July 1, 1985
Afternoon/Night

Robin was still trying to figure out the Russian code. Ally had given up on her reading and just started listening to music on her walkman.

Robin heard a knock at the back door and went to go answer it. Ally zoned out for a couple seconds before seeing Steve, Brandon, and Dustin enter the store.

She put the headphones around her neck and paused her walkman before asking, "Did you guys find any evil Russians?"

"No, but you're not gonna believe who Dustin and Brandon thought was a Russian." Steve answered the girl.

"Me? Dude! I didn't think anything!" Brandon argued.

Ally then saw Robin dash out the store. "Robin! Robin! Where are you going?" She asked before sighing and following the girl, the three boys behind her.

After a few minutes, they finally found the girl standing on top of the fountain.

"Robin. What are you doing?" Steve asked the girl once him and the others were in front of her.

"I cracked it." Robin answered.

"What are you talking about?" Brandon questioned.

"I cracked the code." Robin jumped off the fountain as the others shared looks of shock.

€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€

The five friends crouched on top the building as heavy rail poured on them, but they all had been wearing raincoats.

"Look for Imperial and Kaufman shoes." Robin ordered.

"They're with that whistling guy, ten o'clock." Dustin explained, looking through his binoculars.

"What do you think's in there?" Steve questioned.

"Guns, bombs?" Dustin suggested.

"Chemical weapons?" Robin added.

"Nukes?" Brandon and Ally chimed in.

"Whatever it is, they're armed to the teeth." Dustin sighed.

"Great." Steve groaned. "That's great."

"Hey, what's in there?" Robin asked, pointing towards the door that just opened.

"It's just more boxes." Dustin started.

"Let me check it out." Steve reached over to grab his binoculars.

"No, I'm still looking." Dustin hissed at the other boy.

"Lemme see it." Steve demanded.

"Shut up you two!" Brandon shouted.

"Hang on!" Dustin yelled before him and Steve had slammed the binoculars on the edge. "Duck!"

The five quickly ducked down, trying not to be seen.

"Way to go dumbasses." Ally rolled her eyes at them. "Come on."

"Оставайся здесь."

"Смотреть дверь."

They quickly crawled back to where they came and ran to the hallways.

"Well, I think we found your Russians." Robin panted.

€€€€€€€€€€€€€

The girls had reached Heather's house and were completely soaked. The raincoats didn't help at all and they all felt like a wet napkin.

They decided it would be better to ride on bikes then walk in the rain. El didn't have a bike so she rode on the back of Max's. Beth hated the feeling of her wet hair sticking to her forehead and hated that she felt all gross. El nodded to the girls when they stopped in front the house, confirming it was the same door she saw in her head. They walked up to the front door and set their bikes on the lawn.

El stared at the door in concentration. The lock clicked and the door slowly opened. They stepped inside, and lowered their raincoat hoods. The sound of fancy music filled their ears. They walked down a small hallway with framed pictures covering the walls. One showed Heather and her family, confirming that it's Heather's house.

"This is her house." Max announced. El looked confused, so Max continued. "Heather's house."

A laugh was heard echoing from the other part of the house. The three girls shared looks before turning down another hallway. It lead to the living room which connected to the dining room. When the girls walked in, they were met with a scene they didn't expect. Billy was having dinner with Heather's parents and they were laughing, having a good time. Music was being played and wine was being drunk. Nothing seemed strange or bad at all. When the three girls walked in, it went quiet except for the music playing softly from the stereo. Heather's parents looked confused while Billy's smile fell slightly, "Max."

"We didn't mean to...barge in." Max started, shocked by the scene in front of her. The way El described it, they thought Heather was in trouble. "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?" Mr. Holloway asked, annoyed that three unknown girls were making puddles on his floor.

Billy chuckled before setting down a fork he was using to cut up a steak, "I'm sorry. Janet, Tom, this is my sister Maxine. And of course, her....friend Bethany."

Janet smiled, "Oh!"

Billy stood up from the table and walked over to the three girls. This made Beth stand slightly behind Max. He was smiling but something seemed odd, "What on earth are you doing here? Is something wrong?"

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

Billy's smile dropped, "Okay? Why wouldn't it be okay?"

"Where is she?" El asked.

Billy turned to El, "I'm sorry. Where is who?"

Suddenly, the kitchen door flung open and out walked Heather Holloway with a tray of fresh cookies. Beth looked in confusion, it seemed to be that Heather was fine. "Well, they're a little burnt, I'm sorry-"

"Heather!" Billy exclaimed. Heather stared at the three girls in confusion, as the three also stared back with confused looks. Max and Beth shared a look. "This is my sister, Maxine. Her friend Bethany and..." He paused as he looked at El. "I'm sorry, I did not quite catch your name."

"El."

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

El turned to Heather who looked confused. El started to point towards Heather, "I...I saw you-"

Beth quickly interrupted El, "Your manager! At the pool."

Max nodded, continuing her girlfriend's statement. "He said you guys didn't come into work today, so we got worried."

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

Heather nodded. "I'm feeling so much better." Billy turned back to the girls, with a smile on his face. Everything felt wrong to the girls, like something wasn't right. But they didn't know what it was or if they should do something. "Do you girls want a cookie? They're fresh out the oven."

There was a moment of silence as everyone awkwardly stared at each other. The three girls shared a look before Beth politely said, "Uh, no thank you. We're just about to head home since it's pouring out and we're completely soaked."

"Okay, it was nice meeting you three." Janet smiled.

"You too." Beth nodded.

"I'll walk you girls out." Billy offered. El didn't wait for Billy to start walking, she just walked out. Max and Beth grabbed each other's hands and walked out as Billy followed them. He watched from the door as the three girls got on their bikes and started riding down the street, the rain started pouring harder. Beth looked over her shoulder to see Billy staring at them from the window. She felt a strange feeling about the whole situation.

€€€€€€€€€€€€€€

The girls ended up at Max's house. Once they left the Holloway residence, Max asked them if wanted to spend the night at her place. They both agreed, liking the idea. Max let both girls shower and borrow pajamas from her.

Beth got out the shower and had put on the pair of clothes Max gave her. It was a grey long sleeved hoodie with white stars and some sweatpants with the same stars as the sweater. She opened the door and and walked out heading towards Max's room. She opened the door to the girl's room and saw her on her bed looking at comics to show El.

Max looked up and smiled at the brunette before patting the side next to her her, "Come here and help me." Beth walked over to the bed and climbed on, sitting next to Max.

"What's up?" Beth asked with a smile.

"So, I wanted to show El some good comics since she only has seen Mike's. Which are trash so, would you help me pick one?" Max explained to her girlfriend.

"Okay. What do we have?" Beth asked moving closer to the girl.

"Green Lantern or Wonder Woman?"

"Ooh that's hard." Beth laughed making Max smile. She loved Beth's laugh. "Green Lantern is so cool, but Wonder Woman is like super hot."

Max laughed at Beth's statement. "Is every woman on the planet hot to you?"

"Yes! All women are hot!" Beth exclaimed making Max laugh. "But you're number one on my list."

Max smiled, "Thanks babe." She then leaned in to kiss Beth which she returned. The two girls pulled away when they heard a door open, revealing El looking a bit worried.

Beth frowned at the girl as she walked over to set up her bed on the floor. El said she would let the two girls sleep together and that she didn't mind sleeping on the floor. Max grabbed the two comics before turning towards El. She held up the two comics with a bright smile, "Which one?"

"I don't know." El shrugged. Beth could tell even though they saw that Heather was fine, El still looked worried and uneasy about everything.

Max frowned, "Hey, there's nothing to worry about anymore, okay?"

El sighed, "It doesn't make sense."

Max raised her brows, "What doesn't make sense?"

"Heather." El answered. "The blood. The ice."

Max and Beth shared a look before Max spoke up again.

"Heather had a fever, so she took a cold bath, but she's better now." Max explained. El looked like she wanted to believe it but she didn't. "That has to be it. I don't know where that blood came from but...we saw her. We all saw her. She's totally fine."

"What about Billy?" El asked.

"What about him?" Max questioned.

"He was acting weird. He wasn't really himself." Beth explained, remembering the strange nice behavior. He never liked Beth that much so she was confused about his nice treatment towards her. "Although he could've just been acting nice for Heather's parents."

"Yeah." El agreed. "He seemed...wrong."

"Wrong is kinda like his default." Max started before letting out a small chuckle. "But it's nice to know he's not a murderer, because that would've totally sucked."

Beth laughed with her as did El. Beth noticed El started to feel better as a smile creeped on her face. El glanced at the comics Max had been showing her and her eyes fell on Wonder Woman. "Who is that?"

Max seemed surprise, "See this is why you can't just hangout with Mike all the time." Max opened the comic and opened it, showing El. "This is Wonder Woman, aka Princess Diana. She's from Paradise Island, which is like, this hidden island where there are only women Amazon warriors."

"And they're all super hot." Beth pointed out.

"Yes, and they're all hot." Max laughed as she playfully rolled her eyes. El laughed at the girl's reaction before Max continued the story.

€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€

July 2, 1985
Morning

Beth had woken up to the sound of Lucas Sinclair's voice on the walkie talkie. Beth slowly opened her eyes and heard Max groan. The voice continued as the girls laid there, all of them hoping that the boy would give up, but he didn't. "Do you copy? This is a code red. I repeat, this is a code red. Max, do you copy? This is a code red."

Max groaned again before turning over and grabbing her walkie talkie off the floor, "Shut...up!" Max turned off the device before setting it on her nightstand. She turned back as she faced Beth.

The two girls started to fall back asleep when suddenly a phone started ringing. Max immediately sat up and groaned. "You've got to be kidding me." Max threw her covers angrily off her before stomping towards the phone. "I'm sleeping! Go away!"

Beth saw as Max went to put the phone down but stopped and held it back to her ear. "What are you talking about?" A few seconds went by and Beth started to wonder what was going on. "What?"

"What did he say?" El asked from her spot on the floor.

Max slowly set the phone down. Beth sat up as Max turned with a confused look on her face.

"Max, is everything okay?" Beth asked as Max still held the look.

€€€€€€€€€€€€€€

"That keycard opens the door, but unfortunately, the Russian with this keycard also has a massive gun." Dustin explained. "Whatever's in that room, whatever's in those boxes, they really don't want anybody finding it."

"But there's gotta be a way in." Robin huffed.

"Well you know...I could just take him out." Steve suggested.

Brandon and Ally shared a look of disbelief.

"Take who out?" Robin questioned him.

"The Russian guard." Steve stated as he saw the looks he was receiving. "What? I sneak up behind, knock him out, and I take his keycard. It's easy."

"Did you not hear the part about the massive gun?" Dustin asked.

"Yes, Dustin, I did." Steve crossed his arms over his chest. "And that's why I would be sneaking."

"Yes, indeed. You're gonna be stealthy like a ninja, I'm guessing?" Brandon sarcastically questioned Steve.

"Do I need to remind you about the time I saved your ass from that dog?" Steve raised a brow at him.

"Mmm. I think it was the other way around." Brandon retorted back making Steve roll his eyes.

"Ah, well, please, tell me this, and be honest." Dustin spoke up stopping the argument from going further. "Have you ever actually...won a fight?"

Steve paused, "Okay, that was one time..."

"Twice. Nancy told me about the time you got beat up by Jonathan the year prior." Brandon reminded him.

"Listen, that doesn't count." Steve sighed.

"Mmm pretty sure it does. It counts as a fight so..." Ally tuned in.

"Exactly! Why wouldn't it?" Dustin smiled. "Because it looks like he beat the shit out of you."

"Fact."

"That is true."

"It was..."

"You got a fat lip, crooked nose, swollen eye, a lot of blood..."

"Things that all added up...."

"That just might work." Robin said to herself as she got up from her seat.

"Robin? Hey Robin!" Steve called out to her. "Hey, what are you doing?"

"I need cash." She explained as she grabbed some money from the tip jar.

"Well half of that's ours." Steve pointed towards himself and Brandon.

"Where are you going?"

"To find a way into that room, a safe way." Robin declared as she started walking off. "And in the meantime, sling ice cream, behave, and don't get beat up. I'll be back in a jiff."

Steve sighed and when he turned, he saw Dustin and Ally eating ice cream from the scoopers.

"Oh, jeez." He frustratedly said. "Come on guys, not the scoopers."

€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€

The girls had arrived at Mike's house and headed towards the door. They were greeted by Mike who took them downstairs to where Lucas and Will were. Will immediately started explain everything once they reached the last step.

"I didn't think it was anything at first. I mean, I think I just didn't want to believe it. The first time I felt it was at Day of the Dead."

"Power went out that night, too." Mike pointed out.

"And then I felt it again at the field near the Nelson Farm the next day." Will continued.

"I knew there was something wrong." Beth spoke up.

"Then again yesterday at Castle Byers."

"What does it feel like?" Max asked curious.

"It's almost like..." Will started, pausing as he tried to think of a way to describe the feeling. "You know when you drop down on a roller coaster?"

"Sure."

"Yeah."

"Totally."

"No."

"It's like...everything inside your body is just sinking all at once, but...this is worse. Your body...it goes cold and - and you can't breathe. I've felt it before, whenever he was close."

Max raised her brows in confusion, "Whenever who was close?"

"The Mind Flayer." Will answered.

El sat up, "I closed the gate."

Will nodded, "I know but...what if he never left? What if we locked him out here with us?"

Beth had moved a bit closer to the table she sat in front of, "What are you talking about?"

Will stood up and a grabbed a piece of paper and a box of crayons. The group followed him as he had set down his items on the small table in the middle of the room. He started to sketch out a messy drawing of the Mind Flayer with a black crayon, pressing it so hard on the paper that it got smaller. "This is him. All of him."

"But, that day on the field, a part of him attached itself to me." Will wiped his hand across the drawing, smearing it across the paper and staining his hand. He raised up his hand and showed the group. "My mom got it out of me and Eleven closed the gate. But the part that was still in me, what if it's still in our world?" Will flipped the paper over to the blank side and smacked his hand on it, staining it with the black crayon. "In Hawkins."

"I don't understand. The Demodogs died when El closed the gate. If the brain dies, the body dies." Max explained. Beth nodded agreeing with Max.

"We can't take an chances." Mike announced. "We need to assume the worst. The Mind Flayer's back."

Max and Beth still looked confused until Beth spoke up, "But wait. He attached himself to Will last year, so does that mean he attached to someone else?"

"Maybe, I mean he can't do anything in the real world without someone else." Will replied.

"A new host." Lucas said, making everyone turn to him in worry.

"How can you tell if someone is a host?" El asked, confused.

Beth thought about it. About all the signs she seen these past days. She thought back to the other night with Billy. The weird behavior. Heather. The blood. Beth's train of thought was interrupted when she heard a voice.

"Hey, Beth." She gasped and turn to see Lucas with a hand on her shoulder. "You okay?"

"I think I know who might be the new host." She said quickly.

"Who?" Mike asked. "Who do you think is the new host?"

Beth looked over to Max with a frown and the redhead stared at her in confusion. Beth took a small breath before lifting her head towards Mike and Will.

"Billy."

Hey y'all!! I'm so sorry I've been MIA, lots of stuff has been happening recently!! Where do I start?!

For starters, I started school two weeks ago and it's been a pretty crazy month so far. Junior year of high school is fucking hard as shit!! Second, this past month in August, my grandpa passed away. He was my father's dad and I've been kinda sad since because I was kinda close to him. I have lost two grandparents. My mom's mother and my father's dad. I only have two left, so it's hard.

But don't worry about me, I'm doing better and have been well. Im back to writing and I can't wait to get back into Beth's story. Also can we talk about how long this chapter was?! Like holy shit, this is the longest chapter I've written ever!!

Also I read this over a million times and I bet you one day I'm going to find a mistake or one of you will. But that's just how it it. Lol

Anyways, I've been talking for so long now...sorry about that. But I hope you guys liked this chapter and more is coming soon!!

Love you all and have a wonderful day!!

-Mary💕