Love me •|Billy Hargrove|•

•|14|•

I drive to the Starcourt mall. It should be closing soon. When I get there, cars are already starting to leave. I leave Billy in the backseat, locking the car. I left the car on so he wouldn't get over heated. So the piece of the Mind Flayer inside him wouldn't get over heated.

I sprint to the building, once inside I continue to move fast, but not too fast as to not cause a commotion.

I get to Scoops and see Steve, staring at the counter, waiting for a customer.

"Steve," I gasp out, out of breath from all of my activities.

"Cassie, what's wrong?" Steve asks.

"It's Billy," I tell him. I round the counter, pulling him into the back.

I sigh as I make eye contact with Robin.

"Robin can you go up front for a second pretty please. I need to talk to Steve," I say with pleading eyes.

She watches skeptically, but goes up front when the bell chimes.

I pull Steve over to Dustin, so I can whisper.

"I think it got Billy like it got Will," I whisper, fear seeping into my voice.

Dustin and Steve's eyes go wide. "What do you mean?"

I tell them in a very low voice about what happened in the locker room.

"I think your right," Dustin tells me. I frown but nod.

"It doesn't like heat right?" Steve asks me. "I mean, the pool has a sauna."

I nod quickly. "When it closes we can take him."

Steve nods before trading spots with Robin again.

"Uh, we figured out what the Russian was saying," Robin tells me, rubbing the back of her neck. Steve comes back with us. He said he closed up shop.

I stare at her, waiting for her to continue. "The week is long, the sliver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west."

I look over at her board. It has the words in Russian then under them is the words in English.

After thinking for a second, we leave Scoops. Steve closes the big silver bars until they reach the ground, he then locks them.

The whole mall is covered in neon light signs. It looks peaceful yet eerie at night.

"It just doesn't make any sense," Steve says as we walk.

"It's right," Robin argues.

"Honestly, I think it's great news," Dustin says in a chipper tone.

"How is this great news?" Steve asks Dustin. "I mean so much for being American heroes. It's total nonsense."

"It's not nonsense," Dustin says. "It's too specific. It's obviously a code."

"What do mean a code?" Steve continues to argue with the boy.

"Like a super secret spy code," Dustin tells him.