Thinking about the fact that Billy dials emergency services after having been possessed by the Mind Flayer and when the operator asks what the emergency is, he cannot bring himself to speak about it. Because he knows, ultimately, that no one will believe or help him if he spoke the truth about his trauma. He's been a victim of abuse since he was a child, and no one had ever helped or given him safety. He was a child when his mother left him with an abusive father, he suffered abuse from his father, he was constantly sexualized and objectified by his peers, he was sexually preyed upon by adult women, and was assaulted and possessed by the Mind Flayer at the same time Karen is puckering up to go after Billy in the same way.
And the thing is: Billy tries to ask for help after being attacked by the Mind Flayer. The instinct to reach out is still there, just as it was there when Billy was a child, hiding with the phone as he called his mother when she left him, begging her to please come back. But calling and seeking that help- that safety- is never answered. Billy has been alone, left to endure the abuse from the hands of others in silence much in the same way it is visually represented when he is left alone on the side of some back road in Hawkins after having been attacked by the Mind Flayer.
And so, the moment the operator asks what the emergency is, the words die on Billy's tongue. We see him live through a flashback of the Mind Flayer attacking his body. The attack itself already took away Billy's agency. And then it happens again, with the flashback of the attack taking away his agency and voice once more.
I talk a lot about how Billy's body has never been his own and how he has no agency and control over his life as a result of the abuse he suffers. But that also includes the fact that the abuse has taken Billy's voice away, too. And how can he speak of it? How can he speak of it when his life has shown him nothing except that people are abusers in all ways that it manifests, that people will look the other way when faced directly with the abuse he suffers, that people will take advantage of him, and that no help ever comes?
And then, as if to prove what he has already known, the line cuts out, and Billy hangs up the phone. Because he's always been alone, and there is no help coming.
