𝑩𝑳𝑼𝑬 - Billy Hargrove [1]

TWENTY EIGHT

TWENTY EIGHT|THE MIND FLAYER

Bernadette sat in the hospital lobby, watching the clock with boredom as she waited for the others to finally join her. She rested her hand on her bandaged thigh, ignoring the curious looks the receptionist gave her.

"Birdie." Max ran over to the girl, instantly noticing the tears stains on her cheeks and large red marks on her arms. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"I'm okay." Birdie quickly embraced the worried girl, trying to calm her down. "My Billy is still in there. We can save him."

"What happened to you leg?" Nancy walked closer, instantly noticing the large white bandage wrapped around her thigh. "Did he do this?"

"I'm okay." She reassured the girl, stumbling to her feet and limping over to the others who also questioned her leg. "He attacked me but somehow stopped himself. He is in there. I can save him."

"We will all save him." Nancy smiled at her before leading everyone past the receptionist.

"Whoa whoa whoa, excuse me." The receptionist stopped them, putting her phone down to talk to the group. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Oh, um, I was just going to visit my grandma again." Nancy said sweetly, her tone dripping with fake kindness. "And this is my family." She gestured to the rest of the group.

"Extended." Lucas added, noticing the woman raise a brow at him.

"I don't care who they are." The receptionist sassed back. "You know the rules. Two visitors at a time. Two!"

Bernadette sat in the lobby with the kids, Nancy and Jonathan going to visit the mind flayed woman. She let her hazel eyes drift to Max, noticing the girl subtly glancing at her with worry.

"Say it, Max." She sighed, growing tired of the ginger girls silence. "I know you want to ask."

"Are you okay? Like are you really okay?" Max asked, putting her magazine down to fully face the older girl.

"I don't want to do this again." Birdie blinked rapidly, trying to stop herself from crying. "I'm done with the upside down. I have gone through so much and now I might lose the person I love more than anything in this world. I can't keep doing this."

"Lucas told me how when Will went missing you also went missing for a couple days." She said quietly, only letting Birdie and Eleven hear their conversation. "You were in the Upside Down?"

"I got dragged in." The older girl nodded slowly, glancing at Will. Only he knew what it was like. "That's how I got the scar on my arm. Damn thing tried to take a chunk out of my arm. Nancy was the one that found me, she saved my life."

"Hey, Max." Lucas wandered over to the three girls, disturbing their conversation. "Want to see who can catch the most skittles in their mouth?"

"Go on." Birdie whispered to the girl. "I'll be fine." She noticed Mike slowly moving over to Eleven, knowing he wanted to talk to her. Bernadette stood up, following Will over to the other set of chairs. "You seem more quiet than usual. Everything okay?"

"Oh, yeah." Will answered, his voice stammering as he spoke, shocked she was speaking to him. "Just surprised it's back."

"You can sense it too, can't you?" She glanced down at him, noticing him still in his chair. The hairs on her arms raised in fear, eyes darting to the light flickering above them. Will slowly raised out his seat, eyes fixated on the lights as the others noticed his behaviour.

"He's here." Will reached his hand back, touching his neck as his eyes widened in fright. They followed his lead, walking past the angry receptionist and in the direction Nancy and Jonathan went in. Bernadette pressed the lift button repeatedly, nothing working as she slammed her palm against it.

"The stairs." Mike held open the door for everyone, Eleven going first in case anything jumped out at them.

The group wandered down the eerily quiet corridor, stopping when they heard a strange noise coming from a locked room. Eleven raised her hand, knocking the door off its hinges as the group peered inside.

Nancy lay on the floor, a strange monster looming over her with it's teeth bared as it prepared to clamp its mouth down on Nancy.

"What the fuck is that?" Birdie screamed, instantly pulling the kids behind her as she met Nancy's scared eyes.

The monster let out an ear shattering shriek, it's body twisting around to face Eleven who stood prepared. The girl waved her hand, throwing it against the wall as Bernadette ran forwards, grabbing Nancy and holding her tight as they watched Eleven throw the beast around. It snarled at the powerful girl, trying to gain its balance but Eleven threw her hands forwards, throwing it through the window.

"Nancy!" Jonathan ran to his girlfriend, checking over her body for injuries as Birdie leaned back against the wall, happy Nancy was okay.

"We should all go on holiday after this is over." Birdie chuckled, a pained expression on her face as she held her thigh.