Chapter 28

020

• 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐊𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬 •

─────✧･ﾟ: *✧･

☄. *. ⋆ People squealed and shouted around them at the Hawkins public pool, trying to get out of the rain or stop their kids from getting in the water.

More people were leaving than arriving, Max, Stella, and El pushing against the current of people heading the opposite direction as they entered.

Their hair was wet despite the hooded raincoats they wore. Stella pulled down the blue one she wore, the other two following.

“Excuse me,” Max spoke up, hands leaning against the counter as they stood in front of the manager. He didn’t pay them any mind, though, eyes glued to his magazine. “No one in the water until thirty minutes after the last strike.” His monotone voice sounded automated, a dead giveaway that he had given the monologue several times already. “And don’t try and argue with me. You wanna get electrocuted, go climb a tree.”

Max already seemed fed up with him. “Yeah, we don’t care. We’re not here to swim. Or get electrocuted.”

“Here,” Stella gestured for El to grab the fanny pack they found in Billy’s trash can. She did, holding it up and showing the man the white letters reading ‘GUARD’, rhinestones framing part of it. “We found this.”

The man’s blue eyes finally left his paper, observing the bag, although, he didn’t seem to care very much. Neither did the girl next to him, for that matter, as she slurped away at her slushie.

“Does that belong to anybody here?” Max asked. The manager’s voice remained that flat tone, but he at least provided an answer. “Oh, yeah. That’s Heather’s. I’ll get it back to her.”

“We could give it back to her,” Eleven practically jumped at the opportunity, Stella nodding immediately. “Yeah, is she still here?”

“Nah. Bailed on me today.” He looked back at the magazine, meanwhile, the three teenage girls exchanged glances.

“Why?” Stella pressed, leaning forward further. He lifted his hand and dropped it again, clearly sick of answering to them. “I dunno. Just ditched.”

Stella bit her lip nervously, not bothering to share another nervous look with the two beside her, eyes falling. “What about Billy?” She tried to keep the exchange going, grasping onto it in attempt to get any useful information. “Is he here?”

“Nope,” he flipped the magazine page carelessly while the girl beside him continued to sip her drink.

“What is this?” He was certainly done with them. “You girls want a reward or somethin’?”

They seemed to all mutually conclude that this man wouldn’t be of any use anymore. Max shrugged. “Nope. We’re just… good Samaritans.”

The girl next to the manager shot them a smile, one that Stella couldn’t identify as either genuine or sarcastic.

Max and Stella followed when El wandered away, nearing a bulletin board. They both knew what she was eyeing.

“Heather.” The picture was taken at this very pool, Heather’s smile beaming as she held the same yellow whistle they had found bloodied in Billy’s bathroom. It put a lump in Stella’s throat.

“Do you think you can find her?” Max asked, and Stella already knew the answer, but she had a terrible feeling about everything. She just wanted to go home and work on her jump shots, maybe just sit in bed with Max and watch some stupid movie they won’t even pay attention to. She wanted to get the comfort of a full year of peace.

But instead, she wound up sitting in the public pool shower room waiting for her best friend to psychically locate a girl they didn’t even know.

“What do you see?”

Stella listened intently, drowning out the sounds of the running water surrounding them and focusing in on Eleven along with keeping her guard up. Her hands heated, ready to shoot the red heat at any given moment. She wasn’t sure why, she couldn’t guess why she’d need it here. All the danger was unreachable, they were simply peering through a window at it through El. “A door. A red door.” Eleven’s voice reached a whisper.

She tore the goggles off her head with a gasp. Max and Stella hurried to console the frantic girl as she looked around, closely terrified.

–

☄. *. ⋆ Stella slowed to a stop beside her girlfriend and El. Max spoke over the heavy pattering of the rain that hadn’t calmed at all since earlier. “Is this it?”

El nodded, and the three exchanged nervous looks before nearing the bright red door.

After a glance back and a deep breath, Stella knocked on the door. One round of three knocks, then another, and another before she decided to try the handle. “It’s locked,” she announced, hands falling to her sides. All eyes landed on El.

It wasn’t long before the door opened inwards with a prolonged creak that anyone inside wouldn’t be able to hear through the rain, thankfully.

They stepped quietly through the hallway, hearing the sound of music playing faintly from another room. They stopped halfway, eyes fixated on a picture hanging from the wall. Heather, Tom, and Janet Holloway. She recognized Tom– she’d seen him on the wall in a picture at Oscar’s house one of the few times she went over. Ozzy himself wore a forced smile. His father stood behind him next to Tom and the rest of the Holloways. It was taken during a work event that Oscar complained about to Stella.

“That’s Heather’s dad,” Stella informed the two beside her, eyes not leaving the picture as Max completed her inference. “This is her house.”

“What?” Eleven breathed.

“Heather’s house.”

Their focus was taken from the picture when laughing came from another room, the trio silently agreeing to follow it.

They turned the corner, entering what they quickly found out was the dining room.

Unsurprisingly was Tom and Janet Holloway, but no Heather.

Although, what really brought the expressions that were a blend of shock and confusion– more notably, a creeping feeling through their body all the way up their neck –was Billy Hargrove.

And his manner was… certainly different.

Everyone at the table stopped mid-laughter, faces faltering at the sight of the three teenage girls with rainwater dripping down them.

“Max,” Billy’s tone somehow added an even more uneasy tone to the atmosphere.

Stella snapped from her puzzled trance first, shaking her head and blinking. “Sorry.” The words seemed to bring Max and El back down to Earth, too. Max found words before she was stuck silently staring with no explanation. “We didn’t mean to… barge in. We tried to knock, but… maybe you didn’t hear us over the storm.”

Tom didn’t seem to be having it. “I’m sorry, who is this dripping all over my living room right now?”

Billy chuckled, unusually calm, and rather eerily. “I’m sorry. Janet, Tom, this… is my sister Maxine and her friend, Estelle.”

Over the rage that simmered in her blood upon the name that dared to leave Billy’s mouth and the label of merely a friend, Stella heard an alarm go off in her head, as if warnings weren’t already screaming in her face. Sister. The Billy that she knew wouldn’t dare call Max his sister. Maybe if he happened to change over time upon some miracle, but for now Billy had always been clear that Max was, in fact, not his sister.

A look over at Max told Stella that the redhead wasn’t as suspicious. Something amongst the confusion and surprise softened behind Max’s face as Billy made his way over. “What on Earth are you doing here? Is something wrong?”

“We just wanted to make sure everything was okay.”

Stella would usually be surprised. How could Max not immediately know something was up? That Billy was the complete opposite of himself right now?

But from Max’s perspective, Stella realized this must have looked like what it seemed to someone who wasn’t filled in on current events. It must’ve looked like maybe Billy was finally relaxing. Finally accepting her. Accepting the fact that Max was now his sister. Maybe even embracing it. Stella would have been blinded by emotion, too.

“Okay?” Billy echoed. “Why wouldn’t it be okay?”

“Where is she?” Eleven cut right to the chase, and the almost unnoticeable anger behind Billy’s eyes made Stella suddenly aware of her surroundings.

“I’m sorry,” Billy repeated the phrase that Stella heard frequently since simply entering. “Where is who?”

The who, however, entered right then, as if on cue. “Well, they’re a little burnt, I’m sorr-” Heather stopped mid-sentence, a tray of cookies in her mittened hands.

“Heather!” Billy held a hand out.

It didn’t make sense. According to not just El, but every bit of clues and evidence they had gotten pointed to the fact that something was very wrong. That Heather was not okay. But here she stood in front of them with cookies, appearing quite okay.

“This is my sister, Maxine, and this is Estelle.”

Stella felt her jaw grow taut.

“And, I’m sorry, I did not quite catch your name,” Billy’s eyes settled on El, a certain emptiness behind them.

“El,” she replied coldly.

“El,” Billy echoed, the name foreign in his mouth and unsettling. “Now, what is it you were saying, El? You were looking for somebody?” He clearly knew what she meant.

“We were just looking for Heather,” Stella tried to cover nonchalantly, but it didn’t stop El’s muttering. “I- I saw…”

“Your manager!” Max cut in. “At the pool. He said you guys didn’t come in to work today, so we got worried.” Her tone was innocent and oblivious while Stella nodded along.

“Heather wasn’t feeling so hot today, so we thought we’d take the day off to nurse her back to health,” Billy explained. It made sense, but it was clearly a lie. It sounded so rehearsed, so fake. “But you’re feeling just fine right now, aren’t you, Heather?”

“I’m feeling so much better.”

Stella chewed the inside of her lip, face seeming genuinely questioning as she reached into the pocket of El’s raincoat. “Sorry, it’s just… we found this,” she lifted her hand, holding up the fanny pack they never ended up returning. “At your house, actually, Billy.” She searched his eyes for a reaction, and she definitely caught one. A subtle flicker of panic. Barely there, but it was.

“Yeah, she just… happened to forget it. At the pool the other day,” he remained surprisingly calm, and Heather threw in the words “silly me.” Billy reached for the red bag, but Stella moved it back just slightly enough to look accidental. “When?”

“Couple days ago. Must’ve been Tuesday,” he grinned after just a moment of hesitation.

Stella slowly lent him the fanny pack, placing it in the hand he held out for it.

“Do you girls want a cookie?” Heather asked, cutting through the heavy air. She lifted the tray, gesturing it towards them. “They’re fresh out of the oven.”

“No,” Stella shook her head. “Thank you, we’re okay, though,” she started to back up before muttering another apology about the interruption to Heather’s parents and turning to leave. The others followed, only for Stella to stop in the hall. “Actually,” she turned, “would you all mind if I used your restroom? The bike ride home is just… a bit long.”

“Of course,” Janet nodded. “Just around that corner on the end, first door to the left.” She pointed towards the hall.

Stella smiled, a polite “thank you” leaving her mouth before she hurried upstairs, hearing Max mention waiting for her outside, only to follow her upstairs when they left everyone else’s sight. “Ess, what are you doing?” She whispered from the top of the staircase, already knowing her girlfriend wasn’t really using the bathroom.

“Shh!” Her voice was even lower than Max’s. “I just need to find something.”

“Find what?” Eleven wondered from behind Max, her question going unanswered as Stella spoke to herself. “Where the hell is Heather’s room?”

After the second door she opened, Stella found the room that was undoubtedly Heather’s, grinning to herself.

“Ess!” Max glanced behind her, then quietly hurried up the stairs with El following.

She entered the room, watching as Stella checked different drawers in the room.

Heavy footsteps could be heard nearing them, and Stella noted that she didn’t have much time to spend with this.

Finally, she paused when she spotted a certain stack of papers, taking them out of the drawer and crouching in front of a chair as she began to sift through the stack.

“What’s that for?”

Stella ignored all the questions. She’d have time to explain later but for now, she had to hurry.

“Stella, he’s coming,” El spoke, Stella only taking half a second to glance up at her before continuing to look through the papers.

The footsteps only drew closer, and Stella’s mind reeled as she went between looking for something and calculating in her head how long she had to return things to normal, hurry back downstairs, and appear as if she were in the bathroom based on the distance and speed of the footsteps.

“Ess!”

Brown eyes lit up when they landed on the words she had been searching for, and Stella stood up to put the sheets back.

Max and El didn’t hesitate to follow Stella back downstairs in a hurry as she folded the paper up and shoved it in her jean pocket where it was less likely to get wet.

Just as they turned the corner, they all stopped in their tracks when Billy stood just feet away from them.

He stared for just a moment before raising his brows just a bit. “Sorry, I… didn’t hear a flush.”

“Storm was over it. Probably,” Stella chuckled nervously.

She didn’t bother to mumble a goodbye this time, simply slipping out of the door and hurrying to their haphazardly thrown bikes on the lawn.

─────✧･ﾟ: *✧･

sneaky sneaky stella

been suuuuper busy, i joined another show so im out of my house from eight am to ten pm most days 😭

still wanted to get a chapter out though!!

paracosm update! so paracosm is gonna be postponed, and is releasing on jan 1st, 2026 when the stranger things finale releases! i just think i need more time to write the first few chapters as of now and more people will want to read it then!

im planning on having s4 of this one done before the finale comes out!

thx for reading dont forget to comment and vote 😸