𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐍𝐢𝐧𝐞
𝙊𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙎𝙞𝙙𝙚 . . .

Willow gasped for air as she came out of the gate, her head spinning as she entered the upside-down realm. She stood up shakily, turning back to the gate to watch Eddie flipping through, bending down to grasp his arm and help him stand.

"Are you okay?"

They both asked each other in tandem, smiles breaking out on their faces as they gripped onto each other, but they broke their gaze as they heard Steve yell out. Willow turned frantically to see him sprawled out on the ground, bat-like creatures attacking him. One choked him with its tail as a distraction whilst the other two feasted on his ribs, but they were quickly hit off by a boat oar held by Nancy. The duo ran over to watch Robin kick down the one choking Steve, Nancy beating the ever loving shit out of it as Eddie egged her on, picking up a boat oar of his own.

A shriek came from the sky as one of the bats soared down towards Eddie, who whacked it with his new weapon. As one of the creatures attacked Nancy from behind, Robin grabbed onto it's tail to drag it off, and Willow ran over to Steve who was still being choked on the ground. Raising her hand, she concentrated and the bat tore off Steve, being thrown into the nearby boat. He gasped for air, coughing as the others stabbed the remaining bats into oblivion.

"Jesus H. Christ!"

Eddie yelled, throwing down his oar as he huffed.

Willow held onto Steve and looked down at his wound, Nancy coming over.

"Are you okay?"

She gasped. There was a gaping hole in Steve's side, right below his ribs, and Willow winced as she saw the amount of blood coming out of it, fearing for her friend. She didn't even want to imagine how much it must hurt.

"Well, they took about a pound of flesh. But other than that... yeah, never better."

Steve replied nonchalantly, and Willow let out a huff of a laugh, letting her head fall onto Steve's shoulder. She opted out of hugging him, knowing she would probably just squeeze more blood out of him.

"Uh, do you think these bats have, like, rabies?"

Robin spoke up in her usual anxious tone, earning a confused "What?" from Harrington.

"It's just that, rabies are like my number one greatest fear, and I think we should probably get you a doctor like really soon, because once the symptoms set in it's too late, you're already dead."

She rambled on, earning confused looks from the others. But no one had a chance to reply as they heard more shrieks from the distance. Turning their gazes towards the sound, they saw a few of the same bat creatures flying towards them, and they all huddled closer together in fear, Willow standing closer to Eddie, lightly gripping his sleeve. He turned to give her a protective look, reassuring her. The bats flew down and landed in front of them, chittering and hissing at the group, and Steve spoke up.

"Alright.. There's not that many... We can take 'em. Right?"

But further in the distance, as the cloud lit up in a fiery red storm, they could make out the outline of a swarm of the creatures flying, heading their way.

"You were saying?"

Robin spoke up in a shaky voice, and Eddie placed his hand on his head in desperation. Willow gripped onto his sleeve tighter, making him look at her, and she gave him a tight-lipped smile, this time it was her turn to reassure him.

Nancy looked around and noticed the trees not too far off.

"The woods! Come on!"

She began running over to the barren trees, Steve following close behind. Willow slid her hand down Eddie's sleeve to grab his hand, not daring to look at him for fear he would see her rosy cheeks, and she led him along towards the forest, running ahead. Robin flipped her flashlight, letting out a string of words that Willow couldn't catch but she imagined were complaints.

They had ran through the woods for a short while before finding Skull Rock and opting to camp out under it to hide from the bats. They were all panting and looking up towards the sky, on the eye out for the monsters, but their shrieks alone were enough to tell the group they were still hanging around.

Willow and Eddie were still both tightly holding onto one another's hands. It was no longer necessary for them to do so, and one could argue it wasn't necessary for them to do it from the beginning, Eddie was perfectly capable of following Willow without the warmth of her hand enveloping his, but now it felt like more of a reason of comfort and security. Neither were looking at each other, but both knew the other was still there and not going anywhere.

As the shrieks slowly faded away, Robin hesitantly stepped out from under the rock, the others following behind.

"That was close.."

"Too close."

Eddie commented. Willow nodded along with him, but as she heard a grunt from behind her, she turned to see Steve struggling to stand, leaning on the rock as he gripped his side.

"Steve?"

Nancy immediately went over to him, and Willow joined her, letting go of Eddie's hand in the process. If she had turned to look at him, she would have seen the look of disappointment on his face, and if her attention wasn't on Steve, she would have felt the pang of jealousy that came off him in a wave.

"I'm fine, I'm fine.."

"No, no no no you're not, you're losing blood. Come on, sit, alright?"

Nancy helped him sit back under Skull Rock, and Steve slowly removed his hand to reveal the gaping wound. Nancy and Robin let out shaky breaths, Little Miss Wheeler starting to rip at her shirt as the latter started to go on a tangent. 

"Okay, so the good news here is that I'm pretty sure wooziness is not a common symptom of rabies, but um if you start having hallucinations or muscle spasms or you start feeling really aggressive like you wanna punch me or something let me know--"

"Robin.." Steve stopped her rant before she could continue.

"Yeah?"

"I kinda wanna punch you." He huffed sarcastically as he struggled to breathe.

She laughed nervously, "Sense of humour's still intact, that's a good sign."

Nancy finally ripped a piece of her shirt big enough to wrap around Steve's waist, and he grunted in pain as she placed it around him. Willow placed her hand on his shoulder and closed her eyes. She couldn't heal him, she wasn't magic unfortunately, but she could trick his brain into thinking he was fine and there was no pain. After a few seconds, she could hear his breaths mellowed out, but when she opened her eyes, she found Steve and Nancy staring at each other rather intensely. Clearing her throat, she wiped away the blood from her nose and turned away from them to stand by Robin, watching Eddie climb up onto one of the rocks. He stood up shakily and looked into the trees.

"So uh, this place is like Hawkins but with monsters and nasty shit?"

"Pretty much." Nancy replied as she helped Steve stand up again, but as Eddie was getting down from the rock she spoke up hurriedly, "Wait watch out for the vines! It's all a hive mind."

"It's all a what?"

"All the creepy crawlies around here dude. They're like one or something. You step on a vine, you're stepping on a bat, you're stepping on Vecna."

Steve explained, and Eddie nodded as he complained with a "Shit" as he tried to slowly get down from the rock without touching the vines.

"But everything from our world is still here, right? Except people, obviously?" Robin spoke up and Nancy replied again, Willow finding herself slowly drifting towards where Eddie was.

"As far as I understand it yeah."

"So theoretically, we could go to the police station and steal guns and grenades and whatever we need to blow up those bat things that are guarding the gate!"

"Yeeeah I highly doubt that the Hawkins PD has grenades Robin," Steve scoffed before continuing, "But I mean guns yeah sure."

"Well we don't have to go all the way downtown for guns. I have guns. In my bedroom."

As Nancy finished, Willow raised her brows in surprise and Eddie finally jumped down from the rock, wrapping his arm around Willow's shoulder, looking down at her.

"Well who would have known, Nancy Wheeler with guns in her room?"

"Sounds like the start to a bad joke."

Willow finished as the pair teased the brunette, but neither of them were looking at her, too enraptured with grinning at each other at their antics. Robin didn't seem to notice them though as she raised her voice, trying to join in.

"Full of surprises isn't she!?"

Eddie looked up at the anxious girl and frowned at her interrupting them, but Willow nudged him lightly to get him to lighten up and Nancy, slightly peeved at their teasing, spoke up in a more serious tone.

"A Russian Makarov and a revolver."

"Yeah you almost shot me with that one.." Steve mumbled.

"You almost deserved it." Nancy retorted with a smirk, and they began staring at one another yet again, Willow rolling her eyes and Eddie taking off his battle vest and chucking it at Steve's face.

"For your modesty dude."

Eddie deadpanned, and Willow chuckled, but before Steve had a chance to put it on, the ground began to shake. Willow began to topple over, and she knocked into Eddie, who wrapped one arm around her and the other towards the ground to catch their fall. Steve had caught Nancy and Robin, and as the ground continued to shake, Eddie held onto Willow protectively, who in turn had balled up the sleeve of his leather jacket into her fist. The shaking stopped, and the cry of a creature could be heard from the distance.

"Yeah so like guns seem like a pretty good idea to me."

Eddie spoke up, and the others nodded along, Steve helping Nancy and Robin stand steadily before taking out a flashlight and walking back in towards the woods. Eddie stood before taking Willow in his arms and helping her up, looking over her for a second to make sure she was good. This time, it was him that took her hand, leading her into the forest with the others.

As they wandered through the woods, the girls had found themselves leading the way as Eddie and Steve hung on in the back, watching over them. Willow had felt that Steve wanted to try talking to the metalhead, so she let go of his hand to go join Robin and Nancy up front.

Willow quickly noticed Robin walking suspiciously close to her, and when she turned her head to look at her, she was met by a wide grin that couldn't help but make her chuckle.

"Can I help youuu?" Willow drew out the vowel.

"Remember at lunch on the last day when you were teasing me about Vickie and I tried teasing you back but you said you didn't like anyone?", came Robin's very long question.

Willow furrowed her eyebrows and noticed Nancy trying to hide her smile, knowing where this was going.

"Yeeees?"

"Well you can't say that anymore, huh!?"

Robin exclaimed, wrapping her arm around Willow's shoulders as her grin grew wider. The blonde girl's cheeks grew red.

"What... do you mean by that?"

"Oh don't play dumb, you and Eddie keep holding hands!"

"Not to mention you keep staring at each other." Nancy piped in.

"They do!? Oh my god that is adorable!"

"Robin will you stop screaming..!?"

Willow yelled in a whisper, her cheeks growing progressively redder.

"So you're seriously gonna deny this!?"

"Robin!"

"What!?"

"Stop it!"

"Stop what!?'

"We're just... looking out for each other..!"

"Looking out for each other? Psh, that has to be the lamest excuse I have ever heard, 'Low."

"He's been through a lot this past week, he needs someone there for him and we just..! We get along!"

"If by getting along you mean all lovey dovey together then by all means--"

Willow interrupted Nancy, "Oh please you and Steve are no better."

Nancy's mouth fell open and Robin cackled, but the ground began to shake once again, and this time it was Robin that toppled into Willow, Nancy grabbing onto a tree.

"Okay, second on my list of least favourite things, earthquakes. Seriously, I'm unsteady enough as it is..!"

Robin exclaimed as Willow held onto her, trying to help them both stand up as the ground continued to rumble. She looked back to see Steve and Eddie holding onto the base of trees, but she turned back once she heard Robin calling out for Nancy. She watched as Wheeler shakily left her tree and made her way out of the tree line, and she followed after her, the other three following closely behind.

Once out of the trees, the rumbling stopped and they stood in a line, breathing heavily.

In the distance, they could see the Wheeler household. Nancy advanced towards it bravely, the rest of the group following.

It seemed Nancy was feeling the bravest out of the bunch, as she was the one to not only lead the group but also open the door to her upside down house. Steve was holding a flashlight behind her to light the way, and as they filed in through the house, they looked around in disgust at how drastically overgrown with vines it was, but also held that uncanny, familiar feeling of the house Nancy knew all too well.

"Might be time to get a maid, Wheeler."

Robin spoke up to lighten the mood, but Nancy looked incredibly uncomfortable regardless, ignoring the joke.

"Come on. I don't want to stay here longer than we have to."

She quickly made her way up the stairs, Robin and Eddie close behind her, but as Steve and Willow headed up after, they hung back, hearing a faint sound. Steve shone the light across the house and Willow looked at him, wondering what it was they heard. She began to worry, placing her hand on his shoulder.

"Come on, we shouldn't split up. You know what happens in the movies when you do."

It sounded like a joke but she was frowning, genuinely scared of what might happen if they got separated. Steve nodded and he began to turn away, but they heard a noise again.

A voice.

Was that...

"Dustin?"

Willow spoke up, slowly heading down the steps and towards the kitchen. Steve followed after her, his pace faster than hers as he looked around frantically.

There it was again!

Willow had no doubts that it was the voice of her brother.

But unlike her calm façade, Steve began to shout for his best friend in desperation.

"Dustin!? Dustin! Can you hear me, Dustin!? Du-- Hello!? Dustin, hello!?"

Willow looked around with him, searching for any sign of her little brother, but Steve's screams must have alerted the others as they came running down the stairs, staring at Steve oddly.

"Maybe he really does have rabies.." Robin commented.

"Steve, what are you doing?" Nancy yelled to grab his attention.

He finally looked over to them, but Willow continued to look around.

"He's here. Henderson. That little shit, he's here. He's like, he's in the walls or something, listen, listen."

Steve held his hand up to his ear, signalling for them to listen, and they started to look at him a if he were crazy, but when he began yelling for his friend again, Dustin's voice was faint but could be heard.

"... the question raised..."

They soon all began shouting and looking around for there friend, Willow searching around every corner and Eddie going as far as to look behind curtains.

"Alright either this kid can't hear us or he's being a total douchebag."

Steve concluded, but something caught Willow's eye. In the entrance, there was a small chandelier, nothing fancy, but an odd dust like substance glistened around it, making it glow. Nancy had already thought what Willow was thinking, trying to turn the lamp in the corner on and off, but Willow made her way to the chandelier, holding her hand up to it. The light brightened and glowed as she swished her hand around the particles, and the others seemed to finally catch on as they came over to watch. But Willow was mesmerised by the sensation, a childish smile lighting up on her face like a kid on Christmas Day.

The others followed suit, everyone holding their hands up to the light, making it glow brighter.

"It... tickles.." Steve whispered.

"It kinda feels good.." Robin smiled.

"Does anyone know Morse code?"

Steve and Robin shook their heads, and Eddie started talking about SOS, asking if it counted, but Willow was already on it. Dustin had taught her a bit of Morse code when he came back from Camp Know-it-all as Willow liked to call it, and she started sticking her hand in and out of the light, creating a message.

"I got it.."

She said in a hushed voice, barely loud enough to hear as it caught the attention of the others, now watching as Willow communicated with the other side.

It seemed it had also caught the attention of Dustin, as his faint voice could be heard telling them to go upstairs to Nancy's room again. The group all pat Willow on the back and let out a string of "Good jobs" as they started heading upstir again, but Willow was still enraptured by the light, holding her hand to it. It felt warm and fuzzy, like Steve had said it tickled a little, and she would be lying if she said it wasn't absolutely enchanting to look at.

A hand reached up to lightly grab Willow's, bringing it down and away from the light, and when she finally snapped out of it, she looked over to see Eddie smiling softly at her.

"Got a little caught up in it huh?"

"Yeah... It's really beautiful.."

Willow smiled sheepishly, looking at the light again before gazing back at Eddie, who still had his eyes locked on hers. He opened his mouth, as if wanting to say something, but he was hesitating, and Willow tilted her head to the side, giving him an encouraging look.

"Everything okay?"

Eddie looked down at their interlocked hands and shook his head.

"It can wait."

He said bitterly, Willow feeling a wave of annoyance roll off him. He looked back at her and nodded his head towards the stairs.

"Come on."

Before she could protest, he was already dragging her up the stair and into Nancy's room, where the others sat by her bed, looking at the bed, waiting for something to happen. They sat with them, and after a few seconds the area above the bed began to light up like the chandelier had done. Nancy waved her hand across it, and they could hear Dustin's laugh echo through.

"... we're not moving it but we're gonna unplug it, stand by..."

They heard his voice, and Willow couldn't help the tears that welled up in her eyes, relieved to hear her dearest brother.

The light dimmed slight but some particles remained, and after hearing Dustin's confirmation, Nancy began to draw there again, spelling out 'HI'.

"... that worked...!", came Dustin's reply, and the team cheered together, Eddie and Willow's interlocked hands squeezing tighter together.

"Hi!" Eddie yelled at the particles in excitement, and Willow laughed with him.

Nancy began writing again, her word cut in two, but she spelt out 'STUCK' and the gang nodded and hummed.

"... back through Watergate...?"

"What the hell is Watergate?" Steve scoffed.

"Cause it's in water and it's a gate." Robin piped up.

"Oh."

"That's cute." Eddie hummed.

"Leave it to Dustin to find the nerdiest names for stuff." Willow smiled.

Nancy struggled to find a response but she slowly spelt out 'GUARDED', and hearing Dustin repeat the word, the others nodded in relief.

"... think we have a theory that can help with that...!"

"Genius child." Robin sighed, and Willow grinned proudly.

"... think Watergate isn't the only gate... gate at every murder site..."

"Does... anybody understand what he's talking about?" Nancy questioned.

Everyone shook their heads and Nancy drew a question mark into the lights.

"... seriously... many times do I have to be right on the money before you guys just trust me...!?"

Willow scoffed at the tone Dustin used and Steve spoke up.

"Jesus Christ this kid's gotta his ego in check."

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

"I know."

"It's a real problem at this point." Willow agreed.

"Okay, so.. how far is your trailer?" Nancy asked Eddie.

"Seven miles."

"Nancy, I know your house is like creepily frozen in time and shit but... haven't you always had bikes?" Robin made a good point.

The group filed out of the house, into the garage to find four bikes. Steve, Robin, Nancy and Eddie all grabbed a bike, leaving Willow standing there, not knowing what to do, making Steve and Eddie turn to her.

"Come on W, hop on--"

"You can ride with me--"

They both spoke at the same time, before looking at each other. Steve held a confused stare, while Eddie's was much more defiant.

"Are we really gonna fight about this Harrington?"

"What? No, I just think she should ride with me, since I've known her longer."

"Oh so we're judging thing based on time!?"

"I'm just saying, I AM her best friend and all."

"Yeah well I'm her.."

"Her what? Yeah that's what I thought, come on Willow!"

"Watch it Harrington, and here I thought we were starting to get along--"

"Oh for crying out loud!" Robin shouted, seated on her bike and waving the blonde girl over, "She's riding with me boys."

Willow had been watching the bickering, rather confused at the situation, but when Robin finally popped in and stopped her bike in front of her, she grinned and hopped on behind her friend. Steve and Eddie stared at her in annoyance, to which she snickered, riding off and yelling back.

"No need to get jealous ladies!"

Robin and Willows laughing were drowned out by the night as the gang rode through the empty streets, but unbeknownst to them, a bat had caught sight of them, alerting the hive mind.

They finally arrived at the trailer park after seven long miles of Willow clutching onto the unsteady Robin, Eddie having mostly led the way. They got off and threw the bikes to the side.

"That's gotta be a new Guinness World Record. Most miles travelled interdimensionally." Robin piped up with her usual anxious rambling.

"Just inhaled a bunch of the crap." Steve coughed, talking about the floating particles, "It's stuck in my throat."

They went inside the trailer and were immediately drawn to the rumbling of the gate on Eddie's ceiling. Willow wrapped her arms around herself uncomfortably. If Dustin was right, the gate had been created from Chrissy's death. That didn't sit right with her.

"This is where Chrissy died.. Like, right where she died." Eddie confirmed her thoughts.

"I think there's something in there..." Robin trailed off.

As if right on cue, something from the other side of the portal poked through, as if trying to tear through the portal.

"What the hell is that..?" Eddie whispered.

Some kind of pole burst through the portal and cut right through like a fleshy band-aid being ripped off and leaving a gaping hole. The group jumped back and away from it, fearing the worst, before Steve lead them towards it slowly.

"No way..."

Looking through the portal, they could see Erica, Dustin, Max and Lucas, all upside down in the real world. Dustin laughed in excitement, and Willow waved at her brother, who waved back.

"Holy shit this is trippy..."

"BADA-BADA-BOOM!"

The five of them watched as the kids set to work, Dustin tying sheets together to create a rope and Lucas and Max getting Eddie's mattress from his room, setting it under the portal so they could fall through safely. Nancy and Robin looked at Eddie with raised brows, noticing the stains on his bed.

"Those stains are uh..." Eddie tried to play it off nonchalantly, but he looked at Willow with guilty eyes, the girl too naive to know what they were all thinking, "... I dunno what those stains are."

Dustin came over with the rope, "Not quite sure how these physics are gonna work, but uh... here goes nothing."

He tossed it through, and by some weird physics, the rope perfectly balanced on both sides, making it safe for them to use to cross through. Robin pulled on it to make sure it would hold, and low and behold it did. Willow let out a laugh, this was incredible, and her brother let out the same laugh from the other side.

"Guess I'm the guinea pig."

Robin grabbed onto the rope and began climbing up, and when she got through the portal, she flipped through and landed on the mattress with a relieved smile. The other four all looked at each other, wondering who should go next, and Eddie stepped up, repeating what Robin had just done. They could hear his voice echo from the other side, exclaiming how it was fun. Next was Nancy, and Steve stayed close by to make sure she didn't fall. When she fell through the portal, she let out a small shriek, but then she laughed at the safety of the cushioned fall.

"Alright, you're up W."

Steve smiled up at Nancy, before turning to Willow.

But there she stood, her arms flat at her sides and her eyes rolled up into her head. She couldn't hear Steve shouting her name, or the echoed voice of Eddie on the other side of the portal.

She was surrounded by a profound blackness she had no means of escaping from.

-•-
author's note 。

I'm back with the last chapter of Part 1! I don't know if a lot of you are gonna come back to read it because its been a year but I'm proud of myself for finally finishing this part.

We got some super cute moments with Eddie, and I figured he and Steve would argue a lot with each other about Willow, I thought that would be funny and adorable.

And instead of Nancy getting all Vecna'd, it's Willow >:)) what's gonna happen in Part 2 when she wakes up and finds herself in Vecna's mind?

I hope you enjoy!

I was also thinking of making a Billy Hargrove fanfic when I finish or almost finish this one, what do you think?

Sincerely,
𝔎𝔥𝔞𝔬𝔰 。