CHAPTER THIRTY.
3x06: E Plurbius Unum

The group managed themselves back to Hopper's cabin after they made sure Sam was alive and well. She didn't know about the well part, but she had only fainted because of how mortifyingly horrendous the Mind Flayer 2.0 was. You had to give it to her—she had gotten much better with blood and gore and such.

But a massive spider-shaped monster made out of flesh, bones, and dead people?

Sam was going to draw a line there.

They weren't only at Hopper's cabin for safety and recuperation and changing their outfits. Sam was wearing a light indigo tank top and long jean shorts. The sneakers she wore were flat and white, with indigo tube socks. Her hair was sort-of in a half-up-half-down hairstyle, but there were two high pigtails instead of one, lower one.

They needed to find the flayed—where they came from, where they went, just something they could use to form a new plan off of. Right now, El was trying hard to find them, but she wasn't having much luck. She'd been in her room, in the void, for about a couple hours now, without any helpful news.

Sam was getting sort of worried about how long El was in there for, but she trusted the girl, so she wasn't commenting on it. They had bigger things to worry about right now.

In Hopper's kitchen was Sam, Will, Nancy, and Jonathan. They were trying locate a possible source while Lucas, Max, Corey, and Mike sat in the living room, impatiently waiting. Sam was pretty sure Max and Mike were fighting, because she heard indistinct arguing in the background while Nancy pushed through her nth phone call.

Sam and Will were sitting on the kitchen stools, the former holding an ice pack to her head from the pain of fainting onto concrete. Will sent her an inquisitorial look, wordlessly asking if she was okay, to which Sam gave him a smile that looked more like a grimace. Jonathan was across of them, separated by the kitchen counter. He was peering down at the ad section of Hopper's phonebook. The three of them watched Nancy as she held a notepad and pen in one hand, and Hopper's yellow home phone to her ear with the other.

"Uh, yes, from The Hawkins Post!" Nancy said to Blackburn's Farm Supply on the line. "I-I called a couple days ago about the—yes, yes, um... I was just... following up to see if anything else had gone missing, or if—okay. Um, sorry to bother—"

Nancy stared at the phone, a little offended. With a heavy sigh, she put the phone back up. Another dead end.

Jonathan was scratching off their business's ad when Nancy walked back over to the trio. She exhaled, then asked, "Who's next?"

"There is no 'next,'" Jonathan answered, setting the pen down and staring at all the blue Xs he'd drawn. "Unless you want to start calling random people's homes."

Nancy threw her notepad onto the counter, shaking her head. "It doesn't make sense."

"What part of any of this makes sense?" Jonathan returned.

"There's a pattern, okay?" Nancy claimed desperately, voice rising a little. "A consistency to their behavior. They've been feeding on these chemicals since this started, and—and, what, they just stop out of the blue?"

Will tilted his head, thinking. "Maybe they have all the chemicals they need? Maybe they've all turned into those... things."

"I don't know." Sam shook her head, setting the ice pack down. "I'm with Nancy on this. What about the source?"

"Thank you." Nancy nodded at Sam gratefully. "Did the Mind Flayer just suddenly stop infecting people?"

"And how did he infect all those people in the first place?"

"And even if the flayed are monsters now, why can't El find them?"

"And why does the Mind Flayer look so grotesque?" Sam asked, nose scrunching up in disgust. She was met with three, judging looks from Will, Nancy, and Jonathan. "No, don't look at me like that! That is a valid question."

But no one knew the answer to any of Sam or Nancy's questions. Sam hated this feeling of uselessness and uncertainty. They were just as close to solving one problem as Will was to dropping his stupid bowl-cut—nowhere near, in other words.

If nothing was figured out soon, the Mind Flayer might find them before they found the Mind Flayer.

As Sam, Will, Nancy, and Jonathan fell quiet, thinking, the arguing that had been going on in the background was finally heard by the four.

"No, no, no, we did not 'make' her. It was her idea!" Max argued from the living room. "And why are we even talking about this? Seriously?"

"Yeah, who cares?" Corey groaned.

"I care!" Lucas shot back.

"We were just joking around!" Max cried.

"Would it have been so funny if I was taking a massive shit or something?!" Mike snapped.

"You weren't."

"But what if I was?!"

"Then, gross!"

"Guys!" Will snapped in the kitchen, getting all four of them to shut up.

Sam rubbed her face tiredly. "People are dying and you're talking about poo."

Lucas, Max, Corey, and Mike all crept into the kitchen sheepishly, as if being caught committing a crime.

"We weren't just talking about poo," Mike protested weakly.

"I miss Dustin," Sam said, frowning.

They then heard the bedroom door creak open. El stepped out of her room to greet them. There wasn't any blood dripping down her nose, presumably wiped off from the tissue box Sam provided her with.

"What's going on?" El asked, having heard muffled yelling from her room.

Lucas shrugged. "Just a family discussion."

Sam snorted, and Lucas brightened up at the sound.

"Oh," El hummed. "Well I found him, by the way."

╰━━━ ◦ ✸ ◦ ✸ ◦ ━━━╯

Billy.

That was who El found, by the way.

Now, in the living room, she was trying to find him again. El sat on the ground, blindfold on, inches away from the television that sounded off static (credits to Sam on that, which she'd accomplished by actually trying to do it this time). Everyone sat around El from behind, taking spots on couches and armchairs and the floor.

El ripped the blindfold from her head, panting.

Judging by El's reaction, Max's brows furrowed in concern. "What's he doing now?"

El looked up at her. She seemed as if she was having trouble breathing, which made a concerned Mike rise.

"I'll go get you water," he announced, walking off into the kitchen.

"Ooh!" Sam cheered, because now Mike left an open spot for her to sit. She got off the floor and curled up in Hopper's La-Z-Boy. She glanced back towards the kitchen, watching how on edge Mike was right now.

"Billy was... he was just," El tried managing the words out, "he was in his room. He's just sitting on his bed."

Max's face screwed up. "Wha—?"

"Here." Mike came back from the kitchen, handing El a glass of water. "Drink it please, before you pass out."

Sam, Will, Nancy, Jonathan, and El blinked at him, confused, but Lucas, Max, and Corey didn't seem as shocked by his disconcerting worry.

"Okay, what are you so worked up about?" Sam asked.

Mike looked at Sam, expectant for her to move out of his spot, but she refused to move an inch. He sighed, then elected to just sit down on the arm of apparently-now-Sam's recliner chair.

"What if she does this so much she gets brain damage?" Mike worried.

"Oh, shit," Lucas gasped. "Is that like, a real thing?"

Max rolled her eyes. "No, it's not. He made it up. Mike doesn't know what the hell he's talking about."

"Oh, and you do?" Mike challenged.

"No!" Corey quickly interjected from next to Nancy. "No. We are not having this discussion again. Neither of you know what the hell you're talking about."

Mike and Max glared at Corey with identical, twin stares.

"Okay, you could've worded it nicer," Sam frowned at Corey, then looked at her friends, "but he's right. None of us do. Except for El."

El smiled softly. "Thanks, Sam."

"And what's even the problem?" Jonathan asked. "She found Billy, didn't she? Brain still perfectly intact?"

"Yeah, why aren't we worried about Billy?" Will intoned. "El just told us he was sitting in his room."

"And that's not normal, right?" Nancy asked Max as El gulped down the last of her water.

Sam could have laughed at the insinuation. Max scoffed.

"Billy? Staying in his room on the Fourth of July? No, that's not normal."

Will processed Max's words from next to her on the couch. "He wants us to find him," he realized.

"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of," Nancy said. "If we go to Billy, then the rest of the flayed know where we are."

"It's a trap, I agree. We'll be ambushed," Mike said simply.

"We won't be surprised," Lucas argued the Wheeler siblings. "We'll know that they're coming, and we'll kick their flayed butts."

He said it so confidently that Sam had to let out a laugh, tilting her chin down to hide her smile.

"You mean El will kick their butts," Corey corrected. "And—well—maybe Sam. We don't know that yet."

"That's if my powers don't... short-circuit." Sam snorted. "Get it?"

Everyone groaned at her awful joke, and Sam's proud grin fell sadly from her face.

"Anyway," Mike continued, "it's too risky."

"Yeah, and it's unnecessary," Nancy added, in agreement with her brother. "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," El said, her breathing stable now. "Billy's been there. To the source."

"Yeah, but—"

"It's a trap. I know," El cut Mike off. "We can't go to Billy, but I think there's another way. A way for me to see where he's been."

Everyone shared confused looks.

"How?" Sam asked, intrigued.

"I've done it once with Mama," El began explaining, and they all listened intently to hear what she had to say. "I found her in the void, and then I looked into her memories. It would be like... going into Billy's head... in my head."

"Oh, yeah," Mike scoffed, arms crossed, "I hate the sound of that completely."

Don't ask Sam why she said it. Don't ask Sam why she was thinking it. She just couldn't handle seeing Mike so stressed for much longer, and a part of her really did agree with him. She was worried about El too, and she didn't really trust this whole idea El came up with on her own. It was laughably predictable, really, that the two plan-makers were disapproving of a plan they didn't create.

So Sam blurted, "Then I'll go with her."

"What?!" Everyone—literally everyone—exclaimed.

Sam shut her eyes, taking a deep breath in and out. She'd already said it now, so she couldn't take it back. She wouldn't take it back.

"We're all so worried about El getting hurt," Sam started, tentatively opening her eyes and meeting everyone's bewildered stares, "about this being a trap, so... so I'll go in there with her. To find Billy. I'll make sure she doesn't get hurt."

What were they supposed to say to that? Sam, who had been repressing her powers for fourteen years, was now offering herself up to protect El in the mindscape. It probably seemed bizarre; Sam probably seemed crazy.

Maybe she was?

"Sam—"

"Okay, look. You were right, Mike." It pained Sam to say it, but it was true. "This whole time. There. Fine. I admitted it. I have... powers," she confessed finally, and the tension increased exponentially. "And if—if I do have these abilities, I'm not gonna bullshit around with them. I'm gonna help people. I'm gonna learn how to use them, and... and I'm going in there with El."

A beat of silence, everyone staring at Sam.

Then:

"You don't even know how—"

"That's an awful idea—"

"Please, Samantha, say I was right again—"

"Do you have a death wish—?"

"Somebody knock her out and hide her in Hopper's room so she doesn't try anything—"

"Hey!" El shouted, and Will, Lucas, Mike, Max, and Corey shut up. She held Sam's hand, sending an encouraging smile at her. "I think it's a good idea."

Lucas gaped at El incredulously. "How?!"

"It will be easier to reach Billy with two people," El said, and Sam hadn't known that, so she was glad her ramblings had stumbled upon being right. "And we've seen Sam. She could be... really powerful. I have faith in her. I'll teach her."

Nancy frowned. "But do we have time for that?"

"Of course we do," Sam said, winking at Nancy. "I'm a fast learner."

The party sighed, because, yes. She was. Unfortunately.

"Okay... Okay, fine," Jonathan relented, against his own will. "If it'll help El find the source faster... if you really believe you can do it, Sam, then... fine."

Despite everyone's gaping frowns, Sam was looking at Jonathan with a slightly surprised, deliriously happy expression. Nancy started to laugh. "Try to look like you knew this would go through."

"I don't like this."

"Shut up, Lucas, you're ruining the moment," Sam groaned.

Lucas shook his head, doing the opposite. "I seriously don't like this. You're talking about going into Billy's head! The Mind Flayer has it all messed up! This is too dangerous—"

"Shut up, Lucas."

"He could possess you or something!"

"Oh my God."

Lucas gestured towards Sam like he had valid points, argued, "You could get brain damage!"

"That's not a real thing!" Sam cried in exasperation.

"W-well... what if he takes El?" Lucas asked. "You're gonna risk that?"

"I'm going in there so he won't! Don't try to use my overprotective tendencies against me."

Lucas deflated completely, devastated that Sam wasn't backing down. "Sam, please, this is stupid," he begged. "Anything could happen to you guys in there—"

"No it can't," El huffed. "He can't hurt us. Not in there."

"We don't know that—"

"Lucas!" Sam exclaimed, staring right into his eyes now. Everyone watching faded away. "I need you to trust me. I want you to trust me. Can you... Do you?"

Lucas bit back another argument, closing his eyes with a defeated sigh. "Of course I do. Just... just please don't risk anything. Please, Sam. If there's even a chance of any danger, just get out, alright?"

"I'll try not to die too horribly."

"I... literally hate you."

Sam smiled, because, no, he didn't.

She turned to El now, eager grin still painted on her face. "Alright, Eleanor. Let's do this thing."

╰━━━ ◦ ✸ ◦ ✸ ◦ ━━━╯

Sam and El were both criss-crossed in front of the television that played only empty static. El had gone over with Sam how to get into the mindscape, and now the girls were holding hands, trying to accomplish that exact goal.

Mike was being... rather unhelpful.

"Okay, just try to listen to the sounds around you," Mike said, gesturing with his hands. "On what you're hearing. Just focus on the static."

"Listen to the static," Corey added, trying to help guide Sam in the right direction. To him, listen just seemed like the better word choice. It emphasized the importance of hearing something, rather than focusing on the nothingness.

"Focusing on the static," Mike said, purposely correcting Corey like the insufferable know-it-all that he was.

Corey glanced over at Mike, feeling a little annoyed. Being a nuisance, Corey reiterated, "Listening to the—"

"Guys," Sam pleaded. She couldn't do any focusing or listening right now.

Corey and Mike blinked, a little sheepish.

"Sorry," they muttered together.

Sam couldn't see their expressions, because one of Hopper's ties was tied around her eyes, but she already knew their expressions were stupid. Her eye cover had to be a tie, because El didn't have a second blindfold. Sam didn't really like not being able to see—knowing that everyone was staring at her, and she just had to sit there with that knowledge. What if someone came up behind her and beat her with a club? Sam wouldn't know.

She tried to calm down enough to enter the mindscape. She relaxed her shoulders, breathing evenly through her nose while El sought Sam out in her mind.

It honestly felt a little disgusting. Sam could mentally feel her consciousness slowly latch onto El's as she tried to connect with El in the void. The air shifted around Sam, and her chest constricted like mad. For a second, Sam feared that she'd run out of air. That her body was closing in on herself.

She wanted out. She didn't want to do this anymore.

Sam tried throwing the blindfold off, gasping for air. Her eyes flew open, and—

And she was surrounded in total darkness.

For a moment, Sam was utterly terrified. She thought she'd gone blind, really, and then that instinctive panic snuck in. A jolt of electricity shot through her body, and she whipped around when she glowed blue for a moment. As her feet moved in a circle, Sam realized she was standing in some sort of endless puddle. And now, she was facing El directly.

Sam was in the void.

"Oh my God," Sam muttered. It took her much too long to realize it, but now she had. She had done it. She was in the void. Unable to hold her excitement, she cheered, "First try!"

El smiled at her, proud and fond. "Now we need to f—"

"This is actually so cool." Sam twisted, taking a look around at the dark and empty space. Water splashed up at her feet as she did so. "I mean, terrifying obviously, but really fucking cool. You really go here every time?"

"Yeah, but—"

"This—is—so—AWESOME—!"

El rushed over to Sam with wide eyes, clapping a hand over her mouth. Sam instantly recoiled, not having known she was supposed to be quiet.

"Sorry," she mumbled, voice muffled by El's hand.

El shook her head in forgiveness, telling Sam it was okay. Offering explanation as to why she shut Sam up, El nodded to her left, which was currently Sam's right. Both girls turned their heads in unison, El's hand falling from Sam's face in the process.

There was a light in the distance, but Sam couldn't see what/who it was. Her eyesight had always been shit, even with contacts to aid her. So, no, she couldn't see what the source of the light was, but she was smart enough to put two-and-two together.

Billy.

Sam grabbed a hold of El's hand, and the two girls began walking towards him. The closer they got, the better Sam could make out the shape of Billy sat on his twin bed. His image grew bigger and bigger until they were standing right before him.

Sam squeezed El's hand harder.

They peered down at the roughed-up, flayed version of Billy. He was coated in sweat and filth because of what (presumably) the Mind Flayer had been putting him up to. Not only that, but there were sections all up and down his body that were covered in electrocuted, charred skin; it was blackened, and all of Sam's doing.

Billy was just staring straight ahead at nothing in particular. In the mindscape, it seemed he was staring into the dark emptiness, but this was a glimpse of Billy in his room. He was just... staring at the wall.

With the hand that Sam wasn't holding, El reached out for Billy's hand. Sam figured El needed to hold it in order to tap into his memories, just like El had needed to hold Sam's to get Sam into the void. Now Billy (or void-Billy, Sam guessed) was holding El's hand, and El was holding Sam's.

"Billy," El whispered.

Her voice echoed in the mindscape all around. Sam was surrounded by that all-encompassing feeling again. She could hear El's voice in her ears, could feel the vibrations in her chest.

"Can you hear me?" El continued. "We want to see. We want to see what happened."

Then Billy's head jolted up suddenly, locking eyes with El. Startling both girls, Billy grasped their forearms in a tight, piercing grip. Sam cried out in pain, but she wasn't scared until El looked scared.

This isn't supposed to be happening, Sam realized.

Then she knew to be terrified.

Sam and El both tried escaping, yanking their arms away, but Billy's hold was too fierce. El was begging Billy to stop, to let go, and it reminded Sam of when he choked her during the Sauna Test.

"How can he touch us in here?!"

"I don't know!" El cried, thrashing to be set free.

Sam swore as she fought against Billy, forcing all of her weight down to try and restrict his movements. She was too late to stop Billy from letting one arm free and shoving Sam away with a snarl.

El gasped, reaching out for Sam to stop her from colliding with the water that was already beginning to thrash beneath her feet.

But her back never hit the water.

They both fell, fell, fell.

There were flashes, flashes of memories with that tainted, cold darkness the Mind Flayer caused. Billy in the sauna. Billy in El's mindscape. They were falling, falling, falling, and there were more flashes. Billy talking to Heather. Billy in some sort of car wreck.

They were falling, falling, falling, and—

And seagulls.

Sam heard seagulls.

Her back hit wet sand the second a wave came crashing over her. Sam choked and spluttered to get the saltwater out of her mouth. She looked to the side to see that El had landed in the same place she did. Both girls looked around to confirm their bewildered suspicions.

They were at a beach.

Sam stumbled to her feet, helping El stand to hers. They looked around in alarm. It really was just a proper beach. There was the ocean, the sand, seagulls, and a tropical breeze Sam had never felt before.

"—ou okay?" Max's voice echoed from Hopper's cabin and outside of the mindscape. "Guys, are you okay?"

"We're okay," El said softly, still whimpering slightly. Sam realized she was talking to the others.

"Is Sam braindead?" Will's voice came next.

"Not yet," Sam answered. The whole mindscape thing was really weird. "We're... on a beach. For some reason."

"Okay, I may be dense," Lucas started, thankfully self-aware, "but the last I checked, there weren't any beaches in Hawkins."

"What else do you see?" Mike asked.

Sam squinted towards the silhouette in the distance. She blinked quickly as her vision was suddenly obscured, but then her vision focused in as if she'd never had eyesight troubles at all. The seagulls flew around her, unfazed by her presence. She was a blonde woman in a flowy dress that served as a bathing suit cover; she held a straw hat, and she was looking off into the distance at the tide.

"A woman," El said, as she and Sam took a step closer. "She's... pretty. I think she's... looking at us."

It seemed like the woman was turned towards them, a beaming smile on her face. She laughed gleefully, waving in their direction before letting out a loud cheer and clapping her hands together.

"Not us," Sam disagreed. "She's not looking at us..."

"Then what's she looking at?"

Sam turned her head behind her when she heard little splashes. Running towards the woman was a young boy, looking happy as ever. He held a surfboard that was ten times too big for him, but the boy didn't seem to care.

You did it! the woman cheered.

He set down his surfboard and ran towards her ecstatically.

"There's a boy," Sam tried to explain. "He was surfboarding."

Did you see that?! he asked, right before the woman curled a hand around his head and pulled him in to kiss his forehead. Sam felt a twinge in her heart as she noted an action Sam's dad used to do for her.

"They're mother and son," she worked together.

Yeah, I saw that! the mother exclaimed.

That was at least seven feet! the son cheered proudly.

I don't know what it was, but it almost gave me a heart attack! she laughed.

He looked at her hopefully. Ten more minutes?

The woman's smile faltered, expression dimming. She looked back out at the ocean, forcing a smile on her face for her son. Yeah, okay, ten more minutes—the boy took off for his board immediately—but any longer than that, Dad's gonna be mad, okay?

Okay!

The boy, once again, picked up the surfboard that seemed way too huge for him. He had his eyes set on the waves of the ocean with a bright smile. He took one step towards the water, but was stopped by his mom calling out again.

Billy? she said, causing Sam and El to look at each other in surprise. Watch out for rip currents, okay?

I know!

"It's Billy," El told the others, and that was when reality really struck.

Sam didn't understand how this happy little boy could be Billy—mean, nasty Billy, who made the lives of everyone around him utter hell. This was how Sam was when she was younger. A part of her feared, after seeing this little boy's behavior, that Sam would end up like Billy after everything she'd been doing lately. Hurting people, sassing people. Was she just like him?

After a beat, Max realized, "It's California. It's a memory."

Sam and El watched the boy drift out, arms cascading through the water gently. Then the memory ended, and they were left alone on the beach with the wind in their ears.

Sam glanced around, unsure of where to go, and felt her chest go cold.

"I think I see it," El claimed, hand reaching to hold Sam's again. "The source."

Sam didn't know how she didn't see it immediately. Far away in the distance, but yet still perfectly seen by Sam, there was a larger-than-life storm. Over to the right, there was no California sun. The clouds were black, there were lightning strikes and heaps of thunder commanding attention, and it glowed red in a spot Sam surmised she and El had to go.

"Pip-pip-cheerio," Sam did a horrible British accent. "Let's get in there."

El stared back at Sam.

Not the time for joking. Got it.

╰━━━ ◦ ✸ ◦ ✸ ◦ ━━━╯

The sky grew darker and darker the closer Sam and El got to the storm. The winds blew heavier. Particles, just like the ones from the Upside Down tunnels, flew around Sam; she had the urge to cover her nose and mouth before she realized this was just Billy's mind. Not real life.

When Sam looked at the storm, lightning struck again, but when it did, the storm lit up in a thunderous red instead of an electric blue. Sam could feel her fingertips sparking, and she looked down at her hands to see electricity buzzing at her fingers.

She looked to El. "We're close."

"Why are your fingers doing that?" El asked, concerned.

Sam shrugged; she curled her hands into fists and put them down at her sides. "I don't know, but it can't mean anything good. Come on."

The two girls continued as the ash-like flurries continued blowing around them. Thunder echoed over their heads, and the whole scene was so bizarre. They were on a beach, where it was supposed to be sunny as day, but this awful Upside Down-like storm was brewing around them.

That was when Sam realized the storm was around them, and not in the distance anymore. El caught a flake of ash in her hand, seeming to recognize what the particles were as well.

Hey! an angry man shouted, gaining their attention. Billy, stop!

Sam squinted against the clouds of whirling sand and smoke to watch as a young Billy in a baseball uniform was handled roughly by his father. She remembered Max naming him as Neil.

What the hell is wrong with you? What did we talk about, huh?! You gotta slide!

I know, Billy stammered, definitely crying.

Sam's hand found her B necklace for emotional support. The scene before her, a father angry at his son for not wanting to play baseball, horribly reminded of her of Corey and Uncle Daniel. She hated the feeling this scene planted in her chest.

What, afraid you're gonna get hurt, is that it?!

N-no!

Well what, then? What?! Did I raise a pussy for a son?!

Young Billy shouted for his father to leave him alone. He wrenched himself out of Neil's harsh grip and began running away. Sam inhaled sharply, and she began running after Billy—El joined her in doing so.

That's right, run! Neil shouted. Like you always do!

Sam and El ran just like Billy did, although they were doing it in an attempt to catch Billy. As Sam passed Neil, she gave him the evilest look she could mange—she wanted to give him hell for treating his child like that, but she couldn't touch him. Neil was only a memory. He was a wretched, horrible memory.

The further Sam ran into the storm, the more lost she grew in the sound of thundering clouds and harsh winds. She could barely see anything due to the dust, clouds, particles, and red and blue lightning.

Where were you last night? came Neil's voice again. Where were you?

Sam and El sprinted, desperate to find the source of the sound. They were properly in the eye of the storm now, all the weather swirling around them. The wind blew in their hair, red and blue lighting lit them up.

I told you I was with Wendy.

Stop lying to me!

Sam could finally see, a few feet in front of her and El, where the voices were coming from. It was a scene of Neil Hargrove berating the same, beautiful woman from the beach. Billy's mother. They were a little away from a dinner table, where little Billy sat.

She fought his harsh grip. I'm not lying to you!

You saw him again, didn't you? Neil accused in a dangerous voice. DIDN'T YOU?

The woman pushed Neil off her as the storm grew wilder.

GET AWAY FROM ME! she yelled right back. She mother grabbed a white ceramic plate from the dinner table and threw it at Neil, smashing it on him. I said GET AWAY!

You—you WHORE!

Billy shot from his seat at the dinner table. He ran towards his father, pushing Neil away from attacking his mom. As she called Neil a bastard, Billy shouted for Neil not to hurt her. But Billy was only so young. Neil threw Billy to the side easily. He marched up towards the woman and slapped her with so much ferocity that the smack reverberated in Sam's ears. Tears brewed in her eyes. It was all so horrible.

Their pain pained Sam, making her feel weak in the knees.

I don't understand. Why not?

The sound was coming from a different scene. Sam whipped her head around to see Billy sitting against the side of his bed. There was a phone against his ear as he begged into it.

Please, Mom. Don't do this! Please come home.

Sam and El walked closer to this memory, fighting the winds and particles. Sam could almost make out tear tracks running down Billy's face. It physically pained her to see, as if his emotions were latching onto her.

No. How long? How long?! he sobbed. I miss you!

Sam heard another scene from right behind her.

Get back here!

Sam turned, hair whipping in the wild winds. She tripped a little, feeling a little weak for some reason. She saw that Billy was a pre-teen now. Instead of getting chased by his father, now he was the one chasing around. He had become the bully his father made him out to be.

Billy was on top of someone, and although Sam couldn't see who, she didn't need to. She knew what Billy was doing. He was beating up the poor victim senseless. Punch after punch. Just like what Billy did to Steve.

Get up! Billy sneered. What, are you scared to fight me? You scared?! Get up and fight me, pussy! PUSSY!

Sam whirled around, accidentally stumbling into El as she did so. She pulled herself off of El, who helped stabilize her, as they looked throughout the storm. She didn't want to watch this scene. It wasn't a surprise at to how it would play out. She'd seen it before with Billy himself and people like Troy Walsh, or even Corey in the past. The horrors of bad parenting were not something she wanted to look at right now. It made her chest constrict.

She shielded away the debris with an arm over her eyes. In the distance, Sam squinted and saw that pre-teen Billy was standing across from Neil. There was a smaller figure under Neil's arm that made Sam walk closer, curious. It took her a bit, her feet feeling like heavy weights against the sand. The girl was a young ginger, and Sam knew her instantly.

Billy, come over here, I want you to meet someone. This is your new sister. Her name's Maxine.

Max, the girl corrected, arms crossed over her chest.

Neil nodded at Billy, who looked thoroughly unamused. Shake her hand. I said, shake her hand!

Then—

Who's there?! I said, who's there?!

Sam turned quickly, squinting as a shape in the smoke began to reveal itself. She could see that the storm was settled there for some reason, like the storm was surrounding it.

Or coming from it.

"There—th-there's the source!"

Sam stepped forward, grabbing El's hand to pull her along. Up above, there wasn't a black or blue sky—it was red. Everything around them was just unbelievably red. There was a vacuum of quiet surrounding what looked a lot like Billy's car and some kind of warehouse.

"Brimborn," El said in a voice that let Sam know it wasn't her she was speaking to. El's eyes were trained on the large billboard plastered on the side of the warehouse. "Brimborn Steelworks."

Sam stared at the scene before her as she and El waited for a response from the others. The swarming, cold feeling in her chest lingered, and there was a rush heading towards her head.

Before she knew it, Sam's knees buckled beneath her.

"Sam!" El shot forward, catching Sam before she could fall.

Sam had to lean into El to even stand up properly, and El threw one of Sam's arms over her shoulder. Neither of them realized until now how bad she looked—there were dark circles under her eyes, she was paler than ever, and her hair was curled up in sweat.

Sam had been so preoccupied watching Billy's memories that she hadn't realized how much she was affected by them. All of that pain, all of that sadness—it physically weakened her to experience it all.

"What is it?" El asked desperately, grip firm on Sam. "What's wrong?"

Sam panted, trying not to drop to the ground. "I don't... th-think it's good.... for me to be here," she wheezed. "Something's wr-wrong."

El shook her head, not understanding. Sam tripped on her own feet while standing, so El had to prop Sam back up against her side. She had an arm around Sam's waist while Sam's was tugged over her shoulder.

"What do you mean, Sam?" came the concerned voice of Lucas.

Shit.

"I didn't... mean to say th-that out loud," she groaned.

"Found it!" Jonathan was exclaiming. "6522 Cherry Oak Drive!"

"We found it! Guys, we found it! Get out of there!"

Sam huffed weakly. "Don't need to... tell me twice."

"Close your eyes, Sam," El advised, and Sam was coherent enough to hear the note of concern lacing her voice.

Listening to what El said and trusting her completely, Sam let her eyes fall shut. El took a deep breath and began to focus, and then the flashes were playing in fast forward. It was the opposite order they had started in, and they were back in the void falling forwards into Billy's grip once more before the illusion was over.

Sam threw her blindfold off desperately, breathing like mad.

"Okay," Sam heaved, still feeling weak. "Never aga... El?"

She took a glance around Hopper's cabin.

No one was there.

"Lucas?" Sam asked, inspecting the empty cabin frantically. "Max? Corey? Anyone?!"

There was no one here. Not even El. Sam was utterly, completely alone.

She stood up in a panic, but immediately tripped and ended up on her hands and knees. She was still weak.

"No," she muttered.

Sam used the armchair right next to her to pull herself up, entire body shaking as she did so. She could barely stand up on her own, but she forced her body to manage, because she couldn't afford weakness right now. Testing her unwilling theory, she pressed a finger to her nostril and pulled it away to reveal a bare, clean hand.

Sam's nose wasn't bleeding.

She was still in the void.

"You're all alone now."

Sam stuttered out a weak breath. She turned around sluggishly, having heard a familiar voice coming from El's room. She was too sickly to inspect it, and even if she wasn't, she was too scared to do so anyway.

It was Billy who walked out of El's room.

Terrified tears welled up in Sam's eyes. He wasn't supposed to be here. El promised everyone that she nor Sam could be touched by him in the void—the same void Sam didn't know how to leave. El was supposed to have pulled Sam out with her.

Billy wasn't supposed to be here.

"You shouldn't have looked for me."

His voice was deep, sullen, not his own.

"Because now I see you."

He began taking menacing steps forward. For every step he took closer, Sam tried taking one back. She was tripping on her own feet with how sluggish her whole body had become—the void wasn't safe for her, she'd quickly realized. Whatever she was, whatever her powers were, they weren't made to withstand all these additional emotions and memories.

"Now we can all see you."

Sam shook her head, wordlessly trying to manage out a weak plead. Walking backwards, she hit the edge of the table behind her. She had to use it for support not to fall.

"Eleven... Eleven let us in. And now, you are going to have to let us stay."

Sam blinked, and the tears began to fall. Billy was backing her through the living room, and she had to desperately walk back using all of the furniture for support not to fall.

This was terrifying. This wasn't supposed to be happening.

"Don't you see? All this time, we've been building it. We've been building it," Billy paused, a sinister smile on his face, "for you. For you and Eleven, Samantha. You don't even have a clue how important you are to all of this, do you?"

"S-stop," Sam sobbed. Her head shook desperately.

"All that work, all that pain, all of it... for the two of you."

Sam gasped in terror as Billy eyed her like a prize he'd won. She tried stumbling back further, but she ran into the kitchen counter now. Both of her hands gripped the countertop to stay standing, eye contact not breaking with Billy as she cried. There were tears brewing in Billy's eyes now too.

"And now it's time. Time to end it."

Billy continued walking towards Sam, so she had to leave the support of the countertop and continue sluggishly walking backwards. Her breathing was unstable, tears of fear running down her face.

"And we are going to end you. The both of you. And when you two are gone, we are going to end your friends."

"NO!" Sam cried, desperately wishing for it all to stop. "NO!"

"Then we are going to end... everyone."

Billy had Sam properly backed up against the kitchen wall. Sam was so afraid. She was so, so afraid. She couldn't stand all of this inside of her, and she could feel herself getting weaker. She was desperate to be done with all of this.

"Get AWAY!" she screamed.

Without meaning to, she collected all the lighting and electricity around her. The energy traveled with the sound waves of her voice, going straight for Billy. It shocked him, sending Billy flying backwards all the way out of the kitchen and to the other side of the living room.

Sam threw the blindfold off of her with an ear-shattering, "NO!"

Everyone rushed towards Sam, startled. There was blood streaming out of both her nostrils, and the first person to reach Sam was Lucas. Every electrically-wired thing in Hopper's cabin was going mad as she cried.

Sam just fell into Lucas, too disoriented to even process it. Lucas held her in his lap, having no clue what was going on, but desperately comforting her anyways. She sobbed, gripping onto Lucas's arm like it was a lifeline.

"Sam, you're okay. It's—it's okay."

But it wasn't okay. Nothing was okay. Not anymore.

You don't even have a clue how important you are to all of this, do you?

╰━━━ ◦ ✸ ◦ ✸ ◦ ━━━╯

Published: January 16, 2024
Re-published: October 30, 2025

BAILEY YAPS...

Well. That happened

I always wonder what these strange things are about

Anyway

Shoutout to my Teen Wolf reference. Shoutout to dynamics I think are really underrated which consist of Sam & Nancy and Sam & Jonathan. Heavy on Sam & Jonathan. Shoutout to uh first try fast learner Sam Hughes. Sorry to Sam Hughes for immediately throwing herself into danger, the one reason she didn't want to accept her powers, because she hated the idea of throwing yourself into more danger than she already threw herself in

Also! Fake tweets part 3