#He's not dead he just got removed from the band for not being Vince Neil.

[hellimagines]

Starlight Saviour (Chapter One) -- Billy Hargrove

*My masterlist link can be found in my blog description*

Summary: Being Steve Harrington’s younger sister and the notorious girlfriend of Billy Hargrove is hell. Especially when your boyfriend becomes infected and you’re the only one willing to step between him and the monster.

Warnings: blood and gore, angst

Pairing: Billy Hargrove x fem!Harrington!reader

Word Count: 2,800+

A/N: This is based entirely on the trailers we’ve seen, and has nothing to do with the actual outcome of ST3 (sadly). So, when the new season does drop, RIP Billy and RIP this piece of work whOOPS. Also, if your name is crossed out in the taglist, that means I am unable to tag you and you need to fix it before the next update, or else you’ll be removed from the tags. Thank you, and I hope you guys enjoy this!

Outside, the pitch-black night sky encased you and Billy as the Camaro drove steadily down the backroads. Home Sweet Home by Motley Crue whispered from the stereo, but you and Billy singing along managed to outpower Vince Neil’s voice completely. Billy drove with one hand on the steering wheel and the other gripping your calf, keeping you safe as you dangled out of the passenger side window. He kept the car slow, no more than 30 miles, and his grip on you would tighten at the slightest bump or turn. Your arms were flung out behind you, body teetering dangerously close to falling as you leaned back, with your head tilted towards the sky so you could admire the stars. The light pollution had been horrible this summer with the new mall having been built and the fair now in town. The only way to actually see the stars anymore was to go deep in the woods (where you knew not to go anymore) or driving the backroads. Billy knew how much you enjoyed seeing the moon and the stars, and he decided to take you out for the night- ultimately forgoing your original plan of meeting up with Steve and the kids at the fair.

Two quick taps on your leg brought your attention back to the car. “C’mon, star, it’s cold as hell,” Billy griped, giving a full-body shiver for supposed dramatic effect. Rolling your eyes at the nickname while a smile played at your lips, you dutifully slid back inside the car and rolled up the window. You were only wearing a pair of black, high-waisted shorts and one of Billy’s ragged band-tees, and yet you still hadn’t managed a single shiver.

“It is not, you big baby.” Despite your scoff, you reached over to turn up the heat and face it towards your shivering boyfriend. “Thank you for bringing me out here, though, it’s so nice,” you sighed softly, kicking your converse-clad feet onto his dashboard, and turning your body to rest your forehead against his shoulder. You almost pulled away, however, because of how cold his bare skin was. But, you brushed it off as Billy not having the same adrenaline as you did at the moment, and that you’d cool down soon enough, too.

“Mm, yeah, babe, ‘course,” he mumbled, his words slurred together and causing you immediate alarm at the sudden change.

You sat up quickly and turned to look at him, ready to berate him for any alcohol he may have had, but the words immediately died on your tongue. Billy was white-knuckling the steering wheel, and even though his words were slurred and his voice wasn’t all there, his eyes were wide and almost manic. They kept flicking from the rearview mirror (looking at something that you couldn’t see), to you, and back to the road, but his focus seemed to be on whatever was in the back. Turning around, you tried to spot whatever he was looking at- maybe a rogue car chasing you down or a bra you’d left in the backseat, but there was nothing there. Just darkness.

You turned back to him and placed a careful hand on his cold shoulder. “Billy? You alright, handsome?”

A smirk lifted at his lips, but he didn’t look to you. “I’m fucking perfect, baby, why’d you ask?” Billy’s voice was now much darker and throatier, giving you whiplash from the way he’d spoken just moments before. The familiar sound of the engine revving hit your ears, drowning out your song on the radio and filling your blood with ice.

Your eyes flicked to the speedometer, “You’re going too fast, you’ve gotta slow down.”

“It’s alright, baby, you know I’ve got control,” Billy chuckled, reaching out a hand to pet your cheek. You allowed him to, but you couldn’t keep the panic out of your eyes as you held onto his hand.

You urged, “Billy, please, slow the fuck down. You promised you wouldn’t start this shit up again. I know it’s an empty road, but please just slow down.” Billy laughed at your words and shook his head, thumbing your cheek. “If you don’t slow down, we’re gonna have a real fucking problem,” you seethed, losing the caring and concerned attitude, replacing it with panic and fear. Whatever Billy was going through you could deal with later, after the possibility of an impending crash was off the table.

“Baby,” he cooed, “don’t worry.” Billy lifted his head to look at you, and instead of being met with his beautiful ocean-blue eyes, you were now face-to-face with monsterish-green irises and black veins creeping in the whites of his eyes.

“Fuck-”

Just as you began to reach out, pleading silently with yourself that, ‘no, it can’t be back, El destroyed it, it’s fucking dead,’ something struck the driver’s side windshield, instantly shattering the glass and causing shards to spray everywhere. Billy jumped, not expecting the sudden collision, and the car moved with him, swerving you guys into an uncontrollable circle. You cried out, reaching to try and hold onto Billy’s arm in an effort to keep yourself grounded, but it was fruitless. The Camaro slid across the dry dirt and slammed into the side of one of the trees lining the road before you were able to hold onto anything. Since you weren’t wearing a seatbelt and you had been angled so awkwardly prior to the crash, you were thrown backward causing your head, shoulders, and back to collide painfully with the passenger-side window. If the tree hadn’t been pressed so tightly against the miraculously unbroken window, you were positive that it, too, would’ve shattered. Instead, your body slid down the door, a trail of blood smeared across the window in your wake. You could tell there were shards of glass embedded in your forehead, mainly because of the blood dripping into your right eye and obscuring your vision- but with the pain ricocheting across your right side, you figured that there had to be more. The crash had thrown your body to the floor, squished painfully between the passenger seat and the dashboard.

Slowly, you lifted your head, looking to see if your boyfriend was alright. “Billy,” you choked out, trying to blink away the blood and tears to get a better look and make sure he was safe and uninjured. The blond didn’t move at first, staying slouched over the steering wheel with his hands limp at his side. The car was still on and running, and the vibrations and the music didn’t feel right- like all of this was supposed to be much worse than it actually was. Whimpering in pain, you reached out your right arm and gripped the keys, turning off the ignition with a quiet groan. Your arm was littered with glass from your shoulder down to your wrist, and streams of blood fell into the palm of your hand, creating a bloody-red lake that eventually emptied through your fingers. Silence fell over the car with the radio and the engine now shut off, and all you could do was sit there and try to figure out, ‘what the fuck just happened?’.

Tired of the silence, you tried again, “Billy- babe!” And this time, he shifted. But Billy didn’t groan in pain or make any indication that he had been hurt. He simply sat up and straightened himself out, before opening the door and leaving the car. Not a single glance was spared your way, even as you tried to call out to him again. Confusion masked the pain on your face as you watched your boyfriend walk away from you and his car. Now that he was under the illumination of an isolated streetlight, you could see the all-too-familiar faint, black veins creeping up his arms and crawling up his neck, fading into the skin by his eyes and his forehead. It wasn’t Billy, you could no longer deny that, but Billy was still there, still fighting just like Will had all those months ago, and you had to do something to get him back to you.

Even though your entire body ached and your mind was whirring with endless catastrophic possibilities, you still managed to brace yourself against the seat and the dashboard, pushing to try and get off the floor. With a groan of agony, you managed to push yourself up, your arms shaking with how weak you felt. Your right arm nearly gave out against the dashboard, but with a final spurt of energy, you were finally able to throw yourself back into the passenger seat. Squinting against the streetlight now blinding your vision, you were hardly able to decipher the decaying Brimborn Steel Works sign against the rotting wood of the warehouse you had crashed near. Brimborn had shut down years ago, a short while after the war, when Hawkins Lab took over and the factory work shifted to a close. Now, not many people knew it existed let alone where it was located due to its isolation. You were shocked that Billy did, having only been in Hawkins for less than a year, and you couldn’t think of a reason as to why he would know. None of it made sense: the split-second character change, the crash, Billy walking away, and now this- but the detective work would have to wait because Billy was getting closer to the mill and farther away from you. With a deep breath, you climbed over the console and into the driver’s seat before stumbling out of the car and falling to your knees beside the tire.

“Goddamnit- Billy!” you finally screeched, just wanting him to hear you. “Billy, for fuck's sake! Just stop for a second!”

And he did. The monster paused, one leg out in front of him in anticipation for the next step that never came. His head tilted to the side as if waiting for you to say something else, but he didn’t turn to look at you or make any noise.

You whimpered and tried to push yourself to your feet, “Billy, just-” Your legs gave out, sending you face-first into the ground,  and you screamed in pure frustration. Lifting your head and spitting out blood and dirt, you looked towards your boyfriend for any sign that he was still there. “Don’t fall. Please, babe, don’t fall,” you whispered, unsure if he could even hear you.

But then he was turning to look at you, and even though his eyes still weren’t his, the black veins had melted into his skin, giving you a false sense of comfort. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep him safe.” The voice, not belonging to Billy, was deep and throaty, just like you’d heard in the car. “He needs me, just like I need him. He’ll be fine. You, on the other hand, can’t-”

A scream, so painful it made your heart ache, erupted from Billy’s mouth. His hands flew to clutch at his mess of curls before he began shaking his head fervently. “No! No, you can’t fucking touch her! Not her!” Billy, true Billy, cried out, doubling over in the fight against himself. “F-uck off!”

Your heart leaped into your throat at his cries of anguish, and you began to crawl forward, digging your fingers into the dirt for leverage. “Don’t fall, Billy, don’t fall,” you repeated to yourself, desperately trying to get to your feet in your haste to reach him. But the right side of your body was still bleeding, and you were positive one of your ankles was fucked from the crash. So each attempt only got you a couple of inches closer before you were back on your knees, clawing at the dirt.

Ahead of you, Billy was repeating his own mantra of, ‘not her, not her, not her’ and he seemed to be negotiating with whatever was inside him. ‘The Mindflayer,’ you reminded yourself, narrowing your eyes at the memory of last fall. The Mindflayer must’ve said something to appease Billy and calm him down for at least a second, enough time for the monster to take over again. The monster stopped pulling at his hair and he straightened out, looking back down at you with those foreign, green eyes.

He didn’t say anything for a while, silence encasing both of you as you stared the other down. Will managed to fight this thing off with the love and support of his family and his friends, but Billy… Billy only had you. You loved him more than the stars, but with the look the Mindflayer was giving you, you knew it was going to take more than that to bring him home. He seemed to be waiting for you, whether to follow, retreat, or fight, neither of you knew. But with the hope that Billy was still in there, still fighting, you managed to push yourself to your feet, swaying unsteadily with the knowledge that this wasn’t your boyfriend.

“You’ll be safe. Once this is over. I will not hurt you, and neither will he-”

“Of course Billy won’t hurt me, I’m not an idiot,” you spat, interrupting the demonic voice coming from your boyfriend. The monster’s eyebrows rose, but he made no move to retaliate. “Why? Why are you doing this to him?”

“I didn’t choose him if that’s what you’re implying. I was given to him and gifted with all his pain that will help me thrive- help us survive,” the Mindflayer answered, taking a couple of steps forward. You didn’t move away, allowing the monster to get closer to you.

“How? Who did this to him? Who betrayed him and gave him you?” you asked, refusing to flinch when his hand came to stroke your cheek.

“Injection. That’s all it took. I am a virus, I can live anywhere.”

A memory flashed in your mind; Billy and Steve fighting, Max jumping on to Billy before injecting him with the same sedative that had been given to Will- with the same needle. “You don’t like the heat, though. It hurts you,” you whispered, grasping for anything to help you save Billy. Regardless, your eyes widened at the fact that the monster had been there for months, living alongside you and Billy in peace.

“It hurts us, now. Whatever you do to me, is done to him, baby. You mustn’t forget,” the monster said, gently running his thumb over your cheek to wipe away a stray tear that had mixed with your blood. He was taking Billy’s demand to heart and you hated it.

“Don’t call me that,” you growled, resisting the urge to swat away his hand. It wasn’t Billy, but you couldn’t piss off the Mindflayer without Billy receiving those repercussions. Besides, if you closed your eyes just right, his touch felt just like Billy, just colder.

“He would have been the perfect host. Broken, lost, all the pain… He wasn’t supposed to have a light, a star. He wasn’t supposed to break free just to keep you safe. But I can work around you. Your love won’t be enough to stop me this time. I’ve been here, in his head, I know what he thinks and what the others think of him. You’re the only one that cares about him. Neil, Susan, Max- nobody cares about him. Nobody else will help you.” Your breath hitched at his words because he was right and you both fucking knew it. “It’s just the three of us now, and it will be once we end everything. It’s what he deserves, it’s what I deserve.”

The Mindflayer let go of your cheek with your blood staining his palm as he turned away from you. No other words were spoken as he retreated into the mill, but a lone rat squeaked past your shoes, scurrying ahead of the monster and into Brimborn. You wanted to chase after him, you wanted to plead with the monster to let him go, to take you instead, but you knew he wouldn’t. The Mindflayer had adapted to Billy’s strengths and weaknesses, and the bond they now forcefully shared wouldn’t be given up easily. So, with your heart cracking, all you could do was watch as Billy disappeared into Brimborn.

—

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