November 9th, 1983
72 hours. Will has been missing for 72 hours. That's 4,320 minutes, or 259,200 seconds. Faye did the math last night at 3am, lying wide awake in bed. She refuses to acknowledge the time in days; days can too easily turn into weeks, and then months...
Faye grips the cold edges of the porcelain sink as her stomach churns with nausea. Ever since Will disappeared, she has been in a constant state of anxiety; at any given moment, she feels as if she might scream, throw up, or burst into tears. She is currently hiding in the Byers' bathroom while her mom heats up casserole and attempts to make smalltalk with Ms. Byers in the kitchen. Faye hadn't wanted to come, but it was either this or go to school and sit in a classroom next to Will's vacant desk. The walls are pretty thin and the adults' conversation easily reaches her ears.
"How's Faye holding up?" Ms. Byers asks.
Mrs. Wheeler sighs into her coffee. "She's not. I've never seen her like this. She's not eating, she's not sleeping, she barely says a word and when she does it's only about Will. I mean, Mike's struggling too - they both skipped school yesterday, which they've never done before - but I'm really worried about Faye."
A sad smile tugs at Ms. Byers' mouth. "I think her and Will have always had a special friendship."
Faye flushes at this. Will is her best friend and she misses him terribly, but she doesn't know what Ms. Byers means by 'special friendship.' The conviction that she is about to puke is mostly gone now, but Faye thinks she'll pass on the casserole to be safe. When she opens the bathroom door, Faye almost walks headfirst into Holly.
The youngest Wheeler is a sweet yet timid girl; she doesn't talk much (which is odd considering the Wheelers are notorious loudmouths), but despite the fact she's only three, Holly is remarkably intuitive. The first day they brought Eleven back from Mirkwood, Holly knew immediately - even though their parents were totally oblivious to the presence of a stranger in the house. Faye looks at her little sister and she can see the fear in Holly's eyes.
"What is it Hol?"
Holly points up at the string of Christmas lights hanging from the ceiling, and all of a sudden the bulbs start to flicker. One by one, tiny globes of colored light wink to life, illuminating a trail down the hall to Will's bedroom. Faye glances over her shoulder, but Ms. Byers and her mom are too engrossed in their conversation to have noticed. She takes Holly's hand and follows the lights to Will's bedroom door, quietly slipping inside.
The entire room is filled with lamps. At least a dozen of them in all shapes and sizes: table lamps with fabric shades and dangling tassels, desk lamps with dusty bulbs, floor lamps with tall wooden stands. And each one flickers in and out of brightness, like a colony of giant fireflies. Faye gazes at them in astonishment; Ms. Byers mentioned they'd been having electrical problems, but she's never seen anything like this before. She and Holly wander among them, enthralled by both their strangeness and their beauty.
Suddenly, the room is plunged into darkness. The gentle humming of the lamps is replaced with eerie silence and a chill works its way over Faye's skin. Then she hears a noise; a low, growling noise that seems to be coming from inside the walls. Holly whimpers and hides behind Faye's legs.
That's when Faye sees something she will never forget. A hand presses through the wall, stretching the brick as if it were rubber. Its fingers are long and pointed, and moments later a figure appears silhouetted behind it. Fear skewers Faye's chest; her brain urges her legs to run, or her lungs to scream - but her body doesn't comply. She stands there trembling as the fingers inch closer to her face-
And then they slice her neck.
Faye wakes up in a cold sweat.
The dream clouds her mind, weighing on her eyes and trying to pull her back in. A phantom hand clutches at Faye's neck and she sits bolt upright, shocking her brain into consciousness. It's been months since she had a dream that vivid, and it's not until the memories of the previous night catch up with her that it makes sense.
The Mind Flayer is back.
Faye's skin writhes with shivers - even the name makes her feel cold. Not just her skin, but her insides; as if someone has lodged a shard of ice in her chest. Suddenly, the bedroom door bursts open. "Good, you're up," says Mike, who is already fully dressed. "Lucas and Will are downstairs so come on, we need everyone."
Fifteen minutes later, Faye walks into the Wheelers' basement and finds the others huddled around Lucas on the couch. There's a radio in his hand, but the only sound coming from it is a static hiss. Will looks up when Faye enters and her stomach flutters nervously. They haven't spoken since the argument at Castle Byers and Faye doesn't really know what's going on. They're not fighting anymore, but now the fighting has been replaced with awkwardness - which is even worse.
Lucas' eyebrows arch in surprise. "Wow, you look... different."
Faye is wearing one of her new outfits - a fitted grey t-shirt with multicolour pinstripe shorts and white sneakers. Her hair is drawn up into a half-braid half-ponytail that Max showed her. "Thanks," she answers, not sure whether Lucas' comment was intended as a compliment, but deciding to take it as one. She catches Will staring at her with similarly wide eyes, but his gaze lingers a lot longer than Lucas'. When he sees Faye watching him he flushes and looks away.
"Try Dustin again," says Mike.
"He's not answering," replies Lucas.
Mike's face hardens. "So try him again."
Sighing, Lucas holds up the radio. "Dustin, do you copy? I repeat, this is a code red."
A troubling thought occurs to Faye. "Has anyone actually heard from him since we built Cerebro?"
The others shake their heads.
"Maybe we should go to his house?" Will suggests.
"We don't have time, El and Max will be here soon," says Mike.
Lucas grimaces. "He's probably still pissed at us for ditching him."
"But he wouldn't ignore a code red - that's not Dustin," Faye asserts.
Mike gets to his feet and starts pacing. "We'll just have to keep trying till he answers."
"Unless..." Will says quietly. The rest of them turn to him, and his green eyes look straight at Faye. "Unless Faye can find him."
As soon as the words are out of Will's mouth, it's so obvious. Of course. Why didn't she think of that? Faye grabs the radio from the table and closes the curtains.
"Can I borrow that?" she asks Lucas, gesturing to his bandana. Lucas unties and hands it to her.
Realising what's going on, Mike shakes his head. "Maybe we should wait for El."
Faye scowls at him. "El's not the only one with powers."
"Yeah, but she is the only one who knows what she's doing," Mike snaps.
"Well she definitely knew what she was doing when she dumped your ass."
Lucas throws his hands up in exasperation. "Guys! This isn't the time."
The Wheeler twins shoot each other seething glares before Faye sits cross-legged on the floor and wraps Lucas' bandana over her eyes. Will adjusts the radio dials until it hums with interference, and Faye takes a deep breath and tries to empty her mind - focussing on Dustin. A prickling sensation ripples across her skin and the sound of interference gets louder and louder until it's roaring in her ears, then gives way to sudden silence.
Faye opens her eyes in the black void. There are voices behind her and she turns around and spots two figures in the distance. As she approaches, Faye recognises Steve holding up a ladder along with a girl she doesn't know, both of whom are in Scoops Ahoy uniforms. According to her badge, the girl's name is 'Robin' - but Dustin is nowhere in sight.
"Steve, just shut up and push me!" a voice commands, and Faye has to do a double-take when she notices a pair of legs suspended in midair.
Steve grabs the dangling feet and shoves them upwards, but the legs don't move.
"Not my feet, dumbass. Push my ass."
"What?" says Steve.
"TOUCH MY BUTT, I DON'T CARE!"
That was definitely Dustin's voice. Faye realises that the floating legs belong to him, but that doesn't make the situation any less weird. Steve continues unsuccessfully trying to wedge Dustin into whatever the small space is (a window maybe?), while Robin just shakes her head. Faye watches, completely and utterly baffled by what she's seeing, trying to find a logical explanation and coming up with nothing.
Eventually, the figures blur and become wispy as the vision starts to slip away. Faye allows herself to be pulled back to reality and when she removes the blindfold in the basement, Will, Mike and Lucas are crowded around her expectantly.
"Did you find him?" Will asks.
Faye wipes the blood from her nose. "Yeah."
"Where is he?" Lucas prompts when she doesn't elaborate.
"With Steve."
"Oh great," says Mike. "So he's too busy goofing off with Steve to answer a code red."
"What were they doing?" adds Will.
Faye just blinks. "I have absolutely no idea."
At that moment, Mrs. Wheeler calls down the stairs. "Mike! Your girlfriend is here!"
"Ex-girlfriend!" Faye corrects, and Mike throws a pillow at her head.
It's weird for them all to be in a room together again. The second El appears, Mike springs to his feet and approaches her with clumsy eagerness. "Hi."
"Hi," El replies tersely. She then takes a seat between Faye and Max, on the opposite side of the room. Mike's shoulders slump and he returns to the couch with Lucas, who gives him a consoling pat on the back. The awkwardness is palpable, but right now they have bigger things to worry about. Once the news is broken to El and Max about the Mind Flayer, the room falls silent.
"I don't understand," Max states in disbelief. "How can he be back?"
"I'm not sure he ever left," Will says quietly.
"What d'you mean?" asks Mike.
Faye looks at Will and he meets her gaze with sombre eyes. For a moment she is confused, and then it hits her. "The cold presence."
"The what?" Lucas frowns.
Will swallows nervously. "I didn't think it was anything at first. I think I just didn't want to believe it..."
"Believe what?" says El.
"It's like when you drop on a rollercoaster," Will explains. "Everything inside your body is sinking all at once, but it's worse than that. Your body gets cold and you can't breathe."
Faye bites her lip. "It's like the cold is inside you."
"You've felt it too?" Mike clarifies.
"Only last night," says Faye, recalling the events outside Castle Byers with a shiver.
El turns to them. "I closed the Gate."
"I know but..." Will trails off and Faye knows he is thinking the same terrifying thought that she is. "What if we locked him out here with us? That day on the field, part of him attached itself to me. Faye got it out of me, then Eleven closed the Gate - but the part that was still in me, what if it's still in our world? In Hawkins."
Max shakes her head. "But the Demodogs died when El closed the Gate. If the brain dies the body dies."
"We can't take any chances, " Mike asserts. "We need to assume the worst. The Mind Flayer is back."
Will nods. "And if he is, he'd want to attach himself to someone again. A new me."
"A new host," Lucas echoes.
"How can you tell if someone is a host?" asks El.
All of a sudden, Faye's blood turns to ice in her veins. "Oh God..."
Everyone stares at her, but she is completely oblivious. Piece by piece, little by little - it all fits together and makes sense: the ice bath, the bloody whistle, the girl screaming in the vision... There's only one person who fits the criteria to be a host.
Billy.
But if that's true, then anyone in close proximity to Billy is in extreme danger. Which means...
"Mom..." Faye whispers, feeling panic rise in her chest. Will is beside her immediately and Faye grips his hand like a lifeline.
"What does mom have to do with this?" Mike questions.
Faye looks at El and Max who are both watching her with expressions of alarm.
Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Faye turns to her brother. "I have to tell you something bad, and it just got a whole lot worse."
Author's note: Happy New Year! Apologies for the delay in updating, I've been concentrating more on my own original writing recently so this has taken a backseat. On that note, I've revised the direction I want this story to take because I don't want it to be just a rewrite of Stranger Things with Faye added in (as I imagine that would get boring to read). So from here onwards there will be some deviation from ST3 canon; this will mostly involve Faye and Will getting their own storyline that doesn't exist in the show at all. I hope people enjoy it!
I want to say a special thank you to Fiddlegirl, RobinLudgate, Dancegirl1234567 and This Girl 1223 for your reviews of the last few chapters - I really appreciate it. The more reviews I get the more motivated and inspired I am to continue writing!