so close, yet so far // jancy

Chapter 8

Will woke up, gasping and crying so hard he couldn't breathe. He felt dizzy; the room was spinning and getting smaller. He had seen it so clearly. The mind flayer got Jonathan; he had walked right into its trap.

It's all my fault...

Will began to choke on air from sobbing so much.

"Mom! Mom!", he tried to say, but no words came out. Instead, he banged on the wall to get her attention. Joyce came running into his room seconds later.

"Will, honey! What's wrong?!"

He just hugged her; he still couldn't breathe properly. After she calmed him down, he felt as though he could talk.

"It's Jonathan", he hoarsely said. "He's gone." He burst into tears again, but this time he screamed at how much the pain hurt. His heart ached so bad; he thought he was going to have heart failure.

Joyce looked at Will with complete fear in her eyes.

"What?"

"Mom he's gone! Jonathan is gone! He went to the lab, and now he's gone! He went through the gate. The mind flayer got him!"

Joyce broke down crying, but then stopped, trying to hold herself together.

"Are... are you sure?"

"Yes! I saw him in another episode! Nancy was there trying to pull him away but he walked into it! The mind flayer got into his head and told him to go into the gate. It's all my fault!"

Joyce sprang up, grabbing Will's hand.

"Let's go."

"Mom it's too dangerous for you! What if it gets you too?"

"We need to go to the lab this instant!"

With that, they ran to the car. Joyce hit the gas, and sped all the way until they got to the lab. She grabbed bolt cutters from her trunk, and snapped open the gate. She drove through it, and skidded to a stop at the front entrance. They saw the glass opening, and dashed through it. They ran down the stairs, and down the hall to the gate.

"Get back, Will."

Will noticed Nancy lying on the ground, unconscious.

"Mom! Look!"

Joyce followed Will's gaze, and she immediately rushed to Nancy's side. She tried shaking her awake, but she remained still. Joyce took her pulse, and it was steady.

"Let's go now!", Will yelled.

"We have to find Jonathan!"

"Mom if we don't leave now, we will too be pulled into the gate, or at least I will. Let's leave!"

Joyce picked up Nancy, and they ran outside, catching their breath. She set Nancy lying down in their car.

"Will, where's Jonathan? I need to find him!"

Will sat down, crying again. "The mind flayer got into his head, and told him to go through the gate. He's in the upside down."

"Is he alive? Please god tell me he's alive."

"He's alive."

"How much time does he have?"

"Time isn't the issue."

"What? Then what's the issue?"

"The mind flayer took Jonathan because it knows that Jonathan's my weakness. It knows that I love him with all my heart. Since I refused to go into the gate and join it in the upside down, it took Jonathan as sort of punishment towards me. It's going to keep Jonathan until... until I go into the gate."

Joyce felt sick; she had no idea what to do.

"So you're saying that if you don't go into the gate, Jonathan is stuck in there?"

Will nodded.

"What happens if you go through the gate?"

"I'll be the mind flayer's helper."

"Helper?"

"It needs me."

Joyce stifled a cry. "Will, sweetie! Why does it... need you? Why can't it just leave you alone?!"

"I'm connected to it in no other way any other person is. It's like... I'm apart of it. It can't go on without me. It needs me."

They sat in silence for a moment, mainly because Joyce was speechless.

"Will?"

He looked at her; his face raw from crying.

"Is there any other way? To have Jonathan back without you going in there?"

"Not that I know of."

"Well, what happens if we take time to try and think of something. Like a plan? Will Jonathan be okay in there if we take some time to do that?"

"He's fine. He's not being hurt, but I know that he will be terrified."

"Okay, here's what we're going to do. We are going to take Nancy to the hospital, we're going to contact her parents with some sort of explanation, and when she wakes up, we will ask what happened. Once she tells us, then we'll go from there. Sound good?"

Will nodded.

"Come on, let's go to the hospital."

Joyce helped Will up and into the car. She drove to the nearest hospital, and rushed in with Nancy. They took her immediately and put her in a room. A doctor came in and looked her over. He concluded that she is just fine; she should wake up in no more than day.

Joyce called her parents and said the truth, but in a simpler way that had some lies to it. She told them that she woke up to find Jonathan's bed empty, and a note that said "I'm with Nancy at the lab, I'm fine don't worry". She told them that she rushed over, to find Jonathan missing and Nancy lying on the ground, unconscious. That was all she said.

Karen and Mike rushed over quickly, and they sat next to Nancy's bed. They asked a lot of questions, but Joyce answered with the same answer — "I don't know why they were in the lab."

She told them that she hoped Nancy woke up soon, and she left with Will to go talk to Hopper. She needed him right now; he understood her.

..........................

Jonathan's eyes flickered open, and he rubbed his head. He slowly got up, realizing he was in the upside down. He started to panic; he felt tears rolling down his cheeks.

What happened? How did I get here? Where's Nancy?

He looked around desperately for her.

"Nancy! Nancy! Where are you?"

He ran up the stairs and outside. There wasn't a soul in sight, not even the mind flayer. Jonathan felt his world crashing down; he was stuck here. He sat down against the outside lab wall, and he sobbed for hours.