When she opened her eyes, Lillian found herself standing in the middle of the woods, except, something didn't seem right. As she looked up, the skies were shaded in crimson. The trees were all dead, branches looking like cracks against the strange sky.
She looked down, and her dress was clinging to her like second skin. She was soaking wet, as if she had taken a dive into the lake.
And Eddie... he was nowhere to be seen. For hours, she tried to find her way around the woods, but they were a maze to her. She tried calling out for him, but to no avail. She went to where the car was, but to her surprise, no vehicle could be found.
Where the hell was she?
For what felt like days, she walked through what looked like an desolate, hellish version of Hawkins. Not a living soul seemed to be here, and even as she entered Forest Hills trailer park, she was convinced she wasn't going to find Eddie here.
Everywhere she walked, tendrils covered the ground and dilapidated buildings. When she misstepped, her boot landed on one of them, and a horrible, screeching sound filled the air, echoing from all sides. A swarm of strange bats grouped together, and to her ultimate terror, they came at her.
Lillian panicked, running for the other direction. They were traveling so much faster than she was, and she hoped she might be able to defend herself with the metal rod she found on the ground. Makeshifting it as a pike, she swung and stabbed at the swarm, then ran some more.
In the distance, a purple light caught her attention. She wasn't sure why, but it almost seemed to beckon her, and so, she hurried towards it, looking behind her to see if the bats would follow.
Still targeted, she spotted the street lamp that was glowing, and without a second thought, followed a second light, one that took her further away from the trailer park. Back towards the main road, the street lights lit with a periwinkle hue. She could hear the screeching of the flying beasts behind her, and they were mad as hell.
Suddenly, Lillian stumbled forward, and everything was silent. The bats out of hell were gone, but she still seemed to be in the same area. Above her, the sky was still red, but now with a lavender swirl in it, like cotton candy with blood in it.
Sitting up in the middle of the abandoned street, Lillian panted, still gripping the metal pike in her hands. She was trembling, her dress damp from sweat and blood.
One of those things had sliced her waist somehow, and she hadn't even noticed it until just now.
"Well, well... All the king's horses and all the king's men," a voice stirred behind her, "managed to somehow bring us back together again."
Slowly, Lillian turned her head. A blue, '79 Camaro sat in the middle of the road, stopped in such a fashion that it blocked both lanes. Leaning against the passenger side was a face she never anticipated to see again, and it wasn't exactly a good sign. She had to be in hell, right?
"Billy?" Lillian staggered to her feet, wincing slightly as she stood. "That's not possible. Y-you died..."
"You know, Lillian, you're typically a very smart, little lady, so I'll give you credit for that one." He took his hands out of his jean jacket and opened the door, a sly grin on his face. "Hop in."
Reluctantly, Lillian walked towards the muscle car, but not without a final glance at her surroundings. Those winged creatures were nowhere to be seen, as if they hadn't existed at all, and Billy acted as if he never saw them.
Then, she stopped. "Why should I trust you?"
He looked impatient, rolling his eyes a bit and shifting his weight. "You don't have to, but what's your alternative? You tell me what's the lesser of two evils."
He made a valid point. There was no one else here that she could see in this strange world. Accepting that she was going to have to take her chances, she sighed quietly, deciding not to argue with him any further. Climbing into the Camaro, she avoided any eye contact with him, lest he got any ideas. Her mind was still whirring with questions. Was she actually in hell? Where was Eddie? How did she end up here?
Finally, when Billy revved up the engine and started driving down the road, there was only one question that she was able to muster audibly.
"Am I dead?"
"I guess I'll just rip the band-aid off real quick for you," he drove around the bend, and as they headed back towards the direction of the trailer park, which she had momentarily forgotten that Billy lived just across the street from. "You drowned in the lake last night. I haven't fully understood the dynamics of the afterlife shit, but just minutes ago, you were in what I like to call Limbo, and I got you out."
"Limbo? What the hell are you talking about? This isn't Dante's Inferno."
The car came to an abrupt, screeching halt in front of the manor. The brakes were put on, and before Lillian could regroup from the whiplash, Billy was leaning over her from the driver's seat, his hand hitting against the glove box hard. He was boxing her in. "Yoy know ,you really should be thanking me."
Panicked, Lillian swallowed. Not in a million years would she have thought her ex-boyfriend would be treating her like a captive. He always was kind of an asshole, though she hadn't stuck around enough to see him go psychotic, but boy, did she hear some stories. Now, she was seeing it first-hand.
"Yeah, well... Maybe if you took one minute to not be a douchebag."
At first, Billy's eyes looked like they were on fire. She Then, his expression changed, and he forced a smile. He climbed out of the car, leaving Lillian to shake from the stress. Did she really just say that to him?
Suddenly, the car door opened, and Billy held out his hand to her. Once again, she was reluctant to abide, but she took it, and he would lift her out if the car. Once again, the pain in her side reminded her of the attack from earlier. Whatever what's happening, it was not a dream.
The door shut behind her, and abruptly, Billy trapped her against it, his face dangerously close to hers. "Let me fill you in on one thing, Lily." The way he said the name that only Eddie had ever used made her skin crawl. "I'm nothing like that Munson freak. I'm not here to lift you off your feet and be your knight in shining armor."
"Sounds like you're just jealous, Billy." Lillian knew she should have just kept her mouth shut, but she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of scaring her.
"I'm not--" He was close to yelling, but it seemed he caught himself before he could finish the sentence. Recollecting his cool, Billy held up a hand. "We're going to go inside, and you're going to let me fix you up, and afterwards..." His fingers brushed over her cheek, the coolness of them causing her to shudder briefly. "Maybe we'll just wait and see."
Lillian jerked her head away from his touch, and though she didn't want to look at him directly, she could see the look of frustration on his face. There was one thing Billy did not like, and that was being denied. She already did it once in high school, just because all the other girls wanted him, too. Now, it was because there was only one guy in this world that she wanted, and it wasn't him.
The blood loss was catching up to her now, and Lillian found it hard to keep her balance.
"You'll warm up to me eventually," she heard him say as her head began to spin.
Once she finally came back to, she found herself laying on a couch. The room she found herself in was about as vague of a familiar as she could imagine. She had been here only once before. She had met Billy's mom once (or she guessed that was his step-mother), and she seemed like a nice lady. He never went into the explanation as to what happened to his biological mom, and nor did Lillian know anything about his dad. He never opened up about his family life, and as a matter of fact, acted as though detested their very existence.
She half-expected Mrs. Hargrove to come out from the kitchen, asking if she wanted anything to eat or drink. However, Lillian was starting to suspect that her not-so knight in shining armor was the only person here to keep her company.
She spotted him sitting on the armchair next to her, lighting up a cigarette and blowing out the smoke into the air. He had been waiting for her to wake up. Lillian didn't even know until she sat up that he had taken to cleaning her wound and bandaging her up. She didn't remember any of it. Nor was she wearing her dress from before. She was wearing a simple, button up white dress that did not look like her own, and in fact, fit just a little too loosely on her.
"It's Susan's. Should have tossed it out ages ago, but now I'm glad I didn't. Don't worry. I can pick you up some other clothes while I'm out."
That was the least of her concern. Did Billy undress her to get this on her? Was it possible that he took advantage of her while she was unconscious? She was still wearing her undergarments, which she needed the confirmation by peeking into the top of her dress.
Billy let out a single sound, almost like a snicker. Her paranoia did not go unnoticed. He stood up, setting the cigarette down in the plastic ashtray that sat on the table next to him. God, she hated that smell. It reminded her why she didn't stay with Billy for long. Tense, she watched him hold out his hand to her as he stepped in front of her.
"You're going to need to take it easy for a few days. I don't know the first thing about stitches. Not that I think you need them, but you don't want to make it worse.
Lillian didn't respond, and nor did she accept his offer. Quick to decipher that she was deliberately leaving him hanging, Billy quickly gave up and retrieved his cigarette again.
"Fine. When you're ready to get some rest, the bedroom is through that door, down the hall, and on the right-hand side." He took another drag, then gave her a firm look. "And don't try anything funny. There's nothing out there."
Lillian didn't really want to believe him, which was why as soon as he left, she took all the strength she had to get off that sofa and limp outside. She felt tired, no doubt from having lost all that blood, but from the front porch, she could quickly recognize Eddie's trailer. Not another soul seemed to be in sight, but she just had to see it for herself.
Was there anyone there?
It was only once she was certain the blue Camaro was nowhere to be seen when she walked across the street, looking through the windows that she could reach to see if she could see anything inside. It looked abandoned, just with everything still being inside. With a jiggle of the handle to the front door, she was dismayed that the front door was locked. Not wanting to give away any hints that she had been here, she didn't bother trying to break in. Instead, she grabbed an old crate that was sitting towards the back of the trailer, moving it to Eddie's window. She climbed up to peek inside, but it was jammed shut. There was no getting in without breaking glass, which she certainly was not ready to attempt. Lillian took a solemn moment to observe Eddie's belongings. There was the guitar hanging on the wall. Like everything else in the room, it looked old and covered in dust. It was as if no one had lived in this trailer for years.
She leaned her forehead against the window in defeat. Maybe Billy was right. There was nothing here that would help her, and she was gradually beginning to accept that there was a possibility that no one else was here either. In this strange, derelict world, she and Billy might have been the only two people around. Why would she believe any different? There were no moving vehicles, except for the one that she arrived in, and the silence in the entire area was maddening.
Returning to Billy's house and ultimately succumbing to her exhaustion on the bed that was designated to her, Lillian dozed off into a long sleep.
