More Than The Upside Down - An IT (2017) & Stranger Things Crossover

Motherly Instinct

Joyce

"You know maybe we should check on the kids," Joyce worried, taking a drag of her lit cigarette.

"They probably just need some time to figure stuff out," Her son advised.

"It's been fifteen minutes Jonathan," Joyce began to get out of her chair. "I'm checking on them."

But she didn't need to. For as she said those words, Dustin, Lucas, Eleven and Nancy all walked in with their heads held down and a wolf silently following them from behind.

Joyce heard the chair beside her grate against the floor as Hopper whipped out his gun and pointed it to the wolf.

The gun clicked as he shouted, "Get over here! Now!"

They all raised their hands in a flurry and stood in front of the wolf.

"Don't shoot it!" Dustin implored.

Nancy pleaded with Hopper, "It's Mike! I know that sounds crazy, but trust me, it is him!"

"Just please don't shoot him," Lucas begged.

Hopper frowned in scepticism but lowered his gun nonetheless, "Alright, but one of you needs to tell me what the hell is going on."

"Trust me, we don't know ourselves." Dustin babbled. "One minute he's on the ground screaming and the next he's a wolf."

"That's probably how they experimented on Ronald," Nancy added.

"Richie," Dustin corrected.

Joyce joined in, "Speaking of the others, have you seen them?"

Lucas shook his head, "We thought they were with you."

Joyce nodded in acknowledgement and began to walk off to the bathroom, "I'll be right back."

She could feel her mouth begin to grow dry as she headed towards the bathroom that Richie walked off to in the first place. Joyce could hear the faint murmurs of the kids from the door as well as the heavy stench of blood. She almost gagged upon smelling it but pushed through by knocking lightly on the door. Her worry was stronger than her disgust at the smell.

"Hey, are you guys okay in there?" She babbled.

A copious amount of swears came from combined voices through the door. A louder voice boomed through the others as it chimed in, "Th-They're gonna find out s-s-sooner or later. I-I-It's best to be honest."

And with that, the door opened hesitantly.

The kids were surrounding Mike's lookalike Richie, who was hunched over the sink. Joyce walked over and rested a hand on the boy's shoulder, which was freezing to the touch.

"Richie sweetie, what's wrong?" She asked the younger boy.

Richie turned around and caused Joyce to cover her widening mouth with her hand. His eyes were a scarlet red and canines were elongated and stained with blood. His skin was a sickly pale and his ears and nails were pointed at the tips.

"Oh, my gosh," Joyce whispered breathlessly. "What's happened to you?"

Joyce's motherly instinct to circle her arms around Richie and hug him until everything was okay overwhelmed her. This counted for the other kids as well. They had been through so much in such a short amount of time and her chest panged painfully at the thought. She wanted nothing more in the world for these kids to be home and safe in their beds. Especially her youngest son, Will.

Richie began to scratch at his back as his skin returned to its normal colour. His eyes turned to their original colour and his ears and nails lost their points. Nevertheless, Richie continued to scratch at his back until blood welled from his scabs.

"Honey don't do tha-" Joyce began.

She was interrupted by a pair of white wings bursting from Richie's back. Joyce jumped back with a gasp before gawking at them.

"What have they done to you poor kids?" She mumbled to herself. The fact that these children had been experimented on sickened Joyce from her stomach, all the way down to her toes, where it eventually leaked onto the floor.

"Th-Th-This is the s-s-second time it's happened, Mrs-Mrs Byers," The tallest of the boys managed to say through his heavy stutter.

"Well whatever they've done to you, we're gonna make them pay. And I swear to God we'll give you all the help you need to cope with this," She responded determinedly.

The kids nodded silently in reply.

Joyce then turned back to Richie, "C'mon we've got to figure out a plan to track these goddamn awful people down. And find my son."

And with that, she began to storm out of the room before turning back, "Oh, and be careful with those wings sweetie. We don't want them to get caught on anything."