"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-Six: The Mind Flayer's Plan
(The Bite)
***
Alistair gripped the sink in the bathroom, staring at his reflection in the mirror. Curly brown hair sticking up around his face, shirt with sweat ringing the collar, pale skin with a thin sheen of sweat.
And eyes that, instead of brown, were fully white. No pupil or iris in sight.
Alistair swallowed, trying to push down the shiver at how creepy his eyes looked as he wrenched the tap on and splashed water in his face. As water dripped down his face, he looked up and saw some pinpricks of brown in the white—his eyes returning back to normal.
But not fast enough, in Alistair's opinion.
He supposed it didn't help the instant the haze of the pain cleared away, Alistair had used his power to command the dead animals—and whatever else he'd unwittingly reanimated—back to rest underground and become dead again. That probably extended the process to make his eyes look normal again. Still, he'd like to see his eyes look brown and normal again right about now, thanks.
Wiping excess water off, Alistair cast another look at the mirror—even amounts of white and brown, the tiniest dot of a pupil in the midst of the white—and decided it was good enough for him to go back and rejoin the others—he could already hear them talking, the wood muffling El's voice, but he got the gist of what she was saying—she was talking about what happened to her, and the Mind Flayer's plan.
Alistair's stomach curdled, thinking of what he felt, what that pain meant for the Flayed. If it was like the thing in the hospital, did... did that mean...
Don't think about it, Alistair told himself—he'd gotten good at that—as he turned the tap off and walked out of the bathroom and back into the living room.
Immediately, all conversation silenced as everyone turned to him. Alistair saw Will first, sitting on the couch, Hugin next to him, then El on the couch. Max, and Cami also sat on the couch, Mike in the armchair, and Lucas, Jonathan and Nancy standing behind the couch.
Alistair attempted a grin. "Hey. What did I miss?"
"Nothing much. El just started telling us what she saw," Cami told him.
Alistair nodded, sitting down next to Max, in right front of where Will was perched on the back of the couch. Hugin immediately flapped into his lap, croaking softly. He tried to ignore the flinch Max gave, at feeling how cold he was. Alistair tried to ignore the sting of hurt in his chest.
It helped that El had begun speaking again, telling them about how she thought she'd gotten out, but she hadn't—the Mind Flayer using Billy to trap her, telling her of his plan, and how it involved her.
"He said he was building something. That it was all for me," El said, her face haunted. Alistair looked at El, wanting to comfort her, but with how deathly cold he was, how slowly warmth was creeping back in, he knew that was a bad idea.
"Building something... is he talking about the Flayed?" Max questioned.
"He must be," Nancy said.
"I can't think of anything else it could be talking of," Cami pitched in.
"So he's building an army, just like we thought," Lucas murmured as he paced behind the couch.
"Yeah, but he's not building this army to spread," Mike pointed out.
"He's building it to stop Eleven," Will realised.
"Last year, El closed the gate on him. I have a feeling that really pissed him off," Mike said.
"Like royally," Lucas muttered.
"And the Mind Flayer now knows that, aside from Rowan and Al, she's the only thing that can stop him," Mike went on, Alistair nodding and concurring, "Once she's gone, the bastard will probably go after me and Rowan next."
"Yeah, and if El, Rowan and Al are out of the way..."
"Game over," Lucas finished, sounding as grim as he looked.
"He also said he was gonna kill all of you," El revealed, looking at Alistair and whispering softly, "Especially you and Rowan, Al."
"Knew it," Alistair muttered as Cami buried her face in her hands, rubbing her temples as Max noted sardonically, "Yeah, well, that's nice."
"An inter-dimensional body-stealing monster wants to kill me and all my friends. That's totally not terrifying at all," Cami mumbled. Alistair sent her a look as Hugin flapped over to Cami, croaking and offering comfort.
As the grim reality sent in, Nancy frowned, stepping toward one of the windows as she asked, "Do you guys hear that?"
Frowns dawned on all their faces as they listened, hearing nothing but the distant roar of fireworks—the 4th of July celebrations finally kicking off.
"It's just the fireworks," Jonathan told Nancy.
However, Nancy whirled around, questioning to El, "Billy. When he told you this, it was here, in this room?"
El nodded.
A trickle of fear crept down Alistair's spine, chilling him just as warmth finally came back into his skin. The fear floated around the room, seeping into all of them as now they listened, hearing the fireworks at first.
And then they heard what Nancy heard—crashing. Faint, but coming closer.
Alistair side-eyed Will, who's hand had crept up to his neck as he said, "He knows we're here."
Almost in unison, they rushed out of the cabin and down the dirt road, watching the trees.
And the spider-like monster crashing through them, illuminated under the colourful lights of the fireworks exploding in the sky, roaring. Crashing straight toward them.
Shit.
***
Heheh >:)
Not a lot to say here! Except next chapter is gonna be a lot! And that in a couple more chapters, we're finally reunited with Scoops Troop! Who's ready for that reunion? >:)
