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𝗕𝗘𝗧𝗧𝗬

chapter four:
shady business

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NO MATTER HOW much Serenity tried to console her, Eleven was left pretty shaken up and scared from what she had seen with Billy. So, the girls made a plan to go check up on Billy to make sure he was okay — which was a sentence Serenity never thought she would say, and it kind of made her want to throw up a little.

Serenity got dressed for the day along with Eleven and Max before they left Hopper's cabin in the woods. It wasn't exactly the nicest day outside as Serenity drove down the street. The sky was covered in dark gray clouds, signaling the beginning of another summer rainstorm. However, Serenity had a feeling that it might not be just a rainstorm. It seemed like a bad omen — to her, at least.

She parked her car down the street from Max's house and the three got out, walking down the street. Serenity locked her car behind her and positioned herself in between Eleven and Max. She put her hands into the pockets of her jean shorts, squinting up at the sky as thunder rumbled across it.

"It's gonna start pouring soon," Max announced. "We should be at the mall or, like, watching a movie or something."

Eleven looked across Serenity to Max. "You don't believe me?"

"I believe you saw some super weird stuff, totally, but you said Mike has sensed you in there before, right? So maybe it was just like that. Maybe Billy just . . . sensed you somehow."

"But the screams."

"Yeah, I know, but here's the thing," Max continued. "When Billy is alone with a girl, they make, like, really crazy noises."

Serenity shuddered — she didn't expect anything less, but it was still Billy, which was gross. "I didn't need to hear that today."

"They scream?" Eleven questioned.

"Yeah, but, like . . . happy screams," Max answered.

"Happy screams? What is happy screams?"

"Sweetheart, don't worry about it," Serenity cut in, really wanting this conversation to be over. "I'll tell you when you're older."

Eleven blinked at her. "I am older."

"Just drop it, okay? Right now, we might have bigger problems than discussing this."

The three of them stopped and stared at Max's house once they reached it.

"His car's not here," Max stated before looking at Eleven. "You really want to do this?"

Eleven nodded. Max led the other two into her house and to one of the bedrooms. She opened the door to Billy's room, and Serenity was instantly hit with the disgusting mix of beer, sweat, and cigarettes.

"Why do I get the feeling we're gonna find all kinds of wrong in here?" Max questioned.

Serenity sighed. "Because we probably will."

She wrapped her arms around herself, like she was trying to shrink away from the room, as she entered and looked around. The room looked like a typical teenage boy's room with clothes and stuff all over the floors. There were discarded beer cans and multiple ash trays littering the tables.

God, she hated this.

Max walked up to the nightstand and pulled it open. "Ugh! Gag me with a spoon."

They looked around Billy's room a little bit more, but didn't find anything that had to do with what Eleven saw. Eleven then led them over to the bathroom. She opened the door and turned on the light, and Serenity trailed in after her, glancing around. Eleven suddenly stopped, and Serenity did too, following Eleven's gaze. She was staring at the bathtub, which was full of water and had ice bags floating in it.

He likes it cold.

Serenity immediately shut that idea down. No — no. It was over. All of that shit was gone now. They had dealt with it in November. There was no way it could come back. However, she couldn't help the way her chest was rising with panic and how her mind was starting to spin.

"Max?" Eleven softly inquired.

"Ice," Max voiced, leaning down and picking up one of the bags floating in the water. "It's just ice. It's probably for his muscles or something. He works out like a maniac."

Eleven then looked away from the bathtub, her eyes focusing on something else. On one of the cabinet doors was a tiny bit of red liquid, one that looked suspiciously like blood. Eleven bent down and opened the cabinet doors, pulling out a trash can.

"Eleven?" Serenity began, swallowing her nerves. "What'd you find?"

She pulled out a red lifeguard fanny pack. Serenity shifted uncomfortably on her feet. There was no way it could've been his, only the girls usually wore fanny packs. Eleven put the fanny pack down and reached inside the trash can again, only to pull out something else that made Serenity's eyes widen.

It was a whistle covered in blood.

❯ ────── ｢ ✾ ｣ ────── ❮

"IS NOW A bad time to tell you that I may or may not be banned from the pool?" Serenity asked as she parked outside of it.

Max's head snapped over to her. "What? Why?"

"Ask your brother."

She rolled her eyes. "Ignore him. He's an asshole and probably only said that to get under your skin. Besides, he might not even be here right now, so let's go."

Clad in matching raincoats of blue, yellow, and red, Serenity, Max, and Eleven left their car. Turns out, the raincoats didn't do too much, because Serenity could feel her hair starting to get wet as she walked across the parking lot. Crowds of people in bathing suits were running through the rain, heading to their car or ducking for cover in the building. The three pulled their hoods down once they got to the front desk, where a boy and a girl lifeguard were sitting.

"Excuse me," Max stated.

The boy lifeguard didn't even spare them a glance and continued reading his book. "No one in the water until thirty minutes after the last strike. And don't try to argue with me. You wanna get electrocuted, go climb a tree."

"Yeah, we don't care. We're not here to swim. Or get electrocuted."

Eleven pulled out the lifeguard fanny pack. "We found this."

The boy and the girl looked extremely bored. Serenity gave the girl a look when she did nothing but sip the last of her Coke through her straw.

"Does that belong to anybody here?" Max questioned.

"Oh, yeah, that's Heather's," the boy replied. "I'll get it back to her."

"We could give it back to her," Eleven insisted.

"You could, 'cept she's not here. Bailed on me today."

Serenity, Max, and Eleven all shared a look.

"What is this?" the boy inquired. "You girls want a reward or something?"

Max shook her head. "No. We're just . . . Good Samaritans."

Serenity gave the boy and girl a tight smile. "Well, thank you for your time. Have fun telling kids not to get electrocuted."

The girl stared at her. "Wait, aren't you the girl that Billy banned from here?"

Serenity paused for a second. " . . . no."

She shrugged, clearly not caring. "'Kay."

Eleven then left the front desk, wandering over to the bulletin board on the wall. Serenity placed a hand on Max's shoulder and steered her towards the bulletin board as well. Pinned to the board, along with the other lifeguards, was a picture of Heather.

"Heather Holloway," Serenity stated, recognizing the girl. "She's the daughter of the guy who runs the Hawkins Post, where Nancy and Jonathan work. Pretty popular at school, too." She glanced over at Eleven. "Can you find her, El?"

Eleven didn't respond verbally. All she did was reach forwards and rip Heather's picture right off of the board.

They went into the girls locker room. While Max went to turn on all of the showers to resemble static, Serenity was duct-taping a pair of goggles so that they could be used as a blindfold. Eleven sat next to her, patiently watching.

"Trust your gut, okay?" Serenity instructed, pressing down the last piece of tape. "If you feel like something's wrong, get out of there. But Max and I will be right here, remember that."

Eleven nodded in understanding. She took the finished goggles from Serenity and placed them on top of her head, dropping Heather's picture right in front of her. Serenity and Max watched as Eleven lowered the goggles down over her eyes.

Besides the showers, Serenity's heartbeat in her ears was the loudest thing she heard. Her stomach was twisting with nerves as Eleven stayed silent for a moment, immersing herself into her powers.

"What do you see?" Max asked.

"A door," Eleven responded, blood trickling down from her nose. "A red door."

No answer again. It was only a minute later when Eleven suddenly gasped and ripped off her blindfold. Her chest heaved up and down in panic and she glanced around. When her eyes caught on the concerned gaze of Serenity, she leaned forwards and sunk into her arms, just like she had done last night.

"It's okay, El," Serenity said, rubbing her back soothingly. "It's okay." She pulled back from Eleven and put her hands on her shoulders. "What did you see?"

Eleven had calmed down a little before explaining that she saw a mailbox before the red door. When she walked through the red door, she saw a bathtub full of ice, just like at Max's house. Heather had emerged from the cold water only to tell Eleven to help her. Then Heather had been dragged down into the bathtub underwater, and down, down, down, until Eleven couldn't see her anymore.

They cleaned up the locker room before leaving, pulling their hoods back up as they made their way into the pouring rain again. Serenity, Max, and Eleven walked quickly through the downpour and collapsed into Serenity's car. If Heather wasn't at work, there was only one other place she could be. The mailbox and red door were alluding to that fact.

Serenity turned on her car and pulled out of the parking lot, driving away from the pool and towards the direction of Heather's house. She knew vaguely where Heather lived — they were in the same neighborhood — but didn't know which number. Eleven helped with that with the mailbox.

She gripped the steering wheel tightly as she drove down the road, her eyes straining through the dark and the rain. Serenity didn't know what they were going to find at Heather's house, and she wasn't sure if she actually wanted to go. She wasn't sure older sister duties involved finding a missing girl, but then again, babysitting duties didn't involve fighting monsters from a parallel dimension.

Whether she liked it or not, she was in it for the ride. And to protect her kids.

Serenity parked outside of house 1438 and glanced into the backseat. "This is it, right?" Eleven nodded. "Okay, then let's go."

She turned off her car and went back out into the pouring rain, shivering slightly as she did so. Eleven led them up the driveway and to the red door of her house. She stared at the door, her eyebrows knit in concentration, before unlocking the door with her powers. It creaked open, and Serenity entered first, pulling the hood of her blue raincoat down. They went over to one of the pictures on the wall. It was a family portrait of Heather and her parents, all smiling brightly and looking happy.

"This is her house," Max voiced.

"What?" Eleven whispered.

"Heather's house."

"Well, yeah," Serenity replied. "I thought that was the whole point of why we came here."

A woman then laughed. All three of their heads snapped over to the sound, and Eleven was the first to break off. Serenity and Max trailed after her, into the living room, where the radio was turned on. It then led to the dining room, where Heather's parents and Billy were eating dinner. At once, the three sitting at the table stopped laughing when they noticed the three girls standing there. Serenity stared at the scene in utter confusion.

She had absolutely no fucking clue what was going on.

"Max," Billy began.

"We didn't mean to . . . barge in," Max stated. "We tried to knock, but . . . maybe you didn't hear us over the storm."

"I'm sorry, who is this dripping all over my living room right now?" Tom questioned.

Billy chuckled. "I'm sorry." He gestured to Heather's parents. "Janet, Tom, this . . . is my sister Maxine. And my friend, Serenity."

Serenity blinked — Billy always jumped on every opportunity to call her Renny, and he was definitely not her friend.

"Oh!" Janet exclaimed excitedly.

Billy stood up from the table and walked over to them, and Serenity instantly took a tiny step forwards so that Eleven and Max were standing a little bit behind her. "What on Earth are you doing here? Is something wrong?"

"We just wanted to make sure everything was okay," Max revealed.

"Okay? Why wouldn't it be okay?"

"Where is she?" Eleven demanded.

Billy's eyes slid over to her. "I'm sorry, where is who?"

"Well, they're a little burnt, I'm sorry—" a girl's voice then said.

Serenity looked over Billy's shoulder to see Heather walking into the room while carrying a sheet full of cookies, and her eyes widened a little. What the actual hell was going on? Why was Billy having dinner with Heather's family? Billy wasn't a family man, he always thought with his dick. And why was he acting so weird?

"Heather!" Billy voiced. "This is my sister, Maxine. And I'm sure you know Serenity from school."

Serenity gave Heather an awkward wave. "Hey."

Billy looked at Eleven. "And, I'm sorry, I did not quite catch your name."

"El," Eleven responded.

"El. Now, what is it you were saying, El? You were looking for somebody?"

Eleven looked back at Heather in confusion. "I — I saw . . . I saw you—"

"Your manager at the pool," Serenity swiftly cut in. "We got a little worried because he said you two didn't come into work today."

"Heather wasn't feeling so hot today, so we thought we'd take the day off to nurse her back to health," Billy admitted. "But you're feeling just fine right now, aren't you, Heather?"

"I'm feeling so much better," Heather agreed. "Do you girls want a cookie?" She held forward the baking sheet. "They're fresh out of the oven."

"We're good," Serenity stated. "Uh, we'll be on our way then. Sorry to intrude."

Serenity took Max and Eleven's arms in her hands and started to steer them to the door. Billy followed after them to see them out, but it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand straight up. Something about this . . . it didn't seem right. At all.

They went down the steps and walked down the driveway back to Serenity's car. She sat in her drivers seat for what felt like the millionth time today and turned on her car, wanting nothing more than to curl up in her bed and not think so much for once. Max and Eleven were quiet, and she could practically feel Billy's burning gaze from the window. It was time to leave.

"Come on," Serenity told the two of them softly. "I'll take you back to my house and we'll have some hot chocolate."

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a girl is tired. it's me. I'm the girl.