Freak Show // Billy Hargrove

Chapter Ten: The Mind Flayer

Chapter Ten: The Mind Flayer

"And you're sure that was Dart?" Lucus asked as they all walked down the train tracks. "Yes, he had the same yellow pattern on his butt," Dustin confirms. "Well, he was tiny a few days ago." Max said and Kaity nodded. "Yeah, he was the size of maybe a cat the last time I saw him," Kaity said and Billy adjusted his arm around her shoulder. "Well, he's molted three times already."

"He malted?" Steve asked and Dustin shook his head. "Molted." He corrected him. "Shed his skin to make room for growth like hornworms." Dustin educated them all. "Grows..." Page makes a face. "When is he going to molt again?" Billy asks, looking at Dustin. "It's gotta be soon." And that's what Kaity was worried about. "When he does, he'll be fully grown, or close to it and so will his friends."

"Yeah, and he's gonna need a lot more than just cats to eat." Steve says and Kaity bites her lip. "Wait, Cat?" Lucas stops Dustin from walking and everyone else stops too. "Dart ate a cat?"

"No, What? No." Dustin tried to play it off. "What are you talking about? He ate Mews." Steve said casually, not getting that Dustin hasn't told Lucus and didn't want to tell him. "Mews? Who's Mews?" Max asks, looking up at Steve. "It's Kaity's and Dustin's cat." Billy clarifies, he too oblivious that Dustin didn't want Lucas to know. "Billy!" Dustin yelled and Kaity snickered. "I knew it!" Lucus hit Dustin's shoulder. "You kept him!"

"No!" Dustin says and Lucus looks at him. "No..." He tries to think of something. "He missed me, he wanted to come home."

"Bullshit!"

"I didn't know he was a Demogorgon, okay?"

"That thing was a...Demagogan?" Page asks Kaity, confused. "Demogorgon," She corrected her friend. "-and yes, sorta. The ones we knew were bigger and walked on two legs. It was kind humanoid not...dog like." She explains and Page nods slowly, trying to understand. "Oh, so now you admit it?" Lucus argues. "Guys!" Kaity yells making the two young boys look at her. "We really don't have time for this okay? Who cares?" Kaity asks. "I care!" Lucus yells, looking back at Dustin. "You put the party in jeopardy! You broke the rule of law!"

"So did you!" Dustin yells back. "What?" Lucus ask and Dustin points his light in Max's face. "You told some stranger the truth!" Max blinks a scoff. "A stranger?" She asks, stepping towards them. "You wanted to tell her too!" Lucus argues back. "Guys, she literally saw me use my powers that day in the field, what good is arguing going to do?" Kaity tried to reason with them but they just keep going, making her sigh. "Hey guys," Kaity and Billy look over to see that Steve has wandered off from the group. Page was watching the three kids argue, pretty entertained. She wished she had a bag of popcorn at this point.

"Guys!" Steve yells again, caching the arguing kids attention. Now that it was quiet, Kaity could hear the sounds. Steve takes off in the woods and everybody rushes after him. They come to a clearing where there was no trees and they could see out towards Hawkins. "I don't see them," Dustin says and Lucus pulls out his binoculars. "It's the lab," Lucus says, lowering his binoculars away from his face. "They were going back home" Kaity's jaw clenches and her heart began to race. "Dustin, hand me your walkie," Kaity says holding out her hand. "Why?"

"Just do it, okay!" Dustin detaches it from his belt and hands it to her. Kaity sits down on the ground and unplugs Dustin's headphone from it and begins to mess around with channels until she finds one that's completely static. "Kat? What are you doing?" Billy asked as he knelt down beside her. "I have to get in contact with somebody," She looks around at everyone. "I need everyone to be quiet until I'm done." Kaity unties her headband and looks back at the walkie. She ties it over her eyes and she takes a deep breath, focusing on the static. Soon, she's in the familiar black void. "El?" She calls out, looking around. "Kate?" Kaity turned around to see El standing behind her. She wore odd clothing that she's never seen her wear before. She was dressed in all black, her hair was slicked back and it looked like she had black eyeshadow around her eyes. "What are you doing? Where are you?" Kaity asked. "I found Eight." Kaity narrowed her eyes. "You found another one of us?" El nods. They both look over when they hear talking. "Yeah, that's where I was. That's the damn graveyard."