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El sat in front of Will, Mike, Lucas, Max and Beth as a drop of blood fell from her nose. Beth could feel the massive amounts of energy El was drawing towards her mind to connect her sight to Hopper to find where he was.
They needed his help, but he was nowhere to be found.
Beth's heart ached to look for Billy by her lonesome in the void, but she knew not one of them would let her. She was pregnant and they couldn't determine whether or not using her newfound mental strength to a larger extent could potentially hurt the baby or not. But that didn't stop her from trying to find him.
She would never intentionally hurt her child, never, and somehow, she knew that her mind couldn't hurt her bean from inside her stomach. She knew he or she was safe where they were. And now, she needed to know if the love of her life was safe, at least somewhat, wherever he was.
So, she stood up, catching each of their eyes as she did so. "I've gotta use the bathroom." Beth breathed, all of them nodding and turning their focus back to El.
Yet Max let her gaze remain on Beth a little longer.
Something was wrong, very wrong, Max could tell. Yet she stayed silent; which she soon learned to regret.
•
Beth sat in the bathroom of Mike's basement, the sink's faucet turned on full blast, and a hand towel wrapped around her head.
She held a wad of toilet paper to her nose to catch the blood so the lids wouldn't notice what she had been doing. As her mind wildly searched for Billy's energy and presence, she could hear his voice echoing in the never ending void.
The void's water pooled around her feet, her toes becoming cold as she ran towards Billy's voice. He was crying out for help, his yelping becoming just as loud as his screams. Beth instantly realized what was happening.
Billy knew she was in the void; the real Billy knew she was looking for any piece that was left of him. He'd found her and now he was letting her watch what happened to him on the night he was dragged, ruthlessly, away from her.
She recognized his screams, and even her own, from that horrible night as he was being pulled away.
Tears rose to her eyes from the void and even soaking the towel over her eyes as she watched his hands grip the sides of the stairs as her past self tried to pull him up.
"Billy!" the old Beth screeched, her tears soaking her cheeks as mascara ran down with each salty droplet.
"It's too late." Beth told her old self, crying softly as she remembered her heart being pulled away with Billy as he was taken.
As the old Beth vanished, the real Beth worked up the courage to walk down the stairs that Billy was forcibly ripped down. Her breath began furiously hitching in her throat, her heart racing and slamming against her ribcage as her feet carried her down further.
Finally, she was down and waiting for the sight that she knew she would never be ready to see.
And then she saw it.
Her hands flew to her jaw, instant waves of tears filling her small eyes.
There he was, laying on the ground, his legs thrashing around as he arms were seemingly being held down by some type of force Beth couldn't see. What she could see was one of the mind flayer's limb feasting on Billy and infesting his brain with its infectious poison.
Beth began sobbing, her back arching with the cries that escaped from her lips.
"Billy." she whimpered, daring to slowly tiptoe over to the large shadow. It continued to feast on her poor boyfriend as her steps got closer, but right as she stepped right next to a sobbing Billy, the monster released him and let him zip past Beth, her hair moving in the wind he caused with his speed. He ran up the stairs, his car engine revving to live as it sped away.
But Beth was still down there, and the mind flayer was now looking directly at her. Low chitters and growls emitted from it, its body slowly leaning down towards her.
It almost looked like it was bowing down to her.
Until its head flew towards her face.
A scream ripped through Beth, her hands clawing hard at her makeshift blindfold and tearing it away from her eyes. Two streaks of blood were dripping down from each of Beth's nostrils, her tears falling quicker than rain.
Max ran into the bathroom, all of the kids behind her as she panted heavily, the fear still streaming through her veins.
"Beth!" Max breathed, pulling her into a tight hug and letting the girl crash into her.
"What did you do?" Mike worriedly asked, looking at the running sink faucet and the hand towel that was shaped like a blindfold as blood dripped from Beth's nose to Max's shirt collar.
"I tried to find Billy, but he showed me some sort of memory instead." Beth explained hesitantly, waiting for the kids to get mad at her for going into the void again. "It was the night he got attacked. I ran so I never knew what happened, but he showed me."
El's eyebrows furrowed in concentration as she listened to Beth, the fear still highly evident in Beth's quivering tone.
"He was dragged into some building, and the mind flayer was there waiting for him. It laid him down, and sent some type of limb or something right onto his face. It attacked him, right then and there. It was awful, watching him kick around and listening to him screaming for me while I was off, trying to get away."
"It's not your fault, Beth." Max explained, pulling back from the hug and helping Beth clean the blood from her nose.
"The mind flayer took him, you wouldn't have been able to stop him anyways. None of this is your fault." Will told her in comfort.
"Thanks, guys." Beth half smiled, wiping her tears and slowly starting to lead them all back into the basement.
Trying to change to topic, Beth turned to El. "El, did you find him?"
El sighed, shrugging. "Ill-annoy." she said, her voice clearly tired and confused.
Beth's eyebrows furrowed. "What's Hopper doing going to Illinois?"
Mike sighed loudly, turning to Beth. "She said he was with Will's mom, too. And they were hiking in some woods."
"What the hell are they hiking to Illinois for?" Beth asked, confused. "Did you hear anything about why they were going there? Or who they were going to see?"
El shook her head, just repeating the same stuttered word. "Illinois."
•
hi, so, i'm not dead! :D lmao i'm really sorry for disappearing off the face of this app for that small amount of time! i missed writing this story,/9 here's a new chapter! i hope you like it babies! it's unedited of course, but you guys don't really seem to mind that too much, so thank you! i love you! my pm's are always open for anyone who needs to talk! 💙 (also i'm in class at nine am writing this wtf am i new person)
