"Well," Lili rounded the couch and sat down. "Where is he?"

"In his room," El replied.

"Is there anyone else?" Nancy asked. El shook her head no.

"That's weird," Lili shook her head. "Alone on the fourth?"

"Then again," Nancy pointed to her. "He is Flayed."

"Right," Lili nodded, biting her lips into a thin line.

"I can try to find him again," El suggested.

"I can locate him," Lili said.

"Have you ever been in the Void?" Will asked.

"The what?" Lili turned to him.

Will shifted in his seat as she looked at everyone in the room with unease. "The Void. It's like the black room with a water floor that Eleven enters everytime she does... this."

"Oh," Lili understood. "No. I don't think that's part of my abilities."

"Have you ever tried?" Lucas asked. Lili shook her head.

"Can you?" Mike asked. Lili looked at him. "Try, I mean."

"Sure..." Lili shrugged. "I just don't know where to start."

El stood up and went to get water, tired of going to the Void. Lili watched her go, her attention slipping from the conversation about Billy wanting them to find them and how it's dangerous and a trap.

Lili watched El pick up a Lucky Charms cereal box that Lucas was eating earlier. El set it back down and turned back to the group in the living room.

The sisters caught each other's eyes. "Mama," El said simply. Immediately, Lili knew what she was talking about. El told her about how she asked her mother in the Void to show her what happened to her, and she did.

"Maybe he can tell us what happened," Lili stood up. El looked scared, tears forming in her eyes.

"I don't know Billy," El stuttered. "I don't know how he'll react."

Lili swallowed harshly, looking at El. "I think I know a way around that."

"All good?" Lili asked El. El nodded and wrapped her eyes in a blindfold. Lili watched her do it, not knowing if there was a specific technique to it or not. She copied her anyways and tied the blindfold harshly around her head. Her hand found El's and both their powers hummed in response.

Soon, the static from the TV fell away and was replaced by an echo of something that Lili didn't know.

At first, Lili thought that she had her eyes closed, or that'll didn't work. But she saw El's hair next to her. She turned and found her sister staring straight at her. Both of their feet were bare and it seemed that they were walking on water.

But Lili couldn't feel it. She didn't feel the water. In fact, she couldn't even feel the ground. In the Void, she couldn't feel a thing.

"El?" Lili said to her sister to see if she could hear her.

"Lili," El responded, nodding to her.

"Don't let go," Lili whispered, their conjoined hand gripping each other tightly.

"I won't," El said. "I promise."

Lili drew in a deep breath and decided to look around. It was just water as far as they both could see. El started to walk forward and she yanked Lili along, having her stumble.

Their hands disconnected for a second. Lili's eyes were blinded by a bright white light before returning back into the Void, where El caught her hand again.

"Did you see that?" Lili caught her breath.

"See what?" El asked, tilting her head. Lili just shook her head, muttering a, "Nothing."

They resumed walking in the dark. Lili found it odd that it was pitch black, but she could still see El as if she had a light shining on her.

Then, there he was. Billy sat on his bed, staring forward at nothing. Lili drew in a sharp breath as she and El came closer.

His room looked like it all fell away, other than his bed and bedside table. It looked like there was a tiny flood, covering a couple inches on the floor.

Lili looked at the mess on his bedside table. There were empty beer cans, stray clothes, trash, and a picture of her in a silver frame. She recognized the photo. It was taken on Christmas Day where she and Billy went to the library to exchange gifts in private.

Lili's lips started to quiver at the memory. He gave her his favorite Mötley Crüe t-shirt and she gave him a Colorado license plate she stole.

"Billy," El whispered. It snapped Lili's attention away from the photo and to El who was holding Billy's hand. She noticed that he was sweaty, but not as sweaty as the first day. He also had black gashes on his arms and face.

"Can you hear me?" El asked. Billy didn't look at her or say anything. Lili hesitantly slipped her free hand into Billy's left, giving it a squeeze.

"Billy? Baby? Can you hear us?" Lili whispered. He still didn't do anything. Lili suddenly realized that this was her last time touching him and talking to him while he was dormant. She leaned in and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

"Baby," Lili whispered into his ear. "I love you. I want to help you, so please, show us what happened."

His eyes traveled up to meet hers. She sucked in a breath and watched as a tear formed in his eye. He gently tugged in both of the girls, inching them both closer to his face. The emotion in his eyes was so strong, she felt it radiating off of him. He didn't break eye contact. Even when he let her go.

Lili didn't fall on purpose. Neither did El. She felt a pull on her body that brought her down. She screamed as loud as she could, reaching out for Billy. She kept a firm grip on El's hand as they fell.

Flashes of memories invaded both of their minds. Billy being taken over by the Mind Flayer, the Mind Flayer himself, people having their lives taken, Billy running away, scared, screaming, yelling, crying out in pain. Just when she thought she couldn't take it anymore, the memories stopped flickering through Lili's mind.

Except for one last one. A car, a blue Camaro, hitting a pole covered in vines. Lili could've sworn this was her memory as well. But, before she could dwell on it, it was ripped away.

In a blink of an eye, Lili and El both crashed onto their backs, a wave from the ocean hitting their faces. Lili gasped when air hit her face, trying to gain her breath back. El was heaving and looking around frantically.

"Are you okay?" El asked her sister.

"Yeah, are you?" Lili tugged on their conjoined hands as she stood up. El stood up and nodded. A flock of seagulls that were on the beach flew up and into the air, around the pair.

Lili could've sworn that she heard someone shouting her and El's names.

"El," a voice called, echoing in Lili's ears. "Are you okay? Is Lili okay?"

"We're okay," El whispered.

"What's going on?" Lili recognized the voice to be Mike's.

"We are on... a beach," El said, looking around.

"Okay I may be dense, but last I checked, there weren't any beaches in Hawkins," Lucas' voice resonated throughout the arena

"What else do you see?" Max's voice travelled through the wind that was blowing Lili's hair. She turned around, trying to get her bearings.

And that's when she saw her. A woman, in her early to mid thirties, with a white linen dress and sun kissed hair. Her blue eyes crinkled when she smiled and she swept her hair back. She was smiling off and into the distance so Lili turned around.

El was stating what the pair saw, but Lili was too distracted to pay attention. The woman seemed to be looking at them.

"Woo!" She laughed and clapped. Lili tilted her head at this. That's when she heard something splashing in the water beside her. A boy, no more than eight, running up to the woman with a small surfboard that seemed to be bigger than his body.

Lili remembered that this was Billy's memory that they were seeing. But she didn't want to jump to conclusions.

"You did it!" The woman laughed. She held her arms open.

"Did you see that?" The boy asked excitedly when he was close to the woman. She held his head lovingly.

"Yeah, I saw that!" She smiled brightly and kissed his forehead.

"It was at least seven feet!" The boy laughed.

"I don't know what it was, but it almost gave me a heart attack!" The woman told the boy.

"Ten more minutes?" The boy asked, tilting his head. The woman looked back to where El and Lili stood frozen and she nodded slightly.

"Okay, ten more minutes," she nodded.

"Okay!" The boy ran up to his surfboard and picked it up.

"But any longer than that Dad's going to be mad, okay?" The woman warned.

"Okay!" The boy panted as he ran back into the ocean. He was right at the water's edge when the woman called out to him.

"Billy?" The boy turned to look at her. Lili's breath hitched when she realized she was right. This little boy was Billy. And that woman was... his mom. The one he talked about so dearly and the one that he compared Lili to. Her eyes traveled down to the woman's finger and saw the same exact golden band that Lili has on her necklace. She grabbed her necklace and looked at it and felt a couple tears slip down her cheek.

"Watch out for rip currents!" The woman said.

"I know...!" Billy nodded and dove back into the water. Lili watched the little boy go. The water surrounded him as he paddled further into the ocean. She still couldn't wrap her head around the fact that she witnessed Billy's memory.

"Lili," she felt a tug on her hand. El pointed to a red storming cloud in the distance. "The source."

Lili nodded and they both set off towards it. When Lili looked back to where the little boy was, he disappeared. She felt her heart ache and she wished that she could stay and watch Billy laugh.

As the pair came closer, Lili noticed white flecks of stuff floating in the air. She tilted her head up and watched as some that swirled violently in the wind. She tugged on her hand that was still gripping El's tightly.

"The upside down," Lili pointed to the flakes. El nodded, a frightened expression on her face. "Don't let go."

El nodded. Two figures were running towards them. One was a little boy in a baseball uniform and one was a man.

"Hey, Billy, stop!" The man yanked Billy's arm back to make him face him.

"Neil," Lili gritted her teeth.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Neil yelled at Billy. "What did we talk about, huh? You gotta slide!"

"I-I know," Young Billy's lip trembled.

"Wait," Neil recoiled. "Are you afraid you're gonna get hurt?"

"No." Billy said.

"Well, what then? What?" Neil demanded. "What did I raise, a pussy for a son?"

Lili never felt so much anger. If this Neil was real, she would've broken his neck with one tilt of her head.

"Leave me alone!" Billy broke away, running in the other direction. Lili took off running after Billy, taking El with her.

"Hey! That's right, run! Like you always do...!" Neil called after Billy. Lili was sobbing at this. She remembered last year when she wanted to run when the Mind Flayer attacked and Hopper said the same thing to her. But this was different. Neil wasn't telling Billy to run so that he'd come back, he was saying it to hurt him.

El turned around when they got close to Neil and made a disgusted face at him. Lili yanked her along, not wanting to lose Billy.

"Where were you last night?" Neil's voice came again. "Where were you?"

"I told you, I was with Wendy," Billy's mother explained.

"Stop lying to me!" Neil roared. Lili and El searched around for Billy that disappeared again. Their conjoined hands started to ache from how tight they were holding onto each other.

"I'm not lying to you!"

"You saw him again, didn't you?"

In the raging cloud of red and blue, a dinner table was smack dab in the middle. Young Billy sat at the table, watching on anxiously as his mother and Neil were fighting. Neil grabbed her wrist.

"Didn't you?!"

"Get away from me!" She pushed Neil off. Neil advanced again, but the woman threw a plate at him, letting it crash and shatter onto the invisible floor.

"I said, get away!"

"You- You whore!" Neil shouted at her.

"Stop it!" Billy shouted. He ran up to Neil and hugged him, pinning his arms to his body. "Don't hurt her!"

Lili's heart broke into a million pieces. All Billy wanted was for his father to love him and his mother. But he couldn't even have that.

"No!" The woman cried, watching Neil rip Billy off of him.

"You bastard!" The woman shouted at Neil. Billy was thrown onto the ground and Neil marched up to Billy's mother and punched her square in the jaw.

"Mom...!" Billy cried, running to her on the ground. They disappeared.

"I don't understand," Young Billy's voice came from a different place. Lili and El followed the voice and saw him sitting on the floor, leaning against his bed with a phone to his ear. "Why not?"

"Please, Mom, don't do this," Young Billy cried into the phone. Lili bit her lip to keep herself from hyperventilating. "Please come home."

"No," Billy cried. "How long? How long?!" Billy started to sob. "I miss you..."

He vanished as well. A new voice emerged from behind Lili and El.

"Get back here!" A new boy ran after another and tackled him to the ground. Lili realized that this was a teen version of Billy. He was on top of another boy, punching and hitting.

"Get up! What? Are you scared to fight me?" Billy taunted. "Get up! Get up and fight me, pussy. Pussy...!"

Slowly, that image disappeared as well. El turned around and saw another one, yanking on her and Lili's joined hands to get her attention.

"Billy, come over here, I want you to meet someone," Neil's voice came from the man in front of them. A teen Billy looked down at a young redhead, no more than nine.

"This is your new sister. Her name's Maxine," Neil pointed to her.

"Max," she corrected. Max looked at Billy with apprehension and so did Billy to her.

"Shake her hand... " Neil demanded, but he slowly faded too.

"Who's there?" A familiar voice broke Lili's attention away. "I said, who's there?!"

Lili walked towards the sound. She could've sworn that this was familiar. Then, there was a cry. It sounded like Billy screaming, like he was getting tortured.

As the pair moved forward, the headlights on the Camaro came into view. Soon, a factory covered in vines did as well. Lili almost immediately recognized it but she didn't remember it.

Lili and El stepped towards it, but it felt like a huge weight was lifted off of them when they did. The wind stopped blowing them around and it felt calm.

"The eye of the storm," Lili said.

"I think we found it," El said loudly for the kids back home. "The source."

"Where, El? Where are you guys?" Max asked.

"Brimborn..." El said as she read the giant sign on the side of the factory. "Steelworks."

"We found it, get out of there!" Mike's voice pierced their brains. "Get out!"

Suddenly, a huge gust of wind knocked the girls over. Well, Lili over. El reached out for her but their hands fell apart. Lili screamed, clawing the air to connect back to her sister, but it was too late.

Lili fell, a blinding white light surrounded her.

Lili was floating. Her eyes were closed as she slowly sank in a white void. Her body was horizontal, but it slowly tipped back up so that her feet touched the floor first.

At the touch, her eyes shot open. But, she didn't know if they were open or not. She jutted her arm forward to see if she could see it, but it was like trying to move through water. Slowly, her arm came into view. She felt around to see if there was anything in the room, but there was nothing.

She started to walk forward, but it was like trying to walk through water too. Her hair trailed behind her. Was she really underwater? But she could breathe, so, no?

"Raylen!" A voice echoed throughout the white void. "Raylen!"

"One more minute!" A childish voice followed.

"No, we need to go home," the other voice said. It sounded eerily familiar to Lili.

"But I wanna swim!" The voice whined.

"And people in hell want ice water," the familiar voice replied.

A laugh that melted Lili's heart echoed. The child's voice giggled. Lili turned around frantically to find the source of the voices.

"You're funny," the child laughed.

"I know I am," the other voice sounded like it was smiling. "Now come on, we need to head home. Daddy will worry."

"But there's nothing to worry about! The waves aren't tall. They're only three feet!" The child said.

"Still, Daddy has always been a worrier."

"Promise we'll come back tomorrow?"

"I promise..." Lili turned around one last time, only for a little boy with a full head of blond curls to run up to her and smile widely. He looked to be around three or four years old with deep blue eyes.

[ the kid lmao ]

Images of Billy's eyes flashed through Lili's mind before it went blank.

[UNEDITED]
i just wanted to say thank you to all who have supported me or commented kind things, it means a lot to me. i love you all♥️