don't be afraid

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

"Holy shit, I can't believe we're really doing this," said Max, scribbling the last name on yellow construction paper. She arranged it on the red board they'd set up on the bed, which already had a list of names of people in Hawkins they knew. In the middle was an empty Coca-Cola bottle, and Alina, slightly amused, thought that if someone was to burst into the room, they would've thought they were playing the popular sleepover game Spin the Bottle. Except, this was different, because whatever name the bottle landed on would not be kissed, rather, it would be the person that Alina and El would find themselves spying on.

It had taken a little bit of coaxing from El to finally make Alina agree. She was still overall hesitant about this whole idea, but she figured it would do no harm to take a quick peek. It was almost thrilling, the idea, which is why she'd agreed. And maybe it was also because she needed practice. To harness the strange ability she'd used accidentally before.

She crossed her legs, then uncrossed them again. She wanted to get comfortable before she plunged into the whole mind-void thing, even though she wouldn't really be here. Her body in El's room would lay dormant, and a new one would awaken there. And, for the first time, she wouldn't be alone.

According to El, it was possible for them to travel together. They first had to have some kind of contact—to this they chose holding hands—and they both had to be thinking about the same person. It sounded easy when she said it like that, but Alina was doubting her own abilities. What if something went wrong? What if the two of them were separated? It was almost frightening to think about.

"Ready?" Max asked them now. El immediately nodded, but Alina was still a little bit hesitant. Max seemed to sense this, however, as she leaned forward, putting an arm around her. "You're going to be fine," she said, rubbing her shoulders. "You're not going to be alone in there. And you don't have to stay long, either."

"Okay." Alina sucked in a deep breath. "I'm ready. El, spin."

El spun the bottle, and it flew over the seven names they'd written down—Billy, Dustin, Mr. Clarke, Steve, Nancy, and Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler—before landing on Mike's father's name. Max let out a sigh at that, and three of them read it out together unenthusiastically.

"Ugh. Boring," groaned Max, and Alina stretched out her legs. She had to agree—Mr. Wheeler was definitely not a person she wanted to spy on. He was an average, somewhat lazy father, who, according to Mike, spent more time sleeping and watching TV than he did with his wife. She'd probably end up watching him snooze on the couch, and that would be it.

"Yeah, boring," said El.

"Spin again," instructed Max, a grin on her face. El made to, but at the last moment, she hesitated.

"Against the rules?"

Max shrugged. "We make our own rules. Hey," she turned to Alina, "Al, why don't you spin?"

"Yeah, okay." Alina spun, watching the bottle fly over the list of names, before landing on one that immediately made her chest clench. Even though Billy hadn't bothered them since Max had threatened him last year, Alina would never forget the hatred plastered on his face as he looked her, Gabe, and Lucas down, the terror that had seized her when he'd slammed Lucas against the cabinet, the gasping pain as the wind had been knocked out of her. She wouldn't forget how he'd pounded Steve to a pulp, and looked like he enjoyed it, and how he'd almost run the party down with his car. She couldn't forget how much he'd terrorized them.

So she wasn't exactly jumping for joy at the sight of voluntarily seeing him, even if he couldn't see her.

Still, she had to be brave. So she just set her jaw and watched Max slide off the bed to get the radio and the blindfolds. "Okay, look," she began, "I should just warn you two, if he's with a girl or doing something gross, just get out of there right away before you're scarred for life."

"Max—" started El.

"No, I'm just saying, I'm serious. He's really gross!"

"Max!"

Max looked up from fiddling with the radio. "Okay, shutting up now."

"Don't worry," Alina soothed. "I'll be the first to run if I see Billy doing anything weird."

The radio fizzled to static, and Alina raised her arms and tied the blindfold around her head, plunging her world into darkness. From beside her, she heard El tying her own on, and tilted her head, her other senses attempting to compensate for the one she'd lost. Taking a couple of deep breaths, Alina prepared herself. And then El spoke.

"Take my hand," she said, and Alina felt a tap on her thigh. Squeezing her eyes shut, even though she was already immersed in black, Alina felt for El's hand, and grabbed it. The touch was comforting, as it had always been, and Alina's heart rate slowed down a little. El continued, "Concentrate. Not on your energy, but on Billy. Picture his face in your mind. Got it?"

Alina nodded, then remembered El couldn't see her. "Uh-huh." And then she put her energy out of her mind. Let the sparks forming at her palms sizzle into nothingness. And then she pictured Billy's face. Let it rise to her mind's eye—his mullet, the cigarette dangling casually out of his lips, the cruelty in his eyes. Billy, she thought to herself. Billy, Billy, Billy. And then his face bloomed to life, and Alina opened her eyes.

This time, though, she didn't see the darkness of her blindfold. This time, she saw the expansive watery darkness of the void, spreading across infinitely in all directions. And El was standing right beside her, wearing the same outfit she had been in the real world, her blindfold gone. Alina looked at her bare toes and watched the water ripple. Excitement was trickling through her now.

"I did it," she said, and immediately she knew she'd said it out loud—it seemed to echo, slightly. The effect was unnerving, but what was even more unnerving was Max's immediate response.

"Good job, Al." And because there was no Max here, her voice seemed to come from everywhere. It was both right in Alina's ear and miles and miles away. It came from the watery surface at Alina's feet and from the expansive distance of inky black when she looked up. And it echoed, multiple times, like a stone skipping across a river. Alina took a frightened step back, and El took her arm.

"It's okay," she said. "Just relax."

"This is so bizarre," Alina noted, sloshing some of the water at her feet. Then she heard it. The slow idling of a car engine.

"Look," said El, and Alina turned, finding the source of the noise. The headlights of the vehicle bathed the two girls in light, and the license plate said PCE 235. It was Billy's car. Alina had seen his car before. But there was something unbelievably ominous about it being there in the void with them, the headlights on, and Alina almost took another step back. Her bravery seemed to have completely dissipated once she'd opened her eyes in here.

Alina grabbed El's hand—they were still connected in the real world, but in here, they had been split apart—and was pleased when the girl didn't immediately dissipate through her fingers. She supposed that it had been different, in the dream. They hadn't really been together.

Then they walked towards the car. After only a few steps, Alina knew there was something wrong. There was a crack on the windshield, a spiderweb of glass spanning from whatever had broken it, and the car itself was smoking slightly. As El peered through the window, looking for any sign of the boy they were supposed to find, Alina wondered if Billy had gotten into a car accident. Her heart pounded hard in her chest. She wasn't liking this much.

Her hands itched to remove her blindfold (she had two sets of arms now—the ones that rested beside her in the real world, and the ones she had here) but she resisted the urge. She was going to stay, and she was going to go through with this. She was brave, after all. She was Alina Fairgrieves-Byers.

She peered into the car window as well, just in case, but only saw leather seats and cigarette butts. El tugged her along, and they were just reaching the back of the car when they heard the whimpering. It sounded almost like someone had been gagged, and Alina desperately hoped that she and El weren't going to walk into some kinky shit that Billy was doing.

The moans got louder, more frightening, and Alina jumped. El kept a tight hold on her hand. "It's okay," she soothed. "I'm right here."

Alina nodded, unable to speak, and sucked in a couple of deep breaths. El waited patiently, and then, when Alina was ready, the two of them set off again. It only took a couple seconds, however, before Alina spotted him—the figure of Billy, fully-clothed, thank God, crouched over someone they couldn't see. The whimpers continued.

"We found him," said El, and this time Alina was prepared for the slight echo that spread through the void.

"What's he doing?" Max asked.

"I don't know," said El, and a tinge of worry tainted her voice now. This hadn't been what she was expecting.

"We'll have to get closer," said Alina, tightening her hold even further on El's hand. In a matter of moments, it seemed like the girls' fun, teenage sleepover had turned into the plot of a horror movie. Any moment now, Alina expected Billy to turn around, leaping right at them, his mouth opened in a scream as he seized them both around the neck. Her heart was hammering in her chest, and she had to force herself to take another few steps forward.

"Don't be afraid," Billy was saying, and his voice was just as slimy as it had been less than a year ago. Soothing, but tinged with malice. He wasn't hiding his dark side.

"He's... on the floor," said El, relaying the information to Max. It seemed unreal to Alina that her friend was just sitting on the bed, in El's room, unaware of the car, or the whimpers, or Billy's soft voice that sent shivers down her spine. She kept walking.

"It'll be over soon," said Billy. Alina was getting even more frightened now, but she kept moving, harnessing the brave girl who had fought back against Mind Flayers and Demodogs and agents from the lab, kept wading through the puddles that caressed her bare ankles, getting closer, and closer, and closer.

"Talking to someone," said El.

"It'll be over soon," Alina whispered, echoing Billy's frightening words. The urge to take off her blindfold was even stronger now. She didn't know what Billy was saying, or who he was talking to, but she just knew there was something very wrong going on. She could feel it in the pit of her gut—it screamed out to her. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

The whimpers—which Alina took to be a girl's—grew louder, and whoever it was sounded near tears now. A muffled sob choked out of her throat, and Alina's heart nearly stopped. All of the worse-case scenarios flooded through her mind—kidnapping, assault, even torture (she wouldn't put anything past Billy)—and she began to tremble uncontrollably.

"Just stay very still," said Billy. They had almost reached him. There was a tearing noise, and the girl's whimpers turned to frightened gasps—making Alina believe that whatever had been gagging her had been removed. Billy slowly stood up, standing over whoever it was, and then he turned, right around, to face them.

His eyes were red, and they were frightening, and they were not like Will's—who had stared right through her, who hadn't known she was there. No, by the way he was staring, Alina was quite sure that he could see them, that his eyes were boring right into her and El. Alina let out a cry, there was a scream from the girl he'd been talking to, and then Billy dissolved into wisps of smoke.

At that, Alina finally moved, reaching up and tearing the blindfold right off her face, finding herself back in El's room. Blinking at the sudden light that had assaulted her eyes, Alina gasped, trying to catch her breath, her nerve endings jangling. Her eyes burned with frantic tears and she looked around the room, making sure that Billy wasn't there. But it was only Max and El, the former looking at them with wide eyes.

"What is it?" she asked. "What happened?"

"B-Billy..." El choked, her breaths shallow, a stream of blood trickling from her nose. "He could... he could see..."

"Us," Alina finished. "He could see us."

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

a/n: billy stans would HATE this chapter because of alina's very strong opinions against him, but honestly, i don't even blame her for thinking billy would voluntarily torture someone. sure, she's wrong, but billy also beat up lucas, steve, and her, so i doubt she'd be very forgiving lmfao.

anyways, we're finally into the creepiness! at least, for alina's group. gabe's group takes a few more chapters (and i promise gabe does get his time to shine- he's in the next four chapters). no spoilers, but the sauna test, which is coming eventually, was really fun to write (among other favourites). you guys are gonna HATE me for what i put alina and gabe through ahaha.

'till next time!