THE TOWER ━ stranger things

16.

chapter sixteen – a game of cat and mouse

"So Billy just...showed up?" Mateo asked, leaning toward El as she sat beside him. Tears were still evident on her cheeks as she looked up and slowly nodded, "Is that even possible?" He glanced at the group as they sat in their own thoughts – still not fully understanding what just happened.

"Could he have been waiting for you inside Rena's mind?" Will questioned and it made his stomach churn. He swallowed thickly and cast his gaze down toward the floor; he was eased by the knowledge that his sister was safe, but the fear began to settle back in when he realized she actually wasn't. The Mind Flayer preying on her to get to El added a whole new layer to their situation. Irene was still vulnerable and he still didn't know where she was. He couldn't stop the invasive feeling of nausea that plagued his stomach. He wanted to close his eyes and wake up safe in his bed with his sister tucked away in her room.

"He said I shouldn't have been sticking my nose where it didn't belong and that," El hesitated, wiping her palms against her pants. "He was building something, that it was all for me."

"Building something? Is he talking about the flayed?" Max looked back at her friends in confusion.

"He must be."

"So he's building an army, just like we thought." Lucas crossed his arms as he paced behind the couch.

"Yeah but he's not building this army to spread – from what Rena showed her – he's building it to make him stronger–"

Will straightened his posture and looked at Mike, "To stop Eleven." His friend motioned toward him with his hand as he nodded furiously. The conversation momentarily became static to Mateo as he tugged at his elbow, trying to shake the feeling of worry that moved through him. He wasn't going to back out now – he couldn't – but he also couldn't just shove his feelings away. He didn't know how the group was able to function so normally knowing the kind of terror that lied beneath their seemingly boring town. How could they have gone through this twice?

"...Game over." Lucas' voice brought him back and he looked up at the group, hoping that none of them noticed him mentally slipping away.

"He also said he was gonna kill all of you." El murmured, looking around at her friends.

"Jesus christ." Mateo whispered as his hands ran through his hair. Terror struck his pale face and temoring hands with vigor. Without any thought, Johnanthan laid a comforting hand onto his shoulder and tried his best to give him a reassuring look. Just as he began to find some kind of emotional equilibrium, Nancy stood and questioned the sounds outside of the cabin. His knee bobbed up and down as thick silence danced between them. He felt his heart sink the moment the words, "He knows we're here," fell from Will's lips. Suddenly they all moved to their feet and followed Nancy outside.

Off in the distance fireworks illuminated the sky, casting an array of bright reds and blues. As Mateo squinted his eyes, questioning whether he needed glasses or not, he finally saw what Irene had shown El – what she'd seen the first day they moved to Hawkins — and his heart stopped. His lungs felt trapped by his ribcage with every breath and he swore his knees were wobbly and weak.

A spider-like monster was pushing itself past the line of trees in a fit of rage and, perhaps, Mateo thought, a haunting kind of excitement.

— — — —

"I mean, what the actual hell, Rena?!" Dustin exclaimed in anger as Robin and Steve acted like children who were experiencing a massive sugar high. Irene was still trying to process what happened to her after she passed out in the back of the cart and saw El clear as day in her mind and suddenly sifting through her memories like it was a film and she was trying to find the right still. She was also trying to swallow down the guilt that was slowly making its way up from her stomach to her throat. When she saw Steve she felt awful and then seeing the both of them acting so delirious because they were drugged only added fuel to her fire of shame. Dustin harshly expressing his anger toward her was the cherry on top of the shitty sundae she'd been served.