After the events of the spy session, Faye and El are in agreement that they need to find Billy. At the very least, it seemed like he was in some sort of car accident. Maybe the girl was involved too, maybe that's why she was screaming and sounded so scared - they could both be seriously hurt. That's one theory anyway, and the possibilities only get worse from there...
"If Billy was in a car accident, I would have heard by now," Max insists.
"Not if no-one has found him yet," Faye counters.
The three of them are walking through downtown Hawkins, heading for Max's neighborhood. Faye and El dragged her out of bed at first light before sneaking out of the cabin so as not to wake Hopper. Despite the fact it's early morning, it feels more like dusk thanks to the cluster of grey clouds hanging overhead - threatening to erupt into torrents of rain at any moment.
El turns to Max. "You don't believe us?"
"I believe you saw some super weird stuff," says Max. "But that's kind of Billy's deal - I mean, weird is normal for him."
"I'm more worried about the girl," Faye recalls. "It sounded like she was tied up or gagged or something."
Max blushes and her cheeks flush the same shade of red as her hair. "I told you he was into weird stuff."
El frowns. "But the screams?"
"Yeah I know but..." Max trails off, choosing her words carefully. "When Billy is alone with a girl, they make really crazy noises."
"They scream?" El asks, sceptically.
Max grimaces. "Yeah but like happy screams."
"Happy screams? What is happy screams?"
Sighing, Max shoots Faye a look that clearly says 'Help me out here, will you?' Faye knows what Max is referring to (she's heard Nancy and Jonathan making 'happy screams' enough times), but that definitely wasn't the case last night. The girl, whoever she is, was scared. And the way Billy looked at her - not through her, at her - was chilling. It's the only way Faye can think to describe it - as if the blood turned to ice in her veins.
They turn a corner and the Mayfield-Hargrove residence comes into view.
"His car's not here," Max observes. "You really wanna do this?"
Faye and El glance at each other and nod. Max takes a deep breath, resigning herself to the inevitable, then leads them inside.
The three most prominent features of Billy Hargrove's bedroom are Playboy posters, dirty laundry, and cigarette butts. There doesn't appear to be a single surface without at least one of these embellishments. Faye thought Mike was untidy, but this is a whole other level. The girls spend the next twenty minutes hunting through the chaos, trying to find something incriminating or unusual, and have no luck (well, they find lots of unusual stuff, but not the kind of usual they're after).
"Guys?" El calls from down the hall.
Faye and Max head into the bathroom and find El standing over a tub filled with water, in which several empty ice packets are floating.
"It's just ice," says Max, fishing one of them out. "It's probably for his muscles or something, he works out like a maniac."
A strange urge to touch the water overcomes Faye, and almost of its own accord her hand reaches out and dips into the tub. The result is instantaneous, but it's too late. Cold bites into Faye's skin like knives; it feels as if she's just stuck her fingers into a blender. A scream of agony rips from her throat and Faye stares at the water, waiting for it to run red with her blood.
"FAYE!"
Hands grab her shoulders and pull, and Faye topples backwards onto the cool tiles of the bathroom floor. Her breath comes in heavy pants and her entire body is shivering.
"What happened?!" El cries, kneeling in front of her.
Faye looks down at her hand and is shocked to see that she still has fingers. There's not so much as a cut, but it doesn't make sense. She felt her skin peeling open, splitting down to the bone...
Max shakes her gently. "Faye! Are you okay? Say something!"
There's a long pause before Faye speaks, and when she does her voice is hoarse, hardly more than a whisper. "He likes it cold."
El and Max are silent, and Faye can see her own terror etched into their faces. Out of the corner of her eye, she spots a flicker of red and turns to the cabinet under the sink. A dark stain by the handle stands out against the cream paint, and Faye crawls over and pulls it open. There's a trashcan on the bottom shelf and when Faye peers inside her heart clenches painfully, as if someone has just thrown a punch at her chest.
The others appear beside her as Faye lifts a bloody yellow whistle out of the trash. It dangles in front of them like a pendulum, swinging back and forth while the blood catches the light and glistens like a gruesome jewel. There's only one group of people in Hawkins who have yellow whistles - the lifeguards at the swimming pool.
"Holy shit," Max breathes.
"Now do you believe us?" asks Faye.
Max doesn't need to answer, the expression on her face speaks for itself. For a moment, the girls just stare at the whistle as if hypnotised. Inexplicably, Faye thinks of the cold presence that Will felt; first in the movie theatre, then on the field, and now this. A thought rises in her mind which she tries desperately to push away, but it won't budge.
What if it really is him?
The buzz of Faye's radio sends all three of them leaping out of their skin. "Faye? Faye it's Mike - do you copy?"
"Perfect timing," Faye mutters. She gingerly places the whistle on the counter, then retrieves her radio from the backpack in the hall.
"Faye this is serious, do you copy?"
"Yes I do, but I'm a little busy right now," Faye snaps.
"Is Will with you?"
The question throws her and Faye hesitates. "No, I thought he was with you?"
"He was but then he flipped out and left."
"What d'you mean he flipped out?"
"He's been weird ever since we got back from the mall. He kept bugging us about playing D&D, but me and Lucas didn't want to. And then he just sort of, lost it."
Faye struggles to keep the panic out of her voice. "Was it another episode?"
Mike exhales sharply on the other end and Faye can tell that he's pacing. "No I don't think it's anything to do with that stuff, I think it's more... us."
"Us?"
"The Party," Mike clarifies. "He kept saying how everything's changing and we don't do the stuff we used to anymore, and now you two are fighting and I think he's just freaked out."
The horror Faye was feeling five minutes ago is immediately forgotten. Eclipsed by a new, far more imperative concern. "Where is he?"
"I don't know, I guess his house?"
"I'll be there in 10 minutes."
Faye stuffs the radio into her bag before Mike has a chance to respond. How could she have been so stupid? She should have just talked to Will yesterday and explained everything. No wonder he's freaked out. And what if it's more than that? What if he felt the cold presence again? He wouldn't have wanted to say anything to Mike or Lucas... Regardless, Will needs her right now - fighting be damned.
"D'you have a bike I can borrow?" Faye asks, returning to the bathroom with one arm already in her jacket.
Max looks at her in surprise. "Uh, sure. Why?"
"I have to go."
"Go where?"
"I have to talk to Will."
"What about Billy?" says El.
Faye glances at her apologetically. "I'm sorry, I can't."
There's no time to explain. Everything else; Billy, the girl, the Mind Flayer... they'll all have to wait. Will is more important.
As Faye speeds down the street on Max's borrowed bike, the first rumble of thunder descends on Hawkins.
By the time she reaches the Byers' house, Faye is soaked to the skin. Rain gushes down in unrelenting sheets and the wind has bitten her cheeks into numbness. Every few minutes, the sky flashes white with lightning and the thunder has grown from distant grumbles to ferocious crashes; as if a vengeful deity is trying to crack the earth open.
Faye drops the bike in a puddle that could swallow a car and races up the porch steps. "Will!" she shouts, hammering on the door. "Will it's me! Will!"
It's hard to hear over the storm, but Faye can't make out any footsteps inside. She presses her face against the dripping glass and can only see the dark outlines of furniture. Ms. Byers used to keep a spare key somewhere, but Faye is pretty sure she took it back after Will went missing. Leaping off the porch, she runs down the side of the house to see if anyone is home, and finds only unlit rooms and shuttered windows.
Suddenly, the answer hits her and Faye can't believe she didn't think of it in the first place. Where does Will go when he's angry or upset? Where did he hide from the Demogorgon in the Upside Down? Where did they talk about running away together just a few days ago, even though it now feels like a lifetime?
When Faye steps through the trees and into the clearing, her heart swells in relief at the gentle glow emanating from Castle Byers. She makes it two paces before the curtain is flung aside and Will emerges. It appears he got caught in the rain too; his hair is plastered to his forehead in a matted mess, and his clothes are drenched to the point where he's shivering. Faye aches with the need to take him in her arms and hold him.
And then Will produces a baseball bat and drives it through the roof of Castle Byers.
The wooden beams snap like twigs, spraying plumes of splinters while Faye watches in shock. "WILL!"
Another thunderclap devours her voice and Will just keeps swinging the bat over his head. BANG. The neatly stacked logs along the front wall tumble down. BANG. The roof supports crunch in half and collapse in on themselves. BANG. The painted sign over the entrance sweeps to one side and hangs off its hinges.
"WILL STOP!"
Eventually, he hears her and turns around. For a moment, neither of them utter a word. The two not-quite-teenagers stand opposite each other in the rain, among the splintered debris of their childhood fortress. And something changes in that instant. A subtle but wrenching shift; like some great bell tolling the announcement of a death. Of whom or what Faye doesn't know, but whatever it is - it's irreversible.
When Will finally speaks, his voice is skewered with pain. "It's all messed up."
"What is?" Faye trembles.
"Everything!" Will shouts, throwing his arms up. "The whole Party is falling apart and no-one cares!"
Faye shakes her head vehemently. "That's not true."
"Yes it is!" The acidity of Will's tone makes her flinch. "It's been like this for months! We don't do any of the stuff we used to anymore. When was the last time we went to the arcade? Or played D&D without me dragging everyone to the table? When was the last time any of us even saw Dustin?"
A lump forms in Faye's throat and she swallows thickly. "We saw him when he got back from camp."
Will scoffs. "Yeah exactly - days ago! The five of us used to be inseparable, and now look! Dustin's not even talking to us, and everyone else is fighting."
He looks at her then and the frustration seems to drain out of him, replaced by something worse. An expression of hurt, undercut by betrayal. "But you know what, I could deal with all of that. I could deal with anything, no matter how shitty it was - as long as I had you."
This pushes Faye over the edge and tears spill down her cheeks. She has to choke back a sob to get any words out. "You still have me."
"Do I?" Will asks, his voice cracking. It's difficult to tell in the rain, but Faye knows he's crying too. "Then why did you go off with El and Max yesterday?"
"Because I was angry! You guys all ganged up on me and made it sound as if I ditched you on purpose!" Faye yells.
Will gives an exaggerated shrug. "Well if it wasn't on purpose then what were you doing that was so important?"
"I thought my mom was having an affair."
It takes a few seconds for Will to process this. "What?"
Faye sighs. "I read her mind and saw her with... Billy."
"Billy?!"
A tiny slither of relief pushes its way through Faye's hysteria, now that she's finally making him understand. "That's why I had to talk to Max. And then El showed up all upset over Mike, so Max took us shopping to take our minds off everything and I just forgot about D&D. I'm sorry!"
Will says nothing, and at first Faye thinks he doesn't believe her, but then she notices he's no longer looking at her. His hand reaches up to the back of his neck and his eyes - which a moment ago were sizzling with anger and hurt - glaze over entirely. Faye is about to ask him what's wrong when suddenly she feels it.
It hits her from all sides with dizzying force and the air is knocked from her lungs. Cold, unlike any she's ever known, lashes into Faye's body and seems to pierce her to the core; as if she has just fallen through thin ice into a frozen lake. Something spidery crawls over the base of her neck and Faye instinctively slaps it away, but it makes no difference. It's like the crawling is under her skin. Red spots puncture Faye's vision and she sways on her feet, struggling to keep her balance.
And then inexplicably, someone starts to laugh. It's not a joyful laugh, it's not even a human laugh. The sound grates on her eardrums until Faye is certain they're bleeding, and she clamps her hands over them. Her mouth is open in a scream, but Faye can't hear anything over the harrowing laughter - which rises and rises until it becomes a cataclysmic, deafening roar. And he's there. A thousand miles away, inches from her face... Faye can't tell. But he's there.
The Mind Flayer.
"Will!"
Splashing footsteps race towards them and a moment later Mike and Lucas burst into the clearing. Their eyes widen as they take in the ruin of Castle Byers, and the white-faced terror in Faye and Will's expressions.
"What happened?" Mike breathes.
Faye and Will turn to each other. She can't say it. She can't. The fright has severed her vocal chords.
Will says it for her. "He's back."