Drowning • Billy Hargrove

Chapter 16

"Look." Jonathan says, walking over to the fridge. He places a magnet on the fridge but it slips off.
"The same thing is happening at my house." I say. "But what does it have to do with the upside down?"
"Just wait a minute, he'll get there." Nancy says, calmly.
"Do you guys remember the big power outage?" Jonathan asks.
"Yeah that happened when we were on our first date." Billy responds.
I smile to myself, happy that Billy remembers.
"So my mom and I think that the gate is being reopened and its using all of the power just to open it back up."
I stop and think for a minute. It does make sense, but I'm not sure. I look over to see Billy and he seems completely lost.
"But who in their right mind would open it back up?" I ask.
Jonathan and Nancy both shrug. "Someone who's very powerful and rich." Nancy says.
"My mom and the chief went to find out more about what's happening. Hopefully they'll get some answers."  Johnathan says.
I know my dad really liked Joyce and I'm glad they were spending more time together. He deserves to be happy again. But at the same time, I  felt a little hurt that dad knew about all of this and didn't tell me, but I shrugged it off.
"Hopefully they'll be able to find out who's opening the gate." Nancy says.
I nod my head.
"This is crazy." Billy mumbles out.
"I know." I respond.
"I think we should meet up with the kids. El could protect us with her powers if anything were to happen." Jonathan says.
I sigh. El is the best option to stop this thing, but in the end I don't want her to get hurt.
"Yeah." Nancy says, nodding her head and tossing Johnathan the keys.
"Let's go." He says.

Billy and I hop into the backseat while Nancy and Jonathan grab supplies from the shed.
"What was he talking about El having powers? Is that guy dumb or something? We're not in a freaking comic book!" Billy says.
I let out a little laugh. "Uh, he's kind of right. She has telepathy."
Billy's mouth falls to the floor. "Yeah right! I won't believe it till I see it." He says, sitting back.
"Okay we got everything." Nancy says, climbing into the passengers seat. We can see she's holding a backpack with a bunch of tools sticking out of it. On top, there was a small black gun.
"Is that a gun?" Billy asks.
"Yeah." Nancy says, like it's no big deal.
"Don't worry, she knows how to use it." I say, smiling.
Jonathan puts the keys in the ignition and backs out of the driveway.
The ride to Nancy's house was silent. The only noise was the sound of the radio playing quietly.
Until, something bangs off of the windshield, causing Jonathan to spin out of control.
"Shit, shit, shit!" Jonathan says, trying to regain control of the vehicle.
"What the hell was that?" Billy asks, grabbing my hand and squeezing it tightly.
"I don't know." Jonathan says, putting the car in stop. He gets out of the car, signaling us to do the same.
Whatever it was, it was strong enough to leave a huge crack in the windshield.
"Great! Just great!" Nancy says, throwing a hissy fit in the middle of the road. "My mom is going to kill me!"
I take the time to look around. We were stranded in the middle of no where. We were surrounded by trees and to make matters worse, the sun was going to set soon.
"It's going to be fine." Jonathan says, comforting Nancy.
I frantically look around, noticing something's missing. "Billy?" I call out.
"Where is he?" Nancy says, walking over to me.
"I don't know! He was just here!" I say, trying to remain calm.
"Boo!" Billy says, popping out from behind the car.
Nancy and I scream, as he laughs hysterically.
"Billy you're a jerk!" I say, slapping him on the arm.
"What? It was funny!" He says, hugging me from behind.
"No it wasn't! I thought you disappeared!"
"Awh! You really care about me!" He says, kissing me on top of the head.
I roll my eyes and walk over to Jonathan who was fixing the car.
"Do you think we can still drive it?"
"I don't know. I hope." He says from behind the open hood.
"Holy shit!" Nancy says from behind us.
I turn around to look at her and the monster from my dream was coming after us.
"What the fu-" Billy starts to say, but was cut off by Jonathan.
"Run!" He screams.
We all start running up the dirt road. Unfortunately, nobody was in sight and there were no buildings around.
Jonathan and I were up front while Nancy and Billy weren't far behind us.
Nancy starts firing shots from her gun, causing us all to cover our ears.
I look back to see that the Mindflayer, or whatever it was, slowed down. It was obviously stunned.
We ran for a few more minutes before it came to a stop, so we slowed down.
"Oh my God!" Nancy says, catching her breath.
"Was that the Mindflayer?" Johnathan asks.
"I think so. It looks like Will's drawings." I say, hunched over. I haven't been running in a very long time, and I was clearly out of shape.
"Whatever it was, we have to get out of here." Nancy says, taking lead and jogging ahead.
"I'm going to be honest," Billy says, catching up to me. "I didn't believe you about this whole upside down stuff, but now I do."

We arrive at Mike's house about thirty minutes later. Unfortunately the front door was locked, so Nancy knocked on it like crazy.
"I'm coming! I'm coming!" Nancy mother yells from the inside. "Oh hello!" She says, opening the door, staring at Billy.
"Mike and his friends are here, right?" Nancy asks.
"I don't know. And who might you be?" Mrs.Wheeler asks, still starring at Billy.
"I'm Billy Hargrove." He says.
"Well nice to meet you, Billy. I'm Karen." She says, biting her lower lip.
Billy just stands there, smirking at her.
Nancy, Jonathan and I just stare at the two in disbelief.
I turn back to see Mrs.Wheeler who was looking Billy up and down.
"Gross mom. Gross." Nancy says, pushing past her.