The Paper Knight and the Killing Tree
Chapter Seven: A Tarnished Shield
Steve was officially screwed. Just write his will and testament now.
"Shoot me. Hop should just shoot me now." Steve muttered to himself as Billy did some swerve type movement with his hips that he didn't think guys could EVEN DO, not to mention that well.
What else could he do that well?
He didn't just think that.
He did NOT just THINK that!
Steve's palms itched to grab Billy's hips, he clenched his fists instead.
There was no mistaking the twinge, the tingle that sparked down there….Billy, despite like covered in blood and swamp muck, aroused him. Hard. He was half-mast down there. And Billy hardly did anything! He didn't even TOUCH him. His body was betraying him while Billy was just fucking around and torturing him.
Why BILLY?! OF ALL PEOPLE? This was so fucked up. Steve really, really wanted to just blame this on the Upside-Down. On how exhausted he was. On how he didn't really care about Billy, it was just the principle that no one deserved to be here.
But,
It wasn't those things. Denial was a river in Africa. Or some saying like that.
If it was Jonathan who was here, or Tommy, or even that babe Vanessa in his English class he wouldn't feel this turned ON.
Probably not even Nance.
It was that 'I can do this just watch me' attitude. His 'fuck you and your mother' taunts. This jackass even thought he was smart. SMART.
How in the?…if only Billy knew how easy sailing a boat was once you got the hang of it. Or the one time he messed it up and it nearly killed him. Should have killed him.
Well, none of it mattered because it wasn't gonna be a THING anyway.
Steve had always known that he fell fast, and with the notable exceptions of Nancy and Davie, got bored equally fast.
He hoped this would be the case here.
But seeing how his life was turning out currently, he didn't think he'd be that lucky.
His mind flashed to Billy eased out on the hood of that car like a damn invitation, cackling and smiling.
Steve had NEVER heard laugh like that or seen him smile like that in Hawkins. It pissed him off that even though he was on the receiving end of the laugh…he didn't mind it.
In fact, he wanted to make it happen again.
He was so FUCKED.
"What can I say, I'm a work of art, while you're just a real piece of work." Steve finally retorted back. There was NO way, even though Billy was gay, could like him back.
Like back. CHRIST STEVE.
One, he almost KILLED him. The vulnerable, open look on Billy's face had been seared into his mind. Billy wasn't ever supposed to look like that.
'Just FINISH me off with that bat, Harrington. I know you want to, shining knight...Here is where demons play.'That defeated look chilled Steve's blood still. Just like at the quarry, he made Billy want to give up.
Billy thought he wanted him dead. Try the exact opposite you stupid fucking idiot.
When the unstoppable force of nature that was Billy Loga started to puke and his eyes glazed over and then rolled back in his head and that foam spit happened in the corner of his mouth, Steve very nearly LOST his SHIT.
He couldn't have...he couldn't have killed the person he came here to save. Not another guy he liked. Not AGAIN.
Second reason Billy couldn't like him back, was he was definitely NOT Billy's type. Antoine looked cool and was ripped.
Steve had lost his cool cred a while back, and slacked at gym recently.
Three, he now literally might not even be human anymore. Scales?! CLAWS.
Cool. Scratch that, he entered FREAK category. If Billy thought Jonathan was a freak he didn't even WANT to know what he thought of him now.
When it first happened he didn't even recognize his own arm. When he put two and two together it was his own arm he may have… well… He may have BLAMED Billy. Which looking back wasn't fair. It wasn't his fault.
Billy had done nothing but fight tooth and nail against the monsters here.
And save his ass from being turned into a smear on the road from the front end of an ambulance being thrown at him. At first he was terrified Billy had been clipped by the ambulance, it was a close shave.
But Billy's blonde head lifted up, eyes roving across his face making sure HE was alright. Of course he was, he was further away from it, and had like, freak-show scaly armor.
"Work of art, like a museum? You aren't gonna have a lot of fun with the 'look, but can't touch' approach, King Steve." Billy's eyes flashed and goosebumps prickled up his triceps.
Was the cold getting to him again?
"It's called having standards. Can't have just anyone pawing at the goods." Steve quipped back. He didn't know how Billy did it. How he could be so sure, so confident about fighting something that seemed… well unkillable (Steve wasn't sure that was a word, immortal maybe?).
Billy said something back, but Steve didn't hear it. A sharp pick of pain darted through his mind… and static. Loud static like from a TV that was turned all the way up and on a scrambled channel.
Sssshhzhhzzhzhz
Steve winced and out his fingers to his right temple.
StevevdhdjStevesjskakz
Was… was he hearing VOICES?! Were they saying his name?!
More fuzzy, loud static and Steve tried his best to appear natural. Don't panic. Sleep deprivation. That's all this was. This was fine.
Breathe.
Steve looked up and saw the Billy looking around for something. He knew for what too. The knife.
Wait…how did he know that?
Steve crossed the pavement and picked up the knife and held it fast. What? Steve's pulse began to hammer and sting in his chest.
He didn't know where the knife was before. How did he know now, and why did he get it?!
He gripped it and held it blade out like he had done this before thousands of times. He hadn't outside the kitchen when making yet another dinner for one when his parents were out. If he wasn't trying so hard to play it cool that Billy was lounged out naturally in the passenger seat HIS car, he would have told Billy that he could also cook a mean chili.
YSSSHZDHHHSZZYES THE SWORD! Then a chill ran through his arms down his sides.
"Looking for something?" Steve asked. But didn't ask. He didn't…think to say that.
Something was going ON. Steve tried to drop the knife, but just like in a dream, he didn't have control.
'The Waterslayer is mine. Get rid of the Firedancer, next the Lightsinger, then the Gatebuilder, or they will get rid of Waterslayer.' Was he referring to him as the Waterslayer? The Mindflayer KNEW about what he did to Davie?
No…It couldn't be….
The Mind Flayer was in his head!
WAS HE POSSESSED?! FUCK.
The mind flayer was IN CONTROL OF HIS BODY.
Steve's chest cramped up in acidic panic. He had to run.
He stood fast.
A shiver shook down his entire body.
"Already found what I'm looking for." Billy turned and sauntered over and Steve's chest filled with a blizzard of dread. He adjusted the grip on the knife.
GET BACK, Billy! I'm not FLIRTING. He couldn't say the words.
"Yeah, I know you have." Steve's voice fired back. That wasn't him. He had to fight this. Had to STOP. Steve could feel the blood flood his face, straining to shout back at him.
Billy furrowed his eyebrows a bit then smirked.
"Oh, what do you think that is, King Steve? 'cuz I'm coming over to get it." Yes.
NO. NO. NO.
'We have the Firedancer right where we want him. Entice him close, then kill.'
RUN BILLY, RUN.
Steve tried to move, speak, ANYTHING but nothing was happening. Drop the knife, Steve. Drop the damn knife.
He flipped it once and caught it by its handle. Steve wasn't that good with knives; Billy was. Billy looked like he had been TRAINED to fight with one. The Mind Flayer saw Billy fight with it and was copying him.
"Oh, I don't know about that. You're getting soft, aren't you? I heard what you whispered in my ear. You needed me to beat the Bulgasari." Steve smirked cold and Steve's mind petrified in horror. He could still feel buzz of Billy's full lips against his ear.
No… don't use that against him.
It wasn't even TRUE. He didn't even do anything except help stand him UP.
"What the fuck?" Billy paused. YES. Get out of HERE or HIT ME.
Steve tried to flex his muscles, open his mouth give ANY sign this wasn't him, but it wasn't working.
"I bet you can't even knife fight. It's just for show, like everything else is about you. The muscles, the car, your… slutty clothes. You're the Paper Knight, not me." Steve managed to whisper the last Words. He tried to bite the inside of his cheek from saying anything else.
Billy had to know this wasn't him. He HAD to know that's not what he thought. Who would ever think that Billy was a 'paper knight'?! It couldn't be further from the truth.
The barely restrained fire in Billy's eyes said a different story. DAMN It, Steve get a grip!
"You've hit your fucking head, Harrington. I'm going inside." Fuck. He called him by his last name. He had started calling him Steve when he wasn't pissed at him. It was something Steve had caught onto.
Steve's hand that gripped the knife began to shake. Drop the knife. He could get himself back.
His left hand went to the chain around his neck.
Steve's heart skipped three beats. Not the pendant Billy put around his neck. He still got the tingles down there whenever he remembered Billy delicately placing it on him. He wanted to keep it safe.
He yanked it to break it, but the chain burned his hand and held fast.
Steve hissed, as his left arm lifted the chain over his head and spiked the St Michael pendant to the rancid ground.
"You're trying to pop shit with me?" Billy turned around, sure and slow like a shark would smelling blood.
He didn't MEAN it. This wasn't HIM. Steve tried to bend down and pick it back up, but instead he sneered.
"I know your sick, deviant secret. You're a filthy, lowlife faggot." Steve's heart jumped into his throat and his stomach cramped up jagged. He'd NEVER even THINK that about him.
This had to be some sort of nightmare.
Billy, all red and rage, jacked back and swung his right fist in a tight hook. Steve didn't blame him, but to his body moved on his own and he twisted to effortlessly dodge the punch. The Mind Flayer moved him quicker than he could move himself. Steve didn't know if he should feel even worse or not.
Steve switched the grip on the knife with a fancy flip, and thrusted forward with the knife right at Billy's exposed, toned stomach.
FUCK.
"How the-" Billy pivoted at the last minute, shocked and confused. Steve had never felt more relieved.
"STEVE! I think Billy might be right about you and Erica! Remember our campaign against the Changling Wraith!? You distracted the Wraith. Max banished it, but now Max's character is Billy. Lucas was polymorphed, but now Lucas' character is Erica. It's the SAME as the campaign, but the roles are all switched around." Dustin! No. No, No! NOT NOW.
Steve finally got his back to cooperate and he doubled over, grabbing his right wrist with his left hand.
His left arm, even though his new weird lizard power healed the demo dog bite, itched.
"Get away...It...!" Steve rasped out through clenched teeth. He would NOT let this ghost possess him and STAB his friends. He was stronger than that. He HAD to be.
He wasn't weak like he used to be.
"Steve what are you doing?! Why do you have Billy's knife? What did that jockbrain do now?" Dustin accused and Steve's thoughts just flooded with the notion of putting the knife into his chest. NO.
He took a shaky step towards Dustin, his body felt a thousand pounds of lead.
STOP PLEASE.
Billy swung at him again, and Steve ducked and side-kicked him a few feet away. Billy staggered, barely keeping on his feet and studied Steve like a trig problem Steve would always have to ask for Nancy's help on.
"I'm…not-" Steve struggled with the static in his mind. "You're pathetic. You're of no help. You're always in the way, and you're never going to get out Lucas' shadow." The air in Steve's lungs turned to stone. He didn't just say that to Dustin. The smart, caring, too damn curious little brother who looked up to him.
"Steve, what?! You can't really mean that." Steve's body already did a quick two-step and front kicked Dustin down to the ground.
"Ow wha-" Dustin bit it and his notebook went flying.
He turned towards Billy, left hand white knuckling his own right wrist.
"Harrington you're out of your fucking mind. What's wrong with you?" Billy had his fists up, but Steve could tell he looked way more confused than pissed off at this point.
'Run him though, he won't ever take you seriously anyway. He won't ever like you or want you. He just finds you entertaining because you're the only other guy here in my domain.' Steve pushed out the Mind Flayer's jabs. He knew manipulation when he heard it, no matter how true it could be. He knew the Mind Flayer was trying to break his concentration. Steve bit the insides of his cheeks to keep from speaking. Tears pricked the corners of his eyes from resisting charging Billy with the knife.
It didn't matter that he didn't like him back. He came to the Upside-Down to SAVE Billy.
And he WOULD.
"I'm not…ME. It has me. Kingpin. Please, Billy." Steve finally got out, and he hardly cared that it sounded like a whine and a plea. Billy's eyes widened blue and bright and his lips parted. Good he got it.
As his luck would have it, Steve lost concentration and the Mind Flayer got back control. He lunged forward to run Billy through.
"Fuck this." Billy cursed and he rolled right and with Steve's momentum flung him hard to the pavement and pinned him to it. Steve breathed a sigh of relief through the wave of fresh pain. He couldn't do anymore damage.
He...well, now couldn't do much of anything.
Steve finally was able to drop the knife and instantly it skidded away from him. El maybe?
Billy was spouting something in another language that Steve couldn't understand, but it definitely didn't sound like he was saying anything good. Then again, why would he be saying anything good to him? He wasn't the one weak enough to get possessed by the damn Mind Flayer. Billy fought back and won, and what did Steve 'shining knight' Harrington do?
Got possessed, kicked Dustin to the ground, and almost killed Billy again. Some protector he turned out to be.
Paper Knight. Billy was right.
"The Master has Steve. Like Will, but worse." El said and Steve could see Hop's police boots and Mrs. Sinclair's tennis shoes.
"It HAS him?" Hop sounded incredulous.
"Steve had Billy's knife and was like, fighting with it! And he kicked me to the ground, not that it hurt or anything, but he'd never do that. We're friends, like brothers even." Dustin sounded ok, but Steve knew better. Dustin was more sensitive than he let on and FUCK. Why didn't he realize before he picked up the knife that he had been possessed?
He was such a fuck-up.
"Momma, this is some bulhaeng. The Poltergiest tried to possess us, Billy and I, before when it ate the truck." Great, the Poltergeist failed to possess a nine year old girl, but managed to possess him.
He struggled some against Billy, but then his body stopped moving all together. Had to be El. The static in Steve's ears continued, like when he tried to watch channels on TV, but the signals got crossed.
"Possess you? LORD ALMIGHTY, Erica you did NOT mention this to me, nor whatever you can do with your hands. Now you will tell me the truth of what's really going on." Mrs. Sinclair sternly ordered, no-nonsense style. He thanked his stars some of the attention was off him.
He was waiting for Billy to lay into him. He could feel his knee on his lower back, his hot hand death gripping his wrist behind his back.
"This just went from bad to worse. We'll figure something out. C'mon, Billy, let him up." Steve heard Hop but for the first time being in the Upside-Down he was petrified. Of himself. Panic swelled his throat and he tasted metal. Blood. He must have bit down on his cheek so hard he finally drew blood.
"No. Don't. That's what it wants." Steve's whole body twitched and through the cold he couldn't feel his toes.
"Don't shit your pants. I won't let you kick Cabbage over again." Billy sounded gruff as he hauled him up.
Steve immediately started to struggle, but Billy and El held him fast in place. With Billy behind him he couldn't see his face, but he knew he was pissed.
One step forward, two steps back. Just his style.
"Steve, it's ok. Don't worry. I'm already working on a plan. A GOOD one. I researched all this after it happened to Will the first time. You just won't be able to know about it, you know, also being the Mind Flayer right now. But Will was possessed and now he is like, almost totally normal. Well, I mean, and you're older so you have a better chance of ending up more normal. You're STEVE." Steve swallowed. Yeah Dustin, might be a good idea to find yourself a less mentally unstable role model.
An icy blast waved over him and he shivered uncontrollably.
Did the Upside-Down just drop in temperature? Or was that just him?
Billy's strong hands holding him in place were near SCORCHING, but he didn't want him to let go.
"Sooooooo, how do we that? Keep him from knowing? Lock him up?" Erica's eyes went wide and shifted up to somewhere behind him. Billy. Then beside her. Mrs. Sinclair.
Pause.
"We are NOT sedating Steven. Not after what happened last time with Billy. It's a miracle Billy recovered that quickly. With my sister it could take days." Mrs. Sinclair stated sternly. She hadn't said that last time. So, that's also how she knew what to do when Billy overdosed.
"We can't have this thing knowing what we're doing either. We can…isolate him." Hop sounded reluctant. So it went from Billy being locked up to him being locked up.
He was dangerous.
He was out of control.
He was going to get them all killed.
Super.
"Do you hear the Master? Does he speak to you? Show you things?" El asked, eyes big and fearful.
Steve shook his head, lying. He didn't need El or anyone else to coddle him. He could downplay this. Yeah.
"So. Mind Flayer, Kingpin, whatever you call yourself. Don't make yourself too comfortable, we beat you once, we can beat you again." Hopper got in his vision.
As if mocking him, his mouth opened and he let out a dry, dark chuckle and cut a sharp look to Hop.
"You'll fail this daughter, just like you failed the last one, Sara. I'll make you watch her die." Steve flashed a cunning a smile as his stomach plummeted to his feet.
The blood drained from Hop's face. God, just kill him or something, Hop and the rest didn't deserve this.
'You pray to God? No, I am God, and the Fire Dancer is MINE.' Steve winced and bucked over in an icy flash of pain. His skin prickled with goosebumps and his teeth chattered.
Was it just HIM that was so damn cold?
The Mind Flayer was yanking his body into different directions while Billy and El held him fast.
"Are these the types of things it's been saying to you this whole time, Billy?" Mrs. Sinclair rushed from his vision and Steve just chuckled lowly and thrashed against Billy who still hadn't said anything.
"If you didn't ignore your younger sister when she was a teen, she wouldn't have turned out the way she did, a misfit, convict junkie." Steve flashed another smile and Mrs. Sinclair's usual strong, composed face softened.
"Don't listen to it. It just talks shit." Billy said something else in another language that sounded like a curse.
"What shit did you say earlier about payback?! It's a bitch and I'm holding his leash." Steve taunted Billy, using his own words against him while at the same time calling himself a bitch.
This stupid Kingpin just had to go and get a sense of humor.
"Let's get one thing straight, you delusional, puta madre. One way or another, I'm taking you out. I told you, your fight is with me. I'm going to BREAK YOU." Billy hissed from behind him, and it didn't take a scholar like Nancy to figure out that Billy meant he would take Steve 'Babysitter failure extraordinaire' Harrington out to get to the Kingpin.
Could Steve blame them? He didn't know.
Thundering static boomed like a guitar amp through his mind and he managed to stop himself from yelling out. Overwhelming. Too much. Different voices screaming and crying and ice cracking and his own name and JUST STOP!
'You're useless, you couldn't even kill that Alien. Sure, you saved that bratty little bitch once, but you won't do it again. What good have you really done here? Surely they don't really need you here.' Steve's face reddened. Jesus, this Kingpin could lay it on thick.
"Hey...he's not lookin' good."
"Do you ever say anything NICE? He's POSSESSED."
"No, Loudmouth, I mean his lips are blue!" Were they arguing AGAIN?
"He feels cold. I can feel him through the jacket." Billy murmured, hands shifting. Damnit maybe the most irritating part was that they were talking about him like he wasn't actually THERE.
'You're just a joke, why would they?' The static amplified and Steve winced hard. It was so loud it swarmed over his other senses, his vision greyed out. He wouldn't scream though. Billy had gone through worse. The Kingpin made him bleed from his EYES. He could weather this.
His left arm itched and ached, and he ignored it.
'Just like you weathered killing your first boyfriend, getting expelled from Wilton, losing all your friends, and the attempt, right?' Steve heard through the static and he scowled on instinct. He wouldn't let the Kingpin wear him down, even IF it was right about a few things.
The Upside Down was NOT going to dredge up THAT time in his life. He blocked it out. It never really happened. He never really did it. There wasn't going to be a repeat performance.
He didn't even have enough rope for a noose.
'Are you so sure about that?' Oh fuck this noise.
"You are-aren't going to w-wi-win, Kingpin." Steve knew his vocal chords said the words, but he couldn't hear the sound of his voice over the static. Hop, Mrs. Sinclair, Billy and the rest would find a way to kill this ghost yammering bullshit mind games in his head.
His muscles cramped, FREEZING.
Billy's hands burned him, BROILED him. He was probably leaving blistering BURNS.
Steve still couldn't hear much, but he did feel a hand on his forehead. Hot, not as hot as Billy's though. He looked up, it was Mrs. Sinclair and even though he couldn't hear her voice over the static, he could read her lips.
'Too cold.'
Oh. So, it WAS just him. Duh, Harrington, Duh.
'Cold like me. Like us.'
Six hours and twelve minutes ago
"He's got plenty of time to recover. Jane said she can't open a gate here; the Mind Flayer is still dampening her powers. Looks like Evel Knievel here is gonna get his wish, we gotta kill the Mind Flayer to get out of here." Hop grunted as they finally hauled Billy up into the second story hospital room. Second story in case he tried to make a break for it he at least had to run down the only flight of stairs.
"If that's supposed to make me feel better, it didn't." Steve replied, still nauseous.
"You didn't know, kid. You were just doing what you thought was right. Don't beat yourself up over it." Billy weighed a LOT more than he looked like he did, but thanks to his new weirdo snakeskin power, he had a bit more strength than he used to have.
"Again, easier said than done. Can I get a cigarette?" Steve needed something to calm his nerves after seeing Billy's eyes roll back into his head and foam burned at the corner of his mouth.
Hop shifted, frowned, muttered something about thinking he had more, and gave him one.
"There's no way you could have known, and he's been around the block before with drugs. I know the type." Hop lit Steve's cigarette before lighting his own. Steve took the barest of drags, he didn't handle Hop's tobacco very well and didn't want to make an ass of himself coughing up the tobacco.
"Know the type?" He never remembered Billy doing any hard drugs at the parties he was at with him, but he never kept an eye out for it either.
Hop pointed to himself.
"He told me he's never shot up. I don't think he was lying." Steve defended, looking at Billy passed out. It was always weird seeing how innocent people looked when they were sleeping. Billy didn't look peaceful though. He looked half dead.
Hop nodded, and exhaled deep.
"Don't mean him, himself, necessarily. Vivian filled me in a bit on something Billy told her about his mother. I'm sure he'll tell you about it eventually." Steve wanted to ask more, but didn't. It wasn't his right to pry.
"I doubt he'll want anything to with me after this." Steve played with the pendant around his neck, still remembering how his skin warmed up from his gaze when he put it around him.
"You got a knack for having people opening up to you, kid. You two have gotten…close; you can tell he's self-destructive, manic too. Probably has what some of the soliders I was in combat with in Vietnam, have. I have. That new diagnosis. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD. He needs real help before he really does something he can't take back." Hop sighed deep and grave, but it reassured him that he thought he had a chance to make things right.
Had they gotten close? He still didn't know that much about him.
Steve just watched Billy's chest rise and fall.
He didn't kill Billy.
He didn't kill Billy like he had Davie.
"I don't know anything about PTSD, but I do know a thing or two about things you can't take back." Steve exhaled his smoke, wishing he could blow a smoke ring like Billy.
"I don't think spray painting that stuff on the movie theatre marquee counts, kid." Oh, so Hop knew about that.
Steve shook his head.
"Not that bullshit. Though, that wasn't cool. I didn't always live here in Hawkins. I was at boarding school in Massachusetts until my freshman year." He picked up two ropes they had originally wanted to tie Billy up with, but Steve talked them out of. Again, he was pretty good at convincing people to do something when he wanted to.
He quickly looped the two ropes together, making a sheet bend. Things you can't take back.
"I used to sail. I was REALLY good for my age. One of the few things I'm actually good at. I had a close friend. Davie Scott. We were always together." Steve didn't know if Hop would pick up on his implication that friend was a bit more than just a friend, but went on anyway. "I went sailing in the Chesapeake Bay off the Eastern Shore of Virginia every year with his family." Steve began, not really knowing at first why he was doing it.
Maybe he needed to get something off his chest. Maybe he wanted Hop to know that Billy wasn't the only one in Hawkins with a black mark in his record.
"Memorial Day, five years ago, I had the idea of going out sailing on Davie's Bermuda sloop with him. Just us. It was supposed to be…fun." Romantic was unsaid because even Steve at that time didn't really GET that it was a DATE.
He just knew that he wanted to be with him with no one else around. So they could actually kiss without keeping one eye on the bedroom door.
"A quick storm rolled through, sheet went, I should have tied a sheet bend like this," Holding up the rope "instead of a square knot, but I was just lazy. The boom caught Davie in the head and he went overboard. I went in after him and the whole boat turtled. Capsized." Steve still remembered trying to get Davie out, but he was thrashing and pulling him under the water. Steve could sometimes still taste the brackish bay water in his lungs. Davie's cries as the waves crested and they got tangled up in the strewn rigging.
He remembered trying so hard.
Davie's pale face stretched in terror, glassy hazel eyes, all those freckles, and his strong arms pulling him under.
Steve was an exceptional swimmer, just not when it counted.
Davie in the Chesapeake.
Barbara in his pool.
"I couldn't pull him out, we were all caught up in the rigging and Davie was disoriented from hitting his head….I don't remember much, but apparently a speedboat came by, they saw the keel of our boat up in the air. I don't know how they found us in the water through all the waves….I made it." Steve gestured to himself taking a drag that was almost too much for him to handle. "Davie didn't." He exhaled smoke through his nose.
"I killed him. That's something I can't take back." Steve looked down and Hop moved to his left.
"That was an accident, Steve." Hop put his hand on his left shoulder, the one not covered in scales. "You must have been what, twelve, thirteen? That's not on you. That's NOT your weight to carry." Hop made sense, and Steve's throat swelled despite himself. Steve's parent's blamed Davie's parents and boy was that a FIGHT.
And what came after wasn't pretty either.
Steve made a face and tapped the ash of his cigarette on the floor.
"My point is; I don't think I'm any good at helping anyone, Hop." Steve choked out, gesturing to Billy with the cigarette in one hand, knotted rope clenched in the other. Chest hitched. He didn't know where this wave of emotion came from. He thought he had squashed it all away, drank it dead.
Hung it up.
"Sometimes you can't, kid. My first daughter, Sara, got really sick with cancer and I did all I could to help her, but it wasn't enough. I'm a black hole. I suck everything in. I took an oath to protect and serve, but the hard reality is, is that we're all human and we fail. Often times, we fail the ones we're closest to." Hop grimaced, exhaling a lungful of tobacco.
Nice pep talk Hop.
"But you are helping. You started the truck, killed the dogs, and I saw you protect Dustin from that bat creature. You're doing a hell of a job. Cut yourself some slack and get some rest, and if big, bad, badass wakes up on the wrong side of the bed, just holler." Hop finished his cigarette. Steve hadn't known he saw him step in front of Dustin to protect him with his new FREAK arm when that gargoyle came for him.
"You too, Hop. And I can handle Billy." Steve meant it. He wasn't going to let Billy go after the Mind Flayer by himself, or burn down the hospital in one of his rages.
"Probably one of the few who can or WANT to." Hop smirked cynically and put out his cigarette. Steve's smile was small, but real.
He flopped down in a sooty chair, his back pocket crinkled. He got out Billy's knife he tucked in the back of his belt. It was big, and it was crazy how well Billy could fight with it.
It was also crusted over in bat guts when he vaulted from the roof of his e23 onto the back of that bat like a movie stunt. He glanced at Billy now, unconscious, pale, curly hair matted on the pillow, lips barely parted. He took another drag.
"You're an exhausting, mixed-up guy, you know that? You show NO fear against mutant, man-eating bat creatures. You can now breathe FIRE and ENJOY carving up monsters. But we mention putting cuffs on you, and you react like a mouse caught in a trap. I tranq you, and you look at me like a scared, hurt little kid. What gives? What's your deal?" Steve groaned miserably, exhaling smoke. He started to clean off the knife.
"Silent treatment. A first for you." Maybe he was going crazy talking to someone who was clearly passed out. He looked down at the clean knife. It already looked a bit dull. He put out the cigarette.
He reached out his scaly arm, most of the scales had gone away or retracted back, or whatever they DID, but the ones on his wrists and over the tops of his hands were still there. He wondered…
He ran the knife over his arm and it made a scraping, sanding sound. His scales were tougher than the knife. This…this might actually come in handy if they faced anything with claws again.
"I came here to save you, you stupid son of a bitch. I came here because…" Steve thought about it. "I don't know. At least when you're an asshole to me, I don't feel so…dead. And when you're a decent human being to me... I don't feel like total shit." Steve didn't know if that last part was true, maybe. He just kept running the edge of the knife over his scales until he finally got bored and put it on the table next to Billy.
Steve opened his eyes after he heard something soft hit against something. Wind, maybe a curtain?
He fell asleep!
He jolted up and damn did his neck HURT. The bed was empty. Knife gone.
FUCK.
He stood up and sharply hinged forward and just barely catching himself on the foot of the bed.
Did….did that asshole tie his SHOES together?
"Shit, shit, shit I fucking HATE this prick. Shit I hate him. Shit!" Steve quickly untied his shoes, tied them back together and sprinted down the stairs to see everyone asleep but Hop.
"What?" Hop asked, confused and Steve furrowed his eyebrows. The window.
Billy climbed out a two-story window. OF COURSE HE DID.
"He climbed out the window. He's gone after it." Steve said, getting his keys from his e23 out of his jacket pocket.
"You shouldn't go alone I'—" He stopped Hop with a hand.
"It's MY screw up, I'm gonna fix it. I'm bringing him back this time." Steve grabbed his bat on the way out and sprinted to his car, heart rate redlining.
Hop's truck was still there. That other ambulance he spotted was there too. Billy was on foot. Good.
He ripped open the door and prayed that his finicky BMW would start. JUST ONE MORE TIME START YOU PIECE OF JU—
It started and Steve gunned it.
He kept his eyes peeled. He had NO idea where Billy would go, but Billy wasn't exactly a stealthy ninja. He commanded attention wherever he was, especially when he wa-
"What in the…" Steve caught blonde out of the corner of his eye on the left and cranked the e23 so hard into a left turn he almost pulled a powerslide.
Billy was poised on the hood of some old Buick, eating. And….was that liquor…and groceries?!
Billy just turned into a domestic housewife and went grocery shopping instead going on some suicide mission to kill the Kingpin.
He had a feeling he was never going to be able to predict this colossal jackass.
At least he wasn't too little, too late, this time.
Present Time
Steve blearily came to, to blurry brown, black, and white smudge. Wha….
Erica?
"And that's when I beat Molly Mitchell in orienteering. She was so mad she threw her compass and broke it. You'd like the girl scouts, you can even join my troop. If we team up, we can for sure sell the most cookies, especially since your dad eats a lot of sweets, right?" Steve blinked a few times...what happened? Why did it feel like he was naked outside in the dead of winter?
"Cold." He muttered… Oh...he was under….like a hundred blankets.
Static itched in his mind, but it seemed far away.
"Hello Steve!" El. She and Erica both were eating waffles. Eggos.
"What happened?" Steve asked, words still a bit slurred. The Mind Flayer still had him, he just wasn't…chatty. Dormant or something. But there.
"You passed out because you got really cold really fast. My momma didn't drug you like you did Billy. I knew you'd wake up, you're tougher than you look. You took on Alien by yourself, after all." Erica took another bit of her eggo. Syrup dripped from it.
"The Mind Flayer..." Steve struggled to find the words.
"We think the Poltergeist still has you. Loudmouth thinks it's making you cold like this. He said Will liked the cold when the Poltergeist had him last." Erica said simply, like it was a completely normal thing to say. But...this was the Upside Down...so.
"The Master is stronger. Instead of you liking the cold, the Master makes you cold." El spoke and Erica nodded. They were talking about him like he was…
Already doomed.
"Yeah...where…" Who did he ask for first? The little brother he kicked down and tormented? The police chief he mocked for having a dead daughter? The woman he insinuated screwed up her sister's life?
The guy (friend?!) he had a one-sided thing for who he viciously insulted?
Steve took a good look around. Flower wallpaper. They weren't in the hospital.
"...are we?" Safe bet.
"Ppffffft Nice try Poltergeist. Not answering your questions." Did Erica just sass him?
"I'm not the Poltergeist...Mind Flayer right now…" He moved his hand...jerk.
He was tied to the BED?!
He tried each limb weakily. YUP.
"You and the master are together." El put two halves of her Eggo together. UGH He knew she didn't mean it like that...but the innuendo.
"We aren't…Well, we're on a break…." He couldn't really deny it.
"Hmm…maybe the plan did work. I'll try anyway. What are you up to? Poltergeist? Why do you want He-Man and I? What are you planning with us?" Erica crept closer. Oh was this the good cop, bad cop routine?
"OH MY GOD. Are you TRYING to TALK to it? I knew leaving you with STEVE was a bad idea. You're the WORST." Dustin burst into the room. "And El?! You're LETTING her?"
"We're friends, and we compromised." El held out her wrist. A bracelet made of some sort of string hung from it.
"Traitor!" Dustin threw down a box of stuff. Steve doubted he wanted to know what it was.
"Why else do you think I'd VOLUNTEER to watch him? It talked to everyone else, I want to talk to it too." Erica finished her waffle and Steve struggled to think when the last time he ate was, but he wasn't hungry at all.
The static still buzzed in the back of his head, and he fought shivers.
Old man. He was a useless old Paper Knight. He was a bad joke. A joke that was TIED to a BED. He bet they didn't even use the right knots.
He was really fucked up.
Maybe permanently.
"Steve's life ISN'T a GAME. None of this IS!" Dustin fired back grabbing a huge container of...salt?
The static got louder.
"Yeah, I KNOW. I was dragged here and got some weird power and I want to know why! Being special isn't good!" Erica screeched back as Dustin got out a huge book. God could they just…Oh god was he wrapped into babysitting AGAIN?
How did this happen in the UPSIDE DOWN?
"Can it, Both of you. What is going on? What's with the salt and the book?" Steve lost his temper, but his voice was barely a hoarse murmur. A frigid violent shiver sparked up his spine and he convulsed.
"We have to break you two apart. Before you're 'not OK'." El said simply. Dead. El meant dead.
"Mrs. Sinclair says you have hypothermia, and it's not getting any better. It's gonna kill you if we don't separate your mind, from the Mind Flayer." Dustin said as he handed the book to Erica.
Holy Bible.
Holy FUCK.
"Are you….are you performing an EXORCISM on me? Do you even know what you're doing?!" Steve practically yelped in shock. Christ how did he become so lame? He was like, every chick in every horror movie.
Pause.
"I've seen the Exorcist." Erica replied. Steve saw that movie too. The exorcism didn't WORK. Didn't one of the priests fling themselves out a window? The other had a heart attack or something?
"And I know white magic spells." Dustin chimed in. White magic spells, like from the Dungeons and Dragons game?
"No. This is a bad idea, where is Hop and your mom?" He purposely wanted to avoid the topic of Billy. He just felt...super awkward. Anxious.
'You're nothing but a burden to them. That's why you feel anxious. You don't want them to acknowledge this is a waste of time and effort.' The Mind Flayer was back. Steve tried to block out his thoughts.
'No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.' His mom said that, and Steve thought it was a famous quote, but didn't know who said it.
"They're fine Steve, but we can't te-" Dustin got cut off.
"What is going on in here? Oh, Steven you're awake. How are you feeling?" Mrs. Sinclair was wearing different clothes, jeans and a long sleeved button up shirt.
Wait, they were all wearing different clothes. Was he?!
If there was a god, he prayed they didn't change his clothes when he was unconscious.
"I'm fine." Steve didn't really know what else to say. He couldn't exactly tell them that he felt like he was slowly going INSANE.
Mrs. Sinclair gave him THAT look that Nancy would give when she smelled bullshit.
"Either the Poltergeist or Steve that thinks the exorcism is a bad idea, mama. Even though the Exorcism is Billy's idea." Erica explained and Steve didn't know if he liked the way she emphasized Billy's name.
"Why would it matter if it was Billy's idea or not?!" Dustin exclaimed, as if offended.
"Boys are SLOW." Erica looked to El and she nodded.
If this was his idea where was Billy? Was he really THAT mad at him to be avoiding him? Usually if he was mad he would just pound his face in. Not that he wanted that, or could even defend himself, but he'd rather have him here spewing some colorful curses at him than just….gone.
Despite the room full of people, and Dustin, Steve loneliness inexplicably settled in his bones and ice water trickled through his chest.
"Erica, we talked about this. And Steven…we are going to get that Devil out of you. I've bowed my head in church too many times to let the Lord ignore my prayer now." It was then Steve noticed that Mrs. Sinclair had a bowl of steaming something in her hand.
Steve could smell it from here. Chili.
"First, though, you're going to eat something while the Devil is busy." Oh god was she going to FEED him? Please say no.
"I'm not going to let you feed me, Mrs. Sinclair. I have some dignity left, believe it or not." Steve coughed a bit, struggling with his left arm. Was this irony they actually made chili when all he felt was a blizzard all around him?
"I can feed you, Steve." Dustin lifted his head from where he was pouring salt all around.
"NO. Dustin, thanks buddy, but that's worse." Steve moaned. He liked Dustin. Really but, NO.
"OK, I guess we can let one hand go. El can always clamp down one. Right El?" Dustin asked and El nodded. Dustin moved to his left hand, and began to untie his left hand. They should have used a Round Turn and Two Half-Hitches knot.
His left arm still itched.
As he sort of propped himself up and spooned himself some chili. It wasn't half bad. Was there SPAM in it?
Billy made this.
Dustin started to sprinkle salt all around and it was then Steve realized he had to address the elephant in the room. It didn't make sense that the Mind Flayer was now so quiet and he woke up.
"…Where's Hop and Billy?" He managed in between bites. The chili wasn't half bad, needed more spice.
"They're distracting the Mind Flayer so we can do the Exorcism while it's preoccupied. That was MY idea." Dustin said Steve's eyes shot wide.
NO.
"Distract?! No! What?!" That was INSANE. It wasn't worth it. He wasn't worth it.
"Yeah, we gotta move it because even though Billy is like a warlock and Hopper is a ranger, they would probably have to roll pretty high on a d20 to-"
"Dustin, dear, I think that's enough salt and enough d-20 business as well." Mrs. Sinclair interrupted Dustin but the damage had been done. Why were Billy and Hop out there risking their necks without Erica and her flashlight and El and her mind powers? It sounded like suicide. All this just for HIM?
"They shouldn't have gone. Why did they go? Why did you let them?!" Steve lost all his appetite. He might throw up. What if they didn't come back? What if him being weak caused them to…
Useless Paper Knight.
No.
"We're a team, Steve. Super friends." El said, smiling slightly. Like the super heroes?
He felt super alright, super terrible.
"Alright, we have the salt, the bible, the cross, Erica, it's time to shine ok, sweetie?!" Mrs. Sinclair announced and El picked up a wooden cross that she must have had on the floor. Erica scrambled up next to him. She was wearing a white dress now that he noticed. She put her hands on either side of his head.
Her dark eyes were locked on his.
"Don't worry, He-Man always comes back." Erica whispered in his ear.
Billy's laugh echoed in his head, leaning back on the hood of that Buick. Smiling. That hip swerve. If he didn't come back…
If the last real thing he said to him was that he was a faggot he couldn't live with that.
"Let's get one thing straight, you delusional, puta madre. One way or another, I'm taking you out. I told you, your fight is with me. I'm going to BREAK YOU." The thing was when he broke things, Billy usually broke too.
Steve looked all around. El was at the foot of the bed with the cross, Dustin was next to her with a candle of all things, and Mrs Sinclair had the bible behind Erica. All the sudden he had the feeling that this was moving too fast…but…
Chills rippled up and down his spine. His teeth chattered and the static increased.
Did that mean Billy and Hop were losing?
"It's coming back. Start!" Steve hissed.
White light began to glow near his temples and Dustin lit the candle.
"And as he was yet a coming, the devil threw him down, and tare him. And Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the child, and delivered him again to his father. And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbad him, because he followeth not with us." Mrs. Sinclair began reading the Bible and Steve wished he paid more attention in church.
"Relax, Steve this is fool proof." Dustin said and El shushed him.
The temperature plummeted, his body spasmed.
YszzzhdfSteveshshhZshhd
Steve hissed and the light around his temples increased.
"Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you." Mrs. Sinclair continued and Steve gritted his teeth to keep them from chattering.
STEVEysssshhhzzzzznoooooo
"So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them." Mrs. Sinclair continued but her voice was getting drowned out by the static. Steve was vaguely aware shadows were spreading on the cieling.
"The Master is leaving Steve!" El warned and the candle that Dustin was holding blazed into a flare.
"Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand!" Mrs. Sinclair finished and closed the book and the light around his head now blinded him. He squinted his eyes shut but even from behind his eyelids he knew that lights were flashing in the room.
"You can have him, but it's too late!" Steve shouted and body bucked off the bed, back arced high in the air. A final wisp of shadow left his mouth, disintegrating from Erica's light and Dustin's candle.
The static in his mind stopped all together into silence. Steve smiled in relief.
IT ACTUALLY WORKED!
"The Master knows where we are!" El exclaimed. Steve took a few deep breaths. His arm still itched, but he had his mind back, that's what really mattered.
"I'm gonna signal them back!" Erica yelled and ran with her flashlight. The light dimmed and ice suddenly clamped over Steve's body. His mind had cleared, but why was he still so cold?! Why did he still feel so weak?
A familiar, piercing shriek echoed down the hallway.
The Alien.
"Dustin! Stay back!" Mrs. Sinclair commanded, grabbing the shotgun aiming at the doorway and the room was deafened by a shotgun blast.
"MOMMA!" An explosion of wood and wall flew into the room and instantly the room lit up bright as a lighthouse. From Steve's angle, he couldn't see much but he prayed. Please, let me not be useless.
I'm not a Paper Knight.
Something warm in the center of his chest embered low and Steve swallowed, his body had long ago stopped shivering, blizzard frigid. But he looked at his arm, the scales, the claws.
He tore through the rope on his right arm and flung off the blankets. He ripped through the ropes on his legs and flung himself out of the bed onto the floor, hitting it with a thud and staggering to a stand.
Ok, new jacket and shirt, same pants. They didn't completely undress him.
The Alien hissed from the hallway as Mrs. Sinclair reloaded. Erica was blinding a Demodog with one hand, hammer in another. Where did that come from?! El had her hand out at the horrifying Alien, keeping it from entering the room.
Dustin had a tranq and….a fire place poker.
Steve gritted his teeth and sluggishly lunged forward towards the Alien. He couldn't be scared here. He was the knight.
He had to be man of the house.
"Round two, this time I got you." Steve pumped himself up, trying to ignore the sensation that it felt like he was wading through a snowbank.
'Plant your feet, Harrington.' He did and jacked back and slashed at the Alien's throat. That green, acidic blood spewed out, but it didn't burn through his scales. If El could hold on to it, maybe he had a chance to kill it.
An icicle of chill spiked through his spine and Steve tried to push it out of his mind. He continued to hack and slash at any part of the Alien he could while El held it fast. He had to do more damage!
Where was his bat?! He dodged a whip of the Alien's tail that broke through El's mind control.
"Ahhhh!" Dustin hurtled by him, towards the Alien and jammed the tranq into its neck. YES!
"Move!" Mrs. Sinclair yanked Dustin back by the hood on his new hoodie into the bedroom, dropping the fireplace poker.
Shotgun blast. Shotgun blast.
The Alien screeched and green splattered against the walls, but still stood. Steve had ENOUGH. The ember on his chest warmed up hotter and the flaps of scaled formed all the way down to his knees.
Maybe with this armor down to his knees, he could move faster.
He lurched up and charged, grabbing the poker and faster than any sprint in basketball, charged at the Alien. Steve threw all his weight into the poker as he shoved it through the gap in the Alien's chest armor. Green blood spat out of the wound as Steve gritted his teeth and bushed harder. The corroding end of the poker plunged straight through this chest.
The Alien screeched and bit down savagely on Steve's shoulder.
Steve winced, preparing for searing pain, but the teeth hardly went through the scales.
"Gotta try harder than that." Steve gritted out and slashed at his throat with his new, hooked claws. Green blood spurted everywhere as Steve tore at anything he could. Muscle, tendons, anything. Had to kill it, he had to PROVE himself.
"Cujos!" Erica warned as three Demodogs crashed through the bedroom window. El threw one back out. Mrs. Sinclair opened fire on the others, extra shells in hand.
The Alien reared back and backhanded him back against the wall. Hard.
Steve saw stars as the Alien knocked him to the ground and then kicked him down the hall where he crashed back first into the wall.
"That, was hard." Steve coughed, the cold gripped his lungs. Then he saw it, his nailbat propped up against the wall. Just a few feet….
Steve groaned, moving his battered body and grabbed his trusty bat. He had to move quick.
The alien screeched and vaulted towards him just like in the damn movie. But he wasn't powerless, and weirdly not scared, maybe it was the adrenaline. He had a job to do. He sprung up and arced the bat back.
"TAKE THIS!" The force of the swing made a bone tingling wooshing sound through the air. The nail bat collided with the side of the Alien's head. Steve inwardly cheered: a sick, sticky thuck followed by a hissing gurgle filled the hall as he wrenched the bat out and swung again.
The Alien's dented head cracked open and caved in on the third strike, but the bat was done. The corrosive acid blood had eaten clean through it.
Thanks for the memories nailbat.
Whew. Ok now t—
The room spun around him, and Steve dropped the bat and fell to the floor. Freezing. Too cold. Maybe he over did it. Steve tried to move his legs, but he couldn't really feel them. Numb. He tried to rub feeling back into his legs, but now his left arm twitched and jolted from an itching pain from underneath the scales.
His teeth chattered. Why was he still so COLD?
Get it together, he still had a job to do. The Demodogs still hunted them. He started to feebly army crawl, his claws turning back into chipped fingernails. No, no, not now! The scales retreated back down off his hands and under his shirt and new jacket.
A wave of fatigue and arctic tundra air swept over him. He willed himself to keep moving back down the hall.
Shotgun blasts.
"Watch out!" Dustin yelled. Time froze. Steve struggled to move faster, but his legs were deadweight and his left arm spasmed uselessly. Still, he had to keep moving.
Steve's vision tunneled as he struggled back to the bedroom window. He arrived just in time to be a useless witness.
Another Demodog leapt through the open window. Steve watched it all in slow motion.
Mrs. Sinclair's back was to the window, firing at a Demodog in front of her.
El was pinning another Demodog to the floor.
Dustin was far enough away, holding a table leg.
But Erica.
Erica was right in its path, blistering the other Demodog in the corner.
"Erica!" Dustin dropped the table leg and pushed Erica out of the way.
The Demodog tackled Dustin to the ground and a bite came next.
"NO!" El flung it off Dustin. Too late.
"Dustin!" Mrs. Sinclair pivoted and shot the Demodog twice.
Too little.
A blaze of dancing fire erupted from the window into the room, filling it.
Billy!
Pop pop pap pap pop pap pop.
Hop.
A shock of snow swept through Steve's bloodstream and his limbs stilled under a glacier of ice. His scales had long ago folded back into his clammy skin. His vision blurred a bit at the edges as Billy vaulted through the window.
Frigid. Freezing cold. Frozen.
Dancing flames surrounded him, but they didn't warm him at all.
He couldn't feel his legs, or his fingers…but DUSTIN! Steve saw his own ragged shallow breath as he tilted his head up to see Dustin and so much red. Mrs. Sinclair was holding him in her lap, head lolled back.
No. please…he remembered looking for Dart, his pet Demodog. Their walk on the train tracks. Talking about girls. His amazing Farrah Fawcett hair for that dumb dance. Setting those damn tunnels on fire.
Dustin came to the Upside-Down for him. He ROLLED for it. He couldn't die here…he was just a kid. He was so smart too. The smartest of those geeks. He didn't deserve this.
"Dustin. No. Dus—Dustin." Steve whispered out, body seizing as burning, scorching arms wrapped around his back and knees, lifting him up. His whole body scorched wherever Billy touched him.
He looked up at Billy, he had bruises forming next to his eye and scratches down his neck but looked ok.
"I killed him. I killed Dustin." Billy looked down at him, blue eyes blazing wild.
"Hell NO you didn't, don't be stupid. Steve, he'll be alright. Fuck, you're like touching ice." His voice buzzed warm in his ear. Billy held him sorta bridal style, but Steve didn't care….he just looked at Dustin.
His eyes were shut and there was so much blood on his chest, and it looked shredded open. So much blood. Billy was just being NICE there was NO WAY.
They weren't in the hospital anymore, what could they…
Erica's hands lit up white on his chest, showing the extent of the damage. Steve could see ribs.
"Billy, it's not working!" Erica cried out. Tears in her eyes.
"Erica. I think you gotta SING." Billy's chest reverberated. "Sing that Haitian Vodou Papillion song." What? What was Billy talking about? Wait.
'Voodoo Priest sang me a song about butterflies and used rainbow magic to heal me. One left.' Billy wasn't lying during their game.
"Papaloko ou sé van." Erica sang and the light shifted from white to a prismed rainbow. "Pousé-n alé. Nou sé papiyon." Steve's eyes bulged out of his head as the wound began to close up, skin knitting itself together. He couldn't see any more bones. "Na pote nouvèl bay agoué." Erica finished and the room was so silent you could hear a pin drop.
Dustin's chest rose and fell and he coughed.
"You're an angel. My baby's an angel." Mrs. Sinclair rubbed the tears off her face and Steve heard the heavy footfall of boots from the front of the hallway. Had to be Hop.
"No, I'm a Vodou Priestess. Just like Uncle Josue was." Erica yawned sleepily.
"You weren't joking about the voodoo." Steve whispered. Didn't Billy also mention voodoo at the quarry?
"I was being straight with you. Have been since I got here." Billy replied.
"You're a fifth level Bard at LEAST. You just used Mass Cure Wounds. You could join our campaign." Dustin patted himself down, poking his belly where the bite was. He stood up and jumped then kicked the dead Demodog.
"Uh, pass, Nerd. I'm a Girl Scout and to serve God, my country, and to help people at all times' is the Girl Scout motto. And you saved me, so I—" Erica's eyelids grew heavy. "Owed you one, as a Girl Scout." Erica yawned heavy.
"…Thanks…guess you aren't so annoying." Dustin muttered.
"You too." Erica murmured and sat down on the floor, out of Steve's view.
"Why is he like this? Didn't the exorcism work? Why is he still FREEZING? Why can't he move?" Billy sounded angry.
Mrs. Sinclair maneuvered over to Steve and placed her two fingers at his neck
"Lord Jesus, you denied one miracle but granted another. His hypothermia…it's getting worse its now in the severe range. His pulse his weak, and his skin is turning blue, his fingers look almost frostbitten. I'd put his temperature at around 86 degrees." Mrs. Sinclair sighed heavy.
Steve was pretty sure the normal body temperature was 98 degrees and that difference didn't sound promising.
"It didn't work. The salt, the candle. The wooden 't'. The heavy book and the words. The Master is gone, but Steve is not Ok." El murmured and Billy walked towards the bed and Steve felt like such a literal BURDEN now.
"Billy! Use your fire!" Dustin suggested.
"I already tried my fire on him before. It didn't work, remember? Everyone just, GO, give me a minute to think." They should all just leave him here. Let the Mind Flayer have him. He wasn't worth this.
"Dustin." Hop called out and Dustin immediately whipped his head around. "Come with me, it's….about time I taught you how to shoot. I got a smaller rifle for you, one that you should be able to handle." Hop gestured to the door and Dustin whipped his head back and forth between Hop and Steve.
"Really?! A real gun?!" Dustin's face lit up.
"It wasn't my IDEA, but YES. Let's go." Hop said rubbing his face, giving Billy a look.
"I'll be right back Steve. I think I gotta change my class to Ranger." Dustin chased after Hop.
Billy placed him back on the bed, and Steve could barely move his head, he couldn't feel either of his arms now. Even that horrible blood itch left his left arm. Billy threw the blankets back over him but he couldn't feel the pressure of them.
"I'm gonna put Erica in the other room to rest." Mrs. Sinclair announced and El followed her out, eyes curious.
He heard something slide down the wall next to him and he turned his head to see Billy leaning up against the wall in slumped half squat.
"You know what I said back at the hospital wasn't me, sorry anyway. I should have… I" Billy cut him off.
"Putain. Fuck. don't apologize like a girl, Steve. I know. I should have figured it out sooner. Je suis Desole…, I'm sorry." Billy whispered and Steve's mouth was too dry at first to say anything. He just saw Billy's profile, but he looked deflated. He had on a different shirt, blue with blood splatters and rips all down it.
Billy never apologized for anything.
"The exorcism should have worked. It's a DEMON. A fucking DEMON should be weak against an exorcism. It makes SENSE. You should be CURED." Billy sounded choked up and Steve hated it. It wasn't his fault. Billy shouldn't be agonizing over how weak Steve 'Paper Knight' Harrington was.
"Kinda worked…leave me behind, I'm spent." Steve wheezed out and Billy twisted around so quick he was a blur.
"No. You don't get to GIVE UP." Billy's blue eyes burned into him and Steve quirked a small smile. Didn't Billy get he was already sort of dead anyway?
"Dustin almost dying only happened because you all split up. I'm slowing you all down. Go after it together. You don't need me." Steve resigned himself. What else could they do? They tried the exorcism, it didn't work. They did their best.
"Don't you pull this shit on me. You were KING Steve not two minutes ago. You turned Alien into a crabcake." Billy was in his face, pounding the side of his fist into the wallpaper. His blue eyes flashed bright, and his mouth was a tight grimace.
"Not without help, and I can't make the scales happen again. No shining knight here, just a paper one. I'm done, Billy." Steve had a hard time getting his breath.
"Bullshit. I call fucking bullshit. You held them off till we got back You can fight this. You're not dying in this shithole." Billy insisted tonguing out his bottom lip.
Maybe if he told him about what happened after Davie, Billy would get what he was trying to say.
"I can tie a better noose than Neil." Steve rasped out.
"What the fuck does that have to do with anything?" Billy's voice pitched high.
"I got kicked out of boarding school at thirteen. Ask Hop why. The night before my parents came to get me, I got some rope, looped it over the pipe of the fire sprinkler of my boarding room. Then looped it around my neck. Kicked out the chair. Then the pipe broke loose and the water burst out. Rust colored. I should have died then." Steve licked his lips, but his tongue was dry. He could still sometimes feel that rope around his neck, and the taught feeling for the slightest of moments before he fell to the oriental carpet.
He told his parents he hit the pipe with a football, but they didn't really believe him. The amount in damages his parents had to pay the school….
"I'm not asking that Sheriff shit. I can't believe YOU." Steve darted his eyes towards Billy and he had never seen him this angry. "So that's how the great King Steve thinks? You're living on borrowed time?! You're going to let the Bulgasari WIN because you hit ROCK BOTTOM once? You're gonna give up on YOU?" Billy got right in his face and Steve didn't know why, but he almost felt frightened.
"I watched my maman hit rock bottom over and over, and EACH TIME she got back up. Even when ignorant know-it-alls told her she'd be nothing but a junkie mulatto whore, she proved them ALL WRONG. And even if she isn't here anymore, it's not because she gave up. The smack was laced, or else she would have come back for breakfast." Billy's eyes blazed and he clenched his fists till his knuckles blanched
He slammed the meat of his fist into the wall.
Billy's mother was half-black and died from drugs. Hop was right. Steve almost killed Billy the same way his own mother died
"When they found Antoine's body, Jerry told us he had defensive wounds on his hands. HE FOUGHT BACK. So, why WON'T YOU?!" Billy kicked the wall punctured the drywall. Antoine was killed too?
"It's not worth i—" Billy kicked the wall.
"YOU DON'T GET TO TELL ME WHAT I VALUE." Billy seethed. Steve was considerably confused. "I thought you were the only person of VALUE in this shit hole town of Hawkins. YOU were the ONLY one I WANTED. I'm fucked in the head, and I CAN'T do things RIGHT, but I do know what I WANT." Billy had tears in his eyes and Steve's heart rate spiked.
"I want to beat the Bulgasari. I want to EAT its heart for trying to take you because it's my FAULT. By saving me, using your aura, you left yourself open for the Bulgasari to get your soul." Billy's hands were in fists and his voice sounded thick and he squatted down low again so he could see his face, red and his eyes hard and blue.
Steve was stunned into silence. He didn't think he SAVED Billy at all.
"But, if THIS is REALLY you. If you're just going to…roll over and give up like some little bitch. NOT HOLD YOUR GROUND and let YOURSELF down…I don't want anyone like THAT." Billy scowled and stood up.
No. Don't leave. Stay.
"Yeah, I'm a queer, and I want you. Doesn't that make you feel sick?" Billy's eyes gleamed bright and Steve panicked and an ember sparked to life in him.
"Billy-" Steve coughed up phlegm in a lung-wracking coughing fit.
No. It didn't. Stay.
"If that makes you sick, then this will REALLY get you going. If you're giving up, maybe I'll chase the other guy who saved me, Jonathan. Yeah, I'll fag it up with him. Disgusting, right?" Billy did NOT just say his first name. He only called people that he LIKED. Billy didn't like Jonathan; he thought he was a voyeur and weirdo.
"Billy, Stop! What are you even talking about?!" Steve whispered, and Billy appeared over him, blond hair curling around him.
"I'm talking about...how now that I think about it, Jonathan isn't so bad on the eyes, and he does listen." That was a low blow. Steve had improved on that. "Oh, you don't want me to steal him from Wheeler and break her shallow heart? TOO BAD. I'll crown him with my necklace, strip him down til he's only wearing that too. He'll flip fairy. Then Jonathan will groan my name when I let him FUCK me boneless in my Camaro." Billy sounded serious and leaned back to leave. A furious fire erupted in Steve's chest. Despite trying his hardest not to, the vision of Billy choosing Jonathan over him...of Jonathan in Billy's steamy z28 with Billy in his lap...
NO. JUST NO.
Steve reached up with renewed strength, shoved back the blankets, grabbed the collar of Billy's shirt and pulled his mouth to his. Steve didn't care how his frozen, chapped lips probably scratched Billy's soft ones. He had a POINT to make. He didn't care if their teeth clacked for the slightest of moments before Steve slipped his tongue into his mouth. He had to shove the idea of him getting with Jonathan ASIDE.
He kneaded his lips against his and a scalding hot hand was placed on his cheek and ran down to the back of his neck and head. Fingers laced through his hair.
Steve felt ALIVE even if the cold lingered in his body. He knew Billy wanted HIM, and Billy had to know he wanted him BACK.
They broke apart, Steve glared at Billy heatedly.
Billy's too blue eyes had glazed over in shock. His lips mouthed something inaudible that Steve didn't catch.
"You and I both know, if anyone in Hawkins is going to fuck you in your Z28, It's ME." Steve didn't even recognize his own voice. He didn't even know where this confidence came from. But it was true. He wanted that to happen. He wanted him. Jesus he wanted Billy, BAD.
Billy finally blinked, eyes focusing, mouth closing.
"That's only going to happen if we beat the Bulgasari. Are you with me, King Steve?" Billy smirked bright, regaining himself.
"Yeah, Yeah I am. Wait, did you say all that JUST to manipulate me?" Steve asked, fearing maybe, maybe Billy was just messing with him.
Billy crashed down back on him, mouth hungry on Steve's, and hot hands roving down his shoulders and chest. No, not a mind game. Billy really WANTED him. Steve eased back, letting Billy in, opening himself up as his tongue darted in his mouth.
Then, arctic ice gripped his lungs and Steve gasped sharply through the kiss. Billy leaned back biting his swollen lip.
"I'm going to guess that was your answer." Steve tried at humor, but his words were barely above a whisper.
"Damn straight." Billy looked up, as if trying to remember something. "In LA I have a big family, four older brothers and a younger sister. We are a mixed bag to say the least. Think junk drawer. Javier, the middle brother, Colombian, would know what went wrong. He and his mother are CATHOLIC. DAMNIT." Billy cursed, pounding the mattress. Steve managed to roll onto his side, still under the blankets.
Javier, the massive muscle-head wearing the cross necklace in the photo, knew about exorcisms?
"This isn't ALL on you…" Steve offered lamely but Billy drummed his fingers on Steve's upper arm.
"If only Javier were here, or I could TALK to him. That weird girl, Jane, can't find him like she did me and Erica. She said she needs a damn PICTURE to find Javier. Like I have a photo of him! I didn't bring ANY of that shit to Hawkins, I left all that back in South Central for safe keeping..." Billy cursed and Steve's eyes widened.
The photo in his pocket. It didn't have Javier in it, but it had Sang Hoon and the other brother. Bayani.
It might destroy any trust between them…but…
"Billy. My left jeans pocket. Check it." Steve whispered out. "It might help."
A lava hot hand slipped down his back jeans pocket and grabbed the worn, folded paper. Also grabbed his ass, but Steve half expected that.
Steve held his breath as Billy opened it.
Maybe Billy would change his mind. Maybe Billy would hate him over this.
"You….how?….You don't…There's only two people on this planet who know where this photo is." Billy stuttered; eyes wide as he sat up higher on the bed.
"We needed a photo to find you…Ms. Mayfield didn't have one. Max told us you might have a record so we called the police, but they just gave us a phone number. Detective Xi. We, well mostly I, talked to Mei and Sang Hoon, your sister and one of your brothers. Max told us some about your family. They mostly mocked me." Steve chuckled a little, but Billy didn't react at all. Stuck in shock.
Steve's throat dried out.
"Sang Hoon faxed us three photos. Only I know about that one. I…kept it. I don't know why, I just thought this one was private." Steve waited for Billy to leave him. He deserved it. He had hid this from him the whole time. Ice spiked into his chest again and Steve sharply inhaled and collapsed back down onto the bed, convulsing.
"…going fucking to kill Sang Hoon Cho. This was NOT what I meant by safe keeping. We'll talk about this later, Steve." He said his first name, at least. Steve gasped as the weight of the bed shifted and Billy left, striding out of the room. Steve closed his eyes, the chill crept back up his body, numbing his limbs.
"Find him. He's not Javier, but he can help." Steve must have nodded off, when he looked over and saw El, Hop and Dustin next to the bed with Billy pointing at someone in the photo.
The one with the smile and the braid. Bayani.
"He's going to be hard to find, he's been running from…people his whole life. But he is trying to find me, so that will help us, and he's our best bet to save Steve." Billy gave the paper to El. El studied it and so did Hop behind him. Hop's vision sharpened, as if he realized something.
"Running from the law? He looks crazier than YOU. What is even happening in his photo?" Dustin asked.
"Not crazy. Different." El corrected automatically.
Billy shifted uneasily.
"None of your business on all counts."
"Billy, I'm not going to let Jane expose herself Mind Flayer on this little info, and we are running out of time. Level with us, who is this guy?" Hop took the photo.
All of you are sworn to secrecy. Especially you, Sheriff Sharpshooter, don't blab this to other pigs. He's my FAMILY, got it?" Did Billy just compliment Hop?
"I think you can trust us by now, Billy." Something definitely happened between Hop and Billy while he was passed out.
"He's my eldest brother and he runs from scientists. He has powers too, but they're…unpredictable. He gets random visions, sees auras, and hears voices. With them he can see the future, sorta, and find anything, like those three dickheads even without a photo. Given time, he can probably find us here in Alice's acid trip wonderland, but like you said, we don't HAVE time so you gotta TRUST ME BACK." Billy gritted out and Steve's mouth was too dry. Billy didn't seem like the type to tell much about his family.
And he was doing it for him, despite hiding all they knew.
"You just made him sound MORE crazy, Like schitzophrenia crazy, I studied that too. But if his visions can help, I don't care. I'm coming with." Dustin was furiously scribbling something down in his notebook.
Billy scoffed and said something in a different language. Not French and it didn't sound nice.
"He's like sister, but a mirror. She makes others see things, he sees others. His name?" El looked damn near excited about this.
"Bayani Anagolay Lakapati. He's Filipino and judging from you, he is probably NOTHING like your sister." Billy always looked so sure…and better in those jeans than those scrubs
El raised a challenging eyebrow and smiled.
"I'm…not going to like him too much, am I?" Hop sighed and Billy flashed his teeth.
"He taught me basically all I know, so NO, probably not. But I don't really give a FUCK if he gets your jollies off, this isn't some blind date. This is to cure Steve's hypothermia, and stick it to the Bulgasari." Billy scathed, walking back to the bed and put his hand on Steve's shoulder. It warmed him some but he couldn't find his voice to say so.
Steve had to focus hard to keep his eyelids open. He wanted to fight, he did. He didn't want to let them down…let himself down.
"You got a real way with words, kid. Jane, let's give this a shot." Hop sighed as Billy squeezed Steve's shoulder.
"Thanks." Steve mumbled, fighting off fatigue.
"Thank Baya when you meet him. Something tells me he won't be in a good mood, and I'll have to 'talk him down'." Billy tongued out his bottom lip, 'air quoting' the 'talk him down'. "I also haven't seen him in person since Antoine's funeral, sooo..." Billy wrinkled his nose. Oh. Now he got it...
"He's gonna kick your ass, isn't he?" Steve chuckled dryly and Billy's smile was slight, but warm.
"Yeah, and he doesn't skimp on the footwear either." Billy scoffed and Steve felt oddly comforted. Bayani didn't sound half bad.
Maybe they could even shoot the shit if they got through this. When. When they got through this.
Notes:
Hello! I've been sick and had some extra time on my hands so I managed to update in record time!
So this chapter took me by surprise. I didn't think it would turn out like this, but here it is! I wanted to add in the whole encounter with Bayani, but this chapter was already getting too long and I wanted it from Billy's perspective anyway.
They kissed muahahahaha! :) It came a bit sooner than I originally thought I wanted, but overall I think it was good timing.
I like the irony of Steve not wanting Billy to give up, but that's exactly what he is doing here.
Steve's backstory is a little rushed, but overall I am ok with it. His past sort of came out all in one go due to stress and guilt after almost kiling another guy he liked. His backstory, on purpose, is supposed to be less intricate than Billy's, but I wanted some meat to it.
I perhaps didn't bread crumb it enough in the earlier chapters, so i am still working on fleshing it out. I wanted his backstory to have a little more depth to it than just him at the boarding school, and i feel this fits with his overall character. He sort of keeps people at arms length, plays around because he was afraid of falling for someone else again and getting hurt/getting himself hurt. He also just likes to downplay everything, and pretend nothing really happened. That the past Steve died, and he reinvented himself, but really that's not what happened.
He also has a feeling that he is coasting, that everyday after his attempt he is just sort of now 'too cool'.
Also, the leave before you're left. He doesn't think Davie left him, but that was a driving force behind his motives. He's always ready to move onto something else, at least until Nancy, and to an extent Dustin came along.
Steve is a pretty complex character, he knows when he is being manipulated, but falls for it sometimes anyway. We see it in the show. He also is a bit possessive/jealous which comes out here a bit, but I feel this doesn't come from a bad place, it was very much instinctual. That and he also has some unresolved issues with Nancy leaving him for Jonathan (leave before your're left) and has a bit of an ego, thinking he is better suited for Billy than Jonathan. That's not nice, but Steve isn't a perfect character.
Also, the behind the scenes bonding between Billy and Hop will be revealed later. They 'broed' out.
I did my best to research hypothermia, and sailing, but if you see any inconsistencies please feel free to let me know!
I am trying my best to bring Dustin and El more into the lime light and letting their personalities shine a little more. They will bond a bit with Billy in this next chapter and Dustin will have more importance.
Bayani's name means Warrior in Tagalog/filipino. His other two names are named after goddesses in filipino legends/mythology. Anagolay is the daughter of Lakapati and is the goddess of finding lost things. Lakapati is a transgender goddess/god and is said to be the most kind and caring of goddesses.
Next chaper is going to be Bayani meets some of the crew. I'm keeping it a surprise as to what happens.
thanks, and please comment if you have time! Each one really inspires me :)