◦☆＊★ ━━━━━━ ★＊☆◦
The seats in the trunk weren't the most comfortable, and Sam and Will easily got annoyed about it. That, along with the fact Nancy hadn't turned the radio on, gave Sam a marvelous idea.
To make the time fly faster, Sam and Will decided to perform a duet to "Endless Love" by Lionel Richie and Diana Ross. Since everyone decided to stick them in the back, they decided to sing their hearts out and ignore any complains for them to stop. There were... a lot of complaints for them to stop. Nancy even began driving ten times faster than the speed limit, desperate to end the ride short.
"'CAUSE NO ONE CAN DENY," Sam and Will sang, "THIS LOVE I HAVE INSIDE! AND I'LL GIVE IT ALL TO YOU — MY LOVE!"
"OH, GOD, MAKE IT STOP!"
Once the car had come to a stop before the Holloways' house, everyone besides Sam and Will practically threw themselves out of Nancy's car. Sam and Will shrugged at each other, clueless to where all the hate was coming from, before they exited the trunk as well.
Everyone walked over to the porch, where the red door was placed outside the Holloways' residence. Sam was happy to watch as Nancy rang the doorbell in an attempt to be polite; she shot Max and El pointed looks at that, to which they huffed lightly.
Just like the last time Sam was here, no one answered.
Nancy rang it again, once again not receiving a response.
So, predictably, everyone looked at El.
Sam sighed. This is exactly why she hated the fact she had powers, now, too. Everyone just expectantly turned to El without asking anymore. They just assumed she'd do their dirty bidding for them all, because she would, because she had to. There wasn't really a choice when you could telepathically unlock doors with your brain.
After El unlocked the red door, everyone stepped in, with Nancy and Jonathan taking the lead. The Holloway residence looked exactly the same as Sam remembered it, except this time she felt cold.
Well, actually, Sam did feel cold last time — the foreboding feeling in her chest. But she wasn't talking about that kind of cold this time. (Actually, yes, she was, because Sam could feel that type of cold, too). Their house was literally freezing. Sam wouldn't be surprised if their air conditioning was at the lowest temperature it could possibly reach. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to warm up.
"Tom? Heather?" Nancy called out, shuddering at the freezing air.
Max rubbed her hands up and down her forearms. "Jesus, it's freezing," she commented.
The group traveled further into the house, with Sam making sure to shut the door behind them as everyone else seemed to forget. Nancy led the group into the hallway Sam, Max, and El found the Holloway family portrait. Instead of going left, and heading into the dining room, they turned right, into a second living room.
Rich assholes.
When they got to this living room (because apparently there was fucking two), Jonathan stopped. "Do you guys smell that?" he asked.
Sam took a sniff in the air, and immediately recoiled. Her hand flew up to plug her nose, as it had been overborn by an acidic, pungent scent, vaguely like vinegar. Sam didn't know how she didn't immediately smell it, with how strong the scent actually was.
"That's putrid," Sam muttered, sounding clown-like with her fingers pinching her nose.
Trying to find the source of the smell, Nancy took a few steps towards the kitchen. Immediately, they found the culprit of the stench.
"Oh, god," Nancy keened. "More chemicals."
There, on the kitchen counter, were bottles and cans and liters of opened cleaning supplies. It was all a mess, spilled over the tiled counter, and the kitchen was basically destroyed.
"You think they're guzzling this shit?" Corey asked, holding a can of powdered ammonium. Mike swatted at Corey, forcing him to put it down. The last thing he should be doing is touching chemicals without protective gear. Corey rolled his eyes, albeit fondly, and released his grip on the can.
"Yeah, either that or they just went on a hell of a cleaning spree," snarked Nancy.
"But, last year, Will didn't eat chemicals," said Max, looking at the brunette boy. "Did you?"
Will shook his head. "No. This is something new."
Then, all of a sudden, Sam realized.
"Mr. Clarke! Fifth grade — posit," Sam looked at Mike, Lucas, and Will with bright eyes. "What happens when you mix chemicals together?"
Lucas, Mike, and Will remembered the lesson, then, too. They nodded, and together answered, "You create a new substance."
"What if they're making something?" theorized Sam.
Corey raised a judging eyebrow at Sam. "In themselves?"
"Yeah," Max took Corey's stance, "come on, if you drink this crap, it'll kill you."
"If you're human," Lucas added, presenting them with a new thought.
In Sam's ear, she heard a distant, faint pulsing that no one else seemed to ear. Her head whipped around to the direction her gut was telling her to go. When Sam's friends saw her subconsciously clutch at her chest, they knew to follow her.
Sam walked out of the kitchen and into the dining room she'd been in a couple days prior. Ignoring how much of a mess the eating table was, she followed the rushing feeling to the first living room (remember, they're rich and have two, for some reason). On the carpet, there was an empty bottle of wine. Sam crouched to inspect it, but the wine wasn't what gained her attention in the end.
"Blood," Sam discovered, voice strained.
She looked away from it, up at the group that was following her. Nancy was the first person that caught her eye. She looked as if her mind was running a million miles per minute.
Nancy crouched right next to Sam, eyes on the blood. "Yesterday, Tom had a bandage on his forehead..." She picked up the empty bottle of wine, inspecting it for a few seconds, and noting the red blood stain on the label. "He was attacked."
They began to follow the rest of the blood stains, because, yes, there were more. Nancy brought the group to the garage, where the blood trail thankfully ended. On the middle of the garage floor, there were cords of rope just lying there. Jonathan crouched down and picked it up.
"They must have tied them up," Jonathan realized. "They must've taken them somewhere."
He stood back up, meeting Sam's weary eyes.
"Mrs. Driscoll," Nancy snapped, suddenly remembering. "She kept saying... 'I have to go back.'"
Sam's eyebrows rose. That caught her interest. She wondered, "What if the flaying is taking place somewhere else? There must be a place where this all started, right? A source."
"Somewhere he didn't want me to see," El nodded.
"Sam, you're a genius," Nancy breathed, as if Sam did anything at all. "If we can find the source, then maybe we can stop him. Or, at least stop it from spreading, or doing whatever the hell he's doing with those chemicals."
El asked, "How do we find it?"
Corey straightened up, eyes wide with a genuine thought.
"Mrs. Driscoll," Corey spoke up. "If she wants to go back so badly, why don't we let her?"
Max (and everyone) stared at him, eyes wide. "Wow, Gray," she mused. "I think that's the first time you've had a good idea."
Nancy and Jonathan locked gazes before finally deciding.
"Let's go."
◦☆＊★ ━━━━━━ ★＊☆◦
By the time they reached the hospital where Mrs. Driscoll resided, it was properly night now, and the summer sun was no longer shining brightly over Hawkins.
Sam didn't really know how Nancy planned to smuggle Mrs. Driscoll out of the hospital, unseen by other doctors, but she was trusting the process. All of Sam, Lucas, Max, Corey, El, Mike, Nancy, Will, and Jonathan rushed through the automatic sliding doors.
"That is not mean," the receptionist spoke on the phone, presumably gossiping with a friend on the other line. "That is honest. She won't find out."
Since the receptionist seemed distracted, the nine teenagers tried sneaking past her and straight to Mrs. Driscoll's room. The key word there was tried.
"See, you're the only one who gon' tell me — Woah, woah, woah! Excuse me!" The receptionist held a hand out for the kids to stop walking. They all deflated in defeat. "Where do you think you're going?"
Nancy turned to face the lady, putting on a forced easy-going look. "Oh, um... I was just going to visit my grandma again," she excused. Nancy nodded to the eight teenagers accompanying her. "And — And this... this is my family."
They all waved, painting innocent smiles on their faces. The receptionist, in turn, stared at Lucas with a disbelieving, unconvinced look.
"Extended," Lucas grinned back, like nothing was out of the ordinary.
"I don't care who they are," the lady snapped at Nancy. "You know the rules. Two visitors at a time."
Nancy tried, "Yeah, but—"
"Two!" interrupted the receptionist, with a tone that told Sam she didn't get paid enough to deal with this shit. She huffed, going back to speaking with her friend on the phone. "Girl, this child has lost her mind. She brought a whole zoo in here."
Needless to say, only Nancy and Jonathan would be going to Mrs. Driscoll.
◦☆＊★ ━━━━━━ ★＊☆◦
Sam, Lucas, Max, Corey, El, Mike, and Will were all finding their own ways to combat time while Nancy and Jonathan dealt with Mrs. Driscoll. For Mike and Lucas, that meant attacking the poor vending machine that got suck whilst distributing their snacks; for Corey, that meant sitting on the waiting chair and making fun of them from a distance; for Max, Will, and El, that meant going through magazines while the girls gave Will style advice since "the short shorts really aren't doing it for you."
For Sam, of course, that meant befriending the receptionist because she couldn't restrain herself from hearing all the gossip. Her name was Chantell and Sam was actually having a great time talking with her.
"And then she told me that I needed to 'calm down,'" exclaimed Chantell.
Sam gasped, an incredulous look on her face. "No way!"
"Yes way!"
"That's, like, the one thing you don't say to a woman," Sam said, disappointed in Chantell's nemesis. "For a woman to say that to a woman..."
Chantell shook her head ruefully. "Girl, I know. Why the hell would I calm down after that?"
"Well, she had it coming for saying that," Sam excused Chantell's previous behavior. "What did Monique say?"
Monique was Chantell's friend that she'd been speaking on the phone with earlier.
"She told me to be nicer!" Chantell threw her hands up, not pleased.
Sam gaped, wider. "No way!"
"Yes way!"
Sam continued gossiping with Chantell, no one really bothering to stop her. Deeper in the waiting room, there were other conversations going on.
Or, there was about to be another conversation going on.
Mike sat down next to El, who was now alone and sitting in a waiting chair thanks to Lucas's distracting Max and Will. Corey, who was sitting at the far-end of the waiting chairs, was nodded away by Mike, side-eying El as an explanation.
Corey startled, his heart dropping to the worst-case scenario. He didn't know why he listened, but Corey found himself getting up and giving themself privacy, anyways.
Now that Mike and El were (sort-of) alone, Mike awkwardly muttered, "Hey."
El didn't even turn her way towards Mike. "...Hi," she answered.
"I like the new look, by the way," Mike complimented. "It's cool."
Stiffly, El replied, "Thanks."
Mike sighed, because god was this hard. He had to swallow past the lump in his throat to even gain the courage for speaking up again.
"Okay, look, I need to be honest," Mike admitted, eyes screwed shut tight. El turned to him with wide eyes, having never heard that statement come out of Mike's mouth. Hesitantly, Mike opened his eyes and awkwardly met El's gaze. "I'm not... trying to get back with you, or anything. I meant that."
El, thankfully, didn't seem to upset at the confession. Well, at least Mike thought so. He couldn't really read her expression, which admittedly scared him, but it was better than El throwing him across the room with her powers.
Mike continued, "I just — You deserve an apology. Multiple apologies. So, so many apologies that I don't know how to acknowledge them all, but I'll start with this: I'm sorry, El," he finally managed out. Faintly, Mike thought of a conversation with Sam where he couldn't even say those words to her. If he recalled correctly, I am remorseful over an action I participated in came out his mouth instead.
Maybe Mike was actually developing, finally. God, he really hoped he was.
"I'm sorry for lying. It's the one principle we all take detrimentally serious, and I broke it. You don't... you don't deserve someone like that, okay?" Mike needed El to know that. "I'm already an asshole enough, and then I listened to Lucas, which isn't an excuse, but I just need you to know this is all on me. I didn't lie because of you, or because of Hopper, it's because I'm an idiot..." Mike laughed nervously, feeling as if he was rambling himself into a hole. He wasn't sure if he was making anything better, but at least he was trying to. "And, well, I guess I'd just like to be friends still... when this is all over. I meant that, too."
There were many responses Mike expected El to have. Shouting at him, using her powers on him, sending Max on him. Many, many horrible expectations were running through Mike's mind. However, El met absolutely none of them.
She shocked Mike totally, when all El asked was, "Do you like Corey?"
Mike's eyes widened wildly. He felt his heart beat, faster.
"Huh?!"
"You do, right?" El questioned, casually tilting her head.
Mike stammered, mouth opening and closing shut. Nothing could have prepared Mike for his ex-girlfriend to be asking him if he liked a boy. "That's what you got out of all this?!" he blurted in terrified astonishment.
"So you do!" El smiled smugly, pointing at Mike.
"El," said Mike, in a pleading voice.
How could she be smiling right now? Talking about... that... so openly?
Sensing Mike's terror, El figured she'd stop messing with him. Her smile fell, and you could feel the waiting room grow more serious.
"When... When did it start?" El asked, voice hesitant.
And here they fucking go.
"I'm so sorry," said Mike, voice cracking once.
"I know," El told him, because she did. "Not mad, just... just want to know."
Mike sighed, wincing to himself. There was self-hatred laced in his features that even El (who had no clue how to interpret social cues) could comprehend. This conversation meant a lot to him, she could tell.
"I never — My parents — Or, my dad, I guess, he... doesn't like stuff that stand out. He hates being out of the ordinary, so he taught me to hate it, too, you know? I wanted to be normal." Mike blinked quickly, feeling that empty pit in his stomach grow. "So, I guess I don't really know. But you were gone, and he wasn't, and then we all got older and me and Corey got closer... I don't — I'm sorry, El. Truly, deeply... You can go all ET on me for this, and I'll understand."
He sniffled and wiped his face. He wasn't going to cry about this again. Once was already way too much.
"I won't do that," El shook her head.
Mike's head snapped back at El in surprise. It was human decency, of course, to not go all ET on someone, but there were more hidden depths to it than either of them would let on. It laid down an unspoken message.
"No?" Mike questioned, and for once in his life, he was quiet.
"No," El answered, equally as quiet.
It went silent for a few moments, and Mike couldn't help but stare. El was good; so, unbelievably good, despite all the tragic bad she'd been through. She was kind and loving and, wow, not homophobic.
And Mike loved her.
Just not in the way he was supposed to.
He knew she deserved better than that — more than guilty lies and forced affection. That was all it had been with them the past few months; Mike lying to himself over and over, trying to distract himself from his sinful truth with spontaneous dates, making up an excuse to leave her side on the days he was just too tired to pretend anymore.
"I'm a dick," Mike said, ashamed of it all.
El shrugged, nodding, because he wasn't wrong. "Yeah," she agreed.
"I hurt you both," he continued.
"Yeah."
A beat.
"...Do you hate me?"
Surprisingly, El answered, "No... I couldn't." She nodded to Corey, who was not-so-discreetly trying to spy on their conversation. "And neither does he."
And all Mike had to do was look at Corey, and it made him fill lighter. Happier. He had to tear his gaze away from the brunette boy to look back at El.
Genuinely serious, he asked, "What do I do?"
Mike couldn't fuck this up, this time.
"Don't lie," El responded, only half-way joking.
He laughed softly. "Yeah, learned that the hard way."
The tension was clearly lifted between them, and they felt comfortable enough to smile.
El shrugged at him, said, "If it makes anything better, I like us better as friends, too. I think Sam and Max just helped me realize."
Jokingly, Mike wondered, "So, they weren't dirtying my good name?"
"Well..." El trailed off, joking right back.
Mike nudged El's shoulder, and they both broke off in laughs. He looked over at Corey, and found that Corey was smiling, too. Mike lifted a hand to wave at Corey awkwardly, and he returned the gesture.
Maybe everything would be alright.
Maybe, just maybe, Mike and Corey deserved to be happy.
◦☆＊★ ━━━━━━ ★＊☆◦
Everyone had ended up sitting together in the waiting room chairs that were closest to the receptionist's desk. Well, except for Sam, who was still chatting it up with Chantell.
She nodded at something Sam had just said. Chantell agreed, "Exactly. And I told her, I said, 'ma'am—'"
All of a sudden, the fluorescent lights above began to flicker and buzz. Sam's hand crawled up to her chest, a cold feeling spreading throughout her body.
"Hold on, Ms. Chantell, I'm gonna have to stop you right there," Sam forced a nonchalant laugh. "Just — give me a second, I'll, um... be right back."
Sam turned around to her friends with panicked eyes. Their heads were craned up, staring at the wild lighting above. Will was standing out of his chair before the rest of them.
"Uh, guys," Sam said, voice fearful, "I'm not making that happen this time."
Lucas, Max, Corey, El, and Mike got up with Sam and Will, all alert now. They stood together, like they had back in the sauna, heads focused wildly on the rapidly flickering fluorescent lights.
Will's hand slid up to the back of his neck.
"He's here."
And, well, they didn't waste any time after that startling discovery.
They all began running out of the waiting room as quick as they could, rushing past the reception desk quickly.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Chantell yelled at the kids who sprinted down the hall. "Two at a time!"
"Sorry, Chantell! You're a lovely lady!" Sam called before catching up to the rest. The seven of them booked it towards the first floor elevator, eager to reach Nancy and Jonathan. Mike repeatedly pressed the elevator button, but the group decided it was going to take too long.
"Stairs," Corey pointed at the sign.
They all slipped on the glossy tiled floor as they down the hall. The group burst into the stairwell, desperately running up the steps that seemed to be never-ending.
Sam, for once in her goddamned life, embraced the feeling of her powers, rushing through her body. It was almost like she knew where the Mind Flayer was. She stopped her friends from running further up the stairs, and opened the door to the third level. They continued running down the hallways, turning corners in search of Nancy and Jonathan.
Will had run into Jonathan, who was desperately smashing a fire extinguisher into one particular door. He was trying to break it open as tears ran down his face.
Then it hit Sam that Nancy wasn't with him.
There was a growling roar from the room Jonathan was trying to get into. Sam's heart dropped at the realization that Nancy was being trapped in that room with something bad.
"Move," El said lowly, shoving Jonathan out the way and throwing both of her hands up facing the door.
El used her powers so that the door flew all the way off its hinges, crashing to the ground. The monster in the room whipped around and roared, and Sam felt like she was going to be sick. Her throat got clogged, her stomach did flips, and her eyes were wide. This wasn't the Mind Flayer that Will had drawn in his pictures; this wasn't a shadow monster at all.
It had the exact shape that the shadow monster did, except now the Mind Flayer was a real, tangible thing. Created out of human flesh.
Sam threw up right on the floor.
"Jesus," Max breathed at the sight of it.
"What the fu—" Mike was about to say, but was cut off by El's screams.
El used her powers to slam the creature into the wall as hard as she could, then did the same to the opposite wall, then to the ceiling. Finally, she brought the monster down, but even through all the throwing, the Mind Flayer didn't even seem to be hurt. Screaming, El used both of her hands to throw it out the hospital window and into the parking lot.
"Go!" El shouted, pushing Jonathan to get to Nancy while the rest of the rest of them rushed outside. They all ran down the flight of stairs again, and once they got to the entrance doors, El pushed them open. The cool, fresh air hit Sam's face as they all made it outside. The dim moonlight shone down on her.
El protectively put her arms out, keeping everyone back from the creature that lay on the ground. Sam tried not to throw up for a second time as she watched the flesh monster squelch, turning into some type of ball and roll over to the sewer, leaving a few bones and flesh behind.
Sam, finally, fell over and fainted.
◦☆＊★ ━━━━━━ ★＊☆◦
The group managed themselves back to Hopper's cabin after they made sure Sam was alive and well. She didn't know about the "well" part, but she had only fainted because of how mortifyingly horrendous the Mind Flayer 2.0 was. You had to give it to Sam, she has gotten much better with blood and gore and such.
But a massive spider-shaped monster made out of flesh and bones and dead people?
Sam was going to draw a line there.
They weren't only at Hopper cabin for safety and recuperation and changing their outfits (somehow). Sam was wearing a light indigo tank top, parachute pant-overalls that were striped a series of purples, blues, and yellows — one of the straps were undone to showcase the tank; the sneakers she wore were flat and white, with indigo tube socks tucked under the cuffs of her pants; her hair was sort-of in a half-up half-down hairstyle, but there were two high pigtails instead of one, lower one.
They needed to find the flayed; where they came from, where they went, just something they could form a new plan off of. Right now, El was trying, hard, to find them, but she wasn't having much luck. She'd been in her room, in the void, for about some hours now, without any helpful news.
Sam was getting sort of worried about how long El was in there for, but she trusted the girl, so she wasn't commenting on it. They had bigger things to worry about right now.
In Hopper's kitchen was Sam, Will, Nancy and Jonathan. They were trying locate a possible source while Lucas, Max, Corey, and Mike sat in the living room, impatiently waiting. Sam was pretty sure Max and Mike were fighting, because she heard indistinct arguing in the background while Nancy pushed through her nth phone call.
Sam and Will were sitting on the kitchen stools, the former holding an ice pack to her head from the pain of fainting onto straight-up concrete. Will sent her an inquisitory look, wordlessly asking if she was okay, to which Sam gave him a smile that looked more like a grimace. Jonathan was across of them, separated by the kitchen counter. He was peering down at Hopper's ad book. The three of them watched Nancy expectantly as she held a notepad and pen in one hand and Hopper's yellow home phone to her ear with the other.
"—Uh, yes, from The Hawkins Post!" Nancy spoke to Blackburn's Farm Supply on the line. "I-I called a couple days ago about the — Yes, yes, um... I was just... following up to see if anything else had gone missing, or if — Okay. Um, sorry to bother —"
Nancy stared at the phone, a little offended. With a heavy sigh, she put the phone back up. Another dead end.
Jonathan was scratching off their business's name on the ad book when Nancy walked back over to the trio. She exhaled, then asked, "Who's next?"
"There is no 'next,'" Jonathan answered, setting the pen down and staring at all the blue Xs he'd drawn. "Unless you want to start calling random people's homes."
Nancy threw her notepad onto the counter, shaking her head. "It doesn't make sense."
"What part of any of this makes sense?" shrugged Jonathan.
"There's a pattern, okay?" Nancy exclaimed desperately, voice rising a little. "A consistency to their behavior. They've been feeding on these chemicals since this started, and — and, what, they just stop out of the blue?"
Will tilted his head, thinking. He theorized, "Maybe they have all the chemicals they need? Maybe they've all turned into those... things."
"I don't know," Sam shook her head, setting the ice pack down. "I'm with Nancy on this. What about the source?"
"Thank you, Sam," Nancy nodded at Sam gratefully. "Did the Mind Flayer just suddenly stop infecting people?"
"And how did he infect all those people in the first place?"
"And even if the flayed are monsters now, why can't El find them?"
"And why does the Mind Flayer look so grotesque?" Sam asked, nose scrunching up in disgust. She was met with three, judging looks from Will, Nancy, and Jonathan. "No, do not look at me like that. That is a valid question."
But no one knew the answer to any of Sam or Nancy's questions. Sam hated this feeling of uselessness and uncertainty. They were just as close to solving just one problem as Will was to dropping his stupid bowl-cut. Nowhere near, in other words.
If nothing was figured out soon, the Mind Flayer might find them before they found the Mind Flayer.
As Sam, Will, Nancy, and Jonathan fell quiet, thinking, the arguing that had been going on in the background the entire time was finally heard by the four.
"No, no, no, we did not 'make' her. It was her idea!" Max argued from the living room. "And why are we even talking about this, seriously?"
Corey groaned, "Yeah, who cares?"
"I care!" Lucas shot back.
"We were just joking around!" bickered Max.
Mike snapped, "Would it have been so funny if I was taking a massive shit or something?!"
"You weren't."
"But what if I was?!"
"Then gross!"
"Guys!" Will snapped in the kitchen, getting all four of them to shut up.
Sam was rubbing her face tiredly. "People are dying and you're talking about poo."
Lucas, Max, Corey, and Mike all crept into the kitchen, as if being caught committing a crime.
"We weren't just talking about poo," Mike protested weakly.
"I miss Dustin," frowned Sam.
Suddenly, they heard the bedroom door creak open. El stepped out of her room to greet them with a small frown. There wasn't any blood dripping down her nose, presumably wiped off from the tissue box Sam provided her with.
"What's going on?" El asked, having heard muffled yelling from her room.
Lucas shrugged, because he really didn't know. "Just a family discussion."
Sam snorted, and Lucas brightened up at the sound.
"Oh," El hummed. "I found him, by the way."
◦☆＊★ ━━━━━━ ★＊☆◦
Billy.
That was who El found, by the way.
Now, in the living room, she was trying to find him again. El sat on the ground, blind-fold on, inches away from the television that sounded off static (creds to Sam on that, which she'd accomplished by actually trying to do it this time). Everyone sat around El from behind, taking spots on couches and armchairs and the floor.
El ripped the blindfold from her head, panting.
Judging by El's reaction, Max's brows furrowed in concern. "What's he doing now?"
El looked up at her, breathlessly. She seemed as if she was having trouble breathing, which made a concerned Mike rise.
"I'll go get you water," he announced, walking off into the kitchen.
"Ooh!" cheered Sam, because now Mike left an open spot for her to sit. Sam got off the floor and curled up in Hopper's La-Z-Boy. Her head glanced back towards the kitchen, watching how on edge Mike was right now.
"Billy was... he was just," El tried managing the words out, "he was in his room. He's just sitting on his bed."
Max's face screwed up. "Wha—?"
"Here," Mike came back from the kitchen, handing El a glass of water. "Drink it, please, before you pass out."
Sam, Will, Nancy, Jonathan, and El blinked at him, confused, but Lucas, Max, and Corey didn't seem shocked by his off-putting worry.
"Okay, what are you so worked up about?" asked Sam.
Mike looked at Sam, expectant for her to move out of his spot, but she refused to move an inch. He sighed, and just sat himself down on the arm of apparently-now-Sam's recliner chair.
"What if she does this so much she gets brain damage?" Mike worried.
"Oh, shit..." Lucas gasped. "Is that, like, a real thing?"
Max rolled her eyes. She said, "No, it's not. He made it up. Mike doesn't know what the hell he's talking about."
"Oh, and you do?" snapped Mike.
"No!" Corey quickly interjected himself from next to Nancy. "No. We are not having this discussion again. Neither of you know what the hell you're talking about."
Mike and Max glared at Corey with identical, twin stares.
"Okay, you could've worded it nicer," Sam frowned at Corey, then looked at her two friends, "but he's right. None of us do. Except for El."
El smiled softly at the blonde. "Thanks, Sam."
"And what's even the problem?" Jonathan asked. "She found Billy, didn't she? Brain still perfectly intact?"
"Yeah, why aren't we worried about Billy?" Will intoned. "El just told us he was sitting in his room."
"And that's not normal, right?" Nancy asked Max as El gulped down the last of her water.
Sam could have laughed at the insinuation. Max scoffed.
"Billy? Staying in his room on the Fourth of July? No, that's not normal."
Will processed Max's words from next to her on the couch. He realized, "He wants us to find him."
"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of," Nancy said. "If we go to Billy, then the rest of the flayed know where we are."
Mike shrugged, simply said, "It's a trap, I agree. We'll be ambushed."
"We won't be surprised," Lucas argued the Wheeler siblings. "We'll know that they're coming and we will kick their flayed butts."
He said it so confidently that Sam had to let out a laugh, tilting her chin down to hide her smile.
"You mean El will kick their butts," Corey corrected. "And — well — maybe Sam. But we don't know that, yet."
"Well, that's if my powers don't... short-circuit," Sam snorted. "Get it?"
Everyone groaned at her awful joke, and Sam's proud grin fell sadly from her face.
"Anyways—" Mike continued, "it's too risky."
In agreement with her brother, Nancy added, "Yeah, and it's unnecessary. Killing the flayed won't stop the Mind Flayer. We have to find out where it's spreading from. We have to find the source."
"Billy knows it," El finally spoke up again, breathing stable now. "Billy's been there. To the source."
"Yeah, but—"
"It's a trap. I know," El cut Mike off. "We can't go to Billy, but I think there's another way. A way for me to see where he's been."
Everyone shared confused looks.
"How?" Sam asked, intrigued.
"I've done it once with Mama," El began explaining, and they all listened intently to hear what she had to say. "I found her in the void, and then I looked into her memories. It would be like... going into Billy's head... in my head."
"Oh, yeah," scoffed Mike, arms crossed, "I hate the sound of that completely."
Don't ask Sam why she said it. Don't ask Sam why she was thinking it. She just couldn't handle seeing Mike so stressed for much longer, and a part of her really did agree with him. She was worried about El, too, and she didn't really trust this whole idea El came up with on her own. It was laughably predictable, really, that the two plan-makers were disapproving of a plan they didn't create.
So Sam blurted, "Then I'll go with her."
"What?" Everyone — literally everyone — exclaimed.
Sam shut her eyes, taking a deep breath in and out. She's already said it now, so she couldn't take it back. She wouldn't take it back.
"We're all so worried about El getting hurt," Sam started, tentatively opening her eyes and looking at everyone's bewildered stares, "about this being a trap, so... so I'll go in there with her. To find Billy. I'll make sure she doesn't get hurt."
What were they supposed to say to that? Sam — who had been repressing her powers for fourteen years — was now offering herself up to protect El in the mindscape. It probably seemed bizarre; Sam probably seemed crazy.
Maybe she was?
"Sam—"
"Okay, look, you were right, Mike," it pained Sam to say it, but it was true. "This whole time. There. Fine. I admitted it. I have... powers," she confessed finally, and the tension increased exponentially. "And if — if I do have these abilities, I'm not gonna bullshit around with them. I'm — I'm gonna help people. I'm gonna learn how to use them, and... and I'm going in there with El."
A beat of silence. Everyone staring at Sam.
Then:
"You don't even know how—"
"That's an awful idea—"
"Please, Samantha, say I was right again—"
"Do you have a death wish—?"
"Somebody knock her out and hide her in Hopper's room so she doesn't try anything—"
"Hey!" shouted El, and Corey, Max, Mike, and Will shut up. She held Sam's hand, sending an encouraging smile at her. "I think it's a good idea."
Lucas gaped at El, incredulously. "How?"
"It will be easier to reach Billy with two people," El said, and Sam hadn't known that, so she was glad that her ramblings had stumbled upon being right. "And we've seen Sam. She could be... really powerful. I have faith in her. I'll teach her."
Nancy frowned and wondered, "But do we have time for that?"
"Of course we do," Sam said, winking at Nancy. "I'm a fast learner."
The Party sighed, because, yes. She was. Unfortunately.
"Okay... Okay fine," Jonathan acquiesced against his own will. "If it'll help El find the source faster... If you really believe you can do it, Sam, then... Then fine."
Despite everyone's gaping frowns, Sam was looking at Jonathan with a slightly surprised, deliriously happy expression. Nancy started to laugh. "Try to look like you knew this would work."
"I don't like this."
"Shut up, Lucas, you're ruining the moment," Sam groaned.
Lucas shook his head, doing the opposite. "I seriously don't like this — you're talking about going into Billy's head! The Mind Flayer has it all messed up! This is too dangerous—"
"Shut up, Lucas."
"He could possess you guys or something!" he continued to argue.
"Oh, my god."
Lucas gestured towards Sam like he had valid points, said, "You could get brain damage!"
"That's not a real thing!" asserted Sam in exasperation.
"W-Well, what if he takes El?" Lucas asked. "You're gonna risk that?!"
Sam bickered, "I'm going in there so he won't! Don't try to use my overprotective tendencies against me."
Lucas deflated completely, devastated that Sam wasn't backing down. He pleaded, "Sam, please, this is stupid. Anything could happen to you guys in there—"
"No it can't," El huffed. "He can't hurt us. Not in there."
"We don't know that—"
"Lucas!" Sam exclaimed, staring right into his eyes now. Everyone watching faded away as Sam told him, "I need you to trust me, okay? Can you... Do you?"
Lucas bit back another argument, closing his eyes with a defeated sigh. "Of course I do. Just... Just please don't risk anything. If there's even a chance of any danger, just get out, all right?"
"I'll try not to die too horribly."
"I... literally hate you."
Sam smiled, because, no, he didn't.
She turned to El now, eager grin still painted on her face. She said, "All right, Eleanor. Let's do this thing."
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"Okay, just try to listen to the sounds around you," Mike said, gesturing with his hands. "On what you're hearing. Just focus on the static."
Sam and El were both criss-crossed in front of the television that played only empty static. El had gone over with Sam how to get into the mindscape, and now, the girls were holding hands, trying to accomplish that exact goal.
Mike was being... rather unhelpful.
"Listen to the static," Corey added, trying to help guide Sam in the right direction. To him, 'listen' just seemed like the better word choice. It emphasized the importance of hearing something, rather than focusing on the nothingness.
"Focusing on the static," Mike said, purposely correcting Corey like the insufferable know-it-all that he was.
Corey glanced over at Mike, feeling a little annoyed. Being a nuisance, Corey reiterated, "Listening to the—"
"Guys," Sam pleaded. She wasn't doing any focusing or listening because of them right now.
"Right. Sorry," Corey and Mike muttered together.
Sam couldn't see their expressions, because one of Hopper's ties was tied around her eyes, but she already knew their expressions were stupid. Her eye cover had to be a tie, because El didn't have a second blindfold. Sam didn't really like not being able to see; knowing that everyone was staring at her, and Sam just had to sit there with that knowledge. What if someone came up behind her and beat her with a club? Sam wouldn't know.
She tried to calm down enough to enter this mindscape. Sam relaxed her shoulders, breathing evenly though her nose while El sought Sam out in her mind.
It honestly felt a little disgusting. Sam could mentally feel her consciousness slowly latch onto El's as she tried to connect with El in the void. The air shifted around Sam, and her chest constricted like mad. For a second, Sam feared that she'd run out of air; that her body was closing in on herself.
She wanted out. She didn't want to do this, anymore.
Sam tried throwing the blindfold off, gasping for air. Her eyes flew open and—
And she was surrounded in total darkness.
For a moment, Sam was utterly terrified. She thought she'd gone blind, really, and then that instinctive panic snuck in. A jolt of electricity shot through her body, and Sam's body whipped around when she glowed blue for a moment. As her feet moved in a circle, Sam realized that she was standing in some sort of endless puddle. And now, she was facing El directly.
Sam was in the void.
"Oh, my god," Sam muttered. It took her much too long to realize it, but now she had. She had done it. She was in the void. Not able to hold her excitement, Sam cheered, "First try!"
El smiled at her, proud and fond. "Now we need to f—"
"This is actually so cool," Sam twisted, taking a look around at the dark and empty space. Water splashed up at her feet as she did so. "I mean, terrifying, obviously, but really fucking cool. You really go here every time?"
"Yeah, but—"
Sam squealed, "This. Is. So. Awesome—!"
El rushed over to Sam with wide eyes and clapped a hand over her mouth. Sam instantly recoiled, not having known she was supposed to be quiet in the void.
"Sorry," she mumbled, voice muffled by El's hand.
El shook her head in forgiveness, telling Sam that it was okay. Offering explanation as to why El shut her up, El nodded to her left, which was currently Sam's right. Both girls turned their head in unison, El's hand falling from Sam's face in the process.
There was a light in the distance, but Sam couldn't see what/who it was. Her eyesight had always been dog shit, even with contacts in her aid. So, no, she couldn't see what the source of the light was, but Sam was smart enough to put two and two together.
Billy.
Sam grabbed a hold of El's hand, and the two girls began to walk towards him. The closer they got, Sam could squint and make out the shape of Billy sat on his twin bed. His image grew bigger and bigger until they were standing right before him. Sam squeezed El's hand, harder.
They peered down at the roughed-up, flayed version of Billy. He was coated in sweat and filth because of what (presumably) the Mind Flayer had been putting him up to. Not only that, but there were sections all up and down his body that were covered in electrocuted, charred skin; it was blackened, and all of Sam's doing.
Billy was just staring straight ahead at nothing in particular. In the mindscape, it seemed he was staring into the dark emptiness, but this was a glimpse of Billy in his room. He was just... staring at the wall.
With the hand that Sam wasn't holding, El reached out for Billy's hand. Sam figured El needed to hold it in order to tap into his memories, just like El had needed to hold Sam's to get Sam into the void. Now Billy (or, void-Billy, Sam guessed) was holding El's hand, and El was holding Sam's.
"Billy," El whispered.
Her voice echoed in the mindscape all around. Sam was surrounded by that all-encompassing feeling again. She could hear El's voice in her ears; feel the vibrations in her chest.
"Can you hear me?" continued El. "We want to see. We want to see what happened."
Then Billy's head jolted up suddenly, locking eyes with El. Startling both girls, Billy grasped their forearms in a tight, piercing grip. Sam cried out in pain, but she wasn't scared until El looked scared. This isn't supposed to be happening, Sam realized.
Then she knew to be terrified.
Sam and El both tried escaping, yanking their arms away, but Billy's hold was too fierce. El was begging Billy to stop, to let go, and it reminded Sam of when he choked her during The Sauna Test.
"How can he touch us in here?!"
"I don't know!" El cried, thrashing to be set free.
Sam swore as she fought against Billy, forcing all of her weight down to try and restrict his movements. She was too late to stop Billy from letting one arm free and shoving Sam away with a snarl.
El gasped, reaching out for Sam to stop her from colliding with the water that was already beginning to thrash beneath her feet.
But her back never hit the water.
They both fell and fell and fell.
There were flashes, flashes of memories with that tainted, cold darkness the Mind Flayer caused. Billy in the sauna. Billy in El's mindscape. They were falling and falling and there were more flashes. Billy talking to Heather. Billy in some sort of car wreck.
They were falling and falling and—
And seagulls.
Sam heard seagulls.
Her back hit wet sand the second a wave came crashing over her. Sam choked and spluttered to get the saltwater out of her mouth. She looked to the side to see that El had landed in the same place that Sam did. Both girls looked around to confirm their bewildered suspicions.
They were at a beach.
Sam stumbled to her feet, helping El stand to hers. They looked around in alarm. It really was just a proper beach. There was the ocean, the sand, seagulls, and a tropical breeze that Sam had never felt before.
"—ou okay?" Max's voice echoed from Hopper's cabin and outside of the mindscape. "Guys, are you okay?"
"We're okay," El said softly, still whimpering slightly. Sam realized she was talking to the others.
She heard Will's voice next, "Is Sam braindead, or anything?"
"Not yet," Sam answered, and the whole mindscape thing was really weird. "We're... on a beach. For some reason."
"Okay, I may be dense," Lucas started, thankfully self-aware, "but the last I checked, there weren't any beaches in Hawkins."
"What else do you see?" asked Mike.
Sam squinted towards the silhouette in the distance. She blinked quickly as her vision was suddenly obscured, but then her vision focused in as if she'd never had any eyesight troubles at all. The seagulls flew around her, unphased by her presence; she was a blonde woman in a flowy, dress that served as a bathing suit cover; she held a straw hat, and she was looking off into the distance of the tide.
"A woman," El said as she and Sam took a step closer. "She's... pretty. I think she's... looking at us."
It seemed like the woman was turned towards them as had a beaming smile on her face. She laughed gleefully, waving in their direction before letting out a loud cheer and clapping her hands together.
"Not us," Sam disagreed. "She's not looking at us..."
"Then what's she looking at?"
Sam turned her head behind her when she heard little splashes. Running towards the woman, was a young, little boy, looking happy as ever. He held a surfboard that was ten times too big for him, but the boy didn't seem to care.
You did it! the woman cheered at the boy.
He set down his surfboard and ran towards her ecstatically.
"There's a boy," Sam tried to explain. "He was surfboarding."
Did you see that?! he asked right before the woman curled a hand around his head and pulled him in to kiss his forehead. Sam felt a twinge in her heart as she noted an action Sam's mom used to do for her.
"They're mother and son," Sam worked together.
The mother exclaimed, Yeah, I saw that!
That was at least seven feet! the son cheered proudly.
I don't know what it was, but it almost gave me a heart attack! she laughed.
Hopefully, the boy asked, Ten more minutes?
The woman's smile faltered, expression dimming. She looked back out into the ocean, forcing a smile on her face for her son. She told him,Yeah, okay, ten more minutes — the boy took off for his board immediately — but any longer than that, Dad's gonna be mad, okay?
Okay! responded the son.
The boy, once again, picked up the surfboard that seemed way too huge for him. He had his eyes set on the waves of the ocean with a bright smile. He took one step towards the water, but was stopped by his mom calling out again.
Billy? the mother called, causing Sam and El to look at each other in surprise. Watch out for rip currents, okay?
I know!
"It's Billy," El told the others, and that was when reality really struck for Sam.
Sam didn't understand how this happy, little boy could be Billy; mean, nasty Billy who made the lives of everyone around him utter hell. This was how Sam was when she was younger. A part of her feared, after seeing this little boy's behavior, that Sam would end up like Billy after everything she'd been doing lately. Hurting people, sassing people. Was she just like him?
After a beat, Max realized, "It's California. It's a memory."
Sam and El watched the boy drift out, arms cascading through the water gently. Then the memory ended, and they were left alone on the beach with the wind in their ears.
Sam glanced around, unsure of where to go, and felt herself go cold in her chest.
"I think I see it," El claimed, hand reaching to hold Sam's again. "The source."
And Sam didn't know how she didn't see it immediately. Far away in the distance, but yet still perfectly seen by Sam, there was a larger-than-life storm. Over to the right, there was no California sun. The clouds were black, there were lightning strikes and bounds of thunder commanding attention, and it glowed red in a spot Sam surmised she and El had to go.
"Well, pip-pip-cheerio," Sam did a horrible British accent. "Let's get in there."
El stared back at Sam.
Not the time for joking. Got it.
◦☆＊★ ━━━━━━ ★＊☆◦
The sky grew darker and darker the closer Sam and El got towards the storm. The winds blew heavier. Particles, just like the ones from the Upside Down tunnels, flew around Sam; she had the urge to cover her nose and mouth before she realized this was just Billy's mind. Not real life.
When Sam looked at the storm, lightning striked again, but when it did, the storm lit up in a thunderous red instead of an electric blue. Sam could feel her fingertips sparking, and she looked down at her hands to see electricity buzzing at her fingers for a moment.
She looked to El, said, "We're close."
"Why are your fingers doing that?" El asked the blonde in concern.
Sam shrugged; she curled her hands into fists and put them down at her sides. "I don't know, but it can't mean anything good. Come on."
The two girls continued as the ash-like flurries continued being blown around them. Thunder echoed over their heads, and the whole scene was so bizarre. They were on a beach, where it was supposed to be sunny as day, but this awful Upside Down-like storm was brewing around them.
That's when Sam realized the fact that the storm was around them, and not in the distance anymore. El caught a flake of ash in her hand, seeming to recognize what the particles were as well.
Hey! an angry man shouted, gaining both girls' attention. Billy, stop!
Sam squinted against the clouds of whirling sand and smoke to watch as a young Billy in a baseball unfirm was handled roughly by his father. She remembered Max naming him as Neil.
What the hell is wrong with you? What did we talk about, huh?! You gotta slide!
I know, Billy stammered, definitely crying.
Sam's hand found her B necklace for emotional support. The scene before her, a father angry at his son for not wanting to play baseball, it horribly reminded of her of Corey and Uncle Daniel. She hated the feeling this scene planted in her chest.
What, afraid you're gonna get hurt, is that it?!
N-No!
Well, what then? What?! Did I raise a pussy for a son?!
Young Billy shouted for his father to leave him alone. He wrenched himself out of Neil's harsh grip and began running away. Sam breathed in sharply, and she began running after Billy; El joined her in doing so, desperately.
That's right, run! shouted Neil. Like you always do!
Sam and El ran just like Billy did, although they were doing it in an attempt to catch Billy. As Sam passed Neil, she gave him the evilest look she could mange — she wanted to give him hell for treating his child like that, but she couldn't touch him due to Neil only being a memory. A wretched, horrible memory.
The further Sam ran into the storm, the more lost she grew in the sound of thundering clouds of harsh winds. She could barely see anything due to the dust, clouds, particles, and red and blue lightning.
Where were you last night? came Neils' voice again. Where were you?
Sam and El sprinted, desperate to find the source of the sound. They were properly in the eye of the storm now, all the weather swirling around them. The wind blew in their hair, red and blue lighting lit them up.
I told you I was with Wendy.
Stop lying to me!
Sam could finally see, a few feet in front of her and El, where the voices were coming from. It was a scene of Neil Hargrove berating the same, beautiful woman from the beach. Billy's mother. They were a little away from a dinner table, where little Billy sat.
I'm not lying to you! she fought his harsh grip
You saw him again, didn't you? Neil accused in a dangerous voice. DIDN'T YOU?!
The woman pushed Neil off her as the storm grew wilder.
GET AWAY FROM ME! she yelled right back. Billy's mother grabbed a white ceramic plate from the dinner table and threw it at Neil, smashing it on him. I said GET AWAY!
You — You WHORE!
Billy shot from his seat on the dinner table. He ran towards his father, pushing Neil away from attacking his mom. As she called Billy's father a bastard, Billy shouted for Neil not to hurt her. But Billy was only so young. Neil threw Billy to the side easily. He marched up towards the woman and slapped her with so much ferocity that the smack reverberated in Sam's ears. Tears brewed in her eyes. It was all so horrible.
Their pain pained Sam, making her feel weak in the knees.
I don't understand. Why not?
The sound was coming from a different scene. Sam whipped her head behind her to see Billy sitting against the side of his bed. There was a phone against his ear as he begged into it.
Please, Mom. Don't do this! Please come home.
Sam and El walked closer to this memory, fighting the winds and particles. She could almost make out tear tracks running down Billy's face. It physically pained Sam to see, as if his emotions were latching onto her.
No. How long?! How long?! he sobbed. I miss you!
Then, Sam heard another scene from right behind her.
Get back here!
Sam turned around, hair whipping in the wild winds. She tripped a little, feeling a little weak for some reason. Sam saw that Billy was a pre-teen now. Instead of getting chased by his father, not he was the one chasing around. He had become the bully his father made him out to be.
Billy was on top of someone, and although Sam couldn't see who, she didn't need to. She knew what Billy was doing. He was beating up the poor victim senseless. Punch after punch. Just like what Billy did to Steve.
Get up! Billy sneered. What, are you scared to fight me? You scared?! Get up and fight me, pussy! PUSSY!
Sam whirled around, accidentally stumbling into El as she did so. She pulled herself off of El, who helped stabilize her, as they looked throughout the storm. She didn't want to watch this scene. It wasn't a surprise on how it would play out. She's seen it before with Billy himself and people like Troy Walsh or even Corey, in the past. The horrors of bad parenting were not something she wanted to look at right now. It made her chest constrict.
She shielded away the debris with an arm over her eyes. In the distance, Sam squinted and saw that pre-teen Billy was standing across from Neil. There was a smaller figure under Neil's arm that made Sam walk closer, curious. It took her a bit, her feet feeling like heavy weights against the sand. The girl was a young ginger, and Sam knew the girl instantly, from a photo album she had found in her best friend's room one day.
Billy, come over here, I want you to meet someone. This is your new sister. Her name's Maxine.
Max, the girl corrected, arms crossed over her chest.
Neil nodded at Billy, who looked thoroughly unamused. Shake her hand. I said, shake her hand!
Then—
Who's there?! I said, who's there?!
Sam turned quickly, squinting as a shape in the smoke began to reveal itself. She could see that the storm was settled there for some reason, like the storm was surrounding it.
Or coming from it.
"There — Th-There's the source!"
Sam stepped forward, grabbing El's hand to pull her along. Up above, there wasn't a black sky or a blue sky; no, it was red. Everything around them was just unbelievably red. There was a vacuum of quiet surrounding what looked a lot like Billy's car and some kind of warehouse.
"Brimborn," El said in a voice that let Sam know it wasn't Sam that she was speaking to. El's eyes were trained on the large billboard plastered on the side of the warehouse. "Brimborn Steelworks."
Sam stared at the entire scene before her as she and El waited for a response from the others. The swarming, cold feeling in her chest lingered, and there was a rush towards Sam's head.
Before she knew it, Sam's knees buckled beneath her.
"Sam!" El shot forward, catching Sam before she could fall.
Sam had to lean into El to even stand up properly, and El threw one of Sam's arms over her shoulder. Neither of them realized until now how bad Sam looked — there were dark circles under her eyes, her hair hadn't dried from the sea water, curled up in sweat.
Sam had been so preoccupied watching Billy's memories that she hadn't realized how much she was affected by them. All of that pain, all of that sadness — it physically weakened Sam to watch it all.
"What is it?" El questioned desperately, grip firm on Sam. "What's wrong?!"
Sam panted, trying not to drop to the ground and pull El with her. She tried forming words, attempted, "I don't... think i-it's good.... for me to be here," she wheezed. "Something's wr-wrong."
El shook her head, not understanding. Sam tripped on her own feet, standing, so El had to prop Sam back up against her side. She had an arm around Sam's waist while Sam's was tugged over her shoulder.
"What do you mean, Sam?" came the concerned voice of Lucas.
Shit. Sam groaned.
"I didn't... mean to say th-that out loud," she breathed out miserably.
"Uh... found it!" Jonathan exclaimed. "6522 Cherry Oak Drive!"
"We found it — Guys, we found it! Get out of there!"
Sam huffed weakly. "Don't need to... tell me twice."
"Close your eyes, Sam," El advised, and Sam was coherent enough to hear the note of concern lacing her voice.
Listening to what El said and trusting her completely, Sam let her eyes close. El took a deep breath and began to focus, and then the flashes were playing in fast forward. It was the opposite order they had started in, and they were back in the void falling forwards into Billy's grip once more before the illusion was over.
Sam threw her blindfold off desperately, panting like mad.
"Okay," Sam heaved, still feeling weak. "Never aga... El?"
She took a glance around Hopper's cabin. No one was there.
"Lucas?" Sam asked, taking in the empty cabin frantically. "Max? Corey? Anyone?!"
There was no one here. Not even El. Sam was utterly, completely alone.
Sam stood up in a panic, but she immediately tripped and ended up on her hands and knees. She was still weak.
"No," Sam muttered.
She used the armchair right next to her to pull herself up, entire body shaking as she did so. Sam could barely stand up on her own, but she forced her body to manage, because she couldn't afford weakness right now. Testing her unwilling theory, she pressed a finger to her nostril and pulled it away to reveal a bare, clean hand.
Sam's nose wasn't bleeding.
She was still in the void.
"You're all alone now."
Sam stuttered out a weak breath. She turned around sluggishly, having heard a familiar voice coming from El's move. Sam was too sickly to inspect the room, and even if she wasn't, she was too scared to walk forward anyways.
Walking out of El's room was Billy. Terrified tears welled up in Sam's eyes. Billy wasn't supposed to be here. El promised everyone that she nor Sam could be touched by him in the void — the same void Sam didn't know how to leave. El was supposed to pull Sam out with her. Billy wasn't supposed to be here.
"You shouldn't have looked for me."
His voice was deep, sullen — not his own.
"Because now I see you."
Billy began taking menacing steps towards Sam. For every step he took forward, Sam tried taking one back. She was tripping on her own feet with how sluggish her whole body had become — the void wasn't safe for her, she'd quickly realized. Whatever she was, whatever her powers were, they weren't made to withstand all these additive emotions and memories.
"Now we can all see you."
Sam shook her head, wordlessly trying to manage out a weak plead. Walking backwards, she hit the edge of the the table behind her. She had to use not for support not to fall.
"Eleven... Eleven let us in. And now, you are going to have to let us stay."
Sam blinked, and the tears welling in her eyes began to fall. Billy was backing her through the living room, and Sam had to desperately walk back using all of the furniture for support not to fall. This was terrifying. This wasn't supposed to be happening.
"Don't you see? All this time, we've been building it. We've been building it," Billy paused, a sinister smile on his face, "for you. For you and Eleven, Samantha. You don't even have a clue how important you are to all of this, do you?"
"S-Stop," Sam sobbed, protesting weakly. Her head shook desperately.
"All that work, all that pain, all of it... for the two of you."
Sam gasped in terror as Billy eyed Sam like she was a prize he'd won. She tried stumbling back further, but her back ran into the kitchen counter now. Both of her hands gripped the countertop to stay standing up, eye contact not breaking with Billy as she cried. There were tears brewing in Billy's eyes now.
"And now it's time. Time to end it."
Billy continued walking towards Sam, so she had to leave the support of the countertop and continue sluggishly walking backwards. Her breathing was unstable, tears or fear running down her face.
"And we are going to end you. The both of you. And when you two are gone, we are going to end your friends."
"NO!" Sam sobbed, desperately wishing for it all to stop. "NO!"
"Then we are going to end... everyone."
Billy had Sam properly backed up against the kitchen wall. Sam was so afraid. She was so, so afraid. She couldn't stand all of this inside of her, and she could feel herself getting weaker. Sam was desperate to be done with all of this.
"Get AWAY!" Sam screamed.
Without meaning to, she collected all the lighting and electricity around her. The energy traveled with the sound waves of her voice, going straight for Billy. It shocked him, sending Billy flying backwards all the way out of the kitchen and to the other side of the living room.
Sam threw the blindfold off of her with an ear-piercing, "NO!"
Everyone rushed towards Sam, startled. There was blood pouring out of both her nostrils, and the first person to reach Sam was Lucas. Every electrically-wired thing in Hopper's cabin was going mad as Sam cried.
Sam just fell into Lucas, too disoriented to even process it. Lucas held Sam in his lap, having no clue what's going on, but comforting her anyways. She sobbed, gripping onto Lucas's arm like it was a lifeline.
"Sam, you're okay. It's — It's okay."
But it wasn't okay. Nothing was okay. Not anymore.
You don't even have a clue how important you are to all of this, do you?
◦☆＊★ ━━━━━━ ★＊☆◦
i promised myself all of my chapters would be under 10,000 words but... well, you see i had to this time....
and. well. that happened.
wonder what that was about....
:D
anyways sam randomly collapsing was totally inspired by that scene from the percy jackson series where percy gets hit by the effects of poison. sam is very coded by walker's percy, i guess. you may or may not see more references later on
(did you catch the stiles and isaac teen wolf reference?
also mike and el having a mature conversation! el supporting him! mike still caring SO MUCH about el because they're platonic besties! just what i like to see, folks.
anyways, for reference, THIS is going to be sam's outfit from now and until the battle of starcourt mall (just not goofy-looking, though. cute looking )
should i start attaching the outfits sam is wearing? cus i, personally, think this outfit looks so cute if you blur out that lady's weird facial expressions and the the way she's holding the pants in the first pic.
also! i made more fake tweets! i'm having a lot of fun making and sharing
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what'd you think?