a "bathroom break"

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 Gabe and Will were sharing Reese's Pieces from the vending machine (they'd devoured all of the candy Gabe had brought already) as they waited for Nancy and Jonathan to return. El was reading a magazine in the seat furthest away from them, and Mike seemed to be attempting to pluck up the courage to go and talk to her. Max, Alina, and Lucas were all locked in a fierce competition of Who-Can-Catch-The-Most-M&Ms-In-Their-Mouth, and the colorful candies kept spilling all over the ground. It was quiet, except for the occasional cheer from the M&Ms group, and so Gabe decided to fill the silence.

Of course. It was practically given that he would. Being a motormouth and all.

"Will?" This was a tentative topic, but curiosity had overcome Gabe's rational senses. When the boy sitting beside him looked up, Gabe swallowed and asked the question. "What was it like? To be... to be a host?"

He couldn't stop thinking of his realization from the car. That he'd rather be dead than flayed. And then he wondered how, exactly, it had been like. Because although the fact that Alina and Will had been hosts was there, nobody had ever really asked what it had been like. After everything about them had faded away. After their bodies became husks.

He didn't think Will would be very happy with this question, and he was right, because the smile that had been creeping up his lips faded, but Will didn't yell or refuse to answer or anything like that. He just shifted in his seat, and then responded.

"It wasn't me," he began. "But, of course, you guys know that. How I forgot everyone's names. But it was more than that. It was like... it was like everything that made me William Byers had been stripped away from me. Everything. From my art to D&D to knowing who you were. And... and I was so hot, all the time, I thought I was burning from the inside out. For a while I was trying to fight, trying to remain me and not giving in entirely, but there was this little voice whispering inside of me, telling me to just let go. And then I did, and... it hurt even more. And then I... I don't remember much," he admitted. "I don't really remember when they got the Mind Flayer out of me or anything. And... well, I do remember one thing. Seeing Alina in my now-memories. She was trying to keep the army alive, you know? When she was a host, too."

"Alina said that when she was in the void, she felt normal," Gabe said. "But you didn't get in the void."

"No. I don't have abilities." Will shifted again, looking uncomfortable, and then lowered his voice. "But... I've never told anyone this before, because I thought it wasn't important. But once, I was drugged, you know, knocked unconscious. And there was this... there was this moment before I fully submerged into black where I really felt like me. And I... I tried to send Alina a message. Tell her the Mind Flayer was inside her, too. I don't know if she ever got it. But that was when I really was myself."

"I don't think it's going to be like that anymore," Gabe admitted. "I don't think there's going to be any going back. Like, once you're flayed, you're flayed."

"That's what I'm afraid of," said Will. "And... don't tell the others this, but I'm afraid that the Mind Flayer wants me back. Me and Alina. That it won't stop until we're flayed and you guys are, too. Or dead."

Gabe reached out, and Will took his hand. It was a brief moment of triumph that sent his nerves alight, but Gabe didn't let it go to his head. Even though his heart was fluttering like a colony of butterflies had floated their way into his chest. "I won't let that happen," he said, even though he knew this might be a broken promise. Who knew what was going to happen in the coming days? "Not to you. Not again."

He realized now that he'd do anything for Will Byers. He'd take a bullet for him. Jump in front of a Demogorgon if it meant he'd be safe. Even—and this scared him more than his realization from earlier—get flayed himself.

I'd rather die than get flayed, Gabe thought, but get flayed than let Will die. What does that say about me?

He didn't know. All he knew was how terrifyingly deep his feelings for Will ran.

As the minutes continued to tick by, Alina began to grow more and more worried about Jonathan and Nancy. Even though she was trying to distract herself with this M&M competition, she couldn't stop her heart from pounding in her ears, and a sour taste from filling her mouth, mingling with the chocolate from the candy. At this point, it felt like she was chewing chalk.

"Got it," Max cheered. She didn't seem fazed by any of this, and to Alina looked like she was genuinely enjoying herself. She high-fived Alina, who attempted a smile, managing to only turn the corners of her lips up. "Two in a row."

"That was good, that was good," said Lucas, grinning at his friend. "Okay, your turn, Al."

He tossed an M&M into the air, but overshot it slightly, and it made an arc over Alina's head. Alina could let it fall—because it would be considered a foul throw—but she was too deep into the competition now. So instead she lunged forward, sliding onto the ground on her stomach, and caught the M&M right before it hit the ground. And that was when she closed her eyes, and Jonathan's face came to the forefront of her mind.

And just like two years ago, when she was in the gym at Hawkins Middle School, her world stuttered. It wasn't like the now-memories, because Alina wasn't seeing into another dimension. This was a part of her abilities—seeing other people. And just for a second, a tense, quick second, Alina Fairgrieves-Byers saw Jonathan.

It was like what she had been worried about had bloomed to life. Instead of seeing Jonathan in Mrs. Driscoll's room, perhaps helping the old lady out of bed, she instead saw him running, his eyes lit up with panic and his face pale. He was breathing heavily, his breath catching in his throat. He was terrified. He was running. He was in danger.

Alina's eyes shot open, and a gasp rattled out of her mouth. It had lasted a split-second, but she could remember every detail about it. And—this was the real kicker—her nose was bleeding. Just a little bit. But that was when she knew she had to go.

"Holy shit!" for a moment, Alina's heart stopped, thinking that Max had seen what she'd seen, but then Max said, "That was amazing!" and Alina knew she was talking about her dive to victory. She'd almost forgotten about the M&M on her tongue.

"I think you deserve at least five points for that catch," said Lucas. Alina forced a laugh, stood up, and leaned in closer to her friends. Her heart was thumping wildly. She couldn't tell them. It was probably nothing. They were probably just struggling to get Mrs. Driscoll. And she didn't want anyone else to get hurt, anyway.

So instead she said, "Yeah, I think so. But, uh... pause the game for a couple minutes, okay? I have to go to the bathroom."

She was just going to check on them. Just checking on them.

She stood up, brushing dust off her clothes, and, after the two had given their affirmations to this ("Okay!" and "Sure, Al,"), headed to the reception desk, where the receptionist was still chattering away on her phone. Alina wondered how long she'd been talking. Her voice should've gone hoarse by now.

The woman pushed her glasses up on her nose as Alina approached. She was saying something about Starcourt Mall, and how her niece had gone out of job because of it, and she didn't seem to appreciate the interruption. She probably thought Alina was going to ask if she could go with Nancy and Jonathan, which was exactly what she was going to do, but she was smart enough not to let anyone know. Instead, she just asked, "Excuse me? Could you tell me where the bathroom is, please?"

Without a pause from her conversation, the receptionist pointed down the hall, the exact way Nancy and Jonathan had gone. Perfect. Thanking the receptionist quickly, Alina began to casually walk down the hall to the bathroom, and, when she was sure the receptionist wasn't looking at her, slipped past the bathroom and headed to the elevator. She pressed the button, but nothing happened. It seemed to be broken.

Oh well, Alina thought, moving to the stairwell beside it. She began to climb the stairs to what she remembered was the right floor when something stopped her in her tracks. Something that made her heart beat even faster and her voice instinctively call out for Nancy and Jonathan.

There was blood on the handrail. Red, red blood, dripping down onto the floor with steady plops, smelling metallic. A couple steps more, and it was smeared on the wall.

It was a hospital, and of course it would have blood, but wouldn't the custodians take more care and not leave the smeared remains of a patient just... there? Wouldn't somebody have come and cleaned it up?

Alina was hustling now to the correct floor, sprinting while taking care not to touch the handrail or the wall. But when she burst through the door, she started to quite wish she was still standing by the blood. Because the lights in this hallway were flickering. On and off, on and off.

The Mind Flayer.

She said the name out loud, as if hearing her own voice would comfort her as she scrutinized the area. This was bad. This was really, really bad. This confirmed her own suspicions—that Nancy and Jonathan were in danger. That her brother was in danger.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Alina ran forward, calling out their names. Her heart was pounding so hard she thought she was immune to shock, but it turned out she was wrong when she saw the slumped figures.

She was running so fast that she slipped, skidding onto the cold ground, but there was no gracefulness in this tumble. She landed hard, aggravating her ribs, which were in agony, and as she clutched her side, she looked to what she'd seen to make her fall in the first place, and screamed.

Corpses. Doctors, they looked like, lying in pools of their own blood, their medical supplies knocked over. Alina couldn't even tell if their throats had been slit or their chests, because there was just so much blood. Coating their faces, their scrubs, their equipment. The masks around their mouths had been knocked loose, hanging off one ear, and their glassy, dead eyes were wide. Overall, their faces conveyed complete and utter fear.

That was all Alina could see before she was throwing up, barfing out the measly meal of candy she'd had some twenty minutes earlier. The remaining candy bars were still in her pocket, but Alina could safely say she'd lost her appetite. Nausea was building up in her chest, and as she wiped her mouth, staggering to her feet, she thought she might puke again. Because the corpses reminded her all too much of the ones that had decorated the ground of Hawkins Middle, people lying in their own blood, forever sleeping.

The corpses reminded her too much of her father.

Once she thought she found the strength to look away, Alina was filled with a hundred times more urgency. She didn't know what the flayed would do if they got their hands on Nancy and Jonathan, but she couldn't let them turn into another set of those dead bodies. So she ran towards Mrs. Driscoll's room, hoping she could find them before it was too late.

There was a red light blinking above Mrs. Driscoll's room, and Alina burst in, another scream tearing loose from her lips when she noticed the interior. A vase of flowers had been smashed, water dripping over the floor, and the bed was empty, but that wasn't what had made Alina cry out. No, that would be the man lying on the floor in a small pool of blood, a man with a bandage on his head already. A man Alina recognized from that awful, awful dinner.

Tom.

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a/n: uh oh 😳 alina's allergy to communicating with people strikes again!! and now she's following nancy and jonathan!!

i'm honestly really proud of the next few chapters, even though you're definitely gonna hate me for them 🙈🙈 there's a certain non-canon scene with [redacted] that gave me goosebumps, ngl. be ready :)

'till next time!