The group of teenagers raced through the clearing, hearts beating faster and faster as they grew closer to what was hopefully their first, albeit only line of defense in their attempts to get home. The vines were much thinner out this way, not nearly as tangled as they had been back in the forest, but they still ran with caution, careful not to trip over a vine and alert Vecna of their presence.

Steve held the flashlight up as Nancy pushed the door open with a soft creak, carefully not to touch any of the vines that wrapped around the door. While Lily had always described the Wheelers' house as warm and comforting in the few times she'd been inside, it was nearly unrecognizable in the dark, cold dimension. Gone was the constant sound of the television in the family room from where Mr. Wheeler watched Jeopardy, but instead the device lay asleep on top of the cabinet, every grimy surface in the room covered in vines.

"Might be time to get a maid, Wheeler," Robin mused, her eyes scoping out the main level of the house.

Nancy looked around with a sad, longing expression, and Lily could only imagine what was going on inside the girl's head. This was Nancy's home, the place she had grown up in, despite the fact that, here, it was cold and lifeless. Sure, Lily was in no hurry to see the way her place back in Forest Hills looked in this dimension, but she'd only lived there seven months, rather than an entire lifetime as Nancy had.

"Come on," Nancy said finally. "I don't want to stay there longer than we have to."

Nancy went up the stairs without another word, followed by the others with Steve at the end of the group. As the girls went into Nancy's room to look for the guns, Lily pulled Eddie aside, the two of them now facing each other in the dark hallway.

"Hey," he said, eyebrows furrowing slightly in confusion as he looked down at her. "What's up?"

"Nothing, I just..." Lily trailed off nervously. "I just wanted to make sure you were doing okay. I mean, there was the earthquake, and that was, uh, quite the confession you had back there."

Eddie chuckled slightly. "Yeah, you could say that again." he mumbled, nodding. "I'm alright, sweetheart. I mean yeah, the circumstances aren't ideal, and I can't say I'd ever want to find myself back here again, but if I had to be stuck in some creepy alternate dimension, I can't say the company's too bad." he said with a small grin, reaching down to link their hands together.

Lily smiled softly, nodding as he gestured his head back in the direction of Nancy's doorway. "What do you think?" he asked. "Should we grab those guns and get the hell out of here?"

"Yeah," she agreed, letting him pull her after him into the room where Nancy was pulling a shoebox from the top shelf of her closet.

They followed the others to surround Nancy as she set down the shoebox on top of her desk, though when she lifted the lid, what awaited them was not two small firearms, but instead bright yellow tissue paper covering a pair of high heels.

"Those aren't guns," Eddie stated, his eyebrows furrowing as he took in the footwear sitting in the box.

"These heels are a bit pointy but I was hoping for something along the lines of a deadly projectile." Robin added as Nancy moved aside the shoes, staring perplexed at the box in front of her.

"Nancy, what is it?" Debbie asked, studying her friend's expression.

"I don't understand," Nancy said.

"Maybe you left them somewhere else." Eddie suggested.

"There's an eight year old in the house, I know where I keep my guns." Nancy said matter-of-factly. "And also, I threw these away years ago." she said, her eyes moving back to the shoes, but her eyes slowly wandered over the desk, the expression on her face morphing into something Lily couldn't decipher as she lifted a stack of notecards from where they lay on top of a chemistry textbook and began flipping through them.

"I get that grades are important to you, but perhaps studying can wait until we get out of here?" Robin suggested, watching Nancy with a tense expression.

"These are from sophomore chemistry," Nancy noted, setting the cards down as her eyes moved up to the wall. "And this... this wallpaper, this is old wallpaper. And this mirror, this went to a yard sale." she protested as her eyes frantically darted around the room, coming to rest on where a grimy yellow stuffed animal lay on the edge of her bed. "And you... you're not supposed to be here. No, I gave you to Cousin Joanna two years ago."

"Nancy?" Cameron asked as Nancy set down the stuffed animal, and instead picked up a diary from where it sat perched on her nightstand.

As Nancy flipped through the diary, her eyes widened, causing Eddie and Lily to share an uneasy look before glancing back over at where she stood, now staring horrified at the book's contents.

"What is it?" Eddie asked, tensing.

"Nancy, you're freaking me out." Robin said.

"I think that the reason my guns aren't here is because they don't exist yet." Nancy said in a small voice, still staring down at the diary.

"They don't..." Eddie paused, gritting his teeth. "Exist?"

"This diary should be full of entries, it's not." Nancy explained, closing the book and holding it up in front of them. "The last entry is November 6th, 1983. The day Will went missing. The day the gate opened."

"Which means?" Maddie asked, nervously wringing her hands together.

"We're in the past." Nancy choked out, causing a chill to run up Lily's spine as Eddie inhaled sharply beside her.

"Dustin?" Steve's voice rang out from downstairs, pulling their attention to the hallway, and Lily rushed out of the room, the others hot on her heels as she followed Steve's voice down the stairs. "Dustin! Can you hear me? Dustin!" She jumped over the last stair, rounding the landing to reveal Steve standing in the empty kitchen, turning around as he inspected the area with his flashlight. "Hello? Hello?"

"What's he doing?" Lily whispered to the others as they stared at Steve with confused expressions.

"Maybe he really does have rabies." Robin whispered back as Steve continued to yell at the room around them.

"Steve, what are you doing?" Maddie asked.

"Hello!" Steve exclaimed, turning so that he was now facing the group, the flashlight glowing blindingly in their eyes, and she instinctively held a hand up to shield them from the harsh light. "He's here," Steve said then, walking towards them with a hopeful grin. "Henderson. That little shit, he's here. He's like, he's in the walls, or something, just listen."

Steve continued to yell for Dustin a few more times, though Lily watched her friend skeptically as they were met with silence. However, the silence was eventually permeated by a faint voice, sounding as if it was coming from everywhere and nowhere all at once. She could barely make it out, but there was no question that it was the voice of Dustin Henderson.

"He's right," Debbie said, a smile crossing her face as she looked around at them. "It's him."

"Dustin!" Nancy shouted, attempting to get the boy's attention as they spread out, searching around the room for some sign of him.

"Dustin?" Eddie called out, the others beginning to echo the boy's name, but Dustin continued speaking, showing no sign that he was aware of their presence in the house.

"Alright, either this kid can't hear us or he's being a total douchebag." Steve concluded with a sigh.

"Will found a way," Nancy spoke up, causing Steve to raise an eyebrow in her direction.

"What?" he asked.

"Will," Nancy explained. "He found a way to speak to Joyce through the lights."

"Lights?" Steve asked as Nancy moved over to where a lamp rested on a small table in the corner of the room, attempting to switch it on, but nothing happened. She then moved to the lightswitch, hoping to illuminate the entire room, but they remained turned off, leaving the kitchen cast in the darkness of the Upside Down. "It's not working," Nancy muttered, moving back to the lamp, but Steve's focus had shifted back to the kitchen lights.

"Guys," he said, aiming his flashlight up in their direction. "Are you seeing this?"

Lily followed Steve's gaze up to the lights hanging over the kitchen, and she noticed the faint glow that emitted from the appliance. It wasn't enough to light up the room, but it cast the top of the room in a weak light that seemed to shimmer in the air above them. Nancy took a step towards the light, reaching forward into the glimmering air, and where her fingertips came in contact with the particles, they began to glow as she moved her hand around.

"Whoa," Eddie mused, taking a step forward towards the lights, and the others followed suit, reaching up to where Nancy was still moving her hand around in the glow left by the lights, the glow from the appliance only growing stronger as more of them reached for it.

As Lily reached up, she instantly felt a small tingling sensation in her fingertips, as if she were being tickled. As she moved her hand through the shimmering particles, the light seemed to follow her motions, leaving a faint glowing orange trail in her wake, and a small smile crossed her face at the feeling.

"It tickles," Steve noted, staring in awe at the lights above him.

"It kinda feels good," Robin added, causing Eddie to chuckle lightly.

"Does anyone know Morse Code?" Nancy asked suddenly, causing the others to shake their heads.

"No," they began to chorus as Eddie looked down at the ground, thinking for a moment.

"Wait, does SOS count?" he asked after a moment, causing them all to look back at him exasperatedly. "Is that..." he trailed off, noticing the expressions of those around him. "Is that good?"

"That's perfect," Cam said, and Eddie reached up again for the lights, only this time, instead of moving aimlessly through them, he began to form the patterns of the letters, the appliance above blinking along to copy Eddie's movements.

"It's working," Robin said, a hopeful smile crossing her face as Eddie repeated the letters again.

"Hello?" Dustin's voice sounded through the walls again after a moment, causing them all to gasp in surprise as, one by one, relieved smiles crossed their faces. "Can you guys hear me?"

Eddie began to laugh victoriously, moving his hand up through the lights again to let Dustin know they were listening.

"It worked," he said. "But what now? I don't know any other Morse Code."

"Are you guys okay?" Dustin asked. "Blink once for yes, twice for no."

Eddie moved his hand against the lights once more, letting him know that, while they hadn't had the greatest past few hours, they were still on their feet.

"Okay, we're going to need a plan." Dustin went quiet for a moment before he spoke up again. "Okay, we have an idea, meet us in Nancy's room in five minutes!"

"Come on," Nancy said, leading the group back up the stairs as they all huddled impatiently around the side of her bed.

"How is this going to work?" Maddie asked.

Each passing minute seemed like an hour as they waited, huddled together and listening for any sign of Dustin. "Come on, come on," Steve muttered, but nothing happened, the room silent except for the sound of Eddie's feet bouncing up and down impatiently.

"Okay, are you guys seeing this?" Dustin's voice rang faintly through the room again, a faint glow now floating in front of them, and Nancy reached a hand out, the shimmering aura of the lights leaving a trail as the kitchen lights had done earlier.

Lily couldn't help the relieved smile at Dustin's victorious laughter echoing through the walls. "We're not moving it, but we're going to unplug it." Dustin informed them. "Stand by."

They watched with bated breath as the light faded, leaving them in darkness once more. However, the shimmering glow was left behind, still hanging in the air above Nancy's bed.

"Okay, try it now." Dustin said, and Nancy reached forward again for the particles.

Eddie grabbed Lily's hand tightly as they anxiously waited for Nancy's movements, his other hand crossing his fingers as he held it over his head. She held her breath as the orange glow lit up around Nancy's fingertips, and she traced her hand in a pattern, leaving one word behind.

HI

"Hi," Dustin echoed with a laugh. "That worked!"

They began to cheer victoriously at Dustin's words, Lily finally catching her breath at the realization that the plan had worked. "Yes!" Eddie exclaimed excitedly. "Hi!"

"Okay," Nancy murmured, "Uhm..." she reached a hand out again, tracing a new word.

STUCK

"Yes," they began to chorus. "We are."

"You can't get back through Watergate?" Dustin asked, causing Lily's eyebrows to pinch together slightly in confusion.

"Through what?" she asked, looking around at the group.

"What the hell's Watergate?" Steve asked.

"Because it's in water and it's a gate." Robin concluded.

"That's cute," Eddie mused.

"Oh," Nancy said. "No, uh, it's..." she trailed off as she left her next message for Dustin.

GUARDED

"Okay, Watergate's guarded," Dustin concluded, and Eddie began to clap in the direction of the lights, a wide smile on his face as he reached back down, squeezing Lily's hand as his grin turned in her direction. "We think we have a theory that could help with that!"

"Genius child," Robin mused as she sighed in relief.

"We think Watergate isn't the only gate!" Dustin continued. "That there's a gate at every murder site!"

"Huh?" Cam asked.

"Does anybody understand what he's talking about?" Nancy asked, only to be met by several shaking heads as they all looked at one another, confused.

"Not a clue," Debbie shrugged.

"No idea," Eddie said, and Nancy reached out, tracing a question mark into the lights.

"Seriously?" Dustin's voice rang out exasperatedly. "How many times do I have to be right on the money before you guys just trust me?"

"Jesus Christ, this kid's gotta get his ego in check." Steve sighed.

"It's his tone, right?" Eddie asked.

"I know," he agreed, nodding.

"Okay," Nancy said, looking over at Eddie. "So how far is your trailer?"

Eddie shrugged. "Seven miles," he guessed.

"Nancy?" Robin spoke up. "I know your house is like, weirdly, creepily frozen in time and shit, but haven't you always had bikes?"

Nancy thought for a moment before nodding. "They're in the garage." she said, looking back around at them. "It's worth a shot, right?"

"Hell yeah, it's worth a shot," Eddie said, nodding. "Let's go home."