eddie and steve were walking behind the rest of us.
i couldn't hear what they were saying, but i watched eddie throw his vest at steve and mutter something.
i realized they had fallen far behind.
"keep up asshats!" i yelled, not hearing their response.
the ground began to shake violently.
we were almost there.
we got into our house and looked around.
black, thick vines coated everything.
my hearing had started to come back.
nancy and steve had run upstairs, robin, eddie and i following.
nancy opened a shoebox and was surprised to see formal heels.
"those...aren't guns." eddie mumbled
"i don't understand.." nancy started.
"maybe they're somewhere else?" eddie suggested.
"there is a 6 year old in the house, i know where i keep my guns." she said firmly.
"but on top of that...i threw these shoes away years ago."
"nancy, you had those shoes in '83, you were studying chemistry in '83, you tore down this poster in '83. will went missing in the upside down in '83." i started listing.
"time froze when will came in." she realized.
"so you wouldn't have guns...but i might." i said, running down the hall to my room.
"you were 14 in '83 why the hell would you have a gun?" she yelled after me.
"i know where dads was, i found it by accident a few years back." i called, rummaging through moms closet and grabbing a hat box from the back.
i opened it to find it still with a hat inside it.
"i don't understand, it was here.."
"dad put it there after will went missing." she sighed.
"wait..."
"what?" she asked.
"if time froze in the upside down when will went missing.." i started.
"yeah?"
"jamie's still alive, and he still has charlie at this point."
"who's charlie?" eddie asked.
"her stuffed dragon. she gave it to jamie on their last day of middle school when he moved to some private school in the city."
"but it'd still be in his bedroom." i said, looking up at nancy.
"you can't. it's too risky to bring something like that back to the upper world." she shook her head.
"nancy it is all i have left of him, you know what his mom did to charlie after he died."
"what happened to the dragon?" eddie questioned.
"jamie's mom burnt it to a crisp. she didn't want any reminders of who killed her son." nance looked over at him.
"so jamie's still alive, and he still has charlie here, so why don't you go get charlie?" eddie asked.
"it's too risky." she shook her head.
"nancy please." i begged.
"no, ok? end of discussion." she glared at me, walking out of the room.
"dustin! dustin!" steve yelled from downstairs.
"dustin! can you hear me?" he yelled as we all ran downstairs.
"what the hell are you doing?" robin asked.
"he's here! henderson, that little shit. he's here, he's like...he's in the walls or something! just listen." he said, waiting.
"steve.." i said after a moment.
he went back to yelling before dustin's voice came faintly.
"dustin!" we all started calling, looking around.
"he can't hear us...will spoke to joyce with lights, maybe we need to do the same." i said, looking for a working lamp or switch.
i hit the kitchen switch and watched as the light glowed faintly.
nancy reached up and wafted her hand through it. the lights grew stronger.
we eventually all reached up, touching the light.
"does anyone know morse code?" nancy asked.
"i do." i nodded.
she glared at me like the next step was obvious.
"oh!" i realized, moving their hands out of the way and gently wafting my hand through the light particles.
... - - - ...
... - - - ...
i repeated, over and over again.
..- .. -. .. ..-. .-. . -.. / ... - - - ...
"winnie!"
a scream came through the walls.
-.- - . ...
"holly's litebrite, go get it, quick!" i yelled to nancy.
she ran and grabbed it, bringing it back.
we started shoving random colors into the board just to fill it.
the same light particles came up above the colourful board.
"seeing this?"
i waved my hand over it.
"we aren't moving it, we're just unplugging it. standby!"
"try it now!"
he said after a moment.
i used one finger to spell 'hi'
"that worked!"
"uhh....."
's'
't'
'u'
'c'
'k'
"stuck?"
"you can't get back through watergate?"
"the hell is-" steve started.
"it's in water and it's a gate." robin cut him off
'no'
'guarded'
"watergate's guarded? we might be able to help!"
"genius!" steve yelled.
"...murder site!"
"what?" robin asked.
"there's a gate at every murder site." i looked up at her.
'where'
'?'
"eddie's!"
'bye' i traced.
"we're frozen in time, but we've always had bikes?" i called.
we ran to the backyard and grabbed our old bikes, there were only 4 so i grabbed my skateboard and followed behind them.
we got to eddie's trailer about 10 minutes later.
"this one!" i yelled, running up to his place.
i opened the door and was greeted with a bright red gate.
"there's something in there." robin mumbled.
"that's like...right where chrissy died." eddie whimpered.
suddenly the gate broke open with a broomstick.
i stepped up to it and saw on the other side, the boys, max and erica smiling.
"eddie, where's your linen closet?" dustin yelled as max and lucas went to get his mattress.
"beside the kitchen."
the mattress flopped onto the floor.
"those stains are uh..."
"i don't know what those stains are." he mumbled.
"i do." i joked.
"ew!" nancy whined.
a few minutes later dustin returned with a string of bedsheets tied together.
he threw it up and it fell through the other side.
he pulled and pulled and it didn't budge.
"guess i'm the guinea pig." robin said, climbing the rope and falling onto the mattress.
"oh thank god." she smiled.
eddie went next, then nancy.
"winnie." a deep voice growled.
suddenly everything was quiet.
i whipped around, seeing steve frozen in place.
"what the-"
"winnie, it's time~" the voice said almost sweetly, trying to coax me.
"no, no no no! leave me alone you creepy bastard!" i screamed.
"where's the fun in that." a man appeared from thin air, covered in veins and gross things.
the lighting hue turned red.
"winifred, it's time." he smirked.
"no! no leave me alone!" i screamed, running into the kitchen and grabbing a knife.
"you think a knife will help you? don't make me laugh." he spat, walking toward me.
"stay back." i warned.
he only crept closer.
"stay back!" i screamed, holding the knife up.
he stood just out of reach.
"drop the knife, for your own sake." he said sweetly, reaching out to touch my cheek.
i was frozen.
i couldn't move.
"winifred wheeler. you haven't forgotten yet, have you?" he asked.
"forgotten what?" i asked, shivering.
"how you killed your best friend."
suddenly we were in the russian base again, jamie was infront of me on his knees, a guard with his gun to jamie's head.
"no! let him go!" i lunged forward.
i heard the shot, then i felt the blood spray.
"no!" i screamed, hard and high enough to make someone's blood curdle.
"i'm so sorry, but it's your turn now sweetheart." vecna spat.
"leave me alone!" i sobbed.
"tick tock winifred."
"tick tock."