Chapter 14

As the accountant as she was, Jamie's mom put up a payment plan for the 'loan' of 800 dollars that they had paid Merril Wright as compensation for the damages. At least Jamie got good interests, and had already started working to reduce the principal by taking on all the extra chores around the house. It included building a kitty-prison for Tews.

The kitty-prison was their term for where the cat spent its days when their mom wasn't home. It had the whole kitchen to roam about with his food and water bowls, his toys and his litter box, but Jamie had set up some kitten-proof baby gates to discourage his exploration of the rest of the house. They had found too many tiny poops in strange places, and was trying to make him learn to use the litter box instead.

Cleaning out the litter box, was of course, also one of Jamie's new jobs, one she deftly delegated to Dustin.

He pointed out that if he just refused to do it, Jamie would face the backlash from their mom. Jamie pointed that out that if he refused to do it, she would give him a purple nurple that would ensure he couldn't even wear sweatshirts until he reached 8th grade.

So he cleaned out the litter box.

Her mom still paid for her driving lessons with Billy and her sessions with Miss Kim, probably seeing it as sound investment, but reminded Jamie of her obligation to find a summer job before the end of term. Jamie had a place in mind, but hadn't racked up the courage to go ask yet.

Summer still seemed a long way off.

By the time March fell upon Hawkins, Jamie was cruising around the city centre in Billy's Camaro. He thought she drove ridiculously slow, but she was too worried about following traffic regulations to care about speed. It had been a few weeks since the incident at the Hargroves, and nothing out of the ordinary had happened since. No shadows, no monsters and no arrests.

They usually ended the driving lessons by going out to see the new mall being constructed, brick by brick and beam by beam. It was Jamie's favourite part of the lessons, because it was just a straight piece of road that hardly saw any traffic at night. She couldn't concentrate with Billy's loud music, and he sat bored next to her with the windows open, even if it was only fifty degrees outside.

Neither had mentioned anything about Demodogs or the likes after that night. It sat between them like a large unopened box that they had to tiptoe around in every conversation.

A large banner was placed on the building being constructed. 'NEW STARCOURT MALL - OPENS JUNE 1ST 1985'. Then it listed all the different stores and restaurants it was gonna have. Rumour said there would be a movie theatre too, with more than one screen, a downright novelty in the small town of Hawkins. It didn't impress Billy though, which he made abundantly clear, as it couldn't compare to the malls in San Diego, California.

They leaned against the hood of his Camaro while Billy smoked his cigarette. He politely refrained from doing it inside the car while Jamie was driving, after she had threatened to drive into a tree if he didn't get that smoke out of her face. It was nippy outside and Jamie was glad she had a big duffel coat on with deep pockets for her fingers.

"Cold?" he asked her as if he hadn't dressed like he was going to the beach. Billy had added a scarf to his regular ensemble that hung loosely around his neck, concealing around one square-inch of his otherwise exposed chest.

"Are you asking me or telling me?" she shot back with a quirked eyebrow. She huddled inside her coat. "I'm nice and toasty."

Billy inhaled sharply from his cigarette and let the smoke stream out. "Toasty?"

"Yeah, toasty," she repeated and laughed at his expression. "You never heard that? It means, you know, warm and comfy, like toast." It was almost peaceful out here, with the huge looming building of the mall illuminated by big work lights. "You wanna drive us back? It's getting kinda late."

He nodded and snuffed out the last piece of his smoke. Despite Jamie's disapproving frown, he threw it straight into the grass. You'd think a Californian would think twice about starting a forest fire, even in March. They both got off the hood and the world turned black.

The huge lanterns that lit up the mall had switched off.

"Billy?" she asked instantly and reached out. Her knee bounced into the car, but her hand found Billy's denim jacket.

"Just a power outage," he said, his voice somewhere to her right. It sounded detached from his body, like it was just his voice alone, floating by itself in the darkness. His muscles moved reassuringly under his jacket, reminding her that he was still a whole person and that she was not alone. Jamie blinked rapidly to kickstart her night vision - she could see clearly in the dark, usually. Just not now.

Trying to convince herself it was just because of the sudden change from light to dark, she put a hand on the car to get a sense of her surroundings. Billy was right. It was just a power outage, they were probably still connecting the mall to the main grid-

A long horrible shriek pierced the silence.

For a few long and painful seconds, Jamie stood frozen to the spot. The shriek rang in her ears, echoing in her mind, penetrating her nerves. It was out there, and it was coming for her.

"Jamie!" Billy's voice came from the darkness and she felt his breath on her face. He was shaking her by the arms. "Get in the car!"

It meant letting go off each other, but Jamie clung to the hood of the Camaro, a shape more familiar to her now than her mom's old Pinto. She knew the curves and the lines and she felt her way along the hood and to the side, searching for the door handle.

A new shriek, closer, and there was no barrier to protect them here, no light, no house, just the flimsy metal cage. She flung herself into the passenger seat, still completely blind. To her left, Billy cursed and she heard his hand scatter across the dashboard and console, searching for the keys where she had left them on the console.

The Camaro was like a piece of clothing to Billy, but somehow, going blind like this made everything seem unfamiliar and strange. She reached over to help him, their hands touching each other equally as much as the car. There was a jingle as the keys fell from wherever they sat.

"Shit!" Billy yelled and hit something, maybe the ceiling.

"My side or yours?" Jamie asked and tried to keep breathing so she could use that goddamn hearing of hers for something. "My side or yours, Billy?!"

"Mine!" he growled and sounded strained, like he was bent over to search the floor by his feet. The darkness became thick again, just as last time, and now the ground shook at heavy feet taking something closer to them.

"Lean back!" Jamie ordered, because he probably couldn't even bend in those jeans of his. She leaned over the console and Billy's right thigh to flail blindly at the floor between the pedals and Billy's boots. Slow down, she said to herself, work methodically. She trailed her hands over the floor, searching the lengths of the mat and finally locking her hands around metal.

"Got 'em!" She hit her head on Billy's when going back up, but grabbed his arm and felt her way down to his hand to give him the keys. If he could start the car, start the headlights, maybe the shadows would go away.

Billy jammed the keys into the ignition and the engine roared to life. The lights did not.

It had to be muscle memory, because she felt Billy's arm on the back of her seat as he turned around to see out of the rearview mirror when he put the car in reverse. Except there was nothing to see. Even the sounds moved differently, Billy's breathing growing distant, like he wasn't there at all and it was just her in this darkness and it would never be anyone but her here and she could scream all she wanted because-

Billy backed the car up with as much speed as possible in reverse. The headlights flared into life. She met Billy's wild-eyed stare, wondering if he had felt that nerve-piercing loneliness too, but the moment was short-lived. As fast as the lights went on, they went off again.

Jamie screamed: "It's getting closer. Drive!"

He must have oriented himself in their brief reprieve from the darkness, because he drifted the car around and slammed down the gas-pedal like only he knew how. In seconds, the lights shot back on and the road loomed ahead.

"Billy," Jamie said slowly. She had turned around to stare out the back of the car. "Drive!"

The darkness followed. Not moving tendrils of shadows, just a tidal wave of pure black nothingness overtaking the landscape. Even the stars blinked out of existence and Jamie wondered just how big this thing was.

"Seatbelt!"

"What?"

"Seatbelt," Billy spat out through gritted teeth. He had both hands on the wheel, eyes trained on the road ahead, and Jamie saw the speedometer reach triple digits. She did as told, buckling herself in.

"What about you?" she asked, as Billy had probably not put on a seatbelt since he was old enough to drive and he certainly hadn't done it now. Billy was too focused to answer, just glancing back in the mirror every few seconds. Jamie put the top strap of the seatbelt under her arm and slowly, to not disturb him, she reached behind his head to the strap hanging there forlornly.

She twisted to get the strap with her other arm, keeping it well away from Billy's line of vision. "Arm!" Billy released his left arm from the wheel for a split second to let her take the seatbelt over it. The bottom strap lay tight over his hips and she fastened it. She flung herself back in her seat, adjusting her seatbelt back and tried to breathe.

The Camaro vibrated with the effort at going top-speed. She wondered if Billy would force it all the way to 200 mph, as far as the speedometer went. She wondered what would happen when they reached the end of the straight road. She wondered if the Camaro had been crash-tested with a female crash-dummy, or if the makers had assumed women were just smaller versions of men and if her clavicle would smash into a million pieces if they hit-

"AAAH!" she screamed as an oncoming truck came blaring from their right. The horn wailed in the night as it went behind them, a loud admonishing groan, missing them by what seemed like inches. She stared after it, the huge fog lights going by in the distance. Up ahead, downtown Hawkins glittered.

"It's gone," said Billy after glancing in the rearview mirror. Jamie's heart pounded and she turned quickly to look. True enough, behind them was just the open countryside and the long stretch of straight road.

"Are you gonna slow down?" she asked. They were driving at 130 mph. Billy nodded jerkily, not looking away from the road. The car still zoomed ahead. "Billy! Slow down!"

"All right. All right," Billy said and took his foot off the pedal like it was a gargantuan effort to do so. His fingers were white around the wheel. He didn't brake, just let the car idle its way down to a more comfortable 70mph before they reached the highway intersection. Billy swung the car into an empty office parking lot and finally killed the ignition, but left the headlights on.

He tried to bound out of the car, but was held back by the seatbelt that he undid with shaky fingers. Jamie unbuckled hers slowly, watching Billy carefully as he paced in front of the car, struggling to light a cigarette. Jamie got out too.

"That was close," she said, in lack of better things to say. She jumped as Billy threw his head back and whooped loudly into the night.

"WHOO! That was a close one!" he screamed and laughed like a maniac. Automatically, she took a step back. She knew this Billy. This was the Billy who had come to the Byers' house back in November, who had beat Steve into a pulp and and who had choked Jamie until she nearly passed out. This was Billy high on adrenaline and feeling the rush of being alive. He threw off his jacket, as if his body could not handle the constraints, and did a few more primal shouts of pent up energy.

Jamie hugged herself, cold and hot at the same time: "Are you okay?"

Billy laughed and looked at Jamie with crazy eyes, as if he was seeing her for the first time. "Feels good to be alive, baby."

She had no time to react before he grabbed her head with both hands and kissed her roughly on the mouth. It was a wet kiss, no tongue, but a lot of lip and he was gone so fast she had to wonder if he had been there at all. Jamie stared as he shouted something again and kicked a nearby trashcan. Her lips felt bruised, but not as much as her ego.

It took some time for Billy to calm down and he sucked at the cigarette like he had a personal vendetta against it, inhaling and exhaling rapidly. Jamie hadn't dared move, or say anything, in fear of him focusing that crazed energy on her again. After his second cigarette, he leaned his head back and blew the last of the smoke out of his mouth.

He stalked over to the car, proclaiming: "I need food. You want pizza? I'm buying."

And because he was her ride home, she got in the car and wondered how long it would take for them to get arrested for vandalism or speeding, whichever came first. Billy didn't start the car right away and he seemed to deflate into the car-seat, eyes half-closed, his teeth gnawing at his bottom lip. A lip that had been on Jamie's lips, and her chin and her cheek for that matter.

Billy ran his hand through his hair, checked his appearance in the rearview mirror, before turning to Jamie: "You okay, baby?"

Baby? When did that become her nickname? He usually called her Madge, based on her Halloween-costume when they first met.

"Uh, yeah," she answered, not very convincingly, but it was good enough for Billy. He tore out of the parking lot and somehow managed to not get stopped for speeding on his way to the local pizza parlour. She got in a booth while he went up and ordered. When he had his back to her, she touched her lips gingerly, wondering if they looked as swollen as they felt.

Billy came back with a tray full of the pizza-slices that had been left in the heating cabinet on the counter. He tore into the food as a man on a mission and Jamie nibbled at a piece, confounded by this new side of Billy. Not new though, but it was the first time she'd encountered it without violence being in the front and center of his focus. Still, with the kiss in mind, it looked like food and sex were other two outlets for his energy.

His earring glinted when he turned to look at her again. He grabbed a napkin to dab at his mouth and leaned back as he tossed the napkin on the table. "You sure you're okay?"

Are you okay? She wanted to scream at him, but just shook her head instead.

"No," she said honestly and let the pizza-slice drop. Her appetite was equal to zero. "I'm freaked out. And scared."

Billy, now back to his regular scheduled program, waited for her to continue as he chewed.

"That thing or whatever, it's only attacked twice, as far as we know at least. The common denominators are us. Or, you know, me." Jamie's voice shook, but she managed to keep the volume down. There weren't many people in the pizza parlor with them.

"Why would it be after you?"

"Dustin thinks I'm marked, or something," Jamie said and avoided Billy's now half-lidded gaze. He didn't say anything, but made a motion for her to go on. "I'm pretty sure Tommy H and Carol told you all about it, but you know I was attacked by a rabid animal? Yeah, it wasn't a rabid animal."

His gaze rested on the table, as if he could see through the material at her legs. "You mean..."

"The Demogorgon," she said shortly and hoped the guy sitting by the counter wasn't a government agent. "It got me."

"It got you?" Billy repeated. "Okay."

"You'd be more impressed if you knew what a Demogorgon looks like," Jamie muttered, a little miffed at the lack of response for her big revelation. She could always fold up her pants, that scarred mess would definitely get a reaction. His eyebrows rose and she saw his curiosity. "Let's just say I can't pass it of as a shark bite."

More like, a hundred shark bites.

"All right. So this living darkness is after you because you got bit by an alien monster?"

"Yeah? Unless you can think of a reason it would be after you?"

No response.

Billy leaned forward to gobble another pizza-slice. It was a wonder he was in such good shape, if he always ate like that. "Okay," he said after a while. "How do we stop it?"

Billy had called it a 'living darkness' and she had trouble to think of a better way to explain it. She knew she had heard footsteps and seen the trees move when the thing did, so it had some sort of mass, but the darkness was just as big part of it as Jamie's hands were to her. Like an extension of its body, it sent the darkness out first to subdue before it could attack.

This was the way she explained it to Dustin after Billy dropped her off. Part of her hoped their house was bugged, and that agents would sweep in and clear Hawkins out for monsters - for good this time.

"Typical Shade-behavior," said Dustin and Jamie groaned. "What? It is! It's strongest in the dark and has the power to bring darkness with it where it goes."

"Okay, but what does it want?" Jamie demanded to know. She was nursing a cup of tea that Dustin had made for her in one of his sudden kicks of fraternal care. "Is it just hungry for human flesh like the Demogorgon? Does it want to take over the world, like the Mindflayer?"

"Uh, hold on." Dustin brought out his monster-manual and let his finger trail the page. "It feasts on negative emotions, says here."

"Negative emotions?"

"Yeah, you know like, sadness, loneliness, fear..."

"I know what negative emotions are, idiot. What does it mean that it feasts on it?"

"The book says that it grows stronger by feeding of negativity from humans or other beings with human-like empathic abilities. When it is strong enough, it will feast on the human to sate its undead hunger for-" Dustin hesitated before he swallowed and finished: "-souls."

"Souls? Jesus Christ," Jamie muttered and put the cup down. Every time something started to make sense, she was reminded that this wasn't the 'Hawkin's Guide to Monsters and Beings' or even some ancient text found in a tomb to warn them, but a game developed by some probably pretty pasty guys in a dank basement somewhere.

The Hendersons were not overly religious, despite their dad being of Italian descent and their mom Irish. Technically, they were Catholic, but only attended mass twice a year, during Christmas and Easter. Catholicism was pretty big on souls though, but Jamie doubted it was the same soul that the Shade wanted to — as per Dustin's words — feast on.

Jamie shook her head to clear it from the current train of thoughts. It was a school night. "I'm going to bed."

"Wait, take this," Dustin hurriedly said and produced a dusty camping lantern she recognized from mosquito-filled summer vacations from a few years ago. It ran on gas and had a piezo-igniter so you didn't need to fumble around with matches to light it up. He saw her expression and persisted. "Shades despise light. Go on. Take it."

Grumblingly, she snatched the lantern from his hands and told him to get his own ass to bed before their mom came home. She flicked on the ceiling light in her room and groaned. Papers were scattered all over the floor, the whole room was one big mess.

"Duustiiiin! I told you to keep that cat away from my room!"

Dustin came bouncing down the hall, carrying the cat in his arms. "He's been in the kitchen the whole time! In his kitty-prison."

"Are you sure?" Jamie asked and stooped down to pick up the books and notes. "Then how do you explain this?"

"Explain what?" Dustin asked, but Jamie held up a hand to make him wait and picked up a blacklight that had been a birthday present from a few years ago. She turned off the ceiling-light and let the blacklight hover over the large area she had lightly spread white neon eyeshadow a few weeks ago. The eyeshadow had been part of a Halloween-costume and reacted under the blacklight.

Dustin and Jamie leaned over the circle of powder.

"That does not look like a cat print," Dustin commented after a few second went past. Jamie had to agree, unless Tews had taken to wearing large size 10 or 11-boots when they weren't home.

Jamie felt a shiver run down her spine. She'd used the almost invisible eyeshadow so her mom wouldn't think her room was filthy and come in with a vacuum. She hadn't intended on catching a person snooping through her stuff.

She and Dustin looked at each other and he dropped the cat down. It strode across the powder and left a distinct set of footprints next to the heavy bootprint.

"Is anything missing?" Dustin turned the ceiling-light back on, but Jamie was already rummaging through the stacks of papers and notebooks. With her one-pile filing system, she still had a pretty good idea of what was in the pile or not.

"Not that I can tell," she concluded after confirming that at least all the important stuff, like her doodling drawings for an improved Henderson Special, was in place. She did a sweep of the room, but the radio, the walkman, the piggy bank, all the valuable stuff was in place. Who would break into her room, multiple times, just to make a mess?

Someone who hadn't found what they were looking for the first time.

Impromptu hiatus because of the US elections. I'm not even in the US, but whooeee, it's been a long week!

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed the chapter :)