The Girl With the Red Hair

IX. Heather

                                       "Run!"
   
     A terrified Benny listened to the clanging noises erupting from the structure, whatever was in there was moving. He disregarded Billy's words, knowing he would feel guilty if something happened to him and he did nothing. He approached Billy's car and grabbed a shard of glass that had broken off of the windshield and stood alertly.  When he heard the bushes around him move, he gripped the shard tighter.

      Suddenly, the same tentacle type thing that grabbed Billy moments earlier wrapped around his leg and pulled him down. After a second of processing what was happening, he stabbed the tentacle desperately as it dragged him. Though it took him a few tries, he managed to slice the tentacle off of him. He took the part that was still on his leg off and threw it away from him before scrambling back to his feet.

    This time, it took him no time to listen to Billy's words. He ran. He ran as fast as he possibly could and he didn't look back.

     Like anyone else, Benny wanted to run straight to the police station. But he didn't, they'd never believe him. Whatever took Billy wasn't human, it was more of a monster made of flesh. He wanted to talk to Max about it, but it was late and she was probably asleep by now.

     So, he went to the person that he knew would listen to him.

      "Hey," Benny breathlessly greeted the boy inside of the house.

    Will furrowed his eyebrows at Benny's exhausted state, "Hi? Is everything.. okay?"

"Can we- like- talk?"

"Yeah, sure," Will opened the door wider for Benny to enter. He lead them to his room and shut the door behind him, motioning for Benny to sit on the edge of his bed.

Once Benny sat down, Will moved his desk chair so that it was across from Benny and took a seat.

"So..." Benny nervously started off, "something really weird just happened."

—
Benny was rudely awoken by Mike's voice, probably the worst thing you could hear first thing in the morning. He sat up on the floor, and looked over to Will's supercomm on his desk. Benny ended up staying the night at the Byers' house after Joyce practically insisted on him staying due to the time and assured him that she would inform his parents.

    Will didn't know what to say about what Benny saw. Could the mind flayer really be back? He wanted to push the topic to the back of his mind and just pretend that what happened with Billy was just some sort of sick prank. He just wanted to believe he was at peace.

"Will? Are you there? Meet at my house as soon as you can, and tell Benny to come, too. It's important," Mike urgently informed, making the situation seem very important. Will was still tiredly rubbing his eyes in his bed, making Mike more impatient. "Will. Are you there? Will-!"

"Yes, he's here, what do you want?" Benny finally got up and picked up the supercomm.

    "Benny? What- Why are you with Will?" Mike suspiciously asked.

     "Why do you need us at your house?" He shot back.

   "Just be here," Mike stated before shutting his supercomm off. Benny looked over to Will who nodded.

—
Benny climbed off of Johnathon's old bike after following Will into the Wheeler's garage. Will lended him some clothes and they both had an apple on the go for breakfast. Will knocked on the front door and it opened to reveal Mrs. Wheeler who smiled ay the two boys.

     "Oh, Will! So nice to see you, and...?" She trailed off when she saw Benny.

     "Benny Raymond," he informed her with a smile and held his hand out.