Chapter 31

A/N: heyy, it’s been a while lol. school’s a pain in the ass and i barely have time to write but i hope you enjoy this and… good luck 🙂

“Hey, how are you feeling now?” Nancy asks Sofia as they walk to Nancy’s house.

“Better, I think, but when the adrenaline wears off I won’t know what to do with myself” Sofia says. Sofia and Robin were walking closely together.

“I just hope Dustin’s okay” Sofia adds, worried for her brother. “I mean, what do you think they’re doing now? And what do they think happened to us?”

The ground starts shaking, again. This time, Robin and Sofia don’t fall to the ground but still struggle not to.

“Second on my list of least favorite things, earthquakes” Robin says. “Seriously, I’m unsteady enough as it is”

Out of nowhere, Nancy starts running. “Nancy!” Robin yells.

“Nance, where are you going?” Sofia yells at the girl, as she and Robin get up.

The ground starts shaking less and Sofia and Robin run to catch up with Nancy. Soon, Steve and Eddie joined them.

“Come on” Nancy says, as they see her house from afar.

Nancy opens the door, and they walk inside. “Might be time to get a maid, Wheeler” Robin jokes, making Sofia chuckle.

“Come on. I don’t want to stay here longer than we have to” Nancy says and they walk up the stairs to her bedroom.

They enter the room and Sofia starts looking around as Nancy grabs the guns. Something feels off.

“Those aren’t guns” Eddie says, snapping Sofia out of her thoughts.

“These heels are pointy, but I was hoping for a deadly projectile” Robin says, joking as always.

“I don’t understand” Nancy says, confused.

“Maybe you left them somewhere else” Eddie says.

“There’s a six-year-old in the house. I know where I keep my guns. And also, I threw these away years ago” Nancy says.

“Hey, Nance?” Sofia says, looking at the wall, in deep thought.

“Yeah?”

“I don’t remember your wallpaper looking like this” Sofia says, each word weighting more than the other.

“Yes… you’re right, it’s old wallpaper” Nancy says, extra confused. “And this mirror, this went to a yard sale. And you… You’re not supposed to be here. No, I gave you to Cousin Joanna two years ago” Nancy says at a teddy bear.

Nancy walks to her bedside table and grabs her diary. She flips some pages and then stops.

“What is it?” Eddie asks.

“Nancy? You’re freaking me out” Robin says.

“I think the reason that my guns aren’t here is because they don’t exist yet” Nancy says.

“They don’t… exist?” Sofia asks. Her head’s spinning.

“This diary should be full of entries. It’s not. The last entry is November 6, 1983. The day Will went missing. The day the gate opened. We’re in the past” Nancy explains. What the fuck.

“Dustin! Dustin!” They hear Steve yell downstairs. Sofia immediately runs to check out what’s happening. Is Dustin there? Her heart is racing.

“Dustin! Can you hear me? Dustin! Du… Hello? Hel… Hello?” Steve yells and the four look at him. He’s yelling at the… air?

“Maybe he really does have rabies” Robin jokes.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Sofia asks Steve, mad because of the scare he gave her.

“He’s here. Henderson. That little shit, he’s here. He’s like… He’s in the walls or something. Just listen” Steve says.

After a moment of silence, they can hear Dustin’s faint voice for a second.

“Dusty!” Sofia yells. This could be their way out.

They shout Dustin’s name but get no response. “All right, either this kid can’t hear us or he’s being a total douche bag” Steve says.

“Will found a way” Nancy says.

“What?”

“Will. He found a way to speak to Joyce through the lights” Nancy explains, walking over to a lamp and trying to turn it on.

“It’s not working” Nancy says, trying the light switch.

“Guys? You seeing this?” Steve asks, pointing his flashlight at the chandelier. It had gold dust all over it.

They walk up to it and touch it. “It… Tickles” Robin says, playing with her hands.

“It kinda feels good” Sofia says, smiling at the beautiful sight.

“Does anyone know Morse code?” Nancy asks.

“No” Robin, Sofia and Steve say.

“Wait, does SOS count? Is that… Is that good?” Eddie asks, and Nancy nods.

Eddie does it repeatedly. “It’s working” Robin says, smiling in awe.

They run to Nancy’s bedroom and wait for the others to grab the Lite Brite toy. They anxiously wait for Dustin to give the green light. Suddenly, the now familiar gold dust appears on top of the bed.

“…seeing this?” They hear Dustin’s faint voice. Nancy touches the dust and they hear Dustin cheering. “We’re not moving it, but we’re gonna unplug it. Stand by”

Most of the dust disappears. “Try it now” They hear Dustin say. Nancy decides to write “HI”.

“That worked!” Dustin says back laughing, Sofia sighs a “Bless him”:

“Yes! Yes!” Eddie says. They all cheer in relief. We’re gonna get out of here.

“Can I draw the middle finger?” Sofia asks, excited. Robin chuckles, partly out of relief, but also because of Sofia’s question.

“Seriously?” Steve asks her with a straight face.

“Okay. Um…” Nancy says, thinking of what to write.

She spells “STUCK”.

“Yes” Eddie says, hearing Dustin read the word.

“We are”.

“Uh, you can’t get back through Watergate?” Dustin asks.

“What the hell’s Watergate?” Steve asks.

” ‘Cause it’s in water and it’s a gate” Robin explains. It was really not the moment, but Sofia couldn’t help but smile at Robin understanding her little brother.

“Oh, that’s cute” Eddie says.

“Right. Um, no. It’s…” Nancy says, beginning to write.

She spells the word “GUARDED”.

“Okay. Uh, Watergate’s guarded” they hear Dustin say.

“Perfect. Yes. Yes. Yes” Steve cheers and Eddie claps.

“We think we have a theory that can help with that” Dustin says.

“Genius child” Robin whispers, warming Sofia’s heart.

“We think Watergate isn’t the only gate. That there’s a gate at every murder site” Dustin explains.

“Does anybody understand what he’s talking about?” Steve asks.

“No” Robin says.

“Maybe” Sofia says, still processing what Dustin said.

“No idea” Eddie says.

“Okay. Seriously? How many times do I have to be right on the money before you trust me?” Dustin shouts, angrily.

“Jesus Christ. This kid’s gotta get his ego in check” Steve sighs.

“It’s his tone. Right?” Eddie asks.

“You get used to it” Sofia says.

“Okay. So… So how far is your trailer?” Nancy asks Eddie.

“Seven miles” Eddie answers.

“Nancy? Uh, I know your house here is, like, weirdly, creepily frozen in time and shit, but haven’t you always had bikes?” Robin asks.

As they’re riding to Eddie’s trailer, Sofia can’t help but feel glad that her wrist has healed. She wonders what Cher would think about this. She wonders how Cher would fit into all this. Maybe it’s a blessing that she’s dead.

She thinks about how everything felt simpler on last summer’s encounter with the upside-down. Despite being traumatized for the rest of her life, there was something about it that felt less heavy.

Maybe because she didn’t worry about Robin a lot, like she does now. Maybe because she wasn’t as close to the group as she is now.

Or maybe because she was afraid to die now. Not that she wanted to die before, but she just wasn’t scared. If it happened, it happened.

She couldn’t afford to think like that now. Not when she had found the love of her life, and when she’d realize how badly Dustin needs her too.

“Hey, isn’t this air like… toxic or something?” Sofia asks, as they’re almost arriving, trying not to sneeze.

“Maybe. I mean, Henderson inhaled some of the dust and didn’t die so…” Steve says. Sofia furrows her eyebrows, not knowing that.

“Right here” Eddie says. They finally get to his trailer and put the bikes on the floor.

“That’s gotta be a Guinness World Record. Most miles traveled interdimensionally” Robin says, as they make their way into the trailer.

“Just inhaled a bunch of that crap” Steve says, coughing. “It’s stuck in my throat”

“Karma” Sofia mumbles under her breath, a slight smirk on her lips.

When they get in, they see a gate on the ceiling.

“This is where Chery died. Like, right where she died” Eddie says. Sofia tries not to think of Cher again. Why is she stuck on her head. Why does Eddie call her Chery too?

“I think there’s something in there” Robin says.

They see some of the vines around it moving, and the gate itself too. “What the hell is that?” Eddie asks.

Suddenly, the gate bursts open, letting liquid fall. They all yelp and breath heavily. At this point, it could be anything.

“No way” Steve says, as they look at the hole. They could see Dustin, Max, Lucas, and Erica upside-down.

“Hi there” Dustin says with a laugh, and Sofia is so so relieved. That stupid laugh, yes, she’s hearing it again.

They all say hi back, happy for their escape. Finally.

“Holy shit this is trippy” Robin says.

The four of them watch as Lucas and Max place a mattress for them to fall on. 

“Those stains are, uh… I dunno what those stains are” Eddie says, as Robin eyes him. She turns to look at Sofia and they share a smirk.

“Not quite sure how these physics work. But, uh… Here goes nothing” Dustin says and he throws an improvised rope to the ceiling. 

The rope falls down right in front of Sofia. “And if my theory is correct…” Dustin says, letting go of the rope, “Huh. Abracadabra”

“Holy shit” Max says.

“All right, pull on it! See if it holds!” Dustin shouts. Sofia looks at the group and holds the rope, trying to push it down. It stays right in place.

“This is the craziest shit I’ve ever seen in my life. And I’ve seen some crazy shit” Erica says as they all cheer.

The four share a look and Robin takes a step forward. “Guess I’m the guinea pig” Robin says, and Sofia curses under her breath. No.

She tries to subtly stop Robin, since they don’t know if it does work, but she’s already climbing before she can say a word. Sofia helps her up, and watches carefully as Robin lands on the mattress. She sighs in relief.

The remaining three look at each other. “All right, guess I’ll go” Eddie says. He climbs and lands on the mattress. 

“You go” Nancy says to Sofia. Sofia doesn’t even say no, she just walks to the rope and climbs it. She struggles a bit, as anxiety courses though her veins. 

She notices every breath she takes. How the rope feels in her hands. The temperature difference.

Thankfully, she lands perfectly on the mattress. Robin helps her up and, when she’s up, she hugs her tight, breathing heavily. She finally felt safer. Not okay, not even a little bit, but in the comfort of her own normal dimension. 

She lets go of Robin and walks to Dustin. Sprints to him, really. Without sharing a word, she immediately hugged him. She holds the top of his head and gives him a forehead kiss. And another one. And another one.

“What happened to you?” Dustin asks as he lets go of Sofia, now all sentimental. His hand with a hint a blood, his sister’s blood. It scares him, though she doesn’t show.

“Oh, right… Got attacked by bats and lost like half of my body’s blood” Sofia says, joking but not really. She feels her defences coming down, and now just wishes to go to sleep.

Dustin looks at her with worry, but before he could speak, they hear something much more concerning.

 “Stay with me. Nancy! Hey! Nancy, wake up” They hear Steve yell. Sofia’s heart drops. Not another one. She couldn’t bear to have another one of her friends killed or haunted.

“Vecna” Max says, as everyone in the group looks at each other in concern.

“Music… Eddie, do you have any tapes?” Sofia asks, trying her best to stay calm.

Eddie starts running to his room and everyone follows him, except for Erica. They frantically start going over Eddie’s cassettes, hoping to find something that Nancy liked.

Everyone was panicking at this point. Even Sofia, who could only keep it calm for 10 seconds.

“Steve says you need to hurry!” Erica yells as she comes into the room.

“Yeah? No shit!” Dustin yells.

“We’re trying. We can’t find anything” Max shouts.

“Seriously, what is all this shit?” Robin yells at Eddie.

“What are you even looking for?” Eddie shouts.

“Madonna, Blondie, Bowie, Beatles? Music! We need music!” Robin yells.

“This is music!” Eddie yells, madly. 

“Max, Max! Don’t you have more tapes with you?” Sofia shouts.

“Uh, yeah!” Max says, opening her backpack.

“She’s back!” Erica yells. They all rush back to the living room and look up, seeing Nancy in Steve’s arms. She looked like she had been through hell.

Sofia couldn’t imagine what she had gone through.

“Is she okay?” Robin asks Steve.

“I… I think so” Steve says, not taking her eyes off Nancy’s eyes.

Sofia sighs, feeling more relief than in the whole day. She realizes how hot and sweaty she was. And how tired too. She really needed to sleep. 

She takes the scrunchie off her wrist, walks to the closest mirror and starts doing a ponytail.

Halfway through it, she sees a figure sprint behind her in the mirror. She jumps in place, but ignores it. It’s just her mind playing tricks on her: it also does that in the dark. 

She takes a deep breath and keeps doing her ponytail. That is, until she feels a chill run down her spine. Something’s off. Everyone’s silent.

She looks around and realizes she’s alone in the trailer.

“Sofia…”