╔═════   ∘◦ ☽ ﾐ ◦∘ ══════╗

𝗠𝗢𝗢𝗡𝗟𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧

𝓬𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓮𝓵𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓷:
"𝚗𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚢 𝚠𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚠𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚞𝚙 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑
𝚖𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚌 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚙𝚎𝚘𝚙𝚕𝚎
𝚜𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚒𝚗 𝚒𝚝!"

╚═════ ∘◦ ミ ☾ ◦∘ ══════╝

IN ORDER TO keep communicating with Steve, Nancy, Robin, and Eddie in the Upside Down, they needed something with a lot of light. They had coordinated with the older ones in the Upside Down (the parallel dimension could still hear the real world, it was just very echoey) that they would get something to communicate with them upstairs. This thing obviously had to be portable and provide a lot of light in a small space.

And there was only one thing that could get the job done.

Holly's Lite-Brite.

The younger girl had always taken a liking to Mackenzie, considering she treated her like a little sister just like she treated Megan. Mackenzie would also sometimes watch Holly here and there. The two of them had formed a small bond, which is why Mackenzie knew that Holly wouldn't be too upset if she was the one taking her Lite-Brite rather than anyone else.

Mackenzie, Lucas, Dustin, and Erica crept into the living room, out of the eyes of the cops. Holly was laying on her stomach, putting the pegs in the shape of a bunny. Mackenzie looked over at Lucas and nodded. He walked into the living room, kneeled on the couch, and unplugged Holly's Lite-Brite from the outlet in the wall.

"Hey!" Holly protested.

Dustin then ran in and grabbed the box of all the colorful pegs, both him and Lucas letting out multiple rows of sorry's as they left.

Mackenzie leaned down and took Holly's Lite-Brite in her hand. "We have to borrow this, Holly. We'll give it back to you really soon, okay?"

Holly blinked at her. "Promise?"

She gave the younger girl a small smile. "Promise."

Erica then ran in, shoving a package of Skittles into Holly's hand. "For your understanding."

The four of them then ran back up the stairs. They went into Nancy's room, where they coordinated with the older ones to meet. Mackenzie set down Holly's Lite-Brite on Nancy's bed and kneeled in front of it, Dustin, Lucas, and Erica doing so as well.

Mackenzie started to grab handfuls of the colorful pegs and put them into each spot in the Lite-Brite. The others helped as well. They unfortunately ruined Holly's bunny picture, but Mackenzie assumed this was more important. After about a minute, they finally filled each spot on the Lite-Brite with a peg.

"Okay, that's it, that's it, that's it," Dustin said. "Go, go, go, go, go, go, go!"

Lucas grabbed the plug and jumped forwards, landing on his stomach on Nancy's floor. He plugged it into the outlet underneath her vanity. Instantly, the Lite-Brite came to life, shining a multitude of colors.

"Okay, you guys seeing this?" Dustin shouted.

The lights pulsed brighter. Mackenzie grinned at it.

"Holy shit!" Erica exclaimed.

Dustin laughed and threw one arm around Erica and one around Mackenzie. He pulled them in closer to him for a minute, basking in the excitement.

"We're not moving it, but we're gonna unplug it," Dustin told them. "Stand by." He pointed to Lucas. "Yank it."

Lucas unplugged the cord to the Lite-Brite. It went dark.

"Okay, try it now."

In front of her eyes, Mackenzie watched as a stripe appeared on the Lite-Brite. There was no way it could've done that normally — one, it was off, and two, some of the lights were only half-on. So that meant it worked. Her eyes lit up in wonder as she watched more of the lights come to life.

H.

I.

Hi.

"Hey," Mackenzie called, feeling quite giddy, which was strange after everything they've been through.

"That worked!" Dustin called.

More letters started to appear on the Lite-Brite. They would fade after a while to make room for new letters as whoever was writing continued the message.

S.

T.

U.

"Stupid?" Dustin guessed. "Stupid?"

C.

K.

Stuck.

"Okay, they're — they're stuck in the Upside Down," Lucas stated.

Mackenzie slowly looked over at him. "Really?"

"Uh, you can't get back through Watergate?" Dustin asked.

G.

U.

A.

R.

D.

E.

D.

Guarded.

"Okay, uh, Watergate's guarded," Dustin said. "Okay, we think we have a theory that can help with that. We think Watergate isn't the only Gate. That there's a Gate at every murder site."

?.

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

"We have to meet them there," Mackenzie urged. "The only other murder site that's well known to us is Eddie's trailer, where Chrissy . . ." She swallowed as she got choked up. "Where Chrissy died."

Dustin's eyes softened as he looked over at her. "Kenzie—"

"I know. I don't really want to go to the place where she d-died either, but we have to. As much as I hate it, Chrissy's . . . she's gone. The only way we can avenge her now is to stop Vecna, and that means we have to rescue the others first." She looked up at the ceiling and raised her voice. "Meet us at Eddie's trailer! There's a Gate!"

"But how are we going to get there?" Lucas questioned. "It's seven miles away, and none of us can drive."

Dustin stared at him. "Lucas, we've been riding bikes our entire lives. Why stop now?"

"Okay, so the bikes are in the garage, but that raises two other questions," Erica cut in. "One, how are we getting Max? And two, how are we going to sneak past the cops?"

Mackenzie slowly stood up, looking out of Nancy's window. She had come into the Wheeler's house many times before from the tree by Mike Wheeler's window. However, right by Nancy's window was where the roof lowered. A new idea popped into her head.

Mackenzie looked at her friends with a smirk. "How are your climbing skills?"

Dustin went downstairs to go get Max, who was thankfully done with her interrogation. She had revealed that she stuck to the story about going for a night swim, thank Goodness. Meanwhile, they quickly filled her in about how they needed to go to Eddie's trailer to rescue the others. They didn't have time to tell her the whole thing about how Gates were popping up and how Vecna was the leading role behind everything, but that could be done later.

"We have to make sure the cops don't follow us," Max voiced. "They have a car, and we have bikes."

Mackenzie looked around for a second before her eyes zeroed on a pair of scissors, and she gripped them. "Somebody needs to pop the tire." She zeroed in on the youngest one there. "Erica?"

"I guess so," Erica replied, taking the scissors.

Lucas pushed the window to Nancy's room open and climbed out first. He helped his little sister climb down. Dustin then went, followed by Mackenzie. She carefully walked to the edge of the roof before jumping down, using Lucas' extended hand to stabilize herself.

They snuck into the garage and grabbed all of the bikes they could find. Thankfully, there was enough, due to all of the backups and old ones they had. Mackenzie grabbed a bike and wheeled it next to her. Max and Dustin also got theirs. Lucas wheeled two so Erica would have time to pop the tire.

"Hey!" Officer Callahan yelled from upstairs as they made their great escape. "Excuse me! No, no, no, get back here!"

Erica kneeled down next to the cop car. "I guess it's just a minor misdemeanor."

She stuck the scissors into the tire, causing it to go flat. Mackenzie wheeled her bike onto the road and hopped on, beginning to pedal faster than she ever had, even including that time when she went go find Will in the rain after figuring out the Mind Flayer was back last summer. She ignored the screams of her mother ordering her to come back and pushed on ahead.

It seemed so normal. Bikes were their main form of transportation. Riding in a formation in the street gave Mackenzie flashbacks of her, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Eleven on the back of Mike's bike, riding around Hawkins as they tried to figure out where the hell Will had gone and how to save him. It gave her a weird sense of déjà-vu. Here they were again — rescuing someone else from the Upside Down.

Despite riding bikes for literally ever, a seven mile bike ride was still pretty brutal. Mackenzie's mind was spinning with exhaustion and her muscles ached. They twisted around the streets as Max pretty much led them to Forest Hills Trailer Park, considering she lived there.

Max brought them to Eddie's trailer since it was the one right across from hers. Mackenzie swallowed nervously, feeling a sick feeling enter her gut as she got off her bike and discarded it on the grass. She tried to ignore her shaking hands as she climbed up the steps of the trailer.

She was met with the sight of a Gate on the ceiling. Mackenzie felt tears prick at the back of her eyes. This was where Chrissy died. She hated that she was looking at it. The Gate was mostly black vines surrounding it and the middle was red and pulsing.

"We have to break it open," Dustin told them. "We need to find like, a pole, or something—"

"Or a yard stick?" Max suggested, walking further into the trailer and picking up the three-foot-long wooden stick lying around.

Together, the five of them lifted the yard stick to the Gate in the ceiling. They pushed it into the red center. which budged slightly but it wasn't enough to break it. With another push, the Gate finally broke open, revealing Eddie's trailer in the Upside Down. The world down there was . . . well, upside down. It was kind of making Mackenzie get tripped out a little bit.

Slowly, Steve, Robin, Eddie, and Nancy came into view. Mackenzie, despite her feelings about being in the place where her friend had died, smiled up — down? — at them. This whole parallel dimension thing was confusing sometimes.

"No way," Steve whispered, his voice echoing.

Dustin laughed and waved. "Hi there."

"Hi," Steve, Robin, Eddie, and Nancy replied.

"Holy shit, this is trippy," Robin commented.

"Bada bada boom!" Dustin yelled in triumph.

Considering they would be coming out from the ceiling, they needed something to cushion them. Mackenzie raced into the back room of the trailer, which was evidently Eddie's bedroom. The walls were decorated with posters of metal bands and there were some drugs lying casually around. It looked like a normal teenage boy's bedroom.

With Lucas' help, she pulled the mattress off of the bed and dragged it out into the living room. They placed it right underneath the Gate on the ceiling. meanwhile, Dustin had found an extra pair of sheets and was tying it together to create a makeshift rope, kind of looking like the one in gym class with the knots.

"Not quite sure how these physics are gonna work, but uh . . . here goes nothing," Dustin admitted.

He threw the tied-up sheets up into the Gate. It just flew into the Upside Down without dropping back down to the floor.

"There we go. And if my theory is correct . . ." He let go, and Mackenzie's eyes widened in wonder as it stayed in place, completely suspended. "Huh. Abracadabra."

"Holy shit," Max let out.

Dustin looked up through the Gate. "All right, pull on it! See if it holds!"

Mackenzie watched as Robin pulled on the sheets as hard as she could. Nothing. The sheets were completely stuck between the two worlds. Mackenzie had to admit, that was pretty cool.

"This is the craziest shit I've ever seen in my life," Erica said. "And I've seen some crazy shit."

Mackenzie held her fist out to Erica, and Erica obliged in her fist-bump. "Amen, sister."

Robin grabbed onto the sheets. "Guess I'm the guinea pig."

Mackenzie watched as, upside down, Robin climb the sheets.

"All right, let's clear the landing pad," Dustin suggested.

They all got off of the mattress. Robin came through the Gate completely upside down before she started to fall.

"Oh my God!" Robin exclaimed. She landed on the mattress and immediately sat up, breathing heavily. "Oh, thank God. That was fun."

She took Dustin's extended hand and stood up. Eddie was then next, and he fell onto the mattress as well.

Eddie sat up quickly. "That was fun." He grabbed onto Dustin's hand. "Shit."

The only ones left were Nancy and Steve. Mackenzie peered into the ceiling, watching as the two of them just stood there. Her eyebrows knit in confusion. What were they doing?

"Nancy," Steve began, and Mackenzie detected the panic in them. "Hey, hey! Stay with me, Nancy. Hey! Nancy, wake up!"

"Vecna," Max voiced.

"Shit," Mackenzie whispered.

"What the hell is that?"

Mackenzie whipped around, her eyes widening as she saw her little sister stand in the doorway. Somehow, absolutely none of them had heard the door open. Mackenzie stepped forwards in effort to try and cover the Gate from Megan, but it was no use. The damage had already been done.

"Megan, I told you to stay out of this," Mackenzie stated, her voice slightly shaking. "How did you get here?"

"There was another bike in the garage," Megan answered, still watching the Gate. "Kenzie . . ."

"Megan, I meant it when I said Hawkins wasn't a normal town and that the things were dangerous. You shouldn't have followed me."

"I'm sorry, why is there a miniature Tate in my trailer?" Eddie questioned.

"Is anybody remembering Nancy?" Robin interrupted, making them all look at her. "Vecna has her, and we need music!"

Mackenzie's eyes widened in realization, guilt settling in her chest. "Fuck. Okay." She grabbed onto the sheets. "I'm going in."

"No you are not," Dustin refused. "Why in your right mind would you go into the Upside Down?"

"Because if Mike comes back from California and I have to tell him that his sister got trapped in the Upside Down only to be mere seconds from escaping before she got cursed by a dark wizard who snapped her bones and sucked her eyes out while I stood there and did nothing, I don't think he would be particularly happy with me!"

"What are you talking about?" Megan demanded.

"The only way to do that is to snap Nancy out of it with music!" Max insisted. "Steve's already there. Kenzie, just stay here and help us look, okay?"

Mackenzie sighed and looked at Megan, pointing at her. "You, stay here with Erica. If Steve says anything, let us know."

"O-Okay," Megan responded, almost in a trance as she looked at the Upside Down.

They all instantly ran back into Eddie's room. If anybody had music, it would be him, considering he was in a band and all that. They rifled through the drawers and sifted through everything. It was mostly weed and some white powder. Mackenzie felt panic rise in her chest as she looked for something, anything, that would snap Nancy out of it. However, there was absolutely nothing.

She couldn't lose another person. Mackenzie was sure that would break her completely.

Megan sprinted back in the room after about a minute, looking a mixture of frightened and confused. "Uh, Steve's telling you guys you need to hurry."

"Yeah, no shit!" Dustin shouted.

"We're trying, we can't find anything!" Max yelled.

Robin held a bunch of tapes in her hand. "Seriously, what is all this shit?"

"What are you even looking for?" Eddie inquired.

"Madonna, Blondie, Bowie, Beatles, music, we need music!"

Eddie snatched the tape out of her hand. "This is music!"

"Nancy won't wake up with music that has people screaming in it!" Mackenzie protested. "She doesn't listen to metal!"

Megan raised her hand. "May I ask why we're looking for music?"

"Not now, Megan!" all of them chorused.

"Jesus, sorry for being a little confused!"

"You wouldn't have been this confused if you had just listened to me!" Mackenzie argued. "This whole thing is long and complicated, and right now, we don't have time for this!"

Erica then came running in. "Guys, you can stop. Nancy's awake."

Mackenzie paused, her chest heaving up and down. Why the hell did Vecna let Nancy go if he could just kill her so easily?

☾ ★ ☽

I fucking love adding megan to the plot, I know some of y'all were confused why megan wasn't with scoops troop in midnight so now she's a part of the action!!!