"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 Twenty-Four: Powers Argument
(E Pluribus Unum, Pt. 2)
***
Alistair was a jumbled mess of nerves in the form of a person.
He'd been that way since they left the hospital and went to the Hopper cabin—it was too risky to go back to the Wheeler residence, not with the terrifying development of the Flayed in vivid, gory forefront of everyone's memory. When they entered, Nancy and Jonathan told them what happened—how their boss and Heather's father, Tom, and their co-worker, Bruce, had been the Flayed who killed everyone on that hospital level and let Mrs. Driscoll go, and how they killed them... only for them to melt and combine into that monster.
Alistair had listened, trying to hide his shudder. No wonder the ghosts were so panicked. To not only lose your mind, but now your body to the Mind Flayer... it was a fate worse than even death.
But now, after that and the decision El would try to find the people they knew for certain were Flayed—Billy, the Holloways, Mrs. Driscoll, Bruce—tomorrow, everyone decided to try and sleep. If they even could.
Alistair rested his head against the couch, bracing himself for a sleepless night. Hugin rested in Alistair's curls, the undead bird determined to fulfil its promise of not leaving Alistair's side anymore. Not that Alistair would protest.
As he closed his eyes, focusing on Lucas' snoring—the girls had grouped together in El's room, Nancy and Jonathan were sleeping on Hopper's bed, and Alistair, Will, Mike and Lucas were in the living room. Will was next to him, and Mike was on his other side, while Lucas was on the couch above him.
However, before Alistair could, he felt a nudge in his ribs. Turning his head, he saw Mike there, as he murmured, "Can we talk? Me, you and Will?"
Alistair blinked in surprise, but nodded, elbowing Will and making him wake up, looking at Alistair in bleary confusion.
"Mike wants to talk," he whispered, and that cleared the fog away.
The three boys got up, heading outside for some privacy.
A few seconds of awkward silence passed before Mike sighed and said, "I'm sorry."
Alistair blinked as Will just stared at Mike, as if not expecting that. Taking the silence as a wordless answer to go on, Mike continued, "I'm sorry about the campaign, guys. It was cool, and neither me or Lucas shouldn't have been eager to leave it or finish it so quickly. I'm really sorry."
"It's fine," Will mumbled, looking down. "You were right. Things are changing, for all of us. I guess I shouldn't have expected we'd just keep playing D&D in your basement forever."
"Maybe, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't stop entirely. I love D&D, I still do. I just got..." Mike replied, and Alistair supplied with, "Girl-obsessed and a jerk?"
