CHAPTER NINE.
cleaning spree.

—

nineteen comes to as a cold cloth rubs her eyes. she groans out, moving her head away. she blinks and realizes she's in the wheeler basement on their yellow couch. she groans again, hands automatically coming up to her sore throat. she swallows and a pinch moves through her body. hands touch her shoulders, helping her sit up.

she blinks and her friends come into view. they're all sitting around in what looks to be a heated discussion. max picks up the cloth again and moves to continue wiping away the blood on nineteen's face.

"hey." eleven says, moving towards them. she had been sitting at nineteen's feet, holding an ice pack to her head silently. nineteen sniffs, her mouth dropping open in pain. "how are you feeling?" eleven asks worriedly.

"my throat." nineteen gasps. her voice is croaky and gravelly. the others send each other looks as eleven reaches forwards to touch her throat. there's a dark red ring from where billy had choked her. she makes a noise of discomfort as max runs the wash cloth over the marks.

she clears her throat, ignoring the pain. "what's going on?" she asks instead.

"we tried calling hopper, but he didn't pick up, so we're gonna try and find him through eleven." max tells her. nineteen nods, and her eyes find the boys'.

"like i said to do." she states. she looks directly at mike. if they had just listened to her, they could have avoided all of this in the first place.

"we needed to be sure." he replies. his eyes move between her and eleven.

"i was sure." she grits out. "and now look." she gestures to her throat before covering her face with her hands and setting her elbows on her knees. "i'll look for him."

"no," eleven protests, grabbing her arm. "you need to rest. i'm feeling better." she scoots down closer to her sister. "i was waiting for you to wake up." she grabs the bandana off of the table and starts tying it around her eyes.

nineteen sighs and gives eleven space. the short-haired girl sits silently, looking for hopper.

"i found him."

nineteen breathes out in relief. she had been so focused on their own situation, she hadn't thought about anything else.

"where is he?" max asks.

"woods."

"woods?" lucas asks in confusion. nineteen squints. she couldn't get a read on him right now. her eyes were too heavy and her limbs felt like goo.

"he's with... will's mom." eleven says. will looks to the group.

"my-my mom?" he leans forward. so does nineteen.

"what are they doing?" max asks.

"ill... annoy. they're going to ill-annoy."

nineteen jumps as a sudden knocking rings through the basement. "mike! breakfast!"

mike wastes no time. "not now, mom!" he turns back around. "illinois? illinois, like the state?" he then says calmly. "the state of illinois?"

eleven takes off her bandana, staring at him helplessly. "i... ill-annoy."

while the boys begin to decipher what that could mean, max turns to her friends

"let's get you guys washed up, okay?" she says. nineteen nods and follows her and eleven to the bathroom. they shut the door and nineteen hovers over the sink, staring into the mirror.

the marks on her neck are very visible and she touches them with hesitance.

"does it still hurt?" the redhead asks her. nineteen licks her lips. "yes. but... it's more uncomfortable." max nods and turns on the faucet to wet the wash cloth. she reaches up to wipe her face again. "it mostly hurts when i talk."

max chuckles. "well, it's a good thing you're not mike, then." she begins to mimic him, "blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." the two brunettes giggle at that. max smiles. "and you'd be in constant pain."

the rest of the blood comes off quickly as eleven wets another one. max takes it from her and begins to clean around eleven's bloody nose. nineteen lays her head on eleven's shoulder comfortingly.

and then they hear him.

"what are they still doing in there?" mike asks from outside the door.

"i don't know." lucas replies through a mouthful of cereal. "girls just like hanging out in bathrooms."

"why?" mike says more than asks.

"i mean, i don't know." lucas shrugs.

"they're conspiring against me." mike states.

nineteen rolls her eyes so hard it almost hurts.

"that's what you're concerned about right now?" will retorts.

"it's not my main concern. it's just a sub-concern." mike whispers.

"i thought it was already over."

"it's not over, okay? we're just taking a break."

"she said she dumped your ass!" will whispers back. "that doesn't sound like a break."

"it wasn't!"

nineteen looks over at max in surprise. she's staring at the door as if the three boys are right there. she continues. "you guys do realize we can still hear everything you're saying, right?"

the girls giggle and max shakes her head in annoyance.

when they exit, nancy and jonathan are standing in the middle of the room with anxious faces.

-

after explaining everything that had happened to them within the last few days, nancy and jonathan said that they had automatically come to find will.

"it was the same thing, the exact same thing that happened to will last year." nancy says. "and look at this. look at the body temperatures." she picks up a paper out of her bag and lays it in front of them. the temperatures on the sheet were low, not that nineteen or eleven understood it.

"he likes it cold." will says in realization.

"okay, so this crazy old woman who was eating fertilizer-"

"-mrs. driscoll-" nancy corrects.

"right, yeah, mrs. driscoll. what time was this attack?" mike asks.

"last night." nancy replies. 

"right, but what time last night?" he says.

"around 9:00."

"you waited all night to call?" jonathan interrupts. nancy looks to him.

"i was waiting for the doctors to run some tests." she defends.

"you weren't there?" will speaks up, looking at his brother.

"well, i'm here now, arent i?"

"hallelujah!" nancy says. nineteen's eyebrows perk in confusion, but assuming by the look on lucas' face, she just assumes it's sarcasm.

"um, so, wha-what time was your... sauna test?" nancy asks, looking back at the kids.

"around 9:00." they all said in unison.

"well, that proves it. that proves my theory." nancy says.

"she's flayed, just like billy." mike states.

nineteen looks to max, who's rubbing her arms self-consciously. she wishes billy had nothing to do with this. nineteen frowns, setting her hand on top of max's comfortingly. the girl sends her a small smile in return.

"flayed?" jonathan leans forward.

"the mind flayer. he flays people." nineteen shudders at mike's words. "takes over their mind. once they do that, they basically become him."

"if there are two flayed-" lucas starts.

"we have to assume there are more." will finishes.

"heather." eleven gasps. she looks to nineteen. nineteen's eyes widen. heather, of course. that's why eleven saw her when they went to the locker room at the pool. that's why billy was at heather's house.

eleven sits forward. "billy was doing something to her. she was scared. she was screaming. bad screams."

"what's a good scream?" lucas asks confusedly.

"max said-"

max immediately stops her. "doesn't matter."

"i'm sorry, i'm lost. who is heather?" nancy asks.

"she's a lifeguard at the pool." max answers.

"heather holloway?" nancy asks in shock. the kids nod and nancy turns to jonathan, who is already looking at her.

"tom." they both say. 

"okay, get your stuff. we have to go, now." nancy tells them, grabbing her bag and her keys. the kids listen immediately, following them out to the car.

nineteen stops them before they can leave the room, her mind even more cluttered than usual.

"guys, i have something to tell you." she stands up. "when we were at the pool... i heard something."

"what'd you hear?" lucas asks.

"i think it was..." she breathes out shakily. "i think it was the mind flayer." she whispers.

"what do you mean?" will asks, leaning closer to her. she looks at him. his green eyes are tearing into hers with curiosity and nervousness.

"when he was-" she touches her neck. "hurting me... i touched him and his arm started..."

"his veins turned blue. i saw it." lucas confirms.

"what happened after that?" mike asks.

"i heard him speak. it was weird. it wasn't a voice, i just knew what he was saying."

"and what did he say?" mike continues.

"that he was gonna kill me. and then eleven. and then everyone." she nervously says, looking at the short haired girl. eleven places a hand on her arm. "that's all i heard. i can't explain it. it's never happened before."

"well, this changes things. maybe it was trying to flay you through billy?" nancy says.

"not necessarily." will says. he looks between the members of the party. "a mind flayer's natural desire is to compete."

"it believes it's the superior race, right? that's what dustin said last year." nancy mentions.

"right. since you both can obviously compete with it, that must be it. and that's why it was talking to blue. the mind flayer can only communicate telepathically or through a host. you're the only one that can read minds, so when you physically touched billy, you heard him."

"but she touched you last year. nothing happened." jonathan points out.

"yeah, 'cause he was passed out 95% of the time." lucas scoffs. will shifts in embarrassment as a silence takes the room.

jonathan sighs. "we'll figure it out. it's gonna be okay, all right? this doesn't change much, except that we could now possibly communicate with it. okay? everything's gonna be okay." he looks directly at nineteen when he says this, but it's almost like he's trying to convince himself. "just tell us if anything else happens."

nineteen nods and eleven takes her hand, running her thumb over it comfortingly.

nancy clears her throat and jingles her keys.

"let's get out of here."

the group makes their way outside. nancy and jonathan move to the front seats while the three girls automatically make their way to the backseat. lucas and mike both groan. "seriously?" mike says.

"i don't want to sit in the back!" lucas complains.

will throws his hands up. "welcome to my world."

the three of them do it anyway, mike closing the door with a scoff.

"seat belts." nancy reminds them, pinning her hair up. max moves to buckle hers, and then ends up buckling eleven and nineteen's when they just sit there. while nineteen had been in a car before, she had never wore the seat belts because nobody had ever told her to.

nancy quickly reversed out of the driveway, hitting their bikes and toppling them over. without even an apology, she quickly makes her way out of the cul-de-sac.

-

nineteen wasn't sure where they were going, but they make it there fairly quickly with nancy's reckless driving. they pull into the holloway house's driveway and all get out, following behind the two teenagers.

they ring the doorbell once, but no one answers. nancy presses again, but nothing happens. she looks up at jonathan before they both turn to eleven, expectant looks on their faces.

with a quick tilt of her head, eleven unlocks the door.

they enter the empty house quietly. the lights are all off.

"tom?" nancy calls out. "heather?"

"jesus, it's freezing." max comments, rubbing her bare arms. they continue walking through the house.

nancy stops. "do you guys smell that?" she asks. they all stop and sniff around, making faces at the smells. nancy turns around, leading them to the kitchen.

"oh, god," she murmurs upon seeing the broken and leaking cleaning supplies. "more chemicals."

they all walk to the refrigerator that's laying on its side. dripping chemical cans had caused the corner to be partially peeled open. nineteen's nose scrunches up as they get closer to it. jonathan picks up an empty can.

"you think they're guzzling this shit?" he asks his girlfriend.

"yeah, either that or they just went on a hell of a cleaning spree."

"but last year, will didn't eat chemicals, did you?"max says.

"no." he says. "this is something new."

"mr. clarke, fifth grade. posit." mike says, looking at will and lucas. "what happens when you mix chemicals together?"

"you create a new substance." they both say at the same time. nineteen's eyes furrow. she really wants to go to school.

"what if they're making something?" mike says.

"in themselves?" max asks incredulously. "i mean, come on, if you drink this crap, it'll kill you."

"yeah," lucas begins. "if you're human."

nineteen lets out a small breath, looking around the rest of the group. her eyes land on nancy, who is slowly turning away and looking into the next room.

they walk into the dining room, where the food from their last visit still sat. the food was still on the plate and their glasses were still full. nineteen digs her fingernails into her palms. they had been here. they had looked billy right in the eye. they had talked to heather, her mother, and her father. they could have done something. she could have done something. eleven meets nineteen's eyes and shakes her head.

don't think like that. she silently tells the blue-eyed girl. it wasn't your fault. you didn't know. you couldn't have done anything. none of us could.

nineteen drops her gaze. if only.

nancy leads them past the table. a lone wine bottle lays on the carpet with a small red spot to its left. nancy bends down beside it, touching it gingerly. "blood." she states. nineteen looks down, crossing her arms.

"yesterday," nancy starts. "tom had a bandage on his forehead." nineteen sees the image of a bandaged tom flash through nancy's mind. the older girl picks up the wine bottle. there's a small smear of blood on the side.

"he was attacked." she says, looking at jonathan. nancy looks around again, spotting a scuffed carpet in the hallway. she walks towards it, before seeing another splash of blood on the floor.

it continues under the door, which nancy opens hesitantly. the door leads to a small room with another door on the right. she opens that one as well, which leads to the garage.

they file through, looking around the spacious area. a rope lays in the middle that jonathan is fiddling with. "they must have tied them." he stands up. "they must have taken them somewhere."

nineteen's lip quivers at the thought, moving closer behind eleven.

"mrs. driscoll." nancy suddenly says. "she kept saying... 'i have to go back.' what if the flaying, it's taking place somewhere else. there must be a place where all this started, right?" she turns to the party. "a source."

"somewhere he didn't want us to see." eleven says, looking away from nineteen to nancy.

"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." nancy tells them. eleven steps forward.

"how do we find it?"

"mrs. driscoll." will says, looking around as they all turn to him. "if she wants to go back so badly, why don't we let her?"

—

headcanon:
steve found nineteen on mirkwood, the road that the boys found eleven and where will left his bike before disappearing.

THE ST4 TRAILER AHHHH