ain't it weird || stranger things x female reader (season 3)

thirteen - finding billy

Thursday, July 4, 1985

Billy.

Eleven had found Billy in the Void.

It was suspicious. All the other flayed had vanished, and the one she finds just happens to be Max's step brother. And the fact that, when she spied on him, he was sitting in his room doing nothing was even more suspicious.

"Billy staying in his room on the Fourth of July?" Max shakes her head. "No, that's not normal."

"He wants us to find him," Will says.

"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of," Nancy nods.  "If we go to Billy, then the rest of the flayed know where we are."

"It's a trap," Mike continues. "I agree. We'll be ambushed."

"We won't be surprised," Lucas argues. "We'll know that they're coming, and we will kick their flayed butts."

"You mean El will kick their butts," Max corrects.

Kazuo turns his head to the kitchen, where Eleven was making herself a sandwich to regain some energy.

"But we don't know how many people have been flayed," he frowns. "The Mind Flayer could have his own personal army. We can't let Eleven deal with all of them."

"It's too risky," Mike says, relieved that someone else was raising that point.

"And unnecessary," Nancy points out. "Killing the flayed won't stop the Mind Flayer. We have to find out where it's spreading from. We have to find... the source."

"Billy knows it," Eleven walks back into the living room. "Billy's been there. To the source."

"Yeah, but-" Mike goes to protest.

"It's a trap. I know. We can't go to Billy. But I think there's another way. A way for me to see where he's been."

When she had gone looking for her mother, Terry Ives, a year prior, Eleven had found her unable to communicate. But when she looked through the Void and held her mother's hand, a connection was formed between the two women and Eleven was able to enter her mind and see all the things her mother had seen. How she was taken from her as a baby, how she tried everything to get her back and was tortured for it.

And now Eleven wanted to do the same thing with Billy. See the things he'd seen, feel what he had felt. The thought made Kazuo shudder and sink deeper into the couch next to Max, who was shooting daggers at Mike talking to Eleven before she went back into the Void.

"You know, being worried for someone doesn't mean we think we own them," Kazuo nudges the sulking girl, who hums pensively.

"But he's doubting her own abilities. She's not his child. She should be the one choosing where her limits are without Mike telling her to be careful every two minutes."

Kazuo blinks, considering the point of view Max was presenting to him. "You're right," he admits sincerely. "He's being too controlling. But heck, I'm worried for the girl, too."

"We all are," Max smiles faintly before turning back to the couple in front of them.

"... you've only done this before once," Mike was saying. "And your mom, she loved you, and wanted you to know what happened. And Billy's mind is- is sick, diseased. The Mind Flayer is in him."

"He can't hurt me. Not in there."

"We don't know that."