💔💔
THIS PLACE LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE HAWKINS, ONLY CREEPIER.
FLASHES OF RED LIT UP THE SKY.
Isadora slowed to a stop for a moment and watched as the sky turned red before she looked towards Billy as the two of them ran as fast as they could to find where Steve and their friends had gone. Isadora had no idea what they were to expect but they soon found Steve, and Isadora stopped running as she saw the bats attacking him.
"Steve!" Kendra cried, as she hurried towards Steve and Isadora watched in horror as the bats focused their attention on the group, and the blonde pulled Billy's jacket off and used it to protect herself.
"Here, Is, try this instead," Billy said, as he passed her a stick he'd found lying nearby. Isadora nodded as she tied the jacket around her waist and then used to stick to knock a bat away from Steve, who turned to look at her.
"Hi there, Steve. We thought you might need some back-up," Isadora grinned and Billy watched his girlfriend in admiration, as she hit another bat with the stick, strands of her blonde hair covering her face as she looked up and saw the flashes of red lighting up the sky.
"Is, watch out!" Billy yelled, as a bat flew towards Isadora and bit into her, and Billy hurried to help her, grabbing the bat that was attacking her and tearing it half with his bare hands.
"Thank you," Isadora nodded before noticing Steve biting one of the bats that had been attacking him and as the bat died, Isadora saw the blood dripping from his mouth and she grimaced.
"Are you okay, Love?" Billy asked, as he gently put a hand on Isadora's back and she turned her attention towards him.
"Yeah, I'm okay, I think. Thank you for helping me," Isadora smiled at him.
"I think is not very reassuring, but I'll always help you, Is," Billy said, as he kissed her forehead.
"I promise I'm fine," Isadora said.
"You're bleeding, Steve," Kendra said from behind them and Isadora turned to see Kendra was running her fingers over Steve's stomach.
"Are you okay?" Isadora asked, as she and Billy joined their friends.
"They took about a pound of flesh, but other than that, yeah, never better," Steve said.
"Uh, do you guys think these bats have like rabies?" Robin asked.
"What?"
"It's just that rabies are like my number one greatest fear and I think we should probably get you to a doctor like really soon because once the symptoms set in, it's too late. You're already dead," Robin babbled. Billy looked over at Isadora, who furrowed her eyebrows together as she looked at the bite mark on her shoulder.
"Robin, I think you're scaring Is," Billy said. At that moment, the sound of chittering creatures caught their attention and the group looked over to see more bats heading in their direction. Isadora watched on as the creatures flew towards the group and landed a short distance away from them.
"All right, there's not that many. We can take them," Steve said.
"I definitely don't think we can take all of them," Billy said, as he gestured towards the swarm of bats heading towards them.
"Oh, no," Isadora said.
"The woods, come on," Nancy said. The group nodded before Kendra and Billy helped Steve as the group hurried into the woods, where Isadora hoped that they would be safe from the bats. Around the group, flashes of red lit up the sky and Isadora felt shivers run down her spine as she followed her friends.
"This is the Upside Down?" Billy asked, once the group was safely hidden under a rock.
"Yeah, this is it," Nancy said.
"And those bat things are trying to make sure we can't use the gate to get back out?" Billy asked.
"Y-Yeah," Isadora nodded before grimacing as she shakily sat down and Billy looked towards her and noticed she looked rather pale, so he put a hand on her thigh and squeezed gently.
"Princess, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm just a little sore. Hey, Robin was kidding about the whole rabies thing, right?" Isadora asked him quietly.
"Yes, she was just kidding, Love," Billy told her, as he squeezed her thigh reassuringly. Isadora nodded before looking over to see Steve stumbling.
"S-Shit."
"Steve?" Kendra asked.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," Steve tried to reassure her.
"No, you're not, you're losing blood. Ok, sit down," Kendra told him, as Robin join them.
"So, the good news is I'm pretty sure wooziness is not a common symptom of rabies, but if you start having hallucinations or muscle spasms, or you start feeling really aggressive, like you wanna punch me, let me know," Robin said.
"Robin."
"Yeah?"
"I kinda wanna punch you."
"Sense of humour's still intact, that's a good sign," Robin laughed. Meanwhile, Kendra worked on carefully ripping the bottom of her shirt off before she looked towards Steve.
"You ready?" '
"Yeah, just do it, Kenny," he said. As Kendra worked on bandaging Steve's wound, Isadora noticed Eddie was pacing around and she looked towards him.
"So, uh, this place is like Hawkins, but with monsters and nasty shit?" Eddie asked.
"Pretty much. Wait, watch out for the vines. It's all a hive mind," Nancy said.
"It's all a what?" Isadora asked.
"All the creepy crawlies around here, they're like one or something. You step on a vine, you're stepping on a bat, you're stepping on Vecna," Steve explained to Isadora, who nodded.
"Right."
"So, no stepping on vines?" Billy asked.
"Correct," Kendra nodded.
"But everything from our world is still here, right? Except people?"
"As far as I understand it, yeah."
"So, theoretically, we could go to the police station and steal guns and grenades and whatever we need to blow up those bat things that are guarding the gate?" Robin asked.
"I mean I highly doubt the Hawkins PD has grenades, Robin, but guns, yeah, sure," Steve said.
"Well, we don't have to go all the way downtown for guns. I have guns in my bedroom," Nancy told the group.
"What?" Billy asked.
"You, Nancy Wheeler, have guns, plural, in your bedroom?" Eddie asked.
"Full of surprises, isn't she?"
"A Russian Makarov and a revolver."
"Yeah, you almost shot me with that one," Steve said.
"She did?" Isadora asked, as she looked towards Nancy.
"You almost deserved it," Nancy told Steve, and Isadora looked between the two of them before looking towards Kendra, who mouthed that she would explain later and Isadora nodded, but she wondered why Nancy had almost shot Steve.
"For your modesty, dude," Eddie said, as he threw his jean jacket at Steve. All of a sudden, there was a loud rumbling and as the ground shook beneath them, Isadora stumbled and fell back against Billy, as the Upside Down was rocked by some kind of tremor. Billy caught a hold of her and held her, and as the tremor stopped, Isadora sat up straight and looked towards her friends.
"Yeah, so guns seem like a pretty good idea to me," Eddie said.
"Me too," Billy nodded, as he held his hand out to Isadora and helped her stand up.
"So, what are we waiting for?" Steve asked, as he pulled the jacket on that Eddie had given him before pulling a flashlight out before he started walking in the direction of where Nancy's house was located. Isadora looked between Nancy and Kendra, both whom shrugged before they all started following Steve. As the group walked, Nancy fell in step with Kendra and Robin, while Eddie went to talk to Steve and Isadora walked alongside Billy.
"Do you think Max is safe?" Billy asked, as the two walked. As he looked towards her, he noticed Isadora was running her fingers over the bite mark on her shoulder and he watched as she flinched before he stepped closer to her, slipped his hand into hers and squeezed gently, as Isadora looked towards him.
"She's probably safer than you or I are right now, and besides, Beatrix is with her and I know Bea won't let anything happen to Max," Isadora said before moving a little closer to Billy as she said, "You know, it was pretty attractive watching you tear a bat in half with your bare hands."
"You know, it was pretty attractive watching you rush to fight the bats that were attacking Harrington without hesitating, and I wasn't going to let those bats attack you too. How is your shoulder, Princess?"
"It's okay, a little sore, but I think I'll live," Isadora jokingly said, as she smiled at Billy.
"Well, that's good news because I don't know what I would do without you. I can't lose you, Is," Billy told her.
"You're not going to lose me, Billy. I promise you I'm not going anywhere," Isadora said. All of a sudden, the Upside Down was rocked by another tremor and Isadora stumbled as Billy caught a hold of her and they held onto each other until everything stopped moving and once it had stopped, the group hurried after Nancy. As they reached her, Isadora stopped walked and looked towards the house neighbouring the Wheeler's house, which she quickly realised the house next door was the Upside Down version of her mum's house and Isadora stopped walking.
"You okay, Is?" Billy asked, as he came to a stop beside her.
"Y-Yeah," Isadora nodded, as she glanced towards the house once more before shaking her head and walking into the Wheeler house and as they walked inside, Isadora grimaced as she realised how messy the houses in the Upside Down were.
"Might be time to get a maid, Wheeler," Robin joked.
"Come on, I don't want to stay here longer than we have to," Nancy said. Isadora nodded as the rest of the group headed upstairs and she started following them, only to notice Steve had stopped walking and she turned her attention towards him.
"Uhm, what are you doing, Steve?"
"Shh —" he said.
"What ...?" Isadora started, but stopped when she heard the sound of a voice and immediately recognised it as Dustin's, and she looked towards Steve, who nodded as Isadora called out, "Dustin?"
"Dustin! Dustin! Dustin! Can you hear me? Dustin!" Steve yelled.
"Dustin!"
"H-Hello? Hello? Hello! Hello!"
"Come on, please answer us."
"Steve, Isadora, what are you doing?" Nancy asked them, and Isadora stopped yelling and turned to see their friends had walked downstairs and were watching Steve and Isadora with raised eyebrows.
"He's here. Henderson, that little shit, he's here. He's like ... he's in the walls or something. Just listen," Steve said. As he started calling Dustin's name again, Isadora looked towards her friends and shrugged.
"He's not lying, I heard it too," Isadora said. Suddenly, they all heard it again and the group looked at each other as Isadora nodded. Soon, the group were all yelling Dustin's name and trying to get his attention as he continued talking, either blatantly ignoring the group or unable to hear them.
"All right, either this kid can't hear us or he's being a total douchebag," Steve said.
"Will found a way."
"What?"
"Will, he found a way to speak to Joyce through the lights."
"Lights?"
"That's a good idea, Nancy," Kendra said, as the group started playing with the light switches, hoping they would be able to get Dustin's attention.
"It's not working," Nancy snapped.
"Guys, you seeing this?" Steve asked. Isadora looked over to where he was standing and her attention was drawn to the chandelier in the middle of the room, and she walked towards it before reaching her hand towards the twinkling lights that were surrounding the chandelier.
"Wow," Isadora smiled as she played with the twinkling lights.
"It ... tickles," Steve said.
"It kinda feels good," Robin added in.
"Does anyone know Morse Code?" Nancy asked the group.
"No."
"Does SOS count?" Eddie asked.
"I was just about to suggest SOS," Isadora laughed as she lowered her hand.
"You know Morse Code, Is?" Billy asked.
"A little, yeah. My Dad taught it to me," Isadora told him, as the group started using their hands to try and send an SOS signal to Dustin.
"It's working," Robin said. Isadora smiled as they soon heard Dustin's voice again and she listened as he told the group his plan before they moved to gather in the bedroom and waited for Dustin, as he set up a way for the group to communicate with him.
"Okay, you guys seeing this?" Dustin called to them. Nancy put her hand out to touch the glittering lights that had appeared in front of them and Isadora smiled as she watched.
"I can't believe this is real," Billy said.
"Neither can I," Isadora said.
"We're not moving it, but we're gonna unplug it. Standby," Dustin called to them before he called to them to try again, and Isadora watched as Nancy wrote 'hi' before Dustin called back to the group, "That worked."
"Yes! Yes!" Eddie cried. Nancy started writing again and Isadora watched on as Nancy sent another message to the group.
"Stuck."
"Yes."
"We are," Robin nodded.
"Uh, you can't get back through Watergate?"
"Watergate?" Billy asked.
"What the hell's Watergate?"
"Cause it's in water and it's a gate?" Robin suggested.
"That's cute."
"Right."
"Um, no, it's ..." Nancy trailed off as she wrote another message to Dustin.
"Okay, uh, Watergate's guarded. Okay, we think we have a theory that can help with that."
"Yes."
"Genius child."
"We think Watergate isn't the only gate, that there's a gate at every murder site," Dustin said.
"Wait, what?" Isadora asked.
"Does anybody understand what he's talk about?" Nancy asked.
"No."
"Nope."
"No idea," Eddie said and Isadora watched as Nancy drew a question mark.
"Okay, seriously? How many times do I have to be right on the money before you guys just trust me?" Dustin yelled.
"Jesus Christ, this kid's gotta get his ego in check," Steve said.
"It's his tone, right?" Eddie asked.
"I know."
"Okay, so ... so how far is your trailer?" Nancy asked Eddie.
"Seven miles."
"Nancy, uh, I know your house here is like weirdly, creepily frozen in time and shit, but haven't you always had bikes?" Robin asked. Nancy nodded and Isadora smiled as she realised they weren't going to be trapped in the Upside Down, and soon enough, the group were coming up with a plan to get to the trailer park so they could get back to their dimension and come up with a plan to defeat Vecna and save Max.
💔💔
Another chapter finally updated.
Enjoy! Xo
💔💔