"That's not possible," Lucas spluttered, "you said that you were a ghost."

     "I also said that I probably wasn't dead," Amanda reminded him, and then softly to herself, "I'm a frog."

     "Excuse me?" Nancy questioned. Amanda turned to her to repeat herself. "I'm a frog. I'm a frog stuck in a bag of formaldehyde being preserved until I'm ready to be taken out and dissected on. I think the Mind Flayer is starting to take me out of the bag. Maybe I was injected with something to keep me from going bad, like Johnathan said."

     "Then we need to go!" Nancy ushered everyone into the station-wagon. "We don't have time so just cram on in."

     Amanda was first to crawl into the back of the car, then Will, then Mike. "Mandy, are you okay?" Will asked. Amanda checked her forearm, and it seemed to have stabilized for a bit. "I think so. But I can't be too sure. It's fine now but it can't be too long before it starts acting up again."

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'

The next day, everyone was in the Sheriff's cabin — where El was residing — recovering from last night. Amanda was sitting on the counter checking her forearm, Will was observing it with her, and Mike was pacing back and forth while El was in the bedroom with a blindfold over her eyes concentrating on the static from the radio.

     "That can't be good," said Mike as he continued his pacing, "it can't be good for her to be in there for this long. Especially after what she did last night."

     "Mike, relax." Max rolled her eyes. "She's fine."

     "What if she gets, like, brain damage or something?"

     "Oh, shit," Lucas piped up, "is that real? Can that actually happen?"

     "No, it can't. Mike made it up," Max bit. The two of them continued on bickering while Nancy and Johnathan were busy calling up places for information. After hanging up on The Hawkins Post, Nancy scratched it out and asked Johnathan, "Who's next?"

"Why should there be a next?" Johnathan asked instead. "Unless you want to start calling random people's homes."

"It just doesn't make any sense."

"What doesn't make sense?"

"There's a pattern going on here and it shouldn't be possible to just have the Mind Flayer stop infecting people," Nancy sighed. "Well, what if he all the chemicals he needs?" Johnathan suggested. "Hey, can you settle an argument for us?" Their little talk was broken up with Max and Mike walking up to the two of them. Amanda and Will stopped conversing to hear what was about to happen.

"Who do you think should decides El's limits?" Max continued, "El or Mike?"

Will and Amanda rolled their eyes simultaneously; they were back at this again. Mike did a double take. "What?! The way you frame that is such bullshit!"

"It's not bullshit!" Max retorted. "This is your whole problem. And it's precisely why she dumped your ass."

"She didn't dump me!"

"'We were on a break!'" Amanda mocked and Will attempted to stifle his chuckle. "Hey, butt out, Mandy." Mike pointed at her. She raised her hands to show her surrender and then went quiet to let the debacle go on with intrigue. "They're conspiring against me!" Mike then pointed to Max. "She's corrupting her!"

"I'm not corrupting her!" Max exploded. "You're 'enlightening' her," Will interjected, monotone and air-quoting enlightening. "Yeah, we already went over this. Can we skip to the good bit?"

"Fine," Mike shrugged carelessly, "you want to skip to the good bit? Here: Max made El use her powers to spy on us!"

"Wait, what?" Lucas gaped. "Oh, your girlfriend didn't tell you this?" Mike asked, feigning oblivion, "yeah. She used El so she could spy on you!"

"No, no, no." Max shook her head. "Don't turn this on me. I didn't make her do it. She's her own person, she could've said no."

"Wouldn't it have been funny if I was just taking a massive shit or something?"

"Dude, no. Thank God I wasn't there to see that." Amanda's face pulled back in disgust at that. Mike made a face at her before turning his attention back to the argument at hand. "I'm just saying that we can't waste El's powers away on something so silly as spying."

"And I'm saying that Mike has no say in what El does with her powers. In fact, Mike has no say in what El does at all," Max retorted. Nancy nodded, taking note of everything. "You two make very good points. But El is her own person and she should decided what she does with her powers because she knows them better than the rest of us."

"Thank you!" Max threw her hands up in relief. "I'm just trying to demonstrate how careless Max is being with El's powers," Mike burst, "how careless you all are. You're treating her like she's some kind of machine when she isn't, and I don't want her to die looking for the flayed when they've clearly fallen off the face of the Earth.

"So can we please come up with a new plan because I love her and I don't want to lose her ever again."

The room went so quiet after that you could hear a pin drop. Mike took a look at Amanda, who had schooled her features so she wouldn't give away any reaction she had, if she had any reaction to show for in the first place.

The door to the bedroom opened and El stepped out. "What's going on?" she asked. "Nothing," answered Mike, "just a family discussion, is all."

"Oh," was all El said before speaking again. "I found him."

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'

"That can't be normal, right?" asked Nancy, "Billy staying home on the Fourth of July?"

"Definitely not normal," Max agreed. "He probably wants us to find him," Amanda suggested. "I was afraid you'd say that," Nancy sighed. "If we go to him," Amanda continued, "the rest of the flayed will know where we are. It's — "

"A trap," Mike finished for her, nodding. "I agree. We'll be ambushed. But we'll know that they're coming and we'll kick their flayed butts. We won't be surprised."

"You mean El will kick their flayed butts," Max corrected. Mike rolled his eyes. "No."

"Yeah," Amanda agreed, "it's too risky."

"Not to mention unnecessary," Nancy added, "killing the flayed won't kill the Mind Flayer. We can cut off his legs all we want but we would still need to cut off his head."

Amanda's forearm started going in and out and she let out a yelp. "It's happening again."

"Is there anything we can do to keep it at bay?" Johnathan asked. Amanda shook her head. "I don't know. There's really no way to stop it. I kinda just have to let it do its thing before it gets worse."

Johnathan nodded, and they both turned their attention back to the conversation.

"So we can't get to the source because it's a trap and we can't go to Billy because he's a trap, too. Is there somewhere we can go?" Lucas questioned. "Yes," El responded.

Mike was quick to be by her side and reassure her. "You don't have to do this you know. You've only done it once in your life. But Billy's mind, it's sick. It's diseased. The Mind Flayer is in him, El."

"Billy can't hurt me," El told him, "not in there."

"I know, but — "

"I need you to trust me," El cut him off. Mike nodded. "Okay. I trust you. Just. . .be careful."

El nodded before she tied the blindfold over her eyes. "I want to see. I want to see what happened."

Then there was silence. Amanda went to go sit by Will, who was sitting on the couch by himself. "So. . .do we just sit and wait or what?" she whispered, assuming that El needed dead silence so she could concentrate. "We usually wait a few seconds and then we ask her what she sees and what's going on," Will explained to her and she hummed in response, understanding.

"I kinda have a weird question to ask," Will mumbled. Amanda nodded, telling that he could ask. "Ask away. I'm sure it can't be weirder than what's happening right now."

"Do you like. . .Mike?" Will asked timidly and Amanda fought the urge to groan and roll her eyes so she let out a slow breath instead. "I don't know why everyone keeps asking me that," she grumbled.

"Well, you've never really given us an outright answer. So that either means you do like him or you just don't know."

"So what if I happen to like him? Then what? It won't change the fact that my physical self may be waking up from a coma right now or that Mike is still dragging his feet about El."

"You wanna know what Mike told me when I stormed out that night?" Will asked but went on before Amanda could answer. "After I called El stupid — who isn't actually stupid, I was just jealous — he told me two things. He told me that one, El wasn't stupid and two, it wasn't his fault that I didn't like girls."

"What exactly is the lesson here?" Amanda was following, but she started getting a little lost. "The lesson here is that we're basically sinking in the same boat," Will continued, "that no matter the outcome, we're still gonna get hurt in the end because we're just an afterthought. El comes first in his mind."

"As wise, sad, and ominous as that sounds, Will the Wise, it really doesn't make a lot of sense."

"All I'm saying is that. . .you're not the only one who liked him." Will left it at that and let the conversation end when he turned his attention back to everyone else. Amanda was careful in wrapping her pinky around his. Will looked down at their entwined fingers, then slowly looked up at her.

"It doesn't have to be that way, you know," she said, nudging his shoulder with hers, "we don't have to be an afterthought. We're kids. We've got more than enough time to worry about who like like us. I know that you were forced to be grow up a little but that doesn't mean you have to. So play DnD all summer if you want, hide out in Castle Byers, parade around the house in your wizard costume because you're a kid, Will. You've got time."

"How do you look like a kid but sound like such an grown-up at the same time?" Will asked, bewildered. "I hung around older people most of the time because not many kids my age really wanted to hang out with me," Amanda answered, "they were mostly nice because they only wanted me to fork my homework over to them. So I'm a little stunted, ironically."

"Well, you got me." Will smiled. "Yeah. I do." Amanda rested her head on Will's shoulder as he reached over and entwined their hands, solidifying their already strengthening friendship.