Enemy || Alexei

Chapter Twelve

"I'M NOT STAYING IN THE CAR!" I yell at Johnathan. "Yes you are. You're seriously hurt and I don't need you getting killed in there." He argues as he parks outside of Starcourt.

"What are you? My mother?" I ask sarcastically as I get off the car, along with the kids. Johnathan grabs my good arm and pulls me back to the car. "You're staying!" He says firmly.

"You need all the help you can get! If you and Will go, I go too." I say. He stares at me intensely, as he mentally argues with himself, weather he should let me tag along.

"Fine, but stay close to him." He says as he looks towards Alexei and I nod in agreement. "Lucas. Get all your fireworks." Johnathan commands. Lucas quickly runs to the trunk of the car and grabs a boxes full of fireworks.

"He's what gonna happen. We're all gonna go inside quietly, then we're gonna sneak up to the second floor. After that, we're gonna light those suckers up and throw them at the Mind Flayer. Got it?" Johnathan says and we all nod.

"Let's go." He says and we begin with phase one. We quietly walk inside the mall, making sure to watch our step with broken glass or anything that could blow our cover.

"Follow me." Nancy whispers. She leads us to the escalator and we slowly walk up the steps until we reach the second floor. We all grab a box of fireworks and scatter around the Mind Flayer.

I look past it and see Billy with El over his shoulder. "Johnathan, look." I whisper to him as I point to Billy. "We have to throw them, now." I say and he shakes his head.

"Not yet."

"She needs our help."

"Just trust me." He says and I sigh. Billy slowly lays El down on the floor and whispers something in her ear. He gets up and steps back from El.

She looks towards the monster with fear in her eyes. The monster screeches and a tentacle slithers out of it's mouth. "Now." Johnathan says as he lights a firework and throws it at the Mind Flayer.

It wails in pain as the firework explodes, letting out colors of dust. We throw more and more fireworks and it wails with each explosion. Soon the mall was lighted with different hues of color.

"We're out running out!" I yell. "I know." Johnathan yells as he keeps throwing the fireworks. We keep on throwing and throwing, until we finish our box.

"We're out!" I yell and Johnathan runs his fingers through his dirty blonde hair. I look down and see Billy on top of El.

He looks up at the Mind Flayer and stands onto his feet. "What the hell is he doing?" I ask curiously.

He looks up and it screeches as a tentacle slithers out of it's mouth. El crawls back in fear, trying to get away from it. The tentacle launches at El, but to my surprise, Billy catches it before it can harm her.

"No!" He yells as he keeps holding on to the tentacle. More tentacles slither out from the Mind Flayer's body, surrounding Billy.

One launches onto the side of Billy's stomach and another one on the other side. Billy screams in pain as he keeps holding the first tentacle in his hand, but let's go as more tentacles pierce Billy's body.

"Oh, my god." I whisper as I cover my mouth. Billy let's out a loud scream as he wait's for the last tentacle to strike him.

It launches into his chest and pulls back out, ripping Billy's skin open. All the tentacles withdraw from Billy's body and back into the Mind Flayer's body. He falls onto the ground as black goo pours out from his injuries.

The Mind Flayer begins to screech, snarl and roar in pain. It moves around the mall and hits it's body on every wall, causing the second floor to shake. Everyone falls onto the floor and Alexei pulls me close.

It finally falls onto the ground and it stops breathing. Everyone, along with me, gets up and check's to see if it's dead, and it is.

I wrap my arms around Alexei's neck and hug him. He wraps his arms around my waist and hugs me tightly.

It's over. It's finally over. We both pull away and head down to the first floor. We all walk up to Mike, El and Max.

Max was crying onto El's lap for the loss of her brother. I crouch down and lay my hand on Max's back. She turns to me with puffy, red eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Max." I whisper solemnly. Even though Billy wasn't a decent guy, he didn't deserve to die the way he did. I know deep down, he was hurt, and he was hurting alone.

"Do you here that?" Will asks as he looks up. The sound of helicopters and ambulances arrive in front of Starcourt. Fire fighters and swat teams fill the mall in seconds. They shine their lights at us and we raise our hands to show we're victims.

The escort us all out side and send us to each ambulance trunk to get treated. I grab Will's hand and we sit inside the truck.

"Okay, sweetie, we're gonna have to treat you for that. I just need you to lie down on the bed." A male paramedic says and I nod. "Can he stand by me?" I ask as I point to Alexei and he nods with a smile.

I lie down on the bed and grab onto Alexei's hand for comfort. He first numb my arm, and takes out the bullet, which was probably the worst part.

He then cleans up my wound and takes out a needle and thread. "This might sting a little." He warns and I sigh. They insert the needle into my skin I squeeze Alexei's hand. Soon after, he puts a big band aid over the stitches and I was free to go.

I sit down next to Will and Alexei sits down next to me. I look a Will as he searches threw the crowd of people. "Hey. She's fine." I say with a smile and he looks down.

"But what if she isn't?"

I look down, not knowing what to say. I too begin to worry about my mom's well being. She is a strong woman. If there's anything she's taught us, it's to be a badass.

"Look." Will says as he points in the distance. I look to where he's pointing and see my mom standing there, looking at us in shock.

Will and I sprint towards her and pull her into a tight hug. "Thank God!" She says as she cries onto our shoulders and we cry onto hers.

It was all so surreal. I felt all the weight on my shoulders had been lifted. I felt like I could finally breath.

We both pull back. "Where's Hopper?" I ask her as I look around for him. She cries even more and slowly shakes her head. I felt my heart shatter into a million pieces.

"H-Hopper is--"

I couldn't bring myself to finish the sentence. I pull her back into a tight hug. "I'm so sorry." I say as she cries onto my shoulder.

It was over, but the pain was still there. The pain of loss. Losing someone you love is probably the greatest pain.

Losing someone is not like scrapping you're knee when you fall or when you lose something valuable that you bought. You're knee will heal and you can replace the thing you bought, but you can't replace someone that's gone.

You'll never get to see them laugh again. You'll never get to hug or hang out them again. You'll never get to say sorry after a stupid argument that meant nothing. You'll never get to say how much you love them.

You'll never see them, ever again.