𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐓𝐘 - 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐕𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐓𝐎𝐍

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE; THE RETURN OF THE MIND FLAYER

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE; THE RETURN OF THE MIND FLAYER — Also known as; The sauna test, Part 2

• • •

This summer was supposed to be a chilled out summer. A nice, hot couple of months where I could chill out in Hawkins with Steve, with Dustin, my friends and the party. I was supposed to be going out and watching the sunsets with Steve on his days off, watching the stars together and going on dates. I was supposed to be going to the movies with Dustin, catching up after he got back from camp and spending time together. I was supposed to be hanging out with Kaylee and Katie at the pool, relaxing in the sun all day just chatting about anything and everything. I was supposed to be supervising sleepovers with the party, eating pizza and watching films all night.

I was supposed to be doing everything a normal teenager would do in the summer holidays but instead I was hiding at the community pool after it had closed, waiting anxiously for a plan to pan out to see if someone I knew was possessed by a monster from an alternative dimension.

I hadn't spoken to or seen Steve since he didn't meet me outside the mall for our date. I didn't know if he was worried about me or if he was back to running around — trying to crack Dustin's secret Russian code like he was when he forgot about me. I wanted to hug him, I wanted to lie in my bed with him and tell him about everything that had happened in the last 24 hours.

But at the same time I wanted to be annoyed at him for forgetting about me, I wanted to hit his shoulder scoldingly for putting me in the position where I would have to walk back into town.

I couldn't do either of those things as I stood waiting, my anxiety higher than what it had been in a while, for plan to catch a possible psychopath-come-murderous monster. I had to listen as Mike taunted Billy Hargrove over the supercomm we'd attached to a dummy in the sauna room.

The plan was to lock Billy in there and raise the heat. If he was possessed by the mind flayer we'd know and hopefully, we'd be able to burn it out of him like we did with Will. But until Billy was in place I had to hide, waiting for him.

This was either going to work and we'd trap Billy or he'd find us and kill us, there was no in between.

"Billy." Mike's voice taunted and I held my breath as Billy drew closer to where we were hiding in the storage cupboard.
I watched him pass the small window in the door, walking towards the sauna room.

Billy took the bate, storming into the sauna room and grabbing the dummy by the throat, lifting it up and pressing it against the ceiling.

"Billy." Mike taunted into the supercomm as I watched him, "Behind you."

Billy whipped around to see El standing behind him and he tried to make a beeline for her, "Hi." She muttered.

She flew him into the wall of the sauna room with a small grunt and the tiling around Billy shattered as he fell to the floor. The pre-teens rushed out of the cupboard quickly, "Now!" Mike shouted, flicking the light on.