19.

"ᴵ ˢᵉⁿˢᵉ ᵗʰᵉʳᵉ'ˢ ˢᵒᵐᵉᵗʰⁱⁿᵍ ⁱⁿ ᵗʰᵉ ʷⁱⁿᵈ
ᵗʰᵃᵗ ᶠᵉᵉˡˢ ˡⁱᵏᵉ ᵗʳᵃᵍᵉᵈʸ'ˢ ᵃᵗ ʰᵃⁿᵈ."
—ˢᵃˡˡʸ'ˢ ˢᵒⁿᵍ ᵇʸ ᶜᵃᵗʰᵉʳⁱⁿᵉ ᴼ'ᴴᵃʳᵃ

The tune of 'Rhiannon' played throughout the house, bouncing off the walls in an echo-like effect. Having the day off, Amber dedicated her time to cleaning the house and doing the laundry. Before she had started the cleaning festivities she had tried to ring Hopper but had received no response on the other line. She even went as far as trying to reach his walkie but still received nothing. It had begun to concern her but Steve assured her multiple times before he left that it was probably just Hopper being busy and he would get back to her soon.

Amber was folding the laundry on the couch with the music playing to keep her content. Humming along to the song with a happy smile on her lips. The rain hit the window gently, some cars drove by on occasion, their tires splashing in the puddles in the streets. Her eyes were always drifting to look outside the window as if the rain would stop the next time she looked out.

Loudly, the noise of the doorbell going off made the girl slightly jump. Not having seen anyone in the window or pulling into the driveway, it startled her. She cautiously made her way towards the door, trying to peek through the glass and not seeing anyone. Her hand hovered over the door knob as the hair on her arms began to stand. Quickly pulling her hand away uncertain by the feeling. She grabbed the bat from the other room before she finally opened the door up. Looking around confused at the empty porch void of any person. Her gaze fell onto the mat to see soaked flowers from the rain with a piece of paper attached to it.

Her eyebrows furrowed seeing that the paper which was pulled from a notebook was ripped, only noticing that there was supposed to be more written but it was missing. Not trying to think too much into it, the girl still read over what was there.

I'm sorry for how I treated you.
But please stay away from me.
Yours, Billy

"What the fuck?" Amber let out, more confused than ever. It was the most cryptic thing she had ever read. And the last time she checked, it was her who told him to stay away from her. Plus he was the one who wanted to true and be friends again. The note had left her more angry than anything else. Crumble the paper before stuffing it into the flower bouquet, bringing it inside to toss onto the side table to leave my the door.

Something she had not noticed in that moment when she slammed the front door shut was the figure of Billy Hargrove looming around the corner with rain falling down on him and tears blending with the rain dripping down his face. He was fighting with the voice in his head. The Hargrove boy could feel himself losing the fight against the monster, but he knew he needed to see Amber for just a moment, almost as if it were his way of a goodbye.

The voice boomed throughout his head, demanding control. Seeing the darkness of the upside down surrounding him, Billy shouted throughout the other dimension. Begging to leave the girl alone.

"Billy."

"Billy." The deep voice repeated, the boy turning every which way in order to see who was talking to him.

"We won't harm Amber. She's too important. You're missing the bigger picture. It's just a shame you won't be there to see what I mean." A creature man began to walk towards Billy as he stumbled away. Then the sight of the creature shifted to look exactly like Billy was staring in a mirror before everything went black for him.

Amber stumbled into the kitchen, her eyesight going slightly blurry. She leaned against the counter breathing heavily as she felt a weight drop on her. A tingling sensation began to buzz throughout her hands. Squeezing her eyes shut, feeling her head pound. Silence filled the air almost as if the music disappeared. A familiar roar the girl knew all too well met her ears making her panic before her eyes shot open to see she was still in her kitchen. Something she hadn't known was for a split second her eyes had looked like a fire was set ablaze in them before the flames diminished completely. Amber finally calmed down from her little episode she had right before the landline went off.

"Hello?" Amber asked.

"Amber. Halle and I are close to cracking this code. We could really do with some help down here." Robin rambled on the other line.

"Robin, I don't think I'm coming by today. Something came up." Amber told Robin before she hung up on the girl.

*

"Do you see anything?" Dustin questioned Steve who looked around the mall with binoculars, the two of them hiding behind a plant.

"Uh, I guess I don't totally know what I'm looking for." Steve admitted, continuing to people watch.

"Evil Russians." Dustin casually said.

"Yeah, exactly. I don't know what an evil Russian looks like." Steve told him.

"Tall, blond, not smiling. So basically Amber when she's having a bad day." Dustin informed Steve.

"Amber is not tall." Steve scoffed.

"She is to me. And we're lucky she doesn't wear heels because then she would be the same height as you and then you would have something to complain about."

"Oh, shut up you shit." Steve tried not to pout at the thought.

"Also look for earpieces. Camo, duffel bags, that sort of thing." Dustin added.

"Right, okay, duffel bags." Steve trailed off.

"You gotta be kidding me." Steve let out.

"What?" Dustin asked.

"Anna Jacobi's talking with that meathead Mark Lewinsky."

"If you're not gonna focus, just gimme the binoculars." Dustin said in annoyance.

"Aww, Jesus Christ, whatever happened to standards? I mean, Lewinsky never even came off the bench." Steve rambled.

"Dude, you're the worst spy in history, you know that?" Dustin snatched the binoculars away.

"I don't even get why you're looking at girls in general. You have the perfect one in front of you. Who you basically live with might I add. You're living the dream." Dustin said.

"I know I have Amber. And I love her, I do. It's just lately things have been off. I can't help looking at other people's relationships and wondering if I'm the problem or not. Did I lose my charm or am I just not what she wants anymore? She always clams up when I say 'I love you' and I'm scared that she doesn't love me." Steve stressed.

"Dude. It's Amber. She's in love with you, we can all see it. You constantly are psyching yourself out, but she picked you. Yeah, she was with Billy for a little bit and he was basically her first love, at least I think. Maybe there's a piece of her that is a little scared to completely open her heart up like that. But from what all of us can see, she's in love with you. She could have a part in her that loves Billy despite everything he's done, but she's in love with you. There's a difference." Dustin told him.

"What is that something that taught you at Camp No-nothing?"

"Camp Know Where, actually. And no. It's basic knowledge. It's shit I learned from life. Instead of getting so stressed out over the little things, just have a conversation about it with her. It's better to talk your feelings out. It's like what me and Suzie do." Dustin said.

"Oh, you and Suzie? You mean, "hotter than Phoebe Cates." Yeah, that Suzie. And, uh, let's think about how exactly did you score that beautiful girlfriend? Oh, yeah. With my advice. Because that's how this works, Henderson. I give you the advice, you follow through. Not the other way around, all right, pea-brain?" Steve recalled, annoyed with the younger boy trying to give him advice on what to do with his relationship, even if it might have been good advice, Steve wouldn't admit it.

"Technically, it was Amber that gave me the advice that got me Suzie. Your advice didn't get me very far with anyone." Dustin commented which caused Steve to glare at him before looking back around at their surroundings.

*

"Robin , Halle, you're never going to guess who Dustin thought was an evil russian." Steve began as the two walked back into the ice cream shop.

"You did too." Dustin snapped. Robin and Halle rushed past the two to look around. Repeating the code to themselves, each of them sharing a look of triumph once they realized they had cracked their code inside of a code.

"We make a good team, Buckley." Halle smiled. Robin couldn't help but stutter as she looked at the girl with slight stars in her eyes.

"Uh, yeah. We do, don't we." Robin agreed.

"What are you two doing?" Steve asked while he and Dustin had made their way to stand in front of the two girls.

"We cracked the code." Halle answered him.

"What?" Dustin questioned.

"We cracked the code." Robin repeated with a smile on her face.

The four of them had decided to camp out once the mall closed, to watch when the deliveries were being transported and moved around. After a couple of hours once the lights began to shut off in shops was when their next plan went into motion. The four of the teens all were watching the delivery men in the pouring rain as they moved the boxes around. Dustin had his pair of binoculars to get a better look at everything going on. Rain poured down on all of them, Steve a bit more than the rest since he was the only one without a raincoat.

"Look for imperial panda and kaufman's shoes." Robin instructed them. Steve wiped rain from his eyes, trying to get clearer sight.

"I bet you wish you had a raincoat now, Harrington." Halle chimed in, looking at how miserable he looked. Which probably had to do with the fact he hadn't seen Amber all day and the other obvious fact that he was drenched in rain water.

"Ha ha." Steve let out, unamused by the girl.

"They're with that whistling guy, ten o'clock." Dustin told them of the two store brand boxes he was supposed to be looking for.

"What do you think is in there?" Steve questioned.

"Guns, bombs?" Dustin guessed.

"Chemical weapons?" Robin added.

"Or it's just shoes and food ingredients." Halle shrugged.

"Yeah, because those would require armed guards." Dustin sarcastically let out.

"Hey, you never know. If I had food I loved, I would guard it with a weapon to protect it." Halle said, causing Steve and Dustin to roll their eyes as Robin laughed at the girl.

"Hey, what's in there?" Robin asked once the doors opened and the delivery man wheeled the boxes into the room.

"It's just more boxes." Dustin told her.

"Let me check it out." Steve said, reaching for the binoculars.

"No. I'm still looking." Dustin slapped his hand away. The two began to argue until the binoculars hit the side of the roof causing a loud noise to echo. The armed guards tightened their grips on their guns as they looked around for the source of the sound while the teenagers hid behind the small wall.

Halle had her two hands holding on tightly to the people beside her. The girl's eyes trailed over to see Robin already staring at her, the two girls pulled their hands away from each other a little bit flustered. Halle then turned to see that the other person holding her hand was Steve which she instantly pulled away from.

"Eww. I have Harrington cooties." She quietly exclaimed, trying her best to wipe her hands onto her already wet clothes.

"God, I can't stand you." Steve muttered.

"But your girlfriend can." Halle said with a cheeky smile causing the boy to groan.

"Speaking of Amber. Hopefully she's having a better time than us right now." Steve motioned to all of them drenched in rain, still hiding behind the wall.

*

Amber had paced the house for a few hours after the weird feeling she had gotten. She just wished Steve would come home already or Hopper would pick up but she was still left alone with her thoughts. On top of Billy's ripped up note and flowers and what she felt buzzing inside her, she felt like she was a balloon being filled with water that was eventually going to burst. Nothing was making sense to her and it was driving her crazy the more time she spent alone in the silence.

Amber hadn't even realized where her feet had taken her until she was outside of the Byers house standing in the pouring rain. She felt the uneasiness in her bones before her attention fell onto the woods. Walking around the house out towards where Castle Byers would be on a mission of her own.

Mike and Lucas had just stumbled across Will and the broken Castle Byers that had the little lamp being their main source of light along with the lightning in the sky. Will had turned to them with a scared look on his face.

"Will! Will! What happened?" They called out to him.

"He's back." Will informed them as the two boys looked at each other before back at their friend. But their attention was then drawn to the lamp that began to flicker in the darkness. All of them began to move closer together as they watched the light go out of control until it glowed brightly. A twig snapped causing them to whip their head in the direction of the sound to see Amber standing there out of breath with blood pooling down from her nose. Breathing heavily as the rain dripped from her hair as she looked at the three boys.