Chapter Twenty-Five: Into The Mind Of Billy Hargrove

(E. Pluribus Unum, Pt. 3)

***

The static of the TV filled the empty silence as El sat before it, blindfold tied tightly around her eyes. Behind her, Alistair sat on the arm of the couch while Lucas, Cami, Will and Max sat on it and Mike sat on the armchair, and Nancy and Jonathan stood behind the couch, as El watched Billy. So far, he'd apparently been staying in his room for the entire day.

El panted before taking her blindfold off, taking in several breaths. Alistair frowned as Max asked, her voice quiet, "What's he doing now?"

Alistair looked to Max as Hugin hopped off Alistair's shoulder and flapped onto hers, rubbing her cheek in comfort. Max petted Hugin, accepting the comfort, as El turned to them, blood dripping from her nose, and answered, "He' still in his room."

Max bit her lip as they all shared a look, and El stood up and headed into the kitchen.

As the tap was turned on, Nancy looked at Max and asked, "So, he's been in his room all day. And that's not normal, right?"

"Billy staying in his room on the 4th of July? No, that's not normal," Max responded.

"He wants us to find him," Will realised.

"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of. If we go to Billy, then the rest of the Flayed know where we are," Nancy pointed out.

"How else will we be able to stop the Mind Flayer and the Flayed?" Cami inquired.

"I don't know," Nancy replied.

"It's a trap, I agree. We'll be ambushed," Mike responded, agreeing with his sister.

"We won't be surprised. We'll know that they're coming, and we will kick their Flayed butts," Lucas said in an attempt at a pep talk.

"You mean El and Al will kick their butts," Max pointed out dryly.

"I can go to Billy—make myself invisible and he won't even know I'm there," Alistair suggested.

"Yeah, but what if Billy senses you and you're Flayed, too?" Will rebutted.

"That's a risk I'm willing to take," Alistair replied, shrugging.

"And what if the other Flayed are there? What if you're on your own and we can't help?"

"I'll figure something out. Even if it means killing or exorcising a few Flayed."

"No, it's too risky," Jonathan shot down, shaking his head.

"Yeah, and unnecessary. Killing or exorcising the Flayed won't stop the Mind Flayer. We have to find out where it's spreading from. We have to find the source," Nancy argued, determination in her face.

"Billy knows it."

Everyone turned to El as she stepped out of the kitchen, going on, "Billy's been there. To the source."

"Yeah but—" Mike started to protest.

"It's a trap. I know," El interrupted. "We can't go to Billy, but I think there's another way. A way for me to see where he's been."

That was how they all went back into the living room, after El shared how she could do it—by looking into Billy's memories, like she looked into her mom's and found out what happened to her, the sickening thing Brenner had done to her to stop her from trying to get El back, and when Alistair heard about it, he was again glad the asshole was rotting in hell thanks to the Demogorgon. Still, it sounded incredibly risky, especially when El had already been searching for the Flayed for hours, but Alistair kept silent.

Instead, he headed outside and said, "I know you're there."

Immediately, ghosts materialised. Ricky stepped forward and said, You know.

"Yeah, I know," Alistair responded snappishly. "So, can you cut the cryptic bullshit and tell me where the fuck the Mind Flayer is possessing people?"

We can't, another told him.

"Well, tell me the vague location of it and then I can just project my soul there—"

No! was the overwhelming response back, cold spiking in the air, before a a willowy ghost with the look of deep hunger whispered, Too dangerous.

"Why? It's not like I'm physically there," Alistair demanded. However, when he only felt silence, a trickle of horror seeped into him, spreading like a disease as he asked, "Wait, the Mind Flayer... has it gotten any of you guys?"

The ghosts were silent, before the boy with frozen hair and frostbitten fingers answered, Yes.

Ice froze Alistair, his mind thinking of Allie. "Fuck. How many?"

A couple, a woman with deep wrinkles on her face and her hair tied up in a bun answered. Any who get too close, to the source and the possessed... they are taken.

Allie's fine, Rick said, sensing the panic on Alistair's face. But... it got the colonel. And... and Gracie. And Hughes. And a couple animal ghosts.

We stay away. Where it can't get us, a young girl informed, before a boy who looked like her said gravely, But getting harder to do. Less places to hide.

Alistair remembered the stampede, the crushing panic of the ghosts, the terror the Mind Flayer had dug its claws in the hospital, where he assumed they had been free to wander without being taken, where they thought they'd be safe.

"Fuck," he whispered again. "How can it Flay you guys? No one else but me can see you."

We don't know. But you can't go. If it gets you— the matronly ghost started, and Alistair finished, "It could use me to get to my friends. To Will. To El."

Yes, the ghosts responded.

"Okay. Okay. Shit," Alistair muttered. Looking at the ghosts, he said, "We're finding a way to stop it, I promise. For good."

You better, Rick growled, before one by one, the ghosts disappeared, and the summer heat returned.

"I hope I can, too," Alistair muttered to himself, before he turned back to the cabin and walked back inside.

Once he did, he noticed everyone was gathered in the living room, El in front of the TV, blindfold around her eyes and static filling the silence.

Alistair sat on the arm of the couch, waiting with everyone else as El sought out Billy. Alistair noticed the worry on Mike's face, and he tried to give him a comforting look. If it helped, Mike didn't show it as he looked at El.

Another minute passed, before a change started in El.

She began breathing a bit faster, her entire body going rigid.

Mike was the first to notice, as he said worriedly, "Something's wrong."

Alistair looked at El, asking, "El, are you okay? Jean Grey, you okay? El?"

El didn't respond, her breathing spiking higher and higher, until it suddenly smoothed out.

"El, are you okay? Are you okay?" Mike questioned, an inflection of panic in his voice.

"I'm okay," she answered.

"What's going on?" Mike pressed.

"I'm.. on a beach," El replied.

Alistair frowned, sharing a confused look with Cami, as Lucas said, "Okay, I may be dense, but the last I checked, there weren't any beaches in Hawkins."

"What else do you see?" Max questioned.

"A woman. She's... pretty," El responded. "I... I think she's looking at me."

A pause, before El said, "There's... a boy."

The confusion grew in Alistair, until El revealed, "It's Billy."

"It's California," Max murmured, clearing up the confusion immediately. "It's a memory."

Alistair looked back to El, as she said, "I think I see it. The source."

Another moment of tense silence, waiting for El to respond. Alistair bit his lip, his anxiousness mixing with Hugin's. Cami sent him a look of comfort, but it faltered under her own anxiousness, her own fear for El.

After minutes of silence, El finally spoke again.

"I think I found it. The source."

"Where, El? Where are you?" Max demanded, a thread of worry in her voice.

"Brimborn... Steelworks," El answered.

At hearing that, Jonathan was moving, grabbing the phonebook, Nancy with him. Jonathan flipped through the pages, muttering, "Here. Okay, uh, steelworks, steelworks... uh..."

When he found it, he said, "Uh... Here, steel. Uh... Found it. 65522 Cherry Oak Drive."

"That's close," Nancy realised.

"El, El, we found it. Get out of there. Get out," Mike told El, Alistair nodding.

"Yeah, get the hell out of there, Jean Grey," Alistair agreed.

El nodded, and they waited. And waited.

She didn't pull the blindfold off.

"Guys, shouldn't El be waking up right about now?" Cami asked, her voice failing to hide the tremor.

"Shit, something went wrong!" Mike exclaimed, panic stark on his face as he got out of his chair and shook El, yelling, "El, can you hear me? Come on, you have to get out of there! El? El!"

"El, are you okay? Come on, you have to wake up now! Jean Grey? El?" Alistair demanded, moving to shake her as well. 

When El didn't respond, when her face under the blindfold looked utterly terrified, Alistair's heartbeat spiked.

Alistair looked to Mike. "Keep trying to wake her up, Mike!"

"Al, what are you doing? Al?!" Will yelled as Alistair stood up, panic in his face.

"Helping her," Alistair said as he closed his eyes.

One minute, he was in his body. The next he was out of it, and in front of Billy Hargrove.

He looked awful—black sores peppered his body, sweat glistened on his skin, and the scratches courtesy of Hugin were crusted black and looked like they were rotting. Alistair glared at him, knowing Billy wouldn't see him or hear him yet, saying, "I don't care if you live or die, you bastard. But Max would, and right now, El's in danger. So, let's give this exorcism a second try."

Moving to stand in front of Billy, Alistair grabbed his hand.

Billy jolted, dark eyes searching for the person who grabbed him, but Alistair kept up his invisibility as he called upon the cold in his veins, the exorcising light.

Time to drive the Mind Flayer out of Billy.

But as he did, the light stuttered, refusing to listen to his call. Alistair frowned, tried to call it again. Again, it failed, as if...

As if he couldn't call upon it.

Panic lurched in him, and Alistair could feel his heart beating a frenzied beat back in his body, as this time he tried to call uoon any dead animals.

The ground rumbled, but nothing else happened.

Shit.

Staring wide-eyed at Billy, Alistair let go and stumbled back—just as Billy whirled to him. Looking straight at him, though Alistair knew he was still invisible.

Shit, shit, shit, shit! Alistair thought as he returned back to his body as Billy stood up, lunging for him—

And he was back in his body, gasping and staggering back.

Hugin croaked a storm, yelling Al okay what did Alistair do stupid really stupid Alistair safe?! as arms wrapped around Alistair and he heard Will say, "Holy shit, Al! You scared the shit out of me! I thought..."

"I'm okay. I'm okay," Alistair assured, hugging Will. When they pulled back, Alistair was glomped by Cami, who threatened, "Do that again, and I'll haunt you for the rest of your days, okay?"

"Okay."

"I'm serious! You're like my soul twin or something! I wouldn't know what I'd do if you were Flayed and became one of those things or died! So don't pull anymore stupid shit, okay idiota?"

"I won't. Promise," Alistair vowed, smiling at Cami.

She narrowed her eyes, but pulled away, as now Max stepped in and punched him in the arm, saying, "That's for being a dumbass, dumbass."

"Yeah, I know. Thanks for reminding me," he muttered, rubbing his arm. Concern spiked as he remembered El, and he asked, "Did El wake up?"

At that, everyone's faces fell and Alistair saw El was still on the floor, blood pouring from her nose, Mike next to her, holding her.

"Shit, El!" he shouted, rushing to her. As he did, El screamed, "No!" and ripped off her blindfold. She looked absolutely terrified, frantic eyes darting everywhere before she looked at Mike as he assured, "El, you're okay. It's okay. El."

El only sobbed, crumpling in his arms, clutching to him like a lifeline.

"El, what happened?" Cami asked before Alistair could, and as he moved closer, he stopped, a sharp pain stabbing into him.

He had only time to think Wha— before everything inside him exploded into fiery agony.

A guttural scream wrenched out of him as he collapsed to the ground, convulsing and screaming as every fibre of his being erupted with pain, a hundred voices pressing into his brain and screaming with him. The way his throat was growing sore was the only tell that Alistair was still screaming as he registered nothing but the pain.

Dimly, he could feel Hugin's panic, the panic of everyone around him. Hands touched him and Alistair screamed louder, curling up as tears leaked out of his eyes, pain carving him open over and over again, a pain so intense that it felt like everything in him was melting from it, liquefying and reforming and melting over and over again in a twisted cycle.

He could barely even scream out words, his voice becoming that single distorted howl, as he stopped being a boy and instead a creature of this endless, unceasing pain.

Distantly, he felt cold burn in his eyes, felt the world rumble and the air grow cold, but Alistair hardly registered it over the pain, oh God it was agony, it felt like he was burning and being melted alive only to be reshaped and melted again, and he could still hear screaming.

A part of Alistair wondered if he was dying. A part of him was begging why he hadn't died yet from the pain, had dissolved into blood and gore from the pain. Why this pain was so cruel to keep him so close to death and never actually kill him.

Then his body locked out and Alistair howled in agony, his voice mixing with the screams he heard as, outside, the earth ruptured and unearthly howls filled the air, the temperature plummeted as dark shapes surrounded the cabin, eyes glowing white, scrabbling at the walls as Alistair's body twitched and melted all but physically, organs and bones liquefying inside him and reforming again, as cold burned in his eyes, as he screamed.

Then, the pain stopped and Alistair shot up, his entire body trembling, ears ringing with the pain and screams, hand clutching his chest, feeling his beating heart. Feeling he was still alive. His eyes were burning, and everything was filmed in white, something shockingly hot was dripping from his nose, and all he could feel was cold and the pain, imprinted on his soul.

"Holy shit!" Mike yelled. "Your eyes, dude!"

Alistair looked up, squinting as he felt arms around him, hissing—they felt so warm and he felt so cold—and Will saying, "Al, are you okay? What happened? Al?"

"I... I..." Alistair tried, words failing. He hesitated, breathing in and out, filling his lungs, feeling his heart, as Hugin croaked, demanding Alistair okay?! as he felt everyone stare at him. Felt the shapes outside, summoned at his command. Recognised what had just happened.

Because he felt something like this last year, too.

"I..." he croaked, swallowing, before saying again, "I don't think we have to worry about the Flayed as people anymore."

***

I would say I'm sorry, but I'm not >:)

Yeah, this was a mostly not fun time for Alistair. And now why the ghosts are so worried—the Mind Flayer has now gotten a few of them (as for how—since they're ghosts, the Mind Flayer just absorbed whatever remnants of consciousness they had into itself, so you can imagine how horrible and sad that would be :( )

I have to say, I absolutely LOVE the scene where El headed into Billy's mind. Unfortunately, I couldn't technically show it, but I think it's one of the most gorgeous scenes in Stranger Things, especially when she enters the storm

And yeah, a limit to Alistair's powers—he technically can't use them when he's projecting his spirit out. Luckily, he managed to get back before Billy could do anything

And another scene I love—all the Flayed melting and becoming part of the Mind Flayer. As horrifying and tragic that is, I love it still because of the utter cinematography of it. It is gorgeously horrific and beautifully tragic :)

And yeah, Alistair did feel the Flayed melting alive 😢

Next chapter will be soon! And the end's coming closer—who's ready? >:)

Please read, comment and vote!

GhostWriterGirl out!