since no one wanted to take up meadow's walking offer, they all grabbed nancy and mike's bikes from the garage. eddie then directed them to his trailer, and they were hoping that they'd meet dustin, erica, max, and lucas waiting for them on the other side.
"that's gotta be a guinness world record." robin said as they dropped the bikes. "most miles traveled inter dimensionally."
steve coughed. "i just inhaled a bunch of that crap. it's stuck in my throat." he complained.
the trailer, at first, looked like the rest of the upside down, but then they all focused on the glowing red hole on the ceiling of the living room.
"this is where chrissy died." eddie said. "like, right where she died." he looked over at meadow. "you and the other henderson were right, then, about the gate.. portal, things."
"i think there's something in there." robin then mumbled, watching as something prodded at it. suddenly, the gate burst, and everyone screamed. steve pulled meadow away from it, and she grabbed onto his arms.
"it's dustin. right. it's dustin." she said, watching as it was opened by something. she and steve walked over to the opening, and sure enough, dustin stood under them. for them, dustin, erica, lucas, and max appeared upside down, and they were looking through the ceiling and onto the floor.
robin smiled. "holy shit, this is trippy." she said as dustin laughed.
"bada-bada-boom!!" he grinned triumphantly.
lucas and max carried eddie's mattress into the room, preparing to use it as a landing pad. "those stains," he said about it, "are, uh.. i dunno what those stains are."
meadow nodded. "mhm."
"not quite sure how these physics are gonna work." dustin said, grabbing a makeshift rope that erica had made out of eddie's towels. "but, uh.. here goes nothing."
when he tossed the rope through the hole (for him, towards the ceiling), it dropped through what was the ceiling for the others.
"and, if my theory is correct.." dustin let go of the rope, and it remained suspended midair. "huh. abracadabra."
meadow smiled, looking up at it. "holy shit."
her brother looked down at her (or, up, for him). "all right, pull on it! see if it holds!" robin pulled at the rope, and it didn't move at all.
"this is the craziest shit i've ever seen in my life." erica laughed. "and i've seen some crazy shit."
robin, who was already holding the rope, grunted. "guess i'm the guinea pig." she said, jumping onto the rope to climb up it. once she passed the ceiling, however, she was going in upside down, and dropped onto the mattress. "thank god." she smiled when she landed. "that was fun."
eddie followed her out, dropping much less gracefully, but with an equally excited smile on his face. "that.. was fun. oh shit."
nancy followed him out, and then meadow and steve looked to each other, the last two in the other dimension. "ladies first." he suggested with a smile.
"see you on the other side, right?" she replied.
he nodded. "see you on the other side."
when meadow climbed up the rope, though, she suddenly found herself falling endlessly. she grasped at the nothingness of air in front of her, screaming as she plunged further and further until she landed with a hard thud on the ground.
she got to her feet, looking around and realizing that she was stuck somewhere.. somewhere else. it seemed as if there was nothing for miles, and she shook her head. "no, no, shit!" she cursed, realizing that she was under one of vecna's spells.
meadow looked next to her, and almost fell backwards as she saw steve, but he was clearly dead. his body was rout with maggots, and his eyes were sunken in. "that's not real." she told herself. "it's not real." she repeated when she saw dustin laying beside him, as well as the rest of her friends and family.
"you cannot save them." a distinct voice echoed. "you are the reason those around you suffer."
she looked up, hoping she'd see whatever it was, but it didn't show its face. instead, it showed her a memory. a memory of her father slapping her, of dustin crying in her room. she watched as all of her friends, in this hypothetical world, died, and how each of them was her fault.
"it is your fault that he left." the voice repeated, showing her more images of her father.
meadow put her hands to her head, shaking it violently. "that's not true, and none of this is real!" she screamed.
"then why are you so frightened?" suddenly, she saw it. vecna was approaching her. his body looked so similar to the demogorgon that she almost wanted to laugh, to spit in its face and tell it that it wasn't as scary since it didn't have big teeth. but his eyes were a haunting blue, and his fingers were long and pointed as he walked closer to her. "let it all go. surrender."
"no." she shook her head.
"they aren't your friends. they will leave you, too." vecna assured her.
"fuck you."
what meadow couldn't see or hear was steve's absolute panic. "meadow? meadow? m?" he asked, looking over at her. "no, no, no! not now! shit!" he shouted, placing his hands on her shoulders. "meadow, please, come back to me. please.. shit!"
"meadow!" dustin screamed, moving as if to climb the rope to be with her, but eddie held him back.
max looked up at the scene (which was upside down for her). "what's her favorite song? does anyone-"
"no, i don't know her favorite song, she always switches the channel over from any song i actually know." steve said, tears threatening to spill from his eyes as he looked into her lifeless ones.
eddie hadn't been there when nancy and robin uncovered the secret to surviving vecna, and so he was confused by all of this. "she told me, i don't know if it's her favorite of all time, or anything, but she likes fade to black. metallica."
lucas turned to him. "okay, do you have it on.. on a mixtape, or something? a cd, even?"
he shook his head. "nah, nah, man. i can play it, though."
"then get your goddman guitar, man." dustin said through his tears, looking up at his sister, who was still paralyzed.
eddie ran off to get it, strumming the intro solo that he and meadow had talked about previously.
"play louder." robin mumbled.
"shit, dude, it's an electric, how loud do-" eddie stopped when max plugged the guitar into his amplifier. "okay, yeah. let's do this." he played the intro again, and steve stared into meadow's eyes.
"come on, come on. you got this." he mumbled, his hands back on her shoulders.
meadow, still in the presence of vecna, heard the distant sound of a guitar. she turned her head, as if she could find the exact spot it was playing from. "this cannot be real, i cannot stand this hell i feel." she said, quoting the song as she recognized it. "damnit, eddie." she smiled.
she could feel vecna's hand reaching out towards her, but she ran, moving through the empty area with the sounds of eddie's guitar echoing her footsteps. meadow eventually saw an opening, the only crack of light in the darkness, and sped towards it.
when meadow's eyes opened, she gasped for air. "holy shit." she panted, falling into steve's arms. eddie stopped playing, a triumphant smile on his face as everyone else cheered.
"oh, my god, oh my god." steve said, pulling her into his arms. "please do not do that.. ever.. again."
she smiled, remembering when she'd said that to him only an hour or so prior. "it wasn't by choice." she said, repeating his words.
"i thought i lost you." steve said, his hands on her cheeks. "i thought you were gone, i thought i really lost you-"
meadow shook her head. "steve, i'm okay. i'm okay, i promise." she rested her forehead on his, and he pulled her body closer to his.
"you know," he said after a moment, "this is a lot like our first kiss." he said, recalling the last time they'd been the last two stuck in another dimension, a looming hole above them, and close to a near imminent death. he ran his thumb over the small scar by the edge of her forehead, right next to her hairline, that she'd received on the bus those two years ago, the same night he'd admitted to falling for her.
"yeah, you're right." she replied. "we really have to stop getting into his same situation, don't we?" she joked, making them both smile.
steve shook his head. "i mean, i'm okay with it, honestly, if it means i get to kiss you."
meadow rolled her eyes. "shut up, that's so stupid, no." she laughed.
"no, i'm serious!" he replied, looking down at her. "truly, it is worth it, it is- it's like.. a reward. for the trauma that will certainly.. ensue-"
"oh, shut up, harrington." meadow said, pulling him down by the collar of the jacket he wore. their lips collided and steve smiled, holding her close to him.
they broke apart, and were thankful to see that everyone above (below?) them had looked away. "that is disgusting, steve. my sister nearly dies, and the first thing you want to do-"
dustin stopped talking when meadow plopped onto the mattress, quickly followed by steve. he tackled his sister, who laughed. "hey, i'm good, i'm okay."
"you can't scare me like that." he mumbled into her shoulder, his arms wound tightly around her neck.
the siblings broke apart, however, when eddie looked over at nancy. "hey, guys, you wouldn't happen to know her favorite song, would you?" he asked. sure enough, nancy's eyes had glossed over, and she had been taken over by vecna.
"shit." meadow said.
wires part three, volume two, july 2nd 2022.