Chapter Text
Jane spends the morning looking through the Shadow Plane.
She walks and walks and walks, her footsteps stirring the water around her feet.
She doesn’t find Mrs. Driscoll. Or Heather. She doesn’t find Mr. and Mrs. Holloway. Or Bruce, the man Nancy said had turned into that monster at the hospital.
Their pictures sit around Jane back in Hop’s cabin, waiting for her to find them.
She walks and walks and walks.
Back in her bedroom, where her body is sitting in front of the static TV, Jane feels a drop of blood slide into her mouth.
In the Shadow Plane, Jane walks. Back in her bedroom, she shifts on her knees and cleans her nose with a tissue.
She walks.
Something cold touches her shoulder back in her room and Jane startles back into her body, pushing it away from herself.
She pulls off her blindfold, gasping, but finds no monsters in the room.
She finds Mia instead, on the floor by the wall, wide eyed.
Next to her, there’s a broken plate and two sandwich triangles on the floor.
A knock comes from the door, Jonathan’s voice on the other side. “Everything alright in there?”
“Yeah! Just dropped the plate!” Mia shouts, not looking away from Jane.
“Alright.” Jonathan replies after a moment, stepping away from Jane’s door.
“Sorry.” Jane says, feeling guilty. “Did I hurt you?”
Mia smiles. “You didn’t. I just thought you might be hungry.”
“I am not.”
Mia looks at her for another second. Jane can’t read her face to know what she’s thinking.
Mia finally looks away. There are plate shards on the sandwich. Mia carefully picks them all up, along with the triangles of sandwich, and takes all of it back to the kitchen.
The door clicks closed behind her.
Jane puts her blindfold on again and continues to look.
The water beneath her feet is cold as she walks.
Her stomach starts to rumble. She is hungry, but she needs to find those people.
She ignores her stomach and continues to walk.
Suddenly, Billy appears a few feet away from her, making her heart jump in her chest.
He’s sitting on his bed, in his room, though he had not come back the night before. Jane had stayed there with Max, to make sure he would not come back. But there he is now.
The lamp next to his bed is on, and there are black streaks on his arms, his hands are open and loose in the space between his spread knees.
Jane steps back from him, and her body shifts on her knees, as she sinks back into it. She takes off her blindfold, turns off the TV and walks to her door, head hurting.
Ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum.
There’s noise outside of her room. Mike’s and Max’s voices, both louder than the others.
“Jane has saved the world twice and Mike still doesn’t trust her.”
“It’s not about trust, it’s about using her for her powers! Like you did when you spied on people!”
“I wasn’t using her, it was her idea!”
Jane leans closer to the door.
“You’re careless with her powers! See, this is why she can’t have a say in this. Why all of you can’t have a say in this - honestly am I the only one who cares about El? You're all treating her like she was some kind of machine, when she’s not, and I don’t want her to die looking for the Flayed when they have obviously vanished off the face of the earth, so can we please come up with a new plan, because I love her and I can’t lose her again!”
The voices fall silent outside her bedroom.
Jane opens the door and steps outside.
The others turn around to look at her.
Nancy and Jonathan are standing by the kitchen aisle, wide eyed. Mia and Will sitting on the other side of it, Will staring at Mike with his jaw open. Surprised.
Lucas is sitting on the table that Jane and Hop sit down to eat, behind Will. Max and Mike are closest to Jane, both looking at her with wide eyes.
Mike’s cheeks are red - embarrassed.
Jane looks away from him. It’s not nice to make others embarrassed.
Lucas is now hiding a smile behind his hand. Will looks away from Jane, at the ceiling while Mia is looking at the floor.
“What is going on?” Jane asks, breaking the silence.
“Nothing!” Mike is quick to answer.
Lucas crosses his arms, “Just a family discussion.”
“Oh.” She says, stepping back.
Hopper tells her it’s not nice to listen in on other people’s conversations. He said that being nosy wasn’t nice. She had asked because she thought they were talking about her.
She shouldn’t have asked.
She looks back up at Mike, but he turns away.
Maybe he’s mad that Jane was being nosy.
“I found him.” She tells the others.
Nancy turns to her. “Found who?”
Jane tells them about Billy. About walking around the Shadow Plane and not finding the others. Billy had just - appeared there, in front of her. He was in his room, in a clean pair of jeans and a white shirt with no sleeves. His arms were dirty, streaked with something black.
“He works at a garage during the school year.” Max says, “Well, worked. Maybe he…Maybe he flayed the other workers there.”
A tense silence fills the room.
“Are you sure he was in his room?” Max asks. Jane nods. “Do you think you could…look again? It just doesn’t make any sense. Why would he come back there?”
“Maybe he’s just resting. Taking a nice little nap after flaying people.” Lucas pipes up, arms crossed.
Max frowns, “Sitting up and with his eyes open?”
“That was sarcasm, Max.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s fine.”
“Maybe we all need a nap.” Jonathan mumbles in the kitchen.
Jane’s stomach rumbles again and Nancy calls a “time out”, which Lucas explains to Jane that it means a pause. Jonathan and Nancy make food using what little there is in the cabinets in the kitchen of the cabin. There are eggs and cheese, as well as bread. The apple and orange juices are in the fridge, and the rest of the Eggos that Hop had hid from Jane in the tallest cupboard, where he thought she couldn’t see.
Jonathan’s face crumples in on itself when he sees the yellow box in the cabinet, his eyes turning shiny.
He glances over his shoulder at Mia, who’s laying with Max on the couch, then at Jane.
He grabs the box to prepare the eggos.
Mike, Jonathan, Will and Max eat on paper plates, because Hopper doesn’t have enough real plates for everyone. After they finish eating, and after waiting thirty minutes for the food to settle in Jane’s stomach, they try to spy on Billy again.
He’s in the same position as before.
Just sitting.
Jane slams back into her body, disorientated. She’s done it so much today that her head is starting to hurt.
She gets up and goes to the kitchen to fill a glass of water.
“That’s not normal, right?” She hears Nancy ask someone.
“Billy staying in his room on the Fourth of July?” Max scoffs, “No, that’s not normal.”
“He wants us to find him.” Will says. “He’s making himself visible to El.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.” Nancy sighs, “If we go to Billy then the rest of the Flayed will know where we are.”
“It’s a trap.” Mike agrees, “It has to be.”
“Hi, El.”
Jane startles and almost drops her glass of water.
Mia’s standing by the kitchen aisle, a hand on its wooden top. Jane hadn’t noticed her.
“Are you okay?” Mia asks her, tilting her head to the side.
“Yeah.” Jane croaks out, clearing her throat. Mia continues to stare. “What?”
“Nothing. Just…” Mia drums her fingers on the wood, her nails clicking on it with a pleasant sound. “Just wanted to know what you were planning on trying next.”
Jane puts a hand on the kitchen counter and drums her fingers against it too, but her nails are short and barely make a sound.
“Don’t know.” Jane shrugs.
“Is there anything you can do, besides, like -” Mia waves her hand around, “telekinesis and remote viewing?”
“Remote viewing?” The words sound familiar for some reason.
“Looking for people. Seeing and hearing them.” Mia explains. There are dark circles under her eyes, and the skin of her cheeks is pale. She looks tired. Maybe she needs a nap too. “What else can you do?”
Jane bites her lower lip and thinks. Her eyes catch on the cereal box on the counter, and the rainbows on it.
She thinks of her mama, who can turn the lights on and off around her house. Jane had turned lights on and off, and made them flicker, but it had never been on purpose.
She realizes that there is something else she can do - she’d done it with Mama on the day she, Hopper, and Joyce had gone to Mama’s house, on 515 Larrabee Road.
Mama hadn’t been able to talk using her voice, but she had still asked Jane to listen to her. Jane had touched her hand, surrounded by Hopper and Mrs. Byers and her aunt, because she had an aunt too, and had entered her mama’s head.
There had been just the same memories there, playing over and over again. She had seen the lab. A rainbow. Two girls playing in a room, one of which Mama had called Jane. There had been doctors, nurses, soldiers. They had put things against mama’s head and electrocuted her, until she couldn’t speak anymore, or do anything to the people at the lab but listen.
Papa had been there, in most of those memories.
Billy looks just like her, sitting so still in his bed.
Maybe the Mind Flayer had made him still so he couldn’t cause trouble.
Yesterday, Max had told Jane that she really didn’t want Billy to be the new host to the Mind Flayer.
Though Billy had always gotten into fights and been a ‘complete dick’, in Max’s words, he had been nice to her, before they moved to Hawkins. He had taught her how to drive, and had always walked her to the ‘skating park’. He had only started being mean to her after they moved to Hawkins, and even then, he’d been much nicer to her since the beginning of the year.
Max had known him for years - she didn’t want her step-brother hurt.
Jane doesn’t know what difference there is between a brother and a step-brother. Max had explained that it was because they weren’t really related, but Jane hadn’t been related to her siblings and they had all been her brothers and sisters.
But Jonathan was never mean to Mia like Billy was to Max. Maybe that was what made them different.
Still, Jane siblings had been mean to her sometimes.
Billy and Jonathan were both brothers, despite Billy being a step one. Max and Billy were family, like Mia and Jonathan and Will. Like Nancy, Mike and Holly, and Lucas and Erica. Siblings.
Siblings protected each other.
Family protected each other.
Hop protects Jane. He feeds her and gives her clothes. He sits with her on the couch and watches TV. He reads books out loud and helps her wash her hair, and hugs her when she has nightmares.
That’s why she had signed Jane Hopper on Eggos’ certificate of ownership, though Jane didn’t like that word at all.
Hop is her family, just as much as Jane is his.
They protect each other.
Mama had tried to protect Jane, but she couldn’t. Papa had gotten to her first.
Maybe Billy had tried to protect Max, like Mama had tried protecting Jane, and the Mind Flayer had made him still and quiet so he wouldn’t make trouble.
“I can see things that happened.” Jane croaks out, answering Mia’s question.
Mia is standing still by the kitchen aisle, eyes wide and shining in the morning sun, like the glass on a bottle of beer.
“What things?”
“Memories.”
Mia frowns and steps away. Jane tilts her head at her friend, confused at the reaction.
Nancy’s voice drifts from the living room to Jane’s ears, distracting her.
“Killing the Flayed won’t stop the Mind Flayer. We have to find out where it’s spreading from, we have to find the source.”
“Billy knows it.” Jane raises her voice, loud enough they’ll hear her. “Billy’s been there. To the source.”
The Mind Flayer took people to the source to infect them, Nancy had said. Billy had to have been there. It should appear in his memories.
Mike walks over to the kitchen aisle. “But El, it’s a -”
“Trap.” She cuts him off. She had heard him before. “I know. We can’t go to Billy. But maybe there’s a way for me to see it. To see where he was.”
It’ll be different than it was with her Mama - then she had sat at her Mama’s feet, and touched her hand.
But she had been able to touch the demogorgon in the Shadow Plane before, maybe she could touch Billy too now, through there.
Despite feeling tired, Jane walks to the TV in the living room.
Her friends are her family too. She will protect them.
And to do that, she was to overcome her fear and touch the monster again.
Jane tells the others about her Mama, about going to visit her and her aunt on Larrabee Road, about touching Mama’s hand and seeing her memories. Tells them she wants to try and do the same with Billy.
Jonathan and Nancy sit on the armchair that Jane usually sits on, over the quilt that Mrs. Byers had given Jane. Mike sits on the arm of Hopper’s armchair and Max by the couch behind Jane. Lucas and Will are sitting on her dining table. Mia stands next to her, ready to help Jane should she need it
When Jane kneels down in front of the TV, Mia kneels down too. Jane nods at her and Mia turns on the TV.
As Jane picks up the blindfold, Mike slides to the floor on his knees too, one of his hands on Mia’s shoulder.
“El, I know that you think that you have to do this. But you really don’t.”
Jane frowns at him.
Who had said that she had to do this? She wanted to do it. There was a difference.
“You’ve only done this once before. And your mom loved you, she wanted you to know what happened.” Mike continues, “But Billy’s mind…it’s sick, diseased. The Mind Flayer is in him.”
Jane wants to be mad at him, but she can see that he’s afraid. That he’s worried for Jane.
So she touches his hand, “It can’t hurt me. Not in there.”
Mike bites his lip.
Jane misses kissing him, but the feeling passes like wind on the windows.
“We don’t know that.” He says.
Mia shifts under Mike’s hand. She’s looking to the side, as people did sometimes when they pretended not to hear something being said right next to them.
Jane looks back at Mike. He was doubting her and her powers, like Max had done the other day, before they went to Billy’s room.
But Jane knew what she was doing.
“Mike,” She tells him, “You need to trust me.”
Mike turns his head to Max, who has been watching them, her blue eyes steady. He turns back to Jane, and nods.
“Okay. Just be careful.”
He sits back on Hopper’s chair.
Mia helps Jane put on the blindfold. Someone turns on the TV.
Jane closes her eyes, welcoming the darkness. Mia’s breathing next to her blends into the sound of Mike’s clothes shifting, of Max's hand sweeping over the couch behind her.
The TV static gets louder, Jane’s heartbeat echoes in her ears, drowning all those little sounds.
Jane opens her eyes in the Shadow Plane and finds Billy already there.
He’s in the same position as before. Just sitting on his bed.
Instead of watching from far away, Jane walks to him.
She stops close enough to his legs that she can feel the warmth of his knee against her own. She waits for him to look up at her, to sense her, like he did the other day, but he doesn’t.
He breathes in and out, the necklace on his chest following his breaths, shining golden like his hair.
His brows are furrowed, his blue eyes almost completely black from how wide his pupils are. He’s sweaty, the bags beneath his eyes dark purple.
He looks sick, just like Mike said.
Jane gently takes his hand, her heart jolting in her chest at the oddity that is being able to touch him.
His hand is dry and colder than she expected.
He doesn’t react, doesn’t hurt her as she expected. Maybe he was far away right now, like Mama. If this was the Mind Flayer, he would have hurt Jane already.
She grips his thumb, pulling his arm up and curling her entire hand around his palm.
His pointer finger presses lightly against the inside of her wrist, the others curling around Jane’s palm. Reflex, she thinks.
He still doesn’t look at her.
“Billy.” She whispers, trying to get his attention. Mama had looked into her eyes in the Shadow Plane, before she said Jane’s name and the memories started to tumble out from her head.
Billy breathes in and out.
He doesn’t answer.
“Can you hear me?” She tries again, voice soft because she is still scared. Scared of this being a trap, like Mike had said. “I want to see.”
Billy breathes.
“I want to see what happened.”
Billy looks up at her. There are tears in his eyes.
His hand slips from hers. She tries to catch it back, but before she can, Billy’s hand darts out, curling tight around her forearm, nails digging into her skin.
It hurts.
It hurts.
This is wrong.
Billy should be able to touch her, but he shouldn’t be able to hurt her in here.
“No! Stop!” She screams, trying and failing to take her arm away. His grip is too tight and it hurts. “No! Let go!”
Billy lets her go.
Jane falls.
Images flash in front of her eyes: memories.
Billy’s face reflected in the window of the sauna, full of black veins.
Jane is falling.
A monster made of flesh and bones somewhere dark, wet skin shining.
Jane is falling into the darkness.
Jane’s own face as he choked her in the bathroom, her nose bloody and her eyes bulging.
Jane hits the water.
The monster again, one of its limbs flying through air to attach itself to someone’s face.
The darkness is all around her.
An amber bottle in Billy’s hand, rain outside the window of Heather’s living room.
Jane falls.
Heather in a bathtub filled with ice. The trunk of his car. Cracked glass. The creature walking out of a shadow as someone screamed. Billy’s hands holding tight to a metal railing. The monster’s face, full of teeth and bones, crouching over someone with long hair on the floor.
Jane is falling.
Billy’s car crashing against a post. Heather’s face, as she waved hello at him from a lifeguarding chair. A bloody yellow whistle. Billy’s hands picking up rope from the storage in the Community Pool. Billy opening the trunk of his car -
Jane hits soft, wet sand.
Jane opens her eyes to a blue sky above her. She’s on a…beach, like she had seen on TV and on the posters in Max’s room. There is white sand beneath her, and she sits up just in time for a wave to wash over her feet.
In front of her, the ocean stretches across the horizon.
Jane has never seen the sea before.
Seagulls fly in the blue sky above her. She recognizes the bird from one of her books.
She rolls to her knees, water rushing at her and splashing against her face, salty. More seagulls walk around the sand, some standing in the wet sand by Jane, their little feet slapping in the water.
“El, are you okay?” Mike’s voice comes from far, far away.
Jane can’t feel her body kneeling in the living room. She can’t feel the blood that she’s sure to be sliding down her nose.
“I’m okay.” Jane says, hoping they can hear her. “I’m on a beach.”
Jane gets up and closes her eyes, trying to feel her body. She can only feel the sand beneath her toes, the salty air hitting her face.
She tries to force down the fear that's rising in her chest.
“What else do you see, Jane?” Max’s voice now, much fainter than Mike’s.
Jane opens her eyes. Up ahead, there’s a woman on the beach, her yellow hair shining under the sun. She’s wearing a white dress with red and blue flowers on it, the wind whipping it around her arms and legs, throwing her hair in her face.
She’s wearing a golden necklace and bright earrings. There is a straw hat with a blue ribbon and yellow sandals in her hands.
“A woman with blond hair and a white dress. She’s pretty.” Jane whispers, hoping her voice carries to her friends. The woman turns around, smiling wide, and waves. “I think she’s looking at me.”
The woman shouts, smiling, and claps her hands. There’s another sound coming from the water, much bigger than the seagulls - feet hitting the sand.
A boy runs from behind Jane, carrying a surfboard under his arm.
It looks just like the one in Max’s house.
I did it. The little boy says, smiling. Did you see that?
Yeah, I saw that! The woman shouts and pulls him close, kissing his brow.
Hop had done the same thing to her, after she closed the gate.
That was at least seven feet, the boy tells the woman.
I don’t know but it almost gave me a heart attack.
The boy smiles up at her, wet yellow hair sticking to his face. Ten more minutes?
The woman’s face changes, her eyes looking out over the ocean, the same color as the water. When she talks, she doesn’t sound happy anymore.
Yeah, okay, ten more minutes. But any longer than that and your dad is going to be mad, okay?
Okay!
Billy! The woman calls out and a jolt runs through Jane.
This is Billy? When he was little?
Watch out for rip currents!
Okay!
Salty wind whips harder against Jane’s face, throwing her hair in her eyes. She brushes it away with her fingers, turning her face so the wind doesn’t throw it in her eyes again.
Dark clouds appear on the horizon.
When Jane looks back, the woman and little Billy are gone.
A lightning strike illuminates the clouds up ahead a shining blood red.
“I think I see it. The source.” She whispers.
She can’t hear the TV static, or her heartbeat in her ears anymore.
Jane walks towards the clouds. Slowly the sunny sky turns gray, the winds more violent and cold. Flakes come out of the air, and she grabs them in her hand, her whole body feeling cold when she recognizes it.
It’s the things that floated in the air in the Upside Down.
She raises her eyes and finds herself in another memory.
Neil, Max’s step dad, appears, looking much younger than when Jane had met him a few days ago.
He grabs little Billy by the arm, shaking him hard, like the guards used to do with Jane. He yells at Billy, angry and mean.
Billy runs.
Jane runs after him and into another memory.
Neil is shouting again. But the blonde woman from before is there, crying and scared. Billy stands next to her, on the other side of a dinner table. Neil grabs the woman’s arm and shouts.
You’re lying to me!
I’m not lying to you! She shouts back Get away from me!
Neil shakes her arm hard.
The woman pulls it away from him, then grabs a plate from the table and throws it at Neil.
I said get away!
Neil advances on her, Billy throws himself in front of the woman, right at his dad.
Don’t hurt her!
Neil picks Billy up and throws him away like he was nothing, then punches the woman in the face.
Jane jumps back, heart slamming into her throat.
Mom! Billy screams.
Jane turns away, and there’s another memory in front of her.
Billy’s in a room, crying and holding a telephone to his ear.
Please mom, don’t do this. Please come home.
Jane steps back, and turns her head, and another memory appears.
Neil’s gripping Billy by the hair and throwing him on a bed, pulling his belt from his pants, this is for you to learn not to be such a pussy -
Jane walks back, scared by the look in Neil’s face. She trips on something, and falls on the floor.
Billy is there, still little, his eyes closed and entire face bloody. Neil is gone, and Billy’s room is dark.
Jane lurches forward to touch him, to help him but the memory changes.
Little Billy is replaced by an older Billy, straddling a boy’s stomach in a place full of grass, punching his face without stopping.
Fight back, you pussy!
Wind blows into Jane’s face, She turns and tries to run away, to feel her body and get back to her friends, but she smacks into another memory.
Billy come over here, I want you to meet someone. Neil appears in a living room with a little red-haired girl next to him. She scrunches her nose at Billy but Billy just stares. Her eyes are blue, like his. This is your new sister, her name is Maxine.
Max, the girl corrects.
The winds throw Jane’s hair into her eyes, she squeezes them shut, pressing her palms into them.
Jane hears growling. People shouting. Steve’s voice, screaming this way!
Jane opens her eyes. A grown up Billy is in front of her, inside a tunnel, holding Jenny’s baseball bat.
Get the fuck back! he shouts, and swings the bat, straight at Jane.
She screams and covers her face, but the pain doesn’t come.
There is only Mia’s voice in the wind, saying no, thanks, Billy, but I don’t want to be a bully like you.
Then Billy’s screaming.
The wind howls around Jane’s ears.
Who’s there? Billy shouts, I said who’s there?
Suddenly it all stops - the wind, the voices, the memories.
Jane opens her eyes again and there’s only a building up ahead, dark and still.
Billy’s car, its front glass cracked, is parked at the front, lights on.
Jane has found it. She has found the source.
Jane licks her lips, tasting blood on her top lip. Her body. She can almost feel it now.
“I found the source.” She says, hoping.
“Where Jane, where are you?” Max’s voice drifts to her, so far away.
Her throat constricts, eyes burning. She had been so scared. Jane had never not felt her body before. She had never gone so deep, had never fallen the way she did. Max’s voice fills her with relief, but also a new sense of purpose.
She is here to protect her friends. Her family.
Jane looks around hoping to find a sign to show her where she is.
She finds it almost hidden by the plants. BRIMBORN STEEL WORKS.
“Brimborn. Steel works.” She knows Steel and Works, but she doesn’t know what Brimborn is.
Mike’s voice comes then, urgent. “El! We know where that is! Get out of there! Get out!”
Jane breathes in deep, and tries to get back.
Her head spins. For a moment she doesn’t know which way is up and which way is down. She feels like she’s falling, but up, instead of down.
Memories flash in front of her: Billy’s head hitting the steering wheel of his car as it crashed against a post. Dirt hitting his face as something dragged him back by the ankles. Him in a box, glass all around him, flickering white lights above him and a telephone in his hand.
Jane is falling.
Billy is in a shower stall, blue tiles all around him and cold water against his face. Billy is somewhere dark. His hands are holding someone down on the floor as they squirmed and tried to get away.
No, not someone.
Mia.
It’s Mia on the floor, silver duct tape around her mouth, her wrist tied together.
She is the one screaming.
Jane is falling, up instead of down.
Mia is kneeling in front of Billy in the shower stall, and then Billy’s hand is around her face, slamming it against a wall. The monster Jane had seen in the Hospital is in a dark room, one of its limbs flying through air to attach itself to Billy’s face. Billy opening the trunk of his car, with Mia lying inside it, her eyes closed and blood all over the side of her face.
Jane can feel the floor under her knees, the blood on her mouth.
Jane sees her own face as Billy choked her near the sauna. Sees Mia standing next to Billy in the rain, wearing a transparent raincoat as she smiled up at him and Heather.
A hand grabs her wrist and Jane uses that as an anchor to pull herself back into her body.
She throws the blindfold off her eyes, gasping.
Mia is kneeling next to her, green eyes wide.
Jane’s shoulders heave up and down, terror coursing through her.
She had seen Mia with Billy, she had seen her at the source.
Mia had been the one screaming that night.
Jane looks wildly around herself, only then noticing how empty the rest of the living room is. There’s only Mia, sitting next to her.
“Where is everyone?” Jane whispers, standing up, even though fear makes them weak. “Mike! Max!”
Mia tilts her head, looking up at Jane from her spot on the floor.
Jane stumbles away.
Mia had been in the trunk of Billy’s car. She had been with Billy, the morning Heather went missing.
The virus was inside her.
The Mind Flayer got to her.
Mia had been Flayed.
“Mike!” Jane screams. She has to warn her friends. Had she - Had the Mind Flayer got to them too? “Mike!”
“He won’t hear you.” Mia tells her, getting up from the floor in a single movement.
“Where is he?” Jane sobs, shaking her head. Mia can’t - the Mind Flayer can’t have gotten to her. He can’t have gotten to her friends.
“I’ve been watching you, Eleven.” Mia says. Her voice is lower than Jane has ever heard it. “I’ve been watching all of you for a long time.”
Mia steps towards Jane.
Jane stumbles back, hitting the couch with the side of her knee.
The curtain that covers the doorway of Hopper’s room flutters. Jane looks at it, hoping to find Max or Mike or anyone.
Billy appears from behind it.
“You let us in.” He tells Jane, stalking towards her. “And now you are going to have to let us stay.”
“No.” Jane shakes her head from side to side, eyes darting from Mia to Billy. They’re both walking steadily towards Jane as she continues to walk backwards, feeling too scared to run. “No!”
Mia was flayed, just like Billy.
Jane didn’t get to save Jenny before the monsters killed her.
And now, she didn’t even know that Mia had needed to be saved, before the Mind Flayer got to her.
“Don’t you see?” Mia says, a smile lighting up her face. But it’s wrong - it’s wrong because that isn’t Mia. That isn’t Jane’s friend. Her eyes are brown and not green, and she isn’t Jane’s friend, she is the Mind Flayer. “It doesn’t matter what you want. It will happen. All we needed was a little bit of time…to understand what you could do.”
Jane’s back hits the dining table. Mia and Billy continue to advance, now shoulder to shoulder.
“We’ve been building ourselves.” Billy continues, voice soft, “We’ve been building all of this…just. For. You.”
“All those deaths, all that pain.” Mia says, “For you, Eleven.”
No. No, no no. It can’t be her fault, not again.
She had closed the gate.
Jane shakes her head at Mia, frozen against the table. There are tears in her eyes, burning. She can barely see Billy’s face as he continues to speak.
“Now it’s time to end it.”
“End all of it.”
“But we are going to end you first.” Billy tells her. “Then when you are gone, we’re going to end your friends. Your family.”
Jane shakes her head, tears sliding down her face. Sobs shake her chest, coming out painfully from her throat.
“And then-” Billy continues, black veins crawling up the sides of his face. “We are going to end everyone.”
Billy puts a hand on Mia’s shoulder., the black veins on his hand slowly seeping into her friend’s skin, climbing up her neck.
Jane snaps, terror and fury mixing in her chest and exploding outwards like a bomb.
“No!” Jane screams, raising her arms, intent on getting him away from Mia. “Get away!”
Billy flies back against the wall and Jane slams back into her body, gasping.
Someone pulls the blindfold off her face.
She comes face to face with Mia’s green eyes.
With the blood sliding down Mia’s nose.
Black blood.
Jane barely feels the fingers curling around her hair, before her head is yanked back.
Her head hits something hard, pain exploding over her cheek. Jane sees the underside of the coffee table, spinning and dimming. She hears screams.
The screams dim. The pain stops.
Darkness covers Jane like a warm blanket, pulling her to quiet sleep.