November, 1983
JASPER'S EYES SHOT OPEN, her body aching with pain as she immediately began coughing uncontrollably. Her hands flew to her chest as a gooey liquid erupted from her lips, spilling out onto the stony floor. After her coughing fit had subsided, she began to grow more aware of her darkened and cold surroundings.
Black vines swallowed every inch of the floor and wall in its path, covering the room with itself. The air itself was filled with blackness and strange dust particles floating among her, bringing a bitter chill. Every small sound that occurred would bring painful echoes with it.
Her breathing began to slow as she clambered to her knees, sitting on her feet. Incredulously, she gawked at her palms, which were dry and cracked with calluses. "I'm not dead?" She murmured to herself in astonishment.
"Jas..." A weak voice pleaded, causing the redhead to let out a huge gasp. El was laying on her side painfully, coughing up the same strange fluids as she had.
"Eleven!" Jasper drew in a sharp breath, crawling to the young girl's side. Her usually warm hands, now infected with a sharp freeze from the Upside Down, gently placed themselves on El's body as Jasper did her best to calm the seizing girl. "We're okay!"
"Where's Mike?" She muttered feebly, pushing herself to her feet. Her brown eyes scanned the broken classroom, desperately searching for any sign of the Wheeler boy. "Where are we?"
"I think we're in the Upside Down," Jasper answered, refusing to release her assuring grip on El. Despite the horrifying sounds ringing in her ears and the fact that she was in the Upside Down, a small smile etched its way onto her cracked lips. Like Dustin had always said, finding the small light in a large darkness was her best quality.
"We did it, El," she gleamed triumphantly at the girl, supporting her from stumbling over again. "We killed the Demogorgon. Our friends are safe."
El was still panting heavily, shaking her head in refusal. "Mike? Mike!" She began calling out fearfully, freeing herself from Jasper's grasp and bursting into the long hallways. "Mike! Mike!" Her volume had increased into terrible screams as she continued crying out for her first love.
Jasper followed El into the hallway, noticing how it shared the same design as their school did. The Upside Down was a mirror image of their world, just filled with rotted disease and the looming threat of death. Hearing El caterwaul Mike's name only reminded her of a certain curly-haired boy with a toothless grin.
"Dustin," she whispered, saving her voice as she felt burning tears form in the creases of her eyes. She wanted to see him again, and feel his arms wrap around her waist in a reuniting embrace. The more she thought about Dustin, the more names and images appeared in her mind.
Hopper, Ruby, Mike, Lucas, and Will. They would all be wandering aimlessly for answers, blaming themselves for the disappearance of her and El.
And Dustin. Jasper didn't even want to imagine how he would handle her being gone. Did he think she was dead? Her body was racked with shudders as she contemplated how Dustin was feeling in that very moment. She couldn't leave him alone. He needed her just as much as she needed him.
Almost as an answer to her silent prayers, the sounds of soldiers speaking began to echo faintly in the halls. A faint red glow from the distance caught both of the girls' eyes, drawing them to it like moths, hungry for light.
As Jasper approached it, decreasing the distance between herself and the strange source of light, she could observe it more. It had strange web-like tendrils, and behind them was a wall of translucent material.
"What is that?" Jasper uttered curiously, creeping closer to it. Her entire face was illuminated by its brilliant redness as she leaned forward, her shaking fingers reaching out to touch it. A soldier appeared on the other side, also stretching forward to observe the strange substance. She jumped back swiftly, losing her balance and sending both herself and El collapsing on the floor.
Neither girls moved a muscle as they watched the glowing hole with bulging eyes, grasping onto one another. Finally, the soldiers pulled away from it, walking down the hall and taking their monotone voices with them. Jasper let out a small sigh of relief, the corners of her lips curving upwards again.
"I think it's a portal," she cast a glorious look at El, her blue eyes shining with joy. "We can go home."
"Home," El repeated, a ghost of a smile twitching on her face.
She liked the sound of the word and the comfortable warmth it seemed to give her. Gradually, she backed away from the portal, glowering at it with a deadly look. Her hand rose slowly, pointed at the glowing mass of web purposefully.
The redhead let out a deep exhale as she realized she couldn't feel the strange buzz in her veins, meaning El wasn't channeling her power. She was simply using her own abilities.
Bricks began to crumble and tear away from the portal, allowing its web-like material to expand. El continued to grow the portal until it was large enough for one girl to fit at a time. A relieved look shared in both girls' eyes when she finished.
"You first," Jasper nodded at El encouragingly, pointing to the portal with her chin.
El hesitated, her tongue raking over her chapped lips, but she nodded. Her hand pierced the portal first, and at an unbelievably slow pace, the girl's body rushed through the strange plasma of the hole. She let out straggled gasps as she collapsed onto the floor, the familiar white lights of the halls welcoming her back.
Jasper rubbed her hands together, the corners of her smile reaching to her eyes. "I'm coming, Dustin," she half-mumbled to herself before reaching out a hand through the portal.
Suddenly, fire shot up her entire arm, giving her skin the sensation of being burned alive. A high-pitched scream escaped the redhead's mouth as she jerked her hand back, muffled screams falling from her lips as she gazed at the horrible burns on her milky skin.
"This is impossible!" She shrieked, gingerly touching the skin on her burn to find that it still gave her great agony. "El?" She breathed out, cradling her injured arm close to her chest. "Something's wrong!"
"Jas?" El cried out in a panic, rushing forward to the portal again. She reached her hand out towards the redhead. "Grab my hand!"
Jasper hesitantly outstretched her other arm, the one without the blackened and agonizing burns. To her dismay, the same massive amount of pain swam up her arm as she tried to move through the portal again. "Fuck!"
"No!" She exclaimed, her breath hitching in fear. If she lost Jasper, she would be alone.
The same anxious thoughts were racing through Jasper's mind. "No!" She howled, noticing the portal was slowly beginning to diminish. "El? El!" She yelled, pounding her fists against the cement wall uselessly.
El felt tears stream down her cheeks as she watched the hole become smaller, closing the space between her and her redhead friend. Her fists also collided with the wall several times, ignoring the blood beginning to gush from them. "Jasper!"
Jasper drew away from the portal, holding out a hand filled with tremors. She tried reversing time, bringing back the full size of the portal. "What?" She gasped, gawking at her hand which flailed in the air uselessly. "My powers! They're not working!"
"Jasper! Jasper!" El repeatedly begged, her vision blurring with hot tears as she tried to save her friend. "Please!" She attempted to use her own powers and expand the portal again, only to discover she couldn't. "I can't make it bigger!"
"El, whatever you do," Jasper took a few steps toward the portal again, noticing the distorted shape of eleven's face on the other side. "Please just make sure our friends are okay. And stay safe, for me. I'll find a way out! I promise."
Her words were the last ones to be spoken before the hole finally closed, cutting off Jasper's connection with the real world. A sudden darkness poured into her heart as she realized how utterly alone she was. Sobs were lodged in her throat as she desperately tried fighting them back.
"No!" She wailed, allowing the tears to trickle down her cheeks as she began throwing bricks madly. "I'm alone!" She shouted, knowing no one would hear or respond to her voice. "I'm all alone."
She slid down the wall, bringing her knees to her chest comfortably. The redhead sat there for a long time, letting herself be weak and afraid in that moment. It was probably the most vulnerable she had ever been, and no one was there to comfort her with words or a warm touch.
"I'm trapped in the Upside Down," she whispered to herself, her voice cracking as she did so. Her arms snaked around her legs, pushing herself into a tight ball. "I'm alone in the Upside Down."
She squeezed her legs tightly, her cries coming out unsteadily. She wished more than anything that Dustin was by her side, there to make her laugh and smile. But all she could feel was the harsh cold whipping against her skin and a terrible sadness coursing through her.
"Jasper," a familiar voice murmured, the sound echoing against the walls and pounding in her brain. Her eyes peered over her knees, her lips releasing a small breath of shock.
She was no longer in the school, but what looked to be her front porch. Beside the wooden deck, everything else was surrounded by a shrill blackness and shallow water. She was back in the same fearful dimension her and El had traveled to when they needed to find Will.
Her heart lurched in her chest as her eyes laid upon the crying boy on her porch: Dustin. He sat on the porch, his feet placed on the steps as he stared into oblivion.
"I miss you already," he whispered, his voice cracking with a terrible sadness. "I don't know how I'm supposed to do this without you." The young boy suddenly seemed a lot older, wearing the pain on his face.
Jasper scooted closer to him, her hands filled with tremors as they rested in her lap. She was unsure if she should touch him or not.
"I already feel so alone," he whimpered, tears lapping at his lips as they quivered. "I promised I wouldn't lose you and that's exactly what I did." He let out another shaky sob, shoving his head in between his legs and wrapping his arms around his curls.
"It's not your fault, Dustin," she cried out, unable to stop her hand from lashing out to brush against his shoulder. The moment her fingertips traced against the fabric of his jacket, his entire figure dissolved into smoke.
"No!" She pleaded, both her arms flying out in attempt to stop the swirl of mist from fading completely. She watched with tears flowing down her cheeks as any sign of her best friend vanished from her sight. Now she was alone, the deafening silence drowning her in sorrow.
"I'll find my way out," she mumbled in a quiet, yet determined voice. Her hands squeezed together tightly as she felt the porch around her begin to disappear. "I'll find my way back to him."
And for the last eleven months, that is exactly what she was did. She searched every frightening corner of the Upside Down, praying in hopes she would be granted with another mysterious ray of red light. And this time, the portal wouldn't fry her into sausage when she tries to escape.
Only she had found thirteen portals already. And all of them had burned her the same way. She felt like there would be no way of getting her out.
Her powers had been taken from her, making her feel lost. It had been like losing a thick layer of her skin. She never realized how much she relied on her powers this week until she was stripped of them completely.
The only motivation that powered her limbs everyday of that terrible journey was the fantasy of seeing Dustin again. She knew that with time, he would finally be able to see her again and she could assure him that she would never leave him again.
The three words she uttered to him that horrifying november night never left her mind. It was a secret promise that she intended to keep, even if it meant scouring the entire dark plane of the Upside Down to get back to him. Her small schoolgirl crush for the Henderson boy had awakened into love that hardly seemed possible for someone as young as her to feel.
Every day she would venture around the lonely realm, begging that she will find her way out and latching onto the small hope he gave her.
The stars didn't listen to her for many nights, and it wasn't until—of course—Halloween of 1984 arrived did she finally get her wish.
OKAY GUYS THIS IS A REALLY REALLY IMPORTANT NOTE SO PLEASE READ IT!
first off, this book has been gaining reads and favorites like crazy so once again thank you guys so freaking much for the incredible love and support! also there's a new cover:)
second, i have been writing a lot of chapters in advance and i have A LOT of ideas for jasper. it's gonna get pretty crazy, so expect the plot to take a sharp turn away from the show's plot. there's gonna be change.
third, this book will end after season 2. but fret not, there will be a sequel that will cover the events of season 3 and, eventually, season 4. the layout of the sequel will be different from this book in terms of chapters.
anyway, thanks again for all the love! and please continue to comment i love reading them all:)