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❛ sᴏᴍᴇᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴡɪᴄᴋᴇᴅ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐓𝐄𝐍 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴀ ᴘʀᴀʏᴇʀ ꒱


❝ IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR I
CAN FEEL YOUR POWER ❞

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Jessie was exhausted by the time they made it back to the Wheeler's house. Everyone close to her knew that running wasn't her strong suit even in the shortest distances. The brief sprint they'd done to try and get away from the cops had been more than enough for her. She now slumped tiredly against Dustin as they sat on the couch next to Lucas and Max. The officer, Powell, sat before them and watched them critically. "What— exactly— were you doing at the lake?"

"Uh. . ." the curly-haired boy began. "It's comp—"

"We were. . . we were just going for a walk," Max finally answered.

"A walk?" the other officer— Callahan— repeated. "At nine p.m.?"

"To the lake," Dustin said again. His voice was pitched higher underneath the eyes of their assorted parents (Jessie's not included, of course.) "We were gonna take a little swim. Little night swim."

"Dusty," his mother reprimanded him. "Someone was just murdered there!"

"Yeah, we. . . we didn't realize that until we got there," he lied.

"That's why we didn't swim," Lucas added.

"And Nancy— was she with you at this night swim?" Mrs. Wheeler asked.

"No," Max said at the same time Dustin gave the opposite answer.

"We're not sure."

"She was there," the other boy insisted. "Then she left. It's all a little confusing."

"—That's when you guys came," Lucas put in.

Max quickly jumped in as well: "right. Then they dared me to say what I said. . . about the killer." The boys gave fake, forced laughs at that.

"You're lucky you didn't get shot," Mr. Wheeler told them.

"Can you tell me why she looks like she's passed out? Does she need medical attention?" Powell nodded to the brunette.

"Oh! Oh— right," Dustin said in a rushed sort of way. "Yeah. Um, running doesn't sit well with her. She's got-she's got heart problems, I think." He nudged the girl gently. "Jess, get up."

The girl didn't want to comply. Instead, she curled up a little more and mumbled: "five more minutes, dad. I don't wanna talk to the cops."

Powell gave her an unimpressed look. "Well, you're out of luck there. The cops want to talk to you."

"Jess," Dustin said again, this time with a little more force.

Jessie forced her eyes open and gave the officers a grumpy look. "What?"

"Have you had any contact with Eddie?" one of them (she didn't know— or care— who) asked. She rolled her eyes as the other three gave immediate negative answers.

"Oh, that's a bunch of bull," Erica spoke up as she stepped forward. Her parents said her name in reprimanding tones but she just shrugged. "I mean, you realize they're lying. The whole couch is on fire. Just the facts."

After Erica's outburst, the group began to talk over each other about their differing opinions. Their voices raised to a clamorous roar that made Jessie clamp her hands over her ears. Max let out a groan of impatience as she rested her head against the back of the couch. Finally, Powell called everyone to order with the loudest "SHUT UP" Jessie had ever had the misfortune to hear.

He took a deep breath. "We're gonna try a more civilized approach. One at a time." He pointed to Max. "You first."

The brunette sat up sharply and dropped her hands from her ears. "Woah, woah, woah," she protested, suddenly seeming to have all the energy in the world. "Why?"

"Yeah, why me?" the redhead agreed sharply. "I'm not even in Hellfire."

"Do I need to cuff you?" the other officer asked.

Jessie opened her mouth to make a dirty joke about cuffing, but she ultimately decided against it. For one, the parents in the room were the straightest, most God-fearing people she'd ever met. For another, the cops didn't deserve to hear her great sense of humor. When she saw that she had no other choice, Max followed the demand and went with the officers.

.・。.・゜✫・.・✫・゜・。.

Jessie paced the long second floor hallway as Max was being questioned by the police. She'd needed to get away from the noise of the first floor and the walls between her and the adults provided a nice buffer from their circular conversations. Dustin was still downstairs with Lucas and Erica but she didn't feel much like spending extra time with the older Sinclair.

After some time, the trio rushed upstairs with Holly's Lite Brite in their hands. She whirled around at their sudden approach. "Whoa, whoa! What's going on, guys?"

"You should've been there!" Erica exclaimed as they brushed past her.

The brunette followed them into Nancy's room. "Why? What happened?"

"We're geniuses!" was Lucas' brief explanation. They hardly paid her any mind as they scrambled to set up the light.

Dustin began to speak in a rushed voice: "you know how Will was communicating with Mrs. Byers when he first disappeared?" At her nod, he continued: "well, the summary of what's just happened is that Nancy, Eddie, Steve and Robin are in the Upside-Down and we're going to contact them with lights."

Jessie's eyes widened as she joined them on the floor next to the bed. "That is genius! So there really was a gate below Lover's Lake?"

"Yep," the curly-haired boy confirmed. "I have a theory that Vecna's made one at every murder site."

"Because the others were man-made," she realized. "This one just. . . appeared."

"Exactly!"

Lucas joined them and they hastily pushed in a light in every hole on the machine. They waited with bated breath for a message to come from "the beyond" until the lights glowed intensely all at once.

"Holy shit!" Dustin exclaimed as he let out an amazed laugh. "We're not moving it but we're gonna unplug it. Stand by."

"Hello?" Jessie called to the invisible air. She knew they couldn't really reply but she tried it anyway.

"Try it now," the curly-haired boy spoke once Lucas had pulled the plug.

Together they read off the letters that appeared: "'H' 'I.'"

"Hi!" Dustin exclaimed. The other three gave their own greetings

More letters began to glow: "'S' 'T' 'U'—"

"Stupid?" the boys guessed. "Stupid?"

The word finished: 'C' 'K'" "Stuck."

"They're stuck in the Upside-Down."

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

They waited for a reply until one showed up: 'G' 'U' 'A' 'R' 'D' 'E' 'D'" "Guarded."

He nodded. "Okay. Uh, Watergate's guarded. 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." A question mark appeared on the board shortly. "Okay. Seriously? How many times do I have to be right on the money before you trust me?"

Once they gave the teens on the other side a destination, Dustin left them to go see if Max was finished with her questioning.

.・。.・゜✫・.・✫・゜・。.

At least they weren't running, Jessie told herself as she clung to Dustin's shoulders. They'd escaped on their bikes in order to meet the other teens on this side of the dimension once they got through. While she could've chosen to sit with Max, they were still uncomfortable with each other after their fight in the woods so she thought it would be best to keep her distance.

Once they got to Eddie's trailer, they were able to clean up the portal so that it was more like a window than a gate. Quickly, they tied together bedsheets to make a rope while the boys moved a mattress underneath the hole. Once their makeshift rope was complete, Dustin gathered it in his arms and went to the opening. "Not quite sure how these physics work. But, uh. . . here goes nothing."

He threw the tied sheets up to the portal and they got sucked in vacuum-like through the gap. Tentatively, he released his side of the rope and took a step back. Jessie's eyes widened at the sight of sheets— that had actual, physical weight— hanging from apparently nothing but magical force.

The curly-haired boy looked up at the teens on the other side. "All right, pull on it! See if it holds!" It did, of course, much to their amazement.

"This is the craziest shit I've ever seen in my life— and I've seen some crazy shit," Erica said. She and Dustin high-fived.

As Robin began to climb the rope, the boy began to back up. "Alright, let's clear the landing pad."

At the halfway point, Robin's weight sent her flying to the mattress where she landed with a grunt. Jessie rushed forward to help her up and the older teen gave her a shaky smile. "Thanks."

Eddie went next and fell through the hole similarly to the other teen. Then it was Nancy's turn. Except— something was very clearly wrong. The pause between Eddie's escape and hers was far too long and Jessie was almost positive she'd heard Steve say the name "Vecna." 

.・。.・゜✫・.・✫・゜・。.

Thankfully, Nancy was able to come to on her own. While they'd all scrambled to find music for the girl, none of the options in Eddie's trailer seemed viable. After much yelling, the two older teens finally made it back to the (relative) safety of Hawkins.

A shaken Nancy began to describe the visions she'd seen: "he showed me things that haven't happened yet. The most awful things. I saw a dark cloud spreading over Hawkins. Downtown on fire. Dead soldiers. And this. . . giant creature with. . . a gaping mouth. And this creature wasn't alone. There were so many monsters. An army. And they were coming into Hawkins. Into our neighborhoods. Our homes. And then. . . he showed me my mom. And Holly. Mike. And they. . . they were all. . ." She let out a trembling breath.

"Okay, but. . . he's just trying to scare you, Nance," Steve said. Though his words were certain, Jessie wondered if he was saying them more for the girl or for himself. "Right? I mean. . . I mean, it's not real."

"Not yet," she whispered in response. "But there. . . there was something else. He showed me gates. Four gates, spreading across Hawkins. And these gates, they looked like the one outside of Eddie's trailer but. . . they didn't stop growing. And this wasn't the Upside Down Hawkins. This was our Hawkins. Our home."

Max spoke up then: "Four chimes." They turned to look at her. "Vecna's clock. It always chimes four times. Four exactly."

"I heard them too," Nancy admitted.

"He's been telling us his plan this whole time."

"There's been three kills so far," Jessie put in. "One more to go— one kill per gate. Then, the end of the world," she finished somberly.

For someone who was usually gung-ho to face any situation involving monsters, her serious tone took the group by surprise. But, if they had watched her closely as she'd spoken, they would have noticed that her eyes had flicked subtly to the redhead who was standing across the room from her. Despite her insides writhing with embarrassment from her outburst hours ago in the woods, Jessie knew that there were more important things to worry about than her own pride.

At this revolution, Max went to the phone and tried to call the Byers again. As they waited for someone to pick up, Dustin grew impatient. "Anything?"

"No. Rang a few times then went to busy signal."

"Maybe you punched it wrong," Steve offered. "Try again."

"I didn't punch it in wrong," she argued.

"Well, I don't know."

"I think she knows how to use a phone," Dustin added.

"I'm just saying she could've typed it in wrong."

Max tried again but with the same result. Lucas stared at the phone with disbelief. "How is that possible?"

"Joyce has this telemarketer job. Always on the phone. Mike won't stop whining about it."

"For three days?" Jessie questioned him incredulously. "Teenage girls are stereotyped for hours-long conversations— not that Joyce is a teenage girl, it's just an example— but even they need sleep. Something else is going on."

"She's right," Nancy agreed. "It can't be just coincidence. It can't be. Whatever's happening in Lenora is connected to all of this. I'm sure of it."