Immediately, I hear Steve's screams as I pull myself out of the gate and stand on a dried up lake-bed. Vines cover the ground as I run in the direction of Steve's screams.
A bat-looking-creature is choking him with its long tail wrapped around Steve's neck as two more sink their fangs into the sides of his torso, biting him repeatedly. I waste no time and blast the one of bats off of Steve and it flies away.
"Get the fuck away from my boyfriend." I say to the other bat that is still biting him, before blasting it off of him too.
Robin, Nancy, and Eddie appear behind me.
"Quick hold it, Robin!" I shout as she runs over to the bat that's choking Steve.
"I got it." She says and stomps down on its tail, keeping it from flying.
I hold my hand out to the bat and it begins to screech in pain as I apply pressure to it.
"Shit!" Eddie shouts as another bat swoops down and he hits it with his oar. "Nancy, behind you! Watch out!" He shouts as another attacks Nancy, latching onto her back.
"Oh, my God. Nancy!" Robin screams, running to help her.
"Robin, move!" I yell at her, breaking my attention off of Steve, igniting my hand.
Robin moves out of the way and I blast my fire to the bat on Nancy's back, knocking it off and burning it to a crisp.
"God damn it! Shit!" Eddie shouts as he misses a bat, chucking a broken half of his oar. Another one swoops down at Eddie and I, causing us to quickly duck. "Shit!"
Before the bat can get further away, I throw my fire at it, knocking it down and it screeches in pain.
"Come here!" Steve shouts, gaining my attention.
"Steve!" I shout, watching him stand as he holds onto that bat's tail that was once wrapped around his neck.
Steve starts to slam the bat down over his shoulder, repeatedly, causing it to screech. After one last hard slam to the ground, Steve holds it down with his foot. He roughly pulls back at the tail, ripping its body in half and tosses the other somewhere in the distance. Steve spits the blood that's coming out of his mouth on the bat before walking away.
"Steve." I say, rushing over to him, putting out my flame.
"Jesus Christ." Eddie cries. "Jesus H. Christ!" He then screams before throwing his oar to the ground.
"Steve, are you okay?" I ask as his back still faces me, I turn him around.
"Well they took about a pound of flesh." He says as I scan his body for more wounds. "But other than that, yeah, never better." He says sarcastically, causing me to chuckle a little.
"Uh, do you guys think these bats have, like, rabies?" Robin asks as she kneels next to a bat.
"What?" Steve and I ask her.
"It's just that rabies are, like, my number one greatest fear. And I think we should get you to a doctor like really soon because once symptoms set in, it's too late. You're already dead."
Loud screeching is heard coming towards us in the distance. We look in the direction it's coming from and see a large group of bats flying our way. I stand in front of Steve and get in a defensive stance as Nancy, Robin, and Eddie, gather behind us. We all watch as the bats land next to the gate, blocking our way out.
"All right. There's not that many." I say as I, once again, ignite my hands, causing the bats to screech up at me. "I can take 'em. Burn them into a crisp right here, right now."
That is until more screeching of bats are heard in the distance. Another large group of bats begin to fly in.
"You were saying?" Robin asks me.
"The woods. Come on." Nancy says as she begins to run towards them.
I like that idea better.
I quickly put out my flames, grabbing Steve's hand and pulling us into a sprint.
"Great. More running." Robin says as she catches up to us.
**
We made it to Skull Rock just in time to hide underneath and away from Vecna's bats. I sit in front of Robin, Eddie, Nancy, and Steve as they sit further back into the corner, under the rock. The bats screech as I watch a giant group of them fly overhead, missing us.
"Okay." I say, stepping out from underneath the rock. "That was close."
"Yeah. Too close." Eddie says.
"Oh, sh-shit." I hear Steve say from behind me causing me to turn around, only to see him leaning against the rock for support.
"Shit." I say and quickly rush over to him.
"Steve?" Nancy says, following me.
"Jesus." I say as he stands back up, clutching his sides.
"I'm fine. I'm fine." Steve says as we look down at his wounds that are covered by his hands.
"No, no, no. No, you're not. You're losing blood." I tell him, seeing the fresh blood smeared on his stomach. "Come on, sit." I say and help him sit down. I hold onto his arms and we squat down together. "Careful, careful-"
"Ah." He grunts in pain as he sits down and leans back against the rock.
"All right, let me look."
Steve removes his hands, revealing the gashes.
"Oh..." Robin says and squats down beside me. "Okay. 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 aggressive, like you wanna punch me, let me know."
"Robin." Steve whimpers out.
"Yeah?"
"I kinda wanna punch you." He chuckles followed by a hiss, "Ow."
"Sorry." I whisper, now done examining his wound. "Does anyone have something I can cover these up with?" I say gesturing to Steve.
"No, sorry." Robin says sadly.
"Uh..." Eddie says as he pats himself down. "No, no, I don't. Sorry, man."
"Here." Nancy's voice says from behind me and her hand shoots out, next to my face. She's holding the bottom half of her sweatshirt in her hand.
I turn around and smile a little at her as I take it from her, "Thank you." I say quietly and turn back to Steve. "Okay." I say to Steve and hold out the fabric.
Steve lets out a small groan as he sits up, raising his arms behind his head.
"Okay, okay. You ready?" I ask looking up at him.
"Yeah. Just do it." He chokes out.
I reach forward, wrapping the piece of Nancy's sweatshirt in front of his stomach, over the wounds. Reaching the back, I switch hands with the fabric and pull it snug, causing Steve to wince.
"Sorry." I whisper and bring the ends of the fabric to the front of him, tying it and Steve lets out another grunt. "Too tight?" I ask, looking up at him this time.
"No, that's good." He says with a raspy voice and lowers back down.
"All right." I say, helping him back down, slowly. I grab the not I made and check it, making sure it's in fact, not too tight. It's not.
"Thank you, D." Steve whispers.
"Yeah. You're welcome." I smile up at him. "Although you should be thanking Nancy also, she gave you a piece of her sweatshirt." I nod my head over to Nancy, who was out from under the rock with Eddie and Robin, watching us from a distance.
"Yeah. Yeah that's true. I'll be sure to do that." He smiles lightly at me as he grabs my hand, softly.
God, you really scared me.
I slowly lean forward to Steve and place a soft kiss on his lips. He returns it and our kiss wasn't long, just small and heart-felt. I pull back and rest my forehead against his.
"God, you really scared me." I admit to him.
"I'm sorry." He whispers, brushing my hair behind my ear and then holds my face in his hands.
"Promise you won't volunteer to go first again?" I whisper, pulling away from him.
"Oh, yeah. You don't to worry about that for a while, babe. But... I promise." Steve smiles lightly up at me. "Could you help me up?"
"Of course." I smile and place one of his arms over my shoulders, helping him stand.
"So, uh, this place is like Hawkins, but with monsters and nasty shit?" Eddie says from out in the open, on top of a rock.
"Pretty much." I say letting go of Steve once he's standing.
"Wait, watch out for the vines." Nancy calls out to him. "It's all a hive mind."
"It's all a what?" Eddie asks her, not moving.
"All the creepy crawlies around here, dude. They're, like, one or something." Steve speaks up, leaning against a rock. "You step on a vine, you're stepping on a bat, you're stepping on Vecna."
"Shit." Eddie says, nodding his head, and gets down off of the rock, stepping over the vines.
"But everything from our world is still here, right? Except people?" Robin asks Steve, Nancy, and I.
"As far as we know, yeah." I clarify.
"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 says, panicking.
"Yeah, exactly, and I highly doubt the Hawkins PD has grenades, Robin. But guns, yeah sure." Steve says.
"Why doesn't Dani just burn those sons of bitches?" Eddie asks, looking at me.
"We don't have to go all the way downtown for guns." Nancy says. "I have guns in my bedroom."
"You, Nancy Wheeler, have guns, plural, in your bedroom?" Eddie asks her, surprised.
"Full of surprises, isn't she?" Robin speaks up.
"A Russian Makarov and a revolver." Nancy clarifies.
"Even if we did kill them with Nancy's guns and my powers, wouldn't it only trigger more to come?" I ask them.
"I don't know, but it's worth a shot." Steve says, now standing beside me. Steve then groans from the small impact he receives from Eddie's jacket.
"For your modesty, dude." Eddie says as Steve looks at him dumbfounded but nods his head.
Suddenly, the ground shakes, like an earthquake, and sends us tumbling to the ground. I fall back into Steve and he wraps his arm around me as we stumble back into he rock, leaning on it for support.
The ground stops shaking and Eddie, Nancy, and Robin are huddled together on the ground, just as a loud screech is heard close by.
"Yeah, so guns seem like a pretty good idea to me." Eddie speaks up.
"Yeah, me too." Robin says, getting off Eddie, standing up quickly.
Steve and I separate and he puts on Eddie's jacket. "So what are we waiting for?" He says and grabs the flashlight off of the ground, turning it on and walking towards Nancy's house.
The rest of us follow, careful not to step on any vines.
**
Thunder booms as lightening strikes across the dark sky, briefly painting it red, as we walk through the woods. Nancy, Robin, and I walk ahead of Steve and Eddie, leading the way.
"Couldn't we have tried a road, or something just slightly less creepy?" Robin speaks up, breaking the silence.
"I think we're getting close. We're almost out of here. Don't worry." Nancy reassures her.
"Eddie..." I hear Steve faintly as I start to feel a small headache coming on.
Nancy, Robin, and I continue to walk forward.
Steve's POV
"Eddie." I call out to him again, causing him to stop and wait for me to catch up. "Hey, man. Uh... Listen, I just, uh... I just want to say thanks." I say to him. "For saving my ass back there."
"Shit, you saved your own ass, man." Eddie says. "I mean, that was a real Ozzy move you pulled back there."
"Ozzy?" I question, having no idea what he's talking about.
"When you took a bite out of that bat. Ozzy Osbourne?"
I look away, still not understanding, and point my flashlight ahead.
"Black Sabbath? He bit a bat's head off onstage."
"I dont-"
"You know?"
"No." I say.
"Doesn't matter." Eddie shrugs as we keep walking. "It's very metal, what you did. That's all I'm saying."
"Thanks." I tell him.
I guess.
"Henderson told me you were a badass. Insisted on the matter, in fact." Eddie says, catching my attention.
"Wait, Henderson said that?"
"Oh yeah. Shit. Kid worships you, dude. Like, you have no idea. It's kinda annoying, to be honest." He says causing me to chuckle. "I don't even know why I care what that little shrimp thinks, but, uh, I guess I got a little jealous, Steve."
Yeah, right.
I look at Eddie, seeing that he's already looking at me. "I guess I couldn't accept the fact that Steve Harrington was actually a good dude. The Hendersons, man, they're always right about something."
Wait, what?
"Hendersons?" I ask him.
"What, Dani didn't tell you?" He asks causing me to stare at him, waiting for him to continue. "Dani, man. She totally handed my ass to me on Friday. When she brought Dustin his lunch, I tried to get her to play D&D with us, but she said she was going to the championship game with you. I'm not gonna lie, I kinda made fun of her for dating you." He chuckles. "And she told me to get out of her fucking way."
"Sounds like her." I smile at his words.
"Yeah, I said that shit because I was jealous of you guys. I've kinda always had a thing for her. Way before you came in the picture." He says, looking down, watching his feet. "Still super jealous as hell, by the way." He jokes, getting in my face, causing me to laugh and shove him away.
"Not only are you dating the coolest girl in all of Hawkins, you're best friends with her little brother." Eddie continues. "Which is why I would never have jumped in that lake to save your ass. Not under any, uh... normal circumstances." He says just as a branch snaps, causing us to stop.
I shine my flashlight deeper into the woods, only to her faint growling and screeching in return.
"Nope." Eddie says and we continue to walk. "Outside of D&D, I am no hero. I see danger and I just turn heel and run. Or at least that's what I've learned about myself this week."
"Give yourself a break, man" I say, stepping past him as I hit his chest.
"See?" He says stopping us and pointing up ahead at the girls. "The only reason I came in here was 'cause those ladies came in straight after you. Now, I was too ashamed to be the one who stayed behind. But Dani right there," He says pointing at her as she walks further away with Robin and Nancy. "she didn't waste a second. Not one second. She just dove right in." He says causing me to drift my eyes from Dani, onto him.
"If I were you, I would do anything to not let her slip through my fingers. 'Cause that was as unambiguous a sign of true love these cynical eyes have ever seen." Eddie says as my eyes veer back to Danielle. "Don't hurt her. Don't do some stupid shit, and fuck it up. I've seen the way Wheeler has been looking at you. I know you guys have a past, but don't fuck up your future." He finishes as I don't take my eyes off of Danielle.
Before I can even agree, the ground shakes again.
"Goddamn it!" I shout as I fall to the ground.
"Here we go again." Eddie says, gritting his teeth from beside me.
Danielle's POV
Just when I thought this headache couldn't get any worse, another earthquake happens.
"Okay. Second on my list of least favorite things, earthquakes." Robin says next to me as we hold onto a tree for support. "Seriously, I'm unsteady enough as it is."
"Nancy!" I shout watching her run away.
"Where are you going?" Robin shouts as we let go of the tree. "Nancy!"
"Come on!" I shout and stagger as I run after her.
Eddie and Steve catch up to us, after hearing us yell out to Nancy. We run out of the woods and see that she's standing out in the open.
"Nancy!" Robin shouts as we join her.
Nancy is looking at her house that sits in the distance. "Come on." She says and we walk behind her, following her to the depiction of the Wheeler's house.
"What are you doing here, Josephine?"
**
Nancy opens the front door of her house and we follow her inside.
"Might be time to get a maid, Wheeler." Robin speaks up as she, Steve, and I look into the living room.
"Come on. I don't want to stay here longer than we have to." Nancy says and begins to go upstairs to her room.
I follow behind Robin and Eddie with Steve behind me as we go up the stairs.
"Wait. Danielle, wait." Steve whispers to me, stoping me in my tracks.
"What?" I ask turning back around to see him point his flashlight down into the kitchen.
"You hear that?" He asks not taking his eyes off of the kitchen.
Confused, I stop and try to hear what he's hearing. Faintly, very faintly, we can hear Dustin's voice come from the kitchen. But he's not physically there so that means-
"Holy shit." I smile a little.
"Dustin!" Steve starts to shout as he races down the stairs and into the kitchen and I quickly follow after him.
"Dustin!" We shout together as Steve points his flashlight, pacing in the kitchen.
"Can you hear me? Dustin!" He shouts at nothing. "Du- Hello? Hel-Hello?"
"Maybe he does have rabies?" Robin says from behind us, startling me.
"Hello! Hello?"
"No. No, he doesn't have rabies." I say to Robin. "We-we heard Dustin's voice."
"He's here. Henderson. That little shit, he's here. He's like... He's in the walls or something. Just listen." Steve tells everyone, out of breath, as I nod my head.
We all stay quiet, listening for Dustin's voice again as Steve calls back out to him. "Dustin." He says and gets no response. "Dustin! Dustin!" Steve screams as he searches for my brother's voice again. "Dustin! Dustin! Can you hear me?"
"That brings us to the question you first raised. How and why is there a gate at Lover's Lake?" Dustin voice says.
"He's here, but he's back in Hawkins. Our Hawkins." I explain as we follow Steve to the kitchen table. "That must mean he's at your house. Otherwise how else can we hear him?" I say to Nancy.
"Dustin!" Shouts Nancy.
"Dustin?" Eddie calls out after looking behind the curtains to the kitchen window.
"Dustin!" Robin and I shout.
"All right, either this kid can't hear us or he's being a total douchebag." Steve realizes.
"Will found a way." Nancy says.
"What?"
"That's right." I point to Nancy. "Will. Will found a way to speak to Joyce through the lights." I say.
"The lights." Nancy clarifies and walks over to a lamp.
"Lights?" Steve asks us, confused and we follow her.
"Yeah." She says and tries turning on the lamp on.
"The switch. Try the switch." Steve tells her after the lamp doesn't turn on.
"Okay." She says and flips the light switch a couple of times. "It's not working."
"Guys." Steve says, pointing his flashlight to the chandelier in the living room.
There are particles that look like glitter, floating around the light. I walk over to it and slowly reach my hand up to touch it. The glittery light glows red around my hand as I touch it and the light bulb underneath the small shade, glows as well...
"Whoa." Eddie says from behind me as I move my hand around, making the glitter shine brighter.
Steve, Robin, Nancy, and Eddie, reach their hands up, moving them into the glittery light. This causes three more of the light bulbs glow as their hands surround them.
"It... tickles." Steve says.
"It kinda feels good." Robin says, smiling.
"Dani, you know Morse Code, right?" Nancy asks me suddenly, taking her hand away from the light.
"Uh, yeah. I'm a little rusty though. Why?" I say, retracting my hand as well.
"That's how we're going to communicate. Can you do something like, S.O.S?"
"Yeah-"
"-Wait, S.O.S is Morse Code?" Eddie asks, cutting me off, removing his hand from the light.
"Seriously?" I ask him, dumbfounded, causing him to just stare at me. "Yes, S.O.S is Morse Code." I sigh and turn my attention back at the light, raising my hand as Steve and Robin drop theirs.
I begin to flick my hand in the light. Three times fast, three times with longer pauses in between each flick, and then tree times fast again.
"It's working." Robin smiles as she watches my hand in the light.
"Dani?" I faintly hear Dustin from the other side causing me to smile and the others to laugh, happily.
I begin to flick my hand again, but this time I spell out, "Here".
"Holy shit." Dustin laughs from the other side.
"Wait, Dani, I have an idea. Tell him to find Holly's Lite Brite." Nancy says before running upstairs, followed by Robin and Eddie.
Without question, I flick my hand, spelling out Lite Brite.
"Lite Brite. Okay, got it." Dustin says from the other side and I retract my hand from the chandelier.
"God, I love you." Steve speaks up, gaining my full attention. I look up at him, only to see that he's looking at me admiringly. "D, you're by far the coolest girlfriend I've ever had." He smiles, shaking his head, causing me to smile in return as my blood rushes to my cheeks.
"Come on, tiger." I laugh, grabbing his hand and pull him with me upstairs.
We reach Nancy's room and see that her, Eddie, and Robin are kneeling by the side of her bed as the Lite Brite rests on it, in front of them.
"He's getting it." I tell them as Steve and I take our spots by the bed and wait for the sparkling lights to appear.
"Come on. Come on." Steve says as we wait for Dustin.
"You guys seeing this?" Dustin says from the other side just as the glittery light sparkles in front of the Lite Brite.
Nancy runs her fingers through it, causing it to sparkle and glow. Dustin's laughter echos from the other side causing me to smile.
"Uh. We're not moving it, but we're gonna unplug it. Stand by." Dustin yells out to us. Suddenly, the red glow from disappears but the glitter remains. "Okay, try it now."
"Okay. Um.. uh..." Nancy says as she thinks of something to say.
"Write "Hi"." I tell her.
"Okay." She says and reaches her hand forward, pointing her finger, and the glittery light glows red again as she draws a straight line downward, beginning to make the "H".
"That worked!" Dustin shouts to us causing us to cheer.
"Yes!" Steve cheers as he pulls me in for a side hug, kissing my cheek, happily.
"Hi!" Eddie says to the Lite Brite.
"Okay, um... um..." Nancy smiles thinking of what else to write. She writes "S.T.U.C.K." on the board.
"Stuck." Dustin and Erica? say from the other side.
"Yes." Steve and I say.
"Mm-hmm" Eddie says, nodding his head.
"We are." Robin, also says.
"Uh, you can't get back through Watergate?" Dustin says.
"What the hell's Watergate?" Steve asks the group.
"'Cause it's in water and it's a gate." I say, obviously.
"Oh."
"That's cute." Eddie says more to himself.
"Right." Steve says.
"Um, no. It's..." Nancy says and then begins to write, "G.U.A.R.D.E.D."
"Okay. Uh, Watergate's guarded."
"Perfect. Yes. Yes. Yes." Steve says as Eddie claps.
"We think we have a theory that can help with that."
"Yes." Steve and Eddie say.
"Genius child." Robin says.
"Right on, Dust." I smile.
"We think Watergate isn't the only gate. That there's a gate at every murder site."
"Does anybody understand what he's talking about?" Nancy asks.
"No." Steve, Robin, and Eddie say as they shake their heads.
"Sort of, but not really." I say shrugging.
Nancy writes a question mark on the board.
"Okay. Seriously? Danielle, I can't believe you don't understand." Dustin says, causing me to frown.
"Rude." I say and lean over Nancy and draw a frowny face on the Lite Brite. "Take that." I mumble standing upright.
"Real mature, Dani. How many times do I have to be right on the money before you guys just trust me?" Dustin shouts aggravatingly.
"Jesus Christ. This kid's gotta get his ego in check." Steve says.
"Right?" I say, agreeing.
"It's his tone. Right?" Eddie says to us, also agreeing.
"I know." Steve says.
"Okay." Nancy says, cutting us off. "So... so how far is your trailer?" She asks Eddie.
"Seven miles." He answers.
"Nancy? Uh, I know your house here is, like, weirdly, creepily frozen in time and shit, but haven't you always had bikes?" Robin asks Nancy.
"That'll work." I say and reach forward to the Lite Brite again and write "M.E.E.T.U.T.H.E.R.E".
"Meet you there!" Dustin agrees.
"Alright, let's go." I say and we race out of Nancy's room and follow her into the garage.
"Wait, there's only four." Eddie says as he starts pulling the bikes away from the wall, handing it to each of us.
"No problem." Steve says, getting on the bike that has pegs. "D, come on." He says, waving me over.
"Okay, that works." Eddie says as I step up on the back pegs, holding onto Steve's shoulders.
**
Eddie leads us to the trailer park as we ride the bikes down the road. Loud screeching is heard off in the distance on our left. Thunder booms and lightening strikes the sky, lighting up a view of the Creel House in the distance.
"Josephine." Vecna's voice calls out to me. Causing me to peel my eyes away from the house
Don't tell them. Not yet.
Everyone starts to peddle faster, knowing Vecna is in there, wanting to get past the house as fast as possible.
After about another mile of peddling, we finally make it to Eddie's house and ditch the bikes.
"That's a gotta be a Guinness World Record. Most miles traveled interdimensionally." Robin says as she pants.
"Just inhaled a bunch of that crap." Steve says, coughing and pulls out his flashlight. "It's stuck in my throat."
We follow Eddie inside his trailer and are immediately greeted with the red, glowing, gate that's on his living room ceiling.
"Goddamn." Steve says, turning off his flashlight.
"This is where Chrissy died." Eddie tells us. "Like, right where she died."
"I think there's something in there." Robin says just as something begins to poke though the gate.
"What the hell is that?" I ask, stepping a little bit closer.
The object on the other side retracts before bursting through the gate, scaring us.
"Shit!" I shout and jump back with everyone else as the thing knocks away particles of the gate before disappearing completely.
I slowly, begin to step forward again, on guard. I can feel Steve walk close behind me as we all walk up and under the gate.
"No way." Steve gasps as we look through the gate.
"Holy shit." I laugh, spotting my brother with Max, Lucas, and Erica who look like they're upside down, but not.
Dustin laughs happily as he spots Steve and I walk into his view. "Hi there." He says, waving to us.
"Hi." I laugh, happily.
"Hi." Everyone else laughs.
"Holy shit, this is trippy." Robin says, amazed.
"Bada-bada-boom!" Dustin shouts happily from the other side.
**
We watch as Dustin and Erica tie up sheets and pillow cases together, making a rope when Lucas and max drop Eddie's mattress below the gate, on their side.
"Those stains are uh..." Eddie begins to explain to us as Robin and I side-eye him. "I don't know what those stains are." He says after catching our gaze.
"Uh-huh, sure." I say, not believing him one bit.
"Not quite sure how these physics are gonna work." Dustin says, now standing under his side of the gate, holding the make-shift-rope. "But, uh... here goes nothing." He says and chucks it through the gate as we watch it fall from the ceiling.
"All right, pull on it! See If it holds!" Dustin shouts to us.
Robin takes rope in her hands, gives it a hard tug, and laughs realizing it doesn't budge. "Guess I'm the guinnea pig."
"Josephine."
"Ah." I groan, rubbing my temples as robin begins to climb up the sheet-rope.
"Whoa. Hey, hey. You okay?" Steve asks me.
"Yeah." I say, dropping my hands away from my head and smile lightly at him. "Just a headache, no big deal." I shrug.
"You sure?" He asks worried.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." I say as Eddie starts to climb up the rope.
"Okay." Steve says and watches Eddie drop down on the other side.
"Go ahead." I say to Nancy, gesturing to the rope.
"Okay. I guess it's my turn." She says and climbs up, landing on the mattress on the other side.
"See you on the other side." Steve smiles at me.
"On the other side." I smile and move to the rope, beginning to climb. I come out on the other side of the gate, head first, before letting myself fall down onto the mattress.
The fall never ended.
"Where do you think you're going, Two?"
*
"Danielle. Hey! Hey! Stay with me. Dani! Hey! Danielle, wake up. Danielle!"