𓆩♡𓆪

𝐋𝐈𝐙𝐙𝐈𝐄'𝐒 𝐊𝐍𝐔𝐂𝐊𝐋𝐄𝐒 𝐁𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐃 lightly against Eddie's as she came up beside him. The two had separated from the group, falling a few feet behind, as they continued their walk back down to Lover's Lake.

"Eddie," Lizzie tried to keep her voice down. "Do you really feel like you're dragging me down?"

"Of course I am." He scoffed. "You shouldn't have gotten involved with me. Then none of this would've happened and you'd be safe."

Lizzie could feel her heart pulling at his words. "I don't want you to blame yourself for this mess. I chose to be your friend, I chose to kiss you, I chose to show up at your trailor that night. My choices made me get involved. It was my own decisions that led me here, not yours."

Eddie was hesitating, so Lizzie reached out, committing to holding his hand instead of the light finger touch that she had done earlier. "I chose you, Eddie."

"Why?" His big, brown eyes are gut wrenching to look into, the pain and self hatred recognizable.

Lizzie freezes at this, swallowing back the words that were bubbling up in her throat. Flashes of everything that they've been through together dancing across her mind, and almost instantly she felt her fear melt away. So, she blurted;

"Because I love you."

Eyes wide, Eddie stopped walking, turning to her. "Do you mean that?"

Lizzie nods, feeling empowered by her choice to say what had been on her mind for a few days now. "Yeah," she smiles. "Of course I do."

Eddie swallowed hard, taking her free hand into his, so both of their hands were intertwined now. "I love you, too." His tone was sweet, gentle and caring. Lizzie could almost melt into the words.

All she could do was smile up at him, chest swelling and heart racing, feeling happy. Happy. A week ago, Lizzie Harrington would've never used such a word to describe herself. But now, she could confidently say that she was.

Catching a glimspe of the rest of the group in the corner of her eye, Lizzie realized that if they hung back much longer, they would lose them completely and be left behind. Dropping one of Eddie's hands but keeping her grip on the other, Lizzie playfully pulled him down the trail, back towards the group.

"Whoa!" Dustin suddenly exclaimed, referring to the compass. "Something's happening!"

He broke away from the crowd and started to run through the woods. The others hurried to chase after him. Finally, they reached the bank of Lover's Lake, Lizzie and Eddie letting go of their hands. Lizzie knew that Steve had seen the physical contact, she could always recognize that feeling that she got whenever he seared holes in the back of her head with his staring.

Choosing to ignore his glaring, Lizzie stepped up to the front of the crowd, looking out over the vast stretch of water where she and Eddie had almost lost their lives not too long ago.

"There's a gate in Lover's Lake?" Max was confused.

"Whenever the Demogorgan attacked," Nancy stared striaght ahead. "It always left an opening. Maybe Vecna's the same way."

"Well, only one way to find out." Steve sounded annoyed by his tone, and Lizzie hopes that he isn't mad at her.

Now feeling anxious and needing to do something with her hands, Lizzie stepped up to the small metel boat from the boathouse that she and Eddie had left on the bank when they were running from Jason. She pushed it into the water, leaving one hand on the rim to keep it from floating away. Then, she turned to everybody. "Get in."

Robin's the first to climb in, and Eddie follows. He helped Nancy climb in and then he took Lizzie's hand to guide her to her seat as well. Steve takes her place holding the boat agianst the shore.

"Thanks." She breathed, acknowledging his polite gesture. He simply nods as a reply, staying quiet.

Dustin goes to step into the boat, but Eddie stops him with a swift motion of his hand. "Hey, hey, hey. You trying to sink us? This thing holds four people tops, okay?"

"It's better this way," Nancy agrees. "You guys stay here with Max. Keep an eye out for trouble."

Dustin is extremely offended and taken aback by this. "You keep an eye out!"

Nancy raises a brow and Dustin scoffs at her, throwing his hands in the air angrily. "It's my goddamn theory."

"You heard Nance." Robin speaks up.

"Who put her in charge?" Dustin whines.

"I did." Robin says matter-of-factly.

Nancy held out a hand. "Compass?"

Dustin pouts, stomping his foot like a toddler who wasn't getting their way, but he gives in and handed her the compass.

Steve pushes the boat away from shore, letting it drift away a few feet before he runs after it and jumps in.

Now Dustin's really mad. "You said four!"

Steve shrugs, sitting next to Nancy. "Sorry." He mouths, not sorry at all.

"Bedtime at nine, kiddos!" Robin mocks Dustin even further as the five of them start to row further out on the lake.

The sound of the compass whirring interrupts their fun. Nancy holds it up to get a better look at it, eyes going wide. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down."

Lizzie puts down her oar, turning to face Nancy, the others doing the same. They all watch in awe as the compass needle spins around furiously in all directions.

Eddie's walkie talkie stirred to life on the base of the boat. "What's going on? C'mon guys talk to me." Dustin demands.

Robin is the first to scoop up the walkie, holding it up to her mouth. "Uh, your compass has gone from wonky to wonky with a capital 'waah'!"

Finally able to pull her eyes away from the compass face, Lizzie sees that Steve had taken to removing his shoes.

"What are you doing?" She asks him as he goes on to peel off his socks.

"Somebody's gotta go down there and check this thing out." Steve says. "And unless one of you three can top being a Hawkins High swim co-captain and a certified lifegaurd for three years, then...it's gotta be me."

As he rises to his feet, Lizzie finds herself trying to grab at him, to pull him back down into his seat. "Steve, no!" She pleads with him. "I can't let you do this."

Steve doesn't answer right away, pulling his sweatshirt over his head and tossing it casually to the floor. "I'll be fine." He says. When he makes locks eyes with her, Lizzie can see that they are dark, and distant. "Besides, you have Eddie."

The words sent a sharp pain through Lizzie's chest. She opened her mouth to defend herself but Steve had already jumped in. The silence that fell over the rest of them was deafening, and Lizzie could only stare at her lap while trying not to cry.

The mere sixty seconds that Steve was under the water felt more like hours, all of them just anxiously waiting for him to resurface.

With a big splash and a loud gasp, Steve broke the surface of the water. He grabbed the side of the boat to help him tread as he looked up at everyone.

"I found it!" He panted.

"You found it?" Lizzie is filled with every emotion possible right now. Fear, relief, anger, hurt. Staring down at her big brother, she felt every one of those in her core.

Robin is clicking on the walkie talkie again, speaking into it. "Dustin, you are a goddamn Einstein, Steve found the gate!"

"It was wild!" Steve reveals. "It was more of a snack sized gate but still, it's still pretty damn big."

Whoosh! ━━ Steve dispeared from sight, bubbles coming up to the surface where he had just been.

Lizzie gasped and swiftly moved to the edge, looking down into the dark, murky water, seeing nothing. Fear seized her chest, her eyes watering as she cried out for Steve.

His head popped up from the water for just a moment, but in that moment Lizzie could see the terror in his eyes. Then, he was pulled under again and now everybody else was freaking out too.

Before she knows what she's doing, Lizzie is stepping off the edge of the boat, pushing herself into the water. She feels somebody's hand narrowly miss when trying to grab her ankle to stop her, but she's made her mind up. She's going in.

Taking a deep breath right before she hits the water, Lizzie kicks her legs furiously, swimming down, down, down, deeper into the lake.

She can hear some commotion coming from behind her, from the surface, but she doesn't dare to turn around. A red, glowing light comes into view as Lizzie continues swimming towards the bottom.

She can see now that the light is coming from a hole, the tear in the floor glowing a deep, evil kind of red. There are vines, moving vines, surrounding the hole, the gate, slithering like snakes around the entrance.

Her blood pumping with adrenaline, Lizzie doesn't even hesitate for a moment, swimming right through the slimy tentacles.

Feeling the world flip on it's head, Lizzie is pulled down by a new gravity, her body thudding onto the ground. She moves carefully, pushing herself into a sitting position, taking in her surroundings.

The Upside Down. Lizzie could only gawk as she glance around at the large plateau covered with thicker versions of the vines by the gate. A few yards away was a dense forest, and the whole landscape was painted with a blue tint.

Remembering the whole reason she came down here, Lizzie whipped her head from side to side, looking for Steve. She spotted a couple a bat-like creatures swarming around something, a few feet away. They were swooping in and back out repeatedly, like they were toying with something. Or someone.

Lizzie sprang to her feet, snatching up a rotted looking oar that was just laying around, running right over to the scene with the bats.

"Lizzie!"

She turns at the sound of Nancy's voice. She, Robin and Eddie had followed her down there. All of them were holding oars as well. The four exchanged a determined look, one that said 'I got your back'. Then, Lizzie moved her attention back to the hoard of bats, seeing now that it was in fact Steve that they were attacking.

Thunder roared overhead but Lizzie's heartbeat in her ears was louder as she ran to the bats. Once close enough, she lifted the oar above her head, swinging it like a baseball bat violently, smacking a bat off of her brother's stomach.

Nancy is beside her now, stabbing the bat that had a grip on Steve's neck. Robin stepped on its tail to hold it down so Nancy could spear it. Eddie hung back, looking overwhelmed with this sight playing out before him. That was until some more bats swooped in as backup and he wacked them away with his oar.

Once the first bat had been hit away from Steve, Lizzie moved onto the other one. She brought her oar down so hard that it's wing came clean off. As all the bats screeched in pain, Steve was able to peel off the one that was choking him, getting to his feet and throwing it against the ground, hard.

At his swift movement, Lizzie stumbled back, falling to the ground in a sitting position. Eddie hit his knees beside her on the ground, touching her arm. "You okay?" His eyes were panicked.

"Yeah," Lizzie breathed shakily, letting Eddie help her to her feet.

The chaos was now over, all of the bats having been either killed or had retreated, and the five teens stood, trying to catch their breath, hearts pumping furiously.

"Steve..." Lizzie turned her attention to him, coming up beside him to get a closer look at his injuries. His flesh was ripped and bloody at his sides, and his neck was already started to bruise.

"Fuck..." was all Lizzie could murmer as she stared in horror, unable to pull her eyes away.

"I'm fine." Steve brushed her off.

"Uh, do you guys think that these bats have, like, rabies?" Robin asked, squatting down beside one of the corpses.

"What?" Lizzie shot back.

"It's just that, like," Robin explained. "Rabies are 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, like, dead."

All that she got in response was a bunch of blank, 'are you serious' stares from the group, until they were interrupted by the sound of screeching bats.

Pushing her wet hair off her face, Lizzie looked up into the sky, gasping when she realized that more bats were flying right towards them.

Steve stuck his arm out in front of her, making a barrier between her and the bats, stepping up to protect her. This made Lizzie's heart swell, knowing that even if they were fighting, he'd always have her back. She was grateful to have a brother like that.

What didn't make her heart smile was the fact that the hoard of around seven or eight bats had flown past them, going right for the gate. They landed on the ground and circled around, spreading out their wings.

"Are they...gaurding it?" Lizzie whispered, furrowing her brow.

"I think so." Steve replied.

"How are we supposed to get back?" Lizzie asked.

"It's not that many," Steve shrugged. "We can take 'em."

The sky lit up with a loud crack of thunder and red lightning, revealing that even more bats were headed their way. This time, there were at least twenty or thirty.

"You were saying?" Robin said.

"The woods." Nancy spoke up. "Come on!"

With this, she started to run towards the thick, eerie forest. Steve and Lizzie immediately realized what she was doing and followed her, and Eddie and Robin weren't too far behind them.

As she sprinted towards the trees, feeling the cold wind on her face, Lizzie squeezed her eyes shut. She didn't know which was worse, running from the cops for a murder you didn't commit, or running through and alternate unknown dimension with killer bat monsters chasing after you.

Eh, probably the cops.

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