JULY 3RD 1985

After the whole sauna fight, I was drained, drained to absolutely zero, I was worth nothing anymore. Will probably put me down on a bed somewhere, I don't know. The following morning I woke up with a headache, but then also the sight of Will in the kitchen. We were in the living room of the Wheeler's. Mike's parents were out is what Will told me as he returned to the living room with a cup of tea for some reason, which he gave to me. For some reason that was exactly what I needed. I took a sip, then the headache kicked in even harder. Will noticed.

"You okay?" he asked like a caring boyfriend. Oh yeah, I forgot, he actually confirmed it last night, though in front of just me, no one else heard. "My head hurts," I tried to say but it probably came out a bit weird. Then I wondered how the heck I ended up here which was the first thing I asked. "Billy ran away and we don't know to where so now we don't know what to do since burning The Mind Flayer out of him isn't going to be that easy," Will explained.

Vague memories of last night started coming back to me. Billy kicked my ass. Then I groaned as I realized my switchblade was still in his chest when El launched him through the wall, so now I only had powers as a defense and no more switchblade. I was heartbroken. Goodbye (y/n)'s switchblade, it was fun while it lasted. "Where's the rest?" I then asked, wanting to stand up but unable to. Will helped me up anyways and threw my arm around his neck so I could use him for support.

---

Down in the Wheeler basement, the rest was sitting down, all looking at El who was wearing a blindfold. She was looking for someone through mind space. Will sat me down right next to Mike, of all people. Will then sat down close to me. And of course, I was still too dizzy to sit up straight so I fell over against his shoulder.

"I found him," El suddenly said, catching everyone's attention. "Where is he?" Max asked. "Woods," El answered. Just woods nothing else. I remained as confused as the rest. "He's with... Will's mom," El continued. Will seemed shocked as he moved forward, causing me to almost fall over again, but I managed to pull myself up again. "My mom?" he asked a bit distressed. "What are they doing?" Max asked, still confused. "Ill... annoy," El answered. Sounded to me like Illinois, as in the state. That's what Mike asked her right after. El removed the blindfold. She shrugged and repeated the same 'Ill... annoy" she said two seconds ago. Then we got interrupted by knocking on the basement door. "Mike! Breakfast!" his mom yelled. "Not now, Mom!" Mike yelled back. With all that yelling I guess I started to slowly wake up and be freed of the headache. Wait, my cup of tea is still up there.

---

Max took El to the small bathroom in the basement to start cleaning up El's face from looking around. Will put me on the couch in the basement and sat down right next to me. Mike was pacing through the basement. "Something's not right, I can't get Hopper off my back all summer, now all of a sudden he's hiking with Will's mom to Illinois?" Mike asked. Lucas just shrugged from the chair he was sitting in. It was the small chair Will was sitting in two days ago during the DnD session. "Dustin's MIA too," I added. "Exactly, it can't be a coincidence," Mike then continued. "What does it matter?" Lucas then asked. "The bottom line is, they're not here, so it's up to us," he explained. But Mike quickly halted him in that thought.

"Up to us to do what exactly?" Lucas frowned. "Find Billy and stop him," he answered. "Yeah okay, that's a really nice sentiment, but even if El could find him again, and that's a pretty big if, then what?" Mike asked. I sighed. "We'll just try to burn the shit out of him again, there are two people with powers here remember?" I answered. Mike looked at me, or more like the state I was currently in. "He almost got you the first time, who knows what will happen the second time, besides, burning the shit out of him just stops Billy, not The Mind Flayer, we have to stop The Mind Flayer," Mike explained determined. "How the hell do we do that?" Will asked. I shrugged as I decided to sit right up. That made me realize the headache was gone. So I was all right again, ready to take down some monsters. "We just try again!" I said determined. "We're going to need El for that too though," I quickly added as I realized that if I did it alone I could say goodbye to Will.

Mike turned to the bathroom door after I said that. "What are they still doing in there?" he asked. Lucas shrugged and stood up to join him in the middle of the basement. "Girls just like hanging out in bathrooms," Lucas said as Will also stood up. I couldn't stay behind so we wound up all standing in a row, looking at the door. "Why?" Mike asked. "I mean, I don't know," Lucas answered as he grabbed a bag of chips just lying around somewhere.

Mike sighed. "They're conspiring against me," he said as if he was the victim. I grabbed him by his arm and looked him dead in the eye. "Shut the fuck up," I said eerily calm. "Hey, whoa, it's not like my main concern or anything," Mike answered. I turned away out of frustration, letting go of him and throwing my hands up in the air. "I thought it was already over," Will hissed at him. "It's not over, we're just taking a break," Mike whispered back. "She said she dumped your ass, that doesn't sound like a break!" Will said. "It wasn't!" Max then yelled from within the bathroom, making everyone turn back to the door. "You guys do realize we can still hear everything you're saying, right?" she asked us. I could hear El laugh in there.

"See, conspiring," Mike said. "Someone stop me because I'm literally getting violent..." I said as I just let go of all the breaks and went in to punch Mike in the face while screaming. Luckily Will caught me, locking me in both his arms as Lucas came to help him. I was still fighting to get free to give Mike everything he had coming for him. Mike was distracted by a knock on the door. "Not now, Mom!" he yelled. I was still trying to break loose from both their grips, whining that they had to let me go. "Mike, open the door!" some other voice said. Mike ran up the stairs to open the basement door. Up at the door were Nancy and Jonathan.

---

It took a while but eventually, I was calmed down, Max and El had joined us again and Nancy and Jonathan sat down in the basement. Nancy immediately started going off about some old lady or something who apparently had a seizure while she was visiting her. Just a really weird story overall. Then she told us about the weird black veins the lady had. "It was the same thing, the exact same thing that happened to Will last year," she explained. "And look at this, look at the body temperatures," she continued as she flipped a piece of paper just lying around on the table. Will was the first to see them, so he of course did her already-done analysis first. "He likes it cold," Will said. Max and Mike were still busy looking at the thing to see what kind of other data was on there that could be useful. But nope, nothing.

"So this crazy old woman, who was eating fertilizer and screaming stuff like 'oooh I have to go back'..." Mike started. "Mrs. Driscoll," Nancy corrected him. "Right, right, Mrs. Driscoll, what time was this attack?" Mike asked her. "Last night," she answered with a tone clearly implicating she had already said that. "Yeah, but what time last night?" Mike asked her a bit more specifically. "Around 9.00," she answered. "You waited all night to call?" Jonathan then asked her. Nancy then said something about doctors running tests, which made Will realize his brother wasn't there when it happened. "Well, I'm here now, aren't I?" Jonathan said. Nancy sighed. "Hallelujah," she said a bit pissed off. Relationship trouble I see.

"What time was your sauna test?" Nancy asked Mike. "Around 9.00," we all answered mostly in sync. "That proves it, that proves that she's flayed just like Billy," Nancy said. A bit quick to assume I guess, could've just been pure coincidence, but the black veins though... yeah no she was right. "Then we have to assume there are more," Will said. "I mean, there's already two, what's stopping him from getting all Hawkins' residents in his army?" Will quickly added. "Heather, she was screaming, bad screams," El said and then explained what she saw Billy doing something to her in mind space. "What's a good scream?" Lucas asked. "Max said..." El started but she got cut off by Max. "Doesn't matter."

"Holloway? As in the lifeguard?" I asked. El and Max nodded. "She sent us home that one time cause we apparently violated the pool law, remember?" I asked the group. "You should've seen the look on her face when she got thrown into the water by absolutely nothing, except some power usage," I laughed as I turned to Nancy and Jonathan. "Wait, but Holloway?" Nancy then asked. I frowned and nodded, still laughing a bit. "Tom," they then said mysteriously as they turned to face each other.

---

It was almost a free for all race: who would get to the car first? Nancy and Jonathan would automatically win because they had the idea. Max and El were right behind them and had the middle-row seats. Lucas quickly joined them there, leaving the trunk as the only spot for me, Mike, and Will. "Welcome to my world," Will said as he opened the trunk and we all climbed in. Nancy, as a mother, reminded us of our seat belts. Crazy they even had seat belts in the trunk. Nancy then started the car and backed up right into all of our bikes. After that, we drove off to the Holloway residence.

After a relatively short drive, we arrived at the Holloway residence. Nancy rang their doorbell as if the Flayed would just magically open the door for us. Apparently, she firmly believed in that as she rang the doorbell another three times before stepping aside. El then used her powers to open the door by force. The red door flew right open and hit a wall I think cause it almost bounced right back. After that, we all slowly stepped inside. The first thing I noticed inside was the temperature, jeez it was freezing inside this house. Max noticed this as well and thus complained about it. I meanwhile wondered how they even managed to get the temperature this low since outside was basically on fire, that heat was unbearable.

With a few twists and turns through the house we reached the kitchen and a bizarre smell. One of the cabinets was practically torn apart and all cleaning stuff and other chemicals were spilling all over. "You think they're guzzling this shit?" Jonathan asked as he grabbed one of the containers. "I think so, they threw the whole fridge down and everything," Will said. I frowned. "It's a fridge?" I asked. Okay, so yeah, minor correction, fridge, not a cabinet. "But Will didn't do this last year, this is something new," Max noticed. Mike then quickly did a check on our knowledge. Theorizing that if you mix stuff together you create a new substance, and thus that these flayed people are making something. "In themselves? I mean, drink that shit and you're dead within the hour," I said.

We continued our tour through the house after that and reached the dinner table, which had perfectly been set. As if no one had even tried to touch it yet. Except for the wine that was all over the table. "Okay, this isn't leading anywhere, clearly they aren't home," I said as I sighed and sat down at the table. "Of course, they aren't home, we're here looking for clues," Nancy told me. "Yeah okay Nancy Drew, but you really think this is the place you're going to find clues when we could always just start looking for the source," I explained. Nancy looked down at the ground. Somehow I had hit a bit of a soft spot. But doesn't matter. She slowly nodded. "If anyone can bring us back there, it's someone who wants to go back there," I continued. Mike name-dropped Mrs. Driscoll, exactly the person I meant.

---

What followed was a long trip to the hospital. Long enough for me to hold Will's hand on the way there. Despite everything that was going on I gotta say, that felt right. Safer in a way, knowing that he was there for me. Will laid his head against my shoulder, tired of the long drive. As he should. I stroked my fingers through his hair.

At the hospital, Nancy guided us inside. Through the entrance, then a right immediately followed by a left towards the elevator. We had almost passed the front desk when the lady sitting behind the desk stopped us. Nancy tried to save us from the situation. "Oh, uhm, I was just going to visit my grandma again..." she started. "And this is my family... extended," she continued. Despite no one even paying attention to the fact I was holding Will's hand, I quickly let go anyway.

"I don't care who they are you know the rules. Two at a time," the front desk lady said. Nancy tried to change her mind but the lady wasn't having it. "Girl, she has lost her mind, she brought a whole zoo in here," the lady mumbled on the phone. I snickered. Us, a zoo, that's one way to describe us all. Nancy and Jonathan decided to go upstairs together since they were the eldest of the group, leaving the six children downstairs to do whatever.

---

Mike and Lucas immediately walked over to the vending machine. Max and El were standing over at the table with the magazines and Will and I were sitting right next to each other in the set of chairs. We weren't doing a lot. With that realization I realized something else. This silence was starting to get awkward. "So, uh, how are you?" I asked hoping to end the awkwardness but it might've added more fuel to the fire. Will smiled, laughed a bit even. "Besides the whole monster hunting and possession stuff, I'm doing pretty good." I smiled. "Well that's good to hear," I said. The silence kept on growing. A noise coming from the vending machine filled it. A low hum, then all the candy fell down. Lucas kneeled to grab it all. Mike looked at El. Lucas realized he had too much candy bags and had to get rid of some. He looked at me so I nodded and reached out my hands in a catching gesture.

Lucas threw a bag of M&M's my way. I caught it and opened it because I was partly starving to death. But then I thought of a fun game. "Okay, Will, since we're bored out of our brains, wanna play a game?" Will frowned, then shrugged. "All right." I grabbed a blue M&M. "Guess the color," I said. Will frowned again, but this time in combination with a laugh. "I don't know," he said confused. "Come on, just guess, it's okay if you're wrong, you'll get it either way," I quickly added, hoping his fear of failure would just disappear for a second. "Okay, uhh, orange?" he guessed. I hissed. "Ooh... and that is..." I opened my hand. "Wrong..." Will seemed sad he didn't get it, so I pushed the blue M&M in his hand. He grabbed it and threw it in the air. He tried to catch it in his mouth but he failed. It bounced off his nose right on the floor. We both laughed. "Well, close enough," he said, followed by some more laughing. "All right, my turn." Will grabbed an M&M. I started thinking. Given the fact I just had a blue one I might need to leave that out of the equation. But what if he just randomly grabbed one. If assuming there's the same amount of every color, blue should be the smallest chance.

"Green," I guessed. Will opened his hand. It was red. He passed it onto me and I tried the same trick as Will. Right as it neared my face I used my powers to redirect it into my mouth. "Hey, you cheated!" Will said. I tried to lie my way out but Will pointing out the small droplet of blood coming out of my nose. I wiped it. "All right, fine, I cheated." I grabbed a yellow M&M. Will started thinking. He was really deep in thought. Then guessed. "Yellow." I decided to fake it. I hissed. "And... that is..." Will already looked like he was sad to lose again. I opened my hand. "Right!!" I said excited. His eyes widened from excitement. Like a child he gasped. I passed him the yellow M&M. He threw it up in the air and then caught it in his mouth, without any cheats.

He cheered as he jumped up from his chair, ran around and jumped up and down. Will was really excited. I smiled at him. He then grabbed my hand and pulled me up. He immediately hugged me for no good reason. "Wow, for what do I deserve this?" I asked. "No reason," he answered as I suspected. I then hugged him back. We would've spent a good ten seconds in that hug if it wasn't for Will very quickly shying out of the hug.

I know I shouldn't make a point out of it, but yesterday during the sauna test he only admitted to being boyfriends when no one was listening. And now, all the hand holding, taking care stuff, being actual boyfriends, always out of sight of others. When others were nearby or potentially paying attention? He got self-conscious. The rain kisses were two days ago and I know it would be greedy to ask for more but. I don't know it just feels like whenever someone's around he's performing a friendship instead of being honest about us.

I sat down but I didn't. I lost my balance and fell into mind-space again. Obviously by now I was aware that meant Upside Down activity. And I guess sort of lucky for me, neither Sky nor the flesh monster were nearby so... Yeah, it was a pretty quick trip all together.

"He's here," Will said, confirming that damn stupid ass Mind Flayer couldn't leave us alone for one second. I sighed out of frustration and got up from my chair. "Well let's go be heroes again then," I said as I maneuvered my way past them towards the elevator. The five of them quickly followed. On my way over to the elevator I realized that would take too much time since we would have to wait until it's back down, then all get in and go back up, so I took the stairs.

---

Nancy and Jonathan were definitely in trouble, but I didn't know what floor they were on, but based on the amount of noise increasing as we got closer to the fifth floor made me pretty sure they were on that floor.

10 staircases further we made it and I was out of breath. El and the others passed me but Will of course stayed with me to see if I was okay. "I'm not a cardio person," I managed to say. Will snickered. "No worries," he said as he helped me follow the others.

We kinda lost them at some turn but then we heard a lot of noise come from a certain room so we ran over there. El had blasted the door open and the others were watching as she was using her powers on something. Will and I caught up. She was playing pinball or something with a weird fleshy monster in the room, this one looked way different than the one that has been haunting me.

El had enough and straight up blasted the thing out the window, leaving a scared Nancy on the floor, she had probably almost died to that thing. El and the others quickly ran back downstairs as Jonathan helped Nancy back up. Will grabbed my hand as he pulled me with him to go follow El. "Seriously?" I panted as I had to go all the way back downstairs again.

Once we made it outside the blobby flesh monster melted down into something smaller and then disappeared into the drain. There was nothing we could do, it was practically unbeatable, unless we found the source. Once the monster was gone two human bones remained atop the drain. "Ew," I heard Will say. True Will, truly gross.