✓ | 3. soldier, soldier, spy [STEVE HARRINGTON]

fifteen.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
GOODBYES

[ PLURIBUS UNUM ]

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           Thomas woke with a scream of Steve's name, before he realised he was in the car, listening to the static in the silence and panting hard with an open mouth. He hated that silence, so deep and swallowing, and longed for company, needed it now. The sky above had darkened now and it was just him and the trees and the stars, all silent and cold, especially for summer, as he kicked open the car door and dashed through gravel back to the cabin. His feet clomped on the porch before he swept open the door and stepped --

         He froze. His heart stopped. The cabin was empty.

And that was when it began.

          Where the hell was everyone? His mind raced through the possibilities: they couldn't have gone somewhere without the car, and neither would they leave him alone, and Max's cropped denim jacket was still draped over the back of the couch. They couldn't have left.

Something was different. He couldn't see it. He couldn't hear it. He didn't smell or feel it. But he knew it.

Something was different.

          "Jonathan?" he called out. "Eleven? Nance?"

           The silence echoed back at him, deepening the more he yelled. It was swallowing his voice whole. And panic was rising, rising, steadily. He was on the verge of starting to cry.

And up rose the little voice, speaking from the back of his mind, that told, Shhhh, it's close now. Close.

Close.

"They can't hear you."

The deep voice came echoing from behind him, out on the porch.

And a moment later, he rounded the corner – the thing Thomas had been seeing in his nightmares, even before this started – leaking tears and covered in blood: Billy.

         Thomas staggered backwards, into the cabin, as Billy shudderingly stepped around the doorway, following closely. He was grinning that tiger grin, all teeth, so hungry.

"It's just me and you, Tommy," he said lowly. "Well," his glinting eyes drifted behind Thomas, to by the television, where Eleven, somewhere, would be sat, "I suppose it's just you and me. She can't get to you now, even if she can see you." His eyes swung back on Thomas, who had begun to cry, tilting his head helplessly, confused, wondering why this was happening to him. "It's just you, and me. Do you want to know why I'm here?"