CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE:
POOLSIDE STAKEOUT

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   LIZ WOULD'VE LOVED to have woken up by the sunlight shining through the blinds, but instead, she had to be woken up by the sound of radio static and the voice of Lucas Sinclair. Liz slowly opened her eyes and she felt Max groan against her shoulder. The voice continued as the girls laid there, all of them hoping Lucas would give up, but no, he continued, "Do you copy? This is a code red. I repeat, this is a code red. Max. Do you copy? This is a code red."

   Max groaned again before turning over and grabbing her walkie talkie off the floor, "Shut... up!" Max turned it off before setting it on her nightstand. She turned back over so she was facing Liz and rested her arm across Liz's waist.

   The two girls slowly started to fall back asleep for a good couple of minutes until the phone started to ring. Max immediately sat up and groaned, "You've got to be kidding me." Max angrily threw the covers off of her before stomping over to the phone. "I'm sleeping! Go away!"

   Liz sat up and watched as Max started to put the phone done but stopped and held it back up to her ear. "What are you talking about?" A couple of seconds went by and Liz was starting to wonder why Lucas was calling so early. "What?"

   "What did he say?" El asked from her spot on the floor.

   Max slowly set the phone down. Liz sat up even more as Max turned around, a confused look on her face, "It was Mike. He wants us to come over, apparently, it's important, and it could be a matter of life or death, whatever the hell that means. Do you guys think we should go?"

   Liz sighs, "If we don't, they're just gonna keep calling, so we might as well go. Plus, it might actually be important."

   "We should go," El agrees.

   Max groaned before walking over to her dresser and pulling out some clothes for both her and Liz, "This better not be a prank."

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   The girls quickly left Max's house and headed over to Mike's. Liz had borrowed a pair of shorts and a t-shirt from Max. Once again, the clothes smelled like Max and it made Liz smile. Despite knowing they had to be at Mike's as soon as possible, Max took her time on Liz's hair that morning, putting it in a braid again. It didn't take long and soon the girls were out the door, heading to Mike's house.

   When they got there, Mike answered the door and brought them all downstairs where Will immediately started explaining, "I didn't think it was anything at first. I mean, I think I just didn't want to believe it. The first time I felt it was at Day of the Dead."

   "Power went out that night, too," Mike points out.

   "And then I felt it again at the field near the Nelson farm the next day," Will continued. "Then again yesterday outside Castle Byers."

   "What does it feel like?" Max asks curiously.

   "It's almost like..." Will starts, pausing as he racks his brain trying to think of the correct way to describe the feeling. "You know when you drop on a roller coaster?" The whole group nodded and there was a chorus of 'Sure' and 'Yeah', except for El who just shook her head and mumbled a '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. I've felt it before, whenever he was close."

   Max furrowed her brows, "Whenever who was close?"

   "The Mind Flayer," Will answers.

   El sat up straighter, "I closed the gate."

   Will nods, "I know, but... what if he never left? What if we locked him out here with us?"

   Liz furrowed her brows in confusion, "What do you mean?"

   Will stood up and grabbed a piece of paper from a stack on the bookshelf and a box of crayons. The group followed him as he set down the items on the small table in the middle of the room, the same table where the group used to have their D&D campaigns. He started to sketch out a messy drawing of the Mind Flayer with the black crayon, pressing so hard that Liz could visibly see the crayon starting to get smaller, "This is him. All of him."

   "But, that day on the field, a part of him attached itself to me." Will then wiped his hand across the drawing, smearing it across the paper and staining his hand with the black crayon. He raised his hand up and showed the group. "My mom got it out of me and Eleven closed the gate. But the part that was still in me, what if it's still in our world?" Will flipped the paper over to the blank side and smacked his hand against it, the excess black crayon from his hand now stained on the paper. "In Hawkins."

   "I don't understand. The Demodogs died when El closed the gate. If the brain dies, the body dies," Max explained. Liz couldn't help but agree with her, but then again, they thought everything was fine after they dealt with the Demogorgon and it turned out to not be fine, so they couldn't rule out that everything was fine this time.

   "We can't take any chances," Mike announced. "We need to assume the worst. The Mind Flayer's back."

   Liz nodded, "Mike is right. It's better to be prepared for the worst than to hope for the best."

   Max still looked confused, so Liz reached down under the table and squeezed her hand to reassure her. Will nodded, "Yeah, and if he is, he'd want to attach himself to someone else. A new me."

   "A new host," Lucas says, worrying everyone.

   "How can you tell if someone is a host?" Eleven asked, just as confused as everyone.

   Liz sighed, trying to think of any signs that might happen if someone was the new host. She kept thinking back to the other night with Billy and everything strange that had led up to finding him and how strange the interaction was. Liz looked at Max, "Billy."

   Max rolled her eyes, "No."

   Liz sighed, "Max, you have to admit, it was really weird."

   "What about Billy?" Mike asked, not knowing what the two were talking about.

   Max glanced at Mike before looking back at Liz who raised her eyebrows at Max, urging her to explain it. Max rolled her eyes once more before starting to explain, "Last night, Eleven saw something in that void that had to do with Billy and one of the lifeguards at the pool, Heather. Eleven said she looked terrified and that she was screaming for help. Apparently she ditched work that day and we eventually found both of them at Heather's house having dinner with his parents. Nothing out of the ordinary."

   "It was really weird. He was acting really strange, being overly nice to us. The whole situation just felt uncomfortable and he didn't seem like himself," Liz continued. "It's not much but it's the only thing we got."

   "It wouldn't hurt to check it out," Will says, looking at the rest of the group for their opinions. Everyone nodded, except Max who just looked annoyed, especially at Liz for bringing it up. "Anyone up for a poolside stakeout?"

   Mike nods, "Let's check it out."

   The group all file out of the house. Lucas grabbed his binoculars as everyone got onto their bikes, ready to head to the pool to watch Billy. The ride was full of Mike and Will asking questions about what exactly Billy was doing the other night as they all rode to the community pool. Max wasn't the happiest and Liz could tell. Liz understood completely. If it was her brother that everyone was accusing, she would be mad too, but she knew that the Billy situation was weird and checking it out might just save their lives.

   When they got to the pool, they stood in the parking lot behind a blue car near the treeline. The pool was filled with screaming kids and middle-aged moms trying to get a tan. When Liz saw Billy perched on the lifeguard tower, she became even more suspicious of him than before. He was wearing a long-sleeve shirt and he had a towel draped over his legs.

   Max grabbed the binoculars first and looked at Billy, "I don't know. He looks pretty normal to me."

   Liz scoffed as Lucas stared in confusion at his ex, "Normal? How many times have you seen him with a shirt on?"

   "Yeah, Max, you cannot tell me this isn't weird," Liz points out.

   Max sighs, nodding, "I mean, yeah... it's a little weird."

   "More than a little," Mike states. "Liz said he was in a tub with ice. The Mind Flayer likes it cold. Plus everything else—"

   "But he's lounging at the pool, which is, like, the least Mind Flayer thing ever," Max argued.

   Will shook his head, "Not necessarily." The group all looked at him, waiting to see what he had to say. "The Mind Flayer likes to hide. He only used me when he needed me. It's like... like you're dormant. And then, when he needs you, you're activated."

   "Okay, so, we just... wait until he gets activated," Max says.

   "No," Mike shakes his head. "What if he hurts someone?"

   "Or kills someone, "Will adds.

   "We can't take that chance," Mike nods. "We need to find out if he's the host."

   Mike started to walk away from the group as Eleven called out, "Where are you going?"

   "I have an idea," Mike explains before motioning for Will and Lucas to follow him. "Boys only."

   Max scoffed, "Seriously?"

   "Just trust me on this one!"

   All three girls rolled their eyes as the boys headed toward the entrance of the pool. As soon as Liz saw them head into the boy's locker room, she knew she didn't want to know what they were doing. Max lifted the binoculars back up to her face again and when she brought them back down again, she looked worried. Liz grabbed Max's hand and ran her thumb over Max's knuckles, reassuring her even though she had no idea how this was all going to go.

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[ 1760 WORDS ]

it's been forever & i give you this shit
chapter i'm so sorry!

college has been so hectic & stressful &
i've been so busy but it's good to be back!