Stranger Things: Strange Encounters

Chapter Eighteen: A Gate Home

~Imogen POV~

Once my nerves had settled after being grabbed by the hive mind vines, I was able to talk properly to the rest of the group.
"How did you get stuck down here?" I asked Hopper.
"Well, you see, I found your gate you were talking about in the woods. My plan was to go through it anyway but these vines here had the plan to get me in as soon as possible, if you know what I mean." explained Hopper.
"We found your hat outside, that's how we knew something was up." said Beth.
"That gate is closed now, though." joined Eddie.
"What do you mean, it's closed?" asked Hopper.
"When we came to find you, the tree was just an ordinary tree again." said Steve.
"How did you guys get in here then?"
"Dustin found another gate. It was in Lovers Lake." I said.
"You dove into Lovers Lake?" asked Hopper, a little shocked.
"We had to find you." said Beth. Hopper sighed and rubbed his eyes.
"So, how did you know I was here?" he asked.
"Beth saw your badge on the road to here. Figured we'd check here first." said Steve.
"What happened to your shoes?" Hopper asked Steve, looking at him confused. I smiled at the comment.
"Uh..." thought Steve.
"Doesn't matter." Hopper interrupted. "What matters is we now need to get back. You say the gate is at Lovers Lake?"
"Yeah, but, uh, it's kind of a no go." Eddie nervously chuckled.
"What do you mean, Ozzy?" Hopper asked.
"Cool reference." said Eddie quietly as he made a metal sign with his hand.
"There's these bat like things down that way. Almost like...guarded now." I replied. Hopper let out a sigh again and started to turn on the spot, thinking.
"How is there another gate anyway? Anyone wondering?" asked Steve.
"Every time a Demogorgon comes through to our world to attack, it leaves a gate behind. One must of came through the lake." explained Hopper.
"But how did the gate in the woods close?" I asked.
"No idea, kid. But we need to think of some kind of plan now." said Hopper.
"I don't know about you guys, but, uh, I'm not sure if I wanna go for a day trip around the Upside Down looking for a gate." said Eddie, raising his hands.
"Well, I suggest you think of a better idea then because right now it's looking like our only option." snapped Hopper. I noticed Beth had caught sighs of something and was lingering off to the side of us slightly.
"Hey guys, what's that?" she asked, pointing down the hallway. We all turned and looked and saw a very faint glow coming from one of the rooms.
"Is that...Upside Down normal?" asked Steve.
"I don't think anything is 'normal' here." I replied.
"Stay behind me." said Hopper as he took the lead, slowly heading over to the room with the glow. I followed just behind Beth as Hopper reached just outside the door. "This is Joyce's room." said Hopper. He pushed the door open to reveal her bedroom. In the middle of the ceiling was the main light and it had a golden, almost sparkly glow around it.
"What is that?" Eddie whispered.
"No idea." said Hopper. We all moved into the room and gathered around the weird glow.
"Was this in here earlier?" asked Beth.
"No..." replied Hopper. I moved my hand up towards it to touch it until Hopper suddenly grabbed my hand. "Don't! You don't know what it is."
"Let's find out then." I snapped back. Hopper looked at all of us and then released my hand.
"Fine. Let me first, to make sure it's safe." he replied. He then slowly lifted his hand up and placed it inside the golden glow. He started to move his hand around in it and let a small smile come to his face.
"So?" I asked. Hopper let out a little chuckle, giving us the confirmation that it was safe. All four of us then raised our hands to the glow and put them inside.
"It tickles." said Eddie.
"It feels...kind of good." Beth added. I caught Eddie look down at Beth and give her a small smile.
"I don't understand what this is though?" said Steve.
"What the?" we heard a voice echo making all of us immediately pull our hands out of the glow.
"What was that?" I asked.
"Did someone say something?" asked Hopper. We all shook our heads. Hopper placed his hand back in the glow again.
"Will?" we heard the voice again.
"There it is again!" said Eddie.
"That sounds like...Joyce." said Hopper.
"Mrs Byers is here?" I asked.
"Jonathan...Jonathan! Come quick!" we heard Joyce yell through the echos.
"What is it, mom?" replied a male voice, which must of been Jonathan.
"They're here. They're at Joyce's." said Hopper.
"What? H-how can we speak to them?" asked Beth.
"Does anyone know morse code?" I asked.
"Does SOS count? Is...is that good?" asked Eddie. Hopper rolled his eyes at his comment.
"I do. I don't think Joyce does though." he replied.
"Morse code? You know about Morse code?" Steve asked me, raising an eyebrow.
"Shut up." I whispered to him.
"Okay, let's give this a try." said Hopper. He placed his hand, in and out of the glow, trying to give off signals of Morse code to Joyce.
"Look! There! See that, what is that?" her voice echoed.
"I don't know, mom." replied Jonathan.
"Isn't that like, oh what's it's called? When you talk in code?" she said.
"You mean Morse code?"
"Yes!"
"Yes!" we all exclaimed.
"Uh, I don't know Morse code. Maybe Will's friends do." said Jonathan.
"Yes! Go ask them!" she exclaimed. Hopper kept doing the signals in the glow, waiting to hear an answer.
"You know what he's saying? Since you know about Morse code." Steve teased me. I reached over and hit him in the chest with a frown. Steve just laughed.
"What's going on Mrs Byers?" said a new voice.
"Is that Dustin?" I asked.
"Look, there, the light! Is that Morse code? Is someone trying to talk to us?" Joyce asked.
"Oh shit! That is Morse code! Send...help. Send help is what they're saying! Is that you guys? Imogen, Steve?" Dustin asked.
"Yes!" I exclaimed.
"He's a god Damn genius." said Eddie.
"Okay, perfect." said Hopper as he coded 'yes'.
"What are the little shits doing there?" asked Steve.
"Holy shit, you guys are in the Upside Down? What are you doing at Mrs Byers?" asked Dustin.
"God this kid asks a lot of questions." moaned Hopper. I raised my eyebrows and nodded at him. Hopper coded the word 'stuck' to him.
"Is that them?" I heard Robin's voice.
"Are they all there?" I asked.
"Okay, uh, can you go back the way you came?" asked Dustin. Hopper coded 'guarded' to him. "Guarded. Shit, well, uh...Nancy! Come here a second!" Dustin shouted. I looked over at Steve with my lips slightly parted and saw his smile had faded after hearing that name.
"What?" I heard Nancy.
"Last time, when the Demogorgon attacked here, where did it come through?" asked Steve.
"He's so smart." smiled Beth.
"Yeah. Yeah he is." I replied with a small smile.
"Uh, it was the living room, left corner of the ceiling." she answered.
"Okay, I think we have a way to get you guys back to us! You just have to trust me!" shouted Dustin.
"Do you trust this kid?" Hopper asked with an eyebrow raised.
"Right now...with my life." I sighed. Hopper side smiled and then coded 'okay' to him.
"Okay, you're going to want to find something, anything, to pry open the left corner of the ceiling in the living room. We're going to do the same this side." explained Dustin.
"What?" questioned Beth. We shrugged at her. Hopper coded 'why'.
"Jesus Christ, how many times do I have to be right on the money before you guys just trust me!?" yelled Dustin.
"Kids gotta get his ego checked." said Steve.
"It's his tone, right?" joined Eddie.
"Okay. Let's just...do what he says. We can use the axe to get into the ceiling." I replied. We all headed into the living room and saw the corner of the room that Dustin was talking about.
"That's the corner the Demogorgon I battled came out of." Steve said to me. I gave him a smile with a frown, knowing he will never drop it. Hopper pushed over a small stool to under the ceiling and then stood up on it.
"Pass me that axe." he said to Steve. Steve handed the axe over to Hopper and then he began breaking away at the ceiling. As he chopped, pieces of the ceiling started to break away in clumps of black slime and there seemed to be what looked like a gate coming into view. The more Hopper chopped the wider the gap in the ceiling became, showing us it was a gate. Hopper dropped the axe and then began ripping into it with his hands, getting covered in the black slime.
"No way." Eddie whispered as we watched it become wider and wider and then some familiar faces came into view. I stepped forward and looked up and was surprised by the sight before me. I saw Jonathan Byers also chopping away on his side of the ceiling with Dustin, Robin, Max, Lucas, Mike Wheeler, Nancy Wheeler and Joyce Byers all stood there. But they were looking up at us as if we were the ones on the ceiling. How the Upside Down worked confused me.
"Holy shit, hi!" said Robin, waving at us. Hopper stepped down off the stool and stood with us, joining us with waving.
"Oh my god, Hopper! There you are!" called Joyce, shocked to see him.
"Yeah, here I am." he replied.
"I've been calling you!" she cried.
"Yeah, I was kind of stuck in here." he replied.
"Steve?" said Nancy.
"Yep...hi." said Steve, giving a small wave. I looked over at him, unsure on what was running through his head with seeing Nancy again. I knew they were still friends in a way, but she did hurt him.
"See! I told you I was right!" said Dustin, proudly.
"Okay, so, how're we doing this?" asked Hopper.
"I have a theory and because of the balance between our two worlds, it should work!" said Dustin.
"No more theories, just do it!" snapped Hopper.
"Okay, so I'm gonna need some rope or anything like rope!" said Dustin.
"There's rope in the shed. I'll go get it." said Jonathan.
"Perfect, also we'll need a mattress."
"Any?" asked Joyce.
"Yes! Any!" said Dustin, a little sarcastic.
"Come on, I'll help." Nancy said to Joyce as they wondered off into a bedroom.
"This is probably the trippiest shit I've ever seen." said Robin, looking at the gate with shocked eyes.
"This is cool." said Beth, standing next to me. I smiled at her comment. It was nice to see Beth not terrified for once.
"Okay, coming through." said Nancy as her and Joyce carried in a mattress and stuck it on the floor below the gate.
"I found the rope." said Jonathan as he came back in.
"Okay, so you're going to want to toss it up into the gate and if my theory is correct-"
"Just toss the damn rope." Hopper interrupted Dustin. Jonathan took a step back and began to swing the rope and then threw it up into the gate. The rope stayed perfectly balanced between our world and the Upside Down.
"No way." said Steve.
"I knew it!" smiled Dustin. "Give it a tug, see if she'll stay!"
"Uh...yeah, it's staying." I said, pulling on the rope.
"Okay, let's go now. Beth, up you get." said Hopper.
"See you on the other side." she said to us as she grabbed the rope. Hopper gave her a boost up and she began to climb. Just as she reached the crossover point, her hair fell upside down and she then dropped into our world on to the mattress. We looked up at her lying down and she looked relieved. "Holy shit. It worked." she said as Robin gave her a hand up and then hugged her.
"Okay, who's next?" said Hopper. Steve and I looked over at Eddie.
"Okay, guess I'll go." he said before next climbing up the rope and doing the same as Beth.
"Whoa! That...was fun, shit!" Eddie laughed as Dustin gave him a hand up.
"Come on princess, your turn next." Hopper said to me. I rolled my eyes at his comment and then grabbed a hold of the rope but then I suddenly thought of something.
"Wait...Billy. We didn't look for Billy." I said.
"What? Imogen...I don't think now is the time." said Steve.
"I'm sorry, Billy who?" asked Hopper.
"Hargrove. He was in a car crash and they can't find him anywhere. We thought he'd be in the same place as you. Trapped here." I explained.
"I didn't see or hear anyone else down here, are you sure?" said Hopper.
"Imogen, we need to get out of here. We can make a plan to look for Billy after we're safe." Steve tried to convince.
"What's going on up there?" Dustin called to us. I looked up at him.
"Are you just going to leave me, Imogen?" I heard a very familiar voice say. I looked back down and in front of me and saw a figure in a shadowed part of the house. I looked side to side and saw Steve and Hopper were gone. I then looked up and saw the gate was no longer there. I was by myself in the Upside Down with someone in the shadows. "After all this time, you'd just leave me like that." spoke the familiar voice. The figure stepped out from the shadows and my eyes widened at the sight.
"Billy." I whispered.
"Trying to figure out how to close the gate, are you?" he said, coming closer to me. Something seemed off with him. He spoke a lot more sinister than usual, as if someone was talking through him. I backed away until I hit the wall behind me. "The gate cannot be closed, Imogen. It has to stay open. For my plan." he continued.
"Plan? What plan?" I asked as he came in close and stopped right in front of me.
"I'm rising. And I can't afford to have anyone in my way." said Billy.
"You're not making any sense. What happened to you? What are you doing here?" I asked, confused and slightly scared.
"What happened to me? I was found. I was saved. I have become a weapon." he said to me. I looked at him still confused. I had no idea what was going on with him or how I was suddenly alone. "Tell her, Imogen." Billy started.
"What?" I asked.
"Tell her, we are coming. Tell her we cannot be stopped." said Billy.
"What? Who? Tell who?" I asked.
"Eleven." Billy spoke with a more monstrous voice. Billy raised his hand towards my face, except it wasn't his hand. It was a deformed, monster looking hand. It didn't belong to him. My eyes widened at it, feeling fear take over my body as it hovered above my face and then I felt myself fall back as if I was falling through the wall.
I burst my eyes open and found myself falling into Hopper's arms with Steve above me, looking worried out of his mind.
"Holy shit, Imogen! Imogen!" Steve said to me.
"Okay, okay, we got you, kid!" said Hopper as he laid me down. I began to gasp for air, darting my eyes around the room, looking at my surroundings. I was still in the Upside Down but with Steve and Hopper by my side. I looked up and the saw the gate with all my friends looking at me with worried expressions.
"Is she okay!?" I heard Max shout.
"She's back!" Steve replied to her.
"W-what'a going on?" I asked, dazed and confused.
"It was like you were having a seizure, kid. Your eyes rolled back into your head and you just stood there, unresponsive." explained Hopper.
"Like what happened to you in the gymnasium." said Steve.
"Whats going on?" Beth called to us. I slowly sat myself up and tried to recollect myself.
"Let's get her out of here first." said Hopper as he and Steve helped me to my feet. I didn't understand. How could I have visions of the Upside Down whilst I was in the Upside Down? What was wrong with Billy? Why did he mention Eleven?