Chapter Six: The Interior Decorators

The plan was simple: make the Byers' shed look unrecognizable so that Will Byers, who apparently was possessed by the telepathic monster from D and D, couldn't figure out where he was and send hundreds of little killer dogs after them. As plans go, it wasn't the worst one Billy had ever heard of. After said plan was set in stone, everyone went about clearing all of the junk from the shed. Then they split up into smaller groups to divide and concur the other tasks that had to be done. Such as, disguising two chairs from the kitchen, gathering all sorts of material to tape and staple onto the walls and the ceiling of the shed, and actually taping and stapling said materials up on the walls and the ceiling of the shed. Billy was helping with the latter of the three with Harrington and Nancy.

The two were quiet as they worked. Billy had had no problem being annoying for the first few minutes but then he found himself going quiet. It wasn't that he didn't have anything on his mind, he had a lot of shit on his mind. It was just…for once he found it difficult to be the jackass in the group. At least right now. He assumed that once the aliens from a tear in time and space were no longer a threat and once he fully wrapped his head around everything Harrington had told him, he'd be back to normal.

Or whatever "normal" was for him.

It sort of bothered him that he was so bothered by the truth. He had wanted to know so badly. Now he did and…it really freaked him out. A few monster dogs attacking them in a junkyard was nothing. He could take that in stride. But the fact that there was more than just a few of these dogs and the fact that they weren't just mutated dogs, that they were baby monsters from a literal other dimension and that there were kids with superpowers…yeah, now we were getting into a whole new territory of craziness that he wasn't exactly sure how to process.

Like, seriously. How am I supposed to process this?

At first it had been easy to just save face and pretend it was no big deal. Then there was all this shit with the so-called Mind Flayer and here he was now in a shed, hammering a piece of plywood over the shed's window. But now…it was quiet. And it took too much effort to be an asshole at the moment. So, he was left with his thoughts and that was the last place he wanted to be in.

And on top of all of that, he could not believe he had slipped up so horribly. He actually let the words, "Then my dad can kick me around," slip out of his mouth. He was freaking idiot.

He had always been so careful. Around literally everyone. The only two people on Earth who knew about his dad was Susan and Max, and then Max didn't even know everything because she almost always happened to be out of the house when his dad had a real fit and the beatings were more serious.

And he had let it slip out. Now Steve Harrington of all people knew. And while he absolutely despised the idea of anyone knowing, he wasn't exactly sure that Harrington knowing was a terrible thing. It sure as hell wasn't a good thing, but it wasn't as world shattering as he had thought.

Harrington was a douchebag. On normal days, it was hard to get a reaction out of him. He was an okay jock. He was madly in love with Nancy Wheeler. He used to be the King of Hawkins High, but now he literally had like no friends and no popularity status at all. And surprisingly, he wasn't cruel.

Billy had heard stories from Tommy H. that Harrington used to be…well, for lack of a better word, a bully. Like a real bully. He had no problem making fun of artsy people, the eggheads, the band geeks, and everyone else who did not fall into the High School's popular click. He even heard about the time Harrington broke Byers' camera.

Then he turned bitch because of his love for Nancy "The Priss" Wheeler.

But come on, how often did people actually change? They didn't change. Period. End of sentence.

No matter how many times Neil would apologize to Susan, and before that, his many short term girlfriends, and before that, Billy's mother for all of the shouting and abuse…it was never going to stop. It was never going to change.

People never changed.

Then there was Harrington…

With the words having slipped out of his mouth, Billy had felt the anxiety almost instantly. Because this was his biggest secret, his biggest weakness. And he just told it to someone who could use it to their advantage and make his life as miserable as he wanted it to be. And considering how he had treated Harrington the last week…he was in deep shit now.

But Harrington didn't connect the dots and start holding it over him. He didn't suddenly turn on him and say some snarky comment. For a few seconds, he didn't say anything. He just looked…shocked? Concerned? Whatever it was, it was not the expression he should have had on. And then he quietly had asked, "What do you mean by that?"

It was then, right then and there did Billy realize that maybe people didn't change but Harrington had. No way would the guy who Tommy H. and Carol had described have asked that question. He would have gone straight into harassing him. Because the question was a way out. It was an escape. Because Billy could change the subject now. And he did. And Harrington had went with it.

Today's just a day for surprises, isn't it?

"Hey," Nancy suddenly said, breaking the silence in the shed. Billy figured she wasn't talking to him but that didn't stop him from looking over his shoulder at her. Not surprisingly, she had spoken to get Harrington's attention. Harrington looked to her with a borderline hopeful expression.

Well, this is just sad.

And he didn't mean that in a snarky way. It actually was sad to see the guy so hopelessly in love with a chick who clearly was in love with another dude. Sad. Only word for it. Nancy tentatively and awkwardly started to say, "What you did…with the kids…that was pretty cool."

Harrington let out the breath he had been holding and nodded his head, quickly hiding his hope of rekindling the relationship. He climbed up on the stepladder nearby and straightened the torn blanket that was partially hanging on the wall. He stapled a nice straight row of staples into the cloth. "Well, you know… Those shitheads can be real trouble."

Nancy nodded slowly. "Yeah. I know." The air in the shed wasn't filled with that eager, adrenaline rush, hurry up we got a plan, feel anymore. It was filled with all the awkwardness that came from two people when their relationship crashed and burned. And boy, did their relationship crash and burn spectacularly. It shocked him that Nancy had cheated on Harrington. The shock was simply because Nancy Wheeler seemed like the biggest priss out there and not too many prisses cheated on their jock boyfriends with artsy, loners like Jonathan Byers.

But hey, if this night taught him anything it was that nothing and no one was ever what they seemed to be on surface level.

Take Hawkins for example. A few hours ago, he was annoyed by it for being the picture-perfect image of the American dream and was just praying for a flaw in the suburban nightmare.

An edge.

Hawkins had a major flaw, it had a whole hell of a lot of edge to it, and if you weren't careful, you could get sucked up into the nightmare that was the truth.

Billy finished up with his hammering and not being able to take the silence in the shed and the loudness of his own thoughts anymore, he said, "You know, when I said that the Byers' needed an interior decorator this is not what I had in mind."

"Attention seeker," Harrington said, with an almost smug look on his face.

Billy frowned. Harrington might not be cruel about it, but he still hated the fact that someone could see through him so well. He put the hammer on the ground and straightened his jacket. "I'll be back with more materials," he muttered as he started to leave the shed. Harrington had stepped off of the stepladder and when he passed by him, he shoved him into the wall.

Nancy let out a surprise sound but Harrington didn't even blink. "Real mature," he called out, as Billy left the shed and headed back to the house.

Sinclair and curly hair were rummaging through the trash because of course they were. The only other person outside was Mrs. Byers. She had taken off the clothes hanging on her clothesline and cut the rope with a pair of scissors. She was then trying to wind up the rope but fumbled with because she hadn't put the scissors down. She let out an agitated huff, threw the scissors to the ground, and tried using both hands. When that still didn't work and she was still fumbling, she glanced around until she spotted Billy.

"Excuse me," she said, waving for him to come over. "Would you mind? I can't seem to get this damn rope to cooperate."

He almost half chuckled and nodded.

Well, I should help before she throws something else.

He changed the direction he had been walking in and headed towards the frazzled looking woman. The word "frazzled" was kinda an understatement. She was still dressed in scrubs with a black coat over top, her brown hair was an uncombed mess, and her eyes were still puffy from crying. And yet, there was this sort of crazed determination to save her son, to kill this Mind Flayer who apparently was responsible for her boyfriend's death.

She certainly wasn't as drop dead gorgeous as Karen Wheeler but she was pretty.

You know, if you ignored that borderline deranged look in her eye.

Once he reached her, he smiled, trying to be the charmer again. "Happy to help, Mrs. Byers."

Unlike Mrs. Wheeler, Mrs. Byers paid no attention to his smile or his open shirt. She just shook her head. "Joyce, please. Here." She handed him the rope. He took it from her and easily winded it up. It wasn't that hard really. He figured she had been having such troubles because of her impatience and because of her jittery movements. "You're here for your step-sister?"

The question took him off guard for a second because he had no clue where it even came from. But he did what he did best and saved face. "Yeah. Well, it was getting late and all."

He finished up with the rope and gave it back to her. She nodded her head in some sort of thanks and then pointed to some cardboard that was sitting in the grass about a foot away. "Do you mind again?" He nodded and went to grab it, while Joyce found the scissors she had thrown earlier. "That was sweet of you to go looking for your step-sister."

Billy almost did a double take. "Sweet"? "Sweet"? Clearly, this lady didn't know him at all.

With his arms full with assorted pieces of cardboard, he turned back to her. "Not really. I'm not exactly sweet."

Joyce slightly raised an eyebrow at him. "Then what are you?"

"An annoying asshole," Byers muttered under his breath as he walked by them.

"Jonathan!" Joyce said in surprise. Byers didn't stop though, he just kept walking towards the shed.

Billy chuckled, "He's not too far off the mark. Although, I prefer charming, annoying asshole."

Joyce let out a small scoff. "Oh. I see. The bad boy type. You were part of the yelling I heard earlier. What was the argument about?"

"I wanted to leave and King Steve was very insistent that I stay."

"And you don't like to be told what to do. Stubborn one are you? That can lead to a lot of trouble. Believe me, I know."

"Thanks for the cliché attempt at advice."

"Yeah, you're welcome. Now," she closed some of the space between them and gave him a hard stare. "I really hope the shouting is done now."

And Jesus, if she hadn't looked scary before she certainly looked scary now.

He nodded. "Yeah, it is." After a pause he added, "Probably."

"Good. Let's take this to the shed." Then as they walked to the shed with supplies in hand, Joyce suddenly did a complete 180. "Oh, and one more thing. Thank you for helping us with this. You could have left by now and you didn't so, thank you."

This lady was hard to pin down. First she seemed like a heartbroken, grieving girlfriend, then she was as perceptive as Harrington and seemed to have no patience for him or his attitude, then she was the scary mother with a potential lethal pair of scissors, and now was the sweet and kind woman. Regardless, he was taken aback by what she said but he was again quick to shrug it off like it was nothing. "I, um, only stayed cuz of curiosity and Max's refusal to leave."

"Trouble taking thank yous too, eh?" Joyce muttered as they entered the shed. Harrington and Nancy were still in there, but the Police Chief Hopper guy was also in there. Billy dropped the cardboard to the ground. Joyce placed the wound up rope to the side, picked out a rather large piece of cardboard, and held it over a section of the wall. "Here. Get the tape." He did and they taped up the piece of cardboard together. Once they were done, Joyce turned to him and pointed at the cigarette in his mouth. "Cigarette." She held her hand out to him expectedly. Billy half-chuckled. Well, he had said if she asked him to stop smoking he would. He took it from his lips and placed it in her outstretched hand. He expected her to put it out. He did not expect her to take a drag from it before stomping it out. "Thanks, I needed that."

With that, Joyce left the shed with Billy staring after her. He liked her. Not "like" as in, ooh, she's pretty and he hoped they hooked up. But "like" as in, in…

"She's cool," Billy muttered to himself, his thoughts manifesting out loud.

Hopper walked up beside him and nodded. "Yeah. She is." Then without waiting for a response, he handed him some of the cardboard he had just brought in and the duct tape. "Go back inside and give that to Max. She'll need it for the chairs."

Billy sighed, annoyed. He really wished that they had a better system on determining what supplies went where so he wasn't constantly walking back and forth from the house to the shed like some mindless idiot. But of course he didn't say any of this to Hopper. The guy already seemed low on patience for him, for Harrington, and quite honestly, for the whole situation in general. He slightly nodded and went to the house, leaving the shed again.

Just as he was going to open the door leading to the kitchen he heard one of the kids talking and it made him pause. "Just because you know the truth does not mean you're part of the Party. You know that, right?" That was the Wheeler boy. He didn't like that kid's attitude.

Max then quietly said, "Yeah, I know…I mean, why would you want a stupid Zoomer in your Party anyways?" Billy rolled his eyes.

Zoomer is not even a part of the game. Zoomer? God, that just sounds so made up.

"I'm just saying," Max continued, "El…sounds really cool."

El.

Eleven.

The girl who apparently could flip over vans with her mind. "Cool" was an understatement if that was true. The Wheeler boy now quietly answered, "Yeah. She was…before that thing came and took her. Just like it took Bob." And then without waiting for Max's response, Wheeler stood up and left. He pushed open the kitchen door and passed Billy without giving him as so much as a glance. He looked determined and a bit irritated. Irritated from having to talk to Max? He understood the feeling but he had been under the impression that all of these dumbass kids were her friends now or something like that. But this boy didn't seem to like her at all.

He almost wanted to go up to Wheeler and see if his suspicions were true. If they were true, there was the question about what to do about it. He could either be the protective big brother that his dad forced him to be or he could talk with this kid and maybe spend however long he was trapped here bashing Max. It wasn't a bad way to spend the rest of the evening.

But he shook his head to himself. The Police Chief sent him back into the house to give the supplies to Max and the last thing he wanted to do was to tick that guy off for any reason. Billy walked through the door and asked, "You almost done with that?"

Max spun her head so fast some of her long red locks flew into her face. She looked ticked off. "It'd go a lot faster if you got your ass down here and helped me."

Billy held his hands up in mock surrender and set the supplies next to her. "Just asking a simple question." Max glared at him and then focused on the chairs. She was aggressively taping the cardboard onto them.

Yeah. Okay. She was ticked.

The question was, at him or at Wheeler?

Only one way to find out. "You good? That Wheeler boy giving you trouble?"

She let out a deep huffy breath. "Don't be nice to me. Okay? It always makes my skin crawl."

"Well, fine then," he snapped. He started to turn to leave but then he paused. He had to watch out for her and clearly she was upset. He let out an annoyed sighed and turned back around. "You're family and I have to watch out for you."

Max shook her head and let the sarcasm drip over her words. "Again, what would I ever do without you?" She then looked up at him and met his eyes. "I can handle myself and my friends got my back so I don't need some violence prone, obnoxious, racist dickhead watching out for me."

Oh, how he just wanted to smack her sassy, disrespectful face. But that probably wasn't the…wait… "Hang on…Racist? What do you mean racist? What are you talking about?"

She narrowed her eyes at him and then began to repeat what he had said a few days before. ""I'm older then you and something you learn in life is that there is a certain type of people you stay away from. And that kid is one of them." Remember?"

She thinks that I'm…for the love of God.

Billy shook his head, remembering that day. Max and Sinclair had been talking, obviously in some sort of argument, which resulted in Max leaving Sinclair in a huff. She had been upset and while he hated it, it was his job to make sure she wasn't upset. His dad had made it crystal clear from day one of Susan and Max being in the picture that he had to look out for Max. And that's what he had been doing. "You were clearly pissed off. And…And I meant stay away from people who hurt you, not… I didn't mean stay away from Sinclair because he's…I'm not racist, okay?"

Max's expression changed to a sort of surprise. And as she eyed him as the seconds ticked by, it was clear that she believed him and that she knew she had been mistaken. "Oh…" That's all she said after a while. Then she cleared her throat and swallowed down the surprise. She stood up, picked up one of the finished chairs, and met his gaze again, back to looking sassy. "Stay away from people who hurt me, huh? Then I guess I'll stay away from you. You're still a violence prone, obnoxious dickhead."

She pushed past him and stormed towards the door. She almost plowed over Harrington, who was on the other side of the door. And Billy had to wonder, how long had he been standing there eavesdropping? Harrington got out of her way and then stepped into the kitchen. He looked like he something on his mind.

God, what now?

Harrington glanced around the room almost absentmindedly for a few seconds before saying, "Right, well, all hands on deck are needed to finish up the shed so…"

Billy nodded. "Okay. Grab the chair." He pushed past Harrington and went through the door, letting it slam shut behind him. It wasn't too long after that did he hear Harrington behind him.

"Thanks for holding the door for me," he muttered sarcastically.

Billy half turned and saw him carrying the chair, looking annoyed. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize that King Steve couldn't pick up a chair and open a door at the same time."

Harrington didn't react.

We're back to that are we?

No, Harrington didn't react but he started to say, "Listen, if you're having any troubles and you need to talk-"

Nothing ever good came from being an idiot and letting the truth about his dad slip out. Billy was quick to interrupt. "Thanks, but the last thing I need right now is a jock playing shrink." He wanted to say it like an insult. To say it with a sassy undertone. It sounded flat to his own ears. But Harrington shut up and dropped the matter. At least for now.

…

The shed was completed.

Now came the fun part. Joyce, Wheeler, Byers, and Hopper all took Will into the shed and were going to attempt to question him about how to defeat the Mind Flayer. And of course, they had to make sure nothing happened where Will could figure out where they were. Or else they were all as good as dead.

With those four in the shed with Will that only left Billy, Harrington, the priss, curly hair, Sinclair, and Max to roam around the house. Actually the only one to do any roaming was curly hair Dustin. The kid was like a wind-up toy that didn't stop pacing around. Max and Sinclair sat quietly together in the hallway. Nancy was leaning up against the kitchen wall, staring at the shed that was visible through the adjacent window.

Billy sat himself down on the couch that had been pushed up against the wall so all of the pictures of vines could be laid out on the floor. He didn't have anything to do but wait. And God, was waiting for something to happen the worst thing in the world. And he could really use a cigarette about now.

He watched Harrington practice swinging his nail bat around. Clearly, he was preparing for the worse. He twirled it around and swung the bat and then he twirled it around again and he almost dropped it. Billy rolled his eyes. Why did people think Harrington was this great jock again? As the seconds continued to tick by at a ridiculously slow rate, Harrington almost dropped the damn thing four times. Then Billy couldn't take it anymore. He pushed himself off of the couch and said, "Alright, give me that."

Harrington looked surprised and then almost apprehensive that someone was trying to take away his bat. "What? Why?"

"Because clearly I'm the best one to use it."

Harrington scoffed, "So you kill one dog and that makes you an expert at handling a nail bat?"

"Kill one Demo-dog!" Dustin corrected from where he was in the kitchen.

The two teen boys both ignored him. ""Handling a nail bat"?" Billy repeated, not sounding impressed. "It's a bat. You swing it. End of story."

Harrington ran a hand through his hair. "Look, there was an axe in the shed. I'm sure it's among the pile of stuff we took out. Just take the axe."

"I don't want the axe, I want the bat."

"I didn't ask what you wanted, I said take the axe."

"What's so important about your precious little nail bat?"

"First of all, it's mine and-"

Curly hair came strolling into the room and interrupted Harrington. "Second of all, it's technically Jonathan's because he made it."

"Third of all," Sinclair added from the hall, "it originally was Nancy's bat. So, technically it belongs to her."

Dustin and Harrington both looked like they were on the verge of going into a full on debate about who "technically" got to call ownership rights on the damn nail bat. Thankfully the priss came into the room and glared at all of them, putting a stop to that before it even could begin. "Okay. Stop. None of this is important, so just stop."

Everyone dropped the matter and after a few seconds of silence Billy jabbed Harrington in the ribs with his elbow like he had earlier. Harrington gave him an annoyed, questioning look. Billy told him, "You always get us into trouble."

Harrington faced him head-on and just glared at him. "Are you serious?"

The kitchen door suddenly swung open, banging against the wall, causing everyone in the house to jump. Hopper came rushing in, followed by Joyce, Wheeler, and Byers. Hopper had a sort of determined look about him as he grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil. He started jotting down something as everyone surrounded the cop around the kitchen table. He was writing out dots and dashes.

"What's that?" Harrington asked.

Literally everyone at the same time said, "Morse code." Harrington just looked confused. God, how did this guy survive the academic side of school? He seemed to know nothing.

With the dots and dashes written out, Hopper wrote out the letters they represented underneath them. "H-E…R-E…Here." Hopper glanced at Joyce with a hopeful gleam in his eye. "Will's still in there."

No sooner had the four rushed into the house, they all rushed back out, but they had a new plan. Joyce, Wheeler, and Byers would continue trying to talk with Will, who would hopefully give them more messages through Morse code. Hopper would relay the message to Dustin with a walkie-talkie. He would write it out, Max and Sinclair would look at the Morse code chart, that just so happened to be in Will's room, and figure out what the letter was, and Nancy would write down the letter. That left Billy and Harrington to stand idly by doing absolutely nothing.

Again it felt like the seconds were taking hours to pass but finally Nancy raised up the extra piece of cardboard she had written on for the others to see. Written in all caps with a red crayon was the message: CLOSE GATE.

Close gate? What gate? What the hell was the kid-wait…The opening to this alternate dimension was called the gate, right?

Just as Billy was putting the pieces together in his head, he could see that the others were as well.

And then the phone rang.

Everyone jumped out of their skin at the sudden shrill sound.

Curly hair ran to the phone, muttering under his breath, "Shit, shit, shit." He took the phone off the receiver and slammed it back down. The room was once again filled with silence. Then two seconds later the phone rang again.

Billy huffed, "Move." He pushed Dustin out of the way, tore the phone from the wall, and hurled it into the hall. Everyone was too concerned with the possibility of Will knowing where he was now to react to Billy probably breaking Joyce's phone.

"Do you think he heard that?" Max asked, a sliver of fear in her voice.

Harrington shook his head. "He can't know where he is. I mean, it's just a phone. Right?" The last word sounded like he was trying to convince himself that there was nothing to worry about.

Then Hopper, Joyce and company came rushing back in with a knocked out Will. "So much for that theory," Billy muttered. He wished it sounded more sarcastic and less, this will be the last witty comment you'll ever make. Because knowing that more of these freaky ass dogs were coming felt like this was the end.

Will was placed back in his bedroom. Everyone else was stationed in the living room. Max and the three boys were up on the couch looking out the windows. "Get away from the windows!" Hopper barked. The kids jumped away without having to be told twice and got back behind Hopper, who looked to Byers and asked, "Can you use this?" He was referring to the shotgun in his right hand. In his left hand he had some sort of semi-automatic machine gun. Well, at least they had some real weapons this time around.

The teen looked startled at the Chief's question. "What?"

"Can you use it?" Hopper repeated, louder this time.

Byers opened his mouth to try and say something, but Nancy spoke up faster, "I can." Hopper nodded and threw her the gun. She caught it with ease and raised it up, ready to go. Seeing her with a raised shotgun and a fiery determination in her eyes…Billy had to say, he was impressed.

Not so much of a priss after all.

Hopper raised his gun up too. Harrington had his bat at the ready. Sinclair had his wrist rocket loaded with a rock, probably. The Wheeler boy had picked up a lamp, but what was that going to do? And that axe Harrington had mentioned? Yeah, Joyce had it, looking about ready to go all crazy The Shining on the dogs who were threatening her family and her friends.

Byers was standing behind his mother, twitching in nervous anxiety. Max and Dustin were close to Sinclair looking just as anxious. And Billy was standing behind Harrington hating the fact that he had no weapon to defend himself.

Soon he was hating the fact that he hadn't dragged Max home earlier, because the distant sounds of howling suddenly came within ear shot. And not just one howl, multiple howls.

With the thought of Max, Billy grabbed her by the shoulder and dragged her backwards until she was behind him. Pointless as it was now, he still had to protect her. For once, she didn't seem to have any problems with it.

The howls grew closer and closer and then they were surrounding the house. It was obvious that that was what they were doing. They sounded too close and there the growing growling noise that was also far too close.

Everyone was on edge and no one even so much as breathed.

There was a loud bang, like one of the dogs had hit one of the outside walls. Everyone turned to the kitchen. Then there was another bang, directly behind the living room window. Everyone spun back to the window.

This was hell. You know what, no. This was worse than hell.

The tension from waiting for one's own death sucked.

Growls and other terrifying sounds kept encircling them, just waiting for the right moment to kill. And then…something happened. A few dogs seemed to make some sort of whimpering noise and then there was nothing.

Not a damn thing.

Then-

The living room window shattered from the impact of a dog flying through it. Oh, God, this was it! But instead of leaping into action and attempting to kill everyone, it lifelessly hit the floor and stayed down.

After the initial shock began to wear away, the group gradually got closer to the dog. "Holy…" Dustin mumbled, sounding amazed.

"Is it dead?" Max asked, still behind Billy. Hopper cautiously walked up to the creature and kicked it with his foot. Considering it didn't spring back to life and try to chew his leg off, they were all pretty sure it was dead. The question was, how?

There wasn't time to think about it though; the main door began to creak. That captured everyone's attentions, even more so when the lock on the door unlocked itself. Hopper got back in the front of the group, gun once again raised. The chain on the door slid off on its own accord and then the door slowly opened.

And a punk little girl came walking in with blood dripping from her nose.