CHAPTER SIX.
a split in the void and heather holloway.

yall im gonna be very honest and admit that i didn't even realize how long it had been since i last updated lmao WOW

NOW IM Gonna state this once and for all and then never address it again to save you all from embarrassment. why would nineteen live with steve??? he is a teenage boy. he is working at an ice cream shop in a mall in a small town because he didn't go to college. he fed her leftover pizza when she stayed with him for like three days. It is the same as eleven living with mike. very unrealistic

i just realized that nineteen's outfit above is very similar to elevens lmao oops

—

after leaving billy's room, they quickly grabbed raincoats. max had spare ones so she gave them to the brunette girls. yellow for herself, red for eleven, and blue for nineteen. she said that she just had to give the blue one to nineteen.

then they left to go to the public swimming pool, where billy and heather worked. they weren't riding for long before it began to rain hard. nineteen's bangs started sticking to her forehead and dropped in front of her eyes.

she looks like a shaggy dog.

both nineteen and max look up with wide eyes, nineteen wondering if she just insulted her.

"thats not necessarily mean!" the redhead tells her. "your hair is just naturally wavy so it - yeah, nevermind." max finally decides to just drop the subject.

nineteen shrugs, as she didn't understand what max was talking about anyway. to be honest, she never knows what max is talking about.

they arrive at hawkins public pool, rain pouring over them. nineteen glances at the kids that are running in the rain, wondering why they're giggling.

max leads the girls inside, and over to a stand, where a boy and a girl sit disinterestedly.

"excuse me?" max says, taking off her hood.

"no one in the water until 30 minutes after the last strike." the boy replies monotonously. "and don't try and argue with me. you wanna get electrocuted, go climb a tree."

"yeah, we don't care. we're not here to swim... or get electrocuted." max says. nineteen reaches into her raincoat and pulls out heather's lifeguard fanny pack. "we found this." she says, showing it to them.

"does that belong to anybody here?" max asks, glancing  over the two of them.

the boy looks up. "oh, yeah. that's heather's. i'll get it back to her." he informs them, looking back down at whatever he was reading.

"we could give it back to her." eleven says quickly.

"you could." the boy replies. "'cept she's not here. bailed on me today."

the girls look at each other quickly. heather hadn't come in?

"what is this?" the boy asks. "you girls want a reward or something?"

"no." max says simply. "we're just... good samaritans." she smiles cheekily while eleven and nineteen squint their eyes. samaritan?

the girl behind the counter smiles meanly at max's words, making max shift uncomfortably. nineteen looks at the girl, who shifts her eyes towards her. she looks nineteen up and down before going back to her magazine.

nineteen frowns slightly, looking away when she feels eleven begin to walk away from her and max. she turns, and watches eleven make her way to a billboard. there was a picture of almost all the lifeguards, including heather.

"heather." max points out. "do you think you guys can find her?"

"i can't hear her at all." nineteen replies, not looking away from the picture.

eleven glances back at the boy and the girl, checking to see if they're watching. they're not, too busy giggling over something, so eleven rips the picture off the billboard.

they leave to go to the empty locker room. eleven and nineteen find some spare scuba goggles and duct tape. max turns on all the showers.

while the girls start to wrap up the goggles, nineteen suddenly feels a cold chill go through her body and voices enter her head.

you're ruining our party!

nineteen frowns at will's voice, stopping her movements. eleven doesn't notice, walking over to the other side of the room to get more duct tape.

really? where's dustin right now?

nineteen sets the goggles down beside her, her vision beginning to cloud over.

see? you don't know and you don't even care and obviously he doesn't either and i don't blame him.

nineteen frowns. why was he arguing with mike?

you're destroying everything, and for what? so you can swap spit with some stupid girl?

nineteen feels her heart crack. he called eleven stupid?

she ventures further into his mind, silently hoping that he didn't mean what he said... and she was right. will was just angry, and it was in the moment. el had done nothing to him directly, why would he hate her? she was nineteen's sister and they had never talked anyway. nineteen relaxed a little at the information.

it's not my fault you don't like girls!

nineteen felt herself shudder with a sudden fury, knowing that mike did mean his words.

her anger for the boy stirred his words deeper into nineteen, and she had to close her fists to prevent doing something irrational.

what made mike think he could say something like that? especially to will?

what made michael wheeler think he could say something like that... and get away with it?

nineteen closes her eyes, taking a deep breath in. one thing at a time. she lets out the breath, like joyce taught her months ago. that's the best way to keep calm. she could hear the woman's words. deep breaths, sweetheart.

nineteen opens her eyes. eleven is standing in front of her, staring down in concern.

"you okay?" she asks, setting a hand on her shoulder. nineteen shakes her head.

"mike." she says through gritted teeth.

"oh, great, what's that asshole done now?" max says, walking back into the room. nineteen shakes her head while eleven stares down at nineteen, concerned.

nineteen opens her eyes, looking up at eleven.

"ready?"

the brunettes sit down on the floor, just in case, and get prepared. eleven has the picture of heather on the floor in front of her. nineteen glances down at it, before looking to eleven who already has eyes on her. she nods once, and then they put on the goggles. nineteen finds herself reaching for eleven's hand, who grips back tightly.

the light and noise fade out gradually, and then they're standing in the void.

when nineteen first opens her eyes, she sees a small, white mailbox. nineteen and eleven begin walking towards it.

eleven reaches out towards it, running a hand over it. her hand is wet when she pulls away.

out of her peripheral vision, nineteen sees a red door materialize out of nowhere. her and eleven glance at each other before turning to it.

"what do you see?" max's voice echoes.

"a door." eleven replies. "a red door."

the two of them begin walking to it. nineteen grabs the handle, pushing it open slowly. it makes a creaking noise, causing nineteen to bite her lip.

they're met with a white bathtub.

they step through the doorway, and then everything nineteen sees vanishes.

she whirls around. the door was gone, the bathtub was gone, and so was eleven.

"el?!" she calls out, her feet sloshing in the water.

"blue, what's going on?" she hears max ask, followed by a whispered, "blue?" from el.

"what..." nineteen mumbles, looking around. she stops to take a breath in so that she doesn't start freaking out.

"i can't find..." nineteen says aloud. "i can't find el."

"what do you mean?" max asks.

"i can't see blue." eleven tells her.

"you guys have to focus, okay?" max says. "get back on track. you guys will find each other."

nineteen nods, even though max can't tell and takes another deep breath. they have to focus. they have to find out what's going on. but how did they get separated? how did that even happen?

nineteen closes her eyes, relaxing. focus. find billy. find billy.

nineteen's seen what billy's like, she's seen how dangerous he could be on his own. mix that with the mind flayer? and he could kill all of them.

her eyes slowly open, and she's met with billy himself.

she gasps, stumbling back. he's shaking, tears streaming down his eyes. he's reaching out, his hands are red, covered in dried blood.

"help me, help me." he mutters through sobs. saliva dribbles down his chin.

"it's not me..."

tears fill nineteen's eyes. "billy." she gasps. he bends down slightly, hugging himself.

nineteen shakes her head. she takes a tentative step forward. she tries to slow down her breathing.

he covers his face, his shoulders beginning to rack with sobs.

she takes another step.

"i can help you. you just have to help me first." she informs him.

another step.

she's a few inches away now. his face is completely covered by his hands.

she reaches out slowly to put a hand on his shoulder.

"you have to let me in. i can't hear you, you have to-"

he catches her hand, and when he looks up, his pupils are big.

"found you." his voice is deeper than it was, and he's looking at her menacingly.

she yanks backwards, pushing him away, and falls.

he instantly vanishes, and she falls what feels like a hundred feet, landing on her knees in the water.

nineteen yanks off her bandana. max and eleven are sitting cross-legged in front of her, concerned looks on their faces.

"what happened?!" max asks frantically, wiping the blood off of nineteen's cheeks.

the girl can't even speak, only taking deep breaths to calm herself.

-

after telling max what happened and then talking of what to do, the girls decide to go to the house that had the mailbox with it.

they venture through the pounding rain, until they get to the house. and right in the front yard is the mailbox nineteen and eleven had seen.

"is this it?" max asks. eleven nods, looking back up at the house.

the girls walk up to the house, looking at the red front door.

max stands in the middle of them as eleven unlocks the door. it creaks open slowly. eleven tilts her head back up.

nineteen steps through the doorway first. she could hear thoughts and voices in the dining room, along with a strange silence, except that music played in the background.

they took off their hoods as they walked down the hallway. max noticed photo frames hung up in the hallway, one of heather and her parents with her head on her dad's shoulder.

"this is her house." max states. nineteen can hear heather's parents.

"what?" eleven whispers.

"heather's house." max says again.

there's suddenly a woman's loud laughing, followed by a man's. the girls look to their left, where the noise is coming from. they don't move, until nineteen feels the chill on her neck and moves around them quickly.

"blue!" max whispers harshly as she tip-toes down the hallway.

the three girls walk slowly into the parlor. they're met with billy and heather's parents sitting at the dining table.

"max." billy says, his smile dying.

"we didn't mean to barge in." max says quickly. nineteen narrows her eyes at the father, who leans back in his seat, observing the girls.

"we tried to knock, but... maybe you didn't hear us over the storm." max says.

"i'm sorry." heather's father starts. he looks at the girls in disgust. "who is this dripping all over my living room floor right now?"

nineteen glances to her right at max, who glances at her shoes. eleven's eyes don't stray from billy.

nineteen could hear billy. it made no sense at all.

billy chuckles, straightening up. "i'm sorry. janet, tom, this..." he gestures to the girls. "is my sister, maxine." he gets up to walk over to them.

janet coos. "oh!" a big smile adorns her face. tom doesn't look very amused.

"what on earth are you doing here?" billy crows. "is something wrong?" he asks softly, settling in front of max.

i sure hope nothing is.

nineteen narrows her eyes up at billy. he could be just putting this on for show, for heather's parents, but his thoughts don't betray his actions. this is very unlike billy.

"we just wanted to make sure everything was okay." max tells him.

"okay?" billy repeats, his face becoming concerned. "why wouldn't it be okay?"

before max can reply, eleven interrupts. "where is she?"

billy's eyes move to the girls on either side of max for the first time. his eyes go cold. "i'm sorry. where is who?" he asks.

"well, they're a little burnt, i'm sorry-"

nineteen's head whips over to the voice, heather, who just came through the door to the kitchen. she stops, looking at the three girls. nineteen's head swims, and her mouth drops open.

"heather! this is my sister, maxine." billy introduces. he turns to the girls. "and i'm sorry, i didn't quite catch your names." he says to the brunettes.

"el." eleven coldly states.

and so as to not cause any confusion or throw anything off, nineteen says her real name.

"lydia." she says, throwing in a small, believing smile.

"oh, that was my niece's name!" janet laughs. "it's very pretty." she compliments. nineteen smiles politely, glancing at eleven. eleven narrows her eyes at billy, who ignores her.

"oh, yeah, i've seen you around town with steve harrington, right?" he says. nineteen takes a breath in through her nose before nodding.

"we never did get along well, did we?" he turned to heather's parents with a smile. "just two big guys butting heads, huh?" janet's mom lets out a little chuckle.

nineteen feels herself fume, thinking of last year at the billy's house. if only she had been there.

thunder rumbles overhead as billy turns back to eleven. "now what is it you were saying, el? you were looking for somebody?"

eleven's eyes move from billy's as she opens her mouth. she glances at heather. "i-i saw y-you..." she mumbles.

"your manager!" max interrupts. "at the pool. he said you guys didn't come in to work today, so we got worried."

nineteen watches heather tilt her head as billy leans down a little. "heather wasn't feeling so hot today, so we thought we'd take the day off to nurse her back to health." he excuses. they all look to her. "but you're feeling just fine right now, aren't you, heather?"

"i'm feeling so much better." heather promises. billy looks back to the three girls. nineteen can't believe it, she can't believe any of it. billy was okay?

maybe it was ptsd, like max said, and billy was just the closest person she could blame. he had just been doing something weird that one night at eleven's house.

then why couldn't she hear him? why had she had reason to believe the mind flayer was back?

"do you girls want a cookie?" heather asks, breaking nineteen out of her thoughts. they look at her. honestly, nineteen wants to say yes but she stays rooted to her spot in front of billy. heather holds them out. "they're fresh out of the oven."

heather's thought are genuine, but fuzzy. nineteen deduces it to her being tired, since she was. she was also extremely confused.

thunder rumbles overhead as they decline heather's offer. max then urges them out quickly, billy following along behind them to the door.

they walk outside into the rain and nineteen fights the urge to turn around.

but right when they get to the road, she sneaks a peek, and sees billy standing inside watching them through the pounding rain.

a chill runs down her neck.

—
welp, it looks like will is maybe gonna get a boyfriend or male love interest in season 4 so who knows what will happen to this story lmao

• when mary died, nineteen actually caused a blackout in hawkins because of it. by the time she found steve, though, they got the lights back on.