CHAPTER EIGHT
THE DISTRACTION

Jess Carlisle woke with a start. The pain that coursed throughout her whole body felt stale as she tried to sit up. Her body was contorted horrifically on the floor of her bedroom.

Did I pass out from pain? Jess thought to herself. The light that filtered into her bedroom from her window violently glared into her eyes, causing her to squint. Her head pounded and her neck ached but most of all, she was starving.

The brunette figured that it was the next day, so that means it's the weekend. Everyone's home. Everyone's home.

Jess shot up quickly but instantly regretted it when she felt her head spin. Grabbing a hold of her bed frame, she stabilized herself and changed out of her clothes.

Pulling on jeans and a maroon sweater, Jess quietly walked towards her bathroom and brushed her teeth and her hair. After tying on her Converse, Jess wrote a quick note to her sleeping parents telling them she was out and left her house with a green jacket and a packet of fruit gummies in tow.

Jess's petite figure had gotten better in the last ten minutes but her neck was probably going to be throbbing all day. She couldn't even turn her head to the right without straining it. Munching on gummies, Jess mapped out her battle plan.

Her first stop was the Byers' house. If anyone, Jonathan should be home. Or even Joyce. Jess didn't really know who to expect but she was certain that someone should be home.

When Jess got to the house, she was knocking furiously on the wooden door. No one was answering so she cupped her hands around her eyes and peered inside the home from the large bay window. The house looked cold and dark. Nobody was home.

Maybe they're out back, Jess reasoned. She trekked to the side of the house and walked down the pathway of fallen leaves and stranded bark from what was once a nice garden. Jess tried to make enough noise so that if the family were in the backyard they wouldn't be startled.

"Mrs. Byers?" No one responded. Thinking that this was odd, Jess called out louder.

"Mrs. Byers?"

Jess rounded the house to find the spacious backyard to be empty. No one was in sight. There were no signs of anyone being there recently nor were there signs of them planning on coming back any time soon.

Suddenly, the sound of the front door being opened alerted Jess. She turned towards the sound, waiting to hear Joyce or Jonathan's voice.

"Mrs. Byers?" Jess called out softly, but it was more of a question if it was her or not. Jess gripped the side of the house as she stepped over the holes in the ground, probably dug by the dog that the family had. The dog was, ironically, not home either.

Jess walked up the small stone steps that led to the backdoor. Her hand was on the handle and she was ready to turn when she peered inside. Men in suits and briefcases came storming inside the house, taking pictures and papers everywhere.

Clamping a hand over her mouth to conceal a gasp, Jess immediately ducked and stepped to the side of the door. She shut her eyes in pure terror, hoping that this wasn't real. She couldn't leave now, the men would see her.

The brunette's mind raced with a million questions. What were government men doing in the Byers' home? What did they do wrong? Was this connected to the thing inside Jess's mind?

Surprisingly, the men left as quickly as they came. Stealing a glance inside to make sure they were gone, Jess quietly opened the backdoor. That plan backfired when the door gave out the loudest creak in creak history. Cursing quietly, the small girl easily slipped inside through the sliver opening and closed the door.

Hearing the cars pull away, Jess finally let herself loose inside the house. Her eyes traveled along what used to be the wooden hallways but now were littered with what looked to be a big drawing of the weirdest game of Shoots and Ladders made up of millions of pieces of paper. Upon closer examination, the drawings all seem to lead somewhere.

"Are these roads?" Jess glanced up at the ceiling where the "roads" seem to travel as well. Careful to not step on the taped-together papers, Jess followed one "road" into Will's room. The boy wasn't there but the brunette wasn't interested in that anymore. Tracing over the dark and blended roads, it seemed to have gone around something.

Jess lifted her fingers to hover over the mixture of blues, purples and reds. It was only when she sketched over the loop with her hand did she figure out what she was looking at.

"Lover's Lake..." Jess's whisper rang throughout her head as she followed the road and shot out of Lover's Lake down the hall. The girl came face-to-face with another image she recognized.

"Lake Jordan." Her finger landed right in the middle of where that lake was. The thing is, she knew for a fact that there was a road that traveled over Lake Jordan. She crossed it when she first moved to Hawkins. This meant that these weren't roads. They weren't paths either.

"They're tunnels." Speaking to herself, Jess let out a gasp when she followed these tunnels around the house. The brunette decided to follow a tunnel that was connected to Lake Jordan. She noted that it was heading Northwest.

"No..." Jess begged to herself. If this was a map of Hawkins, then where this lone tunnel was going would be the answer to all do her questions. The tunnel continued to spread north, nearing Jess's home town, Bloomington.

Her breathing escalated when the tunnel suddenly stopped. It ended with a dark hole where her town was. If Jess was looking at the map correctly, the hole where the tunnel stopped was right below the street she had her accident.

Jess swallowed hard. This meant that whatever was in Jess's head lived in these tunnels.

Ignoring the tunnels that lead to the living room, Jess entered the kitchen. She was looking for a clue that may point her in the right direction. A clue that maybe would help her solve her problems.

Sure enough, a big, angry red 'X' was scribbled at a connection point for multiple tunnels. If this was marked 'X' and all of the tunnels are leading out of it, then it must be the growth point.

Jess lightly touched the 'X' out of curiosity. As soon as her finger brushed the waxed surface, her mind was taken over and her eyes rolled to the back of her head. She fell onto the floor, shaking and gasping for air.

She was having another seizure. Except this time, she saw a vision. She saw where the growth point was. It was a hub of sorts, dark and mutilated vines stuck to the walls of the tunnels. Her vision lifted up and out of the tunnel. It was clear that the hub was under a field but the vision kept on climbing higher into the air until she could see all of Hawkins.

Whatever controlled Jess let go of her and she fell onto the floor, shaking and sucking in gasps of air. The brunette was so busy catching her breath that she didn't realize someone had come home.

"What...?"

"What is all of this?"

Jess scrambled to her feet and ran to the people who had just walked in. She slid from the kitchen to the living room where Jonathan and Nancy were taking in all of the drawings.

"What the fuck?" Jess breathed out. The pair before her turned around, ready to pounce. When the saw it was just Jess, they relaxed a bit.

"Jess," Jonathan straightened his back. He wasn't expecting her to be in the middle of his house, let alone out of breath and siding on loose papers. He glanced around the house, taken aback by the amount of papers that were plastered on the walls of his home. He didn't know what surprised him more: Jess here or the manic drawings in his house. "What the hell happened here?"

"You don't get to ask questions," Jess marched up to the boy in a fit of rage. As much as she tried not to let them go, a few tears slid down the porcelain curves of her cheeks, hooking into the crook of her mouth or trailing down to her chin. No matter what Jess willed herself to think, nothing could compare to the rage, pain and feeling of betrayal she had experienced. "Where the fuck have you been?"

"I- " Jonathan stumbled forwards, words unable to form in his mind. He has never seen Jess this angry. She seemed more than angry, she seemed hurt. What happened while he was gone?

"Shut up!" Jess threw her arms up in the air and clenched her fists near her ears. She hit her head with her fists in anguish. She never rehearsed what she would say to Jonathan once he came back nor did she think these feelings would resurface and detonate within her, flushing out every single moment of pain into one cry.

The sound of Jess's irregular breathing filled the room. It rang in Jonathan's head and he forgot that Nancy was standing next to him, shifting uncomfortably. Jonathan opened his mouth to ask what was wrong, but Jess had cut him off before he had the chance.

"Do you know what it feels like to be in pain for hours?" The room vibrated violently as Jess's tone crept louder and stronger. "I was on fire! I was screaming and crying for help! I prayed for death, but it never came... it never fucking came! It was only when I passed out from the fucking pain that I got to rest! Do you know what that feels like?"

"No- "

"Of course not. That's not the worst part, no. The worst part was not knowing why it was happening. I have been asking Joyce and looking for you to get to the bottom of this when all I had to do was ask your brother!" The last sentence snapped Jonathan out of his guilty state. His head jolted up to look at the crying girl in front of him.

"You talked to my brother?" If Jess had spoken to Will about anything that had happened last year then who knows what information she had?

"No, I never got the chance." Jonathan let out a relieved sigh.

"Look, Jess, we can't talk about it either- "

"Why?" Jess has her hands on her hips as she glowered at the boy. The feeling of loneliness oozed out of her as she tried not to cry again. Jonathan didn't want to lie to her- she was his best friend- but who knows what is happening in her head or why?

"I'm sorry, we can't tell you."

And just like that, Jess's heart has plummeted to the pit of her stomach. Jonathan had set yet another part of her on fire. The bones in her back had clicked into place as she stood up straighter.

"Fine." Jonathan recoiled at her tone. He had never heard Jess's voice be so bitter. "It's just as well. Your government pals wouldn't let you tell me anyways."

"Wait, what?" Nancy stepped forward and spoke finally. By her presence alone, Jess had returned to her pissed-off state.

"Whatever. Why did I think that I could rely on you when everybody had ignored me? I can't figure out this fucking- " Jess grabbed the edge of the table near the door and threw it down in a fit of rage. "- thing inside my head! You were supposed to tell me why I kept on seizing, why my body feels like it's being consumed by fire! But no, you had to leave for three days to fuck her!"

Nancy's eyes widened and she stepped forward to say something but Jonathan stopped her with his arm.

"Don't, it's not worth it," Jonathan tried his best to whisper carefully so that Jess didn't hear. But the words reached the enraged girl's ears faster than she could throw a punch.

"I'm not worth it?" Jonathan looked back up to see the hurt in Jess's eyes literally pour out and hit the floorboards like drops of clear blood.

"Jess..."

"Ugh," Jess's face contorted into disgust and she looked like she wanted to strangle Jonathan. "Fuck you!"

Stepping over the fallen items on the floor, Jess yanked the door of the house open and slammed it shut behind her. Her tears created a trail from the door to her car as if she was begging Jonathan to follow her.

The situation was the same at Mike Wheeler's house. Even Steve's. No one was home except for the parents. Jess didn't know what was worse: the kids not home or the parents not knowing who she was. It had hit her that she didn't have many friends in Hawkins.

The next stop was the Hargrove's. She knew for a fact that Max, Billy's sister, hung around Mike who knew Will. Maybe she knew where they were.

When she arrived, she parked a house down from the Hargrove residence. She sat at the steering wheel and stared at the overhead mirror, wiping her tears away and slapping her face gently to coax out her natural pigments. She closed the mirror and studied the house as she rehearsed what she was going to say when somebody would open the door. If it wasn't Billy then ask to speak to him, thank him for the other day, and then ask if she could speak to Max. That wouldn't make her needing Max too weird, she had hoped.

Truthfully, Jess was ready to turn around and run back to her Challenger and drive away from the second she got out of the car.

No, she reminded herself. I need the truth.

She knocked on the door rapidly and waited for any sign of human movement. The sound of the floorboards creaking made her feel better. At least someone was home.

The door swung open to reveal Billy Hargrove. He had a beer in his hand and a muscle tank. She noticed that he had been working out as the sweat rolled down his tired visage and down his neck. He had on the shorts that she had seen him wearing in P.E, not that she spent much time looking at him...

"Oh, hey," Billy looked surprised to see her but not angry or annoyed as she would've felt if anyone had interrupted her workouts. "I just finished a set. What are you doing here?"

A silver gleam caught Jess's attention and she noticed the barbells that Billy must've been lifting. There may have been no less than 200 pounds.

Snapping her attention back to Billy, Jess cleared her throat. "I just wanted to stop by to say thanks for the day before yesterday."

"Oh," Billy had let go of the door and wandered back inside, silently inviting Jess in. She closed the door behind her. "It's not a problem. Anyone would've done that."

"Still, thanks." Billy gave her a quick nod and a small smile before returning to his routine. His grunts filled the room along with the considerably quieter music that he was listening to.

"Is Max around?"

"In her room."

After saying 'thanks', Jess turned on her heel and eagerly rushed to Max's room. It was the first time that somebody had been home.

Rasping her knuckles against the wooden door, Jess was met with a groan on the other side.

"Go away, Billy!"

"It's not Billy, it's Jess!"

There was a moment of silence before Max said, "Come in."

Turning the handle and entering the room, Jess was met with Max sitting on her bed, taping together her skateboard.

"Old skateboard?" Jess wondered out loud. Max didn't bother to look up as she answered.

"No, a flip gone wrong," Max looked up at Jess in apprehension. "What're you doing here? Come back for seconds with Billy?"

"I've come to ask you about Will, actually" Jess situated herself by leaning against the door that was now shut behind her.

"What about him?"

"Do you know his situation? Like, why he acts the way he does?" Max shrugged her shoulders and gave Jess a sad look.

"No, anything the boys have told me are just excuses to justify why they won't let me into their party." Jess eyebrow quirked up at this.

"What have they told you?"

"Just that Will was taken to another dimension and terrorized by a monster. They're saying that the "episodes" he has is the monster's way of communicating with him." Jess crossed her arms at the new information. If this monster was inside her too, then maybe the seizures were a way of getting her attention. Her last seizure was a vision so maybe the ones before those were the monster's way of saying that it was there.

"Did they say what kind of monster?" Max shook her head.

"No, but they called it the Demogorgon. Or Shadow Monster. Honestly, I can't keep up with their fairy tales," Max laughed. "Anyways, it wasn't the whole party. It was just one guy, Lucas. Him and Dustin are, like, the only guys that actually like me."

"What do you mean?"

"The only party member that I'm friends with is Lucas. Actually, I don't think we're even friends anymore." Wanting to know more, Jess leaned in.

"What happened?" Max gave a sigh and threw her skateboard aside.

"He kept on making excuses for his stupid party. It's like they have all of these secrets that I'm sure don't mean that much. And it's even worse 'cause Billy always gets angry when I make new friends."

"Do you know why?"

"It's probably because he gets threatened by them, but he'd never admit that. Don't tell him that I hang with those guys," Max begged. Jess shook her head in agreement.

"Of course not."

Suddenly, the doorbell rang. Max didn't get up to open the door, she just stayed where she was, taping her skateboard back together. The doorbell rang over and over again.

"Max, are you getting that or what?!" Billy's screams made it through Max's door.

"Coming!" Max yelled back.

"Swear to God, Max!"

She threw her skateboard down and opened her door, letting the now loud music flow through the room. She stormed out and past Billy who was lifting with a cigarette in his mouth. Jess followed her out and stood by Billy who was too concentrated to notice her.

Max opened the door and immediately whipped her head back to see if Billy had noticed. Her eyes connected with Jess's and widened. When the teen saw Lucas standing on the Hargrove's porch, her eyes widened as well and gave Max a small nod, telling her that she'd cover for her.

Max stepped out and shut the door as Billy laid his equipment on the stand so that he could lie under it.

"Heya spot me, willya?" Billy mumbled through his cigarette as he grabbed the metal bar. Jess stood near his head and hovered her palms under the bar.

"You do this everyday?" Jess decided to strike up conversation due to the awkwardness that loomed in the air like a killer disease. Billy replied her with a grunt before answering her question.

"More or less. Takes the mind off of things." Billy sighed and the smoke from his cigarette wafted up and invaded Jess's senses.

"What things?"

Billy didn't answer her at first. Why would he tell her the things that haunt him in his sleep? She was just another girl that he would overlook...

"Parents." Shit, he's gone off the rails. "Future. Max."

"Max?"

"She does things without permission and it gets me in trouble. And it's all because of that Sinclair kid." Slowly, Jess started to realize the relationship between Max and Billy. Max didn't understand it yet, but her actions directly affected Billy. And Billy didn't realize it, but his actions hurt Max. It was a never-ending circle of hurt and pain.

"Lucas?"

"Whatever," Billy groaned as he set his barbells up on its stand. He stood up and took a long drag from his cigarette. "I don't care who he is, he made her cry."

Oh, Jess thought. That was new information.

Billy turned to look at the door. The gears turned in his head and he suddenly knew what was going on. That kid was here. He stood up and took another drag from his cigarette. Jess watched him move around the bench and stare at the door.

"Hey," Jess tried to distract him. "Billy?"

"What the hell is taking her so long?" Billy asked as it became clear his patience was wearing thin. The closer he got to door, the faster Jess' heart began to race. It was at that moment that she had to make a split decision. There seemed to be no other option.

She grabbed Billy's head and turned him to face her. Without a second thought, she bridged the gap between them, standing up on her tip-toes. She kissed him with so much ferocity Billy couldn't help but kiss back.

What had started out as a poorly thought out distraction soon turned into something unexpected. Jess felt herself melt into the brute as her hands found their way around his neck and tangled within his mane.

Billy wrapped a large hand around her waist and brought the other one up to cup her head behind her ear. There was no room for confusion because it felt more right than anything he'd ever known.

Their surroundings seemed to fade with time, nothing but murky shades of grey as they focused all their energy on each other. He caressed every inch of her as if she might break, and he bit down on her bottom lip. His tongue slid past her lips and he claimed his territory. It was a dance of sorts - as delicate as ballet, as beautiful as contemporary, and as rhythmic as tap.

As quickly it had started, it had ended. They both pulled away reluctantly when the door opened back up again. Jess had completely forgot that Max was outside.

Jess rested her forehead against Billy's, processing what had just happened. He gave a low chuckle that vibrated through her body and down to her toes. It was the kind of laugh that made her feel safe and warm. It was laced with happiness and surprise, but most importantly, relief. It was a relief that their coming together had finally happened. They've both felt it for days leading up. Billy didn't think that Jess would make the first move, though. 

"Hey, Killer." Billy brushed a strand of hair behind Jess's ear. Her heart glowed with affection towards the nickname he had given her. If anyone else had called her 'Killer' she'd probably punch them in the face. But not him. Not Billy. "Where did that come from?"

Jess shrugged and bit the inside of her cheek to keep herself from smiling too much. "It's been a long time coming, huh?"

Billy's hands lingered at her waist as if he wasn't ready to let her go just yet. Jess's small hands gripped the dirty blond's bare forearms that flexed under her touch. A small giggle played in the small of her voice box at Billy's attempt to impress her once again.

"Okay, gross," Max gagged as she walked by the couple. Billy straightened his back and suppressed the many curse words he had conjured up in his mind and went back to his barbells, cleaning them and changing the weights.

As much as Jess would have loved to stay with Billy and dwell in their little bubble, she knew that Max had talked to Lucas who had probably talked to Mike or anyone else in that weird little group.

Jess turned on her heel and followed Max into her room. When she got there, the window was open and Max was nowhere in sight.

"You better be right about this, stalker." A small feminine voice came from the side of the house, just down below the window. Coming up to the sill, Jess peered down and saw Max on the back of who she assumed to be Lucas' bike.

"Max."  The girl jumped from her seat and both she and the boy looked up.

"Jess," Max's voice warbled with anxiety. "Please don't tell Billy."

"I won't if you tell me where you're going," Jess smirked. She wasn't going to tell Billy, but if she could get any information out of them then she would milk it out as much as she could.

"T-The junkyard!" Lucas stuttered due to the intimidating stance Jess was taking. She gave him a small, thankful nod. The kids rode off to the junkyard, for whatever reason, Jess didn't know.

The junkyard could mean a billion things. She doubted it was connected to her in any way.

-

[SEMI-EDITED]