(the dive pt. iii → the massacre at hawkins lab)

｡･:*˚:✧｡ THE LAKE IS quiet, except for the paddles going through water smoothly, the concealed shudders that have too much to do with anything other than the cold.

Raymond sits between Eddie and Steve, lips pursed and arms crossed as he tries not to look over either of the guys' shoulder into the darkness of the water. He's had enough of it for a lifetime. He nods his head to the beat of Master of Puppets because Steve's music taste is ridiculous — this is the only valid song on the entire mixtape and Raymond has decided to replay it over and over again. Sometimes he doesn't even manage to start the song from the beginning, ends up playing it from the second verse, but doesn't mind it. It's better than The Supremes' You Can't Hurry Love.

Nancy is the first one to raise her hands in the air. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down! Slow down, guys."

Ray leans forward over the girl's shoulder to see what she's seeing and he can't help the confusion. The compass is acting out --- the needle is not in one place, not even pointing in the wrong direction, but spinning in circles, so fast it looks like a blur of pale red over the ivory surface and nothing else.

"Fuck," Raymond murmurs just as Steve leans over his shoulder with an amazed, "Woah." Raymond shrugs him off of himself. Nancy does the same to him.

The awkwardness is broken by the crackling of static. Dustin's voice comes through the radio. "Guys, what is it?"

"The fucking twilight zone," Raymond replies.

"What the—? Come on! Talk to me, what's going on?"

"Uh, Dustin, your compass has gone from wonky to wonky with a capital 'aah'!" Robin exclaims and Raymond feels himself smile. He can hear Eddie chuckle and turns around — it's a fucking reflex — to see his wide grin. Something in his chest squeezes, painfully tight, at how it slips off his face when their eyes meet.

Nancy's gasp forces Raymond's attention to the others and he looks up, seeing Steve attempting to stand. "Steve, what are you doing?"

"Somebody's gotta go down and check this out." He narrows his eyes at each of them. "Unless one of you four can top being a Hawkins High swim co-captain and a certified lifeguard for three years, then it's gotta be me. No complaints, all right?"

Raymond salutes and Eddie snorts. "Hey, I'm not complaining." There's a pause and Raymond sees his smile drop as his eyes soak in the darkness before them. "I do not wanna go down there. Not again."

Eddie seems to busy himself with his torch then, testing if it works. No one else has any comment on Steve's declaration, not even a concerned looking Nancy whose worry only seems to falter when Steve takes his shirt off. Her face practically explodes with all shades of red and she looks away. Raymond glances at Robin and she's already smirking.

"Fucking hell, you got hairy," Raymond blurts out and Steve turns around, eyebrows raised in question because he probably doesn't expect Raymond to address him in any way. Raymond doesn't expect himself to do so, either, but he tries to keep his expression neutral because showing Steve the surprise is not an option. "Now I get why they call you The Hair. I thought it was your head they were talking about."

"Ladies love it." It sounds like a question rather than a statement. When Raymond looks back at Robin, her disgusted expression tells him what he needs to know.

"Tasteless." Raymond glances down at Nancy. "No offence, Wheeler."

"Hey, uh..." Eddie draws attention to himself. Raymond sees the torch in his hand. It's covered in a plastic bag and tied so water can't get through. Eddie throws it over to Steve. "Good luck."

Almost surprised by the gesture, Steve mumbles a weak, "Thanks," and tosses his sweater to Eddie, already looking discouraged.

Eddie gives him a smile nonetheless. One that says, 'You've got balls, man,' or, 'Thank you for doing this for me, jumping into danger to help me prove my innocence.' One of these sounds like Eddie a lot more than the other. Yet, neither of them sounds like a lie.

Raymond can see it as Eddie sits back down and pulls one leg to his chest. Clammy hands meet over his kneecap, shaking and Raymond reaches into his pocket and pulls out the pack of cigarettes he spent hours drying in the sun that morning. He nudges Eddie carefully, without a word. Eddie nods in appreciation and takes the cigarette.

"Light?" he asks softly. Raymond nods, grabs the pack of matches he's luckily taken from Dustin and pulls one out, then lights it. He leans over to Eddie, who already has the cigarette between his lips, doing his best to ignore his attentive stare on him. Just as he cups the tip so the wind doesn't disturb them, Robin grabs the match and throws it into the lake.

"Hey!"

She snatches Eddie's cigarette and throws it, too. "Gross."

Raymond scoffs. "You're gross."

"You can't live without me."

"I'm trying to get rid of you."

"Not working out for you, it seems." She ruffles his hair with a cheeky grin and he only rolls his eyes, turning away to hide the smile. He can feel Eddie looking at him.

Encouraged by Nancy's words — which have remained limited to his ears only — Steve gives all of them a final nod before jumping into the lake.

And then, it's quiet.

Robin eventually begins whistling a random melody that Raymond finds familiar, but isn't sure if it's something he likes or her own tragic music taste. Visibly bothered by the noise, Nancy occasionally shoots glares her way, but Raymond's the only one who notices, so she gives up.

Despite the silence, despite the words that swarm through Raymond's mind like annoying moths around a flame, Eddie still clings to him. Raymond doesn't mind it. The air is too cold and the water is too dark and there's that feeling of being dragged down, far below the surface, still clinging to his skin. Jason's bruising touch can never be washed off, but with Eddie's arm around his shoulders, Raymond's heart feels a little more at ease.

He looks up at one point, unable to stop it, unable to control the urge to see Eddie's expression, and when he does, Eddie's already looking back at him. His eyes are round, apologetic and soft with a warmth that makes Raymond want to lean in and press his lips to his eyelids and ease his guilt. His smile is a small one, one that has the corners of his mouth barely lift. One single dimple finds its way to his cheek and Raymond smiles back, his heart thudding in his ears, before offering an earbud. A peace offering. Eddie takes it, but instead of putting it into the ear on Raymond's side, he brings it to the opposite one. It instantly brings his face closer to Raymond's, the short cable limiting their space.

"Can hear you better," is all he says at the raise of Raymond's eyebrows. Raymond, nodding dumbly, does the same. When he switches ears, their heads knock together.

For some reason, Nancy keeps looking at them. It's not obvious, but whenever she's not staring into the dark water and chewing at her bottom lip in worry, her big eyes are on them, on Eddie's hand on Raymond's knee or on the way they smile. It makes Raymond feel uneasy. It's not a 'boys should not touch each other like that,'  kind of look. It seems more like 'I want something like this, too,' and Raymond's never had something like that directed towards him. It's usually him who gives the look, as hard as it is to admit.

It shouldn't bother him as much as it does, honestly. He's not the type to worry about the opinions of others, especially the opinions of prissy high school girls with fluffy hair and big dreams. Yet, something in him has changed and he suddenly wants Nancy to see him properly, without anything negative attached to the idea of him in her pretty little head. Even if that something is his having someone to be close with.

He remembers her from back in the day. The conversation in Steve's car. Her questions and his outburst and her tears. Tommy's comments and Jonathan's fists against Steve's face and her name sprayed above the entrance to the movies. Her bloodied arm and Raymond's arms around her as they were left alone. Raymond screaming at Steve, Steve screaming at Raymond. Her as an excuse when she was only the trigger.

She's changed. She's matured more than any of them. A stuck-up rich girl without a worry has become a brave, caring woman and it's probably not a good thing. Kids deserve to stay kids. She hasn't been so lucky.

He really doesn't want her to feel alone.

"You cold?" he mutters before he can stop himself.

Already fully aware he's talking to her because she's been staring for quite a while, Nancy widens her eyes and gives a small nod.

Robin raises an eyebrow at him, trying to figure out what he's doing and Eddie doesn't seem any less confused, but Raymond simply shrugs off his jacket and slings it over her shoulders loosely. She thanks him in a voice so small he barely hears it over Robin and Eddie exchanging extremely aggressive whispers, and turns his back to him, focusing entirely on the compass (and Steve, probably).

It's quiet again and Raymond tries not to think about it. About the silence and the eyes on him and the goosebumps rising all over his skin at the contact with the cold air. About Steve, alone, in the water, looking for the door to another dimension.

"Where we at, Wheeler?" Robin asks at some point and Raymond takes off his earbud, ignoring Eddie's furrowed eyebrows and stumbling over to where Nancy's sitting, at the very edge, looking down into the depths of the lake.

"Closing in on a minute," she replies.

"What do we do when we find it?" Raymond asks lowly as Eddie joins him and Nancy on this side of the boat. "The hero girl can't close it, can she?"

"Not without her powers." Nancy sighs. "But it's still something, you know. It's a shot in the dark, but we've had so many in the past and we're still here. It has to work."

Raymond scoffs and opens his mouth to say that it's one hell of a shot in the dark, but water splashes over him with a deafening sound and Nancy screams. He flinches back, grabbing onto anything closest to him — that happens to be Eddie himself — but even as Steve's head emerges from beneath the surface and Nancy's no longer screaming, neither of them lets go.

"I found it," Steve announces, breathless. Nancy perks up at that.

"You found it?"

"Found it, yeah. Found it." Steve laughs and Eddie laughs, too, forcing a smile onto Raymond's face.

Robin's voice is bright when she turns on the walkie. "Dustin, you are a goddamn Einstein! Steve found the gate."

"What's it like?" Raymond asks, elbows propped up on the edge of the boat. He contemplates helping Steve into the boat, but realises no one else is doing anything. They must be going into the water again, he figures, those who can swim.

"Uh, red, glowing, all that basic stuff." It's nowhere near basic to Raymond, but he assumes the crew are all pretty much used to it. "It's pretty wild. It's more a snack-size gate than the mama gate, but still, it's pretty damn big."

And suddenly, it's like every fucking horror movie ever because Steve's pulled back into the water with a terrified gasp and suddenly, the boat is shaking and water's splashing everywhere and suddenly, everyone is screaming and holy shit, Steve Harrington's going to die.

Eddie's arms are around him, but he tugs them off, leans over the edge to look, to see, to find anything. There's nothing. There's nothing in the water for him to see or find and there's no Steve and fuck, this is it. He's dying. Raymond wished for it and now he's actually dying and Raymond can't swim, can't chase after him, can't save him, just like Steve couldn't save Raymond back home.

He just can't. He has, not an excuse, but a reason. A proper reason, completely rational, completely valid and sensible. If he goes in, unprepared, terrified and incapable of moving a muscle without sinking, he'll be in danger, he'll become yet another person to save, another life risked uselessly because the others won't be able to focus just on Steve, but on him, as well. And being torn between two people means failing to save either.

Steve was stuck in a haunted house, on the other side of Vecna's lair, taking care of five other people, and his walkie wasn't on him. Raymond wouldn't hear him out, but he heard Henderson and he heard Mayfield and he knows. He knows that Steve had no clue what was happening. He didn't intentionally let it all happen, didn't run away and leave Raymond to suffer. He was genuinely clueless.

Had Steve known that Eddie and Raymond were stuck inside with a group of violent, cruel people who wouldn't listen, that Eddie was almost caught and that Raymond almost drowned... had he known that his best friend's life depended on him, would he have come?

Raymond's brought back to reality when Nancy stands up, that fierce determination in the way her eyes sharpen.

"You're not going in there, are you?" Eddie's voice sounds broken.

She shakes her head. "Just wait here."

Robin gasps from beside Raymond. "No, no, no—" It's pointless. Nancy jumps in with a splash and there's nothing, again. "No, Nancy!"

"Fucking hell, Wheeler," Raymond mumbles, burying his face in his hands. Eddie's grip on him tightens and he looks up, regretting it immediately because Robin is sitting on the very edge of the boat, her back to the water, her expression one of determination, just like Nancy's was before. He's seen her wear it while translating Russian codes and trying to tell the difference between two mismatched yellow socks — she means it.

"Robin, don't you dare," he mumbles, careful. He can't just sit there and wait for them to rescue Steve. He's no better than him.

"What are you doing? She said wait," Eddie almost scolds her, exasperation evident in the way his voice breaks. He does not want to follow her.

"Yeah, I heard her."

Eddie continues. "She's in charge!"

"Are you kidding me?" the girl sneers, freckled nose scrunching up. "I made that shit up."

"Don't you dare, don't you— Goddamn it! Son of a bitch!" Eddie starts to spill curses and shouts, palm slamming against the edge of the boat, but it's all in vain because Robin tips back until she loses balance and drops into the water, hand covering her nose and mouth, and the two of them are all alone now and Raymond can't think.

Steve didn't help because Steve didn't know. Not this time. And Raymond knows.

"Eddie, we need to help them," he says the first thing that comes to mind and Eddie shoots him a glare.

"Are you crazy? You can't—"

"They're here to help us out of this shit. To help you. If they die and we stay up here..." He shakes his head and stands up. "I can't do this on my own. I'm
gonna need your help."

Eddie stands up, too, hands holding onto Raymond's. "Oh, this is so stupid," he whines. "You are stupid."

Raymond remembers Robin's embrace whenever he cried so hard his throat felt like it was being ripped into two. He remembers the wet cloth Nancy used to clean the cut on his forehead at the police station a few years ago. He remembers Steve being his other half during the most important part of his life, the kind of family one isn't born into.

He grins and holds Eddie's hands tighter. "We'll be heroes."

Eddie snorts. They're all alone, yet his voice is low, as if every word he has is personal, delicately cradled in the warmth of his lips just for Raymond's ears. "Goddamn it, doll, we're not heroes."

Just to rile him up, Raymond wets his own lips with his tongue, eyes following Eddie's that slip lower before flickering up innocently. "We could be."

Raymond regrets it the second the murky water touches his skin. It's freezing and it soaks through his shirt and jeans, sending shivers down his spine. He has his arms around Eddie's neck, his legs floating uselessly, grazing against Eddie's sides as Eddie holds him up. "If you choke me, I'm letting you go and you'll drown."

Raymond locks his jaw to prevent his teeth from chattering, but manages to grit out, "Noted."

With that, he gets one final look at their surroundings, the clear night sky and the rustling leaves of the trees around them. Eddie Munson, forcing a nervous little smile to encourage him, the kind of smile Raymond wants to feel against his own mouth.

As their heads slip beneath the surface and he sees the moon illuminating their world one last time, Raymond wishes he knew.

His eyes are squeezed shut, his lips pressed together tightly and he tells himself, no matter what he does, he should not breathe in at any cost. He makes sure to keep his arms around Eddie loose enough that Eddie can move properly, but also firm enough that he doesn't slip off and drown in the darkness of murky lake water and death.

It's such a ridiculous fucking idea. Almost drowning in here, getting dragged out by someone and asking them to go back in. It's incredibly irresponsible on Raymond's end, but equally crazy on Eddie's, so he feels a little better.

He still remembers the sound of Eddie's voice as he told Steve he'd never willingly get back here again. Yet, here they both are, reaching deeper and deeper into the lake, ready to face something even deadlier on the other side.

Only when he feels Eddie's fingers tap his thigh does he open his eyes back up. The moment he does, he tightens his hold around Eddie, just in case, eyes on the glowing red thing at the very bottom.

Surrounded by ripped tyres and rusty cans, there's an opening. Like recently healed skin, angry red, patched up by itself, intertwined with dozens of vines, black and gooey, moving on their own like spider legs. Something akin to a palm pushes from the other side, pushes and pushes until the skin breaks, Robin's hand waving them over.

The closer they get, the tighter his chest feels and he isn't sure whether he's lacking air or safety, but he knows it doesn't matter. There are more important things to deal with, such as Eddie losing air, yet his hands are pushing Raymond towards the opening so he'd go first. Raymond attempts to protest, but the dumb shakes of his head do nothing to assure Eddie, who simply looks down — up — at Robin and entrusts her with taking care of Raymond.

Hesitantly, Raymond takes Robin's hand and lets Eddie push him through. It's odd, the fact that gravity isn't pulling him down any longer the moment he goes through, the fact that he needs to be pushed up and not falling down, but he doesn't focus on it for too long because breaking through the surface and breathing in is just as satisfying, despite how odd everything is.

He claws his way out, eyes screwed shut at the pain in his shoulder, but Robin helps him through it and together, they pull Eddie out. Eddie's gasping for air, hair soaked and body cold, but he clutches onto Raymond and examines him as if he himself were completely fine. "You okay?"

"Perfect." Raymond nods, hands finding his. He takes a look around, cringing at how the cold air hits his soaked skin, the clothes sticking to him in all the nasty ways.

It's greyer. Duller. Dead. Everything looks dead. The trees, the grass, the fucking sky. The only source of life seems to be the lightning splitting the sky down the middle, crimson red, and the sharp sounds coming from somewhere in the distance. The most terrifying part is, they don't sound too far away.

"Eddie, remember the whole Dungeons and Dragons thing?" Raymond voices and Eddie raises his eyebrows. "I think we have a bat problem."

"Guys."

Raymond turns around and freezes. Robin's running, a broken paddle in hand, catching up to Nancy Wheeler and the two of them don't look back.

"Shit, is that—?"

"Steve," Raymond interrupts Eddie. His feet are glued to the dusty ground beneath them. He can't move, but he can see. He wishes he couldn't.

Steve's lying on the ground, far ahead, body jerking in pain as a bat wraps its tail around his neck with a screeching noise. Three more bats are on him, clawing at his torso, scratching, biting. The creatures are bigger than normal bats. Even without the wings, they're probably around Ava's size, with big mouths and sharp teeth and that goddamn hissing noise that Raymond can't get out of his head.

Raymond doesn't wait any longer. He scans the space around them and spots what looks like an iron rod. It's sticky with something and the vines holding it in place shift when Raymond grabs it, as if they're a living, breathing organism.

Nancy and Robin are already there when they reach Steve. Nancy has slapped a bat away from Steve with Robin's paddle. Raymond's heart climbs up to his throat at the realisation that the creature notices him, sees him and is now crawling over to him with that same noise that makes him sick. All he knows is, he can't let it spread its wings. While it's still on the ground, he steps forward and sinks the rod into its body, the sound of ripped flesh and splattered insides making his skin crawl.

Nancy fights off another one and nears the one around Steve's neck. "Quickly, hold it, Robin!" At the instruction, Robin steps on the tail that's wrapped around Steve's neck and Nancy starts hitting it mercilessly. There's a wild look to her eyes, something he isn't sure he's seen before, but he doesn't get to think about it because suddenly, there's another bat, flying towards Eddie.

Without thinking, Raymond slaps it away. It comes back, quicker, stronger, and Eddie uses the paddle, hits it harder. The creature falls, unable to fly, and Eddie grabs the rod, stabs through it. Blood splatters over his face.

"You okay?" he echoes as he hands the rod back to Raymond. His eyes drift to the side and grow wider. "Wheeler, look out!"

Raymond doesn't even get to let out a sound before a bat attaches itself to the back of Nancy's neck, claws and teeth tangled into her curly hair. At her shirl scream, Robin grabs the tail, attempting to pull it off of her.

There's no time for him to come closer, to help. Another bat plummets towards Eddie. With a curse, Eddie hits it and the paddle in his hands cracks. The monster falters, weakened by the strike, and Raymond takes the opportunity. He uses the rod to nail it to the ground and turns to Steve.

Steve still has the goddamn tail around his neck, he's still clawing at it to try and pry it off of himself. Raymond rushes forward and slaps the bat away, but it's got a good grip on Steve and it doesn't budge. He doesn't give up, though, not until the rod falls from his hands, because the bat's distracted now, enough for Steve to finally untangle the sleazy tail and rise to his knees. Raymond watches as the tail slips through his fingers and the bat charges towards him.

Weaponless and frozen to the spot, Raymond doesn't even get the chance to raise his arms above his head before the creature's teeth sink into his skin and he cries out. The deafening sound of its screech echoes in his ears as he stumbles back. Its claws sink into his hands when he attempts to pry it off, and it's in vain.

It feels like a fucking snake bite. He was bitten by one when he was little, but the snake was harmless in comparison to this mutated monster bat, and its bite to his calf had nothing on the little bat teeth in his shoulder and his neck.

And then, the creature's being ripped off of him with the terrifying sound of torn flesh, way too close to his ears for him to just ignore it.

Steve's iron grip around its tail, the final bat is smashed against the stone and split into two with a disturbing sound, black blood splattering over Raymond's knees, and then, it's silent. He gasps for air and meets the eyes of his best friend who spits blood onto the ground and takes a step closer. Everyone else is suddenly growing closer, too.

The iron bars caging his heart into the confines of its own loneliness loosen, drop with a clatter that echoes, races in his ears as he watches the people he's grown to cherish — to truly, deeply love — step forward, blurry and smeared in his vision. Something else, behind them, stains the sky black in a flash.

And he can't breathe. He doesn't get to warn them. A sound comes out of his mouth, small and embarrassingly weak, but it's too late.

A bat emerges from in between the crooked trees, like a menacing raven, fast and merciless, and sinks its teeth into the flesh of Eddie's neck, ripping a scream out of Raymond's pained throat.

Eyes wide and mouth open, Eddie chokes out something Raymond can't understand. He drops to his knees. There's blood, so much blood, pooling out of his mouth and out of the wound on his neck.

"No!" Raymond cries out, scrambling to reach him, to be closer. "No, no, fuck, please— please, no!"

Eddie's head is on his thighs, crimson dripping down his lips, seeping through the thin denim of his jeans, and Raymond presses his fingers against the open wound, tries to slow down the painful, terrifying process, but fuck, it's not working and he wonders why everyone else is doing nothing. The bleeding isn't stopping and it's not working. Eddie's bleeding out in his arms.

"Help, please, help me," his voice is foreign even to his own ears. "Steve," is the first name he calls. He looks up, vision blurry, trees drowning and sky on fire, and cries out, the sound ripping its way out of his throat with a pain he can't begin to think about.

Steve is lying on the ground, the wound in his stomach open wide, gaping, blood pooling beneath him. His eyes are empty as they stare up into the sky. His hand is holding onto Robin's, who lies there, sobbing. He's already gone. Nancy lies next to her, clutching at a visible red stain on her pretty blouse.

"Robin, please—"

"It should've been you," she grits out, arms around Steve's dead body. "Barb and Eddie and Steve and Billy and Nance and so many of them — it should've been you. You wanted to be the hero and you killed us all."

"No!" He squeezes his eyes shut, holds Eddie's cold body closer to him, but nothing changes and he can't help looking down at those void eyes. Aside from his own sobs, there's no sound. Everyone else is silent. Robin has fallen still. Nancy, too. He can't hear the storm. There are no bats. 

There's a weird feeling of nausea, making his insides twist and spin as the realisation comes to him in the most awful way.

None of this is real.

It feels like relief, the gasp of air he inhales to remind himself to breathe, to live because none of his friends is truly dead. Not in real life, anyway. Yet here, in this version of their world that his mind has conjured up, that someone else has conjured up for him, all of his worst fears come true and they're so awfully real. The only people he wants to hold close are gone, all because of him. It's all his fault, both the real and the imaginary parts of it all, their deaths, as well as Billy's, because Raymond always puts himself first, always makes it harmless, makes it funny, when in reality, there's nothing to laugh about.

And as the final confirmation of his fears, he hears them. Loud and clear in the stark silence of The Upside Down, buzzing in his very veins. The chimes of a clock.

He looks up, spotting a mess of curly chestnut brown hair beneath a dumb little cap, sticky with dark red blood, ginger hair and freckles, broken headphones, her boyfriend sobbing over her body, calling out to her. It's not real, it's not real, it's not real, it's not—

"Raymond."

That voice. Fuck, that goddamn voice. Max has told him about it already, about the way it makes one's skin crawl. He's not sure why he's surprised nonetheless, why he feels all the blood freeze in his veins, all the air get stuck in the hollow of his throat and some kind of undeniable and unavoidable dread fill him until he's sure he's going to burst. Miserable and already humiliated, he whimpers, presses Eddie closer to himself and shuts his eyes, though he feels him. It's almost as if he's right in front of him, right next to him, behind him — all around him. Everywhere.

"No," he repeats, because he can't be next. He can't let it happen, like it happened to Chrissy and Patrick and Nancy's friend, like it happened to Billy, like it almost happened to Max, his only family, as they were all lost, not themselves, but something else, someone else entirely, out of reach in those final, crucial moments. It can't be over for him already. Not like that.

He repeats it, over and over, like a fucking prayer, because this voice was once his favourite sound, as it spilled warm breaths against his ear and made his pulse jump, as it erupted into carefree laughter against his neck, as it cried into the telephone that something was wrong. The last time he ever heard it.

And he hoped, in a fucked up way, he'd hear it again.

Well, be careful what you fucking wish for.

a/n:

oooh a cliffhanger, i wonder who's dying next

anyways plot twist!! ray's cursed! bet y'all didn't expect that one because i didn't either, up to the point when i just randomly came up with it and decided to make it work!! if you think back about the last few chapters, all the symptoms align. the headaches and the nosebleeds — he assumed they were the result of his injuries. also he's been blasting his favourite song 24/7 thanks to steve so he was safe until now lmao

how will this end? we'll have to see. there's a character death, you all know it, but you still don't know which character it's gonna be :D

also ray giving us more info about his history with steve and nance!! finally opening up! we stan! their relationship is changing, i hope you guys can see the details here and there. the truth will be revealed pretty soon!!

this chapter was pretty tricky to write, mostly the whole steve x ray thing. also the scene where they followed steve through the gate was actual HELL because it was never shown in enough detail in the series and like?? ray can't swim properly?? yeah?? had to make it work somehow, that's why i was gone for a month

hope you enjoyed this chaos nonetheless!! take care of yourselves and i’ll see you pretty soon with another update, i hope <3