CHAPTER TWO
mind-control

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*･✧

Azalea pulled into Starcourt Mall blasting Fleetwood Mac in her dad's old beat-up car.

She was a little peeved at Dustin's friends for ditching him yesterday—he was pretty upset. So he refused to invite them to come to the mall today. Azalea knew Steve would let him hang at Scoops with him all day, but she still felt bad leaving him.

Dustin was nearly bouncing in his seat in excitement, "Walk me in?"

"Does the old and mature Dustin, with a girlfriend, still needs a babysitter?" She teased.

Dustin glared playfully, "No. But the older and annoying Azalea enjoys spending time with me anyway."

"Fair. But I can't stay longer than 10 minutes."

Azalea pulled a t-shirt out of the back of her car and tucked it into her shorts to cover her lifeguard bathing suit.

Dustin stared in awe at all the stores within the mall. He almost stopped at a game store, but he was itching with anticipation to see Steve.

Dustin pulled Azalea quickly by the hand once he spotted Scoops Ahoy.

As they entered the store, Azalea was struck with a bit of eagerness seeing Robin at the front counter.

"Azalea!" Robin greeted when they reached the front. She teased, a mischievous look in her eyes, "Back again so soon?"

"Only for you," Azalea shot back quickly with a smirk.

Robin's ears turned a bit pink as she smiled sweetly, unsure of what to say next.

Suddenly Azalea was rethinking the whole interaction.

That sounded like she was flirting. We're they flirting? No, if anything, it was friendly, play flirting. Like friends.

Move on, move on, move on.

"I'm actually just dropping this dork off at the mall." She said, gesturing to Dustin behind her.

Dustin then approached the counter, "Hi."

"Hi." Robin replied bluntly.

"I'm Dustin."

"I'm Robin."

"Pleasure to meet you." He told her. He then peered around the store, "Uh, is...is he here?"

"Is who here?"

The question was soon answered by Steve Harrington bursting through the back door with a broad smile on her face.

"Henderson. Henderson!" He exclaimed, coming from behind the counter, "He's back! He's back!"

"I'm back!" Dustin cheered, mirroring Steve's goofy energy, "You got the job!"

"I got the job!" Steve then did a little mouth trumpet.

Robin slowly panned to Azalea with an incredulous look on her face. Azalea shrugged. She was really friends with these dorks.

Dustin and Steve did their secret handshake and ended in hysterical giggles like little girls at a slumber party.

Robin stared down Steve, "How many children are you friends with?"

Azalea snorted trying to stifle her laugh.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*･✧

It was a decently boring day at Hawkins Pool.

Just a team meeting, and then hours sitting in the sun.

There was nothing of note other than Heather missing work, meaning Azalea had to pick up the slack, some kid jumping into the pool fully clothed, and to the dismay of many of the women at the pool, Billy was wearing a shirt.

Finally when night hit and the sun was getting low in the sky, Azalea's shift ended.

She peered into the girl's employee shower and changing room.

Empty.

Azalea smiled to herself as she realized she got the shower area all to herself.

Usually when she was alone in the showers, she would take her time, hogging all the warm water, but something felt off.

She finished a little faster, ignored the knot in her stomach as she grabbed her clothes and bag from her locker and went into a changing room.

She quickly threw on her clothes when she heard someone else come into the room. The room suddenly felt colder.

"Hello?" She called out.

No response.

Azalea grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder. This was creepy, she's getting out of here.

As she opened the changing room curtain her heart dropped in fear seeing someone there right in front of her.

She gasped, blinking hard in confusion seeing it was Billy.

"Uh, Billy?" Azalea asked hesitantly, "Everything okay?"

He didn't move. He didn't even blink.

Something was definitely off about him.

Her breath quickened. The way he stared down at her with a glazed over, empty stare was terrifying.

Azalea would just walk, no, run away, except his entire body blocked her into the changing room.

"Billy?"

Again, he said nothing.

That's when she spotted the cinder block in his hand.

Luckily, she saw the weapon beforehand, had pretty quick reflexes, and no desire to be murdered here today, so she ducked as he attempted to strike her in the head.

He pushed further into the changing room, Azalea now backed up against the wall.

"Billy, what the actual—"

He tried to strike her again, but she jumped left. She gawked in horror watching the cinder block crumble as it hit the changing room wall.

That could have been her head.

Abandoning the partially disintegrated cinder block, Billy then grabbed her by the arms and tried to tackle her to the ground.

Azalea would not describe herself as a fighter, but after everything she had been through with the demodogs and upside-down last fall, she had learned a bit about how to defend herself.

Besides, she had taken Billy on before last year.

But this was different. This didn't even seem like Billy.

She tried her best to keep him off her. She scratched and kicked, ignoring the pain as he slammed her from wall to wall. She got a nice solid punch in, causing him to stumble, but it seemed to hurt her hand more than his face as he hardly reacted.

He threw her hard against the wall again forward, and Azalea stumbled as the left side of her forehead took the brunt of the blow.

Billy finally swung her to the ground through the changing room, taking the curtain and curtain rod down with them.

Azalea yelped in pain as her body collided with damp concrete ground.

Billy on top of her, he pressed his hands tightly around her neck.

The scariest part? Billy's empty eyes. No strain or anger. No evidence of life at all. Just a stone-cold stare.

Azalea had to think fast as oxygen was slowly getting cut off from her brain.

Arms splayed out she could feel the curtain rod beside her.

Not breaking eye contact from Billy's cold, lifeless gaze, Azalea gripped the rod. In a hard, swift movement, she smashed the pole against his head.

Billy's hands left her neck as he crumbled to the ground beside her, unconscious.

What the ever-loving fuck just happened?

Azalea laid out on the cold concrete beside the unconscious Billy catching her breath.

Her body begged her not to move. She could feel bruises forming everywhere, but she didn't want to still be here when Billy woke up.

Azalea pulled her aching body up from the floor, gathered her bearings, and then sprinted to the car as fast as she could.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*･✧

The mall didn't close for another hour or so, but was mostly cleared out, which Azalea was thankful for. She didn't need more people seeing her beat-up state, bruises and cuts everywhere.

Honestly, she just wanted to go home, but she needed to pick Dustin up. Billy freaked her out to her core. The emptiness in Billy's eyes, it felt inhuman. But she figured it wouldn't hurt to talk to Steve and Dustin—people who had experienced the upside-down with her.

She entered Scoops, the neon sign above the door turned off and a closed sign hung lazily in the window.

The store was completely empty, but she could hear Dustin's voice carrying from the back of the store as he excitedly talked with Steve. Their friendship was still so funny to her.

Reaching the counter, Azalea rung the bell.

"We're closed!" Steve called from the back.

Idiot.

Azalea rung it a couple more times consecutively to annoy him.

"Hey! I said we're—"

Steve stopped himself mid-sentence as he came out of the back room, eyes-widening. Did she really look that bad?

He quickly rushed to her side, "What the hell happened?"

Azalea tried to brush him off.

Steve's reaction brought Dustin out of the back room, his face light with horror too.

"Long story." Azalea sighed, "Do you guys have any ice?"

"Yes, yeah," Steve breathed, going around the store to make an ice pack.

Dustin gave her a worried face and ushered Azalea into the back room.

That's when Azalea noticed Robin leaning against a counter, headphones on, flipping through a small book.

She slowly pulled off her headphones as she watched Dustin help Azalea sit at the table.

"Woah," she said eyeing Azalea's sorry state, "You look like hell."

"Gee, thanks," Azalea laughed, wincing as Dustin played with her bruised knuckles.

"No, no," Robin said, a bit flustered, beginning to ramble, "Not like you look bad. You obviously still look pretty. You're always—You just—I meant... Are you okay?"

Azalea yanked her hand away from Dustin, sighing, "Yeah. I think so."

Dustin was still trying to grab her hand, "Did you beat someone up?"

"Kind of," She said truthfully, "Billy attacked me and—"

"Billy Hargrove?" Steve shouted, stepping into the back room, ice in his hand, "I always hated that guy. I'm gonna kill that son of a—"

"Steve," Azalea said warningly. His anger was getting Dustin riled up too, and the last thing she needed were those two trying to take on Billy.

Robin had joined the group around the table and sat to Azalea's left. She finally piped up, "You've got some blood in your hair,"

"Yeah," Azalea said wincing, bringing her hand to the edge of her forehead, "I hit it against the wall pretty hard.

"Ouch," Robin said sympathetically, "Can I see?"

She nodded. Azalea's breath hitched momentarily as Robin started moving some of her hair super gently, looking at the damage.

"Ice," Robin demanded, taking the ice bag from Steve.

She then held it tenderly against the side of Azalea's head, her eyes trained on hers with concern.

"Better?"

Azalea's stomach fluttered, trying not to stare at Robin, "Better. Thanks."

Dustin was still inspecting Azalea, being very protective, "Son of a bitch. Are those hand marks on your neck?"

"Yeah, well, he strangled me—"

"Jesus," Steve exclaimed, still pacing the room, "That's it, I'm calling the police."

"Steve, don't," Azalea said fast, "This wasn't really Billy... I don't think."

"What do you mean?" Dustin pressed.

Azalea widened her eyes, hoping they could read her mind. Robin didn't need to know about the upside-down, "He seemed...off. Like it wasn't really him. His eyes—It just wasn't Billy."

"Are you suggesting Billy's like, being mind-controlled?" Steve scoffed.

"By the evil Russians," Dustin gasped.

"Evil Russians?" Azalea repeated.

Steve, Dustin, and Robin looked at one another in silence, seemingly debating something in silence.

Steve sighed, "Dustin intercepted some Russian spy shit on his cerbaba-whatever radio, so now we're translating it to know what they're doing and save America, or something like that."

"Cerebro," Dustin corrected Steve with dismay. He continued, "We already have some of the words translated, thanks to Robin. It seems like code."

"But you think the Russians are mind-controlling Billy to murder people?" Azalea furrowed her brows.

Dustin lowered his voice a bit, "After everything we've seen in Hawkins, is it really that crazy of a thought?"

Azalea thought for a second. It didn't make complete sense, yet it wasn't totally unbelievable. Russians having a mind-controlled American would be the perfect weapon.

And after last year, and what Dustin's friends had told her about the year before, apparently Hawkins has a lot of crazy shit lurking underneath the surface.

"I guess not."

"Speaking of evil Russians," Robin said, still patiently holding the ice pack to her head. She gave Azalea a gentle smile, "We could use an extra brain on the job to crack it. Wanna come by during our shift tomorrow?"

Azalea cracked a tiny smile, "Yeah, sure. I'm definitely not going to work tomorrow."

Heather skipped today. She could skip tomorrow.

She'd just call in sick in the morning.

She wasn't getting anywhere near Billy again if she could help it.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*･✧