chapter ten. flayed? [part one]

        THE KIDS AND Phoebe soon decided to return back home after the sauna incident. Everyone was pretty shaken up by the events and they were all deciding on what they should do next.

The boys suggested that we should see what Hopper was up too since he hasn't been home or anywhere near. They wanted to inform him on everything that has been happening.

So, of course, they decided to turn towards El to see if she can find him. Phoebe didn't have that type of powers. To search for people and she wished she had so she can give her little sister a break from using her powers.

The kids and Phoebe all surrounding El as she focused. The only thing that was heard was the sound of the static tv to help El. She had a blind fold around her eyes and everyone stared at her; awaiting for her to tell them what she saw.

"I found him." The young girl finally speaks.

"Where?" Phoebe questions.

"Woods." She simply responds and everyone seemed a bit confused to why he was in the woods. "He's with Will's mom." She also says which caught the Byers attention.

"My— my mom?" He wonders.

"What are they doing?" Max asked, her brows furrowed.

"Ill—annoy." El says, causing even more confusion. "They're going to Ill—annoy." She repeats.

"Mike! Breakfast!" Ms. Wheeler yells from upstairs.

"Not now, mom!" Mike yells back. He then turned to El as she was removing the blindfold. "Illinois? Illinois, like the state?" He asked, trying to see if that was what El meant.

El shrugs and repeats, "Ill—annoy."

The group sigh and wondered why they were heading to that state. What could be the reason why Hopper and Joyce were together and going there.

Max sighs and stands up, grabbing Els hand and taking her to the bathroom. "Let's go get you cleaned up." The redhead suggest.

Once the girls left, Mike stood to his feet. "Something is not right. I can't get Hopper off my back all summer and now all of a sudden, he's hiking with Will's mom to Illinois? And Dustin's MIA too? I mean this can't be a coincidence." He rants as he paced around the room, trying to put the pieces together.

"What does it matter?" Lucas states. "The bottom line is, they're not here. It's up to us." He says.

Phoebe just looked at the angst boys and furrowed her eyebrows.

"Up to us to do what exactly?" Mike retorts.

"Find Billy and stop him." Lucas said.

"Okay that's a nice sentiment, but even if El could find him again, and that's a pretty big if, then what?" Mike argues, trying to see if they can find a solution to their problem.

"We burn the shit out of him and hopefully he won't escape this time." Lucas hopes.

"Okay, then what?" Mike questions again.

"Then we win." Lucas simply states.

"No see, that's the problem. We don't. We don't win. We got the mind flayer out of Will before and he just came right back. We don't just have to stop Billy, we have to stop the Mind Flayer." Mike said and Phoebe does agree with him. He is right about everything.

The Mind Flayer just keeps coming back.

"How in the hell do we do that?" Lucas asked.

"I don't know." Mike says, in defeat.

"Maybe El or Phoebe does." Will perks and the boys look towards the door and the blonde.

"What are they still doing in there?" Mike wonders, shaking his head.

"I don't know." Lucas muffled as he ate coco puffs, "girls just like hanging out in the bathroom."

"Yeah," Phoebe finally speaks. "It where we go to talk crap about people." She says with a low chuckle to get Mike undies in a twist.

Mike lowers his head, "they're conspiring against me." He sighs. Then Mike and Will started going at it.

Phoebe rolls her eyes and turns towards the window in their basement. Thinking about everything that happened yesterday night.

She wondered if Billy was too far gone, but she saw the tears in his eyes last night. She knew deep down he was still somewhere in there, wanting to get out of the Mind Flayer grasp.

She missed him more than anything in the world and she just wants to have him back.

"It wasn't!" A voice yells, catching everyone's attention. "You guys do realize we can still hear everything you're saying, right?" Max clarified with annoyance.

Then there was a loud knock in the basement door.

"Not now, mom!" Mike yells.

But this time it wasn't his mom. "Mike open the door, right now." Nancy voice were heard loud and clear. He runs up the stairs and quickly opens it. Not to only see Nancy, but Johnathan as well.

As soon as the other teens came down stairs, they all huddle in a circle and quickly summarized what happened in the last few days to each other of them.

Speaking about Billy, a woman who had a rat problem, how they confront Billy after knowing the Mind Flayer is in his body, down to the very last detail.

"It was exactly what happened to Will last year. And look at this. Look at the body temperatures." She shows them a file in the woman's body temperature. They all quickly scanned it.

"He likes it cold." Will says.

"Okay, so this crazy old woman who was eating fertilizer-" Mike began until Nancy cuts him off.

"Mrs. Driscoll." Nancy spoke, saying the woman name.

"Right, yeah, Mrs. Driscoll. What time was this attack?" Mike wondered.

"Last night." Nancy quickly answers.

"Right, but what time last night?" Mike repeats wanting to know every detail.

"Around nine." She responds.

Johnathan turns towards her, "you waited all night to call?" He asked, in disbelief.

"I was waiting for the doctors to run some tests." She says as she looks up at him and then away when she realized how closed he was.

"You weren't there?" Will furrowed his eyebrows.

Johnathan sighs, "well, I'm here now, aren't I?"

Nancy rolls her eyes, "hallelujah."

"Oof." Lucas and Phoebe says, clearly trouble in paradise.

"Um, so —" Nancy pinched her the top of her nose. Trying to get back to the important topic. "What time was your sauna test?"

"Around nine." They all answered in unison.

"Well, that proves it. That proves my theory." Nancy states.

"She's flayed, just like Billy." Mike said.

"Flayed?" Johnathan wonders.

"The Mind Flayer. He flays people. Takes over their mind. Once they do that, they basically become him." Mike spoke.

"If there are two flayed—" Lucas began.

"We have to assume there are more." Phoebe finished.

"Heather." El suddenly says and everyone turned to her, in confusion. "Billy was doing something to her. She was scared. She was screaming. Bad screaming." She continues.

"What's a good scream?" Lucas wonder.

"Max said—" before she could continue, the red head was quick to cut her off.

"Doesn't matter." She interrupts, shaking her head.

"I'm sorry, I'm lost. Who is Heather?" Nancy asked as she looked at the kids.

"She works at the community pool with Billy." Phoebe says as she just realized that Heather had been missing for a few days.

"Heather Holloway?" Nancy questions.

Then Johnathan and Nancy looked at each other, "Tom." They both said, leaving the rest confused.

Nancy started grabbing her things, "come on, you guys." She says as the all hurriedly got up and made their way out of the basement.

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