After leaving Kline's place, Jim, Amelia, Joyce and Theo all take off towards all the lands that have been bought by Starcourt. The sun was going down fast, and time was running out. Jim knew it was a matter of time before Kline's wife would find him and free him so he can alert the thugs at Starcourt about the three of them. So far, they've hit two lands and no clue at all. Jim managed to break the lock and boards of one of the houses left abandoned. Amelia shines her light as she roams the basement. Joyce took the first floor while Jim scanned upstairs.

Meow...Theo hops on Amelia's shoulder as he scouts with her. Neither of them could sense anything in the house or the property.

Jim comes stomping down the steps, meeting Joyce at the bottom, "Anything?"

Jim shakes his head, "No."

Amelia walks up the stairs and sighs as she meets them both, "Nothing."

"Not even...a feeling?" Joyce asks.

Amelia shakes her head, "Nope. Not even a tick."

"This place is dead." Jim scoffs and they all head back towards the truck. He grunts as he gets into the driver's side, "All right, where to next?"

Amelia looks over her shoulder as Joyce scratches out another property and looks at the next one.

"Hess Farm."

Amelia sighs and leans on the door, rubbing her tired eyes. She was exhausted. After taking care of Jim after he got hurt, now on the hunt for the mystery of Starcourt. Lately, it's always rare for her to have a decent night's sleep. Ever since the nightmares started. But having Jim next to her helped so much. But...what if one day he won't be enough? What if...she'll lose him? After losing so many people over the years...after so much death...she was always afraid to get close to anyone. But Jim...her heart can't help it. Fate couldn't stop.

Closing her eyes for a minute, Amelia slowly falls into her dreams once again. Flashes of red lighting in the sky filled her mind. The screeching of many creatures echoed around her. A door...with stained glass slowly opened in front of her. And the darkness began to swallow her whole.

"Amelia..."

Amelia gasps softly and snaps her eyes open as she flinches. Waking herself up and escaping the nightmare. She sighs softly and sits up. Jim looks over to her in worry, focusing both on her and the road. He reaches over and takes her hand, intertwining his fingers with hers.

Soon, they made it to Hess' farm and once they pulled up down the gravel road, they could a delivery truck parked in the front with big, red letters that said Lynx.

"Looks like somebody's home." Jim says as he parks his truck.

A dark feeling begins to take over Amelia's soul. Like a cold hand gripping her heart in a tight grip.

Amelia places her hand on her chest as Jim stops the truck, he looks over her with a worried frown.

"What is it?" He asks.

Amelia looks at him and Joyce, "It's really wrong here." She gives them both a look of dread.

Joyce and Jim shared a worried look and begin to get out of the truck. Theo meows as he follows Amelia, hopping out of the truck. Jim walks up towards the door and manages to open the door with ease. The hinge creaks loudly as he slowly pushes the door open, holding his gun up and flashlight, ready for anything.

"Stay behind me." He whispers.

They all carefully walked through the house, it seemed empty, but suddenly, a low, pulsing sound was made in the air.

"Did you hear that?" Joyce asks.

Jim and Amelia both frown as they hear the sound as well. Amelia stays by Jim's side as he leads them through the rooms. He pants softly, ready for anything. When they reached a dinning room, one single light bulb was fading in and out with the pulsing noise. Jim frowns as he watches but snaps back to focus on making sure this house was clear. He didn't want anything to happen to Amelia and Joyce. Especially, Amelia.

They finally reach a bedroom and the pulsing noise seems to be louder in the room. Jim looks up and sees another light pulsing with the noise. He moves and scans the bathroom. Nothing.

"Where's that coming from?"

Meow... Amelia watches Theo claw at the floor, meowing at them all to gain their attention. Amela frowns and gets down to her knees, when she kneels, she notices a vent grate. Right under the bed. Why would there be a vent under the bed? She places her hand on the wood and she could feel the noise pulse against her palm. She leans down further and presses her ear against the floor.

"It's below us." Amelia whispers.

Joyce and Hopper turn and sees her lying on the floor. Amelia's eyes widen as she sees a red light shinning through the grate. She gets to her feet quickly.

"There's something under there." She whispers.

With their help, they managed to lift the bed up and see...a pathway with stairs!

All of them begin to breath rapidly in shock. Who knew what was down there.... waiting for them.

Jim holds his gun up and leads them both down the stairs. The pulsing was even louder around them. Amelia gasps softly and sees machines around them. Joyce was right. There was a machine. Jim turns fast as they begin to hear distant clanging and soon, male voices speaking. They slowly begin to follow the voices and see two meen kneeling on the ground, near a panel.

"Hey, dipshits!"

The men snap their heads up at Jim and both freeze when they see he was armed. One looked like a mechanic and the other carried glasses, Amelia sensed he was a scientist.

The mechanic drops his tool in shock as the three of them approaches.

"Hawkins PD. Hands in the air." Jim demands, but both men looked at Jim and each other in confusion. "Don't make me say it again!" He warns.

Suddenly, the mechanic begins to speak Russian.

Amelia and Jim frown at each other then look back at the men, "English. You speak English?" The one with the glasses tries to speak, but all they got was Russian, "I can't understand you!" Still only Russian and Jim was losing his patient. "Babe, can you tell them to speak English?" He grits his teeth.

Amelia scoffs, "I speak Latin, French, Spanish, and Dutch. Russian doesn't fall in the category of witches."

Jim growls and tries again as the one with glasses speaks more in Russian, "I can't understand you. No understand! " Jim shouts.

Amelia gasps as thudding footsteps were made from above, "Jim. Jim!" She yanks on his arm.

The five of them look up as they hear the footsteps approaching. Jim turns towards the Russian men and glare at them both, holding a finger against his lips. "Shh." He stalks towards them and manages to tie the mechanic up, gagging him while he grabs the one with glasses and cuffs him to a pipe.

"Stay here. Both of you." Jim says.

"Jim..."

"Stay, Lia." He whispers and cups her face. "I mean it. Stay." He quickly moves and hides behind a pillar as he waits for whoever was coming.

Amelia grabs Theo and holds him close against her chest as she waits with Joyce. The man with glasses studied them both. Especially Amelia. Amelia looks up and frowns at him. What is he looking at?

"Amelia..." Joyce whispers, gaining her attention. Both of them gasp softly and hide further as they see the same thug from the lab, holding an assault rifle.

The thug walks slowly down the stairs and scans his surroundings, knowing that someone was here. Someone other than the workers he left here. He walks towards the electrical panel as he hears muffled groaning and yelling. Soon, he sees the mechanic yelling behind a gag.

Jim comes out of his hiding spot and holds his gun behind the thug's head, "Don't move! Drop the gun. Drop it! You understand what I'm saying, big guy? Drop the weapon."

"Or what? You going to shoot? Good." The thug scoffs in a heavy Russian accent.

"So, you do understand what I'm saying, huh? And, yeah, you don't put that thing away, I'm gonna blow some daylight into that thick skull of yours." Jim warns.

The thug smirks, "No. You won't do that."

"Why's that?"

"Because you are policeman. Policemen have rules."

"Oh, yeah?" Jim cocks his gun, "Wanna test that theory? I'm gonna count to three. One, two, three!" But before he could pull the trigger, the thug turns fast and attacks Jim.

Amelia and Joyce duck for cover as, during the fight, the thug sets his gun off, shooting all over the small lab. Joyce screams and covers herself from the bullets. Amelia shouts and holds on to Theo tightly.

The thug manages to get a great number of punches towards Jim. Jim tries to fight but he was too strong. The thug manages to knock Jim's gun out of his hand, making slide towards where Joyce and Amelia were. Amelia yelps and watches Jim getting his ass kicked...again. She couldn't let him get hurt. She couldn't lose him. She lets go of Theo and ducks as she heads towards the toolbox near the mechanic. He yells and grunts as he tries to duck for cover.

"Let me borrow this." She grabs a hammer.

The thug manages to send Jim to the ground. Groaning and coughing in pain. While the thug stood over Jim, Amelia rushes from around the pillar and hits the thug hard across his back, making him wail in pain.

He growls and turns fast, grabbing her by her throat. Amelia gags and whimpers as she pounds on his fist and arm, but he was too strong. Jim gets up and watches the guy hold Amelia in the air, choking her with her feet dangling in the air.

"Lia!" He shouts and gets to his feet, grabbing a wench and slams it against the guy's knee. Making him drop her. Amelia gasps and coughs in fits. Jim slides across the floor to get to her, "Are you okay? Are you okay?"

"Hopper!" Joyce shouts and tosses his gun, but she threw it too hard, and it landed near the thug.

"Oh, shit." Jim grabs Amelia, yanking her to her feet and rushes the three of them around the pilar to get the scientist. "Go!" He shouts as the thug begins to shoot at them with his own gun. "Move, Joyce!"

Jim grabs his keys and begins to uncuff the Russian scientist, "Come on, Smirnoff." He cuffs his own wrist, chaining him to himself, "You're coming with us!" He yanks the guy to his feet and forces them all out of the lab. "Go, go, go!"

The thug cocks his assault rifle and begins to shoot at them again. Amelia and Joyce scream as they run with Jim and the scientist. They quickly throw the fake bed back on the path, but the thug continues to shoot. Jim throws a bookshelf on top, hoping that'll keep the guy busy for them to get out.

"Let's go! Let's go! Move it, Smirnoff! Move it! Run!" Jim yells as they rush up the stairs and out of the house, racing towards the truck. "Amelia! Drive!" He tosses his keys at her.

Joyce rushes to get into the truck while Jim and the scientist sit in the back. Amelia hops into the driver's side and tries to start the truck. "Oh, you gotta be shitting me!"

"Come on, Babe! Quit screwin' around!"

"Are you kidding me?!" She grunts and struggles to start it up, "Shit!"

"Go! Babe, drive." He urges her.

"I'm trying!" She yells at him.

"Amelia, please, drive!" He shouts.

"You wanna crank this piece of shit?!" She yells over her shoulder.

"DRIVE!!!!!!!!!!" He screams.

Finally, the truck roars to life and Amelia drives as fast as she could get away. Dirt flying everywhere as the tires screeched under them.

"Get us outta here!"

Soon, the Thug comes from out of the house and begins to shoot at them. Joyce screams and ducks. Amelia yells as she presses harder on the gas. Jim and the scientist both shout as the window behind them shatter. Bullets hit all over the truck as smoke begins to hiss out of the side, but Amelia manages to get them away.

"Oh, God!" Jim shouts.

"Hang on!" Amelia grunts and turns sharply on to the highway, driving as fast and far away as possible.

Finally, no more gunshots, no more yelling. Just the engine roaring and everyone's heavy, panting breaths of relief.

"Still think it was our government?" Jim asks sarcastically to Joyce.

Amelia sighs and falls against the seat as she continues to drive them far away to safety, "What are we going do?" She finally asks as they managed to get about 30 miles away from the farm. She clears her throat and winces. God, it hurt to talk.

Panting, Jim uncuffs himself and chains the scientist to the back of the truck, "First things first..." He pants. "We're gonna go to Illinois. I got a friend who can help us translate Russian with Smirnoff here. Second..." He swallows hard. "Find out what the hell are Russians are doing in Hawkins and what are they doing."

"Illinois?" Amelia scoffs. "Jim...your truck was just shot to hell. It's not gonna last. I'm not even sure how long we got before it's gonna..."

Suddenly, a loud clunking noise was made, and the engine begin to choke and struggle. Everyone jumps at the loud noise and groan in realization.

"...die."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Amelia managed to park the truck off the road, taking a dirt path to hide from the big Russian, terminator wannabe by the time the sun finally came up. For the past 2 hours they've been parked there, Jim has been working on the bullet ridden engine. Steam hissed as he works on it, but it he had no idea how to fix this. He just needed to get this running long enough to reach where they needed to go.

Amelia sighs heavily as she sits in the driver's side with Theo on her lap, listening to Jim cuss left and right.

"Son of a bitch. Son of a bitch!" He grumbles and coughs.

Theo meows and looks over towards Joyce, who was trying to communicate with the scientist. He hops off Amelia's lap as she gets up and walks towards Joyce, watching her take two rocks.

"Okay, a magnet? Magnets? Do you know 'magnet'? Magnet?" She asks, as she clicks the rocks together.

The man speaks Russian and nods, "Magnit." He says.

"Yes, magnit. Okay, so, uh, magnit on my...my fridge, my icebox, and then they...they fell." Joyce says and drops the rocks with a confused look, "They demagnetized, stopped working. Uh, do you understand?"

The man nods, "Da."

"Okay, so is that because of the machines that you're working on?"

"Machina."

"Machina, machina, yes." Joyce nods and imitates a revving engine.

Amelia covers her face, "Uh, Joyce..."

Soon the man smiles and nods, "Da, da, machina."

"Yes, machina..."

"Vroom, vroom." The scientist points at the car.

"Oh, not...not the car." Joyce stutters.

Amelia holds up her hand, stopping Joyce from speaking, "How about we start with the basics first?" She sighs and turns towards the man, "Excuse me. Hi." She gives him a smile and he returns one. "Um..." She places her hand on her chest. "Amelia. I'm Amelia." She says.

The man points at her, "Amelia?" He asks with a heavy Russian accent.

"Yes, my name is Amelia." She nods and points at Joyce. "Joyce. Her name is Joyce."

The man smiles and nods, pointing at Joyce, "Joyce..." He says.

"Yes, I'm Joyce." Joyce nods, smiling at the progress.

Amelia places her hand on his chest, "Your name? You?" She asks.

He points at himself and asks a question in Russian.

Amelia nods, continuing to gesture him say his name, if he understood.

The man speaks in Russian..."Alexei." He says.

"Alexei? That's your name?" Amelia asks.

Alexei nods and points at himself, "Alexei."

Amelia takes his hand and gently shakes it, "Nice to meet you, Alexi." She sighs and slowly lets his hand go. "Um..." She stutters and begins to ask a question in French. Alexi frowns, continuing to speak in Russian. "Okay, don't know French. Um..." She asks a question in Dutch. But Alexi shakes his head. "Hmm." She sighs. "Can you understand me?" She asks in Latin.

Alexei perks up, "Yes!"

"Oh, thank god, he speaks Latin." Amelia sighs.

Joyce sighs deeply in relief, "Oh, great. Can you explain to him about my magnets are affected by the machines at the farm?"

"Uh, the machines...at Hess Farm...where we...I apologize for that, but when we kidnapped you..." Amelia frowns when Alexi stops her in Russian then stutters to go back to Latin.

"Only understood...um...little." He squints his fingers.

"Ohhh....shit." Amelia mutters.

"What?" Joyce frowns.

"He only knows a little bit of Latin. Not a lot." Amelia sighs, watching Joyce roll her eyes.

"I understood your...apology. I can...um...understood...why." He stutters as he tries to remember his Latin.

Jim grumbles, "Babe, Joyce, please! You're givin' me a headache, all three of you!" He grits his teeth, obviously pissed about his truck.

Amelia holds up a finger, "Hold on, please. One minute." She says, and points at Jim, "He can be a bit of an...asshole."

Alexi nods, giving her a look of understanding and asks her a question in Russian, pointing at her neck. She reaches up and touches her sore neck.

"Oh, I'm ok. Thank you." She waves him off and turns to face Jim with Joyce. "Hey. We're making progress."

Jim scoffs, "Progress." He turns and looks at Amelia, frowning at the sight of her bruised neck. He stops working on the truck and reaches to exam her neck. "Jesus, Babe." He sighs and caresses her cheek, "You okay?"

Amelia nods, "Yeah, I'm okay." She looks at the truck engine and winces. "How about you, Babe?" She sighs softly.

Jim snorts out a scoff, "I think I'm getting there. So, what's this so called 'progress' you and Joyce made?" He asks. "What have you learned, huh? You learned that Smirnoff over there...?"

"Alexei." Amelia rolls her eyes.

"What?"

"His name is Alexei."

He frowns down at her, "I don't care if he's Rumpelstiltskin. Smirnoff is Russian and works for Starcourt, two things we already knew. And that means he's dangerous."

Amelia sighs, "One: Rumpelstiltskin is German.  And two: so, we thought we knew.  He works for someone but not for Starcourt directly.  He works for someone who possibly could be the one who bought all those lands and Starcourt." She states.

"Oh, really?" He snorts.  "And he told you all that?"

Amelia stutters, "No, not directly.  It's a..."

Jim rolls his eyes, "A feeling. Right." He pinches the bridge of his nose, feeling his headache grow worse, "Think you can use your feelings to get this baby to start?" He asks sarcastically as he tosses her the keys.

"Since you've asked so nicely." Amelia snarks and gets into the driver's seat, leaving the door open to hear Jim better.

"Keep it in park, please." Jim says a little too harshly.

Amelia mutters in Latin, "Go suck a dead donkey's dick."

"ENGLISH!" Jim snaps.    

"I said 'Duh! Go do something useful'!" Amelia snaps.

"You do something useful!" Jim snaps back. 

Amelia sighs deeply, hating that they were arguing.  They were just both so tired, cranky, hot, and hungry.  Amelia was dying for a hot bath while Jim was dying for a smoke.  But, internally, he was kicking himself for being such a dick towards her.  He didn't mean to snap at her.  She was just helping. 

Jim takes a deep, calming breath and leans on his car, watching the engine, "Okay, crank it up, Lia."

Amelia grips the key in her hand and turns it, cranking it up. She managed to get it to turn over, but soon, there was a crackling, and the engine dies again. She sighs in disappointment as Jim drops his head.

"It's not working." She says.

"Try it again." He says, and reaches to try and work on the car, straining to fix it.

She cranks it again and again, nothing, "Shit." She grunts. No matter how hard she cranks it, it only lets out weak sputters and electrical crackling erupting from the engine. "Babe, that really doesn't sound too good." She warns.

"Try again." Jim ignores her warning.

She scoffs, "Fine." She cranks it again and nothing but more noise and crackling. She sighs, "It's not working."

Jim grunts and grits his teeth, "Try it now."

Joyce was busy trying to communicate with Alexei, but Alexei begins to become concerned. "Hey. Hey." He calls out and begins to frantically speak in Russian. "Stop! Stop!" He shouts in a heavy accent.

Jim simply tries to ignore him, but he was getting on his nerves, "Shut up, Smirnoff!" He shouts.

"I think he's trying to..." Joyce stutters, but Jim cuts her off.

"I don't care, you understand?! No care!" Jim shouts and continues to try and fix the truck.  "Try it again!" He shouts.

Amelia grunts, hearing the car whine, "Aw! Come on!"

Alexei continues to shout at Jim and Amelia, trying to warn them both.  He looks at Joyce, speaking rapidly in alert but Joyce was clueless.  She shakes her head, no idea what he was trying to tell her.

Jim grits his teeth and pushes himself away from the truck, "Shut up, Smirnoff!"  But he wasn't letting up, Alexei was determined to warn them.  Jim stalks towards him with a look of that could kill if it could, "D'you hear me? I said shut your damn..."

Suddenly, a high-pitched squealing comes from the truck, black smoke erupts from the engine.  Amelia's eyes widen fear.  Jim and Joyce watch with wide eyes. 

"Shit!" Amelia yelps as the smoke gets worse. 

"Oh, Jesus. Babe, get out of there!" He shouts. 

"Woah!" Amelia grabs Theo and rushes out of the truck. 

The four of them jump in shock as the truck engine basically explodes before them.  Amelia jumps into Jim's arms by the force of the explosion.  Which wasn't massive, thank goodness, but it's safe to say...the truck was officially gone. Hopper was speechless at the sight. After so many years of having that truck. It was great to him...and now it was gone and they had no way of getting to Illinois properly.

Alexei sighs as he sees that their only way of transportation was gone into flames, he looks over towards Hopper, "Stop." He says. Making sure now that he knew that he was trying to help.

Jim grits his teeth as he slowly turns to glare down at Alexei. He gets his cuff keys from his pocket and roughly uncuffs him from the tree, recuffing him, and yanking him to follow. Since they can't drive, they'll walk.

Amelia fans herself as they hike through the woods, the heat was unbearable to all of them. She sighs deeply and watches Theo following along with a tired meow.

"Yeah, I know. It's hot and I'm hungry, too." Amelia sighs, then grunts when Theo jumps into her arms to climb her shoulder.  He purrs as he drapes himself over her shoulder, hanging around her neck.  "Lazy ass." She mutters. Meow...

Joyce walks with Alexei as Amelia and Jim walks side by side together.  But, mostly, they avoided looking at each other.  Being in a foul mood, Jim didn't want to snap at her anymore and Amelia was too tired to argue with him.  Joyce sighs and wipes her sweaty brow. 

"I thought this friend of yours lived in Illinois." Joyce asks.

Jim grunts as he pushes through the heat and discomfort he was experiencing, "He's not really a friend. He's more like an acquaintance." He says.

"Oh? Okay, well..." Joyce mutters. 

Jim looks behind him and sees Alexei slowing down, but he was mainly swiping left and right at the bugs that surrounded him.  Jim pulls on his cuffs, making him pick up the pace.  Pushing him to go ahead of the three of them.  Mainly, he wanted the guy to stay away from Amelia and Joyce.  He could see he was growing on them both and Jim did not trust him at all.   

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Keep up, keep up, keep up."

"Easy." Amelia scoffs, she didn't like how he was treating the man.  Even though he was Russian, she had no bad feeling about him.  She sighs as Theo uses his tail to swipe at the bugs around them as they buzzed loudly. "Okay, so this acquaintance...lives in Illinois? Correct?"

"Yeah, yeah." Jim nods. 

"So, we're walking to Illinois?" Amelia asks, making sure she was hearing this right. 

"Yeah, yeah, we're gonna walk to Illinois. You know, I figure we'll get there by, like, Friday evening. I hope that works for your schedule." He mutters sarcastically. "Jesus Christ, Lia. We're not walking to Illinois, okay?" He scoffs. 

"Babe." Amelia stops and faces him, "I don't care if I love you or if you're the chief of police, you could be the president for all I care, I will punch you out right now if you don't stop giving me that smart ass attitude." She snaps and sighs as she turns to continue on.  Theo sticks his tongue out at Jim and continues to lie across her shoulders.  "So then, what are we doing?" She scoffs, throwing her hands up.

Jim sighs and follows her, "I don't know, okay? I will...I will figure something out."

"Isn't there someone in Indiana who speaks Russian that..." Joyce stutters. 

"You know what? I'm all ears, Joyce. I'm all ears. I'm all ears!" Jim snaps. 

Joyce rolls her eyes, "I mean, fine. Just saying."

Jim yelps as a big bug was attacking him, "Gah! Ugh! Gah!" He claps his hands in the air, trying to smush it.  Slapping his neck, he kills another mosquito.  He mutters in annoyance, getting tired of these blood suckers feasting on him.  He sighs with a deep frown.  He hopes and prays they'll reach civilization soon.  Cause he was on his last nerve with this whole day.

 "Damn it." He mutters, brushing past Amelia.

Amelia sighs and continues on, but something stops her in her steps.  Someone was watching them.  She frowns and turns fast.  Scanning the area around them.  She couldn't see anything or anyone, but she could feel them. 

Jim looks over his shoulder when he notices that Amelia wasn't following them anymore. He frowns as he watches her look around.

"Babe? What is it?" He asks, gaining Joyce and Alexei's attention to stop and watch them both. 

"We're not alone." She says, making Jim and Joyce stiffen in alert.

Jim scans the area with her, "Is it that thug?" He asks.

Amelia slowly shakes her head, "No.  He carried a darker, more aggressive aura.  This one is more like...light." She says, frowning at who could it be.  She feels Theo perk up with a knowing meow.  Sensing the familiarity of the aura near them.  She frowns at him, "What?" She asks.  Meow... "Theo says it's Starshine.  She's in the void.  Looking for us."

Jim frowns, "Can you speak to her?"

"I can try." Amelia sighs and concentrates.  She closes her eyes and welcomes the powers of the Goddess Ozark to flow through her body and let her see beyond into the void of Jane's mind.  Spreading her arms out, she opens her mind.  Feeling the sun rapidly go down into darkness and water surrounds her feet.  Snapping her eyes open, she finds herself in a dark place, nothing around her except the watery ground. 

"Mom..."

Amelia turns and sees El standing in front of her, "Starshine, is something wrong?"

"You need to come home."

Amelia frowns, "Why?" She didn't like hearing the anxiety in her voice.

"We believe the Mind Flayer is back." El states.

"That's impossible. You closed the gate." Amelia shakes her head, she watched El shut that gate, severing the line between The Mind Flayer's world and theirs. 

"Will believes a part of him stayed in our world. Closing the gate locked him in."

Amelia frowns with concern, "Is Will okay though?"

Joyce stiffens as she hears Amelia speak about Will, "What about Will?"

"Will is okay.  Not possessed anymore, but he can feel him.  As if he still shares a connection.  He believes that the Mind Flayer has already found one.  But..." El trails off.

"But what?"

"It's Max's brother.  Billy." El states.

Amelia frowns, "It makes sense.  If he is back...he would go for a stronger, faster host.  Starshine, you be careful.  All of you.  If he's back, he's going to come back harder.  And he won't stop.  Now that he knows about you, he'll go after you.  Please..." Amelia walks up to her and wraps her arms around her tightly as Eleven hugs her back.  "Be careful, my darling."  Her voice echoes around as everything fades away.

Amelia gasps and snaps her eyes open.  Her head begins to spin, and she almost falls backwards until Jim catches her.

"Woah, woah, whoa! You okay?" He asks gently.

Amelia rubs her head, "Yeah, got a little dizzy there."

"What's going on? Is something wrong with Will?" Joyce asks, anxious to know what she was talking about with Eleven.

"It's the Mind Flayer." Amelia states and looks at Jim with worry, "He's back."

Jim and Joyce both look at her in shock while Jim shakes his head, "That's impossible."

"It's true.  He's back and he's taken over a new host.  Will is safe, but he can sense the Mind Flayer.  When Starshine closed the gate, a part of him stayed behind." Amelia says.

"If it's not Will...then..." Joyce frowns.

"Who's the new host?" Jim asks for her.

"It's Billy.  Billy Hargrove." Amelia says, watching their faces turn into worry.  Amelia looks over to Alexei, who watches them with a confused frown, "This can't be a coincidence.  The Russians.  These people who are taking over Starcourt.  Buying out all these pieces of land.  Something is seriously going on and I think there's a connection.  But we need to get Alexei to talk." She says. 

"We will.  Once we reach our destination and talk to my source." Jim states and wraps and arm around Amelia, helping her walk.  She still felt a little off.  Her legs were a little shakily.  Could be because she was running on fumes and needed something to eat and drink.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unknowingly, the Russian thug was drawing closer and closer behind the four of them.  They needed to reach their destination...and soon, before he finds them.  

Jim sighs as he walks side by side with Amelia and Joyce walked closer to Alexei.  

Theo groans softly as he whines at Amelia.  She sighs and rolls her eyes at him.  She turns and looks at Jim.

"Don't walk so close." 

Jim snaps his head towards her, "What?"

"Theo says you stink." Amelia says.  "He doesn't want you so close." Meow...Theo covers his nose with his paw. 

Hopper slaps his neck again, chuckling, "And what do you think?" He scoffs but lifts his arm to smell his pit.  He grimaces when he realizes Theo was right. What can he do, it was hot, and his body was sweaty, sticky, and dirty. 

Amelia snorts, "I actually agree with him." 

Jim laughs again, "I get it, I get it. You're upset, right? 'Cause I, uh I blew up the car?" He scoffs. 

"Yeah, with me in it."

"Well, I just want to remind you of something, Amelia. I am not a mechanic." Jim scoffs. 

"Yeah, clearly." Amelia snorts. 

"That's why you should've listened to Alexei." Joyce says over her shoulder. 

"Exactly.  He was yelling 'Stop' and what do you do?  Yell at him like always do." Amelia rolls her eyes. 

"Oh, right, yeah. Your new boyfriend, right?" Jim remarks smartly. 

Amelia stops in her tracks and rolls her eyes while throwing her hands up in the air, "Yes. Every man I talk to from now on has to be my boyfriend." She says sarcastically. 

"Yeah, he reminds me a bit of a Russian Scott Clark." Jim stops and faces her, bending down to meet her height. 

"Oh, here we go." Amelia sighs and rubs her head as Theo rolls his eyes. 

"Maybe you should go on a date. I don't know, I'm thinking, like, Enzo's?" Jim continuers sarcastically.

Suddenly, Alexei takes off running, startling Joyce and Amelia's eyes widen in fake surprise.  

"Whoa."

Jim frowns, "What?"

"He's running." Joyce says.

Jim snaps his head to see Alexei running away from them all.  Whimpering and grunting as he runs as fast as he could while he was still cuffed. 

"You son of a bitch!" Jim yells and chases after him. 

Amelia sighs and walks over toward Joyce, "Do you have any idea why he's so bothered with me missing the dinner date?  I mean, it's all he's talking about." She grits her teeth. 

Joyce stammers, "Uh...n-no.  I guess, he just really wanted to have a nice night with you.  Like a normal couple." She shrugs. "We better catch up before Jim kills Alexei." She gives Amelia a worried look, silently blowing out a relieved breath as she chases after Jim and Alexei.

Amelia sighs and reaches around to get Theo off her neck, "Ok, free ride's over.  Let's go." She places him down on the ground and both of them run after them. 

"Hey! Smirnoff! Get back here!" Jim yells behind Alexei, trying to catch up. "Hey! C'mere! Hey, c'mere!"

Suddenly, Alexei skids to a halt as he reached a small hill and smiles big. He turns towards them all, speaking Russian.  Jim reaches and grabs him by his shoulders but freezes at the sight.  Joyce, Amelia, and Theo both skid to a halt as they reached Jim and Alexei.  Before them all...was a 7-11!

They wasted no time.  All of them rushed towards the beautiful gas station and walk inside.   The bell chimes above them as Jim opens the door for them all.  Music played in the speakers.  

"Goddess bless air conditioning." Amelia sighs in bliss. 

First thing first, the four of them head towards the drinks and guzzled down cokes.  Amelia sighs and continues to down more.  She never felt so thirsty before.  

"You all gonna pay for those?" The store worker asks, watching them all.  

Jim simply burps and continues to drink.  Alexei watches and guzzles down more with them.  

The worker frowns as he hears meowing and loud gulping.  He slowly moves towards the side and sees a black cat actually holding a bottle of cream and pouring it down his mouth.  The worker shakes his head, rubbing his eyes, thinking he was stoned.  Theo stops drinking and meows in bliss and burps loudly.  The worker continues to look in shock.

While Joyce was calling the kids, making sure they were okay, Amelia was shopping with Jim.  She finds some baby wipes and sighs as she grabs some.  Jim looks at her weirdly.  

"What?" She scoffs at his look. "Do you see a shower anywhere?  This is the last resort." She says and grabs another and moves on towards the chips.  Jim grabs more coke, funyuns, beef jerky, and smokes.  Amelia glares at him, but he ignores her.  

Amelia scoffs and places her items next to his as he grabs his wallet to pay for everything.  The worker rings them up. Jim scoffs as he looks over and watches Alexei sneak some slushy in his palm and scoops it into his mouth.  He looked like he was enjoying it greatly.  

"So, what are you, some kinda bounty hunter?"

"I'm a cop." Jim states, watching the worker frown at him in disbelief. "I'm undercover." Jim adds.

Amelia sighs and rubs her head, "Yeah, his disguise is a Tom Selleck asshole wannabe." She sends Jim a fake smile and grabs the bag full of their stuff, walking away. 

Jim growls lowly and watches her head out, but snaps towards the worker as he was snickering.  The worker drops his smile and clears his throat, ringing up the rest of the stuff.  Jim sighs and looks back out the door, at Amelia as she stands holding the brown paper bag.  He snorts as he thinks back around the time when they met.  Still full of fire.  He can't help being so angry about the date.  He was really looking forward to proposing to her.  He reaches for his wallet and sighs as he feels the velvet box still in his pocket.  He forgot to take it out.  He sighs and tucks it back down in his pants.  Keeping it hidden.  But he perks up as he sees a man pull up with a 1984 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz Convertible. He grins and takes a bite of his beef jerky stick as an idea comes to his mind.