*20*

🔥CHAPTER 20🔥

*-*Merliah's POV*-*

I ended up staying up all night, my brain working overtime, because I could feel something bad was about to happen, I could feel it at the tip of my fingers, I just wasn't sure what it was, and I know I clearly saw Billy drinking the pool chemicals when I found him yesterday, at first I thought I was crazy, but I knew for certain that's what I saw.

Rapid knocking suddenly came from my front door, with a groan, I got out of bed, and went to see who was bothering me this early in the morning. When I opened the door I came face to face with Eleven and Max, the two people I least expected to come to my front door.

"Can I help you ladies?" I ask tiredly, staring at the two with half opened eyes.

"Uh, we... I mean, I think there's something up with Billy." Eleven states, that statement woke me up completely.

"And why would you think that?" I curiously ask her, letting them into my home.

"Max and I were playing a game, spinning the bottle, and whoever's name it lands on, I'll try and find them, and Billy was the name the bottle landed on, so when I found him, I heard screams, and he saw me, nobody ever sees me when I try to find them, or see what their doing." Eleven explains, looking really bothered by what she saw.

"Merliah, just tell her Billy was with you, and that you were doing the nasty." Max states, not seeming to believe anything her friend had to say.

"He wasn't with me, I haven't seen him since he told me to stay away from him yesterday morning." I told the two, making them look at me in confusion.

"Are you sure?" Max asks.

"Yeah, and he was acting pretty weird yesterday, he wasn't his usual sweet cocky self." I tell them, as I took a sip of orange juice.

"Will you come with us, to look through his room? Maybe we'll find something about his sudden strange behaviour?" Max asks, and I immediately agreed, it won't hurt to investigate his sudden change.

I got dressed and we took a walk towards Max's house. "It's gonna start pouring soon." Max says, I look up at the dark clouds covering the sky it was like a big blanket hanging over Hawkins. "We should be at the mall or, like, watching a movie or something." Max states.

"You don't believe us?" Eleven asks, looking at the girl walking next to her.

"I believe you saw some super weird stuff, totally, but you said Mike has sensed you in there before, right?" Max asks, Eleven nodded her head. "So maybe it was just like that. Maybe Billy just... Sensed you somehow." She adds, I think she was trying to find an excuse not to believe what the other girl was telling her, even I found it hard to believe, but I needed to know for sure.

"But the screams." Eleven points out.

"Yeah, I know, but here's the thing. When Billy is alone with a girl, no offense Merliah, they make, like, really crazy noises." Max says, I could feel my cheeks go bright red.

"They scream?" Eleven asks, innocently.

"Yeah, but, like... happy screams." Max says.

"Wait, you think Billy was with another girl?" I ask, hoping that wasn't the case.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, Merliah." Max says, in a apologetic tone.

"Happy screams? What is happy screams?" Eleven asks, she really was one of the innocent ones. "It's like... I'm just gonna lend you my mom's Cosmo." Max says, also not sure how to explain it in words.

"Don't corrupt her innocent mind Max." I state, as we arrived at her house, seeing Billy's car wasn't there.

"His car's not here." Max points out, she turned to the two of us, and ask, "You two really want to do this?

"We have too." I say, Eleven nodding her head in agreement.

The three of us made our way towards his room, opening the door, we slowly stepped inside. "Why do I get the feeling we're gonna find all kinds of wrong in here?" Max asks, we started looking around in his closet and drawers.

"Ugh! Gag me with a spoon." Max says, after finding his magazine drawer, making me chuckle softly. After finding nothing in his room, we went into his bathroom, Eleven switched the light on.

Stepping inside, I saw his bath was full of water, with ice bags inside.

"Max?"

"Ice. It's just ice." Max says, picking up one of the empty ice bags. "Probably for his muscles or something. He works out like a maniac." She states, which was true.

I looked towards the bathroom cupboard, I walked towards it crouching down infront of it, I opened it. I took out the trash can looking inside of it.

"Merliah, what is it?" Max asks, as I pulled out a familiar fanny pack and whistle, and I really hoped that it wasn't actually the person's I was thinking about.

•~•🔥•~•

Not having a car, really sucked, especially when it's raining, we drove on our bikes, in this thunderstorm all the way to the pool. We quickly hurried to the front desk where there was a guy and a girl, but neither Billy or Heather was in sight.

"Uh, excuse me?" I spoke up, trying to get their attention.

"No one in the water until 30 minutes after the last strike, and don't try and argue with me. You wanna get electrocuted, go climb a tree." The guy says, not even looking up at us.

'we could care less, we're not here to swim." I snap in annoyance, making him look up at me. Eleven took out the fanny pack showing it to him. "We found this." She says.

"Does that belong to anybody?" Max asks him.

"Oh, yeah. That's Heather's. I'll get it back to her." He says, making my entire body turn cold.

"We could give it back to her." Eleven suggests.

"You could. 'Cept she's not here. Bailed on me today." He says, sounding very unhappy, the three of us looked at each other. "What is this? You girls want a reward or something?" He asks, I only rolled my eyes, wondering why people always think you want something in return for doing something good.

"No, we're just... Good Samaritans." Max states, smiling at them sarcastically. Eleven started walking towards the board that had pictures of all the lifeguards. Max and I were standing right behind her.

"Heather. Do you think you can find her?" Max asks Eleven, who quickly ripped the picture of Heather from the wall.

*🔥Unedited🔥*