the worst birthday ever

   . ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

 The distant sounds of fireworks popping and cracking outside Hopper's cabin were almost enough to distract Gabe as he sat clustered around El with the others. There was, apparently, a fair this year, set up by Mayor Kline, who, although he could be a bit corrupt sometimes, knew how to put on a good show. There would be hot dogs and fried dough and a Ferris Wheel and cotton candy and balloon popping games. Gabe had planned it all: after the pool party, he and his friends would make their way here, and their laughs would light up the bright, sparkling night. Because although Gabe knew America wasn't exactly a country to be celebrated—the centuries of slavery definitely weren't anything to be proud of—he could, as he'd done since he was a kid, pretend this was all for him.

Except, obviously, this hadn't happened. And Gabe wasn't one to be selfish and dwell endlessly on it when he had more important tasks at hand and more things to be afraid of—because the world was literally ending—but he had to admit it stung, just a little bit.

Alina had gone outside, claiming she needed some time to think, so it was El that was explaining everything she'd seen. The memories, deep in the crevices of Billy's mind, the source, and, most disturbingly, her interaction with Billy Hargrove.

She'd been alone, which meant that Alina had seen something else, something she didn't seem like she wanted to tell the others, and she'd been terrified. Honestly, they all were, but it seemed like what Alina had seen had been even worse. So outside she went.

El, too, was almost in tears as she continued to explain everything to the group, who were spread out as usual, with Lucas pacing, Max perched on the couch beside El, Will sitting on the arm, et cetera. Gabe was sitting on the floor against a chair, trying to breathe.

"He said he was building something," El said, her voice raspy. "That it was all for me."

"Building something," Max repeated. "Is he talking about the flayed?"

"He must be," said Nancy, leaning against the table by Jonathan. The two of them were both looking ragged, but who wasn't? Even though they hadn't specifically gone into Billy's mind, what they'd seen and done today was enough to dishevel anyone.

"So, he's building an army, just like we thought," said Lucas quietly.

"Yeah, but he's not building this army to spread," mused Mike.

"He's building it to stop Eleven," Will concluded. Nancy and Jonathan looked up at that. Gabe crossed his arms and stretched out his legs, his heart rattling.

"Last year, El closed the gate on him," said Mike. "I have a feeling that really pissed him off."

"Like, royally," added Lucas.

"And the Mind Flayer now knows that she's one of the only things that can stop him. But if she's out of the way—"

"Game over."

"What about Alina?" Max asked, tilting her head. "The Mind Flayer's also probably got something against her. Given that she survived him and everything. Wouldn't it want to kill her, too?"

"Not necessarily," said Jonathan slowly, anxiously glancing towards the door. At everyone's inquisitive looks, he elaborated. "When we were at the hospital, fighting the flayed, Tom... he kept saying that he missed her. He said that she should come home."

"Come home..." Lucas repeated. "You mean, become a part of the Mind Flayer's army again?"

"Exactly," said Gabe. His heart pounded harder. "Her powers would definitely be useful to it. Didn't she say that the Mind Flayer used them to keep the Demodogs alive for a little while longer? So if the Mind Flayer fed on her energy again, and used her powers... the army would be even more unstoppable than it already is."

"So we've got to make sure the Mind Flayer doesn't flay Alina and kill El," said Will.

"Should be simple," Lucas quipped. Everyone shot him a look, because it was not the time.

El decided this was the time to speak up, perhaps because they were getting distracted. "The Mind Flayer also said he was gonna kill all of you."

That made everyone go quiet, their hearts beating like a flock of startled birds. It shouldn't have come as much of a surprise as it was, because of course the Mind Flayer would want to kill them. They were the ants that could be crushed under its boot. They were the annoying flies it longed to swat away. Because as long as they lived, they were always going to fight back. And the Mind Flayer couldn't allow that.

After a moment, Max said, "Yeah, well, that's nice."

Before anyone could say anything else, before they could even attempt to assess the current predicament they were in and how they had an almost zero percent chance of surviving the next twenty-four hours, Nancy rose to her feet. Gabe took a second to wonder why before he heard it. A faint rumbling in the distance.

"Do you guys hear that?" she asked, staring out the window and into the inky darkness.

"It's just the fireworks," said Jonathan. But Gabe was rising to his feet, too, because whatever was in the distance didn't sound like fireworks to him. Not at all.

"Billy..." Nancy whirled around to meet El's gaze. "When he told you this, it was here, in this room?"

El nodded, and with another distant crash, half of the others got up, too. They were beginning to realize that things had gotten from terrible to completely terrible, because if Billy had spoken to El here, it meant that he—or the Mind Flayer—knew where she was. And that meant it could come to her.

"We're so screwed," Gabe muttered, his heart hammering. He grabbed onto his Swiss Army Knife instinctively, although he had absolutely no idea what was going to meet them, and if it would even work against whatever it was. Maybe it'd work against the flayed army, but what if one of those slimy monsters came to them instead?

And that was when Will put a hand to his neck.

"He knows we're here," he announced, his voice trembling. Gabe moved over to him and grabbed his hand.

"Shit," Lucas muttered. And then: "Shit! Alina! We have to warn her! The Mind Flayer's coming for her!"

And that was how everyone burst through the front door to catch their first glimpse of the creature they would fight against and to warn one of the girls who was in the most danger from it. And just before Gabe made his way outside with the others, he managed to whisper six words that accurately summed up this horrible day.

"This is the worst birthday ever."

Alina had been sitting against a tree outside, letting the breeze run its fingers through her hair, considerably gentler than the fierce winds that had assaulted her scalp in Billy's mind. Tear tracks streaked her already dirty face, which was covered in a revolting combination of dirt, mucus, and blood already, and her body shook with silent sobs. She'd wanted to be alone, had even prevented Lucas from coming and sitting out here with her, but as she sat, she wondered if she'd made the wrong decision, because in the silence everything came back to her in one rush.

Heather. Billy. The Mind Flayer. The threat on everyone she'd ever cared about. Her mind was abuzz with it all, and that wasn't even to mention the very real attempt to flay her yet again. She'd felt it happen, felt her memories begin to drain away, but in the nick of time, she'd managed to wrestle her way out of the Mind Flayer's clutches. Which probably really pissed it off, meaning it would come back with a vengeance.

A mosquito landed on her bare leg, and Alina slapped it off irritably, the movement aggravating her ribs. She winced, clutching at them, and made a red flare appear on the tips of her fingers. But that only reminded her of what Heather had said, when she'd attempted to hurt her with them. That doesn't work anymore.

Was that true? Or was it because she wasn't really using her powers? She was in the consciousness, after all, not in real life. But... perhaps the Mind Flayer had come up with a way to combat them. After all, when she'd tried to attack the fleshy monster made of Billy and Tom, her energy hadn't done anything, had it? The thought scared her, because without her powers, Alina didn't know who she was, even though she hadn't had them for most of her life. Perhaps she was just a girl. Not a hero.

But she had to be a hero.

She'd been so stupid taking these past months for granted. She'd woken up every day with the reassurance that the Mind Flayer was gone, that she and her friends were safe. How naïve she'd been. The Mind Flayer wouldn't be killed by a bunch of middle schoolers with gasoline and matches or a punk science experiment. And because of her naivety, everyone was in danger again. Her and El most of all.

And so, as fireworks burst above her head and faint screams echoed from the fair, Alina Fairgrieves-Byers sobbed.

But then... there was a distant sound that made her pause for a moment. It almost sounded like the fireworks, which were, indeed, still exploding in the sky, but it also sounded like footsteps. Heavy footsteps, like a giant's, making its way toward her. Wanting to kill.

Then she felt it. The shiver done her spine, the dropping of her stomach like the world's worst rollercoaster. The hair on the back of her neck stood up, and so did she just as the monster came crashing through the trees.

It was made of the same fleshy ooze the creature in the hospital was made out of, but instead of the insect-like creature that had attacked them, this thing had taken another shape. A larger shape, a shape she remembered seeing in the field last year when Will had gotten possessed. A shape that haunted her dreams and bled under her eyelids when she was awake. A shape that had been drawn multiple times by the boy who had it live inside him, a shape that had once been a shadow.

The Mind Flayer pushed aside trees as easily as if they were mere bowling pins, heading straight towards Alina. For a moment, a desperate, terrible moment, she was paralyzed, unable to move or even breathe as she stared the monster down, convinced that this was it, this was the end, but then she was running, running back towards the cabin, sprinting so furiously fast that she didn't even notice the others until she ran right into them.

The movement sent her sprawling to the ground, jolting her ribs, and a hand grabbed her arm. Alina yelled, convinced it was the Mind Flayer, before looking at it and realizing it was decidedly human. She let it pull her up and raised her gaze, looking into the dark brown eyes of Lucas Sinclair.

"Come on!" he yelled, still grabbing her arm, and they were running, running to the cabin, in a pack of the rest of the party, who had obviously heard the ominous sounds too. Their hearts beat rapidly as they all ran inside, their shrieks loitering in the air and their legs aching from exertion. Alina, tears streaming down her face, promptly staggered to the toilet and threw up everything she'd eaten today, which was, admittedly, not a lot. Another sob choked out of her throat as her heart hammered hard, because this was it. This was the end.

"This is great, just excellent!" Gabe was yelling when she emerged, wiping her mouth. Because they were all going to die. Well, all of them except for Alina. Because she was going to be flayed.

At this point, though? She'd honestly prefer death. But the Mind Flayer didn't like giving people choices.

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

a/n: i don't know why, but i really like the Vibes of this chapter haha. i think it's because the scene where the group was discussing what happened with alina felt so canon to me-- like i could literally picture it happening in the show. i really love writing scenes like that :)

next, we're going into the infamous cabin battle!! aka the moment where lucas sinclair literally saves them all 😌😌 i can't believe people watched that scene and STILL didn't appreciate him like wtf

also, we're literally almost 200 (out of 300) pages into this book, which is so crazy imo. we still have so much to go before we reach the end :')

'till next time!