It was a park in New York City. Not Central Park, of course. Dad and mom both detested tourists, so they insisted on taking us to one of the smaller, lesser-known parks in the city.
I felt a wave of unexpected tears spring to my eyes as a couple of little girls ran past us, their hands intertwined. The smaller of the two was Sara, who was younger than me by four years...it would've made her a year older than Dustin today. Her hair was tied up in pigtails, secured with the same deep blue hair band that now rested in the palm of my hand.
Standing beside her, laughing excitedly was an eleven-year-old me. Even then, I wasn't one for girly things. While Sara was wearing a dress and tights, topped off with her favorite coat to combat the chilly October weather, I was dressed in a thick sweater that was about two sizes too big for me, and a pair of worn out, tattered blue jeans. I wore beaten up converse on my feet, every available space filled with marker doodles.
"Is that you?" Steve questioned. I nodded slowly.
"So your powers are more than just the ability to see other people's memories," Dustin thought aloud, "You can show us your memories too."
"Its Troll's favorite food, Princess!" Dad growled, picking Sara off of the ground and pretending to eat her.
"No! Put her down, Troll!" I screamed, picking a stick up off of the ground and holding it out in front of me like a sword. Steve smiled, blissfully unaware of what would happen next.
"Even as a little kid you were taking on Monsters." He said, shooting me an amused look. It fell when he realized that my eyes were locked on the scene in front of me, my face frozen in a stern expression as the tears in my eyes threatened to fall.
"No Daddy, no! No Daddy!" Sara screamed gleefully.
"Roasted Princes with Paprika and Gravy!" He growled, continuing to pretend to eat her.
I lifted my stick again, preparing to say something else when suddenly Sara's laughter stopped. My mother came up beside us and Dad stopped playing as Sara looked straight ahead, suddenly gasping for breath.
"Sara?" I asked, letting the stick fall from my hand. I bit my lip as the tears finally rolled down my cheeks, reaching up and wiping them away as quickly as they'd appeared.
"Whoa, hey," Dad asked, "Hey, are you alright?"
"What's going on?" Mom asked, putting a hand on her leg. "What happened?"
"I don't know, I don't know."
"Daddy, is she ok?" I questioned as he sat her down on a nearby rock. She was looking around rapidly with wide eyes, her breathing coming out ragged and squeaky. I sat down beside her, rubbing her back.
"You alright? Whoa, whoa, whoa, relax, relax. Honey, honey. Honey, just breathe. Breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe. In and out, slow, slow, slow."
Sara looked over at the kid version of me, and I mimed what Dad was saying, using my hand to signal inhales and exhales.
"You're ok, Sara." I told her.
The park faded away then, quickly being replaced with a hospital room a few months later. Sara's beautiful blonde hair was gone, and My Dad and I were squeezed into the bed on either side of her. I had my arms wrapped around her, and she had her head on my shoulder as Dad had an arm around us both, a book open in his lap.
"Her hair," I said quietly, my voice wavering, "I remember how much she cried when it had started to fall out. She loved wearing pigtails ever since my Dad read her the book Pipi Longstocking when she was younger, so the idea that she wouldn't' be able to do that anymore was devastating to her." I looked down at the hair band in my hand again, glancing up to see the very same one, along with its partner, wrapped around my father's wrist. "Dad promised that he'd always keep them on him, so that when she got better, the very second her hair grew back, she could be Pipi Longstocking again."
Dad was reading Anne of Green Gables now, yet another iconic, red-headed pigtail-clad character that she had begged for him to read her. She had an oxygen tube in her nose, and was glancing over at me every time Dad read something that she liked so that she could smile brightly and see if I was smiling too.
Mom reached over from her chair beside us, grabbing my hand. I glanced over and she smiled lovingly, squeezing it tight.
"Mom always told me how proud she was of me," I explained, "She said that I was such a good bi sister, especially while Sara was sick, but...after she died I don't think she ever looked at me that way ever again."
Dad moved his head, kissing the sides of ours.
The memory shifted again, to me rushing down the stairs, only to skid to a stop when I found my Dad, crumpled in a pile in the corner of the stairwell, sobbing into his hands. I stepped away from the boys, moving so that I was standing beside my younger self...watching as the strong facade that he'd kept up so well crumbled before my very eyes.
"Daddy?" He jumped, moving his hands and looking up at me.
"Oh, Riles," He sniffed, wiping his eyes, "What are you doing down here?"
I just looked at him with wide eyes before walking over and sitting on the floor beside him.
"Its ok to be sad," I said, in my small, squeaky voice, "Are you crying out here because you don't want Sara to see?"
He looked surprised at this. I didn't respond, but instead, leaned my head on his arm.
"I'm sad too," I admitted quietly, "I don't want her to be sad though...maybe we can be sad for her together."
He started crying again, wrapping his arms around me and leaning his head against mine.
"I always took care of him after that," I told them, "My mom, she...she couldn't even look at me. At either of us. She said it was just a reminder that we had one less Hopper than we should so...she left. Dad and I moved back to Hawkins and he just...shut down. He stopped laughing or...caring...about anything. So naturally, my thought was-"
"Oh my gosh, just give it a rest!" My younger self screamed, yet another memory taking over, "Drop the 'concerned father' act and just admit it Dad!"
"Concerned father act?" He asked. "Its not an act, Riley! What am I supposed to be admitting, what's the big secret that's apparently so secret that I don't even know what it is I'm keeping?!"
"THAT YOU WISH I HAD DIED INSTEAD OF HER!" I screamed, tears welling up in my eyes. His face shifted but that was all. It was that lack of reaction that inspired my outburst. I nodded, backing away from him as the tears fell. "I knew it...I knew it!"
"Riles-"
"No...don't bother trying to deny it. Its not like I haven't always known, I'm just...thank you for the clarification." I turned around, grabbing my bag and slamming the back door open, taking off running down the street.
"Get back here! Riley! RILEY!"
"This was the night that I got taken into the upside down," I said, finally turning my head to look at the boys, "I guess...in a way, Sara and everything that happened with her is where all of this started. I just...I can't believe I said that to him."
"You were a kid," Dustin pointed out, drawing my gaze over to him, "You couldn't possibly have understood grief or what its like to lose a kid. All you knew was that suddenly you were taking care of your Dad, and not the other way around."
"That explains a lot, doesn't it?" Steve asked. I nodded, knowing he was thinking back to our numerous conversations suggesting exactly that a few years back.
"Yeah," I agreed, "I guess I just got used to it...old habits die hard and all of that. But I mean, most of that changed when-"
Dad and I's old trailer turned into the cabin in the woods, only rather than the home that the three of us had created for ourselves, it was full of boxes and cobwebs, just as it had been when we found Eleven.
The door opened and sure enough there we were, the three of us decked out in winter clothes as snow covered the ground. Dad kicked the doorframe, knocking snow from his boots and Eleven followed his lead, still dressed in the dirty pink dress that Mike had stolen from Nancy what seemed like ages ago.
"My Grandad used to live here," Dad said, taking his coat off before shutting the door behind him. He was dressed in his police uniform, adorned int he long-sleeved version of the shirt I was wearing now, "Long time ago. I mainly just use it for storage now."
He took his hat off, walking across the room and picking up a floral shoebox that said Sara on it. My heart sank as he pushed it under some random junk, outside of the gaze of my other self.
"Its like we just...forgot about her," I said, guilt filling me at that realization, "We just replaced her with El, I mean...I never mentioned her," I glanced over to Dustin, "I don't talk about her, I...barely even think about her anymore."
"You've had a lot on your mind the past few years." Steve argued. I shook my head.
"So uh...what do you think?" Dad asked, causing Eleven to look over at him. I stepped up behind her, putting my hands on her shoulders. She looked up at me questioningly. I just smiled, looking up at Dad.
"Its a little dingy." I pointed out.
"Its a work in progress," He admitted, "It takes a little imagination, but uh...once we fix it up, its gonna be nice. Real nice. This is your new home."
Eleven looked up at him.
"Home." She repeated, looking at me again. I smiled.
"Told you we'd be sisters."
I glanced over at the boys.
"Did I just...Did I really just replace Sara with El?"
"No." Dustin tried.
"Of course you didn't-" Steve started.
"Didn't I?"
"Riley," Steve moved in front of me, grabbing my shoulders again, "You lost your little sister, and your Dad lost one of his daughters. Both of you had...a hole in your hearts after she was taken from you. You had love to give but suddenly you didn't have anyone to give it to, and Eleven...she didn't have what you guys did. She didn't have a family, a Dad or a Big Sister to show her love or to keep her safe. You guys all filled a hole in each other's lives and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that."
You Don't Mess Around With Jim by Jim Croce started playing, and Steve moved beside me, watching as Eleven and I watched my father dance like a total dork.
"Oh no," I said, shaking my head and sharing a look with El, "That's...that's embarrassing."
"Embarrassing?" El questioned. I shook my head.
"Yup. Embarrassing. He's a Dad, its what they do."
"Alright," He said, clapping his hands together, "Let's get to work."
"Look how happy you all look," Dustin pointed out, "You all helped each other heal, and I don't think that's such a bad thing." I shrugged.
"Sara still deserved better." I said quietly.
"Ok, are we ready to go?" Eleven was standing in front of me now, at least a year older and wearing her Snow Ball dress. Despite the guilt that I still felt, I couldn't help but smile at the memory.
"Not yet, one more thing," Dad said, walking over to us. I raised my eyebrows and he grabbed Eleven's wrist, rolling one of the blue hair ties onto it, "If you could do me a favor kid, I'd really like it if you'd wear this."
"What is it?" She asked, touching it with her fingertips before looking up at him. He looked at me, and I looked back with a knowing expression. He nodded, reaching up and tucking the other hair band into his shirt pocket...the very same shirt that I was wearing at this moment.
"Its my daughter's," He said, looking down at her, "My other daughter. Riley's little sister, Sara."
"She...died?" Eleven asked, recalling the story that we'd told her. He nodded
"This belonged to her," He said, touching the hairband, "And now that you're a part of this family...I was hoping you'd take care of it. Carry a piece of her with you so it'll be like we're all here together."
She nodded.
"I would like that." She said, looking down at it. Dad looked up at me again, and I looked at myself to see more tears welling up in my eyes.
"I think that's a great idea." I told him. He nodded and I wiped my eyes. "Come on, let's go. We're already late."
The visions ended and we were standing in the hallway of the Creel house yet again, Dustin and Steve with their hands still on my arms. I reached up, wiping my eyes again.
"Sorry about that," I said, pulling a tissue out of my pocket and wiping the blood from my nose, "I wasn't expecting that...sudden trip down memory lane. I certainly wasn't expecting you guys to see it too."
"Are you ok?" Dustin asked. I nodded, sniffling as I looked down at the hair band again before rolling it over my hand and onto my wrist.
"Yeah...let's just keep looking, ok?" I suggested. Dustin nodded, leading the way down the hallway and giving Steve and I some space.
"You know," He said, causing me to look up at him, "I bet Sara would've really liked Eleven...and I bet she would've been really proud of you." I shook my head.
"I don't know about that," I admitted, "But maybe now, with this new power I can...make up for lost time, remembering her how she was." He nodded, putting a hand on my back and lightly guiding me down the hall. I let him, shining my flashlight around as I followed after Dustin.
~~~
We continued our search pretty much in silence after a glance at Dustin's watch confirmed that my flashbacks had only taken us one minute back in the real world. We didn't really say much else to each other until we walked down the hall and into a bathroom with Dustin leading the way, me in the middle, and Steve bringing up the back.
"Hey guys?" He asked.
"Yeah?"
"Could you maybe uh...clarify what sort of clues we're supposed to be looking for here?"
" 'The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes'." Dustin responded in a British accent. Steve looked at him with a confused look.
"Its a Sherlock Holmes quote." I told him, walking past them to investigate the bathroom. Dustin scoffed, walking in the other direction, walking into the connecting bedroom.
"That's great," Steve replied, "Great, really helpful, thanks."
I turned away from the shelf I was pursuing to look at him, only to find that his head was tilted to the side and he had his gaze fixed on a floor grate that was sitting by the toilet.
"What is it?" I asked.
"There's something shiny." He replied, crouching down in front of the grate and pulling it open. I crouched down beside him as he set it aside, reaching his hand down inside of the vent and pulling out a glass jar.
"What the heck?" I asked, looking inside the vent as he inspected the jar.
"Its a spider." He said, causing me to look at the jar.
"Spider..." I thought about this for a moment, "Wait, Spiders! Both in Fred and Max's nightmares-"
He cut me off by jumping in fear, dropping the jar to the floor and causing it to shatter as he swatted at his shoulder. I jumped away from it as he moved backwards, brushing his sleeves off with his arms to the point where he completely missed a cobweb that was sitting in the doorway to the hall. He backed right into it, breaking through it with the back of his head.
"Whoa, what's wrong?" I asked, leaning my axe against the wall and putting my hands on his shoulders so that I could survey his body.
"It was a spider," He said, looking around himself, "A black widow." He reached around me, pulling the bathroom door closed behind me. "Don't go back in there."
"So, I hate to tell you this," I said, causing him to raise his eyebrows, "But you backed into a cobweb on your way out the door and its all in your hair."
"What?" he rushed forward, looking in the mirror that was on the wall as he tried to detangle the webs.
"Hang on, just stand still, I've got it." I handed him my flashlight over his shoulder, putting a hand on his back as I started picking the cobweb strings from his hair.
"Thank you." He said.
"If there's a spider nesting in there, you're never gonna find it till it lays eggs and all the babies spill out." Robin's voice called as she and Nancy walked past us into the room at the end of the hall. I bit my lip to surprise a laugh.
"What's wrong with you?" He asked as she giggled, "Robin, seriously. She's got problems."
"Yeah, tell me about it." Nancy called from the end of the hallway.
"Its cool you two are friends now," He called back, "Maybe after we find Vecna, kill him, save the world and stuff, maybe we can all go out."
"And bring Jonathan when he's in town! It'll be just like old times, but better!" I added. They both chuckled and I grabbed Steve's shoulder, turning him to face me again as I finished with the webs. "There. You're all clear."
"You know..." He trailed off. "No, you know what? Never mind."
"What?" I asked, taking my flashlight from him. "What were you gonna say." He shook his head.
"Nothing really, its just..." He sighed. "As awful as everything was with Sara and your Dad," I nodded, looking down at my feet, "I think those things are what made you the way that you are. The way you take care of everybody and protect everyone...it was awful but at the same time it made you who you are."
"You know, I think you've mentioned that a time or two." I pointed out. I shrugged, nodding his head.
"Well its true," He said, "And as much as I wish all this stuff hadn't of happened to you...I love the person you are because of it." I smiled, reaching up and putting a hand on his face.
"I love you too," I replied, "And you know, the person I am today...you helped create her too, you know that right?" He shook his head.
"Nah. You were always like this. I know it now, and I knew it back then, in the hallway with Tommy and Carol." I smiled, moving and picking up my axe again. "But anyway, what were you going to say before I freaked out."
"Right!" I pointed at him before moving past him into Robin and Nancy's room, with him following not far behind, "Spiders!"
They looked up as I entered the room.
"What about them?" Robin asked, shining her flashlight in my face. I squinted, putting a hand in front of my eyes.
"Dude!' Steve scolded, putting a hand on my back and trying to shield the light from us both until she put it down.
"Spiders," I repeated, "Steve and I found jars full of spiders in the bathroom vent, like someone had been keeping them; preserving them, and that's interesting, because both Fred and Max's visions both included Spiders."
"Not Chrissy's?" Nancy questioned. I shrugged.
"I mean, I can only assume that my abilities have gotten stronger as we've gone on, so its verry possible that I didn't see everything that Chrissy saw." I explained. "But spiders being kept and preserved in the very same house as Vecna's first victims, along with the fact that spiders are present in the nightmares he creates? That can't be a coincidence."
"Maybe not," Nancy agreed, "But if its not a coincidence then...what does it mean? What does that tell us?"
I thought about this for a moment, before my excited smile fell.
"I have no idea," I admitted, "At least, not yet. But as soon as I figure it out..."
I trailed off as my hair stood on end again, only it felt significantly weaker than it had the last time I'd felt it.
"Do you feel something again?" Steve asked.
"Feel something?" Robin asked. I held up a hand, leaving the room and going back into the hallway. The feeling persisted, getting progressively stronger the further away I moved from the others.
"Riley?" Nancy called. I could feel their footsteps following me, but I didn't stop. I slowly began to feel colder, and more on edge as I reached the stairs, rushing down them until I came to a stop in the center of the hallway. I paused, the feeling hitting me like a ton of bricks when suddenly the chandelier above my head began to blink. I slowly looked up at it as Nancy, Robin, Steve, and Dustin ran down the stairs, and Max and Lucas ran in from the other room.
"Something is here." I told him, pointing up at the lights. "Its moving in the Upside Down. I can feel it."
"Its like the Christmas lights." Nancy said, looking up at the chandelier. I nodded in agreement.
"The Christmas lights?" Robin asked.
"Yeah, when Will was in the Upside Down, the lights...came to life." Nancy told her.
"But that was different," I pointed out, "With Will, he was triggering the lights on purpose, but this? This is more like-"
"Your Dad and Joyce," Steve finished for me, "You pointed that out the first time, that the lights were following them here when they were in the Upside Down." I nodded.
"Vecna's here," Lucas concluded, "In this house. Just on the other side."
The light from the Chandelier faded, and I let out a deep breath as my feeling faded.
"I think he just left the room."
"Did he hear us?" Max questioned.
"He could have," I admitted with a nod, "When you're in the Upside Down, its...its hazy, but sometimes you can hear people talking in our world. There's a good chance he knows that we're here."
"Headphones." Lucas told Max. She did as he said.
"Can he see us?" Steve asked. I shook my head.
"Unless he possesses some supernatural ability that I didn't...no, I don't think so." I confirmed.
"Wait, wait, everyone turn off your flashlights and spread out." Nancy instructed. We all did, spreading out throughout the first floor.
"We're not gonna be able to see if we turn off our flash...lights." Steve reasoned. We all ignored him and I started walking around, trying to pay attention to my body to see if I could feel anything.
"I got him!" Robin shouted. "I got him, I got..." We all flocked to her just as her flashlight faded to black again, "I...I had him."
Just as she said this, my hair stood on end again and a shiver passed through me as Steve's flashlight lit up beside me.
"Oh, I think he's moving," Steve said, "He's moving! He's moving!'
He began walking in an attempt to keep his light shining, and I moved slightly in front of him as my physical sensations began to increase once again. We walked down the entryway hallway and up the stairs onto the second floor, only to have the flashlight shut off again.
"Crap. I lost him."
"Wait," I said, glancing at the doorway across from us, "I know this place...from Victor's memories, this should be the door to the attic."
I rushed forward, pulling it open only to get hit with a powerful sensation, as well as causing my own flashlight to light up. I started up the stairs with all the others following closely behind me.
"Its an attic," Robin mumbled, "Of course its an attic."
"Wait guys, what if he's leading us into a trap?" Dustin asked from the bottom of the stairs. I shook my head.
"The lights are more powerful when they're being triggered intentionally. This is gentle, like with Joyce and My Dad." I called over my shoulder.
As we entered the attic, I saw that the lightbulb in the center of the room, the one that I'd seen Victor turn on in his flashback, was blinking softly. We all gathered around it, when suddenly Dustin's flashlight started going off too.
"Flashlights." He told us. We all turned on our flashlights, which began to blink along with the lightbulb as we all formed a circle around it. Once we did though, my blood ran cold.
"Wait," I said, my heartbeat accelerating, "Something is wrong."
"What do you mean?" Lucas asked. I shook my head.
"I just have a feeling...its the one I get just before-"
The chiming of the clock echoed in my head, quickly followed by images of yet another body flying into the air. It was dark, and the person was outdoors, so I couldn't really see who they were, but sure enough their bones bean to snap just like all of the others before they went plummeting back towards the ground.
I managed to notice the sound of splashing after the body fell, only to be jerked out of my vision by a sharp pain on my face. My eyes jerked open and I looked around to see that the lightbulb in the attic, as well as all of our flashlights had exploded, and one of the shards had cut my cheek.
"Vecna just killed someone," I called into the dark, not knowing for sure where anyone was, "Vecna chose to kill someone else."