Chapter Sixteen

Dimming Lights

It was like for a moment the nightmare that Piper had been living in alone for the last few days was finally being confirmed. She stared at the looming grandfather clock just waiting for the haunted sounds of its chiming to ring through the old Victorian home. But when she was finally able to peel her green eyes away from the relic, she saw that her friends were staring at it as well. Meaning that she wasn't the only one to see it.

"T-This is what you've been seeing...and hearing?" Max was the first to speak, staring at Piper with deep sympathy and worry. "In your visions"

Piper nodded her head slowly, "Yeah,"

"It's creepy. But it's just a normal old clock," Robin spoke as she moved around Piper and reached up to wipe away the dust, the face of the clock coming into view.

"The answers are here, I can feel it," Piper spoke up, moving to step away from the clock, and instead moving toward the bag Dustin had set down, grabbing a flashlight for myself. "So we need to split up, start looking around and find exactly what that is."

Nancy and Robin split off together and headed up the grand stairs that led to the second floor as Lucas and Max walked further down the hall in the opposite direction of the foyer. Steve rolled his eyes as he followed up the same path, seemingly annoyed to be partnered with Dustin. Billy moved to stand closer to Piper, reaching down to gently take her hand and giving it a slight squeeze. Her green eyes snapped toward him as her focus returned back. It caused Billy's chest to tighten to see how fatigued she was growing the past few days. It was evident with the dark bags beneath her once vibrant eyes—the light he loved to see shining brightly within her emerald iris.

"You ok?" Billy asked, his voice soft. A piece of him feeling stupid for even asking the question.

Piper shrugged, "I'm ok as I can be. I guess...I-I honestly feel numb to this." Billy's frown deepened. "Come on, let's look around on this floor and see if we can find something?"

Piper let go of his hand and moved to step toward the living room that was off to the right of the foyer. The furniture was placed around the room and covered in old sheets and dust. A few of the smaller tables were turned off with the drawers pulled out of them. Debris from outside seemed to have blown into the home over the years, some of the windows busted open and left in disrepair. It saddened Piper to see such a beautiful home left to rot away on the edge of Hawkins.

"What exactly are we to be keeping our eyes open for?" Billy asked as he stepped up beside her.

"I'm not exactly sure, to be honest," Piper moved along the room slowly, using her flashlight to sweep slowly through the room. "But I think it would be sort of obvious when we find it. Vecna is already showing that he's not exactly subtle."

Billy sighed deeply and moved toward the other side of the room.

"I haven't exactly asked how you've been doing," Piper spoke up after a long moment of silence, minus the soft echo of the music playing through the headphones.

"Me? I don't think I should be a concern, babe."

"You weren't exactly given the lightest of treatments last year, Billy," Piper spoke with a frown, turning to face him more. "All this...it can't be exactly easy for you."

Billy stood there for a moment, fidgeting with his flashlight before slowly nodding his head. "I-I...I don't really know what to say, or exactly how to feel...all this coming up again, and it being you, my head's all fucked." Piper slowly walked toward him as he spoke, Billy's face twisting with torture and sadness as he spoke. "Being here, being in Hawkins, is like having him in my head again."

"Billy," Piper whispered softly, reaching a hand out to comfort him. "Why did you say anything? I-I...we could've done something."

"And leave them all to deal with this alone? Nah, I'm not doing that. Not to Max, to our friends."

"You have to take care of yourself too, Billy."

"And I will. But let me worry about that. Ok?" Billy stepped closer and wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling Piper into him and resting his forehead against yours. "You focus on you, and keeping that monster out of your head. Understand me? And when this is all done, we are getting out of here and going back to California. Where we are gonna be happy, get married, have a bunch of kids, and grow old."

The thoughts of a life with Billy brought a smile to her lips, "Wanna marry me, Hargrove?"

Billy laughed lightly through his nose, "Thought that was obvious, doll."

Billy bent down and kissed her lips softly, a small whimper passing through Piper's lips. She hadn't realized till that moment how much she missed Billy, the small moments of affection between the two of them. He gently grabbed her chin as the two of them pulled back, rubbing his thumb against her skin slightly, smiling back as he saw one on her face.

From beyond Billy's shoulder, Piper noticed a soft glow that seemed to be emitting from the corner. Piper moved to get a better look and saw that it was a lamp giving off a soft orange glow. Her eyes widened as she stared toward the anomaly, something that shouldn't be happening in a home without power.

"I-I swear...I'm going to stop asking this eventually...but you see that? Right?" Piper asked, causing Billy to turn around quickly. Instantly he moved to stand in front of her in a protective stance.

The bulb within the lamp brightens and starts to let out a soft hum of whatever electrical force was causing it to brighten. Piper walked around Billy toward the light, almost as if she was hypnotized by the soft glow. Billy moved to reach for her just as it brightened more before going dark.

"What the hell?" Piper spoke softly.

Before Billy could say anything the sound of the soft hum could be heard from the front hallway. Piper moved quickly into the hall before Billy could stop her, with him whispering her name in a harsh tone. She began to move through the front hall as the light seemed to bounce from one light to another.

"Piper! Stop!" Billy called out to her as he stumbled out behind her.

The sound of the commotion drew the rest of the group back down toward the lower level. Billy stepped into the dining room, or what once was, staring up at the chandelier with the lights humming.

"What is going on?" Steve asked, coming around the corner, but stopping short the moment he saw the lights growing brighter before dimming.

"Holy...shit..." Dustin spoke.

"T-That's just like the Christmas lights." Nancy spoke up, causing everyone to turn and look toward her, "Remember, with Will...when he was in the Upside Down, it's how he communicated."

"So this means that Vecna is here?" Max questioned.

"Can he hear us?" Dustin questioned again, looking around the room in a panic like he was waiting for the foreboding "monster" to show themselves.

Everyone's face seemed to shift and change into worry as they all seemed to have to same thought.

"Everyone turn off your lights," Nancy spoke as an idea came to her, "And spread out."

Piper reached down quickly and flicked off the small switch turning off the flashlight in her hands. One by one the others did the same. Without a thought, everyone spread out through the home and waited.

"If the lights are off how are we supposed to see!" Steve shouted as everyone spread out.

"That's sort of the point, dingus," Robin answered back.

Piper giggled slightly as she moved to the second floor with Robin, the two of them moving quickly through the halls as they waited for the glowing light to return. Robin's was the first to light up. The flashlight slowly brightened before dimming and brightening again.

"I got him!" Robin shouted out before the light disappeared. "Or...I did."

"I got him!" Steve shouted from the hallway behind them, causing everyone to move toward the older teen.

Piper and Robin came around the order to see Steve slowly moving down the hall toward another set of stairs that were at the back part of the home. The brightness of his flashlight didn't dim till he got toward the steps. Everyone filtered in from wherever they were in the home and clustered together at the top of the steps that went to the third floor.

"Fuck, lost him," Steve spoke with disappointment as the flashlight dimmed out for a final time.

"Not exactly," Max spoke from the back, moving toward the other set of steps, and pushing open a door.

From beneath the door, Piper was able to see the glow of a light coming from within the room. Her heart seemed to jump up into her throat as she followed the others into the large attic. The hanging bulbs followed the same pattern from the lights below with them brightening and dimming with a pulse that caused the hairs of Piper's neck to stand up.

"Should we be doing this? What if it's a trap!?" Dustin spoke with hesitance as he was the last to step up into the room.

The attic seemed to span across the entire home, the lights drawing them toward the back part. Piper stopped and stood between Billy and Robin as they all stood beneath a light that seemed to stand stagnate as it hummed.

"Guys the flashlights." Max gasped

It wasn't till then that everyone noticed that every single flashlight was shining bright, the electrical hum becoming louder the more they stood there.

"What in the hell is going on?" Billy questioned, feeling just as nervously sick as Piper did. He felt like his heart was within his chest and ready to burst the longer they stood there.

The hum seemed to hit a higher pitch as the glows turned into bright white lights, before one by one they burst. Piper let out a scream and dropped her broken flashlight before stumbling back away. She stood there with widened eyes as the entire room was encased in darkness with only the soft light of the moon coming through the window. Tears welled into her eyes as Piper had a gut feeling, that whatever had just happened, was bad.

"W-We...We need to..." Piper couldn't seem to catch her breath as she tried to speak. "We need to...l-leave..."

"Let's get the hell out of here," Steve spoke, as Billy moved to wrap an arm around his girlfriend and quickly move her down the stair and out of the home.

The moment Piper stepped out into the cool fresh air as they left out of the home, she felt like the nauseous that she was feeling before slowly dissipated.

"Holy shit." Robin panted as she ran out of the home, the door slamming closed behind him. "What the fuck was that?"

"That was Vecna," Piper spoke, her gaze fixated back on the home that seemed to stare down at them.

"So we at least know that the Creel house holds significance to him," Nancy spoke.

"But still don't know much else, Wheeler." Billy snapped "We knew he was in the Upside Down. But how do we stop him!? How do we stop him from killing Piper!?"

Everyone fell silent, looking at one another for the answer. But truthfully no one knew. They all thought coming to the Creel house they would leave with the solution to all their problems. Instead, it felt like they were in the same spot they were left in before. Just as the group stood there in tense silence the high-pitched scream of sirens broke through and caught their attention.

"That sound could only mean one thing..." Robin whispered softly.

The last two times they heard sirens ringing through Hawkins, Vecna had claimed another victim.


AN: Another slight filler chapter, the next is going to be about finding Water Gate and such. I am sorry this story is taking me so long to write, things have just been a lot with life, and finding time to write has been hard. And I don't want to give this story up. Also with season 5 not really coming out so soon, I don't want to finish this and then go with a long pause again.