JASPER AND EL GAZED UPWARDS at the dark building, listening to the distant cries of Demodogs. The redhead glanced at El, noting the wavering panic set in her eyes as she continued to stare at the lab she hated passionately.
"Thought you'd never be back here, huh?" Jasper prodded El's shoulder, her hand flying down and wrapping around the brunette's. El looked down at their folded hands, before meeting the storm swirling in Jasper's eyes. "We're gonna be okay."
"Alright," Hopper grunted, slamming the door of his trunk shut. He cradled a huge machine gun in his arms as he shifted to stand next to them. "You girls let me do the heavy lifting up front. Save your strengths until we're below. Everyone okay?"
"We will be once this is over," Jasper answered for the both of them, leading El and her father forward and into the one building on Earth that could be compared to literal hell.
The three marched down a series of winding corridors and pathways for what seemed like eternity. Lights continued to flicker at every hallway. "Is it just me or does this place seem a little...empty? Well, save for all the dead bodies, of course." Jasper shivered, chills rushing down her back.
No one replied, and Hopper instead pushed a door open that revealed a winding staircase. Jasper immediately noticed the scarlet red blood staining the metal railing and steps, and could hear faint groans of pain.
"Stay here," Hopper ordered the two girls, barreling down the stairs with his gun raised.
Of course neither of the girls were feeling very submissive that night, and it only took a few minutes for them to disobey his instruction. Jasper let a faint gasp fall from her lips when she saw a doctor with white curly hair, and a deep gash in his wounded leg that was gushing with blood.
"Suckers got you pretty good, huh Doc?" Hopper panted, unbuckling his belt hurriedly.
The man's curious blue eyes peered over at the girls looming over the two men, but no words came from his mouth. Hopper was quick to notice his straying gaze, throwing his daughter and El a quick glance.
"Oh yeah. Dr. Owens, this my daughter, Jasper, and Eleven. Jasper's the redhead and Eleven's wearing the punk makeup. El's been staying with me for about a year now," he rambled on whilst continuing to attend to Dr. Owens's leg. "These two girls...they're about to save our asses."
Dr. Owens remained silent, unable to speak from the massive agony rippling through his body. But his intrigued eyes continued to gawk at the teenagers staring back at him.
Jasper hated to admit it, but she could feel there was something different—much darker—when he looked at her compared to El. Although she didn't know this man, she wondered if he knew. If he knew about her mother, and all the horrifying tales Carson Oakes had told her a day ago.
"Maybe when this is all said and done, maybe you can help them out too. Help them both live normal lives after this. One where they're not poked and prodded, or constantly living in fear that men are searching for them. I dunno, just a thought." Hopper grumbled, tightening the belt's construction around Dr. Owens's leg, earning a pained grunt from the man.
"Think about it," Hopper huffed, harshly slapping the man's shoulder before handing him a walkie. "Don't go anywhere." Dr. Owens laughed bitterly at that, finding the obvious amusement in his words.
As the three entered further into the heart of the lab, white flecks of dust could be seen floating through the air, and more monstrous chitters could be heard. They stopped at a pair of double doors, a faint yellow light gleaming from behind the glass.
"Stay here," Hopper commanded once again, and Jasper and El obeyed.
In fact, after seeing Dr. Owens, Jasper hadn't said a single word. In times of fear, the redhead loved to defect to humor as a way of shielding her terror. But now, Jasper found herself in an entirely new, much more intense level of fear. She despised the idea, and had locked herself into denial for so long, but in her mind those words Carson Oakes told her rang true.
She was entirely convinced she was going to die.
"Jas," El wheezed, suddenly facing the redhead and grasping onto her friend's arms. "When I went to see Mama, I met a girl. My sister, I guess."
"Wait, your sister?" Jasper stammered out, finding it hard to utter coherent words from the piles of apprehension she carried in her chest.
"Not by blood, but, we were together. In the rainbow room. At the lab," she explained in fragmented sentences, but Jasper understood. "She taught me how to channel my anger, and how it can make me stronger. You can do the same. Just think of something that makes you angry."
"Angry, okay," Jasper nodded, her breathing increasing rapidly as the reality of the situation began to set in even further and she felt more panic rise. "What makes me angry...what makes me angry..."
"He's taking too long," El muttered, and without thinking the brunette marched forward and into the exposed room.
"Wait, El—" Jasper hissed, racing after her friend but was soon too covered in shock to stop her. Hopper, El, and Jasper all watched as the Demodogs slithered away from the shattered glass windows, sprinting towards the gate.
The gate was somehow even more traumatizing to look at than it was in Jasper's nightmares. Her skin was illuminated red by its violent glow, and she could see the shadows moving around behind the vines and tendrils that laced the opening. Jasper was utterly paralyzed, a single tear falling from her eye and dripping down her boiling hot skin.
"Chief, are you there?" Jonathan's distorted voice rang throughout the silence, causing both girls to jump. "Chief, do you copy?"
"Yeah, I copy," Hopper answered, his eyes not moving from the unbelievably enormous gate.
"Close it."
Jasper shuddered, unable to ignore the sob building up in her throat. Every inch of her body was seething with heat from her anxiety, and she felt like she was going to explode where she stood. She could feel El and Hopper's eyes burning into her skull, but she remained completely still, glaring down upon the massive, sanguine slit in the wall.
But Jasper was strong, and she knew it. She suffered a heavy amount of fright, but she also bore with her a prolific amount of bravery. She, alongside El, was fully capable of closing this gate. And whether Carson was right or not, whether she really was going to be killed by the Upside Down, it was a sacrifice she was willing to make.
For Dustin. For Hopper. For Ruby. For all her friends and family.
"Let's do it," Jasper nodded, squashing any signs of terror that had previously been visible. Her feet strode confidently onto the elevator shaft, followed by El and Hopper.
The pulley system clinked and rattled as they were gradually lowered down a vast, gaping hole that faced the gate. Jasper kept her eyes glued onto it, knowing that soon enough the wall would be nothing but black emptiness.
A large arm wrapped around Jasper's torso, and let out a light gasp as Hopper pulled his daughter into his chest. He held El too, and the three embraced tightly as the elevator continued its painstakingly long descend. It eventually stopped, and the family separated slowly.
"Ready?" Jasper turned to El, suddenly appearing nine feet tall with the power she held in her expression. El simply nodded, and the two girls took deep breaths as they faced the nightmarish hole.
Jasper closed her eyes, concentrating on channeling El's powers into her own muscles. It was the same electric buzz in her skin as it always had been, but it felt different somehow, knowing now that it was Jasper channeling El and not the other way around.
Both girls simultaneously raised one hand, focusing on the gate with narrowed stares. Jasper's hand immediately began to tremble as she felt a magnetic pull on it. Eleven carried the same reaction, the two girls gritting their teeth together with effort.
Almost right after the girls began to use their powers, a loud, rumbling growl sounded from the other side of the gate. Jasper felt her breaths steadily increase into short pants as she could make out the large head of the shadow monster, just a few feet behind the opening of the gate. El's eyes widened with terror too, but neither girl stopped.
What makes you angry. What makes you angry.
Jasper imagined her mother, young and slender and beautiful, gorgeous blue eyes and vibrant red hair. She pictured her in a cell, tears flowing down her pale skin and blood dripping from her eyes. She could almost hear the bloodcurdling screams her mother probably let out every time Dr. Brenner or another mad scientist touched her.
Fury shook Jasper's chest at the image of herself, locked away for eternity in the Upside Down. Deserted from her friends, from her family. She conjured an image of Ruby, sobbing and collapsed on the living room sofa. Because she truly believed her little sister was gone, ripped away from her before she was ready.
The gate began to crumple, a swirling blackness eating at the edges of the gate. Behind the web-like tendrils, the shadow monster growled and roared in protest. Jasper glowered at the hideous creature, imaging how powerful her mother's anger and resentment must have been to create such a horrific monster.
Tortured for years in a tattered hospital gown. Ripped away from her family and her newborn daughter. Lied to and betrayed by her most trusted friend, a lawyer who whispered broken promises into her ear.
Blood erupted from the sockets of Jasper's eyes, and to Hopper's complete horror, blood spilled from El's eyes too. Their noses were already dripping with scarlet blood, soaking the girls' pretty skin. Behind them, Demodogs began to snake up the walls, threatening to leap onto the elevator shaft and attack the girls closing the gate. Hopper pointed his machine gun ferociously at the creatures, shooting them with no remorse.
Jasper had never met her mother, but she could feel the substantial pain and anger Elizabeth Marrow carried with her everyday. The same pain and anger Jasper now endured too.
A swirling tornado that was darker than black itself creeped out of the opening. It was the shadow monster, reaching out with one of his stormy claws to stop Jasper and El. The monster was met by a wave of force, restraining him from flying any further to one of the girls.
Jas. Jasper could see Dustin was crying. Wet, fat tears cascaded down his beautiful face as he sat on the edge of her bed, desperately wanting his best friend to come home. Lives changed, families tore apart, hearts broken. All because of one woman. And that's when Jasper realized who she was truly angry with.
Her mother.
Jasper wasn't furious at Hopper, for lying about being her father for years. She wasn't enraged because of Hawkins Lab, who ruined what could have been the perfect Marrow family. She didn't despise the shadow monster, or the thousands of Demodogs that followed it.
A shrill scream rang from Jasper's lips as she lifted her other hand, all of her fingers curving towards the gate in rage and courage. Eleven mimicked her actions, but something about the way Jasper was letting out the most bloodcurdling, unnatural sound caused Hopper to look back at his daughter with huge eyes.
She hated her mother. Because somehow, without even being a part of Jasper's life, she had destroyed it. She had created the hell dimension her daughter was trapped in, all alone, for a year. The dark world that gifted Jasper with nightmare visions, seizures, and sleep terrors.
A mixture of blood and tears soaked the redhead's face as her feet lifted off the ground alongside El's. Her body convulsed with tremors as she continued to shut the gate inch by inch, foot by foot.
Despite the insurmountable power flowing from Jasper's hands, the shadow monster was miraculously able to match her strength. His hand continued to surge forward, fighting against every ounce of resistance it encountered.
Jasper was fourteen. But somehow, her life already felt like it was over. And right there, it very well could be. Because Jasper was risking her life.
All because of what her mother had done.
The shadow monster's claw finally grazed against Jasper's hands, and a burning sensation unlike any fire or Upside Down portal Jasper had felt before suddenly shot up her arms.
Jasper's screams changed from being a furious war cry to deafening caterwauls of agony. Her vision was flooded with tears and more blood as what felt like the surface of a million suns slid up and down her arms repeatedly. It was like the devil had come to play with his sword, forged from the deepest fires of hell.
Hopper glanced back again, a horrified shout leaving his own lips as he saw the way Jasper's skin blackened and rotted with burns. Purple and maroon and obsidian colored patches littered her arms, until there was nearly nothing left of her perfectly pale skin.
"Jasper!" Hopper cried, launching himself forward and yanking daughter from the air. He immediately severed the channel between El and Jasper, leaving the brunette in the air as the solo fighter against the shadow monster.
Once Jasper was pulled from the fight, the shadow monster's hand lurched back. Without Jasper in the battlefield, the battle suddenly seemed less interesting. The red, hazy glow from the gate lessened more and more as El resumed closing the gate, attempting not to let her concern for the wounded redhead stop her.
Jasper continued to let out chaotic screeches of pain, her arms quivering as she gazed down in horror at the third degree burns that marked every inch from her wrist to her upper arm. The blood had stopped streaming down her nostrils and eyes, but she couldn't stop the tears from flowing dramatically down to her neck and chest. A pain she had never felt before in her life racked her entire body, not just her arms, as she collapsed into Hopper's tight grasp.
The chief continued to hold his daughter with one arm, shooting Demodogs with the other. Everything seemed to move in slow motion, as the hole in the gate shrunk further and further and more Demodogs appeared on the walls. More roars thundered in the sky as the shadow monster's hand was pushed back into the Upside Down. El's face was covered in black veins, her brown eyes seeming to morph into a malicious red as she finally closed the last of the gate.
The brunette fell the moment the gate was closed, landing next to Hopper as darkness enclosed them. Jasper was crying uncontrollably, letting out an agonized howl anytime Hopper or El accidentally touched the barbecued patches on her skin.
"Shit!" Hopper exclaimed urgently, slamming his hand down on the button to allow the elevator to lift them back to safety.
"Chief! Chief, are you there?" Jonathan was calling through the walkie, but his voice sounded so distant as Jasper began to slip in and out of consciousness. She couldn't retract information, unable to make out who was touching her or what was being whispered assuringly into her ear.
"Did it work? Did Jas and El close the gate?" Another voice asked, and despite her constant blacking out, Jasper knew it was her best friend Dustin talking.
"Yeah, they closed it," Hopper wheezed into the walkie, ordering El to help him haul Jasper to her feet. The redhead's lips curled upwards as another scream left her mouth, immense pain surging through her head and her arms now.
"Who was that? Was that Jas? Is she okay? Did something happen? Is she hurt? Dammit, Hopper! SAY SOMETHING!" Dustin demanded impatiently, his words slurring together from the panic.
Hopper gazed down at his daughter, tears pooling in the corners of his eyes as he was unable to stop looking at the burns on her arms.
"We've got a problem."
The world began to spin in Jasper's eyes, and all she could look at was the hideous burns on her arms. Although it was over, she could still feel the intense fire that raked her arms. But most of all, she couldn't stop hearing the words of Carson Oakes ring in her ears as she began to drift into a deep sleep. Words that would haunt her until her dying breath.
Your mother created the Upside Down, and it nearly killed her. And now...
Now that place is going to eat you alive.