Don't Blame Me ➵ Steve Harrington

sixty two

As Dylan got closer, Barb contorted into something else, something evil and inhumane. A zombie like version of her sister. "You could've saved me," it said. "But you were selfish, like always, you had to go get drunk and fuck Billy instead."

Hearing those words from something that even resembled her sister, knocked the wind out of Dylan's chest.

"No, no—" Dylan protested.

It was no use. The monster that had taken the form of Barb began to chant selfish, selfish, selfish... over and over. It was soon joined by an apparition of Billy that began to chant slut, slut, slut, louder and louder.

Dylan covered her ears but it was no use; the voices were too loud.

She let out a loud shriek and repeated "please, stop," but the voices didn't care.

She continued to cover her ears. Suddenly, she remembered the muffled sound of her favourite song, and while it had gotten quiet in comparison to the screeching of late sister and Billy, hearing it at all eased her anxiety.

Dylan shut her eyes tight and began to sing along to the words in her head.

I saw you this morning, I thought you might like to know

I received your message in full a few days ago

I understood every word it said—

When she opened them again, she was back in Eddie's trailer. She let out a breath in relief.

"You're scaring us, Dyl." Jonathan was still knelt by her side. "That was really close together and the song—"

"It helped," she said. "I couldn't hear it for a while. But I found it again."

Dustin ran to her and fell into her lap, wrapping his arms around her neck. "Jesus, Dyl. Jonathan was right. That was scary as hell."

Dustin let her go. "Do you remember what you saw earlier, about Steve?"

She shook her head.

"Alright, alright," Dustin stood and put a hand on his hip. "I thought this whole alternate timeline needed to fall onto the back burner but it seems it's starting to take precedence. What do we know about plane shifts?"

"There's not much." Eddie shrugged. "If a creature is banished to another plane of existence, it needs to find its way back on its own. There's no counter spell once the spell has been cast."

Dustin nodded. "Dylan, do you remember anything about this? Can you remember when things started to change?"

She shook her head.

It fell quiet again, until Erica, hand on her hip stepped into the front of your group. "All you freaks do is brag about how good you are at D&D, but am I the only one here with a brain?"

All of them exchanged a glance, not knowing how to respond.

"There is a counter spell." She elaborated. "You'll need a forked metal rod, attuned to the proper frequency for the plane of existence you want to shift to."

"In the game, this is done with magic, but when I think about it — the frequency is probably related to electricity here on this plane," Erica continued as if what she was saying made any sense. Dylan tried to follow. "I'd say if we were to surge the rod with a 60Hz alternating current, the average electrical frequency used in the U.S. on this plane, then they could shift back."

"But that's also enough to kill a person and touching a metal rod that's been shocked with electricity basically gives the current a direct path to your heart."