"Hey, you remember what I said last year, right? We're Zombie Boy and Ghost Boy. I'm not ever gonna leave you."
"Promise?"
"One hundred percent."
***
In which Alistair fights the monster that possessed his friend alongside his friends, while trying...
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Chapter Seventeen: Testing For A Host
(The Sauna Test, Pt. 2)
***
Hawkins Community Pool was busy.
It always was during summer, but right now Alistair loathed it being busy, because it made the Party's job more difficult as they spied on the person Max, El and Cami believed to now be the new host of the Mind Flayer.
Billy Hargrove.
Having heard what the girls said about him recently, especially the part about him taking ice baths, and looking at him wearing a long-sleeved shirt and staying under the shade, legs covered, holding a cold drink, Alistair had a feeling he was the host. And as they looked at Billy, Alistair couldn't help but glare at him. He knew that Max and Billy had formed a truce, and no one deserved to be possessed by the Mind Flayer, but Alistair couldn't help but look at Billy and be filled with loathing and anger. To him, Billy Hargrove was the asshole who made Max's home life hell, who had tried to run him, Dustin, Lucas and Mike over, who'd targeted Lucas and Cami for no other reason but their skin colour and had almost killed Steve and probably would have if Max and Rowan hadn't stepped in. Who had tried to harm his sister on Halloween that still made Alistair's blood boil and want to hug Rowan and ask Allie and a couple of the more horrifying ghosts to haunt Billy. Maybe even send zombie rats and wolves after him to terrorise him. Alistair wouldn't mind doing both—for his sister, Alistair would use his powers to terrify the people who hurt her.
He absolutely despised Billy Hargrove, but he pushed his hatred down, for Max and how they had the bigger issue of if Billy was the Mind Flayer's new host. Which Alistair was leaning into definitely thinking he was.
But Max wasn't so convinced—which Alistair completely got; he would be in denial if his friends or Rowan were the new host until it was undeniable—as she said while looking through the binoculars, "I don't know. He looks pretty normal to me."
"Normal? How many times have you seen him with a shirt on?" Lucas pointed out, Alistair nodding and adding, "Yeah, he has an allergy to them or something. Especially long-sleeved shirts."
"I mean, it's a little weird," Max conceded, lowering the binoculars.
"More than a little," Mike said, making everyone look at him as he went on, "He was in a tub with ice. The Mind Flayer likes it cold. Plus everything else El saw..."
"But he's lounging at the pool. Which is, like, the least Mind Flayer thing ever," Max argued.
"Especially since he's more or less under the freaking sun. The Mind Flayer would be crazy to make its host do that," Cami pointed out, Max nodding in agreement.
"Not necessarily," Will rebuked, and everyone looked at Will as he explained, "The Mind Flayer likes to hide. He only used me when he needed me. It's like... like you're dormant. And then, when he needs you... you're activated."
