Drowning • Billy Hargrove

Chapter 20

I walk over to Brandon, who is just awkwardly standing there.
"Sorry, I can't hang any longer. We have to do something very important."
"Oh okay." He says, sounding disappointed.
"Sorry!" I say. "I'll call you soon!"
"Okay. Bye!" He says, leaving the building. Thankfully he was going to be safe.
"Billy! I'm over here!" Mike says, through the walkie talkie, teasing him.
We can hear Billy screaming and cursing through the door, but we couldn't make out exactly what he's saying.
Mike lets out a creepy little laugh, that causes all of us to stare at him. He was clearly having too much fun with this.
"I think we should close in on him now." Jonathan says.
"But how do we know where he is?" Nancy asks.
"I'll go." I say. "I'll nod to you guys whether or not you should come in."
"Are you sure?" Max asks.
I nod my head and smile.

I quietly creep through the change rooms, tiptoeing on the squeaky floors.
"When I find you, it's going to be your funeral!" Billy yells, not far away from me.
I look over to see Billy walking towards the sauna.
"I've got you now!" He says, slowly walking over to the dummy.
I nod my head at the group and they quietly pile into the change rooms.
"Go time." Nancy whispers.
"What is this?" Billy whispers, finally realizing the dummy and the speaker.
"Hey! Look behind you." Mike says, through the walkie talkie.
Billy turns around to see everyone facing him, ready to attack.
El snaps her head and he goes flying back into the wall. Lucas and Jonathan run over to put chains over the door handle, to make sure he wouldn't get out. Wills job was to control the heat. He made sure he cranked it as high as it would go to get it out of him.
Billy doesn't get up for a while, causing me to worry.
I walk past everyone to check on him through the square glass window. He just lay there, squirming around. He was clearly hurt.
"Kate." He finally says, standing up. "How could you do this to me?" Hearing him ask me this question broke my heart into pieces. We were putting him through torture in hopes of him getting better.
I back away from the glass as he walks towards it.
"Billy we're trying to help you." I say, my voice shakey.
"No you're not. You're making him angry!" He says with black veins popping out all over his skin, causing me to gasp. "And when he's angry, we do bad things."
"It's not you, Billy!" Max says, stepping beside me.
He makes eye contact with Max and spits against the window. "Let me out." He says calmly as more of the black veins pop through.
"It's half way there." Will says, checking the temperature.
"Let me out!" Billy screams at the top of his lungs. I can clearly see he's starting to sweat.
"We can't do that Billy." I say, trying to remain calm.
"If you can't do that, I'll do it myself." He says, bashing into the door. The door shakes, but it doesn't give in. He continues to do it before he gives up. He sits on the ground and slouches over.
"I've done bad things, Kate." He says, the real Billy speaking.
"I know."
"He's making me do it and I don't know how to make him stop!" He says, rocking back and forth.
I nod my head. "I know. We're going to get him out and everything is going to go back to normal." I say, forcing a smile.
"No it won't." He says, angrily.
I don't know how to respond to that because I knew he was right. I wouldn't be able to look at him the same after what he did to me.
"Yes it will." Max says, putting her hand against the window.
He stares at the both of us with tears in his eyes.
I quickly wipe my eyes. Seeing Billy act this way made me emotional.
He doesn't say or do anything for a few moments. He just sits there, sweat and tears streaming down his face. "Please." He begs. "Just let me out! Its hurting us!"
"It's almost at the highest it can go." Will says, checking the temperature once again.
Billy gets up and stands, facing me through the glass. He pushes on the door, the chain shaking. I refuse to move, even though I was terrified.
Billy slams his fist against the wall, causing the tiles to crumble. He picks up a piece of broken tile and chucks it at the glass, which was right in front of my face. The glass cracks.
"Shit." I say, backing up.
"He can't get out, can he?" Lucas asks, his voice trembling.
"He shouldn't be able too." Jonathan responds.
Billy pushes on the door harder, screaming. "Let me out!" He screams as the glass starts to crack even more. The veins on his body were extremely visible now.
"It's at the highest!" Will yells.
"Finally." I say, sweating from the heat   trickling out from the cracks in the door.
Billy let's out a painful scream and leans against the wall.
Everybody runs in to check on him.
"What's happening? Is he okay?" Max asks while he screams.
"I think it's starting to come out of him." Nancy says.
He lets out one long and terrifying scream before he collapses to the floor.
I look over at Max and see a tear fall from her eye. I grab on to her hand and squeeze it.
"It's going to be okay." I whisper as she nods.
Billy lays on the floor, still screaming and clutching his stomach in pain. "It's hot!" He screams. "It's too hot!"
The black veins on his body start to slowly fade away as he makes one final, gut wrenching scream.
A black tunnel of smoke flies out of him and out the locked door. It flies through the change rooms and disappears into the night sky.
"Holy shit." Mike yells.
"That's exactly what happened to Will. We got it out of him!" Jonathan says.
"Billy!" I scream, unlocking the chain and running over to him.
He lays there, not moving.
"Billy?" I say shaking him but he's not responding. "Billy?"