Daisies || Max Mayfield

34: Visit

Around twelve, we all gave up and turned in, crashing on Mike's couch. Lucas woke us back up at six to keep trying. And we got an answer.

Max and El got there just before nine, taking Max's bike again. Max and El whispered something, looking at me while they sat on the floor around the circle.

After a few minutes of talking, Ted Wheeler shouted from upstairs.

"Mike! Someone's here for Daisy!"

"Oh." I stood up, waving and climbing up the stairs. I went to thank Ted, but he was already back in his chair in the living room.

I unlatched the door and opened it.

"What?" I muttered.

"Daisy." Steve pulled the old crowbar from behind his back, the same one I'd smashed a demo dog with.

"Yeah." I took my crowbar, frowning. He kept it in his trunk, with Lucille the bat. He then handed me one of Robin's tote bags, filled lightly with what looked like my clothes.

"Look, some real shit is going down." He whispered. "Dustin, Robin, and Erica are helping me. I brought you that in case something happens and you can't get it."

"Oh, there's shit going down in the basement too," I muttered. "Will said-"

"Look, I'm sorry, I'm only on a twenty-minute break!" He started walking. "Don't be stupid!"

"Thanks." I sighed and spun the crowbar in my hand, turning to the door.

Going back to the basement, they were talking about dropping on a roller coaster.

"It's like everything inside your body is just sinking at once, but this is worse." Will continued, glancing at me.

I left my crowbar leaning on the wall, sitting silently next to Will. 

"Your body, it goes cold, and you can't breathe. I felt it before. Whenever he was close."

"Whenever who was close?" Max asked. 

"The mind flayer." He said it in a dark voice, only the tone changing. Somehow it sounded so much more serious when he said it in an ominous voice.

"I closed the gate," El whispered.

"I know, but what if he never left?" Will looked at her. "What if we locked him out here with us?"

Will got up grabbing a sheet of paper from a pile on a table, and a chunk of chalk from a nearby shelf.

"This is him." He scribbled a spider-like shape, dark and covered in chalk crumbles. "All of him." Then he wiped it with his hand, searing it all over the paper and his hand. "But, that day on the field, a part of him attached himself to me." He paused, checking all of us before he continued.

"My mom got it out of me, and Eleven closed the gate. But the part that was still in me, what if it's still in our world?" He flipped the paper over and hit it with the chalky hand, leaving a black handprint. "In Hawkins?"

"I don't understand, the demodogs dies when El closed the gate." Max interrupted. "If the brain dies, the body dies."

"We can't take any chances," Mike muttered, staring at Will. "We need to assume the worst. The mind flayer is back."

"Yeah, and if he is, he'd wanna attach himself to someone again. A new me." Will added.

"A new host," Lucas concluded.

"Shit," I said.

"How can you tell if someone is a host?" El asked.

Will took a deep breath, glancing at Mike. "I don't know."

"When Will was possessed, he was darker," Mike muttered. "You didn't talk much, and the mind flayer likes it cold. He likes cold environments."

"So he wouldn't do well in the summer heat?" Max said.

"No. He'd be covered up, probably, or completely avoiding it." Mike looked across the table at her. "Why?"

"Billy,"

Steve had packed me a few spare shirts in the tote bag, along with a pair of his sunglasses, and a faded green baseball cap. I changed quickly, leaving Mike's shirt with the rest of my clothing I'd left in his basement, leaving room in my backpack to pack important shit.

I took my crowbar in my backpack. It carried just the binoculars Lucas had me carry, a bandana(the one from the burn), the switchblade from Troy's friend last year, my walkie-talkie, and my crowbar.

I took Nancy's bike again, and because El doesn't know how to ride a bike, she rode on Max's.

Set up behind a car, I had the binoculars. We'd all taken turns looking at her brother on post.

Max still hadn't even tried to acknowledge what she'd said.

Her brother was in a lifeguard chair, covered in blankets and towels. His upper half was in the shade of the umbrella, with a pair of sunglasses sitting on his hair. He wasn't even sweating.

"He looks like shit," I said, not caring if I offended Max. I doubted she would care anyways.

She scoffed, grabbing the binoculars from me. "I dunno, what do you guys think? He looks pretty normal to me."

Mike shrugged, sitting between Max and I.

"Normal?" Lucas made a face. "How many times have you seen him without his shirt on?"

"I mean it's a little weird."

"More than a little," Mike added. "He as in a tub of ice. The mind flayer likes it cold."

"Plus everything else-"

"But he's lounging at the pool." Max cut me off. "Which is like, the least mind flayer thing to do."

Will shook his head. "The mind flayer likes to hide. He only used me when he needed me. It's like he's dormant, and then when he needs you...You're activated."

"So we just wait until-"

"No." I cut her off this time.

"She's right, what if he hurts someone?" Mike asked.

"Or kills someone," Will added.

"We can't take that chance," Mike muttered, turning back to stare at Billy by the pool. "We need to find out if he's the host." He pushed off the car, walking back and grabbing Will's arm. "I have an idea."

"Where are you going?" Eleven asked.

Lucas ran after them.

"Boys only!" Mike announced, walking across the parking lot. "Trust me on this one."

"Seriously?" Max groaned, leaning back on the car. She glanced at El, frowning.

"We will wait," Eleven said, sitting on the trunk of the car.

"I guess so." Max hopped up next to her.

I stayed where I was, just waiting for another insult thrown at me. She'd held back when the boys were here, but she didn't exactly try to fix things either. And to think, she'd been my friend for almost a year, and then she just randomly pulls that out of the blue. Awesome.

Apparently, I was thinking for a while, because when I looked up, Mike was sprinting back across the parking lot.

"El!" He shouted, waving. "We need you!"

She nodded, jumping off the car and walking toward him.

"There's a lock on the shed..." His voice trailed off as they left, their shoes crunching in the asphalt parking lot.

Max looked at me, up and down, then scooched over on the car.