the monster in the car

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

There had been a pleasant period of time where Gabriel Burton had actually thought he was going to survive for a little longer. Like, at least until he got to Murray's, and that had been an agreeable thought, especially with the addition of the fact that they were going to, for once, have some long-awaited peace and quiet. He had been thinking about how his birthday would be officially over in a couple of hours but maybe there would still be time to do a quick celebration as he slid into the car, which, of course, then didn't start. Now that had definitely jarred him back into reality, and, although it might have just been classic car troubles, panic was beginning to swell up inside of him.

"What's wrong?" Jonathan asked, his eyes widening at the sputtering of the car engine. Nancy clenched her jaw.

"I don't..." she turned the keys again, and Gabe had a glorious half-second of hoping the car would turn on when the engine sputtered yet again. "I don't know," she finished. She tried again, but to no avail. The car simply refused to turn on. "You can't be serious," she cried. "Come on!"

"Didn't your mom just buy this car?" asked Lucas, who was sandwiched between Alina and Max. Gabe and Will were by the windows.

"Yes." Nancy smacked the steering wheel in irritation. "I'm sure it's fine."

Gabe's heart pounded hard. What if the car never started? What if they were trapped at the mall? What if—and this thought chilled him to the core—it wasn't just normal car trouble, but something more sinister? Was it even possible for the Mind Flayer to wreck their car? Or a stray flayed who hadn't turned into a literal pile of slime? Shit, shit, shit. This was already going so wrong, and they hadn't even left the parking lot yet.

Will leaned forward. "Did you leave the lights on?" he suggested.

"No!" yelled Nancy.

"Do we have gas?" Lucas asked.

"Yes!" Lucas flinched slightly at Nancy's scream. Gabe knew she was just upset, and probably terrified, but damn, after all they'd been through, there was no need to yell.

Alina licked her lips nervously. "Um, Jonathan? Nancy?" she asked tentatively. Everyone looked at her, and she swallowed. "Didn't you, um, say that last year, when you were going to meet Barb's parents, that your car didn't... didn't start? Because the scientists did some shit to it, you know? I really don't want this to be true, but what if it's the same here?"

Jonathan paled, which was something Gabe did not want to see right now. Even worse was when he said, "She's right. Pop the hood."

Jonathan slid out of the car, followed by Nancy and Gabe, who was too antsy to sit in the car. His palms were sweaty, and the beef jerky and hot dog on a stick from earlier was threatening to come up. He swallowed the bile down, though, because he didn't want to throw up. Again.

Jonathan popped the hood of the car, blanched, and immediately swore. "What the hell?"

"What?" asked Nancy, as she and Gabe joined him at the front, where he was rifling through the cables and wires that made the car go. His voice rose in panic when he spoke next, which made Gabe really want to throw up.

"The ignition cable's gone."

Gabe's face drained of blood, and there was a sort of roaring in his ears. The ignition cable was gone. Stolen. It had been ripped out of the car, which meant—

He licked his lips, which felt as dry as sandpaper. The late-night summer air was pleasant against his face, a stark contrast from everything that was going on at the present moment. When he finally drew breath, he confirmed it for the two older teenagers. "Alina was right," he choked. "Someone's keeping us from leaving. Someone knows that we're here."

"What's going on?" Alina slid out of the car and headed up to beside Gabe. "Why aren't we moving?"

"The ignition cable—" his voice caught. "The ignition cable is gone. Someone took it."

And that was when, as if on cue, there was a roaring of a distant engine from somewhere in the parking lot. Everyone jumped, whirling around, and Gabe found a lone car sitting in front of the parking lot, headlights blinking on. He could just make out a cracked windshield and the license plate, which told him all he needed to know. That this was Billy Hargrove's car. He'd found them. So he was the lucky one that hadn't been turned into slime. Of course. Because if there was anybody Gabe was completely and utterly terrified of, it was Billy the Racist Hargrove. And Billy the Possessed Hargrove made the terror levels double.

Nancy and Jonathan immediately ran to the car, where the others were still sitting. Slamming her palms against the glass, she yelled, "Back in the mall! Back in the mall! Go! Go, go, go! Alina, Gabe, come on!"

For the two of them had just been staring at the car in the distance. Gabe blinked, took his friend's hand, and then the two of them were running wildly inside, their hearts in their throats. "Why did I have to be right?" Alina was screaming, and Gabe considered joining her, but it was like his lips were sealed closed. He couldn't say anything. Could barely breathe. He could see Billy's face in his mind's eye, with black veins crawling over his body and a snarl tearing loose from his throat. He could see the malice glittering in his eyes as he smacked Gabe so hard he went flying.

He could see his face, leering at him, because even though he wasn't Mind Flayer Target Number One, he was still a Mind Flayer Target, which pretty terrifying. He could see Billy's mouth curling into a snarl, and a hiss spilling loose from his lips. That's right, he murmured. Run. I will always find you. I will always find your friends. No matter where you go.

The Mind Flayer was always one step ahead of the game.

Gabe spilled into the mall and had to put his head between his knees. God damn it. They were no longer safe. They were no longer secure.

He didn't think they would ever be safe at this point.

Mike Wheeler paced around the mall, walkie-talkie to his lips, trying desperately to contact Dustin's group, or the Scoops Troop, as they'd dubbed them. There was no answer—they probably hadn't arrived at the hill yet—but Mike was nothing if not persistent. Lucas practiced his aim with his wrist rocket while El watched, and Nancy pried a gun out of a Russian Soldier's hands. Gabe, Max and Will watched her do this, all three of them trying not to portray how sick they felt. But for Max, there was another problem at hand.

"You're gonna kill him, aren't you?" she asked the older girl, who was currently loading her brand-new gun. Nancy looked up at her.

"This is just a precaution, okay?"

"And not just against Billy," said Will. "If he knows we're here, so does the Mind Flayer."

"Sorry if I sound a bit dense, but why do you care so much about Billy, Max?" Gabe asked, his voice rising with every word. "I was under the impression that you kind of hated his guts."

"I do!" Max threw up her hands. "I really do. He's an asshole and I hate him, but..." she squeezed her eyes shut. "Sorry. I'm thinking about what Alina told me back at the pool. About her mom—Linda, I mean. She said something about how she loved her deep down, and, even though she hurt her, was always trying to please her. I... I guess that's what I feel about Billy."

Gabe swallowed. He hadn't thought about that.

Meanwhile, Alina was pacing around the mall, increasingly panicked as she watched her boyfriend. She was also reviving an old habit of hers, and chewing her nails like there was no tomorrow, because, to be honest, there might not be. They were literally trapped in Starcourt Mall, and everything she'd been thinking had come true. They were screwed.

Eventually, she threw her arms up, coming to a hasty decision. "I have to go out there," she told El, who was holding onto one of the tables in order to keep on her feet. "The Mind Flayer doesn't want to kill me. So I can lure Billy away from the mall, and he'll chase me because he wants me flayed, and you guys can all escape."

Lucas set down his wrist rocket. "Are you crazy? No way! You'll get flayed, Al. Who knows how close the actual Mind Flayer is? I'm sorry, but I don't think you can fight against that son of a bitch alone."

Alina curled her hands into fists, but to be honest, she knew Lucas was right. Billy might follow her, but what if the actual Mind Flayer didn't? What if it came to the mall? And her friends needed her to help protect them, and she couldn't do that if she was blundering around in the parking lot, sending up red flares to keep Billy away. But she was panicked, and her panic was causing her not to think straight, because they were so screwed.

"You're right," she said eventually, sitting at the booth across from Lucas. "You're right. I just—" she closed her eyes. "Goddamn it, for once, I actually sort of thought we might've been safe."

Lucas reached out, grabbing her hand. He was chewing his lip. "Yeah," he said. "Me too. But I guess Danger is all of our middle names, now."

Alina managed a watery chuckle. "Alina Elizabeth Danger Fairgrieves-Byers. It's kind of long, and quite the mouthful, but I'll take it."

"Your middle name, like, your actual one, is Elizabeth?"

"Yeah, it's kind of basic. But that isn't the point."

"Right." Lucas cleared his throat. "Well, we've fought the Mind Flayer before, and won. We've fought Billy before, and won. I promise, Al, everything is going to be fine, okay? El can kick Billy's ass—"

"I can, too!"

"And," Lucas finished, "you can shoot him with your lasers. And if the actual Mind Flayer comes, we can totally beat the shit out of it with fireworks. We've got this in the bag."

Alina tapped her fingers on the table. "Lucas?"

"Yeah?"

"You're really not helping."

"Well, I've never been that good at this." He swallowed. "Sorry."

Alina managed another laugh. It had a bit more oomph than the first one. "It's okay," she said. And then she pressed her lips against his.

It was a quick kiss, a hasty peck on the lips that made them both crave more, but, if they managed to survive through all of this shit, there would be plenty of time for better kisses later. It was a kiss that, weirdly, reminded Alina of their first, all the way back in Hawkins Middle, outside the cafeteria. They were so young back then. Not innocent, because even then, they'd had heavy weights over their shoulders. But there was still something to be missed about that sweet kiss of chocolate pudding right before everything had gone to hell. The grace period just before El sacrificed herself and Brandon Fairgrieves had his chest raked with those brutal claws.

And wasn't that what she was fighting for? Another grace period, but one to stretch across a span of years, if not forever? Wasn't she fighting for not only a chance to live again, but a chance to avenge all of those who had been lost? Sure, the original Demogorgon was dead, ripped apart by the force of El's powerful mind. And sure, the Demodogs had all perished at that final seal of the gate. But it was the Mind Flayer who had been behind all of it. It was the Mind Flayer who controlled them, controlled Will, controlled Alina. It was the Mind Flayer who had taken all of those lives, taken their innocent, chewed it up and spit it out into a glob nobody could sift through. It was the Mind Flayer who had contaminated Heather, Janet, Mrs. Driscoll, even the assholes from Hawkins Post. It was the Mind Flayer who was making it so that families lost brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, friends.

It was the Mind Flayer who had threatened her, and now Alina Fairgrieves-Byers was going to fight back. And as she finally broke off from the kiss with Lucas, she thought back, way back, to El's lessons in the woods. Anger. She needed anger. Anger was what had helped her beat Tom, and anger was what would help her beat the Mind Flayer.

And luckily for her, she had plenty of it.

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

a/n: alina stop trying to sacrifice yourself for one minute challenge

also, it's the way we're only ten chapters away from the epilogue 😳 i mean, i know that sounds like a lot, but it's going to go by super quickly!! i'm legit going to cry when this ends omg i love this book so much

(fortunately, i already have a one-shot to post-- be ready for that!!)

'till next time!