wires, steve harrington

forty-eight.

"we have to go help him!" dustin pleaded, grabbing a chair and setting it underneath the gate opening. he was still crying, and meadow was still in complete and utter shock.

"dustin, no." she said, her voice coming out much more quietly than she'd anticipated. "no, you can't go back in there. it isn't safe."

he shook his head. "we can't leave him there by himself!"

"he made that choice!" she argued, and her voice broke. "dustin, i love eddie, too, but i.. i love you more, okay? and i can't let anything happen to you."

dustin shook his head. "i'm sorry." he mumbled. "i have to try to help."

meadow moved to stop him, but dustin had already made a running jump off of the chair and had landed on the ceiling. she reached for him, but wasn't quite tall enough to stop him. he struggled for a moment before pulling himself through, landing and twisting something in his ankle.

his sister's eyes widened out of her skull as he screamed in pain. "dustin!" she cried, moving up to help him. he'd already sat up, though, and was limping out of her view. "holy shit, holy fucking shit." she mumbled to herself before standing up on the chair.

she was almost tall enough, from here, to climb through the hole. when she flipped upside down, though, she lost her grip, and fell onto the mattress that she hadn't even seen dustin move over.

meadow was then immediately on her feet, running out the front door and after dustin, who was hobbling towards eddie. he was completely surrounded by bats. "eddie!" she heard her brother plead. she could also faintly hear the sounds of eddie's anguished yells.

"dustin!" she called, running after him. he'd gotten enough of a head start that, by the time she caught up to him, the bats had fallen from the sky, landing around eddie's body. "hive mind." she breathed before immediately wrapping one of dustin's arms around her shoulders, helping him jog to where eddie was laying. "holy shit."

eddie had clearly been bitten by the bats, just like steve had, only this was worse. significantly. meadow felt her hands start shaking as she knelt down next to him, watching as dustin pulled him into his lap. "eddie! oh, god, eddie!"

"bad, huh?" eddie asked, somehow still keeping his twinge of humor.

dustin shook his head. "no, no, you're going to be fine. we've just gotta get you to a hospital, okay?"

"okay."

"alright, alright." dustin said, trying to pull eddie up. "meadow, you take his upper body, and.. and i'll take the legs, and.. and we'll carry him through, and.. meadow!"

he looked to his sister, who was sitting in complete shock. she'd been though a whole lot of shit because of the upside down, but never had she had to watch someone die.

"i need a second, i need a second, okay?" eddie said to dustin, who was still trying to pick him up.

dustin nodded. "okay."

"you know, i had a crush on you, henderson." eddie said to meadow, who seemed to then be blinking for the first time.

"this isn't the time for that, eddie-"

he shook his head. "i know. i loved you with harrington too much to say anything." he teased, and the look on his face didn't convey if he was kidding about having feelings for her or not. the raise of his brow gave off the implication that she would've left steve for him, and then he would've felt guilty about it, and meadow couldn't believe how he could be making jokes at a time like this. "everything aside, i.. i really wanted us to be friends."