After several long seconds of the five of them just waiting for El to say something, El finally said, "I found him."

Max asked her, "Where is he?"

El told them, "Woods."

In turn, Lucas asked her, "Woods?"

Then El said, "He's with... Will's mom."

As he leaned forward from where he was sitting on the couch, Will asked her, "My– My mom?"

With her eyebrows now furrowed, Max asked her, "What are they doing?"

Then El said, "Ill... annoy. They're going to Ill-annoy."

It was then that Karen knocked on the door and yelled, "Mike! Matthew! Breakfast!"

While Matthew only rolled his eyes at his mother, Mike turned his head and yelled, "Not now, Mom!" Then he turned to look back at El and asked her, "Illinois? Illinois, like the state? The state of Illinois?"

After taking the makeshift blindfold off of her head, El said with a shrug of her shoulders, "I-Ill-annoy."

While Matthew absentmindedly continued to run his fingers over the bruises that were left behind from when Billy had chosen to choke the hell out of him after their failed attempt of getting the Mind Flayer out of him, Mike said, "Something's not right. I can't get Hopper off my back all summer, now all of a sudden, he's hiking with Will's mom to Illinois? And Dustin's MIA, too? And don't even get me started on Valerie. She's been here– at my house– since the start of summer and now she-she's just gone? I mean, this can't be a coincidence."

In turn, Lucas asked him, "What does it matter? The bottom line is, they're not here. It's up to us."

Then Mike asked him, "Up to us to do what exactly? Do nothing and watch as he almost kills Matt again?"

While Will took a quick glance over at Matthew, who was currently wincing to himself as his fingers moved over the bruises on his neck, Lucas told him, "Find Billy and stop him."

Mike replied, "Okay, yeah, that's a really nice sentiment, but even if El could find him again, and that's a pretty big if, then what?"

Lucas said to him, "We burn the shit out of him and make sure he doesn't escape this time."

Then Mike asked him, "Okay, then what?"

Lucas replied, "Then we win."

It was then that Mike told him, "No, see, that's the problem. We don't. We don't win. We got the Mind Flayer out of Will before and he just came right back. We don't just have to stop Billy, we have to stop the Mind Flayer."

With a shrug of his shoulders, Lucas asked him, "How in the hell do we do that?"

Mike replied, "I don't know."

It was then that Will raised his head and told them, "Maybe El does."

Not long after Will had said that and Mike had turned to look over at the closed bathroom door, Mike asked them, "What are they still doing in there?"

As he went to walk over towards Mike with the Cocoa Puffs cereal box in hand, Lucas said, "I don't know. Girls just like hanging out in bathrooms."

In turn, Mike asked him, "Why?"

With yet another shrug of his shoulders, Lucas said, "I mean, I don't know."

Then Lucas turned to Matthew, who forced out a scoff before he said, "Oh, that's funny. So, just because I happen to have a girl that's my best friend, you automatically think that I know why El and Max are hanging out in there? Well, hate to break it to you, buddy, but any time Val would be here, we'd mostly be getting high or talking shit about that stepbrother of hers. That's it. We never got into the whole thing of talking about girls and why they do the things that they do. I mean, why would we? As far as either of us are concerned, the question of why girls seem to like hanging out in bathrooms is the least of our concerns."

After shaking his head at his brother's words, Mike said, "They're conspiring against me."

As he turned to look over at Mike, Will asked him, "That's what you're concerned about right now?"

Mike replied, "It's not my main concern. It's just a sub-concern."

Will said to him, "I thought it was already over."

Mike told him, "It's not over, okay? We're just taking a break."

In turn, Will said to him, "She said she dumped your ass. That doesn't sound like a break."

While Matthew chuckled to himself with a sigh and a mere shake of his head, much to the annoyance of Mike because of his big brother's amusement of being broken up with by El, Max yelled from the inside of the bathroom, "It wasn't! You guys do realize we can still hear everything you're saying, right?"

Then Mike looked back over at Will and said in a whisper, "Conspiring. I told you, they're conspiring." After hearing a knock on the basement door, Mike turned to the door and yelled, "Not now, Mom!"

It was then that both Mike and Matthew shared a single look with each other when they heard Nancy say through the door, "Mike, open the door."

From where she and Jonathan stood in front of the others in the basement, Nancy told them, "It was the same thing, the exact same thing that happened to Will last year." As she picked up some of the papers that she had with her and turned them around to face the others in the group, she said to them, "And look at this. Look at the body temperatures."

After putting a single finger down on the paper, Will raised his head and said, "He likes it cold."

It was then that Mike asked them, "Okay, so this crazy old woman who was eating fertilizer—"

With a nod of her head, Nancy said, "Mrs. Driscoll."

Mike replied, "Right, yeah, Mrs. Driscoll. What time was this attack?"

Nancy told him, "Last night."

With a nod of his own head, Mike asked her, "Right, but what time last night?"

Nancy said to him, "Around nine."

It was then that Jonathan turned to Nancy and asked her, "You waited all night to call?"

After turning to look back over at Jonathan, Nancy told him, "I was waiting for the doctors to run some tests."

Then Will asked his brother, "You weren't there?"

With a raise of his hands, Jonathan replied, "Well, I'm here now, aren't I?"

With a scoff and a shake of her head, Nancy said, "Hallelujah!"

With a turn of his head, Lucas closed his eyes as he said, "Ooh."

After glancing over at Matthew and seeing the way that he was now staring up at Jonathan with narrowed eyes and his head slightly tilted to the side, Nancy only blinked at him before she asked the group, "Um, so, wha– what time was your... sauna test?"

In unison, the six of them told her, "Around nine."

It was then that Nancy told them, "Well, that proves it. That proves my theory."

With a shake of his head, Mike said, "She's flayed, just like Billy."

In turn, Jonathan asked him, "Flayed?"

Mike told him, "The Mind Flayer. He flays people. Takes over their mind. Once they do that, they basically become him."

Then Lucas said to them, "If there are two flayed—"

Will said to them, "We have to assume there are more."

It was then that El slightly turned her head and said, "Heather." While Matthew turned his head to look over at El with furrowed eyebrows, El told them, "Billy was doing something to her. She was scared. She was screaming. Bad screams."

In turn, Lucas asked her, "What's a good scream?"

El started to say to him, "Max said—"

With a shake of her head, Max replied, "Doesn't matter."

It was then that Nancy said to them, "I'm sorry, I'm lost. Who is Heather?"

Max told her, "She's a lifeguard at the pool."

With her eyebrows furrowed, Nancy asked her, "Heather Holloway?"

When El had only nodded her head, Jonathan and Nancy both looked back at each other and said, "Tom."

While Nancy slowly walked into the Holloway home with Jonathan and the others walking closely with her, Nancy said, "Tom? Heather?" While Matthew silently eyed the inside of the home with narrowed eyes, Nancy said, "Jesus, it's freezing."

After only a couple more seconds of silence, it only seemed to truly hit Matthew that they were walking around in the house of the very man that he'd hurt Nancy complaining about to Jonathan over the phone whenever she was home and not spending the night at Jonathan's house.

Even though he never said anything about what he heard when she talked on the phone, it didn't stop the burning hatred that would simply rise up inside of him whenever he would hear all of the ways in which Tom Holloway would apparently humiliate Nancy at her job and seem to be okay with the idea of making her into some sort of a joke.

As far as Matthew was concerned, Tom Holloway was being an asshole and a total douchebag for his sister for no reason, which was why he would sometimes feel the urge to do something that would only result in him getting himself arrested.

And fortunately for Matthew, any time he felt those urges, Valerie was there with a cigarette or with a joint to help with taking his mind off of his anger towards Tom Holloway.

And it was because of all of the times in which Valerie had helped him with his anger in her own little way that made Matthew worry that she ended up becoming one of the Flayed or that something worse had happened to her.

Outside of Valerie Mayfield, Matthew had never had a true friend before, so he couldn't help but worry about her and hope that nothing bad happened to her since the day she left that note on his desk telling him that she was going back to Starcourt Mall and he chose to go to Eddie Munson's trailer and ended up getting high with the failing senior and somehow ended up waking up on the floor in Eddie's room.

Even though Valerie would repeatedly say that she could take care of herself just fine, he couldn't help but continue to worry about her and her wellbeing– even before finding out that Billy was one of the Flayed– and that was all due to what Valerie had shared with him about her past and why she didn't feel at all comfortable with having any man touch her, no matter just old they were, unless she felt comfortable with them.

And surprisingly enough to Matthew, he apparently made Valerie feel comfortable and safe enough that she shared with him something that she had never told anyone else before– something that not even her mother or her own little sister knew about.

And it was because of that one secret that she had willingly shared with him that he took it upon himself to protect her at all costs, no matter what happened, which was why he was currently frowning to himself and hoping– with his entire being– that Valerie Mayfield was safe and that nothing bad had happened to her during the time in which they'd been away from each other.

And while Matthew continued to silently worry about his best friend, Nancy came to an abrupt halt and turned to the group as she asked them, "Do you guys smell that?"

It wasn't long after the rest of the group had each sniffed the air as well that the eight of them walked into the kitchen to see opened things of chemical lying on top of a refrigerator that was lying on its side on the kitchen floor.

It was then that Nancy said to them, "More chemicals."

It wasn't until Jonathan had grabbed one of the chemicals that he turned to Nancy and asked her, "You think they're guzzling this shit?"

Nancy replied, "Yeah, either that or they just went on a hell of a cleaning spree."

It was then that Max said to them, "But last year, Will didn't eat chemicals." Then she turned to Will and asked him, "Did you?"

Will said to her, "No. This is something new."

With a shake of his head, Mike looked between his two friends as he said, "Mr. Clarke, fifth grade. Posit. What happens when you mix chemicals together?"

In turn, Lucas and Will told him, "You create a new substance."

It was then that Mike asked them, "What if they're making something?"

Then Max asked him, "In themselves? I mean, come on, if you drink this crap, it'll kill you."

Lucas replied, "Yeah, if you're human."

It wasn't long after that that the eight of them walked through the dining room and into another part of the house where they could see a single bottle lying on the floor.

It was then that Nancy crouched down on the floor and ran her hand over a spot on the rug before she said, "Blood." After Jonathan crouched down beside her, Nancy turned her head to look over at Jonathan as she said, "Yesterday, Tom had a bandage on his forehead."

Then she grabbed the bottle lying on the floor and slid it over to herself before she stood up with the bottle in hand and told them, "He was attacked."

It wasn't long after that that the others followed Nancy from room to room until they stopped and found themselves standing in what had to have been Tom Holloway's garage.

It was then that the six of them stared down at Jonathan, who was crouched down on the floor with a thing of rope in one of his hands, before he said, "They must have tied them. They must have taken them somewhere."

It wasn't long after that that Nancy said, "Mrs. Driscoll. She kept saying... 'I have to go back'. What if the flaying, it's taking place somewhere else? There must be a place where all this started, right? A source."

With a raise of her eyebrows, El said, "Somewhere he didn't want me to see."

In turn, Nancy told them, "If we can find the source, then maybe we can stop him. Or at least stop it from spreading or doing whatever the hell he's doing with those chemicals."

With a tilt of her head, El asked her, "How do we find it?"

It was then that Will said, "Mrs. Driscoll. If she wants to go back so badly, why don't we let her?"

While the eight of them quickly entered the hospital, the woman sitting behind the desk said on her phone, "No, that is not mean. That is honest. She won't find out. See, you're the only one who gon' tell—" Then the woman quickly turned to the group of eight and yelled, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Excuse me! Where do you think you're going?"

As she turned to look over at the woman, Nancy told her, "Oh, um... I was just going to visit my grandma again. And– And this... this is my family."

After the woman had simply tilted her head at them, Lucas said with a smile on his face, "Extended."

It was then that the woman said to Nancy, "I don't care who they are. You know the rules. Two visitors at a time."

Nancy started to say to her, "Yeah, but—"

Then the woman yelled, "Two!" While she went to sit back down in her chair, she put her phone back up to her ear as she said into it, "Girl, this child has lost her mind. She brought a whole zoo in here."

After putting in the coins he needed for the vending machine and pressing a couple of the buttons on the very same machine, Mike Wheeler watched as the KitKat started to be moved out of its place and towards the space in between itself and the glass, only for the KitKat to not fall down to the bottom of the machine.

This alone got Mike to let out a yell as he yelled, "Oh, come on, you piece of shit!"

Then both Mike and Lucas started to repeatedly hit the machine with at least one of their hands before several pieces of candy were sent flying out of their places and landing at the bottom of the vending machine.

Then Mike and Lucas turned their heads to look over at El, who was wiping away some of the blood that had leaked out of her nose.

While Lucas simply shrugged to himself and went to grab some of the candy, Mike said to El, "Thanks."

In response to his words, El only nodded her head at him before she looked back over at Matthew, who had his headphones on and was listening to Metallica's No Remorse on his walkman with his eyes closed and his hands tightly clenched into fists.

It was only when Mike was crouched down beside him and grabbing some of the candy that Lucas told him, "Dude, I think that was it."

In turn, Mike asked him, "That was what?"

Lucas said to him in a whisper, "The olive branch."

With his eyebrows now furrowed, Mike asked him, "The what?"

After slowly turning his head to look back over at Mike, Lucas said, "Oh, my God. You're hopeless. How is it that your own brother hasn't even dated a girl and he still understands them a hell of a lot more than you do?" When Mike only scrunched his nose at Lucas, Lucas put a hand on his shoulder and said to him, "Okay, I'll distract Max, get you an opening. And then talk to her. Alright?"

It was then that Mike asked him, "But what about Matt? We both know just how protective he is of El. He probably won't even let me near her."

With a sigh, Lucas told him, "I have a feeling that your brother has a lot more important stuff to worry about than letting you get near her." When Mike only shook his head with furrowed eyebrows, Lucas said with a sigh, "How you even managed to get with El of all people is a real mystery, if you're this clueless when it comes to girls."

Just when Mike was about to ask a question, he suddenly stopped when Lucas turned his back on Mike and started to make his way over towards where Max was standing with El.

Then Mike looked over at Matthew, who was currently flicking his lighter open and closed with his eyes currently squeezed shut and his knuckles becoming much paler than it already was due to the tight grip that he currently had on his lighter.