[𝗘𝗣𝗜𝗦𝗢𝗗𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗘𝗘: 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗔𝗦𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗜𝗦𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗟𝗜𝗙𝗘𝗚𝗨𝗔𝗥𝗗]

AT THE PUBLIC POOL, PEOPLE WERE running around to leave the place.

sage, max, and eleven were on their bikes — el on the back of sage's. they wore bright raincoats. the wheeler teen wore blue, max yellow, and el wore red. max and sage parked their bikes as el walked into the entrance of the public pool.

the two girls walked over to maintenance center of the public pool, putting their hoods off their heads.

"excuse me," max said nicely, trying to grab their attention. "no one in the water until 30 minutes after the last strike. and don't try and argue with me." the man stated dully, looking at a magazine not even bothering to look up. "you wanna get electrocuted, go climb a tree,"

"yeah, we don't care. we're not here to swim." sage told him. "or get electrocuted," max said after. eleven dug through her pocket and pulled out the fanny pack sage had found.

"we found this," eleven said and showed the man the fanny pack. "does that belong to anybody here?" max asked him. "oh, yeah. that's heather's. i'll get it back to her." the man replied.

"we could give it back to her," eleven protested, glancing at sage and max. "you could. 'cept she's not here. bailed on me today." the man told her.

the three girls look at each other.

"what is this?" the man asked, confused. "you girls want a reward or somethin'?"

max shook her head. "no. we're just . . . good samaritans."

the brunette girl with the man smiled softly at max. the red-head furrowed her eyebrows before turning to look at sage, seeing she was looking over at something with eleven.

sage and eleven walk over to the bulletin board, max following them. the three girls look at the polaroid pictures posted up and see heather.

"heather," max said. "do you think you can find her?"

"no way!" the brunette girl said in shock and laughed. sage looked behind her and right at them before turning back around and snatching the polaroid picture of heather.

the three head to the showers, sage and eleven grabbing tape and goggles as max turns on every shower in the room. sage and eleven put the tape over the goggles until placing the photo of heather in front of them. they put the goggles on and hold each other's hands tightly.

they focus on heather. it didn't take long to get into the void.

when the two girls got to the void, the first thing they see is a mailbox. they walk over to the mailbox and touch it before a red door appears.

"what do you see?" max asked them. "a door," el replied flatly. "a red door."

sage and eleven walk towards the door, pushing it open, and listening to it creak. right when they opened the door they spot a white tub. the girls walk to the tub, seeing it was full of ice.

the two girls stare at the ice before jumping back when heather jumps up from the ice, gasping.

"help me," she says. it almost sounded as if she was terrified.

heather then gets pulled back down into the tub and sage screams, reaching to her with eleven. the tub disappears and the two girls see heather get dragged down into the void.

"help me!" heather screams as she gets dragged.

el and sage reach for her, heads in the water.

the two girls rip the goggles off their faces, gasping for air.

"what happened? el! sage!"

sage grips onto max's hand when she feels her hand on her shoulder. the two look over at the red-head, panting heavily as their noses bled.

the wheeler teen leans over to max, still holding her hand. the mayfield teen leans down and wraps her arms around sage, glancing at eleven to make sure she's also okay.

MAX AND SAGE RIDE THEIR BIKES, eleven on the back of sage's, through the rain as thunder rumbles loudly.

sage rides ahead of max and stops when she sees a familiar mailbox. the red-head stops next to her and looks at the house.

"is this it?" max asks the two girls. "yeah this is it," sage replies and eleven nods.

the girls park their bikes and head to the door, knocking loudly on it hoping that someone could hear and open the door.

after getting no response, eleven was generous enough to use her powers to open the door.

sage was first to walk in while putting her hood off her head. max and eleven followed her, looking around the place — eyes landing on a family photo of heather and her parents.

"this is her house," max whispers. "what?" eleven asked. "heather's house," sage tells her.

a woman laughs causing the three girl's heads to snap in the direction of the laughter. they walk over to see billy with heather's parents.

"max," billy said, surprised. "we didn't mean to . . . barge in." max said. "we tried to knock, but . . . maybe you didn't hear us over the storm," she quickly added in.

"i'm sorry, who is this dripping all over my living room right now?" the man asked.

billy chuckles. "i'm sorry. janet, tom, this . . . is my sister, maxine." the blond introduces before getting up from his chair.

"oh!" janet said and smiled over at max.

"what on earth are you doing here? is something wrong?" billy asked his step-sister, walking over to her and her friends. "we just wanted to make sure everything was okay," max replied.

"okay? why wouldn't it be okay?"

"where is she?" eleven blurted out.

billy looked over at eleven then saw sage next to her. "i'm sorry. where is who?"

"well, they're a little burnt, i'm sorry —" heather said as she walked out of the kitchen. "heather! this is my sister, maxine. right here is her friend . . . sage." billy introduced to the girl, slightly struggling to say sage's name as if he almost hated the name. "and, i'm sorry, i did not quite catch your name."

el turned to billy. "el," she told him. "el." billy repeated. "now, what was it you were saying, el?" he asked her. "you were looking for somebody?"

eleven turned to heather and began to stammer, "i — i saw . . . i saw you —"

"your manager. at the pool." max cut in. "he said you guys didn't come in to 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, glancing at sage occasionally almost glaring at her. "but you're feeling just fine right now, aren't you, heather?" the blond asked the brunette.

"i'm feeling so much better." heather said with a smile. "do you girls want a cookie? they're fresh out of the oven."

"no, thank you," sage said with a soft smile, sensing a bad vibe. "no, no, sage, right? take a cookie! they're so good. a little burnt, but they're amazing." heather insisted, walking over to the girls and handing sage a cookie.

"o-oh, uhm . . . thank you?"

"take a bite!"

"no! i'll just —"

"i said, take a bite."

sage wheeler gulped and looked down at the cookie, slowly taking a bite out of it. heather smiled kindly at sage then walked back to the table, handing her parents cookies.

billy escorted the three teens out, staring at the back of sage's head, rage building up in him. the girls grabbed their bikes and got on them, el getting on the back of sage's bike.

the hargrove teen closed the door and watched from the window next to the door. the girls biked away, sage spitting out the cookie she had in her mouth and throwing it out.

billy kept staring, memories of eleven closing the gate and sage taking part of the mind flayer out of will byers. his pupils dilated at the memories, rage consuming him.

AUTHORS NOTE //

short chapter !!

bee <3