— 𝟎𝟎𝟏 —

NANCY OPENS the front door and Steve shines his flashlight inside the house. The ceiling and walls are completely covered in vines.

"Might be time to get a maid, Wheeler." Robin says.

"Come on. I don't want to stay here longer than we have to." Nancy says.

She makes her way up the stairs and we go to follow behind her. Eddie and Robin make their way up the stairs, but I stop in my tracks when I hear an indistinct voice.

"What was that?" I ask, Steve standing right behind me.

The voice starts talking again and I see Steve's eyes go wide. He walks back down the stairs and I follow him.

"It sounds like Dustin." Steve says.

"Dustin?" I ask, "What would Dustin be doing here?"

"I don't know, but listen." Steve says.

We stay quiet and listen to the faint voice.

"Oh my God. It is Dustin." I whisper.

"Dustin! Dustin!" Steve shouts.

"Dustin? Hello!" I shout.

"Dustin! Can you hear me? Dustin!"

"Hel... Hello? Dusty?" I call out.

"Maybe they really do have rabies." I hear Robin say.

I turn and see the other three staring at us like we were insane.

"What are you guys doing?" Nancy asks.

Steve shines his flashlight into their faces.

"He's here. Henderson. We heard him. That little shit, he's here. He's like... He's in the walls or something." Steve says.

"Just listen." I say.

"Dustin." Steve says, "Dustin! Dustin!"

Steve continues to pace around the house, shouting for Dustin. Suddenly, his voice rings out through the house again and the other three hear it.

"Holy shit. That is Henderson." Eddie exclaims.

"Dustin!" Nancy shouts.

"Dustin?" Eddie calls.

We all walk around the house, calling out for Dustin, for him to be nowhere to be seen.

"All right, either this kid can't hear us or he's being a total douchebag." Steve says.

"Will found a way." I say.

"What?" Steve asks.

"Will. He found a way to speak to Joyce through the lights." I say, running over to a lamp on a desk.

I try to click the lamp on, but it doesn't turn on.

"The switch." Steve points, "Try the switch."

I flip the switch up and down.

"It's not working." I say, getting audibly annoyed.

"Guys?" I hear Steve say from behind me.

I turn around to face him.

"You seeing this?" He asks.

I look at where his flashlight is pointed and see the light on the ceiling barely lit, with weird, sparkle-like particles around it.

I walk over to the light, with Steve next to me, and stare at it with confusion. I stick my hand up to it, slowly, and touch the particles. The instantly light up the lamp and tickle the tips of my fingers. I brush my hand around in them, feeling the tingling sensation, then look over at Steve.

"Stick your hand in here." I say to him.

He hesitates at first, but then steps closer to me and extends his hand upwards. He wiggles his fingers in the particles and the light starts to shine brighter. Eventually, Robin, Eddie, and Nancy put their hands into the particles as well.

"It... tickles." Steve says.

"It kinda feels good." Robin says.

I take my hand away from the light.

"Does anyone know Morse code?" Nancy asks.

"Yeah, (Y/N) does." Steve says.

"I haven't done it in so long, I couldn't even remember if I tried." I say.

"Wait, does SOS count?" We all look over at Eddie, "Is that... Is that good?"

Eddie starts to flicker the code into the particles and we watch as the light flickers.

"It's working." Robin says.

We hear Dustin tell us to run up to Nancy's room and sit next to the bed, so we do. Steve shines his light on the bed as we wait for any sign from the boy.

"Come on. Come on." Steve says.

"...seeing this?" We hear Dustin faintly say.

Nancy sticks her hand forward on the bed, seeing the familiar particles graze her fingers. We hear Dustin's laughter as Nancy continues to play with the light.

"We're not moving it, but we're gonna unplug it. Stand by." Dustin's voice echos.

The particles and light suddenly disappear.

"Try it now."

"Okay. Um... uh..." Nancy says.

She sticks her hand back in and draws out letters. H and I.

"That worked!"

We all exclaim in excitement.

"Hi!" Eddie excitedly shouts.

Nancy sticks her hand back in to draw out more letters. Stuck.

"We are." I say.

"...through Watergate?"

"What the hell's Watergate?" Steven asks.

"'Cause it's in water and it's a gate." I say.

"Oh." Nancy says.

"That's cute." Eddie says.

"Um, no. It's..." Nancy says.

She once again sticks her hand into the particles. Guarded.

"Watergate's guarded."

"Perfect. Yes. Yes. Yes." Steve says.

"...theory that can help with that."

"Yes!" I exclaim.

"Genius child." Robin says.

"...Watergate isn't the only gate... murder site."

"Does anybody understand what he's talking about?" Nancy asks.

"No." Everyone says.

Nancy draws a question mark into the particles.

"...you guys just trust me!"

"Jesus Christ. This kid's gotta get his ego in check." Steve says.

"It's his tone. Right?" Eddie says.

"I know." Steve agrees.

"He hangs out with you guys too much." I tease.

"Okay. So... So how far is your trailer?" Nancy asks.

"Seven miles." Eddie responds.

"Nancy? Uh, I know you house here is, like, weirdly, creepily frozen in time and shit, but haven't you always had bikes?" Robin asks.

Nancy thinks for a moment, then jumps up from the floor. She runs out of her room and we follow after her. We make our way to her garage and pull the bikes out. One for each of us.

We pass by her back door and something shiny catches my eye. I turn my head and see it, in all of her glory.

"No way." I whisper, walking over to where all of the tools were.

I grab the axe by it's handle and pull it out of its spot, then hold it in both of my hands, flipping it around. I then hold the head york my face and wipe it off with my sleeve.

"I missed you, baby." I say.

"I know you're not calling someone else my name." Steve says from behind me.

I turn around with a smile on my face and I see his turn to disbelief.

"You're kidding." He says.

I hold the axe up in a batting position and take a swing. Steve jumps back and I laugh.

"What? An Upside Down axe. It's super badass." I say.

"(Y/N) and her axe." Nancy says.

I rest the axe on the front basket of the bike and hop on. The rest of the group does the same and we take off down the road, making our way to Eddie's trailer.

"That's gotta be a Guinness World Record. Most miles traveled interdimensionally." Robin says.

"Just inhaled a bunch of that crap. " Steve coughs, "It's stuck in my throat."

"I feel like my lungs are about to give out." I say.

Eddie enters his trailer and we follow in behind him. Vines covered the ceiling and walls, just like they did at Nancy's house, but one thing was different.

"Goddamn." Steve says.

There was a snack-sized gate on the ceiling.

"This is where Chrissy died." Eddie says, "Like, right where she died."

The gate started to pulsate inwards.

"I think there's something in there." I say, holding my axe up for protection since I was still weak from the bat fight.

"What the hell is that?" Eddie asks.

Suddenly, it pierces through the gate and we all jump back. A hole opens up in the gate and a stick is shoved through. I slowly make my way over to the opening, holding my axe up, and Steve holds my shoulder and walks with me. We look up into the hole and can't believe our eyes.

"No way." Steve says.

"Hey, look! It's Mom and Dad!" Dustin laughs, waving at us.

"Hi." Steve and I say, waving back.

The other three walk over to us and look up into the hole, seeing Dustin, Lucas, Max and Erica looking back up at us. We all laugh at the sight.

"Holy shit, this is trippy." Robin says.

"I feel like we're drugged again." I say to Steve.

"Less Russians more monsters." Steve says.

"Bada-bada-boom!" Dustin exclaims.

The kids run off, away from the gate, and we wait for them to return.

Lucas and Max are the first to come back, setting Eddie's mattress down in front of the gate, which, might I add, had some suspicious looking stains.

"Those stains are, uh... I dunno what those stains are." Eddie says.

Dustin then brings back what looked to be sheets tied together to make a long rope.

"Not quite sure how these physics are gonna work but, uh... here goes nothing." Dustin says, throwing the rope into the gate.

The rope perfectly falls down in front of us, seemingly hanging from nothing.

"And if my theory is correct..."

Dustin let's go of the rope and it stays hanging.

"Huh. Abracadabra." Dustin says, "All right, pull on it! See if it holds!"

Robin grabs the rope and hangs her body from it. The rope doesn't budge.

"This is some crazy science shit that I don't know much about." I say.

"This is the craziest shit I've seen in my life. And I've seen some crazy shit." Erica says.

"Guess I'm the guinea pig." Robin says, pulling herself up the rope.

She pulls herself through the gate and lands with her back on the mattress. We all look at each other, debating on who goes next.

"All right, guess I'll go." Eddie says.

He pulls himself up the rope and lands on his back on the other side.

"Ladies first." I say, ushering to Nancy.

"Thank you." She says with a smile.

She pulls herself up, just like the two before her had done, and falls with her back on the mattress. I chuckle at her landing and stand under the gate.

"Okay, I'm sending an axe through!" I yell.

"An axe?" Dustin exclaims.

"Step back!" I yell.

I quickly throw the axe up by the handle through the gate and watch as the kids jump back when it hit the mattress. I see Nancy grab it and pull it away.

"You just couldn't leave that thing, could you?" Steve says.

"Not a chance." I say with a smile.

"Well, I'll see you on the other side, darling." He says to me.

I look at the rope and put a hand on it.

"On the other side." I say.

Steve holds the bottom of it as I pull myself up. I crawl up and hear Steve say, Nice, before I close my eyes, preparing to hit the mattress.

My body continued to fall and I open my eyes. All I saw was black as I fell backwards through the endless void I had become so accustomed to. I flailed my arms and legs, screaming, as I was unable to slow myself down.

I then meet the ground on my back, groaning from the pain and feeling my previous wounds become extremely tender. I breathe heavily as I pull myself up from the floor, only to find myself back in the Upside Down. Vines surrounded me, but I was in someplace different. Someplace I had seen in my dreams many times before.

I was at Starcourt Mall.

"(Y/N)? Hey! Hey!" Steve exclaimed as he shook (Y/N)'s shoulders, her eyes rolled into the back of her head, "Stay with me! (Y/N)! Hey! (Y/N), wake up. Wake up, (Y/N)!"

The rest of the group looked up into the gate at the scene unfolding before them. Max knew this scene all too well.

"Vecna." She states.

I turned around and around, looking for any sign of Vecna, but seeing nothing. From the corner of my eye I see a figure, so I then turn my attention over to the middle of the mall. I walk over towards the figure, only to realize what I was seeing.

Billy was laying on the ground, lifeless. His body was coated in a slimy substance and his skin had blueish-purple veins consuming it. His torso had a huge hole in the middle of it, just like what happened that night.

I feel that familiar wave of guilt wash over me, but I try to push it down. Suddenly, his mouth opens and spiders start to crawl out of it. I back up in terror and clench at my chest.

"Do you remember what you did, (Y/N)? Or have you already forgotten?" Vecna's voice rings out in my head, "When I kill someone... I never forget."

"I didn't kill him." I state, my voice shaky.

"You didn't save him, either."

A red substance starts to flood into the mall through the windows and the doors. I back up and look around, trying to escape. The blood-like flood started to seep in quickly and I knew that escaping was not an option.

"You thought you could be a hero with the power that I gave you, but it turns out that you are still as insignificant as you were before."

I feel the flood overtake me and I close my eyes. I open them again when I realize that I wasn't drowning, only to find myself in a different place. The one that I was with Max. I can hear the sound of a clock ticking, along with distant wailing. I start to walk down the steps of stairs that I was standing on top of.

"I see you've been looking for me, (Y/N). Your group was so close. So close to the truth. You even found yourself placed right into my mind while saving poor Maxine."

I stand at the end of the steps and try to control my breathing as a wave of anxiety continues to rush through my body.

"I see you've been in my childhood home. How was your friends meeting with Victor? I've been meaning to check back in, but I've been busy. So very busy."

I look around at the bodies that were displayed on stakes, then look over and see the familiar stained glass door at the Creel House.

The door opens and I find myself reliving a previous vision that I had. The family walks into their home and admires it as I stand and watch. The little girl runs up the stairs and I turn my attention back to the couple and the boy, seeing the boy looking sad and distraught.

I follow the boy as he walks up the stairs and into a room. Just like before, the lights flickered as he walked past them. He made his way into the bathroom and opened a grate on the floor. He stuck his hand inside and then pulled it out, a black widow resting on the top of it.

I then feel someone run behind me and I turn around, seeing the same boy run across the stairs and over to the attic door. I follow him up the stairs and watch as he sits in front of glass jars and candles, examining the black widow spiders inside.

I find myself walking back down the stairs, seeing the boy standing in front of the familiar grandfather clock. I watched as he focused on the clock, then closed his eyes. The hands of the clock seemed to rewind backwards quickly and my eyes went wide. The boy had the same powers as Eleven.

I hear a screech behind me and quickly turn around, finding myself outside and in a backyard. I watch as a rabbit struggles to run away, it's leg caught on a wire. The boy hovered over the rabbit and placed his hand over it, causing the rabbit to double over, it's bones cracking as it screams out.

I make my way back into the house and shut the door behind me, unable to watch the gruesome scene. I hear a song playing softly and walk towards it. I watch as the family sits at the dinner table. The boy closes his eyes again and the lights start to flicker. The woman at the end of the table suddenly shoots up out of her chair and hovers in the sky. He bones start to crack and she falls down onto the dinner table, dead. The boy wipes the blood off of his nose and the man grabs him, pulling him away.

I follow them, only to see the young girl dead on the floor and the man standing in front of the door with his back turned to me. The boy stood behind him with his eyes closed and the lights still flickering in the house. The boy then falls to the side and the man turns around, seeing his two children on the floor. He picks up the unconscious boy and cradles him in his arms.

I blink and I'm suddenly in a hospital-like room. The boy is strapped to a chair in front of me as a man gave him a tattoo on his wrist.

001.