Dark Phoenix: Into The Stranger Verse (Stranger Things)

CHAPTER 22

Chapter 22: The Monster

MIKE spoke into the walkie talkie as he nervously paced back and forth across the food court. "We're trapped in the mall and in need of emergency transportation. Scoops Troop, do you copy? Billy has found us. He has disabled our car and we are trapped in the mall."

The mall's interior lit aglow in the darkness, the neon lights illuminating in the shadows.

"Repeat: Billy has disabled our car and we are trapped in the mall." His voice that resonated in the premise was the only thing that separated it from the eerie quiet.

Maxine was grimly quiet as she sat in one of the benches adjacent to the indoor gardens of the mall. Her face pale, even the once vibrant freckles that decorated her cheeks washed out and ghostly.

She didn't speak of it but she'd been upset. She was upset that no one was rushing to save her brother when everyone was doing so last year with Will. They only saw him as an enemy, and at best, collateral damage. They didn't care if he lived or died. But she did. She painfully cared for her stepbrother even after everything, and it seemed like she was the only who did.

Max was snapped out of her grieving thoughts when she'd heard Jean's soft voice.

"Are you okay with this?" The fellow redhead said, concern flashing on her face, and Max knew Jean had heard all of her thoughts.

"I sometimes forget that you can read minds." The younger girl said with a humorless grin.

Jean held a similarly sad smile, moving to sit beside the girl. "I don't have to read your mind, it's written all over your face." She said, understanding how hard it must be to have your brother, your family, as one of the puppets controlled by a shadow monster. She let her eyes travel for a second, seeing Eleven, Will and Lucas sitting across from them.

Everything had fallen into place for Jean once she knew what was going on. It made sense why Billy acted the way he did around her that last time she visited him at the pool, why he seemed so...wrong.

She should've known.

"Billy. I was wondering why he suddenly changed. Now I know." Jean regretfully said. She wished she knew what was happening to him at the time, she wished she understood what he was going through. She was sorry and regretful that she didn't, and instead blowed a fuse because he 'ditched' her on their date, when he was struggling through so much.

Even though she didn't know him for very long, Jean cared for Billy very much. Yes, he had a gruff exterior, and he was too much of a flirt at first. But as she got to know him, she understood why he acted the way he did. He was funny and nice when he wanted to be. He saved her life when she was drowning. And she grew to believe that he liked her as much as she liked him, until that incident at the pool of course.

Billy was just an abused kid taking out his rage and confusion on anyone and everyone who set him off. He didn't deserve his father's treatment and he sure as hell doesn't deserve to be possessed by a violent interdimensional monster.

Max reached for Jean's hand, seeking warmth from her dark, cold thoughts. "I'm scared that he's going to die." She confessed, staring straight ahead at particularly nothing. Jean's heart clenched as she saw the younger girl struggle to hold back any tears from forming in her eyes.

"No, no, no. He's not going to die." Jean affirmed, shaking her head.

"He will if we close the Gate." Max venomously said, sure of the outcome. If the brain dies, the body dies, she repeated in her mind.