"but if i crossed a million rivers and rode a million miles then i'd still be where i started."

★・・・・・・★

Everyone went back to Mike's except Amber. But she didn't want to go home. She just walked. She had a line on her neck from where Billy choked her and a cut on her eyebrow. She had a killer headache and her shoulder hurt.

She eventually went to the park and sat on a bench there. It became morning and she hadn't slept, her wounds hadn't been cleaned, and she overall felt exhausted. She figured that the party hadn't slept either. She decided to start walking. She then decided to go to Mike's.

-

She got to Mike's and El was in her void. She walked in quietly as Eleven said, "I found him."

"Where is he?" Max asked.

"Woods."

"Woods?"

"He's with... Will's mom."

"My- My mom?"

"What are they doing?" Amber asked. After she said that, everyone looked at her. They knew she didn't sleep, but they didn't know that she didn't go home. She was in the same clothes as yesterday. So was the party.

"Ill... annoy," El announced. "They're going to Ill-annoy."

Then there was knocking on the door, followed by Mrs. Wheeler's voice. "Mike! Breakfast!"

"Not now, Mom!" He yelled then he proceed to ask, "Illinois? Illinois, like the state?"

El shrugged her shoulders and said,
"Ill-annoy."

Then she and Max went into the bathroom to get her cleaned up. They offered to get Amber cleaned up but, she refused.

"Somethings not right. I can't get Hopper off my back all summer, and now all of a sudden, he's hiking with Will's mom to Illinois? And Dustin's MIA, too? I mean, this can't be a coincidence," Mike said.

Mike was pacing back and forth by the stairs, Will was sitting by the table where they played D&D, and Lucas and Amber were sitting on the couch, eating some cereal.

"What does it matter?" Lucas asked. "The bottom line is, they're not here. It's up to us."

"Up to us to do what exactly?" Amber asked.

"Find Billy and stop him," Lucas said as Amber rolled her eyes.

"Okay, yeah, that's a really nice sentiment, but even if El could find him again, and that's a pretty big if, then what?"

"We burn the shit out of him and make sure he doesn't escape this time."

"Yeah, cause that worked last time," Amber commented.

"Okay, then what?"
"Then we win."

"No, see, that's the problem. We don't. We don't win," Mike started. "We got the Mind Flayer out of Will before and he just came right back. We don't just stop Billy, we have to stop the Mind Flayer."

"How in the hell do we do that?" Amber chimed in.

"I don't know."

"Maybe El or Amber does," Will said. Amber shook her head no.

Mike stopped pacing and looked at the bathroom door. "What are they still doing in there?"

"I don't know," Lucas said as he continued eating. "Girls just like hanging out in bathrooms."

"Asshole, I'm right here. I'm offended," Amber said.

"Why?"

"They're conspiring against me," Mike said.

"That's what you're concerned about right now?" Will asked.

"It's not my main concern, it's just a sub-concern."

"I thought it was already over."

"It's not over, okay? We're just taking a break."

"Mike, she said she dumped your ass. Trust me, it wasn't a break."

"It wasn't!" Max said from the bathroom. "You guys do realize we can still hear everything you're saying, right?"

"Conspiring. I told you. They're conspiring."

Then there was a knock at the door. So Mike shouted, "Not now, Mom!"

"Mike, open the door," Nancy's stern voice said.

-

The other girls came out of the bathroom and joined the rest of the group. Max sat by Amber. Amber wanted more than anything to hug her right then and there, but she didn't. She couldn't. She was still extremely pissed at her.

Nancy and Jonathan came down the stairs and into the basement to talk to them. She showed the body temperatures of someone named Mrs. Driscoll and explained what happened to her last night.

"It was the same thing, the exact same thing that happened to Will last year. And look at this. Look at the body temperatures."

"He likes it cold," Will realized.

"Okay, so this crazy old woman who was eating fertilizer-"
"Mrs. Driscoll."

"Right, yeah, Mrs. Driscoll. What time was this attack?" Mike asked.

"Last night," his sister replied.

"Right, but what time last night?"

"Around 9:00"

"You waited all night to call?" Jonathan then asked Nancy.

"I was waiting for the doctors to run some tests."

"You weren't there?" Will asked his older brother.

"Well, I'm here now, aren't I?"

"Hallelujah!" Nancy said sarcastically.

"Ooh," Lucas groaned.

"Um, so, wha- what time was your... sauna test?"

"Around 9:00," the party said.

"Well, that proves it. That proves my theory."

"She's flayed, just like Billy."

"Flayed?"

"The Mind Flayer. He flays people. Takes over their mind. Once they do that, they basically become him."

"If there are two flayed-"

"We have to assume there are more."

"Heather," El remembered. "Billy was doing something to her. She was scared. She was screaming. Bad screams."

"What's a good scream?" Lucas asked.

"Max said-"

"Doesn't matter," Amber said as she covered for Max.

"I'm sorry, I'm lost. Who is Heather?"

"She's a lifeguard at the pool," Max said.

"Heather Holloway?" Nancy asked as they all nodded. "Tom."

They all went into the car. The two older teens in the front, Lucas, Amber, Max, and El are in the middle, and Mike and Will are in the back.

"Seat belts," Nancy reminded them as she pulled her hair back.

Then they drove off the the Holloway house.

-

They got to the Holloway household and the door was locked. Nobody was home, either. They all looked at El as she opened the door. They walked in and it was freezing.

"Tom?" Nancy called out. "Heather?"

"Jesus, it's freezing," Max spoke.

They continued to walk around the house and Nancy smelt something. "Do you guys smell that?"

They walked to the kitchen and saw what they smelt. Chemicals. "Oh, God. More chemicals."

They walked towards the counter and looked at the products.

"You think they're guzzling this shit?" Jonathan asked Nancy.

"Yeah, either that or they just went on a hell of a cleaning spree."

"But last year, Will didn't eat chemicals. Did you?" Max asked.

"No. This is something new."

"Mr. Clarke, fifth grade," Mike said. "Posit. What happens when you mix chemicals together?"

"You create a new substance," the boys plus Amber said.

"What if they're making something?"

"In themselves? I mean, come on, if you drink this crap, it'll kill you."

"Yeah, if you're human."

They walked into the dinning room and saw food. It was left out from the night Amber, Max, and El was there. They continued walking and Nancy saw a wine bottle and on the floor was blood.

"Yesterday, Tom had a bandage on his forehead," Nancy observed as she picked up the wine bottle. "He was attacked."

They looked over to see a rug against the wall. They followed it. There was more blood by a door, so they opened it. It guided them into a garage. They walked in and there was a rope on the floor.

This scared Amber. She reached for someones hand, not caring about who it was. And it so happened to be Max's. But she didn't care.

"They must've tied them," Jonathan said. "They must've taken them somewhere."

"Mrs. Driscoll. She kept saying... 'I have to go back.'," Nancy started. "What if they flaying, it's taking place somewhere else? There must be a place where all this started, right? A source."

"Somewhere he didn't want me to see," El said.

"If we can find the source, then maybe we can stop him. Or at least stop it from spreading or doing whatever the hell he's doing with those chemicals."

"How do we find it?"

"Mrs. Driscoll. If she wants to go back so badly, why don't we let her?" Will suggested.

So they went to the hospital.

-

They got to the hospital and tried to get past the lady at the front desk but she saw them and stopped them.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Excuse me! Where do you think you're going?"

"Oh, um... I was just going to visit my grandma again," Nancy said. "And- And this... this is my family."

The lady looked at Lucas, him being the only Black one there, so he said, "Extended."

"I don't care who they are. You know the rules. Two visitors at a time."

"Yeah, but-"
"Two!"

And then she proceeded to talk on the phone.

Nancy and Jonathan decided they would go ahead to Mrs. Driscoll's room.

Mike, Lucas, and Amber were trying to get some snacks from the vending machine. Mike was trying to get a KitKat bar but it stopped at the last minute.

"Oh, come on, you piece of shit!" Mike said while hitting it with help of Lucas and Amber.

But then almost every snack in the machine was dumped out thanks to Eleven. They all looked at her as she wiped her nose and continued to look at the magazine.

"Thanks," Mike said.

They bent down and grabbed the snacks as Lucas said, "Dude, I think that was it."

"That was what?" Mike asked.

"The olive branch."
"The what?"

"Oh, my God. You're hopeless."
"Lucas-"

"Okay, Amber, distract Max to get Mike an opening. And then talk to her. All right?"

Amber didn't think that it would be a good idea, but she wanted to talk to Max, so she went along with it.

They picked up some snacks and Amber picked up some Skittles.

"Hey, Max? Skittles?"

"Yeah, sure," Max replied. She was happy that Amber wanted to talk to her. "Can I try and catch them in the air?"
"Yeah, sure."

So they stood in the middle of the waiting room as Amber threw the Skittles in the air and Max caught them.

"Yeah!" Amber said as she laughed. Max missed her laugh. She adored it.

"Got it, two in a row."

"That was good, that was good."

Max caught another one and they cheered.

"Three in a row now."

Max now was throwing Skittles so Amber could catch them. She wasn't the best at it, but she wasn't terrible. Max and Amber then decided to look at a magazine as the lights started flickering.

Will and Amber felt it. They felt a tingly feeling. Everyone got up and looked around.

"He's here."

"Well, then we fight."