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gabe's last stand
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. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧
If the Mind Flayer had been simply pissed before, it was absolutely infuriated now. It was a furious animal, gnashing its teeth and flinging out its appendages, because nothing had gone according to plan. The fleas in the car should've been dead by now, and the girl should've been home by now, her abilities feeding through its body. But instead, she was driving away, which meant that the Mind Flayer had to go to all of this trouble to chase her. She wouldn't escape—of course she wouldn't—but it was just a plain old nuisance. Like the fact that the vessel called Billy had been in a petty car accident. And that accident had involved heat.
Billy stumbled out of the car now, a cough rattling loose from his lips, the heat flickering at his insides. His hair was matted, his face glistened with sweat, and it took him a couple seconds of pathetic crawling before he managed to stagger to his feet, black streaks crawling across his arms. Dodging the flames, Billy let out a groan, attempting to limp forward, and that was when he heard the buzzer sounding across the mall, which immediately caught his attention. And—would you look at that?—walking through the gate was three of those fleas, supporting the other girl. The one who had closed the gate. The one who was conveniently injured.
Gabe had spent the past five minutes sprinting through the mall, going through backrooms he didn't even know existed, his heart hammering the entire time. He'd go even faster, except that they had El to support, and it wasn't like he was going to leave her behind. His knees were knocking together, but he couldn't help but let out that cool sigh of relief when his group finally made it through the gate. Safety. At last.
Except... not really. Outside was a field of flames, the smoke immediately making him wheeze, and standing in between such flames was Billy Hargrove, looking three steps away from death but still standing. Which meant that he could hurt them easily. Even flayed on death's door managed to pack quite the punch.
"Shit!" Max swore.
"Go, go, go, go, go, go, go!" Mike screamed, and then they were turning and running back the way they came. Gabe didn't know where the actual Mind Flayer had gone, which made him even more terrified than he already was—what if they were going to run right into its arms? But he kept running anyway, Max going back at the last second to close the gate and hopefully seal Billy out.
