"Yes, there's a scream inside that we all try to hide
We hold on so tight, but I don't wanna die, no
I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die, yeah"
- Bird Set Free, Sia
THERE WERE TWO SETS OF STEADY BEEPING, matching the pulsing pain in Caroline's side when she woke up.
Blinding white lights were the first thing she saw. She realized there was a ventilator over her mouth and nose, preventing her from moving her face too much. She lay still, on her back, in soft white sheets.
A hospital.
"Callie?" There was a hoarse, tired voice coming from the other side of the room.
Caroline turned her head could see her brother out of the corner of her eye. He was reaching his hand out to her.
"Will," She whispered. A tear trickled down her cheek. She tried to reach further, stretching her hand out to touch him, feel him, confirm that her senses weren't lying to her, that her twin was alive-
Her side erupted in pain, making her cry out. The steady beeping of the machine turned rapid, her heart rate spiking.
The door burst open and in walked Joyce Byers, looking more tired than her children had ever seen her before. She saw Caroline arching her back in pain and called out into the hallway, "Nurse! I need a nurse!"
She rushed over and took her daughter's hand, smoothing back her sweaty hair. "Shh, shh, you're okay..."
Slowly, the pain subsided and Caroline's shallow breathing slowed. However, Joyce's grip no her hand didn't loosen one bit.
"You okay?" Jonathan stood next to Will's bed, holding his hand.
"Yeah," Caroline rasped. She locked eyes with Will and they grinned at each other.
"Wait," Will said. He looked confused. "Why is Caroline here? Why- why is she hurt?"
"How am I still alive? Will's heart stopped, and mine did too, but you and Hopper were there with Will, not me... and I should have bled out-"
"Bled out?" Will echoed in disbelief. "What do you mean, bled out?"
Caroline exchanged glances with her mom. She took a deep breath- not that it made much difference, with a ventilator- and looked at Will again. "We've got a lot to talk about."
"You won't believe what happened when you were gone, man!"
"It was mental!"
"You had a funeral!"
"Jennifer Hayes was crying-"
"-And Troy peed himself- "
Will was wide-eyed, his mouth gaping. "What?"
Caroline smiled from her bed as the rest of the party caught Will up on everything he had missed. She started to get a headache from looking out of the corner of her eye for so long, and eventually turned her head back to look at the ceiling.
A rough, calloused hand took hers and she saw Lucas look down at her before moving to sit down, just out of her vision.
"You're alive," Lucas said in a teasing tone.
"Yeah, bitch, I'm back," Caroline said.
"Language!" Joyce called into the room from the doorway.
Lucas didn't laugh. "I thought I had lost you," he said softly. He was holding her hand so tightly she thought he'd never let go.
Not that she was complaining.
"There was so much blood," Lucas sounded like he was struggling to get the words out. "It- it was everywhere. It was all over my hands. I had to throw away my clothes."
Caroline didn't trust herself to speak.
"Your heart stopped," he continued. "Dustin and I were keeping pressure on it like 911 told us to do, but your heart still stopped. And then it started again. Your mom and Hopper told us they did CPR to Will in the Upside Down. It must have saved you."
"Twintuition," Caroline asked. "How's El?"
There was a silence.
"Lucas?" Caroline squeezed his hand. Maybe he didn't hear her. "How is she?"
"Callie." He sounded broken and... sad.
Grieving.
"No," Caroline whispered. "Lucas, where is she? She's still at Mike's house, right?"
"Callie, she..." Lucas took a shaky breath and leaned his forehead against hers. "She's gone."
He started to explain everything that happened when Caroline... died. How the demogorgon came right for her, laying in the back of the science classroom, covered in blood, how El stepped in front of them all and sent the monster back the Upside Down.
How she disappeared in a cloud of ashes.
"No," Caroline just kept repeating it, over and over, like a mantra. "no, no, no, no."
She started to cry, heaving, heartbroken sobs, letting all of the horrible experiences loose. Lucas was whispering to her how it's okay, i'm so sorry, you need to breathe...
But she couldn't breathe.
She didn't deserve to breath.
If it weren't for Caroline Byers, staring down a psychotic government agent, practically begging to get shot, she wouldn't have ended up covered in enough blood to attract a supernatural monster.
She wouldn't have slowed down her friends, forced them to carry her to safety like the damsel in distress she always told herself she would never be.
She wouldn't have made her friends, the boy she liked more than life itself, cry.
It was her fault. She should have been the one to sacrifice herself, not El.
She should have been the one who disappeared in a cloud of ash.
What made Caroline even more sick was the fact that she did die. Her heart had stopped. She had died, just like she was supposed to, and she was with Will in that warm, wonderful place, where she couldn't burden anyone anymore.
And now she was back, painting more stress lines on her mother's face, making Lucas cry again, being a painful reminder to Mike, who had lost the first girl he ever loved; being a replacement of the girl who sacrificed her life to save Caroline.
Caroline was crying so hard now that her stomach was cramping, doing something awful to the gunshot wound. She heard Lucas get up and call into the hallway that she needed help.
Nurses surrounded her in a flurry of commands and yelling orders to each other. A tiny, sharp pain shot up her hand and something cool filled her veins, making her body relax and her mind start to drift.
"Shh... just relax..."
She thanked God for the release from the pain.
ONE MONTH LATER:
"Oh, this is just so overcooked. And look, the potatoes are runny..." Joyce bit her nails as she looked down at the table covered in food.
Jonathan rolled his eyes. "Mom."
"They're so runny..."
Caroline laughed as Will steered her wheelchair to the table. "Mom, it's gonna be great."
Will nodded. He sat down next to his sister, taking her hand as usual. It had become a ritual since the day they got out of the hospital. It was so normal and comforting that they didn't even think about it anymore. "It's definitely an Atari."
"An a-what-i?" Joyce raised an eyebrow as she took her place at the head of the table.
"The green present," Will was grinning. "It's an Atari. I felt Dustin's today, it's the same exact weight."
Joyce laughed and shrugged. She turned to Jonathan and the two of them started to talk about his camera when suddenly and overwhelming feeling of nausea overcame Caroline.
She looked at Will, who's face had drained of color. He met her eyes and nodded.
Not again.
"Mom, I gotta go to the bathroom," Caroline fought back her urge to vomit.
Joyce nodded. "Oh, okay-"
"I got her," Will stood quickly. He took the head of her wheelchair and the twins quickly made their way to the bathroom.
Will was already gagging as he helped Caroline out of her chair to sit on the floor. She immediately grasped the sides of the toilet seat, spitting bile into the water.
But it was Will who had it the worst.
He leaned over the sink, stomach heaving, before he vomited up an otherworldly slug.
He groaned quietly and Caroline sighed with relief as the nausea started to fade. But then, because the Byers twins could just never catch a break, the lights flickered and suddenly, they were back in the Upside Down.
Will was frozen, staring in horror at the vines crawling along the walls.
"Will," Caroline's breath fogged the icy air. "Will, I'm right here. It's not real, remember?"
Will's breathing was still shallow. "I know. I know. I know."
The vision disappeared and then they were back in their bathroom, the real one.
Caroline could feel that one of her stitches must have broken open from all of the movement, and quickly pressed a tissue to her side to put of a stop to the bleeding.
Will's sharp intake of breath made her look up.
"I'm okay," She reassured him, throwing the red tissue away. He helped her back in her wheelchair. "Don't tell Mom."
"I won't if you won't," Will said, but deep down they both knew neither one of them would say anything.
it took a few minutes, but they finally made it back to the dining table, back to the warm, happy chatter of Christmas, and Caroline smiled, for real.
Then the doorbell rang and Joyce looked up, brows furrowed.
"We aren't expecting anyone, are we?" she asked, looking worried she had forgotten something.
"No, we aren't," Jonathan agreed.
Joyce stood up and went to the door. She opened it and gasped.
"Mom?" Will stood quickly. He and Jonathan ran to the door, leaving Caroline cursing under her breath. She followed suit, wheeling herself to the door, and stopped cold when she did.
A girl stood in the snow, with long, dark hair and Asian features. She looked tired and scared and freezing. Caroline gasped when she realized the girl was wearing nothing but a hospital gown, leaving her legs and arms bare.
The hospital gown looked familiar...
The girl opened her cracked, blue lips and stuttered out one word.
"Eleven."
Aaaaand, that's a wrap, folks! I can't believe Other Half On the Other Side is finally finished! Thank you to everyone who read and voted and commented, it means the world to me!
A special thanks goes to @lonely-sxcker. She is truly such an amazing inspiration for me. One message to her because I was a fan of her writing, and she became a source of motivation to get this story out there. Her comments were amazing and it is wonderful to see someone invested in my writing like that. Love you, girlie!
Left off on a cliffhanger, which was intentional! Check out my new book I'm releasing soon; Pulses, Steve Harrington {1}. It is from the mystery girl's point of view, and the love interest is everyone's favorite babysitter, Steve Harrington!
But don't worry, you haven't seen the last of Caroline Byers! Another book will be released soon as a continuation of Caroline's story in Stranger Things 2, and it will be totally epic, with new storylines and a TON more Lucaline!