A NEW AND IMPROVED VERSION
Ryan Fordman has lived next door to Steve Harrington her entire life. Her entire life, he'd always been a window away, occasionally shouting across the space between their houses. They were inseparable... at least, they we...
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Ryan sat on the couch in the Wheeler's basement, cleaning the blood off Eleven's face with a wet washcloth from her nosebleed. On El's other side, Mike was helping to keep her sitting upright. Apparently, the little girl had used so much of her energy trying to reach Will she exploded the radio in the AV room at Hawkins Middle.
She had no idea if they actually managed to contact him or not, the boys talking excitedly all at once when she walked in, rambling about everything and nothing at the same time. Now, both Dustin and Lucas were sitting at their D&D table in silence, watching her clean up El.
"How are you feeling El?" Ryan asked, moving her finger in front of El's face watching as her eyes followed the movement.
The kid followed her finger a few times before responding quietly, "Tired." Ryan nodded, patting her lap. El slowly laid her head in Ryan's lap, stretching her legs out to Mike's end of the couch.
"So what happened exactly?" Ryan asked, glancing around the basement at the kids scattered around. "The first thing Dustin told me when I got here was that El made Troy piss himself and that she blew up the radio in the AV room." It turned out, she wasn't the only one that had an eventful day. "Were you guys able to talk to Will?"
She absentmindedly ran her hands through the wig on El's head, waiting for one of them to start talking. Mike sat in silence on the other end of the couch, thinking to himself.
"We didn't talk to him exactly..." Dustin started, trailing off.
Ryan raised a confused eyebrow, glancing over at Lucas. "He talked, but he wasn't talking to us," He explained quickly. "It was hard to tell because the radio was going in and out, but it sounded like he was trying to talk to his mom."
Ryan nodded slowly as the room grew quiet, the only sound being the light breathing of the group. If Joyce had talked to Will that day or had tried to (she didn't know how it worked), whatever Jonathan had thought up to tell her about what Nancy and Ryan had seen in the woods would just worry her even more. She knew she couldn't call to tell Jonathan to abort the mission, she just hoped that he knew what he was doing.
Then, another thought occurred to her, "What did he say exactly?"
"Like home," Mike answered, standing up from his spot on the couch. "Like home but dark."
"And empty." Lucas added.
"Empty and cold." Dustin nodded. "Wait, did he say cold?"
"I don't know." Lucas groaned. "The stupid radio kept going in and out, in and out."
Ryan sighed, stroking El's hair while Mike started to pace the floor. Like home, but dark. What the hell did that mean? How were they supposed to find him if they didn't know what he was talking about?
"Like home?" Mike muttered aloud. "Like his house?"
"Like Hawkins!" Lucas exclaimed.
"Upside Down." El said suddenly, causing everyone to look over at her in confusion.
