𝐁𝐮𝐫𝐲 𝐔𝐬 𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞 ; ᴹᶦᵏᵉ ᵂʰᵉᵉˡᵉʳ

The Flayed

Sitting in the Wheeler basement, the party watches Eleven, bandana covering her eyes, radio static playing through the room, trying to locate where Joyce and Hopper were in the void. After a good thirty seconds, El, still in her colorful outfit speaks up.

"I found him"

"Where?" Max asks

"Woods."

"Woods?" Will asks, confused why Joyce and Hopper would just casually be going for a hike right now.

"What are they doing?" The redhead asks

"Ill....annoy. They're going to Ill-annoy."

"Mike! Ian! Breakfast!" Karen knocks on the locked basement door, calling for the boys

"Not now Mom!" Mike shouts back, turning back to the group as Eleven removes the bandana, "Illinois? Illinois, like the state?"

Eleven shrugs, repeating the word, stammering a bit as she obviously didn't really know, just going off whatever the adults had said. Max then pulls Eleven away into the bathroom, wanting to clean her bloody nose up and check on the scar around her neck made by Billy. That merely left the boys in the main area, Lucas on the couch, Will at the D&D table, Ian sitting on the table and resting his feet on another chair, and Mike pacing back and forth as he was anxious as all hell about the situation.

"The bottom line is they aren't here. It's up to us" Lucas tells the raven haired boy

"Up to us to do what, exactly?" Mike asks

"Find Billy and stop him"

"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 we make sure he doesn't escape this time"

"Another foolproof plan made by Lucas Sinclair, everybody" Ian interrupts, clapping sarcastically

"Then what? We don't win. We got the Mind Flayer out of Will before and it just came right back" Mike continues, making a point to Lucas.

"We can't just stop Billy and call it a day, we have to stop the Mind Flayer." Ian adds

"How the hell do we do that then?" Lucas asks

"I don't know." Mike answers

"Maybe El does?" Will suggests

The boys look back at the closed bathroom door, confused why they had been in there so long.

"What are they doing in there?" Mike asks

Lucas stands up, box of cereal in hand as he stands next to Mike, "I dunno. Girls just like hanging out in bathrooms." He offers some of his Coco Puffs to Mike, which he declines.

"Why?" Mike asks

"Who knows, probably talking about girl stuff" Ian shrugs, "My sister would sit in the bathroom all the time with her friends and talk about girl drama"

"Not girl drama! Talking about real world problems!" Max shouts, scaring the boys into shutting up, not knowing they could be heard.

A knock at the door is heard again, Nancy now yelling for Mike to open the door. Confused, Mike rushes up the stairs, being greeted by Nancy and Jonathan. The two older teens rush down the stairs behind Mike, gathering the party back together as Nancy speaks. She explains what she saw at the hospital with one of the patients, someone she already had suspicions of.

"It was like, the exact same thing that happened to Will last year" Nancy speaks, dusting off her bright and colorful light purple dress. "And look at this, look at the body temperatures" The curly haired teen speaks, handing a sheet to Ian that had come from the hospital.