Chapter 1: Bathtub Alice
Notes:
Hello, this is my 3 am brain child. Do not take him too seriously, he's silly.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Billy hates Hawkins.
End of discussion.
However, he is pleasantly surprised by the first big party he goes to.
Tina’s Halloween party.
Most of the chicks have taken the opportunity to dress as skimpily as possible. There is booze absolutely everywhere and everyone is completely wasted within seconds of coming to the party. Some of the hick homemade bathtub alcohol actually tempts him. It’s out of sheer curiosity. No one in Cali made their own stuff, or had older crazy relatives making their own stuff. The look of absolute fear that overtakes Tommy’s face when a gangly kid dressed as a doctor tries to offer them a clear labelless bottle of...something, makes him reconsider.
He also avoids the Pure Fuel bowl.
No one can actually tell him what’s in it nor what it tastes like.
His position isn’t stable enough to survive him making a complete drunken fool out of himself. And sure, he could always fix any fuck up he does while blackout drunk, but it’s not something he’s in the mood for. He’ll give it another month, at most, just to make sure there is no competition. For now, he drinks as much as he can without losing himself to it.
He still takes a risk when a witch with a giant fake nose and too many rings hands him a glass skull filled with a swirling sparkling pink liquid. He takes only a cautious sip. All he can taste is strawberry and cherry. There’s not even the burn of alcohol as it goes down. The witch outright cackles as she sweeps away and he catches the horrified looking bumblebee staring right at him. She raises her glass to him, fear and respect swirling in her eyes, and all he can do is grin.
The party is chaotic beyond any other Billy has been to.
Someone is on the roof throwing fake blood down at everyone. There’s a lot of screaming and cussing.
Billy overhears a group of nerds planning to get a cow in the principal's office, one of them swears THIS plan will work guys we’ll be legends.
There’s a kid passed out in one of the rooms with things stacked on top of him, everything from different empty bottles, toilet rolls, assorted garage junk and even a chair.
He also catches two girls pouring canned beans into someone’s car. Based on the smeared make up and red eyes he’ll put his money on revenge. Guy probably dated both of them at the same time. He makes a note to always keep his windows fully rolled up while he’s in Hicksville.
He’s talking with a group of guys when someone asks him how they compare to Cali. He grins and mentions the bizarre things. Cali parties were a lot more normal, formulaic to a degree. Get drunk, make out with someone, fight with someone and maybe try to sneak into a club. Set something on fire if it’s that kind of night.
Someone’s girlfriend snorts loudly at his words and tips forward to look him in the eyes when she says: “What else is there to do?”
All he can do is grin at her. She grins back, it’s in that knowing way.
One big city kid to another.
Because yes, there’s nothing else to do, nowhere else to go. Everything is closed at this hour in Hawkins.
At some point he has to fight his way to one of the bathrooms. The fake blood kid is back on the roof and at least three people are projectile vomiting because it got in their mouth. And Billy really loves this jacket.
So, a bathroom it is.
The first one is locked and by the sounds of it someone is definitely fucking in there. More than two people if he had to guess on the spot. He’s not even gonna try.
The second is just a toilet and a sink and there’s already three chicks in there, two vomiting in the toilet while the third one sits in the sink and judges them. He’s not getting in the middle of that.
The last bathroom is in the back of the house. It’s quieter there, not as many people around. More make out seasons and quiet talks instead of loud music and screaming.
The bathroom is empty and dark. Billy closes and locks the doors behind himself before he even flicks the light switch.
There’s a groan behind him.
“Oh, for fucks sake!” He growls at the doors. Really? Not even one bathroom.
He turns and there’s a chick, right there in the bathroom with him. She’s a tiny ginger slip of a thing, hiding her face behind her hands. And what the hell is up with the number of gingers in this shit town. He’s seen more gingers in Hawkins than he ever had in Cali. She’s laying in the tub fully clothed. Dark denim jeans, black shirt and jacket and some type of heavy boots. Oh, and the tub is filled almost to the brim.
He’s beginning to think the witch put something other than alcohol in her potion.
“Get out, I need to piss,” he orders, patience nonexistent at this point.
The girl moves her fingers and cracks an icy blue eye open to glare at him. Her face is covered in freckles. The eye darts all over him, stopping at his chest, eyebrow twitching. She closes her eye, groans and sinks further down in the tub.
“Then piss.”
“Not with you in here!”
“Oh please, if I see something I haven’t seen before I’ll throw a dollar at it.”
Billy crosses his arms, leather jacket moving loudly in the small quiet space. An eye cracks open to squint up at him. She groans and closes her eye again.
“I don’t think I can get up right now, so just, like, throw a towel over my head or something, I don’t care.” She wiggles around a bit before sinking further down.
Fuck her.
He has three options here.
One, he risks going outside and getting shitty fake blood all over himself. And if that happens, he’s gonna have to kill whoever is on the roof.
Two, grab the annoying cow and throw her out, but if he does that, he will get wet.
Three, do as she said and piss with her in the bath.
He throws the biggest towel he sees on her head just to be an ass. The chick doesn’t even react as it smacks her in the face.
He does his business, flushes and then leans on the wall by hear head, arms crossed, staring down at the towel.
He just cannot help himself. This situation is too ludicrous to just leave without asking.
“Alright, I’ll bite. What the fuck are you doing bitch?” The chick gives a full body flinch before removing the towel and staring up at him, face filled with confusion. “What?!” He barks.
“You new in town or something?”
“What the? Bitch you can’t be serious?” She just cannot be. Billy’s not even being pretentious here. It’s a small town. Even a mousy ugly new girl would have been the talk of the school for at least a week and Billy is loud and intense and in your face, intentionally so. There is just no way this chick is this fucking isolated.
She’s still looking up at him with confusion, waiting for an answer.
“Yes,” it’s more of a hiss.
“Oh! Well, that explains it,” she nods to herself.
“Explains what?!” He’s considering pushing her head underwater and holding it there until she stops wiggling. Not to drown her. Just until she passes out. It’ll be like a nap. She won’t even have brain damage.
“Explains why you are talking to me in the first place. I’m the village do-not-interact-with crazy person,” she says it with a wide grin like she’s fucking proud of it. And well, that gets his attention because her sort is always picked on. But she’s so proud of the do-not-interact-with part of that.
“Not even to bully you?”
“Nah,” she sights it out, all serene and shit. “The last dude that tried got his locker filled with beans...mysteriously of course.”
“Beans? Is that why there are two chicks filling someone’s car with beans? Copycats?” He muses, more to himself than her.
“That shit caught on?” Her eyes are wide, pupils dark and big and he wonders what the hell she’s on. “Based,” she grins and he’s not even gonna ask what the hell that means.
“You still haven’t answered my first question.”
She stares up for a long moment, eyes going unfocused. “What? The tub you mean?” He doesn’t answer her, just waits her out while tapping on his elbow impatiently. “I tried to make a sensory deprivation tank, it worked...sorta.”
“A what now?”
“A sensory deprivation tank, or an isolation tank if you prefer, is a tank used to restrict environmental stimuli. You take away or minimize as many senses as you can. You need salty water at body temperature, darkness and some type of soundproofing.” It all tumbles out in one breath. “And then you just sit in there with your thoughts,” she shrugs. “This is the best I could do on short notice. I even put all the bath salts Tina had in here but I don’t think it was enough,” her eyes are filled with disappointment as she bobs one hand on the surface. The towel slips further down into the water.
“Is that why it stinks of roses in here,” he growls out, the scent is thick in the air, cloying, hard to ignore, but he thought it was Tina’s mom that was the weirdo. Bathtub chick gives him a happy hum in answer.
“Ya, hate the smell of roses but that’s all they had.”
That still doesn’t answer his question, not fully. “Why?” Her head smacks back on the tub’s edge as she looks back up at him and Billy holds back a wince. No answer comes from her. “Why did you need a...whatever tank?”
“Oh, right,” her brows bounce up. “I asked Munson for happy pills, they were a bit too happy,” she grins at him.
“What the fuck did he give you?” She shrugs.
“No clue, didn’t ask, I never ask. Just gave him a twenty and hoped for the best. Probably shouldn’t have taken all of them at the same time, it was a bit much. Everything got too sharp, too loud, too bright, too warm, too harsh and then stuff started shifting and morphing... So, I just,” she waves at the tub. “Removed as many senses as I could...” Her voice trails off like she isn’t sure that’s the end of her sentence.
Billy nods down at her. Makes sense. Her eyes trail down from his face to his stomach and...and Billy genuinely has no idea if she’s hallucinating something there or if she’s just into him. Doesn’t care to find out, she’s not his type. He takes out a cigarette and files the name Munson away for future reference. Just in case he needs...some happy pills.
And then there’s a finger swiping down his abs. He flinches at the suddenness of it. “What the fuck are-”
“This is oil,” she declares, rubbing her index finger and thumb together. “You legit lubed up before coming here, didn’t you?”
“Lube-” she licks her finger. “What the fuck is wrong with you?!”
“This isn’t cooking oil,” her face is all puckered up in disgust.
“Of course not, why the hell would I put cooking oil on myself?!” She gives him a look and immediately he’s on the defensive. “It’s body oil!”
“Why do you have body oil on hand?”
“I don’t, my stepmom does,” he rubs at his face what the hell was in that drink. And then there is a cold nose poking him in the stomach and he realizes she’s sniffing him. “For the love of God!” He grabs her by the forehead and pushes her head back down against the tub.
“No idea what that oil is, all I can smell is beer,” she states and stares up at him from between his fingers. He’s starting to understand why she’s on the do-not-interact-with list.
“Can’t help you there,” he growls at her and hopes she drops it.
“Why did you lube up before coming here anyway?”
“I didn’t lube-” no that’s not the important part of that question. Why did he have to find the one fucking cow at the whole damn party that wanted to ask pointed questions instead of just being into it. She’s still staring, waiting for an answer.
“Because it looks good,” he says, tone sharp and challenging. She blinks quickly a few times.
“Oh,” she nods her head and Billy, reluctantly, lets go of her face to lean back and finally, finally light his cigarette.
“Wouldn’t that make sex even more gross?” Billy groans. “I mean you are already all sweaty and stuff, do you really need to add oil into the mix. At least sweat is easy to get rid of.”
“I’m not talking to you about this,” she straight up pouts at him. Seriously, like he stole her favorite toy. She continues to pout and Billy just stares her down as he takes a drag, face neutral.
“Fine!” She groans out and sinks back in the tub, water sloshing around her. “What’s your name anyway?”
How bizarre, this is the first time he has to introduce himself since coming to Hawkins. Everyone just knew his name from day one. If it were a bigger town, he would have given her a fake name, no need to allow her to find him. But this is Hawkins. “Billy Hargrove,” he says and hopes she doesn’t consider them friends now or some shit.
She nods to herself like, like she thought that is his name in the first place. He reconsiders drowning her. And then she’s back to staring up at him, brows drawn together, fingers tapping rhythmically. He just knows she’s deciding on something.
“What’s yours?” He needs to know who to avoid...and find out what her damage is through the town gossipers.
“Ellie Evans, if you try to fuck Karen Wheeler next summer you’ll die.”
The silence in the small bathroom is deafening.
“What?” Out of all the asinine things that could have come out of her mouth that is one of the most freakish. Ellie nods firmly to herself and licks her bottom lip.
“If you try to seduce Karen Wheeler at the pool the next summer and get her to fuck you in a motel, you’ll crash your car on the way there and get possessed and die.”
Billy just stops and stares at her. He’s tempted to just leave, right then and there. Get out and forget this whole thing happened. But...but he remembers his mom believing in this type of shit. All the voodoo and fortunetellers and gypsies and gut feelings and crystals and cards and power of nature and things happening for a reason. A bit of that belief spilled onto him. And that was so oddly specific that Billy won’t be able to just shake it off... And he has this feeling like he should ask further questions.
He gives out a frustrated sigh, closes the toilet lid and drops down on it. This is gonna be a long conversation he can already tell.
“Alright, let’s begin with who the fuck Karen Wheeler is.”
“Nancy and Mike Wheeler’s mom... oh and Holly’s. I keep forgetting she exists.”
“Nancy? King Steve’s girl?” She snorts at King Steve and nods eyes unfocused. He has no clue who Mike or Holly are and doesn’t really care to find out. Then her eyes widen in surprise.
“Oh shit, yeah, they are still dating.”
“Still.”
“Yea, still, but they’ll sort of break up soonish.”
“Soonish? How soonish are we talking here?”
“Tonight sort of soonish.”
“Alright. What do you mean by sort of break up?”
“Well,” she waves her hands around as if she’s trying to grab the right words. “Nancy kinda gets blackout drunk, loses her marbles, tells Steve he’s bullshit, their relationship is bullshit, their love is bullshit... That all of it is bullshit. The words 'we are over' are never really said. Oh, and in the morning, she won’t remember shit.” Billy nods at her words absentmindedly and lights another cigarette, takes a slow drag. He doesn’t give a shit about King Steve outside of stealing his title, however he can relate to him picking shitty girlfriends that just make shit harder for you and ruin your day.
“Well...that’s fucked,” Ellie just bobs her head up and down, movements overexaggerated to the extreme. “At least I can check how good your prophecies are,” her eyebrows shoot up in surprise.
“Oh shit, yea, I guess you can,” Billy raises an eyebrow at the stupid statement. He sincerely hopes she’s this dumb only because she’s fucked out of her mind. Then she frowns. “I can’t, like, do divination.”
“Yeah, then what the hell is all this shit about me dying.”
“I'm not predicting the future.”
“Oh, yeah? What is it then? And how do ya know any of this shit? Huh?”
“I’m not predicting the future. I just know the future. Well, I know a future, guess I kinda fucked it with this conversation so I don't know what the current future is.” She's arguing semantics it sounds like to him, bunch of bull. Bitch is still predicting the future doesn't really matter what she calls it.
“Okay, okay that still doesn’t explain how you know any of this shit. Or why I should believe you. Makes me believe you less.” Not really, he barely believed her in the first place and checking how accurate she is will be easy.
Ellie waves her hand around. “I don’t. I- I guess I’m kinda a time-traveler? Well, more of a dimension-hopping time-traveler. Yeah. That fits better.”
Billy shakes his head. Sure, if she says so. A dimension-hopping time-traveler, why not. Because that’s something you’d just casually drop into a conversation. Still if his gut wasn’t clenching in a weird way he’d be walking out of the door. Better get back on track.
“Why will we be at the pool?”
“You became, uh, will become a life guard there and you are kinda a MILF magnet so...” she shrugs and trails off. Billy can’t stop the smugness bleeding into his grin.
“So, she’s into me?” A nod, filing that one away for later. “Which motel?”
“Fuck if I know, one with a pool.” He frowns at her. That is oddly specific without being specific at all.
“Why a pool?”
“You offered private ‘swimming lessons’,” she actually does the air quotes at him and puts on a poor imitation of his voice. Yeah, that does sound like something he’d say. "Oh right, you did give swimming lessons to little kids as well." She flinches. "Will be giving lessons. Man, I'm gonna have to come and witness that train wreck." She's like a crack addicted squirrel, attention constantly bouncing around the main topic. He has to keep her on track.
“Okay, so you said I get possessed,” he pauses and Ellie bobs her head again. “By what?”
“Hm, well, how do I explain this?” Her head leans back and she stares up at the celling. “I guess you could call it the Shadow for now.”
“The Shadow?” Really, out of all the stupid names.
“Well, it’s not really a shadow, it’s a lot more complicated than that. Calling it the Shadow, just kinda, fits. Ya know? I mean it kinda looks like a giant shadow.”
“And this...Shadow what does it do?”
She hums in thought. And then her eyes widen and her head snaps towards him, mouth open in surprise. Then she grins, it looks demented, and then she’s surging towards him, water sloshing around her and out of the tub as she grips his wrists. He flinches back away from her in surprise. Demented crack addicted squirrel.
“You should ask Steve about it?” He frowns at her.
“Steve? Steve fucking Harrington? That Steve?” Her head bobs.
“Yup, yup. Yeah. Tonight after, after the whole break up incident, confirm if it happens how I predicted. And if it did- does ask him, hm, ask him if he’s seen any demogorgons around.”
“Demo what now?”
“Demogorgons.”
“The hell is that?!”
“It’s a Dungeons and Dragons thing, but," she wiggles in place, sloshing the water around, "but it also has a second meaning to some in this town.”
“And Steve Harrington is one of those people?” He raises a judgmental eyebrow. Ellie’s head bobs in a nod again.
“Yep! And look his reaction is gonna be so funny, ya feel?” No, he fucking does not feel. “He’s gonna look like he’s had an aneurism.”
“Okay so what? I ask King Steve if he’s seen any demorogs-”
“Demogorgons.”
“Yeah, whatever, demogorgons around, he has an aneurism and then what?”
“And then he can tell you what’s going bump in the night in Hawkins, because he knows and I don’t have to be involved anymore and you don’t have to die. It’s a win-win-win situation.” And with that she lets him go and sits back in the tub with a wide self-satisfied grin. Billy stares her down, but she doesn’t seem to care. Clearly she considers this the perfect plan.
“Alright. Why don’t you want to be involved in this?”
“Because I’m a coward and I’m gonna skedaddle out of town next summer until Starcourt explodes.” Yeah, like that sentence isn’t terrifying on its damn own. “Now shoo, you’ve got things to be doing. Shit to confirm and stuff to learn. Chop, chop. Good luck with the possession!” And with that she flops back into the tub and throws the partially wet towel over her face, ignoring his existence.
Billy’s eyebrow twitches in annoyance. He’s seriously reconsidering drowning this bitch.
No. No, he has a better idea. He grins to himself. Oh, he’s going to involve her in whatever bullshit she just threw him in. No way is he keeping her involvement to himself. If this makes him fall down some deathly rabbit hole he's taking Bathtub Alice with him. She's already drugged up to the gills anyway.
He gets up, but first, he should go and confirm shit with Harrington. See if any of the shit she just word vomited at his feet is accurate.
“Oh, and Billy,” he turns back around to glare at her. She’s lifted the towel so he can see one icy eye and her wide crooked grin. “Tell Steve to tell Hopper to consider digging.” He raises a confused eyebrow at her. “It’s the roots you see,” she lets the towel fall back over her face and sinks down in the bath so the water is touching her ears.
He shakes his head and exits the bathroom. Can this night get any weirder?
Turns out yes, yes it can.
And Steve really does look like he’s having an aneurism.
The hell was in that pink potion?!
Notes:
I genuinely want to know both the meta and cannon answers to why Billy is all shiny 'n' shit at the party.
Will I be continuing this? Mayhaps.
Chapter 2: Eerie Ellie
Notes:
This story grabbed me in a chokehold and refuses to let go. I was planning on leaving it to the one crack chapter...and yet here we are.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Billy closes the door on Bathtub Alice.
He leaves the lights on because fuck her.
His thoughts swirl. A lot of weird shit happened in there in a small timeframe. A lot of weird shit was said.
He’s going to die this summer.
He snorts to himself. He has what? Less than a year? What a crack of shit. He believes none of that shit. A weird drugged out brat told him he’s going to die this summer. He wants to forget about all of it and go on with his life. Take over the school, graduate and then get the fuck out of Hicksville. Maybe laugh about this night with the imbeciles that follow him like dogs. He lights up a cigarette and laughs to himself. He really wants to.
But.
Fucking, but.
He remembers going with his mom to a small shop in a back alley. Remembers getting through a wall of beads. Remembers choking on smoke and incense. Remembers a gypsy chick, young, cowered in colorful fabrics. Remembers milky eyes staring through his mother. Remembers a smoke damaged voice telling his mom she’ll die pretty. Remembers his mom asking questions and getting no response. Remembers a drop of blood trailing from the gypsy’s nose and falling onto her shawl. Remembers her throwing them out.
He rubs his eyes.
He does not believe what Bathtub Alice just told him. He doesn’t.
But...
But he cannot outright dismiss it either.
He wishes he could.
He needs to find out more about her. See what her damage is. What the opinions are. Has she made any other absurd predictions.
And...if she had...have they come true.
He needs to find Carol “I know everything about everybody” Perkins.
He finds her in the living room, at the edge of what has become the main dance floor. “Carol,” he greets her with a grin, puts on the charm, as he joins whatever boring conversation she’s having with Tommy and some other girl. Tina or Tammy, can’t remember, knows Carol is friends with both, but doesn’t know which face goes with which name, doesn’t care to find out.
“Billy,” she returns a friendly smile that is just on the edge of being flirtatious, when Tommy isn’t nearby it is.
“I’m in need of your expertise,” he begins. His grin is warm, boyish, tone flattering.
The thing about Carol is that she doesn’t have many things going for her. She’s not exceptionally pretty, not particularly smart, not abnormally kind nor does she have some special talent. And Carol is very aware of this.
“Oh? What about?”
The only thing she is good at is making everyone else's business her business. If something happens in Hawkins Carol knows about it.
“Just had an interesting conversation with someone new, and they had some interesting stuff to say.”
And just like everyone else she lives for praise. Warms up her cold little heart and makes her especially talkative and forthcoming. Empty praise is something Billy creates easily.
“So, I thought I’d ask the expert about 'em. See what the word around town is. I don’t think anyone else would be able to tell me as much as you.” All he has to do is turn his tone warm and his words sweet and he has Carol’s full attention She’s grinning, eager to help.
“You got a name for me? Or will this be fun?”
It’s almost too easy.
“Ellie Evans,” and yes, it seems Ellie really is infamous in Hawkins. The mood changes instantly.
Carol’s face is filled with disgust. “Oh God, we should have warned you about her.”
Tommy has that stupid gleeful grin on his face. “Oh man, you had an encounter with Eerie Ellie! What did she say to you? She say something freaky?” Tommy asks, voice excited, like it’s his favorite show he’s watching.
“It’s Eerie, of course she said some weird shit again. She always does,” Tammy/Tina adds with an eyeroll.
“She’s not eerie, stop calling her that, you are giving her too much credit,” Carol snaps at the two. “She’s just a fucking twitchy weirdo with no filter.”
“Easy for you to say, you didn’t stumble into her cackling out in the woods in the middle of the night,” Tana says rubbing her arms, goosebumps looking harsh on her skin.
“Oh please! It was a bonfire and she’s friends with Munson! She was clearly on something,” Carol snaps at the other girl who stubbornly looks away.
“Calm down babe, Ellie just creeps everyone out and Eerie Ellie just sounds better than Weird Ellie. That’s all,” Tommy interjects. Carol only snorts at his words. “No, but man, you had an encounter with Eerie Ellie on fucking Halloween! Talk about bad luck! What did she say to you? She put a curse on you?” Tommy is entirely too excited over what some weird girl said.
Billy grins as if it’s the funnies shit. “Nah man, no curse. She only told me I’ll die next summer.” Tommy cackles and Carol rolls her eyes. Its Tina/Tammy Billy keeps his eye on. The girl sinks in on herself, wrapping her arms around herself in a hug, hands rubbing at her skin, goosebumps even more evident.
“Man, I think you are cursed now!”
“Don’t even worry about it,” Carol tells him. “Ellie’s just being her usual weird self. Nothing to worry about,” she scoffs. “As if she can predict the future.”
“She told Barb she’d die,” Tamara whispers while staring at the floor, refusing to make eye contact with anyone.
“And she was wrong,” Carol insists, staring down Tammy as the girl curls in on herself further. “Everyone knows Barb skipped town because the poor little dyke couldn’t handle Little Miss Perfect paying more attention to Steve,” Carol mocks, tone going high.
Billy clears his throat to get her attention back. “Mind explaining.”
“Oh, get this, this was back when Steve was still fun-”
“Back when he was still King Steve,” Tommy interrupts and Carol just rolls her eyes and continues.
“We were still friends with him, so we made plans to have a little pool party, just the three of us. Unfortunately, Steve had just started dating Wheeler-”
“They weren’t even dating back then he was just trying to get in her pants man,” seems like Tommy just cannot help himself.
“So, Steve just had to invite Miss Perfect to the party and where Nancy goes, Barbra goes. So, we had to endure both of their presences that night. Except Wheeler was actually fun to be around for once.”
“Please! She was just trying to impress Steve!” Carol ignores her boyfriend.
“This didn’t sit well with poor little Barb, so they had a fight. I mean can you imagine, Nancy actually being fun for once! How horrifying! Nancy told her to fuck off and then she just fucked Steve upstairs, while her heartbroken friend cried on her own by the pool.”
“Which is when she skipped town!”
“Which is when she skipped town,” Carol nods and Tommy grins widely back at her.
As interesting, not at all, as this story was it didn’t really explain what Tina said.
“How does Ellie fit into all this?”
Carol just shrugs. “We were talking about it after school that day, Nancy had to go to the library to get some book or something, so we had to wait for her ass. Steve was being all gentlemen-like and giving her a ride home. Guess Ellie just overheard us talking then and approached. She just walked up to us grabbed Barb by the arm and told her she’d die if she went. Chick didn’t even say hello before telling her this.”
“Oh, I remember this!” Tommy clears his throat, leans towards Billy and grabs him by the arm, looks up at him with eyes too wide. “If you go a monster will take you and you’ll die,” Tommy says in very bad impression of Bathtub Alice’s voice. And then he cracks up and leans away. “Oh man! What a weirdo! Pretty sure she was high then too.”
Tommy and Carol laugh together, too loudly even for two drunk idiots. The story they paint is certainly believable. A dyke in love with her best friend unable to handle her crush getting a boyfriend and changing because of it. And then running away at first sign of push back. And yet...something still nags at him from the back of his mind. He looks to Tina. The girl is still curled into herself but she’s no longer staring down the floor. Her brows are drawn together, disagreement written all over her face.
“You don’t think she ran. Do you?” He says slowly, pointedly. Her eyes snap to him and Thing 1 and 2 stop their cackling. Tammy shifts in place.
“No,” she begins and Carol scoffs loudly. “Look! Look I know how the whole thing sounds but I’ve met Barb. I... I don’t think she would’ve been brave enough to just get up and leave town.”
“You believing in monsters now Cline?” Tommy mocks.
“No! No. It’s just, well, what if it’s not a literal monster, ya know? What if it was just some creep who took her and killed her?” The girl just shrugs at them.
Carol rolls her eyes and drags her away for another drink, to knock those silly thoughts out of her head. “It’s Hawkins sweetie, nothing that interesting would happen here.”
Billy just stands there and wonders... what if it was a literal monster?
“...ask him if he’s seen any demogorgons around.”
There’s a commotion by the Pure Fuel bowl. Everyone stops to stare. Billy glances over just in time to catch the look of absolute contempt Wheeler gives Harrington. It is much too harsh for just a ruined shirt. And then Nancy is pushing her way through the crowd her boyfriend right on her heels.
“Trouble in Paradise! Looks like Stevie will get his heart broken tonight!” Tommy grins at Billy.
And Billy is left wondering if he really will have to make an absolute fool of himself and ask Harrington about demogorgons.
Notes:
I do not know where this thing is going.
Chapter 3: On breakups, predictions and demogorgons
Notes:
Based on the few 3 am flash ideas I've had for this story, this will get kinda dark if I continue it...yeah, so uh, do be warned.
Also it seems like this will be just Billy's POV all the way through.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
When Harrington storms out of the bathroom and then out of the house Billy follows at a slower pace.
He’d briefly considered listening in, but, well, he has no interest in witnessing someone’s relationship fall apart. Not that he had much time to think on it. At least the princess had the decency to get it out of the way right away, end the suffering for all three of them quickly.
He follows Harrington to his car where the guy is pacing back and forth, hands frantically going from pocket to pocket looking for something and not finding it, frustration building and building. Billy is only a few steps away when the cussing starts. He says nothing as Harrington finally notices him. Doesn’t really know what he’s doing. How to start this, this thing, conversation, fucking problem.
“What do you want!?” Steve snaps.
Billy clenches his jaw. It’d be so easy to start a fight with the idiot right now. He’d win so easily and became the undisputable top dog in Hawkins. It would also be freeing and fucking normal. Just two drunk dudes fighting over some nonsense or other. No freaky shit that makes your spine cold in sight. Harrington is clearly itching for it as well.
But he remembers that fucking bathroom. A thin ring of pale blue around too wide pupils. A pale face covered in freckles. And a surprisingly deep female voice telling him he’ll die this summer. Not even a full year from now.
Remembers he’s not the first.
Remembers there’s a girl missing, possibly dead.
Remembers that there might be something scarier than people involved.
So, he swallows down his first impulse, no matter how much he’s itching to goad Harrington into a fight, and goes to lean against the driver’s door of Steve’s car. Blocking Steve from leaving as subtly as he can. He takes out his cigarette pack, takes one out and silently offers Steve one. Harrington rolls his head to the side in frustration, letting out a groan, but his shoulders are dropping and he doesn’t look as tense anymore.
And a buddy told him once he wouldn’t know de-escalation if it hit him over the head with a shovel. Billy should have beaten that hypocritical asshole up then and there.
“Fine,” Steve hisses out as he leans against the car next to Billy. “Probably shouldn’t drive now anyway,” he mumbles to himself angrily. Billy has just enough kindness in himself not to comment. Nothing he has to say would calm King Steve down. And right now, he needs the idiot calm and talkative.
So, they just stand there, leaning against Steve’s car, smoking in silence, Steve calming down and Billy getting progressively more anxious, watching the party get even more chaotic.
An actually fucking goose fell out of somewhere, the fucking floorboards for all he knows, and is now chasing a bunch of freshmen around the lawn. Some chick with homemade butterfly wings is chasing the goose. Billy shakes his head. Hicks in their natural habitat.
Billy has no idea how to get this awkward conversation started. Steve is silent beside him and with a glance Billy can see that he’s staring blankly into space, leg bouncing up and down quickly, fingers tapping on anything or messing up his hair.
Loud screaming comes from the party and he glances over to see that someone has been sacrificed to the goose.
He lights up his second cigarette and decides, fuck it.
“You and the princess break up?”
Harrington scoffs. “What do you care? We aren’t friends.”
Billy just shrugs at him. He really shouldn’t fucking care about Harrington’s love life, but the village lunatic decided to make it his fucking business. It’s his final hope. Because the whole Barb thing could have gone either way. Ellie could be right and the girl was killed by some monster. Or Carol could be right and the bitch just ran. Billy just doesn’t know enough about the situation to make an educated guess on the girl’s fate.
And the only other thing he has left is to ask if Steve really just got dumped in a very specific way.
Well, he always has the option to wait for next summer, but considering the ending of that unhinged prophecy he’s not exactly keen on the idea.
He leans further back against the car and turns his head to stare Steve down.
Now that he thinks about it... Steve should know more on the Barb situation as well.
It’s at his place she should have died. By his pool more specifically.
Maybe Steve’s love life isn’t Billy's last life line after all.
“We aren’t and I shouldn’t,” he starts. He doesn’t care enough about Steve and his opinions to make up some palatable lie. To steer the conversation slowly. Hopefully Ellie is just crazy and this is the last time he needs something from Harrington. “However, someone made some predictions tonight and it turns out I might have some skin in the game if they turn out to be right.”
Steve gives an angry snort at his words. “What? Tommy and you made a bet on it? I’m not here for your entertainment man, you can fuck right off. I don’t give a shit about which one of you loses money on this.”
That gets a huff out of Billy, the thought is amusing. He probably should have made some money of Tommy being a spiteful idiot. “God, I fucking wish!” If only it were that simple. “Nah, this shit is actually serious.”
Steve rolls his eyes at him. “So, you didn’t just bet money. I still don’t give a shit about it dude! Both of you can fuck right off!” Steve is standing now staring at him, eyes narrowed, breath coming out in quick puffs, jaw clenched. He’s clearly just itching for a fight, but King Steve is too much of a coward to swing first. “None of this is your fucking-”
“She call you bullshit?” Billy has had enough of this, of Harrington’s empty huffing and puffing. Of having to care. Of feeling thrown off and unstable on his feet.
Harrington looks like he just got slapped. “How?” Billy knows he’s digging through a fresh wound. It literally just happened. He just doesn’t give a shit. “How did you-”
“Princess can’t handle her liquor so she spilled the beans, didn’t she? Called you bullshit, called your relationship bullshit, called everything bullshit. Didn’t even have the balls to tell you, you two are fucking over, not in those exact words. Nah she just heavily implied it, didn’t she?” Billy knows there are ways he could have handled this more delicately. Talked to Steve, pretended to care, pretended to be his friend and slowly coaxed the story out of him. Billy’s not that type of person naturally and Steve isn’t someone for who he wants to make the effort of pretending. If Harrington tells him he’s wrong Billy will happily fuck right off. Forget any of this happened. Never talk to Steve again.
That doesn’t seem to be in the cards however.
Because Harrington is close to fucking tears now. Barely blinking them away and swallowing heavily. Probably reliving the whole shitty situation in his head again. “How do you-” he shakes his head. Billy crosses his arms. “You were at the door listening in,” he accuses, voice a mixture of anger and sadness that just makes him sound pathetic.
Billy rolls his eyes. He’s trying to be tough even though he’s so clearly heartbroken and devastated by what happened in the bathroom. Billy can see it form a mile away. But like hell will he call him out on it. He absolutely does not want to see Harrington crying over his shitty ex.
“Contrary to how it looks I don’t actually give a shit about your shitty love life,” and Billy is angry too now. That was as good as outright confirming it.
Ellie was right and Billy is fucked.
Still...
“Then why the fuck are you asking about it?!” Steve snaps at him, shuffling closer angrily.
Fucking still!
Nancy and Ellie could be friends. They could be. Fuck if he knows for sure. Or at least Nancy talked to Bathtub Alice about her relationship, for whatever reason. This could have been just a very good guess. A fucking game of chance and Ellie is the luckiest cunt on the fucking planet.
“Oi asshole! Answer me!”
But here’s the thing. Billy knows his luck. Knows very much how shitty it is. And if this is a game of chance, if Eerie Ellie is just throwing shit at the wall, is he willing to leave this summer up to luck. His shitty luck.
No.
No, he’s not.
But he has one more life line.
And he’s going to fucking use it.
“What happened to Barb?”
“What?” Steve is staring at him eyes still narrowed in anger, but thrown off by the sudden subject change.
“You heard me asshole.” Billy straightens up and walks towards Steve, crowds him, gets in his space, makes him squirm and back away. “What happened to Barbara?” He asks lowly.
Steve shakes his head, takes another step back, one hand is in his hair, messing it up, pulling on the strands harshly. “Why does it keep coming back to Barb?” He mumbles to himself before glaring back up at Billy. “The hell does that have to do with anything?”
“Well see that’s the thing, I don’t actually know. It would depend on your answer Harrington.”
Steve gives him a long stare. “She ran away from town and now no one can find her.”
Billy laughs, he feels... untethered, unattached. Steve is such a shitty liar. “See I heard about that one. Carol is convinced she was in love with your girl so she skipped town when you two hooked up.” Steve’s eyes dart across his face. His voice is getting louder. He should probably get himself under control. He just can’t seem to do it. Doesn’t really remember why he should, if he’s being honest. “However, this other chick, Carol’s friend, seems to think differently. That one’s convinced that Barb got kidnapped right from your yard and killed.”
Billy sees it. He’s looking for it, expects it. But lord, he didn’t expect Harrington to be so obvious about it. He expected King Steve to be a better liar. So, so much better. Good enough to convince Billy he’s just having a bad trip. That this whole night is just one big hallucination caused by a chick dressed as a witch and her pink potion.
Harrington just had to be a horrible liar.
This idiot gives a full body flinch, eyes screwed shut, body completely frozen. Steve even stops breathing for a moment. Like he’s just been slapped.
Billy is so fucked.
He leans in, voice going low and quiet. “And all because Eerie Ellie predicted it.”
Harrington is staring at him, eyes comically wide. “Holly shit,” he breaths it out. Billy sees the realization on his face. “Holly shit, she did,” he rubs at his mouth, eyes darting to the floor and then back to Billy. “That day, she came up to Barb and...” he looks away, seems like he’s not even talking to Billy anymore. “She predicted the whole thing.” It’s whispered in a fragile, quiet voice. Steve’s eyes are back on Billy, but Steve’s not really seeing him. “How did she...” he trails off.
Billy laughs. It just escapes. He has no control over it. It doesn’t feel real, it feels like someone else is controlling his body and he’s just along for the ride. Ellie is two for two. Ellie is fucking two for two. And he’s not the only one realizing there’s more to Eerie Ellie. That it’s not just drugs and an active imagination.
It’s real.
He’s so fucked.
He’s so fucking fucked.
He laughs again, louder, his voice cracks. It feels like something snapped.
It’s not even funny.
“Why are you...” Steve asks and trails off. Why is he what? Laughing? Asking all this shit? Billy snorts and leans back against the car heavily. Hands on his knees as he wrestles himself under control. He refuses to fall apart here. He’s been through worse shit. This is just another stop at this shit train. He should be used to it by now. It feels like his legs will just fall from under him. He leans his head back and stares at the stars.
“Met her tonight.”
“Who?”
Billy lolls his head to the side to look at Steve, can’t even get mad at him for being slow. “Eerie Ellie. We had a nice long chat. She gave me a crash course on deprivation tanks, told me about these pills some Munson guy gave her, sniffed my abs, asked about body oil and sex,” Steve’s brows are furrowed. He clearly has no idea where this is going. Well too fucking bad, neither did Billy. God, this was supposed to be just another party. Just another drunken night among many. “And then she told me I’m going to die.”
“What?” Steve is visibly worried. Afraid of where this conversation is going.
Unfortunately for the both of them, Billy is unable to stop himself.
“Oh yeah, bitch told me I’ll die. Had this whole ass story figured out,” his hands are becoming more animated now. Waving around wildly in the air because he needs to get the energy out somehow. Needs to get this shit off his chest and drag someone down into the bullshit with himself, for company. “Apparently, it’ll happen this summer. I’ll be working at the pool as a life guard. Playing eye candy for the local MILFs on the side. I hear that one doesn’t pay as well,” he gives Harrington a too wide grin, like the idea is funny, and just continues on. “I’ll apparently try to fuck some Karen Wheeler,” Steve gives a jerk at the name, “cunt in a motel only to get possessed beforehand by something she just called the fucking shadow, like that helps me any, which will somehow lead me to my fucking death.”
Harrington is staring at him, eyes wide and mouth open in surprise. “And when I tried to get the bitch to explain that shit to me, she just told me to come and talk to your sorry ass.”
“Me!? I don’t- What would I have to-”
Billy moves quickly moving towards Harrington, getting into his face and herding him so he’s stuck between Billy and the car. Billy slowly leans forward, arms on the car boxing Steve in so he cannot escape. This is Billy’s last life line. His actual fucking last one. His last fucking hope. He doesn’t want to get involved in whatever bizarre shit is going on in this town. But if this fucking fails, he’ll have to.
‘ And then he can tell you what’s going bump in the night in Hawkins...’
He doubts it's something fucking simple and mundane and normal...and human.
“So, tell me Harrington,” he grins and knows, just fucking knows, that it’s bloodthirsty and unhinged, “have you seen any demogorgons around?”
Harrington really does look like he’s having an aneurism. His whole body gives one big jerk, followed by smaller twitches, head jolting away, eyes so wide Billy thinks they might just pop out of his sockets. Wouldn’t be the weirdest thing to happen tonight. Billy leans away.
Well...
Fuck.
“Look I don’t- This isn’t- I have no idea-” Harrington tries to somehow dodge the question. Has no idea how to. Isn’t prepared what so ever for someone to just out right ask him. Billy just straightens up, crosses his arms and stares him down, brows set in a firm line. Has himself under control now...for now. “I’m legally not allowed to tell you!”
“And I don’t give a shit,” Billy says, voice a lot steadier than he feels. “Somehow, I should have gotten involved next summer, but as luck would have it, I’m involved a little earlier than planned.” He leans in Steve’s face just to make his point that much firmer. “And you WILL be explaining this shit to me.”
“I cannot! I signed-”
“She told me I die at the end of this Harrington.” That seems to take all the air out of Steve. He just deflates and slumps back against the car. Hands coming up to his face, cowering it fully. Or he might just be trying to suffocate himself. Billy would certainly try to if he thought it’d work.
“I just wanted to forget about this whole thing and get back to normal,” Harrington mumbles through his hands.
“That makes two of us.” Steve’s hands fall away so he can look at Billy.
“Fine! Fine, just, not here,” Steve glances to the party, Billy follows his gaze.
A green alien is hanging out of a second-story window by just his ankle while Dracula tries to pull him back inside. The goose is cowered in fake blood, a red solo cup acting as a crown on its head. The girl with the homemade butterfly wings is holding it above her head with both hands like it’s a trophy. There’s also a whole conga line behind her covered in fake blood and feathers.
Yeah, this doesn’t look like the ideal setting to have some sort of supper secrete monster talk, not to forget ILLEGAL, because yes Billy didn’t miss that little tidbit of information and he will be coming back to it...later.
He looks back to Steve. “Alright, where to?”
Steve runs his hand through his hair quickly, messing it up even further. “We can go to mine? My parents are out of town?” Steve says it like it’s a question, like Billy will disagree, like he’s no longer sure his parents are out of town, like Billy would know better.
“Alright,” Billy gives him a firm nod and then twists around on his heels and walks back towards Tina’s house.
“Wait!? Where are you going?”
“To fetch the bitch that started this mess in the first place.”
Notes:
The next chapter is gonna be called 'Fetching the bitch'.
You can catch me complaining about ST on tumblr, if you are into that, link.
Chapter Text
Harrington is just a step behind Billy as they enter the house again.
“Uh...I’ll just-” The idiot stutters out, pointing to the other side of the living room.
“I don’t care Harrington,” he tells him, annoyance evident. Billy is already beelining towards the cursed bathroom. He really fucking doesn’t. Doesn’t care what Harrington needs to do before they leave, so long as they leave and he gets his answers. People seem to instinctively get out of his way. Good. He isn’t in the mood to move them out of the way politely.
As soon as he opens the bathroom, lights still on and too bright for the small space, he cusses.
The bathtub is empty.
Billy runs a frustrated hand through his hair, messing up all his hard work, as he quickly glances around the room hoping for some sort of clue. Like she’d have left a fucking note for him or something, he’s a-
The window is open.
The window is open, everything around it is knocked over and there is a wet trail leading out of it.
That absolute fucking moron.
He growls, why the hell would she just escape out the window? The doors were right fucking there! Unless...unless she didn’t want anyone to see her leave. Something scalding curls in his stomach as his spine grows cold.
If this was some sort of elaborate fucking prank. Some hazing the new guy bullshit he’s going to murder everyone involved. Ellie last. Just so he can drag it out, make her regret all the life choices that led her to this point. His eye twitches. Couldn’t she have made her exit at least less obvious, made Billy at least work to hunt her down. Work up a sweat and get even more pissed the fuck off.
He twists on his heels and stomps his way out of the bathroom. Billy sees Harrington talking to some droopy dude out in the living room. They make eye contact. Harrington blinks before turning back to the guy, mouth moving quicker, body twisting away, already physically disengaging from whatever conversation they are having. Billy shakes his head. He’ll deal with Harrington later. He has an escapee to find first. He stomps out of the house, towards the back where he’s pretty sure the bathroom window leads.
He’s prepared to have to hunt the bitch down. Grab the nearest fuck and ask if they saw anyone fall out of the window and stumble away.
Turns out he didn’t have to worry. Turns out all of that fury and panic was for fucking nothing.
Because right under the open window, in the bushes, lays Bathtub Alice. Clothes dripping, legs sprawled over the bush at uncomfortable angles, hair a bright stain in the semidarkness. As he gets closer, he can see that she’s drumming her fingers in the air. She’s not following the beat of the music coming from the party, her fingers are moving too fast for it, clearly jamming to some song playing only in her head. He’s almost standing over her when he smells the roses and hears her humming. Her eyes are closed.
He stands over her head, crosses his arms and stares her down with a frown. Now that his head is clear from anxiety his instinctive reaction of absolute fury, he can admit that the thought was a bit farfetched. Both Evans and Harrington were too honest in their body language for it to be just a fucking prank.
Still, she deserves to be chewed out because who the fuck just crawls out of a window.
Seems like she senses his stare because her eyes crack open and...and she fucking grins up at him.
“Billy!” She fucking squeals happily at him. And it throws him off because he came to fucking chew the idiot out. Get some of the frustration she caused in the first place out on her. Yet here she is, squealing happily like as kid at Christmas as soon as she sees him.
Billy can’t remember if anyone has ever been that happy to see him. Maybe the neighbor’s golden retriever, but that thing treated all kids the same way.
The Hell kind of pills did Munson give her.
Billy is genuinely at a loss for words.
“Hey, Billy! Hello! Billy, hi!”
Billy shifts in place, unsure and uncomfortable. “Ellie,” he says slowly. Her grin gets wider.
“You talk to Steve already?” And... no. No, no, no. No! Fucking no.
It snaps him out of whatever weird funk she threw him in. She’s not in control of this conversation. He is. He’s fucking done with her leading the conversation and throwing him for a loop with every other word out of her mouth. And he’s going to get his answers. He hardens his glare. First of.
“Why the hell are you out here?” Ellie blinks up at him, all innocent and confused, clearly not reading his hostility.
“Oh, just had to get out of the bathroom, the smell was making me dizzy,” he doubts it was just the smell. That doesn’t explain why she decided to make her exit out the fucking window anyway.
“And what? Doors not doing it for you anymore?”
“I was really dizzy,” she pouts. “The window was the quickest way out,” Billy gives in and rubs his forehead in frustration. He really panicked for nothing. Ellie wasn’t trying to pull shit. She’s just a fucking weirdo with no shame.
“Hey, we ready to go?” Steve says as he walks towards them. It looks like he hasn’t noticed Ellie yet.
“Hey Steve!” Ellie greets happily once Harrington is standing next to them. Steve blinks down.
“Oh, er, hi...Ellie,” Steve is clearly uncomfortable, but she just grins up at him seemingly used to Harrington’s reaction and completely unbothered. And then Steve’s eyes turn to Billy, accusation clear.
Billy has to roll his eyes. “Don’t give me that shit, she did it to herself.”
Ellie laughs and grins at them. “Yeah! I sure did!”
Got her. Because yes, yes, she fucking did. In more ways than she seems to realize in the moment. Billy grins back, his is definitely bloodthirsty and malicious. “Well, I’m so glad you agree sweetheart, because you are coming with us to have a little chat.”
Ellie blinks quickly in surprise. Eyes widening as his words register, pupils bouncing between Steve and Billy. And then she narrows her eyes at Billy. It’s challenging and Billy bares his teeth in answer.
“No.”
“What was that? Couldn’t hear you right.”
“Nope! Denied. I’m staying right here. Whatever it is you two have going on, I want no part in it,” like she doesn’t know exactly what they’ll be discussing. Like she doesn’t fucking know she started the avalanche.
“I wasn’t asking sweetheart. I’m telling you.”
“I made myself perfectly clear and you can’t make me!” Ellie screws her eyes shut and sticks her tongue out at him. Is she fucking five!? Steve makes a chocked sound next to them.
“Oh, really?” He drags the word out.
“Yup! I’m not moving!”
“You are the size of a chihuahua, do you really think I can’t lift your sorry ass? Easily?” He explains slowly, very slowly because she’s the biggest idiot on the planet. A deep frown is his answer.
And then her eyes narrow. “I don’t think you’ll actually do it.”
“Oh, and why is that?”
“You care about your badass don’t fuck with me new guy reputation,” she points a finger at his face and Billy hums in answer waiting to see where she’s going with it. “Would be a real shame if your badass don’t fuck with me new guy leather jacket smelt like fucking roses forever,” she grins at him like she’s won.
Billy shifts and raises his eyebrow. Sure, she’s right. Ellie is still soaking wet and absolutely reeking of the rose scented bath salts. It’s downright disgusting how thick the scent is. It’s not like he wants to endure that shit any more than absolutely necessary. And yes, that shit would be hard to get out, not impossible, just unnecessary work. Not like he can just throw it in the wash. He could probably drown out the smell with cigarettes...eventually. Or he could always just say he fucked some chick or other.
Still, it seems like Ellie forgot that clothes come off and Billy has absolutely no problem with going around topless. He doesn’t break eye contact as he smirks and shrugs out of his jacket. Her eyes snap wide open, realization dawning. “Wait!”
Absolutely fuckin not.
Not only is she fucking wrong.
She also issued a fucking challenge to him.
Billy pushes his jacket into Harrington’s chest without breaking eye contact with Ellie. “Hold this.” Steve grunts but takes the jacket none the less.
“Wait! Hold on a moment! You can’t just-” her hands are in front of her, palms open towards Billy. She’s trying to wiggle away, but most of her weight is suspended on branches and she can’t get a good foothold to push away. Billy’s grin is downright nasty as he bends down and manhandles the crazy girl out of the bush, into the air and over his shoulder. She lets out a grunt as she lands, hands slipping against the skin of his back and Billy hooks his arm around her hips firmly. She’s not squirming off.
Ellie weighs fucking nothing. Has to weigh less than his working weight*. Billy’s not even struggling. Her legs kick out and Billy grabs her around the backs of her knees pinning her legs, before she can kick him and leave bruises. He digs his thumb in painfully just to be an ass and is rewarded with a yelp. Good.
“This is kidnapping,” she snaps at him. One of her hands grabs at the top of his pants. Fingers curling around his belt, thumb digging into his skin. Good to know neither of them knows shame. He feels her push herself up. Feels her waist twisting by his ear. Going for his hair no doubt. He bounces his shoulder up and down quickly to dislodge her. Getting a groan and nails in his skin in return.
“Let’s go,” he turns to Steve, who is staring wide eyed at them. Billy doesn’t wait for a reply. He has to jostle her around one more time to keep her away from his hair before he makes it to his car. The thought of just letting her slide off his shoulder sideways, of letting her hit the ground hard, briefly enters his mind but he dismisses it just as quickly. She’s an absolute cunt, but she’s also a tiny girl, less than 100 pounds... soaking wet. Something in him just...curls in disgust at the thought of dropping her like that.
Even if she is being an absolute bitch.
So, he grabs her by her waist with both hands, sharp hipbones under his fingers, and lifts her off and sets her down on her feet. He straightens up under her glare. Jesus fucking Christ. She genuinely looks like an angry chihuahua. Just as small and just as filled with fury and just as intimidating. Bitch has to be more than a foot shorter than him, face level with his chest.
He jerks the car door open and looms over her. “Get in the car sweetheart.” Girl clearly has no self-preservation and just continues to glare up at him. “I’ve already proven I can and will make you,” he warns, her eyes only narrow in response.
“I want no part of this,” she hisses out.
“Too fucking bad, neither did I and yet here we are,” he’s boxing her in, one arm on the door and other on the car roof, the only way she can go is into the car. “We can’t always get what we want.” Ellie is unmoved. He sighs and looks at her. He could just push her inside, but unfortunately, he knows Max. And that means that he is very familiar with how chicks fight. There is no such thing as honor or fairness to them. Hair pulling, poking, pinching, scratching, elbows in painful places. Anything, and he means anything , goes. And Ellie strikes him as a particularly spiteful and dirty fighter. She already went for his hair twice.
He’s staring down at her when he notices she’s wearing a zip up hoodie that is a bit too big. More importantly the sleeves are just a bit too long for her. Perfect.
“Last warning,” he smirks and Ellie is immediately suspicious, but stubborn and unmoved.
At least he’s learned something from being forced to manage Max.
He shrugs. “Alright, then.”
As quickly as he can he pull her zip up as far as it goes. Ellie yelps and blinks down at his hands, utterly confused. Billy jerks her sleeves down over her hands, grabs her by the waist and twists her around, hands snaking around her waist to get at the opposite sleeves to pull them around her and behind. This is when Bathtub Alice realizes what he’s doing.
“Oi! You can’t just-” unfortunately for her she’s too slow on the uptake and Billy already has her sleeves tied tightly together behind her back. Twice, just to be safe. Billy steps back to get a better look at his handy work. Ellie squirms around and cusses at him, some colorful stuff at that. She can barely move her arms away and the knot holds true. She twists and levels him with a vicious glare.
Billy gives a satisfied nod before getting a blanked from the trunk and draping it over the passenger seat. She did have a point, no need for his shit to reek of roses for the rest of eternity. He’s never washed this blanket and there have to be some... suspicious stains on it. He’ll consider it revenge.
He pushes Ellie down into the seat and then loops the seat belt around her, pulling it between her elbow and body so she doesn’t wiggle her way out... like Max had done before. It gets him an extra harsh glare and for a moment it looks like she will try to bite him. He leans back and grins. Oh yeah, he’s feeling extra smug over this.
This is the first and last time he’ll ever think this, but ‘Thank you Max and your shitty ways.’
“Comfy?”
“I’m going to steal all of your teeth while you sleep,” he just shrugs in response. Not the worst threat he’s ever gotten. Certainly the weirdest one.
“Uhm...” Oh right, they forgot about Steve. Steve who is handing him his jacket and staring down at Ellie with wide bewildered eyes.
“You do realize that this IS kidnapping now, right?” Billy just hums absentmindedly in answer as he shrugs his jacket back on. Harrington however shifts uncomfortably.
“Maybe we shouldn’t-”
“Harrington,” Billy cuts him off immediately, no way is the bastard wasting all his hard work. “She started this whole thing.” And that seems to snap both of them out of it.
“I didn’t start shit!” “How do you know about demogorgons!?”
“Oh, my fucking God!” Ellie groans and slumps back into the seat. Defeated. Billy cannot help the grin that overtakes his face. “I told you I didn’t want to get involved in this shit!”
“And I told you. Too. Fucking. Bad.” Billy turns back to Steve who is searching Ellie’s face. “Lead the way Harrington, you can question her later.”
“Yeah, alright,” Steve gives a firm nod before he goes to his own car.
Notes:
*For those who don't know much about weight lifting, a working weight is the weight you do your sets with and Billy's working weight, canonically, is 120 pounds (or so, don't know how much the barbell weighs, but generally they are about 30 pounds).
Now that we've made it to 10k words I don't feel to bad about begging for comments. So please do take some time to tell me your thoughts down below. Kudos and bookmarks are nice, but at the end of the day it's just a number that doesn't tell me much.
Chapter 5: Follow the taillights
Notes:
So...this chapter was supposed to be shitty sex jokes...
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Billy can literally feel her glare on the side of his face. He refuses to look at her, eyes locked on Harrington’s taillights. They drive through the town and Ellie's gaze burns.
“You need something?” He growls at her. It’s starting to really get on his nerves. He’s pretty sure she stopped blinking as soon as he started driving.
“I was trying to stay away from weird Hawkins bullshit, ya fuck! Why do you insist on dragging me with you!? This was completely fucking unnecessary!” Billy rolls his eyes and sighs.
“Love to break it to you, sweetheart, but you are weird Hawkins bullshit,” based on everything tonight he knows that for a fact. Hell, he’d make a bet that she’s the only weird Hawkins bullshit regular people know about.
“You know what I mean! Weird Hawkins inter-dimensional alien bullshit!” Billy just glances at her, one brow raised. Really? After the shit she told him already. He sees the realization hit her. It kinda looks like someone slapped her in the face with a wet sock. Disbelief, disgust and annoyance mix. “Shut up!”
“Didn’t say anything.”
“You were thinking it!” Billy’s lips twitch up in a smile for a split second before he pulls his expression back into something mildly annoyed. He’s not actually enjoying messing with her. His lips twitch when he catches a glimpse of her pout. “Okay... so technically...” Billy hums at her. “Technically! ...you might be, kinda, sorta, maybe, possibly right...” A snort escapes him. Ellie’s lips twitch. “Yeah, yeah laugh at the alien, why don’t you? You are still an absolute ass for dragging me along against my will.”
“I don’t see why you are so against getting involved when you were the one to drag me down into this.” Honestly, she started this whole thing. She should have seen his reaction coming a mile away. Who wouldn’t drag her along?
“Okay! First of all, you would have gotten involved anyway. I just gave you a fighting chance. Second of all, the hell do you mean why?! It’s fucking obvious!”
“Nope,” he pops the word.
“Seriously?! Dude, I’m scared shitless!” She snaps and then sighs and collapses back into her seat, defeated. Billy swallows. He guessed as much.
The thing is, Billy’s not exactly... happy with the situation either. And he can admit, just to himself, that he dragged Ellie along purely out of selfish reasons. Maybe it is just a numbers game, the more people are involved the higher his chances are. Maybe he just wants to share the misery with the one who started this. Or maybe, just maybe, he dragged Ellie along because she tried in the first place, because she bothered to warn him. But that is touching things he’d prefer to keep buried.
His fingers are white around the steering wheel. He’s been in a lot of shitty situations because people didn’t bother to give him a heads-up. His dad being in a shit mood and Max staying silent until it all crashed on Billy’s head. So-called friends getting him in trouble and saying nothing until the trouble in question came after him. Sometimes with fists, sometimes with knifes.
There was just something honest about Ellie. She hadn’t expected anything in return. Didn’t try to extort him for this information. Didn’t look at Billy and wonder what use he could serve. Just an honest warning. A warning she knew would make her sound completely unhinged. But she did it anyway... because she wanted to warn Billy, to give him a chance.
Maybe he should have been grateful. Maybe he should have respected Ellie’s wishes. Maybe he should have left her out of it. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
Unfortunately for Ellie, at the end of the day, Billy is selfish.
Not that he’ll ever admit it to her.
“Having second thoughts about telling me?” He throws it out there. Already knows the answer. She had one request and he fucked that up without a second thought. Hadn’t even left the bathroom before deciding to involve her. Hadn’t even verified what she told him. Not that he blames her. Oh, he’ll be pissed, make a whole show of it, but he does understand. If she’d just kept her mouth shut, she’d be safe, uninvolved. The steering wheel creaks.
Ellie is silent. He glances over only to see her watching him, eyes narrow and searching. Billy focuses back on the road and clenches his jaw. There’s nothing for her to see besides anger.
She snorts.
“Nope. Just rethinking the way I told you,” she says and Billy’s head snaps towards her. She’s completely relaxed in her set, head lolled back but eyes locked on him. One of her knees is bouncing. “But well, thinking about it now... I don’t actually see a different way for me to tell you. Not if I wanted you to take it seriously.” Billy blinks at her. “I mean, this was kinda a snap decision if you didn’t notice, but it looks like it was actually the best way.”
“Ellie Evans, if you try to fuck Karen Wheeler next summer you’ll die.”
Billy snorts. Yeah, nothing could have possibly clued him in on that. “You don’t say,” Ellie is grinning widely at him.
“Yeah, like you would’ve done any better.” Billy wouldn’t have tried in the first place. Would have left who the fuck ever to deal with their own bullshit. Ellie grins at him like she knows what he’s thinking.
It makes something nag at him in the back of his mind. Ellie has warned two people of their death, some Barb chick that died/disappeared last year and now Billy. He can understand warning the chick. They grew up in the same town. Even if they weren’t close, they still knew each other their whole lives, it’s a small place. He gets warning Barb.
He doesn’t get why she’s warned him. Billy doesn’t deserve it. He’s an asshole, plain and simple. He’s not out here to make friends. And he hasn’t been behaving any differently tonight. Hasn’t given any indication of wanting to improve his behavior. Has no plans to treat her any better than everyone else. He’s also new in town. Even if she has some sort of supernatural knowledge of what will happen to him in the future, or God forbid knowledge on his life to this point, it’s not exactly a reason to help him.
He’s nothing and no one to her.
He’ll apparently get possessed by whatever, some inter-dimensional alien demonic shadow creature.
Look, he knows what that means. Billy’s seen the movies, heard the Christian propaganda and listened to campfire horror stories. No one gets possessed and then becomes a better person. If he does get possessed, he’s not going to go and do charity work or some shit. Whatever takes control will make him do terrible shit. What exactly, Billy doesn’t know, torture and murder most likely. Ellie would know. She would tell him if he asked, but Billy doesn’t want to know.
No. No, he does not understand why she warned him.
His throat is tight and the words are hard to get out, but he has to ask anyway.
“Why did you?” Ellie hums in question. “Why did you tell me in the first place?” He swallows, throat clicking. “Why take the risk of telling me if you are too afraid to get involved? You could have just stayed silent, said nothing, not even interacted with me in the first place and you would have been-… would have been safe.”
“Well, I-” Ellie is swallowing heavily now, gaze focused on her knees, searching for words. “I don’t-” she closes her eyes and breaths deeply. “You don’t deserve that,” she says firmly and Billy is getting pissed now. What gives her the right? Out of everyone, what gives her the right. She doesn’t even-
“You don’t know me,” he snaps at her. Continues to shout at her. “You don’t know shit about me! You have no fucking idea-”
Ellie snorts loudly. “I don’t have to know you to be certain you don’t deserve that shit.” But that cannot be all. He refuses to believe it. Billy needs to push her. Push her until she snaps and tells him the real reason. Because Billy cannot accept that it’s that simple. It’s never that simple.
“Bullshit! Fucking bullshit! No one just does this shit! Not for fucking free! How would-” which is when Ellie snaps back. Leg stops bouncing and she leans as far towards him as the seatbelt will let her, teeth bared.
“Fucking listen! Okay? I- No one deserves that. No one! There were scenes- And I mean the shit it made you do! I just-” it’s all a jumble of unfinished thoughts. She shifts, leans back and takes a calming breath.
“Look, the show was kinda shit, alright? It was void of any true emotional depth. Characters behaved only how the plot demanded they behaved. There were no consequences, no trauma, no exploration of deeper themes, no one addressed any issues with each other. Someone did something fucked up and it was just dropped and forgotten about. They never showed how characters grew and developed because of what happened to them, they only changed when necessary. When the fucking plot demanded it! So-! So, the scenes with you, when you were possessed, Jesus, that shit stood the fuck out! Okay! Because every damn time you broke the control it had over you or, hell, were even close to the surface you were- You were so fuckin terrified and crying and just begging for help and no one did! No one fucking did! No one even fucking tried! And I got fucking pissed and attached. And that was back when you were nothing but a bunch of fucking pixels on screen! So, you’ll have to fucking excuse me feeling the need to at least fucking try now that you are an actual fucking person!”
Billy is staring stubbornly ahead, absolutely refusing to even glance at Ellie. She’s breathing in quick shallow pants. He doesn’t know where to even begin with that shit. He wanted to push her. To get the real answer. But that? That was way to fucking much to handle. How do you unpack any of that? He’s fucking pissed off and scared and fucking glad and bewildered and resentful and exposed. It’s all mixing and he’s not sure what to focus on. His fucking eyes sting and his fingers are cramping around the wheel and his jaw aches.
He feels like a raw fucking nerve.
Billy is not fucking touching any of it. Absolutely not. He refuses.
He’s gone so long bottling shit up.
And, so help him, he’s going to bottle all this shit right up.
“The show?” He asks, voice steady. He latches onto that. Because out of that whole fucking tirade that is the safest thing. Ellie lets out a raw, punched out sound. Looks like he’s not the only one who wants to put the whole thing back in the bottle. Not the only one who’s used to pretending.
“Yeah, the show. That’s how- how I know what is supposed to happen. Back... back before I watched all of this happen on the TV,” her voice gets steadier as she talks. The grin she turns to him is filled with resentment and forced acceptance. “Back then all of this was just a shitty show I watched to get recreationally mad,” she sighs. “And now it's my fucking life,” she adds in a whisper.
“Jesus. I don’t even know how I’d deal with any of that shit. That’s gotta be pretty fucked up.”
Ellie let’s out a loud unstable laugh. “Oh, you have no fucking idea.” It feels like they are both insane. Hanging on a thread.
There’s so much he needs to ask, no idea where to begin, but it looks like they’ve arrived at the Harrington residence. So, Billy swallows all of it down and gets ready to play his usual role. Something tells him Ellie is doing the exact same thing.
He parks next to Steve and gets out of the car, whistling as he gazes up at the gigantic house. “Didn’t know you were this fucking loaded Harrington,” he grins teasingly at Steve when they make eye contact. Harrington rolls his eyes.
“Yeah, yeah, spoilt rich kid, that’s me,” there’s clear bitterness in his tone as he says it. Billy’s not even going to bother commenting on that shit. The night is already mired in personal shit no one wants to talk about. He’s not adding Harrington’s fucking issues as well.
He fully steps out of the car, ready to slam the door closed.
“Oi!” He looks back inside at Ellie. She wiggles around and stares at him, eyebrows raised, no trace of her outburst on her face. “Do you fucking mind?” She lifts her elbows at him. Ah...right...
“Yeah, yeah, don’t get your panties in a twist, sweetheart.”
Notes:
Got a question for you guys. Would you prefer longer chapters? If I do write longer chapters the updates would take longer of course, but the plot would visibly move along per chapter.
Personally I'm kinda digging writing a scene per chapter. Keeps it neat and organized in my mind. Especially since I didn't word limit myself in this fic. So I can make the chapters as long or as short as the scene requires. I know later on it might get messy, depending on what is happening. And it does make it hard to predict how much time I'll need write out the chapter.
But hey, would like to hear your thoughts.
Chapter 6: A King's love life and how aliens factor in it
Notes:
A scene per chapter she says. It will be short that way, she says.
So apparently there's a fandom war going on? Well it's more like Eddie/Steve shippers are autistically screeching into the void. I also keep forgetting that a big chunk of the fandom hates Billy, just fucking despises him.
Lol, is it obvious I have no social media? I have like tumblr and this. And neither of those has a trending page or a 'what's currently popular' algorithm. So it's easy to miss shit. The only reason I found out is because some of it bleed into Billy's tag on tumblr.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“You gonna behave, sweetheart?”
“You’re going to have to be more specific, honey bear.”
They are staring each other down. Billy is leaning against the now open passenger door and Ellie is still strapped down securely. Billy blinks at her, confused.
“Honey bear?” Where did that fucking that nickname come from?
“You started it!”
“I use sweetheart mockingly!” He leans in towards her to look her in the eyes, so she can easily see his annoyed frown.
“Well so do I shnoockums,” she winks at him and Billy groans. What has he done? Why did he think dragging the deranged bitch into this was a good idea? Oh, right he hadn’t! He just wanted to get back at her, damn the consequences. God, he hopes she won’t be pulling this shit in school tomorrow*... or today? What time is it anyway?
Billy shakes his head. Whatever she has is starting to affect him as well. He has to stay on topic. No meandering to unrelated topics. He’s here for a reason. For answers. And he still has school tomorrow. He’d like to get some sleep before that, thank you very much.
“If I untie you, will you behave or will you run like a bat out of Hell?” He asks pointedly.
“Where’s the fun in telling you?” She’s teasing. Billy knows she’s teasing. The problem is that Billy is very much done with her shit. He needs a genuine answer from her. So, he just continues to stare at her, face blank, not raising to the bait. “Oh alright,” she sighs, shoulders drooping. “I solemnly swear that I will stay and have a grownup talk with you and Steve about the local inter-dimensional aliens. I would offer my pinky, but alas...” she wryly remarks.
Billy narrows his eyes at her. Oh, he’s getting that pinky swear. At this point he doesn’t care if it’s childish or not. She shouldn’t have offered it if she had no intention of going through with it. He’s getting a real ass promise from her. And if she wants it to be a pinky swear, he’ll take it.
He releases her quickly. Unbuckling the seatbelt and pulling her forward to untie her sleeves. She shakes her arms out and before she can try to get up, he shoves his extended pinky in her face. She blinks at it in confusion before grinning and locking their finger together. Amused.
“I solemnly swear to stay and talk,” she says immediately, tone only slightly playful. Billy squeezes her pinky and gets in her face. Ellie jerks back in surprise, staring at him cautiously.
Billy lets his voice go to a low, warning rumble. People take your warnings seriously when you growl them out. “You better not run for it, sweetheart, because when I catch you, I will do worse than just tying you down,” he pauses and stares into her eyes, letting his words sink in. “Do you understand?”
Ellie is staring at him wide eyed, surprised and cautious. Her eyebrows twitch towards each other as she chews over his words.
And then she tilts her head and gives him a soft smile. “Sure thing, honey badger,” she gives his cheek a soft pat before slipping under his arm and out of the car. Billy leans back slowly, utterly perplexed by her behavior. That’s not... that’s not how normal people react to threats. No one had ever been that blasé when faced with him. “Shall we?” She asks once he turns to her, that soft smile still on her lips.
And then she fucking skips her way towards Steve’s front door. Billy shakes his head. He should have expected that reaction form Bathtub Alice. Maybe he should be the one running for the hills. Not like this night is about to get any saner. He could always try to play this thing by the ear.
He follows after her anyway.
Steve’s house looks just as expensive on the inside as it looked from the outside. Billy feels completely out of place.
“Okay, so... maybe we should, I, uh...” Steve looks awkward, standing there, messing with his hair, eyes bouncing between Billy and Ellie. Billy feels just as unsure of what they are supposed to do now, has no point of reference. He just has more control over himself then Harrington does. He’d never let his anxiety and nerves bleed into his body language, not so blatantly.
At least Ellie looks comfortable. The crazy girl is rocking oh her heels looking around the place like it’s a tourist attraction.
“Kitchen? I’m gonna need a drink for this shit,” Billy suggests finally. Steve’s relief is visible.
A high-pitched sneeze interrupts Harrington as he opens his mouth to answer. Both their heads snap towards Ellie who's rubbing her nose. Girl sneezes like a fucking hamster. All high pitched and muffled. “Sure, but can I borrow some dry clothes first?”
“Uh, sure?” Steve looks to Billy, questioning, he gets a shrug back in answer. Billy has no idea what Harrington expects him to do. Force the idiot to sit in wet clothes? “Why are you wet anyway?” Ah, so that’s what that was.
“Oh, I tried to make a sensory deprivation tank in Tina’s bathtub!” Ellie’s voice is filled with excitement.
“And, uh, you needed to get your clothes wet for that?”
“Oh, yep! Water helps the most and I wasn’t gonna strip at the party! Who knows who could walk in?” Her grin is teasing. Billy chooses to ignore the remark. He’s kind like that.
“I...” Steve shakes his head and gives up on whatever questions he may have. “You know what? Alright. Sure. If you say so.” Harrington is probably the sanest person in the room. God knows Billy hadn’t been able to just drop that shit without getting answers. He turns back to Billy and points over his shoulder with his thumb. “Kitchen's the first door on the left. I think there’s still some beer in the fridge. We’ll be right back.” And with that Steve just turns around and walks upstairs. Billy watches Bathtub Alice skip after King Steve leaving a trail of water droplets.
Billy is having a night.
He goes to the kitchen, there is a whole six pack in the fridge. He cracks one can open and chugs half of it quickly. He snorts. He’s having a fucking night alright. And there he was, just a few short days ago, thinking that living in Hawkins fucking Indiana would be the most dull and monotonous experience of his fucking life.
And here he is now, the first party he went to he met some sort of dimension-hopping time-traveler, self-proclaimed of course, got a death divination via possession and got told there are monsters skulking about the sleepy dull town. Billy still isn’t sure that Ellie is what she says she is. He’s entertaining the thought, but... but it’s just too ludicrous, too out there for him to just believe it out right.
He finishes the can and gets a second one.
Fuck his life.
“Move,” Harrington muscles his way beside him to grab a can for himself. Billy watches him down the whole thing without pause. They make eye contact, Billy sipping on his can slowly brow raised and Steve cracking open a second one.
“It’s...” Steve waves a hand around, shakes his head and downs the second can as well, cracks a third. “It’s been a night,” at least he starts only sipping the beer after that. “It’s been a fucking night, man.” Billy can only nod his agreement. It’s the best way to summarize it.
They are both having a night.
Ellie bounces into the room, speak of the devil.
She’s wearing Harrington’s clothes. A soft yellow long sleeve sweater and grey plaid pants. She looks absurd. On Harrington the outfit would be loose and comfortable. Ellie is fucking swimming in fabric. The sweater is a turtleneck and the collar is hanging loose around her neck.
She sits down at the counter, on one of the barstools, folding her legs and tucking her feet under herself. One of her knees begins to bounce again. Because why would she act like a normal human for a change?
Lord forbid she at least sit normally.
Billy continues to sip his beer, hoping, fucking hoping one of them knows how to begin this shitty conversation. It’s not like he doesn’t have questions. He just has no clue what to ask first. Where to begin. And it looks like neither Steve nor Ellie do.
The silence is getting oppressive.
Fucks sake. He swallows.
“Either of you wanna explain to me what the fuck is going on in your hick town?” He growls at them. Steve flinches. Ellie crosses her hands, head tilting to the side.
“Not sure where to begin,” Bathtub Alice says.
“How about this, how do you know about demogorgons? Who told you?” Steve snaps, finger pointing at her face.
“I’m not sure that’s where Billy-”
“Oh, no, no. By all means, explain this first,” Billy crosses his arms and stares at her too. “And explain it fully. Beyond the whole ‘dimension-hopping time-traveler' bit. That barely made sense.”
“Dimension-hopping time-traveler...?” Steve whispers from beside him. He has this confused puppy look on his face. Ellie’s brows are drawn together in thought.
“And how the hell does that relate to you knowing what’s going on?! You mentioned...a show?” Billy prompts. Ellie shifts in her seat, hands falling down to her lap to play with the grey fabric.
“Okay so...how much do you two know about reincarnation?” Billy groans, he should have guessed that one. Ellie nods with a grin. “Right. So, I kinda, ya know, died , got reborn and now... Well... Here I am!” She finishes with jazz hands.
“How would...? Why do you know about...? I don’t...” Steve interjects. Because no, reincarnation does not fucking explain her knowledge of future events. Or the whole show comment.
“Well, that’s where the dimension-hopping and time-travel get involved.” She waves her hand in the air. “It’s like... okay, so, I died in 2022.” Billy blinks and sips his beer. “Right?” Time-travel, right... “Right. And well, back when I was alive, there was this show on Netflix-”
“The fuck is netflix?!” Billy interrupts.
“It’s a... a company that-” She slams her palm on the counter. “Ya know what! Doesn’t really matter. On the TV! It was a show on the TV.” She points a finger at the celling. “Back to the main point. There was this show, okay, called Stranger Things. There were like four seasons at the time, I’d only watched three.” She shifts in her seat and waves her own words away. “Again, doesn’t actually matter, what matters is that what happened on the show has happened... is happening... you know, in real life.” She looks at them. “In, like, this dimension...” She jabs her pointer finger at the counter, trying to drive the point home. “Right now...” Jab. “To us.” Jab. “Do you get that?” Ellie talks with her whole body, Billy realizes in the back of his mind. She finishes with her arms spread open towards them, eyes bouncing between him and Steve, brows raised.
“Okay...” Steve starts, hand in the air as he thinks it over. “Okay so, in your first life-”
“Yes!”
“-you watched a show.”
“Mhm,” She crosses her arms and gives a single firm nod.
“And then you died and got reborn into the show?”
“Exactly!” Ellie grins at them widely, clearly excited. From the way Harrington looks, pale white and wide eyed, he is questioning his existence. Billy sure is. How are you supposed to process that? Your life being just a show on the TV. It’s mind boggling. Does that mean that there is a writer or something controlling everything that happens to them? Are... are they even real? Is any of this real?
“Sweetheart, you do realize how that shit sounds?” Billy starts slowly, thrown off completely.
“Ugh, you have no fucking idea!” She groans at him. “Do you think this shit was easy for me to accept?” Her hand is back to waving around in the air. “Do you think I just popped the fuck out and just knew I was in a show? I mean the whole remembering your first life bit was fucked in the first place. And I mean the death and birth part of that wasn’t pleasant either.” Billy winces. How much does she actually remember about both of those? Does she remember her own birth? What about what happened between the two events? Is there even a time in between the two? Does he even want to know?
“But then I had to deal with the fact it’s the fucking 70s, that is like half a fucking century in the past! Do you have any idea how much technology changes in the next forty years? A shit fucking ton, I’ll tell you that. Everything is so... so... just so fucking inconvenient,” her hand is in her hair, tugging on the strands. “And I still have no idea how people keep track of anything or anyone. I’m used to everything being at my fingertips!” She wiggles her fingers in front of herself. “Now if I wanna know more about something I have to go to the library and read books! And fuck, if it’s something obscure it’s a question if the library even has books on it in the first place! And so many things haven’t happened yet. Haven’t been invented or discovered yet. And oh my God, don’t even get me started on your music!”
“What is wrong with our music?” Billy laches on that, because that’s the only thing he can currently process. The rest of that shit, yeah, he’s tucking that shit away. Hopefully to never see it again.
“I mean, nothing is necessarily wrong with it, it’s just that...”
“Just that?” Steve asks. Both him and Billy have their eyebrows raised staring her down, daring her to say shit.
“Look! I’m just used to there being more variety!” She raises her hands in front of herself palms towards them. “Aright!? And it being easily accessible at all times. And I’m used to people doing weird shit with it and it still sounding banging. Like if I wanted to listen to shit like, Beethoven’s ‘Für Elise’ but make it dubstep I could! Or I don’t know if I wanted to hear what ‘Rock you like a hurricane’ remixed with... remixed with like ‘Barbie girl’-” Billy fucking chokes, what sort of sacrilegious bullshit? Does she want to get killed? “-sounds like, someone’s probably already done it! Look, like 80% of my music hasn’t been made yet!” She leans towards them. “I miss stuff like electro swing and just general chill-out music. So yeah, music is kinda boring now.” Ellie shrugs unapologetically and Billy is ready to jump over the counter and choke her.
He has no idea what the ever-loving fuck ‘Barbie girl’ is. Can guess what a song with that name would sound like. Such bullshit should be kept the fuck away from ‘Rock you like a hurricane’. There is no known universe where those two should ever be remixed. He’s glaring at Ellie, baring his teeth in a nasty grin. Ellie is glaring right back, arms crossed firmly, knee bouncing quickly. Daring him, fucking daring him to do something.
Steve can clearly read the hostility because he claps his hands loudly to get their attention. “We’ve gone off topic,” he looks between them. Billy forces himself to relax back against the counter with a grumble. “I still don’t get how you even know you are in a show.”
“Well, I mean first of all, this isn’t a show, not anymore, it’s real life. So don’t go around questioning your existences again. Believe me, I’ve done enough of that for all three of us already.” Well, Billy feels called out. And so does Steve if his shifting is anything to go by. Billy takes a long sip and avoids looking at either of them.
“And it’s like, I mean, I always kinda knew? I didn’t exactly know, know, ya know?” Billy looks back at her just to give her a deadpan stare. She sticks her tongue out at him. “It was always more like ‘ha-ha what a funny’ coincidence type of deal, except there started to be so many ‘ha-ha funny’ coincidences that I couldn’t write it off any more. So many names and people overlap and there are so many places I recognize from the show. But I wasn’t sure , not 100%, not until... not until last year. Not until Will...” she trails off, fingers tapping.
“Not until Will disappeared,” Steve finishes for her. Ellie just nods, eyes sad.
“Not until Will disappeared. And even then, I was still in denial. Kids go missing all the time, could just be a very freaky coincidence. But it kept nagging at me, so I...”
“So, you warned Barb,” Steve says. His eyes are far away, it looks like it’s beginning to sink in for him now. Ellie dips her head.
“Yeah. I warned Barb. And then I waited and watched... It... it all went the same. Barb disappeared anyway. And you broke Jonathan’s camera. And then Will’s fake body was found-”
“Wait! Wait. Fake body? What the fuck is going on?” As the two of them continued to talk Billy only grew more and more confused. They look at him, wide eyed and guilty looking. “Do you two assholes mind bringing me up to speed?” He snaps at them. He didn’t drag the two of them into this only for them to have a conversation over his head.
“Right, right. Uh, should...” Steve trails off, glances to Ellie who just waves him to go on. Steve sighs and rubs his eyes. “So last year in November Will Byers, Jonathan’s little brother-”
“You say that like I should know who the fuck Jonathan is.”
“Right, right. I was talking to Jonathan while you were fetching Eerie- shit, sorry, Ellie.”
“None taken,” Ellie shrugs at him.
“That droopy guy at the party?”
Ellie laughs. “He does look kinda droopy.”
“Yeah... the, uh, droopy guy.”
“Why were you talking to him in the first place, anyway?” Billy asks with a frown.
“I, uh, I asked him to take Nancy home,” Steve answers awkwardly, scratching at his ear.
“Seriously? After how she broke up with you? Harrington, after that shit the least the bitch could do is find her own ride home.” Steve is gawking at him.
“First of all,” Steve raises a finger in Billy’s face. Billy levels the idiot with a warning look. “Don’t call her a bitch. Second of all, we aren’t, we didn’t break up. It’s just a rough patch. We had a fight, that’s all.” Steve looks between the two of them and Billy realizes he and Ellie have mirroring expressions of disbelief. “Just. A. Fight. It’s perfectly fixable. Everyone has rough patches. It’s normal. Alright you two?” Steve snaps at them.
“Billy’s right,” Ellie says before Billy can say more. “You are being too nice. After the shit she said I would have slammed the Pure Fuel bowl over her head,” Ellie throws her two cents in and Billy throws her one of his practiced charming smiles.
“Oh, sweetheart you are being too nice as well. It’s a hick town, how hard would it be to get actual cow shit? See how she likes it when someone throws bullshit in her face.” Ellie’s entire face lights up at his words.
“Oh, get some of that karmic justice in there, nice,” she grins at him and raises her hand up for a fist bump. Billy rolls his eyes, but gives in with a grin anyway.
“No! No. Stop bonding over being assholes! And I don’t like you two just knowing what happened.”
“Oh, Steve we aren't bonding over being assholes...” Ellie pauses and grins at Steve’s scoff. “We are bonding over being vindictive assholes.” Ellie raises a hand to her heart, only fingertips touching the sweater, grin impish.
Billy snorts. “I’ll drink to that,” he raises his can to her. Ellie winks back.
She turns back to Steve, smile falling. “Oh, and Steve, honey, that was a break up.”
“Wah, no it wasn’t! We aren’t-”
“Yeah, it was. I’m gonna be brutally honest here, but the two of you weren’t going to work out.”
“You don’t know that! It was just a fight! We can still-” Ellie looks away and scratches the bridge of her nose. “You, you know, something? Because of the...”
“I, yeah...” Steve swallows.
“Tell me.”
“Are you-”
“Yes. Tell me.” Ellie gives Billy a questioning look. All he can do is shrug right back. It’s not his relationship. And why do they both keep turning to him with questions?
“Okay, so, first of all you both suck at communicating. Nancy is kinda shit at talking to you honestly and you kinda like to ignore problems in the hope they’ll go away on their own. And Steve, Nancy is like a dog with a bone when something is bothering her. She kinda just clenches and refuses to let go. So, your whole thing of pretending everything is normal just kinda...” Ellie waves her hand around like she’s catching words. “It just kinda annoyed her at best.” Considering the glare the bitch gave Harrington at the party Ellie is being extremely nice with her wording.
“What? What was I supposed to do? There’s nothing we can do. And I mean, she never said anything to me. How was I-”
“Which is why this one is mostly on Nancy. She should have made shit clear to you, instead of playing nice not to hurt your feelings. Which is why it all just... came spilling out tonight. You get someone drunk enough and they’ll tell you what they really think.” Ellie pauses and tilts her head. “But I mean you are only teens, so it’s not like you have any experience in how to work this shit out. Also, you don’t really have anyone to ask for advice, you were kinda left to your own devices.”
“No, no. You just did. You just pointed what’s wrong and how I can fix it. So, I just-” Steve nods firmly at his own words.
“Steve, I’m not finished.” Steve slums back against the counter at her words. Ellie plays with the fabric in her lap. “So, the second point is... well, the thing is... Nancy is a bit psycho.”
“What?! No! She’s-”
“Steve, she pointed a gun at you.” Billy is fucking mid drink when she says it. He damn near chokes and ends up with beer coming out of his nose. He slams the can down on the counter. Did she fucking time that shit?
“I’m sorry, she fucking what?” He’s dated some crazy chicks back in Cali, well hooked up with, no way would he actually date one of them, but none of those bitches had pulled a fucking gun on him. Billy is staring at Steve absolutely baffled. He... He has no words. What an absolute moron.
“I- It wasn’t like that! It was just a high stress situation! She was panicking! It was dangerous! She tried to make me leave and I wasn’t listening!” Steve starts defending himself. Looking from Billy to Ellie. Billy isn’t sure who he’s trying to convince, he’s failing at it anyway.
Ellie holds up two fingers. “Rule number two of gun safety: never point the gun at something you aren’t ready to kill or destroy. Sorry Steve, but that shit was fucked up. So don’t even try to defend her.”
“Let me get this straight,” Billy taps the beer can on the counter as he thinks. “This chick pulled a fucking gun on you and you still dated her after that,” Steve just shifts uncomfortably in answer. “Jesus Christ, Harrington. You really like them freaky, don’t you?”
“It’s not like that.”
“Did you even talk about that shit with her?” Ellie asks with a deep frown.
“I... no, not really. Look there was a lot going on at the time so... we just set it aside and forgot about it.”
“Fucking Christ, Harrington,” Billy just can’t help his reaction.
“Shut up man, you, you weren’t there,” he turns back to Ellie. “I still don’t see anything unfixable here.” Ellie lets out a deep sigh and pinches the bridge of her nose.
She sighs again and gives a firm nod before looking up at Steve. Billy already knows this is gonna be the worst of it. “The third point is that she kinda blames you for Barb’s death.”
“But I-”
“Look! I know. Trust me, I know . So let me explain.” Her expression is pleading. Steve nods and Ellie continues.
“Nancy blames herself, it’s a classic case of survivor's guilt. She’s in the what if hell.” Her hand is back in the air, body moving as she speaks. “What if she didn’t go to your house. What if she didn’t drag Barb along. What if she didn’t fight with Barb. What if she didn’t go upstairs with you. What if she stayed with Barb. What if she left with Barb. So on and so forth. It’s constantly on loop in her head no doubt. And look, people can hate themselves only for so long, before they find someone else to blame as well. And you make the perfect target. It happened at your place. She was here because of you, for you, with you. The fight was in the end over you. So, it all just...” She twists her hand in a circle. “Spills over onto you eventually.” Ellie gestures to Steve.
Steve looks absolutely heartbroken. “You don’t know that. You can’t know that,” his voice is soft, quiet.
“Okay, I’ll admit, she never outright says so. But there were hints, Steve, like a lot of them,” Ellie rubs her upper arm, a guilty look in her eyes.
“She never, uh, she never...” Steve starts to say, hands coming up, crossing his arms, palms cradling his elbows.
“I mean Nancy is self-aware enough to know it’s not fair to blame you. Hell, she probably knows there’s nothing she could have done. But the thing is that feelings don’t exactly care about how you rationalize things. And grief is the worst one, it listens to nothing and no one.”
Steve is nodding, head down, eyes on the floor. Billy can hear him swallowing loudly, throat clicking. “No, yeah, I get it. That’s uh,” he pinches the bridge of his nose, eyes squeezed shut. “Yeah, that’s just fucking great. It’s fucking great.” His head gives a small jerk from side to side. “Can we go back to, uh, to why you are both here in the first place?” He’s refusing to look up.
Ellie and Billy exchange a glance. Billy looks away and takes a sip. No way is he dealing with Harrington’s emotions. Nope. Not his job. Ellie shifts in her seat and clears her throat.
“Steve? Are you...” She trails off, unsure of how to ask. Harrington is clearly not okay.
“Just... just give me a minute, to... to fucking process,” he waves at her to get on with it. Ellie clearly wants to say more but she turns to Billy anyway.
“Where were we again?” So, they are going to just ignore Harrington? Give him space or whatever. Billy can work with that.
“Something about Will?” Ellie winces.
“Shit, yeah, we didn’t even begin,” she taps her finger on the counter in thought. “Right so, last year Will disappeared. There was a whole search party organized, dogs were involved, half the town combing the woods, the whole shebang. They found nothing, no traces, no trail, nothing. Until his body turned up in the Quarry.”
Billy frowns at her. "You said it was a fake body,” he points out and Ellie nods.
“It was, but here’s the thing. At the time, everyone was convinced it was Will’s body. We had a funeral and everything.”
“But...” There has to be more to it.
“But it turns out it was fake. It was just like a... a rubber doll or something.” She shakes her head. “Which brings us to the idiots behind the whole thing. Do you know about the Hawkins Lab?” Billy shakes his head no. He had no idea there even is a lab in Hawkins. “Right so officially it’s under the Department of Energy, so no one ever really questioned what they were doing in their neck of the woods. Turns out they were experimenting on kids with superpowers. So, one of-” Billy holds his hand up for her to stop.
“Hold your fucking horses, sweetheart. Superpowers? Fucking superpowers?” He asks and Ellie nods. “What kind of super powers are we talking about here?”
“Hm, I don’t actually know,” Billy raises an eyebrow at her. “Look, I only know El’s and Kali’s powers for sure. Everyone else?” She scratches at the back of her head. “Yeah, they weren't mentioned in the show. I think there was something about them in season 4, but like I said I hadn’t watched it before I died. I did see some stuff on it, but it was based on comics and, well, that’s a coin toss if it’s actually relevant to us.” Ellie shrugs at him.
“Okay, then tell me just what you know for sure,” he sees no reason to get into speculation, especially since it seems it won’t be relevant anyway.
“Well Kali is easy-”
“Who is Kali?” Steve interjects. Billy glances at him and sees that Steve is mostly back to normal. His eyes are still red but Billy isn’t going to be the one to point it out. He can be nice like that.
“Oh, she’s El’s older sister, kinda. She used to be Eight at the lab.”
“Eight?” Billy frowns.
“Oh yeah, the lab kindly called the superpowered kids by numbers. El is short for Eleven.”
Billy stares. “That’s...” he trails off, can’t even finish the thought.
“Disgusting? Dehumanizing? Dystopian?” Ellie gives him an indignant smile. “Yeah, good people those scientists. Anyway, so Kali’s powers are easy to define.” She draws a square on the counter with her finger. “She can make illusions. There are limits of course, but from what I remember the longer she holds an illusion the more problems she has. Now El, on the other hand, is harder to explain. Her powers are kinda broad and undefined, intentionally so, no doubt.”
“Why?” Billy asks and Ellie’s eyes snap to him, question clear. “I mean, why would they be intentionally undefined?”
“Oh, because if you don’t define and outline a character’s powers you can always add to and expand them,” Ellie shrugs and Billy suddenly remembers that her knowledge is based on a TV show. That bit kinda keeps... slipping away. “I know she has telekinesis. She also has the power to ‘find people’,” she does the air quotes. “She goes into this... she calls it the dark place, and in there she can find someone if she focuses on them. See them, see bits of their surroundings, hear them. That type of stuff. And of course, there’s the power that got us in this mess, she can tear the fabric of reality apart to create a fleshy portal to another dimension which is where demogorgons come from. It’s also where Will went when he disappeared.” Ellie finishes and looks at Billy. “You got that?”
“Okay so, the superpowered kid opened a portal to a dimension with monsters and this other kid somehow fell into it. How? Why did the other kid open the portal in the first place? She evil or some shit?”
Ellie shakes her head at him. “Opening the portal was accidental. It was another case of scientist poking around things they shouldn’t be, without thinking about consequences. And well, I don’t think they knew she could open a portal in the first place,” Ellie says with a shrug. “They were doing something else when... the demogorgon interfered. So, the scientists wanted to go and investigate afterwards.” She says with a final shrug. “And, well, the demogorgon tried to take Will, pulled him through to the other dimension, but Will somehow escaped and got stuck there,” she says with a deep frown. From the look of it she’s also wondering how the kid escaped the monster.
“What are demogorgons anyway?” Ellie tilts her head. “I mean, what do they look like? And also, what do they want? The Barb chick got taken by one as well, right? Why? What happened to her? Why did it try to take Will?”
“Well...” she trails off and stares at Steve.
“What?” Harrington blinks at her.
“I mean you came face to face with one, right? You should be able to describe it better. My memory of them is kinda... all I really remember is the...” she opens her hands on either side of her face, fingers wiggling and Billy is utterly confused.
Steve runs a hand through his hair and shakes his head. “I, I didn’t really get a good look at it. It was dark, and the lights were flashing constantly and I mean, Jesus, I was kinda too busy panicking and trying to fight it off. I wasn’t exactly focusing on what the damn thing looked like. All I fully remember is the,” Steve does the same gesture as Ellie.
“What the ever-loving fuck are you two talking about? What the fuck does,” Billy repeats the hand gesture and feel absolutely ridiculous while doing so, “mean?”
“Right, fuck, okay let me just,” Steve crosses his arms again and closes his eyes, trying to focus.
“I... when it fell out of the celling,” Billy holds his fucking question for Harrington’s sake, because the fuck? Billy subtly glances up. It wouldn’t. Right? Ellie and Steve wouldn’t be so calm if it could. Right?
“I was frozen and staring at it. Someone had to pull me away. I... it was gigantic, even on all fours. Its skin was like a greyish pink or something.” Disgust overtakes his face. “And wet. It looked wet when it dropped down. It looked, all like, I don’t know sinewy or something. It was like all bone and you could see the, like the muscle cords. And the face, man the face was the worst fucking part. At first it looked... it looked all twisted up, like someone pulled its skin and just... twisted it around. And then it did the,” Harrington does the fucking hand gesture around his face again. Billy is getting really fucking tired of it.
“Stop doing that shit! I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean!”
Harrington opens his eyes to frown at Billy. “I don’t know how to describe it. It just fucking unfolded its face. It looked like...”
“Kinda like a flower,” Ellie interjects when it becomes obvious Steve has nothing to compare it to.
“Yeah...” Steve trails off with a grimace. “A really fucked up flesh flower with teeth. There were teeth fucking everywhere in there, just along the, like the petals, I guess, and in the middle of them... just so many teeth, everywhere. And in the middle of it, it was just darkness, an empty void.” Harrington finishes with a grimace.
Billy swallows. “Okay, so I guess these things eat people? What with all the teeth.”
“Yes.” “No.” Billy looks from Steve to Ellie and back again.
Harrington’s head snaps towards Ellie who just shrugs at the silent question. “They eat some people, but that’s not why... why they take people. Why it took Barb.”
“What?” Harrington whispers, face drained of color.
“It’s like,” Ellie’s hands are all over the place now. Waving in the air, scratching at her head, pulling her hair. “Have you watched ‘Alien’?” She finally settles on.
Steve and Billy exchange a glance. “Like the movie?” Steve finally asks with a frown.
“Yup.”
“I, uh, yeah...” Harrington trails off and Billy just nods.
“Right so you know about facehuggers, right?”
“You’ve got to be shitting me right now,” Billy snaps, he sees where this is going and he does not like that shit one fucking bit. Steve is pale next to him. God forbid they get some normal man-eating aliens.
“Right so, it’s kinda like that. Except there are no facehuggers, there’s like a tentacle that goes,” she mimes something going down your throat with her hand. Both Billy and Steve are looking at her in absolute revulsion. “And the, like... birth... part of it... isn’t as violent. Demogorgons don’t tear open your ribcage. Instead, this slug looking thing, it’s black with yellow dots and really slimy, it just kinda... slithers out of your mouth. Or well you throw these things up if you somehow survive the... yeah.”
“I think I’m gonna be sick...” Harrington trails off.
“Sweetheart, that is absolutely fucking vile. I’d rather have something eat its way out of my chest then... that,” Billy waves at Ellie.
“So...” Harrington begins, his eyes glassy, not really seeing anything. “So, Barb...Barb’s body...” he trails off and looks to Ellie who just nods sadly. Billy looks between them. And, you know what. No. No. No, no, no, fucking no. He refuses. This is crossing the fucking like for him. He was willing to entertain all the other shit. But this? Yeah, he’s drawing the line at this!
“You know what, no, I don’t believe you!” Billy fucking refuses. Nope, he wants none of this shit. This is all way to fucking bizarre.
“What?” Ellie frowns at him.
“I don’t believe you! I refuse! This,” he waves his hand at her, “whole demogorgon and slug nonsense, it’s too fucking bizarre.”
Ellie tilts her head, frown deepening. “What exactly were you expecting when you heard possession and monsters?”
“I don’t know. I heard possession so I expected... like demons and shit. I’ve heard the religious nuts ranting before. I’ve seen ‘The Exorcist’. That’s the type of shit I was expecting. Not alien knockoffs and, what was it again, the Shadow, or something.”
Ellie snorts. “And what were you expecting the monsters to be then? Hellhounds?”
“I mean sure, if it was demons, hellhounds would fit the bill. Wouldn’t they? I still don’t see how demogorgons could, ya know, possess me. You still haven’t explained that bit to us. Or what the Shadow is in the first place. Or what it has to do with demogorgons!”
“Right... So, just like the aliens demogorgons have a hive mind.” Billy groans. Of course, they fucking would.
“They do?” Steve frowns.
“Yeah, the other dimension is sort of all connected to the hive mind. You wouldn’t have known since there was only one demogorgon so far, but it is. And instead of there being one big alien laying all the eggs and controlling everything there’s the Shadow. It’s not really a shadow, it’s more like, like smoke. And if the, uh, smoke gets into you, it can control you. Take over if you would.”
“Nope, I’m not buying it.” Billy crosses his arms firmly with a harsh frown.
“Seriously?” Ellie stares at him. Yup, this is where he’s drawing the line.
“I’ll believe it when I see it, sweetheart.”
Ellie narrows her eyes in thought. She suddenly straightens up and grins cheekily at him. “Really? You’ll believe it when you see it?”
Billy narrows his eyes at her. She’s plotting something, he just knows it. “Yes...” he says slowly, cautiously.
“Great!” She grins brightly at him, clapping her hands together in delight. “Then tomorrow during school lunch we’ll go and get you your proof.”
That gets both Billy’s and Steve’s attention. “You have proof?” They both ask at the same time. They glance at each other.
Ellie rolls her eyes at them. “No, but I do know when and where we’ll be able to find us some proof. Soooo, you in? Or are you gonna stick your head back in the sand?” She’s teasing. Billy and Steve exchange a glance.
“Yeah, alright. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
“You ready to pinky swear on it?” Ellie pulls her pinky up at him, elbow on the counter. Billy rolls his eyes. She’s clearly teasing him for earlier. He locks their fingers together anyway.
“I’ll be coming along as well, if it's related to... you know.” Steve adds his own two cents.
“Great!” Ellie grins. “So, are we done for now? We do have to go to school tomorrow and I do kinda want to catch at least a few Zs. It’s already 2 AM, if ya haven’t noticed.” Billy glances at the clock. It’s well pass 2 AM at this point, closer to 3 AM.
“Yeah... yeah, I guess we are done for now. We can talk more tomorrow.” He agrees. There’s so much for him to process already. His brain feels like mush and yet it still keeps jumping from question to question. All of it will have to wait until tomorrow. Billy needs to pull himself back together first.
“Uh... so about the clothes...” Ellie trails off and glances at Steve.
“It’s fine. Just bring it tomorrow, I’ll bring yours as well.” Steve waves her question off with a head shake.
Ellie glances back to Billy, shifting in her seat nervously. “You mind giving me a ride?”
“Sure, come on,” Billy answers with a shrug. Might as well. He drove her here in the firsts place.
Notes:
*I checked and Halloween in 1984 was on a Wednesday. I'm assuming they did the sane teen thing and had a party in the middle of the week on actual Halloween, instead of being sacrilegious and having it on like a Friday.
And yeah, as someone who constantly has headphones in and listens to all kinds of weird songs I'd go insane in the 80s.
Also, this is my last update for a while. I have some IRL stuff to take care of, so I'll see you when I see you. Bye~
Chapter 7: On chickens
Notes:
This one's just an easy short chapter I got done in-between everything. It's mostly here for a bit of character interaction and to get some more of Ellie's story written down.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Maxine! Hurry up!” Billy bangs on Max’s door.
“I’m coming!” The little shit yells back.
“I don’t have all day, Maxine!” He’s fucking tired and has no patience for her shit. Billy has things to do today. School. Basketball. Oh, and there’s the whole aliens bit he has to deal with. And she’s intentionally dragging her fucking feet.
The doors open and Max glares up at him. “I’m ready. Happy, now?” She snarks and he just growls at her with a deep frown.
“Get in the car and drop the attitude,” he tells her sharply before turning around and stomping out of the house. He can hear Max grumbling something under hear breath. Something about the early morning makes Max extra bold in her shitty bitch behavior. She’s either too tired to care, brain not working properly to think of the possible consequences, of what Billy could do. Or she thinks he’s too tired to react properly, to do more than snap and growl at her.
It's like she thinks he’s all bark and no bite in the mornings.
“What’s wrong with you today anyway? It’s not like we’ll be late!” She snaps at him. Which, no, they won’t be, but only because Billy made sure they won’t. He woke up earlier than he normally would, even though he had slept a measly four hours. Billy took great pleasure in waking up Max that morning. Highlight of his fucking month. If he had to suffer so, should she. So, he’d just barged into her room and shook her awake, stealing her covers when she refused to actually get up.
“We are picking someone up,” he tells her shortly, tone final, as he gets in the car. He’s not explaining anything beyond that. Not that he actually has to tell her anything the first place. It’s just easier to give her the bare minimum. She’s less irritating if she knows where they are going.
“What? Who?” Of course, she doesn’t take the hint. Why would Maxine ever take a hint? He just gives her a long stare. She got more than enough already. Billy isn’t her personal chauffeur. He owes her no fucking explanation. She scoffs and rolls her eyes before slumping down into her seat. It’s astounding how easily she gets on his nerves. How efficiently she gets him mad. He sticks a cigarette between his lips and peels out of the Hargrove driveway.
“Not like I won’t find out anyway,” she mumbles angrily under her breath.
Billy’s fingers curl around the steering wheel and turn white. Why does she feel the need to have the last fucking word? To always whisper shit under her breath, like she doesn’t want him to hear. Why say it in the first place? He’s too fucking tired for her shit. Billy takes a deep breath, bites down on the end of the cigarette and tries to think about anything but smashing Max’s head into the dashboard. The thought is too tempting this morning for him to continue to entertain it.
Instead, he turns his thoughts to Bathtub Alice. Ellie might be a... what did Carol call her again? A ‘twitchy weirdo with no filter’? Yeah. Yeah, that’s what she is, but unlike Max she can be amusing. Everything Max says gets on Billy’s nerves. It's almost instant. Max opens her mouth and he’s annoyed already. And Ellie seems to make everything in her life an event worth retelling.
Last night he’d driven her home. The drive had been silent, interrupted only by the occasional instruction from Ellie. Neither of them had been in the mood to talk. Not after their first car ride and definitely not after the exhausting conversation at Harrington’s. Hadn’t had the energy to make an effort anyway. Billy had been glad. The crazy girl had already said more than enough shit to him.
Once he stopped in front of her house, he got to witness Ellie sneaking into the dark house. Because of course she couldn’t just go in through the front door. Oh no, she’d had to climb up some clutter next to the garage, making an ungodly amount of noise, to get onto the garage itself. She had walked across the garage roof, slipping and almost falling on her ass no less than three times, to the porch roof. Doing some sort of weird wide step around the house corner and flattening herself around the walls to get over the gap between roofs. Of course, the window she’d opened couldn’t be lifted all the way up. So Billy got to watch her shimmy and wiggle her way through the slim gap head first.
He’d been left sitting there staring in disbelief as her boots finally slipped inside. She’d leaned her head back out the window to give him a grin and a thumbs up before going back inside and closing the window. As soon as the window closed the lights had turned on and there was yelling, parents obviously aware she’d tried to sneak in.
Billy huffs in amusement at the memory as Ellie’s house comes into view. It’s a classic American suburban house. All clean and neat and just like every other house on the street. Boring. Ordinary. He ignores Max’s angry glance. She can fuck of.
There’s a car in front of the garage now, so he parks on the other side of the house, gravel crunching under the tires. As soon as he fully stops the car the nearest window flies open and there is Ellie in her full morning glory. She’s still in her PJs, a red long sleeve shirt with all kinds of stains, hair an absolute mess, red marks still on her face from the pillow. Her eyes are thin slits, eyelids swollen, like she only just woke up.
Oh, and there is a chicken sitting on her shoulder because of course there is. The chicken has black feathers on its neck and head. The rest of it is covered in brown feathers with black edges.
Even the town’s biggest hicks would stare at her in disbelief.
“What the hell?” Max whispers and Billy ignores her.
She’s right, not that he’ll ever acknowledge it. The scene is certainly bizarre. Ellie is squinting at the car in confusion, clearly still half-asleep. The chicken’s head bobs around as it stares at the car as well.
Ellie isn’t moving.
With a sigh he tucks the cigarette behind his ear and gets out of the car. Billy leans his elbows on the car roof and just stares at Ellie. She’s squinting back.
“Ellie,” he says in greeting, tone neutral.
“Billy,” she responds in the same tone.
And then they stare at each other some more.
The chicken does a weird circle move with its head and makes some type of chicken related noise, something deep and scratchy and long. It sounds unholy.
He’s going to have to ask, isn’t he? Ellie is treating this like it’s an everyday occurrence.
“Are you even aware there’s a chicken on your shoulder?” He forces his tone to be casual.
Ellie blinks. Her brain finally waking up and registering things.
“Oh, you mean Mothra? Yeah, she does that often,” she tells him, one hand coming up to pet the chicken who... who fucking leans into it. It’s like she’s talking about the weather. Oh, so casual and unconcerned. Like it’s in style to just have a chicken squatting on your shoulder. Billy blinks, the name registering, and then gives her a deadpan stare.
“Did you seriously name your fucking chicken after a Godzilla monster?” Ellie perks up.
“You recognize it!” Billy glares at her. He does recognize it and it means absolutely nothing that he does. Nothing. “Well, I mean she’s a Cornish,” What the hell does that mean? Is it... is it the fucking breed of the chicken? Did… did she just give him the fucking breed of the chicken? As if he cares. As if anyone would. “... so, she’s pretty enough for it. I wanted to name her Chlamydia,” Billy chokes, “first but-”
“But I said no,” an older woman appears next to Ellie. She looks like your typical suburban mom. Average height. Still pretty and young looking. Her hair is a light brown, teased into volume and down to her shoulders. She has sharp, defined features, framed by few shallow wrinkles. Her eyes are the same icy blue as Ellie’s and right now she’s staring at Ellie in exasperation and annoyance.
“Morning ma’am,” he greets with his best charming smile. Ellie’s mom looks to him, face softening immediately. Ellie snaps her head towards him, eyes narrowing in irritation.
“Oh, morning dear. Who might you be?”
“Billy Hargrove, ma’am,” he continues in the same charming tone because Ellie is glaring at him disapprovingly, hands on her hips, elbows set in sharp angles. Billy loves getting under her skin. A bit of payback for all the shit she put him through. All the shit she put him through in just a few hours of knowing him.
“Hargrove? Ah, you just moved here, didn’t you? The new family from... California was it.” Well, the gossip certainly travels fast here. It throws him off every time. People just knowing things about him as soon as he says his name.
He gives her his practiced sideways grin, the one that always makes girls swoon, just to watch Ellie’s eyes narrow further. She delivers and Billy is absolutely delighted. She was the one who called him a MILF magnet, he has no idea why she expected anything different. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Well, welcome to Hawkins!” The woman tells him brightly. “Oh, but why are you here? Angela didn’t tell me anything last night,” she muses out loud, fishing for information not so subtly. Billy hasn’t met a fucking Angela in Hawkins, doesn’t care to. She’s Ellie’s sister no doubt and he’s mildly concerned Angela might be like her sister. One Bathtub Alice is more than enough. The crazy might run in the family. Thankfully Carol hadn’t mentioned anything when he’d asked so he still has hope.
“I am here to drive Ellie to school,” he answers. Both Ellie and her mom blink at him in surprise. Why the hell is Ellie surprised? Isn’t it obvious why he’s here?
“Ellie?” The mom asks in shock. “Ellie? Our Ellie? This Ellie?” She asks, gesturing to the girl in question. Billy fights a frown. Why is she reacting that way? Ellie is a social pariah in Hawkins, sure, but the woman just witnessed them talking to each other normally. Well as normal as any conversation with Ellie might be. Ellie was the one to come to the window. The one who recognized his car, even half-asleep. Shouldn’t it be obvious?
“Yes, ma’am,” he says, tone neutral. Ellie’s mom turns to look at her daughter in bewilderment. Ellie just rolls her eyes at the look. What the hell is up with this reaction? It can’t be that fucking unusual. Can it? Sure, Ellie is an absolute weirdo, but there has to be someone in Hawkins who tolerates her shit anyway. Ellie’s mom seems to be in a state of shock and Ellie herself doesn’t seem to be in a hurry. Like he isn’t waiting for her ass. Billy has to fight down an annoyed growl.
“You wanna hurry up, sweetheart? We don’t wanna be late, do we?” He has no patience for whatever weird moment they are having. Ellie glances at him, her mom is staring at him wide eyed.
“Eh, gimme like a minute,” she says with a shrug, disturbing the chicken forcing it to flap its wings loudly to stay on. And then she disappears into the house and Billy is left there with Ellie’s mom, who is now staring at him, and Max who is... Billy glances at her, also staring at him.
“So, uh,” the mom clears her throat and shakes off her confusion as best as she can. Returning back to her default politeness. “How did you meet Ellie?”
“We met last night at the party, ma’am.” He answers, still polite, but tones down the charm, without Ellie around to be visibly annoyed at him he doesn’t see the point. In fact, it’s kinda awkward now. It feels like the mom is analyzing him, judging him. It sets him on edge, makes him clench his jaw. At least Max is staying silent for once. God, Ellie better hurry the fuck up. He does not want to be making small talk with her mom. Doesn’t want to be under her judgmental gaze any more.
“Oh, really. That’s, uh, that’s nice,” she says. Billy can see she’s confused about it. “It was at the Cline’s house? The party I mean.” Billy nods at her. The woman shifts in place as she thinks. She clearly wants to ask about Ellie, but is avoiding the subject... for whatever reason.
Then a kid’s head pops up next to her. The brat has short dark brown hair and same icy blue eyes. He can barely look at Billy over the window, too short. His fingers curl around the frame as he pulls himself up.
“Hi! I’m Ryan!” The kid yells at him, fucking great. Just what he needed this morning. A loud kid. Is there anything worse than a loud child on a too early hungover morning? Where the fuck is Ellie? And how many fucking siblings does she have?
“Billy,” he answers simply, pushing down his annoyance. The kid is clearly preschool age and his mom is right there. He really shouldn’t cuss at the brat.
“I like your car!” The kid yells as his mom tries to shush him. Billy grins at him. At least the kid has taste. Now if only he’d use his indoor voice.
“Ryan, don’t bother Billy and go play with Sandra,” the mom tells the kid, softly pushing him back into the house. Ryan is having none of her shit.
“But mom! She won’t let me play with her teddy!” The kid continues to yell, now pouting up at his mom. So, Ellie has at least three siblings. Christ. He can barely tolerate Max and her shit. How does Ellie tolerate three? Hell, how do any of them tolerate Ellie on a daily basis?
The front door slams open as Ellie rushes out of the house. She’s fully dressed, her hair now piled up into the messiest bun Billy has ever seen. There’s a blonde chick, about the same age, following her, staring openly at Billy. About God damn time.
“Max, get in the back seat,” he grumbles down at her. He’s getting out of here as soon as fucking possible. Max grumbles back but still throws her shit behind. Sliping back between the seats afterwards. Bitch is clearly irritated by the down grade.
“Ellie! Ellie, answer me! Why the Hell is the hot new guy driving you to school!?” The blonde girl, Ellie’s sister Angela no doubt, yells. Billy raises an eyebrow at her.
Ellie twists around and starts walking backwards. Her backpack is a soft light pink, girly, and covered in patches. It clashes horribly with her dark clothes, dark jeans and a deep dark green hoodie. “Because of my mad blowjob skills, obviously!” She yells back and... and Billy will not react. He will not. Ellie’s mom is right there. He will be keeping any comments he might have to himself. He’ll pretend he’s fucking deaf. The blonde girl chokes, going a bright red, eyes darting to him. There is a loud gasp from inside the house.
“Ellie! What kind of language!?! What are you saying to your sister?! Why would you...?!” The mom is leaning out of the window to glare at her cackling daughter. Ellie clearly does not care about the mom’s opinion.
“I’m telling her the secret to success,” that gets a gasp out of the mom. Billy is a very, very deaf person. He glances in the car. Max is gaping, eyes darting from him to Ellie and back again.
“Ellie Valerie Evans!” A full name, someone’s angry. Ellie seems unaffected. Billy shakes his head.
“Bye mom!” Ellie yells back before slipping into his car and closing the door. The mom stares at her open mouthed.
“Nice meeting you ma’am,” Billy says. Best to pretend like he heard nothing during that whole exchange. Yep, nothing happened just now. Everything is perfectly normal. He has no clue what Ellie just said.
“What? Oh, yes, you too Billy,” she says absent mindedly still glaring at her daughter.
Billy just slips into his car. He backs up slowly, trying not to alarm the Evans mom any further, and drives off. They are all silent until the house disappears from view. Billy glances at Ellie. She seems proud of herself.
“So, why are you here actually?” She finally asks, glancing at him.
“To drive you to school.” Ellie laughs at his answer. He’s fucking serious.
“No, but seriously. Why?”
“Just making sure you don’t ditch, sweetheart,” he grins at her, sharp and ominous.
“I wouldn’t have!” She says outraged. Billy shrugs in answer. “I pinky swore!” That gets a snort out of Billy. She sure seems offended at the mere implication.
“Uhm?” Max interrupts. Billy’s been waiting for it. Her eyes had been darting between them since they drove off.
“Jesus Christ!” Ellie yelps and jumps in her seat, away from the noise. She almost falls to the floor, barely catching herself, fingers digging into the seat. Her head snaps back towards Max, eyes wide and filled with terror. “Jesus,” she whispers clutching at her heart. Billy has to bite down on his lip to fight a grin.
“Oh, hi! Hello! Didn’t see you there. I’m Ellie! Nice to meet ya!”
There is silence so Billy glances in the rearview mirror. Max is staring at Ellie, eyes wide in surprise as she watches Ellie carefully. She glances up at Billy, who looks back to the road. “Max...” she finally says, slowly, unsure.
“Ello Max! Dope ass name! I love gender neutral names. They are a vibe, always hit different. Ya feel me? Wish I got one. Oh well...” Ellie rambles on.
“... r-right,” Max says slowly, eyes darting between a grinning Ellie and a stone-faced Billy. There were things in that ramble that Billy is filing under future slang. No, he will not be asking. Max darts her eyes to Billy before focusing back on Ellie. “What does vibe mean?
Ellie blinks in confusion. “Oh! Oh right. Right. So... a vibe is...” she waves her hand around. “It’s like a mood. A good mood.”
“Mood?” Max leans her head forward as she raises her eyebrows.
“Yeah. Ya know, when something is a mood. I mean something can be a mood even if it's bad, but only if you are in a bad mood. Mood is like relatable! Yeah, if you relate to something it’s a mood.” Ellie is all twisted around in her seat so she can look at max fully.
“So... a vibe is...?”
“It’s a positive mood. Like if you are vibing with something you are in a good mood. Generally, I’d say that the music I’m listening to is a vibe. That’s why I’m listening to it anyway.”
“What about sad music then?”
“Then it's just mood,” Ellie explains with a shrug. Max just nods slowly, taking it in. God, Billy hopes she doesn’t start picking up slang from Ellie... Billy hopes he doesn’t start picking up slang from Ellie. Ellie glances between them as silence overtakes the car again.
“You are Billy’s little sister, no?” Ellie asks with a head tilt.
“Step-sister.” Both him and Max say at the same time, making eye contact for a glare before looking away. Billy can see Ellie’s grin and he already knows she’s going to say something irritating.
“Looks like regular sibling behavior to me.”
“We are not siblings.” Both of them say again at the same time. Billy glares in the rearview mirror and gets a glare back.
“He’s an asshole!” Max snaps at the both of them and Billy scoffs at her.
“Well, Maxine you are a raging bitch as well,” he growls back. Ellie just hums noncommittally. “Alice,” he growls out in warning.
Ellie tilts hear head to look at him. “Alice?”
Billy shrugs. “Been calling you Bathtub Alice, because of all the weird shit.”
“Like Alice from Alice in Wonderland?”
“Yeah.”
“Aren’t I more of a Whie Rabbit? Shouldn’t you be Alice than? You are following me down a rabbit hole after all,” her grin is teasing.
“I’m not following you down a rabbit hole. You fucking pushed me. I’m just dragging you along,” he growls out irritated. As if any of this was voluntary. Ellie is grinning at him clearly amused.
“What are you two talking about?” Max is frowning at them.
“None of your business Maxine.” Ellie giggles at them. “Evans I am fucking warning you.”
“I didn’t say anything,” she says with a wide teasing grin.
“Keep it that way.”
“Fine then,” Max snaps at him and then turns to Ellie. “Why was your chicken in the house?”
“Cuss Mothra’s a pet,” Ellie answers like it’s obvious. Billy snorts at her.
“Don’t chickens shit, like all the time?” Max actually has a point, for a change.
“I made her these diaper looking things, for when she’s indoors. My mom would freak otherwise,” Billy has to snort and her nonsense. That’s a lot of fucking effort for a useless pet, especially since there are normal ones. You know, normal pets that don’t shit everywhere.
“Have you considered getting a normal pet?” He asks her. “You know like, I don’t know... a dog?”
Ellie hums. “Well, I wanted a snake, but my mom said no. A chicken was the closest I could get.” That makes absolutely no fucking sense. And by Max’s frown she agrees with him.
“How is a chicken close to a snake?” It honestly sounds like a bad joke setup.
“Well, I mean, pest control. Hell, chickens are even better at it! They eat both bugs and rodents!” Ellie says it like she’s proud of her bag of feathers.
“Rodents?” Max asks warily.
“Oh yeah! I saw Mothra eat a whole ass rat before! Grabbed it and body slammed it until it stopped twitching.” Well... doesn’t that just sound pleasant.
“You... you are entirely too happy about that,” Max asks clearly terrified.
“Well, I mean it was kinda cool seeing her catch it. And we don’t have to set up traps and stuff around the house this way so,” Ellie says with a shrug.
“Don’t... don’t chickens eat like grain and stuff? They are birds. Birds aren’t... they don’t eat meat.” Max is clearly struggling. “I mean, I know there are birds of prey and stuff. But those different. Chickens aren’t birds of prey. They are domestic animals.”
Ellie blinks at her, amused. “Ah, city kids,” she hums at her and Max looks very offended. “All birds eat meat if they can get it. Hell, you do know that meat is easily digestible right? Most animals will eat meat in small amounts if they can get it.”
Billy sees Max glance up at him in the mirror, clearly terrified and questioning his choice in company. Thank fuck they’ve arrived and Billy doesn’t have to tolerate her presence anymore. She just had to encourage Ellie to share more disturbing information. The car screeches to a halt and Billy turns to Max. “Get out,” that gets him another eyeroll and a huff. Ellie snorts at the two of them before getting out of the car so Max can push her seat forward and get out.
“Have a good day, Max!” Ellie waves her off enthusiastically with a wide grin. Max stares at her. She glances at Billy before shaking her head and skating away. Ellie gets back in the car.
“So...” Ellie trails off and Billy has to fucking ask. It’s been bugging him since she said it.
“Mad blowjob skills?” He twists his body around so he can stare at her openly.
Ellie blinks in confusion. Then a wide grin spreads her lips. “Is that doubt I hear in your voice?” She teases.
“I say this with the intention of offending you, sweetheart, I don’t think anyone is dumb enough to let you near their dick. Something about not sticking your dick in crazy.” Ellie snorts at his words.
“Hello? Second life remember. I was well behaved in my first, ya know!” It’s Billy’s turn to snort.
“Really? I find that hard to believe,” he tells her as he puts the cigarette back in his mouth and lights it. He takes a long calming drag. “Hard to imagine you behaving like a normal person.”
Ellie laughs, it’s not a happy sound. “Yeah, well, turns out drowning in your own blood has consequences. Who knew?” Billy’s head snaps to her, only to see her frozen in place, shocked by her own words. Clearly, she hadn’t meant to say that.
“What?”
She shakes herself off. “Never mind that. I’ll... I’ll come find you at lunch, yeah?” She doesn’t even wait for an answer before escaping. Slamming the car door a bit too hard in her haste. Billy lets her go. He doesn’t want to know. He doesn’t want to fucking know. That shit was way too fucking real.
He takes another long pull.
Today will be a shitty fucking day.
He can already tell.
Notes:
The next chapter is either gonna Billy and Ellie bullying Dustin out of a pet or Steve's confrontation with Nancy. I'm gonna have to rewatch some bits to fully decide if I want to get into the Steve/Nancy confrontation. The fic is from Billy's POV so he'd have to be there if I wanna write that.
Meh, we'll see. Suggestions are, as always, welcome.
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Douffe on Chapter 1 Thu 11 Aug 2022 03:19AM UTC
Last Edited Thu 11 Aug 2022 03:20AM UTC
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Hrhmionie on Chapter 1 Wed 21 May 2025 11:05PM UTC
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Sanguine_tenshi on Chapter 1 Sun 25 May 2025 06:07PM UTC
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Sanguine_tenshi on Chapter 1 Thu 29 May 2025 08:27PM UTC
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RavenWoodbane on Chapter 3 Sun 14 Aug 2022 12:16AM UTC
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psyzook on Chapter 3 Tue 16 Aug 2022 07:48PM UTC
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