@pctrkor || Billy & Max
For the months that followed after his alleged death, Billy wandered the Upside Down. Somehow he managed to heal from the stab wound in his chest. He’d miraculously avoided infection and sepsis. The wicked scar left on his skin and phantom pain were constant reminders of the trauma he’d suffered. There had been times when he’d barely survived the Lovecraftian horrors that existed in this hellscape, but he did. Clearly his will to survive was stronger than he’d realized. Billy didn’t know if there was a way to escape the Upside Down but he never stopped looking for one. And there was one thing that kept him going.
Max.
The loneliness in the Upside Down, and the fact he was still alive and breathing, put things into perspective. He had a lot of things to make up for when it came to his sister. Billy needed to apologize, needed to tell her that he loved her and he’d only wanted to protect her even if he’d never gone about it the right way. He knew people didn’t change over night, and there were things he was going to have to work on but he was willing to try. This time he would stand up to his father and not allow the man to abuse him anymore. He would be kinder to Max and his stepmother because he’d forced everyone else in his life away from him.
Billy didn’t know how long he was in the Upside Down when opportunity finally knocked. It could have been months or years but the rip in the fabric between realms had been ripped open and Billy couldn’t miss his chance. So he crawled his way out of the Upside Down like the living dead and found himself in a small trailer he didn’t recognize. He didn’t stick around for any of those creatures to come after him and drag him back. Billy ran for home, only to find another family living in the house he’d lived with his father, stepmother, and Max. He had no idea where they’d gone, or if they were even still in Hawkins. So he went to the next place he could think of.
Steve Harrington was not his friend but when he showed up on the guy’s doorstep, looking frightful, he’d taken pity on Billy. He’d patched him up, let him shower and borrow clean clothes. The shock of him being alive eventually wore off and Steve told him that his father had left Hawkins, Max and her mother had moved into the trailer park he’d just come from but his sister was in the hospital, in a coma no less. Billy didn’t stick around long. He asked Steve to drop him off at the cemetery where his empty coffin had been buried. He told Steve he didn’t need to stick around.
The sight of his own grave was chilling. He spent a long time simply staring at his name engraved on the headstone before finally noticing the envelope with his name on it. He’d picked it up and opened it, his chest tightening as he read Max’s letter to him. Tears had stung the back of his eyes as he tucked it back into the envelope and into the pockets of his borrowed jeans. Then he made his way to the hospital.
It was lucky that Max’s mom wasn’t there when he showed up, and he slipped past the nurse’s station and into her room. It broke his heart to see his little sister so broken. Billy wasn’t sure if she would be able to hear him as he sat down in a chair next to the bed. He leaned on the edge and watched her face for several minutes.
“Max,” he said softly. “Please wake up.”
