"Will!" She shouted, but he didn't turn around. So she sprinted towards him like it was home base, faster than she had ever run in any softball game.
As she approached him, she could see him screaming desperately at something.
"Go away! Go away!"
When Caroline turned to see what he was screaming at, she realized she was in the Upside Down.
She started to cry out of fear and pain, her brother half a football field away, too far for her to reach. Her feet were rooted in the spot, seeming to reach down, down, down...
She remembered what Bob had said in the car that morning, a million years ago.
"Go away. Go away!"
The monster began to lower itself closer down to the ground, black tendrils swirling towards her.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"And then it was gone. Just like that."
"GO AWAY!" Caroline screamed, louder than she had ever screamed in her life. It felt like her throat was tearing itself apart, every molecule of her body joining in desperation.
The tendrils swept towards her face. She opened her mouth to scream again, and suddenly everything was black.
GO AWAY-
She felt the monster, choking her as it entered inside of every pore, through her nose and mouth and ears and eyes, suffocating. It overwhelmed her senses as the monster molded itself inside her, lining itself with her very soul.
go away go away go away go away go away-
The screeching from the monster was deafening, and it seemed to last for eternity. Until finally, it had fulfilled its purpose. The work was done.
And then Caroline Byers woke up.
Thoughts were whirling around her brain a million miles and hour. She knew things now.
Things she would never be able to forget.
Her head pulsed with pain, a dull ache aggravated by the tiniest things; the buzzing of the light hanging over the dining room table, the engine of a car driving down the road a football field away.
"Baby, what happened?" Her mother snapped her out of her thoughts with her gentle tone. It was warm and familiar, but now sounded... annoying, to Caroline.
"I can't remember," WIll insisted as his mother continued to pester.
