July 1, 1985

Beth had woken up to the sound of thunder crashing and found herself cuddling her girlfriend, Max. The brunette could tell that the redhead was sound asleep. She moved a strand of hair out of Max's face and gave her kiss on the cheek. This made the redhead twitch slightly and she moved closer to the brunette. Beth had placed a kiss on Max's forehead making her smile in her sleep.

She saw Max slowly opening her eyes before looking at the brunette. The redhead smiled softly before saying, "Good morning love."

"Morning Red." The brunette responded before placing a kiss on the redhead's lips, which she gladly returned. When they pulled apart, Max sat up in the bed and turned to El, who started to wake up.

El sat up and stretched before turning her head towards Max and Beth.

It was a silent for a minute before Beth spoke up, "So, we gonna go do this or what?"

"Yeah. I need to tell Hop though." El replied.

"You can just leave him a note and put it on the fridge." Max told her and the supernatural girl nodded.

All the girls took turns getting dressed and afterwards, El wrote a note saying she was going to Max's house for a sleepover. She then took a magnet and placed on the paper, so it will stay on the fridge.

"Okay, let's do this." Beth sighed as El turned her head towards her. Her and Max both nodded and they headed out towards the door.

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Beverly Wright woke up in her bed and yawned slightly before getting up, and heading downstairs. When she arrived at the bottom of the house, she realized that the house was already empty. Beth had been with Max and El. Brandon already went off to work and Benjamin was still on his business trip.

Bev walked over to the kitchen and started making a cup of coffee. While it was making, she went into the cabinet and got a box of cereal, a bowl, and then milk from the fridge. She poured the cereal in the bowl and then the milk just as the coffee machine beeped. She grabbed her coffee and cereal and went to the living room to sit down. She grabbed the remote to the tv and switched it on to show the news.

Bev started to eat her cereal and drink her coffee when there was a sudden knock at the door, and the doorbell rang. She raised her eyebrow before placing the cereal down at the coffee table.

The older brunette woman walked over to the door and opened it to reveal, Joyce Byers. Bev raised her eyebrow in confusion of the appearance of the Byers woman.

"Joyce? What are you doing here?" Bev asked the older Byers woman.

"I'm so sorry to bother you, Bev." Joyce said with a small soft raspy voice. "But, um...you remember when you went to Melvald's two days ago to get some cigarettes, and the magnets in one of the aisles fell?"

"Uh, yeah. What about it?" Bev asked in confusion.

"I'm thinking that maybe it wasn't a coincidence or some sort of weird thing Scott Clarke said, but I'm thinking maybe it's because of them." Joyce explained.

"Them?" Bev questioned.

"Yeah. Them. As in..." Joyce hesitated before looking around before turning back to Bev. "The lab..." She whispered towards the woman.

Bev's eyes widened. She thought back to that day when her and Ben went over to Hawkins Lab to see Joyce. How they went over there because Beth snuck out and they didn't know where she was. She remembered how when she got there, she saw the Byers woman looking very worried and seeing Will looking not so well. Next thing she knew, she and her husband were trapped there with Joyce, Will, Mike, Bob, Hopper, scientists, and a bunch of Demodogs.

"You think the lab might be the reason that your magnets are falling?" Bev questioned Joyce.

"Yes! I know it sounds crazy but what if...what if it is?"

Bev hesitated and thought for a second. It could be a possibility. You need a high amount of energy to be able to do something like that.

"I was going to go to Hopper...uh...since he also saw it happened. So, I wanted to know if you would come with me?" Joyce suddenly spoke up making Bev snap out her trance.

"Uh...yeah...of course. Let me just get ready and I'll meet you outside." Bev responded.

"Um, yeah. Of course." Joyce softly smiled before she waited for Bev to get ready.

A couple minutes later, Bev walked out all dressed and quickly locked her front door before turning to Joyce.

"Well...let's do this." Bev spoke up and Joyce nodded.

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It got closer to the afternoon when the girls left El's house and started to slowly walk towards Max's house. The clouds had gotten darker as they made their way there and you can tell it was close to raining. Beth and Max didn't want to spend their summer searching for Billy but El insisted there was something wrong. So, the two girls agreed to go to Max's house.

"It's gonna start pouring soon." Max informed El as they turned to Max's street. "We should be at the mall or, like, watching a movie or something."

Beth formed a smile at the mention of watching a movie, "Oh! We can watch The Karate Kid!"

Max smiled widely at Beth, "Yes! The Karate Kid! You know me so well, babe."

"You don't believe me?" El asked the two girls who seemed more excited about doing anything other than what El wanted.

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

"But the screams." El reminded her.

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

Beth cringed, knowing what Max was talking about, and she could say the same for her brother as well. Although he hadn't been bringing girls over lately because he's been caught up with work. El's eyes widened at Max's words, "They scream?"

"Yeah but like...happy screams." Max hesitantly explained.

El looked at her confused and asked, "Happy screams? What is happy screams?"

"It's like..." Max trailed off, before locking eyes with her girlfriend, who just shook her head. She wasn't about to start talking about sex with El. "I'm just gonna lend you my mom's Cosmo."

The conversation ended as they approached Max's house. It looked as if nobody was home, even Billy's car was gone. Max noticed the absence of the car. "His car's not here. You really want to do this?"

El nodded but Max and Beth looked annoying at what they were doing. They thought that there was nothing to worry about and Billy was probably just hooking up with some girl but El thought something was wrong, so there they were. Max lead the girls into the house and realized that nobody was home. Max guessed Billy was at work. They went straight to Billy's room and Max opened the door making it creek.

A smell filled Beth's nostrils making her scrunch her face in disgust. It was a mix of beer, sweat, and cigarettes. Crushed empty beer cans littered the room along with food that had gone bad, and silverware. The radio had been blasting a rock song. Max frowned, "Why do I get the feeling we're gonna find all kinds of wrong in here?"

"What do you expect from Billy Hargrove?" Beth told her as they walked into the room, and started to looked around. The walls had posters of half naked women in bikinis, which now that Beth thought of it, was probably why he worked at the pool. Ashtrays laid around the room, each one held about five to six cigarettes. Billy's laundry hamper was filled with clothes, some had fallen onto the floor, including his dirty underwear.

Max started on Billy's side table drawers. Beth knew her girlfriend found something gross when Max opened the first drawer and gagged, "Ugh! Gag with me a spoon."

"There's nothing really strange going on here." Beth said after she finished her side of the room. "Well for Billy at least."

"Yeah, El." Max agreed, looking over at El. "We can check the bathroom."

El nodded and Max lead them out the room. She closed the door so Billy won't know they were ever in there. The bathroom door was already open, so El walked in with Max and Beth behind her. The first thing they noticed was the bath filled with water and empty bags of ice floating around. El stared at it, "Max?"

Max came over and took a look at it, seeing nothing wrong. She reached in and grabbed one of the bags, "Ice. It's just ice. It's probably for his muscles or something. He works out like a maniac."

El's eyes trailed over the rest of the bathroom. Max and Beth locked eyes, sharing the same look of impatience. El suddenly spotted bloody fingerprints on the cabinet under the sink, making her look worried.

El walked over to the cabinets and opened them. She pulled out a green trash bin as Max asked, "El, what is it?"

El reached in and held up a red lifeguard fanny pack. Judging by the bedazzled design on the edges, it wasn't Billy's. Beth looked at Max getting worried and was starting to believe everything El said. El reached in again and pulled out a yellow whistle, but half of it was covered in a red substance. Beth hoped it was paint because thinking that Billy would kill someone made her sick.

He wouldn't kill anyone, right?

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"Excuse me?"

Erica stood with her friends, repeatedly ringing the bell. It was Robin's turn to sling ice cream but instead she was listening to the Russian recording.

"Ahoy!" Erica spoke, trying to get her attention. "Hey girl!"

Ally looked up from the Russian to English book she was holding, "Erica, you know me."

"Get sailor lady's attention."

Ally rolled her eyes before tapping Robin on the shoulder, making the older girl huff and turn around.

"I'd like to try the peanut butter swirl, please." Erica requested.

"No." Robin shook her head. "No more samples today."

"Why not?" Erica raised her brows.

"Because your abusing our company policy." Robin told her.

"Where's the two sailor men?" Erica looked around.

"Sorry, they can't help you." Robin explained, "They're busy."

"Busy with what?" Erica questioned.

Ally and Robin shared a smirk before they both replied, "Spy craft."

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Beth was completely soaked by the time they arrived at the pool. Her hair was soaked too even though she had a raincoat on. The pool was empty since it was raining. As the three girls walked to the entrance, kids were running out, as their feet made the puddles splash.

The sign above the entrance read "Hawkins Community Pool". They walked by groups who were sitting around waiting for people. Once they got in, they took their hoods off and went to the front desk. Behind it sat the manager who looked like he was in high school and a lifeguard reading magazines.

"Excuse me?" Max started.

"No one in the water until thirty minutes after the last strike." The manager said in a monotone voice as he flipped a page of the magazine. He didn't look up making Beth roll her eyes in annoyance. "And don't try and argue with me. You wanna get electrocuted, go climb a tree."

"Yeah, we don't care. We're not here to swim." Max told them. Beth looked at them with complete annoyance.

"Or get electrocuted." Beth spoke finishing Max's thought. "Great service by the way. Parents would love to hear that shit."

El pulls out the red fanny pack from her raincoat pocket and holds it up, "We found this."

The manager looked up but him and the girl didn't seem to care, "Does that belong to anyone here?"

"Oh yeah." The manager nodded. "That's Heather's. I'll get it back to her."

"We could give it back to her." El suggested, wanting to talk to Heather directly, and ask why her fanny pack was in the trash at Billy's house.

"You could, 'cept she's not here. Bailed on me today." He explained, looking annoyed by the fact that Heather didn't show up to work. The three girls all gave each other looks of confusion. "What is this? You girls want a reward or somethin'?

Max shook her head, "No. We're just...good samaritans."

The two didn't say anything as they looked back at the magazines. Beth rolled her eyes at them and huffed. El looked around the room before her eyes landed on a cork board. She started to walk over to it as Max and Beth followed. On the cork board was a few flyers advertising guitar lessons, babysitting, and the Fourth of July celebrations coming in a few days. Along with that was pictures of the lifeguard that summer. Heather's picture was amongst the five others.

"Heather." Max said pointing it out. She looked at El, "Do you think you can find her?"

El looked over her shoulder to see the two behind the desk. They were distracted, laughing at something in the magazine. While they were distracted, El ripped the picture of Heather off the board. Beth gasped in shock.

"They're gonna notice that's gone." Beth spoke up.

"They'll just get a new one. Come on." Max grabbed her girlfriend's hand.

They headed to the girl's locker room which was empty due to it raining. El started to look in the lockers that people used to kept their things in for something to cover her eyes with. Max and Beth thought the best thing to static was to turn all the showers on. El needed something to focus on to drown the sounds. Once the girls got the showers on, El came back with a pair of goggles covered in duck tape.

El sat on the floor between benches with Beth and Max on either side of her. El put the picture of Heather in front of her before putting the goggles on. Beth and Max stayed quiet as El did her magic to try and find Heather. Beth sighed as she waited for El.

Suddenly, a gasp came from El as she ripped off the goggles. She was breathing heavily, her chest going up and down. Her eyes were wide as she tried to calm down. Beth and Max placed hands in her shoulders as Max asked, "What happened? El!"

Blood dripped from the girl's nose before she leaned forward and covered her face with her hands. Beth and Max shared looks of worry. El found Heather but judging by the reaction, she was not okay.

Hey y'all!!! I know I've been gone for like forever! And I'm sorry for that! I was on vacation so I didn't have time to write but I'm back and will be updating more!!

By the way, I was going to add the part where Steve, Brandon, and Dustin try to look for Russians but I already had a 1000 words while writing so I thought maybe not. But let me tell you Brandon was definitely shocked seeing the man with those ladies. In fact here's what his face probably looked like....

Lol....yeah. Btw I got the old outro gif back cause why not?! It's pretty and it's of Max so.....

Anyways hope you enjoyed this chapter and more is coming soon.

Also if I made any spelling mistakes and anything like that, feel free to tell me so o can fix it. Don't worry about being rude, I always appreciate some help.

Love you all!

-Mary💕