A/N [from 2022] Chapter 69? Lol, nice. 
Sorry I have the sense of humor of a middle schooler. ENJOY THIS CHAPTER!!! SORRY FOR THE EMOTIONAL DAMAGE IT MAY CAUSE!!! SEND ME UR THERAPY BILLS AND I'LL PAY 'EM

{The Massacre at Hawkins Lab, III / Papa, I}

Alice couldn't stop thinking about the rabbits as they entered the Upside Down's version of the Wheeler's house.

The brown hare had looked at Alice like she was the bad omen. Why? Alice wracked her brain about what that could mean. What the Lab would have to do with Vecna's plans.

What are his plans, anyway? Alice thought, following Eddie up the stairs toward Nancy's room. Vecna wants my power...he said something about gates at some point...but why?

"Al!" Steve hissed from a few steps below her.

Alice paused on the steps and turned. Steve shone his flashlight toward the living room.

"Do you hear that?" he asked. He flew down the steps, Alice on his heels.

Alice strained to listen. The only sound she could hear was her own racing heartbeat and Steve's breathing.

"I don't hear anything," she said.

"C'mon!" Steve said, a desperate whine in his voice. "You're telling me you don't hear your brother?!"

"Dustin?" she said. "You're hearing Dustin, right now?"

"Shhh!" Steve said. He stepped to the center of the room and motioned for Alice to follow. She did, cautiously. "Just listen closer. Okay? I swear, I hear him. Just listen!"

Alice had an intrusive thought about the potential rabies Robin had yammered about earlier that day. She forced it out of her mind and closed her eyes, shutting out any and all distractions.

For a moment, just a moment, she heard the familiar voice.

"Holy shit," Alice said, eyes popping open. "I heard him! I couldn't make out what he's saying, though."

"Doesn't matter!" Steve said. "If we can talk to him, he can help us get out of here! DUSTIN! CAN YOU HEAR ME?"

Steve and Alice yelled for Dustin, praying he'd be able to hear them across time and space. The commotion caused the others to rejoin them downstairs.

"Steve!" Nancy said. "Alice! What are you doing?"

"He's here!" Steve said. "Henderson, he's here! He's like...in the walls or something. Just listen. Dustin! Can you hear me!"

"DUSTIN!" Alice shouted. "HEY, IT'S US!"

"Wait!" Robin said. "I hear him, too! Dustin!"

"Hey, Dustin!" Nancy yelled. The five of them continued calling for him. Eddie even looked behind the curtains, as if Dustin was hiding there to surprise them.

"Either the kid can't hear us," Steve said, "or he's being a total douchebag."

"Will found a way," Nancy muttered.

"What?"

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

She tried to turn on the lamp, with no luck. Steve's flashlight illuminated the chandelier in the kitchen—which was encased in a shimmering, ethereal glow.

"Whoa," Alice said, mesmerized by the light source. "It's like...pixie dust."

"First bunnies, like Alice in Wonderland," Robin said, "and now pixie dust, like Peter Pan. If the way out of here is to wish really hard in red ruby slippers, I'll shit myself."

Nancy reached up and ran her hand through the sparkly light, which turned rose gold upon being touched.

The others slowly followed suit, waving their fingers in the rosy glow. It reminded Alice of running her hand across the soft shag carpet in her mother's bedroom, combined with touching warm asphalt on a summer day.

"It tickles," Steve said, brow furrowed.

"It kinda feels good," Robin said with a small smile.

"Does anyone know Morse code?" Nancy asked, turning to the others.

When Eddie confided that he knew SOS, he got to work spelling it out into the light.

Back in the Wheeler's dining room in the non-demon dimension, Erica Sinclair was still not convinced Lucas and Dustin's new friend Kali wasn't a commie in disguise. But now that she was being included, she agreed not to rat Kali out to the cops.

Dustin droned on about his Vecna theories, and Erica noticed the flickering chandelier.

"You said you followed Vecna through lights, right?" Erica asked.

"Yeah, why?" Dustin said.

"Because I think he's here!"

Dustin and Lucas stood from the table and joined Erica by the blinking light.

"S," Dustin murmured. "O. S." His face fell. "Hey, uh, remember when I said they wouldn't be stupid enough to go through Watergate?"

"Yeah?" Lucas said.

Dustin turned back to the Sinclairs with a grimace.

"I overestimated them."

💡💡💡

A few minutes later, Dustin, Lucas, and Erica burst into Nancy's room with their borrowed Lite-Brite and settled around the bed.

"Kali!" Lucas hissed into the seemingly empty room. "You in here? It's safe, Erica's cool."

Kali appeared to them from her spot in Nancy's desk chair. Erica tried not to let it show on her face how awesome that was.

"Thank goodness," Kali said. "I was starting to think you forgot me."

"Nope," Dustin said. He, Lucas, and Erica began filling the toy with colored pegs. "We just got a little sidetracked. Turns out my big sister and her friends are big, stupid idiots who went into the Upside Down."

"They went into that horrible dimension?!" Kali said. "Why?"

"We're going to find out, with this." He gestured to the Lite-Brite. "Help us out, will you?"

Kali knelt by Erica. The younger girl gave her a once-over and said, "You promise you're not a commie? After Starcourt, a girl can't be too careful."

"I promise," Kali assured her, "I am not a Russian spy. Be honest: have you ever seen a spy wear this much eyeliner?"

Erica smiled despite herself and scooted over, giving Kali a bit more room.

"That's it!" Dustin said, once every peg had been used. "Go, go!"

Lucas rushed to plug the device into the wall. As soon as he did, Nancy, Robin, Eddie, Steve, and Alice saw the shimmery rose light on Nancy's bed in the Upside Down.

Nancy ran her hands through it, causing the Lite-Brite in the real world to brighten significantly.

"Holy shit!" Erica said.

"We're going to unplug it!" Dustin yelled, hoping Alice and the teens could still hear him. "Stand by!"

Lucas pulled the cord. The pegs darkened.

"Try it now!"

Nancy traced out a simple message: "HI."

"That worked!" Dustin called.

The teens cheered. Alice was so relieved, she could cry.

Nancy traced a new message: "STUCK."

"They're stuck in the Upside Down!" Lucas said.

"You can't get back through Watergate?" Dustin shouted.

"What the fuck is Watergate?!" Alice said with a groan.

Robin flicked her eyes upward, brainstorming.

"I guess because it's in water," she said, "and it's a gate."

"That's cute," Eddie said.

"Oh," Nancy said. She spelled out, "GUARDED."

"Is it Vecna?" Kali said. "Is he protecting the gate?"

This time, Alice traced the message: "BATS."

"Bats?" Lucas said. "Like, bats-in-caves bats?"

Alice tried to clarify: "DEMOBATS."

"What is a demobat, exactly?" Erica asked.

Dustin's eyes lit up.

"Like a demogorgon," Dustin said. "Or a demodog. A creature of the Upside Down. Alice, did you come up with that? Very clever."

She traced a smiley face.

"Don't worry about Watergate," Dustin continued. "We have a theory that can help with that."

Dustin went on to explain that there's a gate at every murder site—and chastize the teens for not understanding the first time around.

"If there's a gate at every place Vecna killed," Alice said, "there would also be one on the road by the trailer park, and one at—"

"Eddie's trailer!" Nancy finished. "How far is it from here?"

"Seven miles," Eddie said.

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

Steve reached over to write: "MEET U AT TRAILER."

"We'll meet you there!" Dustin said. "Hurry up! Alice, Freddie Mercury's waiting for you!"

Alice drew another smiley.

"Come on," Nancy said. The group stumbled to their feet. "We should have five bikes in the garage. Since this is 1983, one of them is Holly's first one, and, well..."

The bike in question was bright pink, with purple tassels on the handlebars and a small wicker basket in the front. It still had training wheels and was sized for a three-year-old girl.

Alice made the sacrifice to ride that one, despite the painful smack of her knees on the handlebars every time she pedaled.

"You finally gonna let Mommy and Daddy take the training wheels off, Elder Henderson?" Eddie teased as the group pedaled down Maple Street.

"Bite me!" Alice said, zooming past him.

She led the way, Steve riding beside her. Alice noticed his breathing seemed a bit erratic.

"You okay?" she said, glancing over at him.

"Never better!" he said, between huffs of air.

"You already used that lie today," Alice said.

"Fine. I'll be a lot better when we're out of here."

Another batch of red lightning lit up the sky, causing Alice to flinch. Then she heard it, that cold, horrible voice: "Alice..."

Nausea rolled through her.

"Uh, guys!" Alice shouted over the thunder. "I think I need a song!"

"What?" Robin said.

"What are you doing here, Alice?"

"I need a song!" she yelled. "Sing me a nursery rhyme, now!"

Singing and bike-riding were not activities that went well together, but Nancy tried her best: "Baa baa, black sheep, have you any wool?"

Eddie and Robin joined in for the rest of the rhyme. Steve tried to, but his singing quickly turned to a cough.

It was screechy and off-key and Eddie kept trying to pedal with no hands to do air guitar, but it was enough to quiet Vecna—for now.

When they zipped past the Creel House, they saw thousands of bats swirling in the air like a tornado. They pedaled a bit faster at the sight.

By the time they dismounted their bikes at the trailer park, Steve's cough hadn't gotten any better, and Alice's worry about it was sky-high.

Alice reached for Steve's hand.

"Do you feel lightheaded?" she said urgently.

"I just inhaled some of that crap," Steve said, gesturing to the Upside Down ash. He coughed again and croaked out, "I'll be okay."

Alice wanted to tell him to sit down, to take a minute to catch his breath, but time was a luxury they could not afford.

The teens entered the trailer. As usual, Dustin's theory was correct: a bright red portal rested on the ceiling and thrummed, like something evil, something eldritch.

"This is where Chrissy died," Eddie said, voice solemn as he eyed the gate. "Like...right where she died."

"I think there's something in there," Robin whispered.

The goop covering the gate pushed outward. Alice resisted the urge to gag.

"What is that?" Eddie said, studying it closely.

Wham! Something long and pointy tore through the filmy covering of the portal. The group screamed and stumbled back.

To their relief, it wasn't Vecna, or a demogorgon, or anything evil. Instead, it was—

"Dustin!" Alice cried out, smiling. "Holy shit. I've never been so happy to see you, seriously."

"No way," Steve murmured. On the other side of the now-torn gate stood Dustin, Lucas, Erica, Max, and Kali. In a feat that defied gravity and would astound physicists everywhere, they looked as if they were hanging upside-down, opposite the teens in the Upside Down like a mirror's reflection.

"Holy shit," Robin said. "This is trippy!"

"Bada-bada-boom!" Dustin shouted. "I knew it! Hold tight. We'll prepare the place for your grand re-entrance!"

Lucas and Max prepared a somewhat-safe but not-so-sanitary crash landing pad using Eddie's mattress. Erica, Dustin, and Kali tied bed sheets and pillowcases together to make a rope.

"Not quite sure how these physics are going to work," Dustin said, "but here goes nothing."

Dustin tossed the makeshift rope into the portal. It stayed suspended between worlds.

"Pull on it!" Dustin yelled. "See if it holds!"

Robin tested the rope, and sure enough, it didn't fall to the ground when she pulled on it.

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

She and Dustin high-fived.

"I second that," Kali said. She patted Dustin's shoulder. "You, Dustin, are very smart for figuring this out."

Dustin preened at the praise. Alice sighed and shouted, "Don't inflate his already gigantic ego!"

Robin took the plunge—literally—and crossed through first. When she landed on the mattress, she sat up and beamed.

"Oh, thank God! That was fun!"

She cleared the way for Eddie to fall through next, and then Nancy.

"You go next, Al," Steve said, gesturing for Alice to start her climb. Alice chewed her bottom lip.

"I have the upper-body strength of a 10-year-old boy," she said, blushing. "Do you think they have a ladder?"

"I'll boost you up," Steve said. He shifted to stand behind her and put his hands on her waist, lifting her off the ground.

Before Alice could grab hold of the rope and climb the rest of the way, he let go, and she fell to the ground in a heap.

"Jesus, Steve!" she grumbled, rubbing her sore elbow from where it smacked the floor. She clumsily stood, brushing herself off and stood in front of the rope once more. "Let's try that again, yeah?"

No response.

"...Steve?"

A heavy weight clung to Alice's chest. A weight of fear, of apprehension. Why wasn't he talking?

Alice glanced back at Steve and screamed bloody murder. The shriek reverberated through both versions of the trailer.

"Are you guys okay?!" Robin yelled from the real world.

"No, no, no!" Alice said, a sob escaping her at the sight of Steve frozen, his eyes glazed over white.

Alice grabbed Steve's shoulders and shook him. "Steve, wake up! Hey, wake up! C'mon, Stevie, please!"

"What's happening?" Erica said. "I don't understand!"

"Vecna," Max said darkly. "He got Steve."

Alice looked up at her friends. They all looked terrified.

"Dustin!" Alice said. "Do you have my Walkman?"

"I do!" Dustin yelled. He reached for the rope. "I'll bring it—"

"No!" Alice said. "Stay there! Just toss it to me!"

Dustin threw the Walkman upward, and Alice caught it as it fell.

"Eddie!" Nancy said, turning to the boy in question. "Do you have any Wham! or David Bowie in your music collection?"

"No, but please tell me Harrington is a secret Iron Maiden fan?"

"I have a tape!" Alice said, hands shaking as she put the headphones over Steve's ears. "A mixtape of all our favorites!"

Trying not to hyperventilate, she fast-forwarded to track 5 on the tape and turned it up as loud as it could go. "If you change your mind, I'm the first in line! Honey I'm still free, take a chance on me!"

"I'm right here, Steve," she mumbled, holding his hand as the song played. "I'm not going to let him take you. Not a chance."

Alice heard static through the headphones and the song changed, to a song Alice was really starting to hate: "Wasting away again in Margaritaville..."

"NO!" Alice screamed. The tears she'd been trying to hold back streamed down her cheeks. She smacked the Walkman, anger and despair flowing through her veins. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, shit, fuck!"

"What's wrong?" Lucas said. She continued cursing. "Alice, what is it?"

"My cassette is fucked and won't play the right song!" Alice wailed. "Jimmy Buffet is going to be the death of Steve!"

Same as when she was in the Creel House, the walls of Eddie's trailer seemed to be closing in on her. Alice's chest felt tight, like an elephant had plopped right on top of her. She tried to breathe, but every inhale felt like a thousand shards of glass pricking her lungs.

Alice shook Steve again, the panic sparking a rush of adrenaline. "Please, just fight it! Stay with me!"

"I'm going back in there!" Robin said, heart beating as fast as a hummingbird's. Steve was one of her best friends, and she couldn't lose him. 

Robin reached for the rope, but Kali grabbed her arm and said, "That is not wise."

Robin shrugged her off.

"I don't care! We have to do something!"

"What can we do besides the music?" Lucas said, eyeing Alice as she frantically rewound the cassette.

"Talk to him!" Max said. "When Vecna got me in the graveyard, I could hear the song and I could hear you all calling me."

"Worth a try," Eddie said.

They all shouted encouragement to Steve, begging him to wake up, to fight back, to return to the real world.

Alice finally got ABBA to play right, but she couldn't relax.

"Please, Steve," she whispered. "Please, wake up!"

He let out a gasp and his eyes shot open. Unsteady, he fell to the ground, panting hard.

"Steve!" Alice said, kneeling and wrapping her arms around him. "Oh my god! I'm right here, okay? I'm here. I'm here. You're safe!"

He pulled the headphones off his head and rubbed his teary eyes.

"Steve! Are you okay?" Dustin shouted from above the couple.

Steve didn't respond. Instead, he hugged Alice so tight she could barely breathe.

"I've got you," Alice said, rubbing his back while he cried quietly. She kissed the top of his head. "I'm here, I'm not letting you go."

"You have to let him go to climb!" Erica shouted. "Get your asses up here!"

"Erica!" Lucas hissed. "Give them a minute!"

"No, I agree with your sister," Kali said. "They should not spend another second in that hellhole."

"Are you okay to stand?" Alice said quietly.

"Yeah," Steve said, voice hoarse. "Let's go."

He helped Alice up the rope before following close behind.

Robin tackled Steve in a hug the second he crash-landed, crying and mumbling something about how he was the biggest dingus on earth for scaring her like that.

"I didn't exactly choose to get Vecna'd," Steve muttered.

"My turn!" Dustin said, looping his arms around both Steve and Robin.

It became a dogpile, everyone grabbing onto someone in a group hug. Even Kali joined, by lightly patting Eddie's shoulder.

Nancy sniffled and cleared her throat, extricating herself from the huddle.

"Max," she said, "do you think we can regroup at your place? I don't think any of us want to be near that any longer."

She nodded in the direction of the gate.

"My mom's working a double," Max said, "so we'll have the place to ourselves. Let's go."

They all shot one last look at the portal between worlds and exited Eddie's trailer. As they stepped in the lazy light of the early dawn, Steve tried not to think about the horrid things he was shown or Vecna's chilling message:

"I want you to tell Eleven. I want you to tell her everything you see. And give Alice my regards. I will be seeing her very, very soon." 

{Posted October 4th, 2022; Republished March 27th, 2025}

A/N [from 2022] Canon bending is fun! Sorry Steve, I had to put you through some extra turmoil. It makes for good drama! Also it tees up something I've got brewing for the next chapter...

QOTD: You're walking the streets of Hawkins and find a baby demodog crying for its mother. Do you:

A. Kill it immediately

B. Return it to its family (and try not to get eaten by the Mama Demogorgon) 

or

C. Raise it as your own

I'd say B! I don't trust it not to eat me, so C is out. And A is too harsh!