Holy smokes! This the third chapter this week.
I am so excited about this one because it is the lead up to some angst between Steve and Roni, as well as the Mind Flayer.
I tried my hand at an El POV to get a new perspective on the story, hope it wasn't too occ.
Dustin was sitting in the back of Steve's car talking himself in circles about the revelation we discovered at the mall. The Russians were here in Hawkins… at the mall no less, we just weren't sure where or why. I knew this meant that Dustin would be anxiously waiting the next day to recon the mall and search for the Russians in hopes of uncovering the plan, but I wasn't sure he was fully aware of any danger that might come from it. This was more then just some game or finders keepers.
"Hey hold up." I said as Steve pulled through town. Steve stopped the car and I watched as Jim stumbled from the entrance of a restaurant. Scowling I turned to Steve who was leaning over the steering wheel and watching the older man.
"He looks…" Dustin started from the back seat and before he could continue I groaned and opened the passenger door.
"Yeah, I know." I interrupted him. Turning to look back at the car I met Steve's eyes and looked over my shoulder at Jim again. "How would you feel about picking me up in an hour?"
"You sure?" Steve asked.
"There's no way I am letting him drive home." I sighed. "But I am also not staying at the cabin tonight, if you can't I can walk…"
"Yeah right." Steve shot me a look that told me if I walked I would be in trouble. "Let me drop Henderson off and I will meet you at the road to Hoppers cabin."
"Thanks." I nodded waiving to Dustin as he crawled clumsily over the center console of the car to the front seat, Steve cursing at him along the way. Laughing I shut the door and turned to meet Jim as he stumbled down the treat. "Alright big guy, where are your keys."
"Wha… Wha are you doin' here?" he slurred trying to stand up straight.
"Babysitting apparently." I rolled my eyes reaching into his pocket and grabbing his truck keys.
"Hey…hey stop tha.." he tried pushing me away, but the alcohol had made his gesture more of a stumble then a shove. "I don' need no babysitter."
"And I don't need a call saying the Chief of Police was in the drunk tank because he was driving while intoxicate." I shot back at him and his dilated eyes met mine with a scowl. Eyeing the bottle still in his hand I leaned back and crossed my arms, "If you wanna drink that, you're gonna let me drive you home."
"I'm the adult here." He stated though his tone was harsh, the lack of balance made taking him serious hard.
"Sure you are." I rolled my eyes and started walking towards his truck. Without waiting for him to reply or to see if he was following me I unlocked the door and jumped into the drivers seat. Turning the key in the ignition the truck rumbled to life and I waited for Jim to relent and get in to the passenger seat. It didn't take long for him to make his way to me and he grumbled the whole way into the seat.
"This is a police vehicle," he grumbled. "You're not supposed to be driving it."
"You're the police chief… you're not supposed to be this drunk in public." I shot back at him with a smirk. His response was just to mumbled snidely under his breath and cross his arms looking out the window. The drive to the access road for the cabin didn't take long and when I pulled up to the cabin Jim was quick to get out. Putting the truck in park I took the key out and followed him up the porch making sure he didn't fall backwards.
Slamming the door open he stayed propped up on the door frame looking around the small living area until I watched as his eyes landed on the closed door in front of him. Behind the door I could hear laughter and judging on Jim's sudden marching to it so could he.
"Hey," he yelled.
"Jim, hold on." I tried to grab his arm and pull him back but he yanked it free and continued his pursuit forward.
"Hey, what'd I say!" he exclaimed loudly. "Three inches!... three inches." He slammed El's door open and then froze. Looking around him I saw El and Max on the floor both looking up at him.
"Do you knock?" Max asked. "Jeez."
"Yeah… Jeez." El mimicked before turning into Max's shoulder and giggling. I had to turn away and laugh at the audacity and the sheer confusion written all over Jim's face.
"Oh… hey." Jim said his voice a good octive higher and quietr then before. "I'm sorry, I thought… that uh…"
"Mikes not here." Max answered his unasked question, and I leaned on the chair behind me and crossed my arms enjoying everything that was happening.
"Max wanted to have a sleepover." I heard El say, "Is that okay?"
"Yeah." Jim said quickly, "Yeah, yeah, yeah,… your parent know about it?"
"Yup." Max answered.
"Uh, yeah… it's cool." Jim nodded, "That's really cool."
"Did you need something?" Max asked and I choked down the laugh that escaped and bowed my head to look at my shoes when Jim turned to me with a glare.
"No, no… no." he answered turning back to the teenage girls. "I'll just let you... I'll leave you." When he shut the door he turned to me with a big grin on his face and I just shook my head at him arms still crossed across my chest.
"What did you do?" I questioned raising an eyebrow.
"Nothing." He said moving to the kitchen to get a glass.
"Yeah?" I said standing up straight and following him, "So you go in guns blazing and then the moment you find out Mike isn't there you become happy, cheery Jim? I don't buy it? Mike is over all the time, and yesterday you and Joyce talked about 'talking' to them… what did you say to Mike?"
"All that matters is he's not here and I can sit, kick my shoes off and enjoy my night." He stated avoiding my question. He shuffled to his chair and did exactly as had he said. Placing the bottle beside him he kicked his shoes off by the heels and sighed in relief.
"Okay, since we are obviously avoiding that conversation, you want to tell me why you stumbled out of some fancy pants restaurant drunk and grumpy?" I asked standing in front of him now. He chose not to answer me and instead focus on pouring himself a drink. Irritated and threw my hands up. "Fine whatever."
Heading to the girls room I opened the door a few inches and peered watching them curiously as they wrote on a piece of paper.
"How was 'girl's day'?" I asked quietly.
"So much fun." El looked up with a smile.
"Good… What's that for?" I eyed the paper noticing Billy and Mr. Wheelers name on it.
"Spin the bottle." El looked at Max and giggled. "Its what we do at sleepovers."
"How are you gonna…" I started to say looking at Max who gave me a mischievous look before shrugging. "You know what, I don't want to know." Looking at El I narrowed my eyes, "Don't over do it." I warned her before shutting the door and heading to the front of the cabin.
"Where are you going?" Jim asked from the chair.
"There is no way in hell I am going to stay here to hear you bitch tomorrow morning about your hang over." I rolled my eyes. "Good luck with all that." I pointed to the room behind him with a smirk.
"Hey… kid," he called as I stepped out the door. Groaning I looked up at the top of the door frame before turning around. "Thanks for … you know… and if you need to stay…" he seemed to struggle to get his words out but I could see the concentration in finding the right ones. "Look I don't want you walking back to town alone."
"Relax big guy." I smiled looking over my shoulder as Steve's BMW pulled up. "I have a ride, but I appreciate the concern." Shutting the door behind me I heard Jim mutter something about teenagers under his breath, but I wasn't about to turn around and ask. Since the events of Hawkins lab Jim has been trying to figure out his role as care giver to both El and I… what he needs to provide for me versus El. Unfortunately, I don't think either of us had been making it easy, but I could see he was trying. On the drive back to my apartment we didn't say much. Steve had mentioned the Dustin hadn't stopped talking about the discovery and what it could mean. Thanking him for the ride I got out and headed inside hoping tonight's sleep would come easier then the last few nights.
It didn't and the morning dragged on. As much as I did not sleep, the effort to get out of bed was exhausting. I should have met the others at the mall two hours ago. Both Dustin and Robin were chomping at the bit to get details on their message and do 'recon' for Russians in the area. Eventually I got myself dressed and locked up slowly walked to the mall. No surprise it was already chaotic when I got there and I had to shove my way between people to get to the ice cream shop.
Robin came bursting out of the shop just as I got there and she grabbed my wrist yanking me with her as she ran. Dustin and Steve were walking back both talking about something they way when we ran past them.
"Whoa!" Steve said scowling as I looked back at him. "Where have you been… where are you going?"
I just shrugged and let Robin direct me to the center of the mall and pull me up onto the garden fixture located in the middle so we were now standing taller then the other patrons.
"You want to tell me what's going on now?" I asked.
"A trip to China sounds nice." Robin said pointing to the sheet of paper in her hands that had the Russian translation on it. "We just got a delivery and the driver had a silver cat on his shirt."
"Okay?" I scowled trying to figure out why she was so excited.
"So… if I am thinking correctly…" She trailed off and started to look around the mall, I tried to follow her gaze but I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be looking for until pointed. "There, 'A trip to China sounds nice, Imperial Panda." I looked at the restaurant on the second floor and saw the Panda finally making the same connection Robin had. Taking the paper from her hand I read the next line.
"If you tread lightly…" I read and we both scanned the stores for something that would make sense. "There." I pointed to Kauffman Shoes, and she smiled nodding.
"When blue and yellow meet in the west…" We both repeated together and then looked up, my eyes fell on the large clock at the front of the mall entrance, and I smiled hitting Robins arm with the back of my hand.
"Holy shit…" I said when she started to laugh to herself. The hands of the clock were blue and yellow. "I think we just cracked it."
"Robin," Steve called as him and Dustin walked up to us looking confused. "What are you doing?"
"We cracked it." Robin answered with a smile and I jumped down from the bench we were standing on.
"Cracked what?" Steve asked looking at me.
"The code genius, we cracked the code." I answered looking back at Robin. Blue and Yellow meeting in the west meant that whatever the code was leading us to wasn't going to happen until after the mall was closed. Which was why I found myself on the roof of the building in the pouring rain watching the Lynx shipping truck deliver boxes to a storage room in the back of the building.
"Whose great idea was this?" I asked. I was soaked, the rain jacket I had borrowed from the ice cream shop did nothing to stop the water as it continued to pour down on us.
"Just look for Imperial Panda and Kaufmann Shoes." Robin said. Rolling my eyes I peered over the edge of the building looking at each of the boxes being wheeled into the room.
"There!" Dustin called pointing, binoculars still up to his eyes. "With the whistling guy, ten o'clock."
"What do you think is in there?" Steve asked wiping water from his eyes.
"Guns, bombs…" Dustin stated.
"Chemical weapons." Robin added.
"Whatever it is, they're armed to the teeth." Dustin said and I looked at the men guarding the storage room doors, guns in hand. I heard Steve mumble 'great' under his breath and I had to agree, the one of the men opened the large door and the room we got our first glimpse into the room.
"What's in there?" Robin asked.
"More of the same boxes it looks like." I answered wiping water from my face.
"Yeah its just more boxes." Dustin confirmed and Steve reached for the binoculars.
"Let me check it out." He said trying to take them from his hand. I ignored them as they argued until the object they were fighting over fell over the edge of the building. Jumped up and reached my hand out extending my abilities to the binoculars before they crashed to the ground. Unfortunately the ruckus had caused enough noise that the guard turned right toward the binoculars and raised his gun. I let them fall with a thud.
"Shit." I cursed as Steve grabbed my arm and pulled me down onto the roof out of sight. With Steve holding one hand I used my free hand to wipe the small trickle of blood coming from my nose before Robin could see. After a look at each other we made the non-verbal decision to make a run for it. We moved quickly towards the exit and continued running until we were out of the rain and in the back hallways of the mall.
"Well, I think we found your Russians." Robin said looking over her shoulder. We waisted no time gathering our stuff and locking up Scoops before high tailing it out of the mall. Once the chaos had died down and we had split with Robin my mind started to run through what had happened. I could feel myself start to panic… Robin might have seen me, seen what I did, would she say anything? Tell anyone?
"Hey." Steve's voice pulled me from my inner turmoil just as he pulled up to my apartment. "I don't think she saw anything." As if reading my mind he shut down my racing thoughts and gave me a soft smile.
"You're probably right." I took a deep breath and nodded. Dustin was asleep in the backseat and I smiled looking over my shoulder at him. "Thanks for the ride." Stepping out of the car I shut the door and started walking towards my front door. I heard another door shut behind me through the rain and then the sound of wet footsteps running up behind me. Turning Steve was running towards me, jacket over his head. "What are you doing?" I asked.
"Crazy Russians, walking you to the door." Steve said, putting his jacket over my head as we walked the few extra steps until we were standing at my door.
"What a gentleman." I laughed.
"Um… yeah." He smiled as we both huddled under the small awning and he put his coat down and shaking out his hair. Looking back at me his smile faltered a little as his eyes went to my lips. My own doing the same, my arm still touching his I looked at where my hand touched his skin just below the sleeve of his uniform, before looking back at him. I was already leaning closer before my brain caught up with me. This time, if he kissed me, I was going to let him, I told myself. Dropping his jacket his now free hand cupped the side of my face as he leaned down. My breath caught, and my heart hammered in my chest as I looked down his nose to his lips as they inched closer.
My eyes slowly closing, I held my breath until a loud honk from a car made us both jump. Looking over, Dustin was sticking his head out the window. My cheeks flushed and I pulled my hand from Steve's arm pulling the sleeve of my shirt over my hands awkwardly.
"Let's go Steve!" Dustin called, his voice cracking through the rain before honking the horn again.
"Stop touching my car!" Steve yelled and I covered my mouth smothering my laugh, and hopefully the red of my cheeks. "I should probably…"
"Yeah." I nodded, finally looking up at him. There was disappointment in his eyes, but he gave me a small smile. "I'll… uh… see you later?"
"Yeah, yeah… um yeah." Steve chuckled awkwardly running a hand, the one that had been on the side of my face, through his wet hair. "See you tomorrow." He put his hand on my arm and gave it a few taps before clearing his throat and running back to his car. I watched as he waived once he got to the driver's side and then went in to my apartment and shut the door, leaning on it I closed my eyes and replayed the scenario again. When I opened my eyes again, I groaned and slid down the door leaning my head against it.
EL POV
I knew what I saw, I knew I saw Billy, and Heather… I know what I saw, but still, there he was eating at the table with the family of the girl I heard screaming. Coming out of the bathroom Max was on her bed holding two magazines.
"Which one?" she asked, holding them up. I looked between the two booklets and scowled. Neither look familiar.
"I don't know." I stated sitting on her bed beside her. I was distracted and looked down at my hands scowling.
"Hey, there's nothing to worry about anymore okay." Max tried to comfort me. She put the books down and scooted closer to me, her arm going around my shoulders.
"It doesn't make sense." I said.
"What doesn't make sense?"
"Heather, the blood, the ice…" I said remembering what I had seen when I searched for Billy, the fear I felt.
"Heather had a fever, so she took a cold bath, but she's better now," Max explained. "That has to be it, I don't know where the blood came from, but we saw her… we both saw her. She's totally fine."
"But what about Billy?" I asked. Something wasn't right. I could feel it when I saw him. There was a darkness.
"What about Billy?" she asked.
"He seemed wrong." I answered.
"Wrong is kind of like his default." She smiled but sighed and squeezed my arm. "Maybe we should tell Roni, I mean she might know something, or know what you're powers showed you."
"Maybe." I nodded. Roni might know what happened, or why Billy was acting weird. Max was right, I should tell her what I saw, and what I felt. If something was happening, I would need her.
"Plus, it's nice to know Billy's not a murder, because that would've totally sucked." Max laughed and I smiled at her nodding. I looked at the two books on the bed and my eyes fell on the woman on the front of one.
"Who… who is that?" I asked.
"See, this is why you can't just hang out with Mike all the time." She smiled and picked up the book and started to explain the story, "This is Wonder Woman Aka Princess Diana. She's from Paradise Island, which is like, this hidden island where there are only women Amazon warriors." After reading the comic and going over Wonder Woman's story we finally turned the lights off. I tried not to toss and turn, I didn't want to wake Max up, but I couldn't stop thinking about Billy and how he looked at me before we left. Eventually I was able to fall asleep, but it was disturbed by a walkie talkie going off loudly.
"Do you copy?" the voice came over the static. "This is a code red! I repeat this is a code red! Max! Do you copy?" I was groggy but aware of Max grumbling beside me as she reached around for the Walkie Talkie.
"Shut Up!" Max said into the device loudly before turning it off and dropping it to the ground before rolling back over in the bed. It wasn't much longer before the phone rang and Max groaned loudly throwing the blankets off and got out of bed.
"You have got to be kidding me!" she stated picking up the phone. "I'm sleeping! Go Away!... What are you talking about?... What?" with her confused one sided conversation I sat up in the bed and watched as she hung the phone up.
"What did they say?" I asked. She didn't say much, but we quickly got dressed and rode to Mikes house. In the basement we all sat around as Will started to explain everything.
"I didn't think it was anything at first." He said, "I mean, I think I just didn't want to believe it. The first time I felt it was at Day of the Dead."
"Power went out that night too." Mike added and I looked between him and Will. I remember the night, it was the first night I had the strange feeling, the dark feeling.
"And then I felt it again at the field near Nelson Farm the next day." Will continued and I watched as he touched the back of his neck like he was reliving the moment. "Then again yesterday outside Castle Byers."
"What does it feel like?" Max asked beside me.
"Its almost like… you know when you drop on a roller coaster?" Will struggled to explain and I scowled. While everyone answered yes, I said no. I had never been on a roller coaster let alone know what one would feel like.
"Its like… everything inside your body is just sinking all at once, but… this is worse. It goes cold and, and you can't breathe." He said. "I've felt it before, whenever he was close."
"Whenever who was close?" Max asked.
"The Mind Flayer." Will stated looking up at us and I felt my heart drop.
"I closed the gate." I said firmly.
"I know but…" Will started to say and paused, looking around. "What if he never left? What if we locked him out here with us?" He suddenly stood quickly and went over to the desk in the corner of the room returning with a paper and pencil in hand. Drawing on the page he started to explain again, "This is him, all of him, but that day on the field a part of him attached itself to me. My mom got it out of me, and Eleven closed the gate, but the part that was still in me… what if it's still in our world… in Hawkins." He put his hand covered in the dark color of the pencil on the other side of the paper and pulled it away leaving a handprint.
"I don't understand." Max shook her head. "The Demodogs died when El closed the gate. If the brain dies, the body dies."
"We can't take any chances." Mike said. "We need to assume the worst… the Mind Flayer is back."
"Yeah and if he is… he'd want to attach himself to someone again." Will nodded in agreement. "A new me."
"A new host." Lucas added and instantly thought back to Billy and how he felt wrong.
"How can you tell if someone is a host?" I asked, meeting Max's eyes. She shook her head but I looked back at Mike and Will. "We need to get Veronica."
RONI'S POV
The arcades business had been decreasing all summer. If we had any customers at all it was in the evening, which is why when the bell above the door jingled ten minutes after I unlocked the door I was surprised, and when I looked up and saw Billy clad in sunglasses and a jacket standing in the door way I was shocked. Billy had kept his distance and I had made sure to keep mine. Rounding the corner of the front desk I crossed my arms as he started to walk towards me.
"This is the last place I would expect you." I said skeptically. He smirked and took off his glasses, he squinted as if the lights hurt his head, and summed it up to a hangover. "Shouldn't you be at the pool."
"Day off." He said simply continuing his advance. As he continued forward I was brought back to the dreams about him and the shadow figure, the dark feeling and suddenly I felt trapped and like the air was getting thicker.
"I think you should go Billy." I said backing up against the desk just as he reached me, and his hands reached out on either side of me trapping me between them.
"Is that really what you want?" he asked, leaning closer to me and I looked up at him. Something was wrong. Reaching my hands up I placed them on his chest hoping to push him away but he seemed content with where he stood and was rooted in place. His face kept leaning further down. If I had been aware of my surroundings I would have seen the person in the window, the one dressed in the sailor uniform watching Billy and me… if I had seen it I would have done something sooner, but I didn't. The truth was at that moment I was terrified, but I didn't push Billy away, instead I waited, waited to see what was wrong with him, waited for him to say or do something. I didn't see the other guy leave, instead I was focused on Billy as his face moved closer to mine.
I didn't see the hand that had once been on the desk move until it was in my hair and pulling my hair so my head fell back and I was staring at the ceiling.
"Billy, let go." I said shocked. "Now!" I said a little more forcefully and my hands that had been on his chest pushed hard and I forced my abilities through them. The telekinetic force pushed back, once his hand was yanked from my hair he flew back into the gaming machine behind him. The machine sparked and tilted before moving back into place. Holding my head, I scowled and watched as Billy laughed standing upright. He moved quickly, quicker than I expected and he took a handful of my shirt tossing me across the arcade.
I slammed into the air hockey game, sliding across the table and on to the ground in a heap. The air was knocked from my lungs as I laid on my back trying to breathe. Groaning I rolled onto all fours and tried to pick myself up but an arm reached down and picked me up by my shirt again only to wrap itself around my neck. Billy sneered up at me as he lifted and walked backwards slamming my back into the wall.
"We want you to join us." he said icily squeezing tighter. "He wants you to join us." I had a flashback to the Byers home when Billy had done the same thing. Airway blocked off I choked trying to pull his hand from me. "It will only hurt for a sec…"
He wasn't able to finish. He was pulled back and tossed into the door of the back office, the door buckling under the pressure and breaking upon impact. I dropped to the ground holding my throat coughing. Through blurry eyes, I looked up to see El standing at the front of the arcade, hand outstretched and nose bleeding. Max and Will were by me in a second helping me up.
"We got to go." Will said looking over his shoulder just as Billy started to pick himself up off the floor.
"El!" I called as I passed her. She was glaring at Billy before dropping her hand and turning to run out the door behind us.
Hope to have the next chapter up soon.
Let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.