind her.
El walked around Piper and straight towards her bedroom, with Max, closing the door behind her. Both of the girls were exhausted and so was Piper, she wanted to crawl into her bed, pull the covers over her head, and forget the day. She walked into her bedroom and closed the door before quickly stripping out of her wet clothes and throwing them into the hamper beside her closet door. She went to step towards the bathroom, towel wrapped around her frame, but felt something underneath her feet. Taking a small step back, Piper saw the photo she'd taken from Billy's bedroom lying on the floor. Tears welled up in her eyes almost instantly as she bent down and picked it up.
"Oh, Billy." She whimpered softly.
Piper stared down at the photo with tears streaming down her face, before she wasn't able to hold it in any more. Her knees buckled slightly beneath her and she collapsed to the floor in a fit of tears. She set the photo down beside her and reached up to fist her hair tightly. Quickly Piper moved her hand down to her mouth to muffle her cries to make sure that neither El or Max heard her. But it was pointless, as El slowly opened the bedroom door and walked towards Piper. She sat down beside her and wrapped her arms around Piper's shaking frame.
"It's ok Piper." El whispered softly "We're going to figure it out."
"It doesn't make sense." Piper whimpered before pulling away, to reach up and wipe away the rest of the tears. "And breaking down right now it not cool."
"It's normal...I-I think." El sighed softly. "Max is gonna spend the night. If that's ok?"
Piper nodded her head "Probably best...seeing as we don't know what's going on."
El nodded her head and smiled towards her sister, before reaching up and wiping the final tear from her sister's face. Sister, a word that El only recently learned and fully saw Piper as. In the almost year that she has known Piper, she has never felt more love and protection from. Besides from Hopper of course, but when it came to Piper, there was something different. El didn't fully understand it, but she knew that no matter what – she could depend on Piper.
"Let's get some rest." Piper sighed softly. "I'm gonna jump into the shower and head to bed."
El nodded her head. "Ok, we're gonna head to bed too."
Piper reached to caress the back of El's head before kissing her forehead and standing up from the ground, holding tightly to the towel around her waist, before going into the bathroom. When she stepped out the phone began to ring, when she picked up and answered, Joyce on the other line. Hopper would be staying with her for the night. Piper didn't ask questions, since she was already handling enough already and didn't wanna add more.
Piper didn't get much sleep, if any really, the next morning her body felt heavy. Her eyes felt dry from all the crying. And she almost didn't wanna see her face in the mirror afraid of what the lack of sleep would entail. She quickly brushed her hair back into a ponytail and slipped on another pair of jean shorts, sneakers and Detroit Tiger's tshirt she'd taken from her mom's closet before moving. Her hand moved against the fabric, fond memories coming back, before she slipped it on. When Piper walked past her desk she saw the photo sitting there staring back up at her. She quickly grabbed it and slipped it into the back pocket of her short before walking out of her room. The cabin was still quiet so Piper quickly thought the two girls were still sleeping. Not long after making some coffee and heating up some Eggo's, the sound of a voice came from the living room. Not just any voice. Lucas. Piper stood there for a moment, a look of confusion on her face, as she waited to hear it again. Am I that tired where I'm hallucinating, she thought to herself. But her silent questions was answered when once again she heard it.
"Code Red. I repeat. We have a code red." Lucas's voice sounded from the living room.
Setting her coffee down on the kitchen counter, Piper walked out of the kitchen and straight into the living room, seeing the walkie talkie sitting on the coffee table. Lucas called out once more as she grabbed it off the table and clicked the button to answer.
"Lucas, what are you doing calling this early in the morning?" Piper spoke
"Piper?" There was a pause "Where is El? We tried paging Max but she's not answering."
"Both of them are here at the cabin. What does Code Red mean?"
Just as Piper replied back, Max and El walked into the living room. Their hair a mess. At least someone possibly got a good night's rest, Piper thought.
"What is with all the noise?" Max spoke rubbing her eyes.
"Something bad happened last night. Really bad." Mike replied back to Piper through the Walkie. "Our lives might be at stake."
"Mike? What are you talking about?" Piper spoke "We'll meet you at your place. I don't have time for this code speak, I don't understand it."
Piper clicked the Walkie off before sitting down on the couch and dropping her head into her hands. El walked around and sat down on the couch beside her.
"You get any sleep?" El spoke softly, Piper only replying with shaking her head. "Do you work at all today?"
"Uh...no. Not till tomorrow morning." Piper sighed softly and sat up straighter on the couch. "What do you think the kids are talking about?"
Max shrugged her shoulders "Who knows with them. Life threatening could mean they ran out of Doritos and are bored."
Piper scoffed "Why doesn't that sound shocking. Well, if it's not that dramatic, I might head up to the mall to check on Steve and Robin. There was something they were doing that I wanna check in on."
El and Max moved to get changed quickly before piling into Piper's car and heading towards the Wheeler house. When Piper pulled up she saw Mike waiting out front with them, quickly leading them into the basement of the house.
"So what did you dweebs need?" Max spoke as the three of them walked into the basement.
When Piper walked in she saw Will sitting nervously on the couch, and Lucas sitting beside him.
"Will will explain it to you." Mike sighed and sat on a chair off the side.
"About?" Piper spoke
"I-I tried to ignore it. Thought it was just my worries getting the best of me ya know?" Will started to speak. "But I couldn't any more, not matter how hard I didn't wanna believe it to be true."
El walked towards Will quickly and knelt down in front of them, gently grabbing his hand to comfort the nearly shaking boy.
"Believe what, Will?" El whispered
"The feelings." Will licked his lips "First it was when we snuck into the movies at Star Court Mall, and then the power went out."
"I remember that." Piper whispered
"Then again when we went to the field near Nelson's farm. And then again last night...near Castle Byers."
"What does it feel like?" Max asked
"Like the feeling you get when you're sitting at the top of a roller-coaster and you're waiting for it to take that first deep drop."
"Like a ice cold grip on the back of your neck, filling your stomach with dread." Piper spoke, her gaze blank and voice almost a whisper. Everyone's heads turned towards the older girl.
"Yeah...h-how did you know."
Piper shook her head and looked towards Will. "I-I've been feeling that. I-I don't know how, or why, but since yesterday I've felt like this pressuring weight of fear and..." She shrugged "I don't know why. When have you felt this before, Will?"
"It's only happened when he's around..." His eyes looked around towards everyone, but no one understanding who he was referencing. "The Mind Flayer"
Piper's eyes widened as she stared down towards Will. His gaze locked with hers as she slowly began to shake her head.
"Are you sure?" Max asked
"I closed the gate." El clarified
"But how are we sure that we stopped him? What if when you closed the gate a piece of him was able to get locked out here...with us. What if when that part that was inside of me...the piece that my mom got out, got locked out."
"But that doesn't make any sense. The demo-dogs died when the gate was closed, cause it was cut off from the Mind Flayer. Wouldn't that piece have died off too?" Max asked
"We can't take any chances." Mike stood up from his seat "We have to make sure that it's really gone."
"I agree." Piper spoke "If Will is feeling this then we have to at least chest it out and make sure."
"First things first it would need a host, like what it did to me." Will spoke up "So we need to figure out first if it was able to get a host."
"How do we find out if someone is a host?" El asked
"We gotta burn it out of 'em, like what my mom did with me in the cabin. It doesn't like heat."
El looked across the room towards Piper and gave her a sympathetic look "I-I think I know who we can start with first."
Piper walked around the towards the back of her truck before parking at the pool, the parking lot filled with cars and once again the annoying sound of children screaming filling the air. Piper didn't wanna believe El when she suggested Billy to be checked out first. Who would wanna believe that their boyfriend had been taken over by some monster, no one. But the the drive over she was able to think about it, and the dots connected. The weird behavior, not knowing El's name, the melted ice bath back in his bathroom – those were signs that couldn't be ignored.
Piper grabbed the handle to pull down the door to the bed of her truck, looking for the binoculars that had been left behind after one of her and Billy's date nights. They placed blankets across the bed and watched for shooting stars. Piper smiled fondly at the memory before grabbing them and closing the bed back up. When she walked towards the kids, they all were hunched slightly between cars, making sure that neither Billy or Heather would spot them.
"Alright got 'em." Piper sighed and stood between Max and Mike as she pulled them up to her face, scanning over the pool area before spotting Billy. She frowned slightly as she saw he was covered head to toe with towels, hats and an umbrella. "That's weird. It's nearly 85 today and he's covered like it's 45." Piper passed the binoculars to Mike to allow him to see.
"Yeah, ok, that's a little weird. But that doesn't mean he's possessed." Max defended
"When have you ever see that guy walk around even wearing a shirt?" Lucas argued.
Piper chuckled softly "He's got a point. Your brother walks around with his shirt barely on, let alone wearing layers."
"We have to come to terms that this is all pointing towards your bother, Max. Between the ice baths and the covering up he's trying to shield away from the sun." Mike spoke up, turning towards the red head.
"But he's lounging at the pool still doing his job. Why would the Mind Flayer want that if it hates heat."
"Because it needs to hide." Will answered "He would only use you when you're needed. It's like you don't have control over your body."
"We have to make sure it's not him, Max." Piper sighed "I would rather have Billy mad at me because we tested him, than do nothing and have him hurt himself or someone else cause that...thing has control of him"
"So then what do we do?"
Piper turned her gaze back towards Billy and bit down on her lip "It's gonna take all of us. And we're gonna have to wait till the pool is shut down before we do anything." She turned down towards Mike, Lucas and Will. "You three head towards the men's locker room, start to map out a plan to get Billy from his post towards the back sauna in the locker room."
Mike nodded his head before the three of them run off and head towards the men's locker room.
"And what do we do?"
"We wait." Piper leaned against the hood of her truck. "Guess I'm not heading back to the mall today."
Mike and the boys were able to come up with a clear path and plan to get Billy into the back sauna room of the locker room. Piper sat at the back of her truck keeping an eye on Billy his entire shift, he saw them he wasn't alluding to the fact that he could.
"What are we gonna do if it is him" Max asked as they slowly watched cars drive out of the parking lot as it got closer and closer for the pool to close.
"We'll deal with it when that time comes. But right now we have to figure out the first part before we do anything." Piper sighed softly
"You love him. Don't you?" Max asked as she looked up towards Piper. Piper's gaze moved away from Billy and down towards Max. "I can tell...that you do. It's how you look at him. My mom used to look at my dad the same way, till...the divorce."
Piper nodded her head. "I do. I love your brother very much."
Max nodded her head. "He's changed since he's been with you. I mean...he's still a complete asshole sometimes. But not as much. He's not...as angry all the time. You're good for him."
Piper blushed slightly "That means a lot, Max. Thank you."
Max smiled towards her and moved to grab Piper's hand tightly till their eyes shifted back towards the pool. Once the final car pulled out of the parking lot, Piper moved hers farther towards the back so that he wouldn't be able to see.
Piper grabbed her walkie and paged. "You guys got everything?"
There was feedback before Mike answered back. "Copy. Got chains to hold him and every things in place. We just need you Piper."
"I'm heading in and Mike...promise me...that no matter what happens you protect El.
"Piper...what are you..."
"Just promise me Mike!" She cut him off.
"I-I promise." Mike answered "He's just stepped into the shower, Piper."
"I'm walking in."
Piper took a deep breath as she moved towards the back entrance of the pool hall, being careful to be as quiet as possible in order to not be caught or detected by Billy. She saw the other lifeguards leave for the day and knew that he was here alone. She pressed lightly on the doors of the men's locker room and slipped inside, before moving to hide in a closet not far from the sauna. She knew that everyone else was in place and prayed that this would work.
Her heart was racing and pounding against her chest as she heard Billy's voice, and his foot steps as he moved around the locker room. Piper gripped the walkie in her hand tightly before pressing the button to speak into it.
"Billy..." She could hear her voice echoing through the locker room. "Billy...please..." Max reached forward to grab her hand tightly as she heard Piper sniffle slightly. "Billy..."
"Piper!?" His voice echoed through the locker room, but it was laced with anger. "Piper I'm not playing games right now."
She could hear him moving around the locker room, pushing back shower curtains and searching for where the source of the voice was coming from.
"Billy...come and find me."
"I find you, Piper...it's your funeral." His voice was deep and caused her back to straighten.
She could hear the sound of a door close, drawing his attention towards the sauna. The door opened again and Piper knew that was him. Piper quickly moved to turn off the walkie before looked through the slots of the closet door. Her and Max watched with baited breath as he let out a maniac type of laughter, clapping to himself, before throwing the sauna door open. Piper counted to ten in her head, before slowly opening the closet door. She looked across the room and saw Mike and Will doing the same, inching towards the sauna, to slam the door shut. Piper stood up straight and walk in front of the door way. His back was turned towards her.
"Hey," She spoke, causing Billy to turn around quickly and look towards her with wild eyes. "Looking for me."
A eerie smile spread across his face, but before he could even make a move, El stepped up beside Piper and used her powers to throw Billy back farther into the small room. His back smashed against the tiled wall causing it to crack and break from the impact. The moment his body was thrown, Mike and Will moved to close the door as Max fed a pipe through the handle, jamming it quickly. Will came up behind her and fed a chair through the handle as well, locking it, for extra strength.
"Holy shit," Lucas cursed as he took a step back away from the door as Billy began to beat and smash against it. The chains rattled but wouldn't budge no matter how hard he tried.
Piper stood there, the kids moving behind her quickly, as he stared back at them. Billy's eyes didn't move away from Piper's as he stared towards her.
"Piper." He whispered, the mask breaking away slightly and she was able to see Billy. And not the one from before inside Heather's home. No, she was able to see her Billy.
"Do it." Piper spoke with conviction, as Mike stepped forward and walked towards the control panel beside the sauna. "Turn it all the way up. I want this thing gone."
All of them watched as the steam began to rise, Billy pressing his hands against the door and panting loudly with each passing moment of the heat rising. The fear feeling was back, gripping Piper's neck and making her feel weighted down with dread.
"Let me out of here!" Billy screamed as he pounded on the door. "You think this is funny! Huh! Open the door!"
"That's not Billy." Max whispered and shook her head in disbelief, her eyes watering, as she came to the realization of what was happening to Billy. "That's not him"
"I know Max, I know." Piper moved to bend down towards the girl, pushing her hair from her face to soothe her. "But we're gonna get your brother back. I promise you that."
Max nodded her head, but kept her eyes on the sauna as Billy became more and more angry. Pressing his face against the glass panel of the door as he screamed and cursed towards all of them. Will walked towards the small gauge on the side and read the temperature.
"We're at 220." He sighed.
Piper turned around to look back towards the door and saw that Billy was gone. She could hear whimpering and crying coming from inside. Her heart felt like it was in her throat as she moved away from Max and slowly walked towards the door. As Piper got closer she could start to make out the words.
"I didn't mean too. I'm sorry...Piper, I'm so sorry."
When Piper got to the glass looked down to see Billy on the ground, rocking back and forth, as he gripped tightly to his wet hair.
"It wasn't my fault. I promise. It...it wasn't my fault."
"What wasn't your fault, Billy." Piper spoke softly as she looked down towards him, causing his head to pop up. There were tears streaming down his face but the color was back in his eyes. "Y-you can tell me...What wasn't your fault."
"He made me do them...I-I didn't want to. But he made me." Billy chocked out. "You have to believe me, Piper...I-I didn't want to."
"I believe you." She spoke quickly and turned around to look towards Max, the girl clinging to Lucas as she cried softly, before Piper looked back towards Billy. "Who made you do these things, Billy."
"He's like a shadow..." Billy cried "H-He made me...I didn't want to! Piper! I didn't want to!"
Billy moved onto his side and cried harder as his fingers gripped against the concrete of the sauna. Piper's hand moved to cup her mouth as she watched him wither against the floor. Billy's cries becoming harder and not able to understand him more.
"Don't leave me...please Piper." He cried
"I won't. I promise." Piper pressed her hand against the glass "I love you, Billy. I won't leave."
Billy moved under the bench slightly and as quickly as the Mind Flayer let Billy step forward, he was gone. The act of crying still going through, enough to let Piper believe. His hand inched towards a piece of broken tile on the floor and gripped it tightly in his grasp. She's mine now. Piper continued to talk to Bill through the glass, not noticing Will behind her.
"I-I feel him," Will whispered softly, turning his attention towards Mike.
Mike nodded his head. "Piper, get away from the door." Everyone's attention went from Piper, back to Mike. Piper turned her head away from Billy as well.
"What?"
"Get away from the door!" He screamed as he watched Billy stand back up and charge for the door.
Piper turned her head in time and gasped loudly as Billy charged through the door. Glass shattered everywhere as his body propelled through the small opening, causing Piper to jump back and away from him.
"Let me out of here, you bitch!" Billy screamed, the now wild look back in his eyes. "Let me out!"
Piper moved away from him, her eyes locked on him in shock, as he thrashed about. He reached down and started to yank and grab at the pipe and chain that was locking him. Lucas thinking quickly to grab something from the ground and chucking it at his head. Billy stood there stunned for a moment, before dropping back to the ground. Piper stopped and turned around her arms spreading out to block and protect the kids.
"H-He can't get out of those can he?" Max spoke with fear shaking in her voice.
"No way." Lucas answered
But soon after answering, the door flew open and slammed against the floor, and Billy slowly stepping out and coming face to face with Piper. His body was covered in bruises and black vein that seemed to protrude against his skin. Billy's eyes were blank and dark as they stared down towards her, his chest heaving with each and every breath. El moved quickly and stepped around Piper, to use her powers, and send a heavy barbell towards Billy. He slammed against the brick wall, trapped against the weight, but still struggling against it. Angry growls coming from deep within his chest.
"Go! Run!" El shouted towards them.
"No! I'm not leaving you here, El." Piper shouted towards her as she looked between the teen girl and Billy.
"I don't care. Go!" El shouted as the blood started to drip from her nose her strength weakening. Piper knew that and acted fast and on instinct.
Piper moved quickly as she pushed El out of the way as the heavy weight was thrown from Billy's chest and across the room. The edge of the bar smacking the side of Piper's head and causing her to fall quickly, but not lose consciousness. Billy moved quickly and bent down and grabbed Piper by the back of her head and yank her from the ground.
"Run! Go!" Piper screamed
Mike grabbed El's hand and dragged her away as she screamed Piper's name, keeping his promise to her, as he pulled her through the halls. The lights still flickering around them as she felt Billy's hand move to her throat quickly squeezing and cutting the air from her lungs. Piper clawed as his hands and wrists as his grip tightened.
"Billy." She chocked
A tear slipped down Billy's cheek and for just a moment she was able to see her Billy again before everything went dark.
AN: So...that happened. I have much planned so be patient with me. Next chapter is gonna be a little shorter, but VERY important. And I know in the show Billy and Max were to have a moment in the sauna, but it was vital for what I had planned that it was Billy and Piper. Please leave a review, much appreciated.