꧁꧂

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛʜɪʀᴛʏ: ᴀɴᴅ ɪ'ʟʟ ᴄᴀʟʟ ʏᴏᴜ ᴍɪɴᴇ

"Scoops Troop, do you copy?" Mike paced back and forth with the radio in his hand, speaking into it so quickly that it surprised me that it was humanly possible to do such a thing. Then again, I had heard faster speaking from Joyce when she'd lost her keys for the millionth time in one morning. "Scoops Troop, I repeat, do you copy?"

I faked and exaggerated a yawn over to Max due to the boy and she smiled weakly at my actions. Mike carried on repeating our situation to the four of them, while the two of us stood there, leaning up against the side. "Max, hey..." I say, noticing the expression on her face again. It wasn't something I wanted to see. Her eyes were bloodshot each and every time they opened up after a long amount of blinking, and she kept glancing in all directions but where I was. "talk to me." Trying to keep my voice as low and quiet as possible, I reached up and over to her, fixing her chin to look over at me.

The girl didn't take her eyes away from me, looking and analysing each detail there was to offer on my face. Her eyes swelled up slightly at my last words, shaking her head as she leaned into my embrace. Max's arms wrapped around me tighter than ever before, squeezing my shoulders and leaning her head into the crook of my neck.

Muffled words came from the girl as I comforted her and held her close. The most coherent being the ones that stung me the most. "I'm scared." Doing my best to help her through it in the moment, the girl eventually did calm down, yet it scared me to the core that she was so suddenly coming out with the emotions. She's reached her limit of scary Upside Down shit, that was for sure.

She momentarily fell asleep in my arms, not moving any further away from my body as she did so, though. We sat there as I silently watched over at the others, of whom were all busy doing whatever could be deemed useful while stuck in Starcourt Mall.

Closest to us, Nancy rolled over an unconscious Russian's body, searching him over before stopping. The girl reached over to his belt and pulled out a gun, opening it up to see the contents before clicking it all back together again. "You're not... gonna kill him, are you?" I spoke quietly and as softly as I could to the girl, not wanting to wake Max in my arms in any way when I did speak.

Nancy looked up at me from the gun, eyes darting between me and Max. "It's- uh... just a precaution." I nodded ever so slightly when she spoke. "It's not just against Billy anyways." The only reason I cared about Billy dying is the long-term effect it would have on the girl in my arms. How would it be for her if the boy did die tonight? Would it be good? Unlikely. No one can take the death of a person lightly unless they were some kind of a physcopath. "If Billy knows that we're here, then so does the Mind Flayer."

"Right..." I let out a short and shaky breath to Nancy before Max moved around in my arms, waking from her two minute-or-so nap. "You okay there, sleepy head?" I asked her quietly, glancing down at her as I asked it. She nodded and looked up at me, eyes not as bad as they were, yet still slightly bloodshot. Eyeing her lips for a second, I looked back away at Nancy when she spoke up.

"Don't suppose we can get that to drive?" She asked the group of us, gesturing over to the smashed up, ruined show-room car that El had previously flung across the mall earlier on the same night.

Johnathan smiled a little when he came up with an idea. "We don't need it to drive." I gave my older brother an expression, hopefully telling him just how confused I currently was. We don't need it to drive, we just need it to get us all the way Murray's without, you know, getting us killed. "We just need the ignition cable." Oh.

⊹˚˖⁺

As the group of us did our best to try and push it back onto its four wheels by hand, it seemed as though we were, surprisingly getting nowhere. The metal cranked and squirmed as we did our best, but it was no use. The mass of the thing was at least double whatever we could push.

"SHIT." Glass smashed from the windshield as we gave up, and one of us cursed out loud, yet I couldn't even tell you which one of us it was. It could've been any of them and I wouldn't put it past them.

"Let me try." Clutching the side of me, I felt for any movement of a bone, but it seemed all the same to me. Which was good enough. When I did so, El spoke up from the side after seeing our utter failure of moving the vehicle around.

"El..." A tired, exhausted, even, Mike went to argue with the girl.

She stepped closer to the car, though, "I can do it."

⊹˚˖⁺

Unfortunately, El's method didn't work, so we resulted to one of Mike's methods (which was odd considering all that usually comes out of his mouth is complete bullshit). And, to the unfortunate truth, his plan and method worked, and we eventually did get the car to turn around and onto it's four wheels again.

"Told you." Mike says to us. "Physics." And it was as though, at that moment, I saw his ego visually grow an inch. The group of us moved around the counter, with Johnathan and Nancy quickly striding towards the car's bonnet. Rule number forty-one: let Mike do all that shit with physics, we will all watch from a distance, or something like that, I dunno...

Holding a hand out after jumping down, I offered it out for Max to take, which she took without a moment's hesitation. The two older teens tried to open it up when we looked back, but it was getting nowhere. "How do we get it open?" Nancy asked, slightly impatient, but I let it slide considering all of our lives were at stake.

"Uh... there should be a latch." He pointed over inside the car as I walked around. "Check under the wheel." Opening up the door, with a lot of cursing at it after a moment, I sat in the driver's seat, reaching around under the wheel. "You see it?" My brother questioned me.

"Yeah, 'cause there is not at least seven other latches, switched and buttons here..." I muttered, furrowing my eyebrows at them all. After flipping three switches (and setting the car alarm off, by accident) I decided maybe it were for the best if I left it to the two that actually knew how to drive. I did know how to drive- mom had taught me in the parking lots late at night at least three times, now. I was what they'd call- a professional. Rule number forty-two: learn how to drive like an actual human being

As I moved out the way, I furrowed my eyebrows over at Max and Mike, of who were oddly stood next to each other. It wasn't a normal view, to say the least. "Are you feeling okay?" I asked, glancing between her and Mike. When I whispered over to Max, she didn't take her eyes away where she was staring, nudging me when doing so. Across the mall, El went through the trash, ripping out most of its contents before stopping suddenly, holding one singular perfect can of Coca Cola.

As the girl went on to place the can on the side, the other two glanced around at each other, confused faces on show. I may have missed out on everyone for the last few days, but I really do hope that the Mind Flayer hadn't turned them all into garbage rats. The three of us walked towards El as she stared at the can. She wasn't ready to try and use her powers again, but she was the only one who seems to not know that.

"El?" Mike's voice echoed all over the mall as we approached the girl in yellow and black. "You okay?" When she looked over at us, I raised an eyebrow at the extreme flow of blood leaving her left nostril, also noticing the expression she had. It was as though Eleven had seen a ghost. When El looked back at the can, I gave Max a cautious look, worrying that whatever was going on with the telekinetic girl was going to cause slight backlash.

Stepping over, I went to talk to the girl in question when Max caught my wrist and pulled me back from doing so. The look in her eyes was almost frightening. I knew she was scared, but this was not what she was scared of.

The distant sound of rumbling above us caused all four of us, and probably everyone else in the food court, to look up at the glass ceiling. The glass moved as a thump could be heard, along with an outline being seen through said glass. The Mind Flayer: it had found us.

"Jesus..." As we all watched the glass, the sound of it beginning to clink and crack might as well have been our death sentence. 

Glass and monsters near you! We will make sure you are haunted by monsters from other dimensions and ruin the skylights! All for just-

Grabbing Max's hand, I didn't look back the second Mike called over to his sister, telling her to get the hell out of the mall anyways possible. Although my stomach was felt as though it was on fire, we ran, and we ran as we heard the glass continue to make the shattering sounds- before it did.

The sounds of snarling from the Mind Flayer were enough to send my ass to Mars. The chill and shivers that took over my body momentarily was unexplainable by most science by it all. Don't even get me started on the roars that it let out. If I didn't already have a reason to go to therapy, this was certainly it.

After what felt like the millionth roar (but was probably no more than the third), something was flung across the mall's food court by the monster. The Mind Flayer slowly moved around the court, looking for us- or at least something- in every corner.

The red head beside me kept a tight, tight grip on my hand as the four of us hid behind one of the stalls, praying to whatever Gods there were in this world were watching over us right now. It didn't help with the sounds of its snarls getting closer and closer by the second.

The roars went on as Max and Mike quickly came up with a plan, with an Eleven beside me who was in her own mind, still, thoughts far ahead of all of us- but hopefully on the main issue itself (the big monster made of human flesh and bones trying to kill us all). It hissed in our general direction before it oddly moved back to the main hub of the food court, from what I'm guessing, to see if it could find any other life signs.

As long as we didn't make a sign, perhaps we could get away with it. When Mike glanced up (which was brave, I'll give him that) he quickly dipped back down to the three of us. "It's turned away." I'd never heard his voice so quiet. "If we go up the stairs now, we'll make it."

"No way." Max bickered with the boy. "Not with El's leg and Park's stomach."

"I can tough it out." I insisted to her.

"We have to try." Mike argued with her. I can't believe I was agreeing Mike over Max right there and then, however, the fate of our lives were at stake, so you know...

"There's another way..." El says, turning Mike to look back at her. "to get out." Oh? "Through the Gap." Glancing over at the shop in question, I then looked at the red head beside me, of who was much okay with it, considering she basically knew that store inside out. She's probably taken me there more times than I've taken her to Radio Shack to rent Star Wars (which is a lot).

When Mike then came back down from looking over at the monster, he whispered an exhausted response. "Okay..." He then glanced around to the side, nodding. "Now." And without a moment's hesitation- we ran.

⊹˚˖⁺

When hiding around the back of the store, the four of us sat there silently, hearing snarls, roars and hisses from the only issue that could disrespectfully fuck off. The sudden throwing of a mannequin towards us made all hiding behind the shelf jump. It didn't help that it was wearing the same top as Eleven, either...

We needed to get out of there, and fast. Glancing over at the red head beside me, she gestured over next to her, insisting that the four of us would move before we become apart of the Mind Flayer's next meal (ew).

It was getting closer, though, even after we'd tried our best to move around to one of the other counters. We were screwed of it got any closer- and it was already in viewing distance to us.

Max's hand squeezed mine even tighter than before, probably cutting off some of my blood circulation to it, but it wasn't like I cared right there and then. The scared look in her eyes were something indescribable. We needed to get out of the mall, and fast.

Hearing a loud pop from afar, across the mall, it was then replied by a roar and snarl from the Mind Flayer, sending it on its way to find whatever had caused it. Hopefully it wasn't where the others were directly, though. The four of us didn't hang around, heading straight towards the back door of the gap, not one leaving the others behind.

⊹˚˖⁺

The group of us ran down the corridor as fast as we could, helping El as best as we could with her leg issues, and Max insisting that I took a breather with the way my stomach kept acting up. But, let's be real for a moment, who the hell is going to voluntarily stop in the middle of a corridor with its only light source constantly flickering? Don't even get me started on the looming fear of death. That was for another day.

We were close to the end of the corridor- there we should be able to find a way out (according to Mike, that was).

"IN HERE- IN HERE-" We turned a sudden corner when we finally got to the end of the long, long walk. As we walked in, we leaned El on the side as the boy pressed the button repeatedly, calling for an elevator to appear. As he did so, the echoing sound of something in the distance caused both me and Max's head to jolt up.

Please, whatever Gods were watching, let it not be Billy. We did not need this, right now...

The girl insisted I stayed there, but it was no good- I was following right behind her whether she liked it or not. Reaching the door, I poked my head out to see that the Gods who were watching were obviously taking the piss. Rule number forty-three: have a strong word with the Gods once this battle of Starcourt mall was over with. Bitches don't even care about our situation right now!

As Billy struggled and limped towards us, Max did her best as I stepped in front of her. "Billy- Billy you don't have to do this." As the boy got closer to us, it was obvious he wasn't even listening, he wasn't here for us. "Billy- YOUR NAME IS BILLY, BILLY HARGROVE-" As he got closer, I began to step forward, holding him back for however long I could. "YOU LIVE ON 4819 CHERRY LANE. BILLY, PLEASE, I'M MAX, I'M YOUR-"

Meeting the boy basically halfway, the boy swung a singular punch towards me, which I somehow dodged. The only probably was, this was Billy. Billy could be violent. And so, my dodge was basically nothing, considering he continued to throw me to the wall and kick me until I was out cold. Yay. Lovely to meet my crush's stepbrother again. It's great when I have to fight him. Lovely family bonding...

⊹˚˖⁺

"Park? Park wake up, please-" Waking to being shaken like a rag doll, and her voice, I opened up my left eye, staring straight up at the ceiling and the bright flickering light. "Can you hear me? PARK?"

"I can't lie, I think that could've gone better between me and him..." I muttered to Max beside me. I felt like shit. My back made me feel as though I was an old person. "Wait-" I sat up, glancing around, mentally noting to ask her how she was feeling physically with the large bruise that was going to take place on her face after what I assumed was Billy's actions. "Max, where's El?"

To say we ran after that, would be an understatement. We did not run. We sprinted. We raced. We broke every speeding limit that you could imagine in a corridor between three teenage nerds. It was as though we were suddenly made for track. We weren't, trust me. Rule number forty-four: join the running team

"THIS CORNER." We turned at Mike's words immediately, not holding back as we ran down the corridor before pulling a door open, rushing through the back and to the front of Scoops Ahoy. Stopping dead in our tracks, we all stared up at the scene in front of us.

The Mind Flayer, in the middle of it all, with Eleven and Billy before it. The mall was in pieces, as if it were a new Lego set that hadn't been released yet or a toddler had been at for hours on end trying to get it to all fall apart. The monster roared as Billy took a step towards it.

What was he doing?

Part of me was worried that we were about to watch our friend literally get sacrificed Bible-style to a different dimension's creature, and I decided in that moment that some thoughts were definitely better left unsaid.

El backed away, scooting along the floor as the screeching and roars continued on. Billy stood his ground firmly as we stared between them. He wasn't moving. Come on, Mom... when is the gate closing up? We needed it to be closed yesterday...

The Mind Flayer roared directly at Billy, who just stood there, still, with its mouth opening to reveal another part of itself, shooting out towards the boy.

To my surprise, he held his hands out first, catching it almost as he did so. The Mind Flayer seemed to almost eat parts of his hand (or at least swallow them in some way) as he yelled at the monster. Wow. Okay... that was not on my summer 85' bingo card...

The boy did everything in his power to fight off the monster, but that's when I saw it. When we all saw it. The Mind Flayer drew out only more of these vine-like creatures that were part of itself, and they lurked around the air, moving towards Billy slowly as we watched.

One shot towards the boy's stomach, and my eyes went wide in terror. Holy shit. He screamed out in pain as another hit his stomach moments later. It went on, before we knew it at least seven of the Mind Flayer's vines were now apart of Billy's body.

His body went limp, falling backwards and his hair flopped back, too, with his head looking up to the ceiling. He was... oh my God, he was dead. There was no way... As the Mind Flayer lowered the boy's body to the floor, I found myself unable to tear my eyes away from it all. Whatever the fuck was going on was insane. Beyond any scientific understanding. I was gonna wake up from my sleep any second now... any... second... now...

The monster roared at Billy's body as it stared back up at it before a final vine came towards his chest, stabbing straight through him.

Any. Second. Now...

"BILLY." Everything after that moment was quick. Was fast. A blur, to me. I knew I was there, but I felt as though it was far too much to take into my head.

As the Mind Flayer's vines left the older boy's body, it fell to the ground, and he continued to stare up at the ceiling, sprawled across the floor as his life slowly ended. Max fell into my arms beside me as I didn't take my eyes off of the boy, hearing screeching in the distance from the Mind Flayer.

They'd done it, they had closed the gate. And I was glad, but... they were also far too late.

The moment the monster collapsed on the ground (not that gracefully at all), Mike rushed to Eleven's side, making sure she was okay, while Max could barely walk towards the boy's body in the mall.

As we did so, the girl didn't let go of me, looking at Billy as he coughed up at the ceiling. Black liquid, the blood of the flayed, ruined the vest he wore for the day. Max leaned over the boy, shaking him a little as she insisted on him to not