Chapter 29

021

• 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐩 •

─

────✧･ﾟ: *✧･

☄. *. ⋆ Stella wasn’t listening to much around her. She felt Max slouching safely against her, and that was all Stella needed to know to comfortably detach herself and focus on the papers in her hand. Her eyes scanned over the dates, names, and times printed onto the papers, flipping through to check if each schedule was up to date.

She felt Max sit up, her eyes going to the redhead for just a moment, then focusing back on the papers as Max spoke to El.

Then Stella found what she had been looking for.

She traced her eyes from Heather’s name to the column reading ‘Tuesday’.

There was nothing there. Heather doesn’t work Tuesdays.

She pulled her eyes down to Billy’s name, the same column. He doesn’t work Tuesdays either.

“What about Billy?”

“Yeah, what about him?” Stella finally spoke up. “Look.” She laid the stapled packet out in front of them, most current one facing up. “Tuesday.”

“…Tuesday?” Max’s look made even Stella almost believe she was crazy herself.

“Wha– yeah. Tuesday. Billy said Heather left her fanny pack on Tuesday, but look–” her pointer finger jabbed the schedule, “–Heather doesn’t work Tuesdays.”

“Well, maybe she left it before then. And Billy grabbed it on Tuesday,” Max shrugged, still remaining completely unfazed.

“That’s what I thought, too. So I made sure.”

The others followed Stella’s finger again to a couple rows down. “Tuesday, no Billy. He was lying, Max.”

“Well, it probably wasn’t on purpose. I mean, he could’ve just been a day or two off.” Max’s gaze then turned to El, looking back and forth. “You guys need to stop worrying. They’re both fine.”

Stella knew that wasn’t true. And she could tell by the look on El’s face that she knew too.

El’s eyes caught on the comic books Max laid out, Stella nervously placing the schedule safely away.

“Who… is that?” El wondered, and Max’s face dropped, incredulous. “See this is why you can’t hang out with Mike all the time.”

Max began to explain to Eleven, who joined in the small cluster they had formed, all leaning into one another.

Stella tried to listen to reason, closing her eyes in attempt to fall asleep to Max’s voice.

But then it happened again. The heat. The dizziness, the burning that put her back to last year, back to writhing in pain on the bathroom floor.

And the new feeling. The one that sucked her powers out of her somehow.

“I’ll be right back,” Stella used what voice she could muster to stumble to the bathroom, keeping her hand out of view.

The headache split through her skull again, being the last straw before she let herself to the ground.

And the smoke. The smoke leaving her with her powers.

She tried water. She tried to press her hand closed, keep them in. But nothing worked. She just had to let it happen.

Sit back and watch the fire burn.

–

☄. *. ⋆ “Do you copy?”

Stella had grown sick of hearing Lucas’s voice through the radio very quickly. “Cali,” she whined, dragging out the I.

Max rolled over, cutting off Lucas’s fifth ‘this is a code red’.

“Shut. Up.”

Max turned the walkie off, and they all sleepily collapsed back down, Max’s hand finding its hold around Stella’s middle again.

But it was just seconds after that the phone in Max’s room started ringing, its shrill tone prompting Stella to tuck her head further towards Max’s shoulder. She only got to for a moment, though, then Max shot up. “You have got to be kidding me.” The redhead reluctantly threw the blanket off of herself to walk over the the phone. “I’m sleeping, go away!”

The silence that was eventually interrupted by “What are you talking about?” From Max was all Stella needed to become concerned. “What’s wrong?” All the sleep and tiredness left Stella’s body, replaced with urgent worry.

“What?” Max spoke into the phone, but it seemed the caller had hung up.

“Cali.”

“What did he say?” Eleven asked.

–

☄. *. ⋆ “I didn’t think it was anything at first.”

They all listened as Will and Stella explained. It was the inevitable time for them both to discuss what they had been feeling and experiencing. What they both also knew about each other, but agreed an unspoken secret.

“I mean, I think I just didn’t wanna believe it,” Will added, and Stella nodded along as he perfectly worded her own thoughts.

“And we… both kinda knew,” Stella told. “But… I guess saying it… made it more real.” Her knees tucked up to be hugged by her arms.

“The first time I felt it was at Day of the Dead,” Will looked to Stella for some sort of confirmation, one that he got when the girl nodded in agreement.

“Power went out that night, too,” Mike connected. Stella waited for her chance to elaborate on her part. How it was more than that simple feeling. More than the tingle in her hand.

“And then I felt it again at the field near the Nelson farm the next day. Then again, yesterday outside of Castle Byers,” he recalled, and Stella took a moment to wonder what she had missed over the past few days.

“What does it feel like?” Max wondered.

“It’s almost like… you know when you drop on a rollercoaster?” He tried, getting different phrases of understanding from the group, save for El who simply went “no.”

“It’s like… everything inside your body is just sinking all at once, but… this is worse. Your body, it goes cold and– and you can’t breathe.”

A lump formed in Stella’s throat. She knew the feeling, and the explanation was more reliving it.

“I’ve felt it before, whenever he was close.”

“Whenever who was close?”

“The Mind Flayer.”

In the silence, Stella mustered up the strength to speak. “There was more. For me, at least.”

Then there was that ‘all eyes on her’ moment that Stella hated. She dodged the gazes, eyes on the floor. “I had the same sinking feeling Will was talking about, but… but it wasn’t just that.”

“What was it?” Lucas asked, his tone careful as if the question were dangerous.

“It was that same sort of feeling from last year.” She shuddered remembering it. “The same headache, and dizziness and the same knot in my chest, not as bad as the tunnels, but… the same feeling. And there was something new this time.” She turned her hand over, eyes tracing over the faded scar of the bite that just wouldn’t disappear completely. “There was this smoke coming out of my hand, but it– it wasn’t on purpose. It wasn’t me, it was like my powers were being stolen. Like there was a vacuum, just pulling my powers out.”

She swallowed before the next part. The one she hadn’t accepted yet. The one she didn’t want to. “And it’s like my powers are a little emptier each time.”

“How is that possible?” Max questioned, worry painted on her face.

“I don’t…” Stella’s voice broke into a whisper. “I don’t know.”

“But… I closed the gate.” There was fear behind El’s eyes. The fear that all she had fought to rid the town of last year was for nothing. That it’s all still here.

“I know, but… what if he never left?” Will spoke the underlying fear. “What if we locked him out here with us?”

Everyone followed to the table as Will gathered a paper and a black crayon, crawling down a rushed sketch of a spider-like figure. The Mind Flayer. “This is him. All of him. But, that day on the field, a part of him attached itself to me.” He ran his hand over the drawing, smudging the charcoal crayon and leaving some on his hand.

“And then when Dart bit Stella, she got a little part of it–” he ripped the corner of the paper before taking Stella’s wrist and placing the scrap in it.

Will displayed his hand and hers to the group before continuing. “My mom got it out of me, and Eleven closed the gate. We didn’t need to worry about Stella because she wasn’t a part of it, it was a part of her. She was still herself.” The boy closed Stella’s hand around the paper. “But the part that was still in me, what if it’s still in our world?” He turned the paper over, slamming his hand down to leave a dark print. “In Hawkins.”

“I don’t understand,” Max shook her head. “The Demodogs died when El closed the gate. If the brain dies, the body dies.”

“And the brain died,” Stella reminded them, her words stern and final, until they were accompanied with doubt. “But… how did my powers still work if they’re from the Upside Down?”

“Because your powers are from the Upside Down, but they’re not connected to it,” Mike took over and explained, then something seemed to click in his head. “The powers stayed with you because it became part of your biology. The little part of you that was connected to the Upside Down– made you feel what it felt– died out when the gate was closed. It cut you off of it.”

“But how is she feeling it again if the gate got closed?” Lucas spoke up, just as confused as the others.

“Yeah. The brain died,” Stella repeated, shaking her head. “Right?”

“I don’t know. But we can’t take any chances. We need to assume the worst. The Mind Flayer’s back,” Mike said, but something wasn’t right. How could they kill the brain, and suddenly the body came back to life? Was it always still alive? It didn’t add up.

“Yeah. And if he is, he’d want to attach himself to someone again. A new me.” Will pointed out.

“A new host,” Lucas added. and suddenly two of the pieces of this twisted jigsaw actually came together. Stella’s mouth ran ahead of her. “Billy.”

Max’s face faltered. She knew it made sense.

“What?” Mike’s face scrunched in confusion, and Stella realized he hadn’t been filled in.

“Heather, the schedule, the weird behavior, it all lines up. It has to be Billy,” Stella’s voice sped up as she spoke, not bothering to stop for a breath. Her eyes found Max’s, laced with fear.

“How do you know if someone is a host?” Eleven wondered.

–

☄. *. ⋆ “I don’t know, he looks pretty normal to me.”

But Stella knew Max was blinded by the hope that Billy wasn’t a host. He wasn’t being an asshole to anyone, he was wearing normal clothes, he was not ‘normal’.

“Normal?” Lucas echoed. “How many times have you seen him with a shirt on?” His words voiced Stella’s thoughts perfectly. Max shrugged. “I mean, it’s a little weird.”

“More than a little,” Mike said. “He was in a tub with ice, the Mind Flayer likes it cold. Plus everything El saw, and Stella felt-“

“But he’s lounging at the pool, which is like, the least Mind Flayer thing ever,” Max continued to try to defend Billy. Stella understood, she would not take it easily if it were Steve there, but Max never seemed fond of Billy anyway. He had calmed down over the past year, but she certainly wouldn’t go as far as to call it nice.

“Not necessarily,” Will contested, prompting everyone to turn to him. “The Mind Flayer likes to hide. He only used me when he needed me. It’s like you’re dormant. And then, when he needs you, you’re activated.”

“Okay, so we just… wait until he gets activated,” Max decided, but Mike’s head shook. “No. What if he hurts someone?”

“Or kills someone,” Will added, brows raised in concern. Mike leaned over. “We can’t take that chance. We need to find out if he’s the host.”

Stella bit her lip, eyes fixated on the car they perched behind as she searched her head. The Upside Down responds to heat, right? But she hardly knew how to put her powers to use here of all places. And what if Billy wasn’t flayed? They had to think of a better way.

Mike apparently had, but he took off without explaining it.

“Mike?”

“Where are you going?” Eleven called, annoyance lacing her tone.

“I have an idea. Boys only!” Mike hurried out, the other boys following quickly, and Stella’s jaw dropping.

“Seriously?” Max was not having it.

“Just trust me on this one!”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Stella muttered when the boys hurried off.

–

☄. *. ⋆ “You really think it’s him?” Max asked, her tone softer than before in the comfort of her girlfriend being the only one around. Her eyes stayed on Billy, who she and Stella had been put on the job of watching.

The question was unexpected, Stella snapping out of her thoughts– which were alternating between when she and Max could go on a date again and new plays she could use this season. Although, the first one never really left her head.

“We can’t be sure, yet.” Stella settled for that, unsure which side to pick in her internal battle for honesty or telling a lie that wouldn’t be believed anyway. “But I hope not.”

Max remained silent, letting her hand be taken into Stella’s as the brunette joined the quiet.

–

☄. *. ⋆ Stella’s nerves started to kick in when everyone began leaving the pool. She slowly watched each person file out, knowing every one of them was a step closer to their plan launching into action.

As she stood in the locker room, she pushed the worry down and eyed her radio for the signal from Lucas.

A small beep from the device, and Stella slammed the locker door in front of her shut.

“Pool’s closed,” she heard. Billy’s voice, so far normal and tame. A couple more pounds on the metal, and the same voice raised. “Hey! Do you hear me!?”

She stayed without a sound this time, listening carefully for footsteps. When his voice quieted again, she heard them and rushed through the door behind her, locking it immediately. Apparently, it was perfect timing on her part, because the bangs on the door from a now-enraged Billy came mere seconds after. Stella pressed the button to signal Lucas.

She hurried down the hall surrounded by brick until she reached the party, thankfully including Lucas who safely got back there in time. “Got him,” she alerted, voice breathy and quick. The words jolted the others into action, turning around the corner to the other entrance while Mike stayed behind to trigger the lights and the radio.

From around the corner, they could hear Mike calling Billy’s name, voice as teasing as he could manage.

“Who’s there?” Billy’s voice was low and dangerous, but Stella felt nothing, even eyeing her free palm while the other stayed clasped in Max’s.

“Billy!” Again, this time in a sing-song tone that Billy imitated as he repeated himself.

A loud clang that got a small jump out of the waiting teenagers. More taunting calls. Something said under Billy’s breath. A threat from Billy after ‘come and find me’ from Mike, more audible this time. “I find you, it is your funeral.” Billy was getting closer. To them and to their trap. Stella pressed her back harder against the wall as if it would help.

“Got you,” they finally heard from Billy, the two simple words shooting chills down anyone’s spine. He laughed, a crazed cackle with clapping to accompany it. They heard the door swing open– the sound they had been listening for. Lucas clicked his radio, alerting Mike. Stella tapped El, giving her her cue.

“Hey. Behind you,” Mike came through the walkie attached to the CPR training dummy, then joined the party in the room soon after.

“Hi.”

El’s cold greeting was quickly followed by a crash and a slam, and the five others rushed out from around the corner, each one of them helping in securing the sauna door before hurrying back.

It didn’t take long for Billy to start pounding on the door, voice now an angry shout as the locks rattled.

He settled for a moment, panting as his wide eyes landed on his step-sister. “Max.”

Stella stepped forward, inching in front of Max. She let go of Max’s hand and allowed her own to warm, slightly wondering if it took more effort that time than it usually did.

Max swallowed the lump in her throat. “Do it.”

At that, Will charged forward and turned the dial beside the door, increasing the temperature inside.

A small tickle in Stella’s hand. She felt it, but it was subtle.

“Max! Get me out of here!” Everyone jumped with Billy’s hits against the door. “Let me out! You kids… you think this–” he managed between breaths, “–you think this is funny?”

“You think this is some kind of sick prank, huh?” Billy spit on the small glass window that he glared at them through. “You little shits think this is funny!?”

The faint tickle turned into a slightly more demanding itch.

“What is this? Open. The door,” his voice was eerily calm until it met a just as terrifying roar. “Open the door! Open the door! Open the goddamn door!”

The itch creeped up to Stella’s chest, not yet painful, but a bothersome flutter.

Billy crumbled to the ground, his scream trapped in the small room.

Will took it as a chance to check the thermometer again. “We’re at 220.”

Billy fell oddly quiet. The tingles in Stella’s hand and chest fizzled out. The older boy’s voice sounded again, but now it was smaller. Weaker. “It’s not my fault. It’s not my fault, Max.”

Max carefully stepped forward, Stella keeping a close eye on the girl without granting herself even a blink. Billy continued to break into a cry. “I promise you, it’s not my fault.”

“What’s not your fault, Billy?” Max asked, Stella hearing the mix of both curiosity and fear for the answer.

“I’ve done things, Max. Really… bad things,” he told, sounding more like a plead. “I didn’t mean to.” His voice reached a whisper, as if he were being listened to by someone he shouldn’t. Stella could guess the reasoning to thst.

“He made me do it.”

“Who made you do it?” Max asked, but the others were confident they knew the answer, and that Max did, too. The question came from the fear of their theory being correct.

Billy hugged his knees. “I don’t know, it’s like a shadow. A giant shadow.”

A shadow. The shadow. The Mind Flayer.

“Please, Max,” he begged, whether it was for forgiveness or mercy, Stella wasn’t sure.

“What did he make you do?” Max asked what they were all now wondering. Whatever he had been doing was the Mind Flayer’s plan. Figuring that out would help them stop it entirely.

“It’s not my fault, okay? Max, Please! Please believe me, Max, it’s not my fault! I tried to stop him, okay? I did!”

The stifled sobs that left Max sent an immediate shot through Stella’s chest. Joining that was the familiar tingle in her hand, but it was different somehow. Billy was fighting it. Fighting its control.

Max’s hand went to the glass. “It’s gonna be okay, it’s gonna be okay. We want to help you. You just have to talk to us.”

The bite started to grow again. From a tingle, to an itch, to a throb, and as the heat went up, the feeling reached closer and closer to a burn.

“You just have to talk to us.”

The sensation went to her chest.

“Cali,” Stella managed a whisper.

“I believe you, Billy.”

Stella started to sweat. She shot a glance to Will, whose breath picked up, hands reaching for his neck. It was time Max came back to the group.

“Cali.”

“We’ll figure it out together, okay?”

Mike tried to call her back quietly.

Black vines like lightning from the scarred bite, and Stella knew they didn’t have any more time to waste.

“Get away from the door!” Mike shouted, voice booming and urgent, but Stella was already there to pull Max away, thanking her enhanced reflexes.

The shard of ceramic Billy held crashed through the glass window, the knife-like weapon colliding with the side of Stella’s arm, where Max was just seconds before. It tore through her skin with the yell she let out. “Fuck!”

“Ess!”
“Stella!”

Her hands, now charged with heat, shot fire just close enough to Billy to back him away. He stumbled backwards, falling back to the floor.

Stella took a hold of Max’s arm, going to the rest of the group. It was quiet for just a moment as Billy gathered himself.

But the quiet was interrupted.

A hand gripped Stella’s arm, shoving her to the ground quicker than even she could react to. She turned as she fell, getting back to her feet barely after she hit the ground.

She froze upon seeing the familiar curls and blue eyes, usually shy and timid but now cold, empty and dangerous.

“Ozzy?” The idea was so unbelievable to Stella that the name leaving her mouth felt foreign thanks to the timing.

Everyone turned now, faces just as incredulous as Stella’s.

“Ozzy, what are you doing!?”

“You just had to stick your nose into this, didn’t you?” Oscar’s voice didn’t sound like his, and no one even wondered what was going on. There were two. Two people under the Mind Flayer’s control, and they were both here. Here and ready to stop their plan.

Hands shot up to grab Stella’s neck, but she moved quick enough this time. She took a hold of the hands reaching for her, just to find out that Oscar’s strength wasn’t his own right now.

Stella’s own supernatural strength came into play, but for the first time, it wasn’t enough. The boy she had seen nearly cry for a dead mouse outside of a gas station now threw her against the wall.

She heard a couple of screams for her, her hearing and vision both running from her when her head collided with the brick and to the floor. She couldn’t tell if the dizziness was from that, or from the burning associated with the hive mind.

She blinked away the haze, looking up at the others to see El took Stella’s spot, her hand shot out to Ozzy who was thrown to the ground.

As Eleven prepared to pin Oscar down with a barbell, Stella’s eyes caught on Billy, now behind all of them who had almost managed to break through the door amidst all the chaos.

She forced her voice out, head screaming at her. “El!”

Eleven whipped around, although not before it was too late. Billy gripped her shoulders, throwing her against the wall, similarly to what Oscar had done.

Stella ignored every muscle in her body begging her not to move, and pushed herself to her feet.

She hobbled over to where Billy stormed towards Eleven, trying to focus her strength before she grabbed Billy’s shoulders to tear him away.

Billy hit the ground with a thud, and Stella collapsed onto him, lifting her hand for a punch.

Her fist was stopped in its tracks, yanked behind her with a pop of the same left arm she was cut on. A shout escaped Stella as she was dragged off of Billy, and Oscar took the same position she was in, straddling her and starting to throw punches. Unfortunately for Stella, these hits managed to land.

One across the right side of her face, Stella unable to stop them with her arms pinned under Oscar’s knees. The punches stopped after three, hands moving to her throat instead.

Stella heard shouts, some of her name, some of El’s, but it all jumbled with her own struggles for air. She searched for any solution that wasn’t setting him aflame.

Through her now partly bloody vision, Stella’s eyes landed on the red hair behind Oscar and the corresponding arms that swung the pole of a barbell into Oscar’s side. The movement was hesitant, and a quick apology was muttered to Stella before it happened.

He was knocked off of Stella, who groaned as she felt the impact with the hive mind.

Oscar’s attention turned to Max as Stella gasped for the air she was denied seconds earlier.

He could barely reach out to the redhead before Stella kicked into his knee, bringing him to the ground. Max swung the pole onto his head, finally enough to not kill him, but leave him unconscious.

Stella thanked the twisted logic of the Upside Down that she only felt it and wasn’t actually impacted by the hit. Still, it wasn’t very pleasant. “God!”

“I’m sorry!” Max dropped the pole and practically fell onto Stella, bringing her in her arms.

Stella wished she could stay there forever, but her eyes caught on Eleven, fighting against Billy’s hold.

Mike picked up the same pole Max used, swinging it into Billy who was now covered in black veins Oscar had less visibly thanks to his clothing.

Stella groaned, nearly falling over with the hit that wasn’t even technically on her.

“Go to hell you piece of shit!” Mike nearly landed another hit on Billy, but the metal was stopped and flung across the room.

Billy crept towards Mike, who could only back up and stare.

Until Billy froze.

He lifted into the air, limbs betraying him. Held back.

Stella’s heavy-lidded eyes found Eleven, blood streaming down her nose, crying out in pain as she strained herself. She turned Billy around.

Stella braced for impact before Eleven sent Billy crashing through the wall.

─────✧･ﾟ: *✧･

WOAH. LONG CHAPTER.

so since im trying to lock in and finish season 4 of this before the s5 finale is out, there will probably be longer and more frequent chapters!

probably not this long… i think. but on the longer side.

(thats what she said)

um ozzy?

season 5 vol 1 was SO. GOOD.

ok bye ty 😸