Keep me Closer - Billy Hargrove - Stranger Things

35: Connected

Will paced  back and forth across the room stressfully. Quinn lied on the ground. Her heart beat was slow and and she struggled to breath.

"He said he was building something." Eleven tried explaining to them. "That it was all for me and Quinn." She sniffled.

"Building something..? Is he talking about the flayed?" Max asked.

"He must be." Nancy shrugged.

"So he's building an army,  just like we thought." Lucas added.

"Yeah, but he's not building this army to spread." Mike told.

"He is building it to stop El and Quinn. W-what if he already stopped Quinn. What if Billy connected her to them by touching her like Quinn connected to me by touching me?" Will thought.

"I don't think she would be connected to everyone. Just Billy. Right? I mean when Quinn connected to you she wanted affected by everything in the UpsideDown. She was just affected by you. And what you felt." Nancy thought.

"Okay, but she didn't pass out like this when she was connected to Will." Jonathan sighed.

"Actually.. yes she did. It wasn't for this long. But she did. And not everything is the same this time. Billy is much stronger then I was." Will realized piecing things together.

"We aren't even for sure this is what really happened to her." Nancy said. Not that she thought the kids were wrong. She just didn't want to think they were right for Quinn's sake.

"Any other ideas?" Mike asked Nancy.

"But why would the Mind Flayer want Quinn to be connected to him? We would find out how to stop him easier." Max wondered.

"Maybe that's why she won't wake up. He is connected to her so he could control her. So when it comes time to fight us, he would have one less person to worry about. I mean think about it. El and Quinn together would be invincible. Quinn's powers heat up. What's the Mind Flayers one weakness? Heat. Plus he's smart. He knows Quinn has a relationship with Billy by now. He knows her weakness. He out smarted her." Mike connected the dots. "He knew he couldn't get El. He knew El wouldn't let Billy get that close to her. But he did know that maybe Quinn would. So connecting to her would be the easiest way to stop her as possible." - "Last year they closed the gate on him. I have a feeling that really pissed him off."

"Like royally." Lucas said.

"And the Mind Flayer now knows that El and Quinn and the only ones that can stop him. But if Quinn is out of the way all he had to do it stop El and then-" Mike informed.

"Game over." Lucas finished.

"He also said that he was going to kill all of you." El added.

It went silent for just a moment.

"Yeah.. well.. that's nice." Max said sarcastically.

There was screeching and stomps of loud noise in the distance that caught Nancy's attention.

She panically walked towards the window.

"Do you guys hear that?" She whispered and everyone sat up uncomfortably and listened.

"It's... just the fireworks." Jonathan said.

"Billy.. when he did all of this to Quinn. When he told you all of this. Its was here.. in this room?" Nancy asked.

El shook her head. Nancy's heart sank in a panic. She glanced at Jonathan in fear and they all heard the stomps. Will felt a tingle in his neck.

"He knows we're here." Will said. Then they all walked outside and in the distance saw a gigantic monster knocking down trees headed straight for them.