Everyone regathered around the couches as El sat in front of the TV, and the screen was set to static. A blindfold was wrapped around her eyes as she attempted to go into the void. Frankie watched as El sat in front of them, and her breathing became quick and irregular, panicked. Suddenly El gasps and rips the blindfold off.
"What's going on, did you find him?" Max prods, and El glances back at them, almost as if she had forgotten they were there. Sighing, El stands and retreats to the kitchen, grabbing a glass of water.
"That's not normal, right?" Nancy asked, glancing at Max. El had told them on the way to the kitchen that Billy had simply been sitting in his room, doing nothing.
"Billy staying in his room on the Fourth of July?" Max repeated. "No, that's not normal."
"He wants us to find him." Will told them.
"That's what I'm afraid of." Nancy agrees. "If we go to Billy, then the rest of the flayed know where we are."
"It's a trap, I agree. We'll be ambushed." Mike nods.
"We won't be surprised!" Lucas countered. "We'll know that they're coming, and we will kick their flayed butts!"
"You mean El will kick their butts." Max recorrected.
"Right, because I nearly just died against the flayed if anyone remembers that." Frankie inputted.
"Killing the flayed won't stop the Mind Flayer. We have to find out where it's spreading from. We have to find the source." Nancy continued.
"Billy knows the source." El spoke up. "He's been there, to the source. We can't go to Billy, but I think there's another way. A way for me to see where he's been."
El sat in front of the TV and switched it to the static station again, crossing her legs. Mike moved in, whispering to her. "El, I know you think you have to do this, but you don't. You've only done this before once. Your mom, she loved you, and wanted you to know what happened, but Billy's mind is sick, diseased. The Mind Flayer is in him."
She glanced at Mike. "He can't hurt me. Not in there."
"We don't know that."
El turned to face him and took his hand. "Mike, I need you to trust me."
Mike glanced towards Max, who watched the two and made a face at Mike. Mike turned back to El. "Yeah, just be careful." He sat back on the Lay-Z-Boy as El wrapped the blindfold around her eyes again and went under. Frankie was in the other chair still with Jonathan, curled into him anxiously as he held his hand.
El started whimpering in the void, though she said nothing or didn't pull herself out. Frankie chewed on his lip as he watched her.
"El are you okay, are you okay?" Mike called to her.
"I'm okay." El spoke uneasily.
"What's going on?"
"I'm . . . On a beach." El said.
"Okay, I may be dense, but the last I checked, Hawkins doesn't have a beach." Lucas said.
"They used to live in California, right?" Frankie asked, glancing at Max.
"Yeah. It might be California." Max agreed. She looked at El now. "What else do you see?"
"A woman. She's . . . pretty. I - I think she's looking at me. There's - a boy. It's Billy."
"It's a memory." Max murmured.
"I think I see it. The source." El continues. "I found it. The source - Brimborn Steelworks."
YOU ARE READING
it's the end of the world as we know it.
Fanfiction. . . & i feel fine! [ stranger things 2 - 5 ] [ jonathan byers x male!oc ]
