Two seemingly broken people seem to find something truly amazing within one another in the small town of Hawkins, Indiana. What started out as annoyance, quickly turned to something much more. Something neither Lana nor Billy wanted to admit. Things...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The darkness suddenly surrounding Eleven and I, was an all too familiar sight, one I'd hoped that I would never see nor face again. The darkness within Billy's mind was expanding far further than I ever dreamed it had, and so quickly at that. The tears spilling from my eyes were ones of pain, uselessness and hopelessness for what I could do. Even with the Flayer breaking through him and taking over, he was still fighting, trying everything he could to scream that he was still in there. The memories of his mom were keeping him afloat.
"I hate you!! Leave me alone!!" Young Billy and his all too familiar father appeared the moment the lightening and dark fog surrounded us, seeing him running away from the sudden yelling of his father. I immediately took after him with Eleven in tow, trying desperately not to slap the figment of his father. My eyes were widened in a panic from the next memory appearing at the surface, seeing his mom and dad fighting with Billy trying everything he could to protect his mom.
"Don't hurt her!!" He was running at his dad with all his might, only being shoved away harshly by his dad. He suddenly punched Billy's mom in the face with so much force, I flinched from the mere sound of it echoing around us. Everything was intensifying and I could barely handle it. I gripped on to Eleven's hand so we wouldn't lose one another, not being able to get through this if she wasn't with me.
"Please mom, don't do this! Please come home! No...... how long? How long?!" The tears cascading down my cheeks wouldn't stop, threatening even more to spill from the sight of a broken, younger Billy sitting against his bed with the phone cradled within his hand, desperately pleading with his mom to come back home. To come back to him. The amount of pain Billy felt was completely unbearable.
"What?! Are you scared to fight me?! Are you scared?!" Everything was happening so quickly that I could barely keep up. Billy was towering over some other kid, his fists connecting with the others face so harshly, so painfully, I winced from the impacts of it all. He was so incredibly angry. Just like the Billy I know. He was full of pain. And my already tender heart broke even more so from the sight.
"Billy, come over here. I want you to meet someone. This is your new sister, Maxine." I stood frozen in my spot upon seeing a little Max and Billy with unknown looks in both of their eyes for one another, knowing just how Billy had to have felt. I couldn't stop the tears from continuing to rain from my eyes of the all too familiar feelings washing over me, reminding me of the day my dad left. When he last called me. Why he didn't explain that he was done. Leaving me for good. I felt like that 12 year old little girl again who had just had her entire world shattered by the one person who promised never to hurt me. Billy knew the pain. He still held it in his heart and it absolutely shattered me.
"Who's there?! I said who's there?!" Billy's sudden change of voice and tone, indicated that this was newer memories. And when the warehouse came into view with his busted up car out front, I knew what we were seeing. And I didn't know if I could handle it. The storm was circling right above this place, showing that this was the source of all the Flayer was doing. Where he was starting his invasion of the Flayed. Our worst nightmare.
"This is where he took me......" Eleven and I looked up at the vortex above us, centering on this warehouse like a beacon that Billy himself sent us, showing where the Flayer was camping out in Hawkins.
"We found the source." Our hands were still firmly held together in fear that something would still happen to us, finally looking at the now clear sign of what this place was called. I was too panicked and scared to even stop and see the name the minute I escaped from here that night.
"Where are you guys?! What do you see?!" Max's frantic voice echoed out around us, comforted to even hear her talking to us. I was scared out of my mind. But knew this was exactly where I was supposed to be if I was going to have any chance of saving Billy.
"Brimborn Steelworks." I wouldn't know how to get here because I was tied up and trapped in Billy's trunk, useless to even remembering anything outside of this place. He was going to Flay me. And I knew why. Because I was a threat from the past. But Billy fought it.
"Okay, we got it! El, Lan, get out of there!!!" Eleven and I looked to one another with a nod of our heads in indication that we were both ready, closing our eyes to get back to everyone. But the moment I did, I was alone in the void, flashes of the night Billy was taken littering my brain with the sounds of his screams filling my ears like the worst sound imaginable. Sudden flashes of Billy and I appeared from all the different times we've spent together, like the most torturous moment imaginable. I screamed and screamed for this all to be a horrible nightmare and I would awake in Billy's arms and none of this had ever happened, when a hand grabbed ahold of my arm so tightly, forcing me forward until I landed harshly on the ground, noting I was back in the cabin once I took my blindfold off.
"Eleven! Where is everyone?!" We both hugged one another with fear clear as day on our faces, calling out to them. But to no avail. They were simply..... gone. What was happening?!
"They can't hear you." My eyes widened and my heart seemed to freeze all function from the cold, distant sound of Billy's voice. He suddenly emerged from within the bedroom in front of us with that empty stare in his eyes.
"You shouldn't have looked for me. Because now I see you." I splayed my arms out to protect Eleven behind me, not knowing exactly what was about to happen with every move he made. A half finished cigarette was poised in his right hand with the most evil look within his features I'd ever seen. He put the cigarette out with care, looking directly at me and Eleven in clear warning. But the sadness that lingered behind the Flayer, was Billy. His eyes were red and his cheeks were tear stained. Pain.
"Now, we can all see you. You....... let us in." He stepped closer and closer with each word, causing us to back up further and further. My puffy and red eyes almost matched his with all the crying I've done. And continue to do. They're coming for us. He sees us.
"And now...... you....... are going to have to let us stay." Eleven gripped onto my arm once I brought her into my embrace, shielding her from the Flayer and his threats. His eyes averted right to me, taking the breath right out of me with just that one look.
"Please...... don't do this. Please! She's just a kid!!!!" My screams set something off within him, seeing a sudden tear run down his cheek with my pained sobs filling the room.
"We're going to end her. And when we do, we will end all of her friends. Starting with you Lana. And then..... we'll end everyone." The pained cries and protests of Eleven, caused a massive scream of fear to leave my lips, seeing the further tears coming from Billy's eyes. He was defenseless against this monster. But that didn't stop me from trying.
"No!! You aren't hurting any of them!! We will stop you....." I slowly walked towards him with my shaking hands indicating just how terrified I truly was. But knowing that Billy could see me, hear me. Feel me. I softly placed my hand upon his Flayed cheek with a single tear caressing both of our faces, pained tears of knowing just how much we truly love one another. And don't want to do any of this. To just go back to those messed up, love sick and lost teenagers we once were, finding our way in the world together. He softly nuzzled into my hand with a sad gasp leaving his lips from the mere touch, seeing how hard he was truly fighting to have this moment.
"I love you Billy..... always remember that. I'm still here." I placed my other hand over his heart with even more tears pouring down my face, my pained sounds echoing in my ears. Suddenly, he threw me to the ground with my back thumping loudly against the wooden floor below me. I cried out in pain when Eleven screamed and flung him across the room with her powers, getting us both out of there and back to our friends in the real cabin outside of the madness we endured. We both flung off our blindfolds and screamed in fear of what was happening, what the Flayer threatened. Eleven fell into Mike's open arms with her cries filling the room, terrified of what he said to her.
"Lana!" I backed away from my spot with the soreness lingering in my back, crying out in so much emotional pain when Max wrapped her arms around me, just holding me while I cried out. For Billy.
