Day Three
Nancy
Steve was raging between disbelief and fury. "What do you mean Hawkins?" he demanded. "You can't be serious. The whole city is closed off."
Jonathan didn't take his eyes off the road. "I know a back route, by the quarry," he said quietly. "It might be blocked." He glanced in the rearview mirror again, this time at Nancy. "Or it might not."
Next to her, the younger boys were practically buzzing with excitement. Nancy realized suddenly that Mike may not have been talking about their dad earlier. Without Lucas, their group was incomplete. And if even she considered them incomplete without him, how did they consider themselves? They wanted to go back to Hawkins. They'd wanted it this whole time.
"But you know what's in Hawkins," Steve was growling. He spun around in his seat, scanning the other passengers. "We all know what's in Hawkins. Turn around, Byers."
"No!" the three boys yelled at once.
"It'll be fine," Dustin said calmly, trying to smooth over their excitement.
"This is insane," Steve muttered to himself, sinking back into his seat. "This is insane."
Jonathan pulled off the state route after a few miles and they began the winding trip south, curling through dirt roads and flat stretches of fields and pastures. The sharp odor of manure wafted in the car as they passed a paddock filled with spotted cows bathing in the midday sun. Every so often, Nany caught Jonathan's steely gaze in the mirror. She had a feeling he was nervous about returning to Hawkins with her, so the next time his eyes flicked to the back seat, she gave him a reassuring smile.
As they neared Hawkins, they all strained to hear the sirens out of their open windows. But the only sounds were the wind, cutting through the trees, and pavement chips clicking against the wheel wells. Mike was hastily stuffing batteries into his Walkie-Talkie next to Nancy. He flipped the channel to six and called, "Lucas, come in, Lucas. Over."
Dustin was shaking his head. "We're still too far away," he said. "Lucas' house is miles out."
Mike looked across the seat. "Who says he's still at his house?" he asked.
Jonathan slowed a little as the road changed from tar and chips to gravel and, finally, dirt. He wove his way expertly around the potholes that had been steadily growing for years until the road was full of deep craters. Overhead, a tent of tree branches had spread over the single-lane road, creating a natural tunnel. There were no houses or buildings and they hadn't seen another car on the road for miles. Then, as they peaked a hill, the tree branches receded and Hawkins materialized.
Steve was the first to speak. "Oh, shit," he whispered as Jonathan abruptly stopped the car.
Nancy stared through the windshield, unable to grasp what she was looking at until little pieces of reality chipped away at her disbelief: the construction sign for the Sattler Company; the tire ruts leading traffic away from the quarry cliff; the police tape, torn in half and trailing motionless across the road; a white van with "Hawkins Power and Light" stenciled in blue along its side, its front end crushed, pinning a brown sedan against a light post.
And everything—from the quarry pit to the car wreck—was blanketed in a layer of colorless shadow. For miles ahead, until the distance was swallowed in darkness, the shadow extended. It enveloped the entire city and scorched the sky. Black roots, like tendrils, crisscrossed every surface and, caught in a slow descent, flakes like ashes settled from above.
The edge of the darkness began mere feet in front of Jonathan's car, like a veil splitting their world from the nightmare that was consuming Hawkins. The barrier undulated faintly and rose from the ground to the sky and stretched indefinitely east and west, separating the two planes of existence. Nancy's fingers numbly unfastened her seatbelt. She was vaguely aware of Dustin, somewhere to her left, whispering breathlessly, "Oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my…"
Without looking away from the shadowy world in front of them, Nancy found the handle and opened her door, stepping outside in a wordless trance. The sun, still shining fiercely on their side of the veil, beat down as she stood with her hands clutching the door's frame. Except for the slow fall of ash, there was no movement in the shadows, just a cold desolation. It was horrifyingly familiar, a nightmarish memory coming back to life. As the other doors opened and everyone slowly climbed out of the car, Nancy said, almost inaudibly, "The Upside Down."
Dustin's litany had finally ceased, but in the silence, he recited, "The Vale of Shadows is a dimension that is a dark reflection, or echo, of our world. It is a place of decay and death, a plane out of phase, a place of monsters. It is right next to you and you do not even see it."
His words sent a chill through Nancy, but she still couldn't take her eyes off of the brim of shadow.
"I think we can all see it," Mike breathed.
Jonathan was the first to start forward. Before he reached the barrier, Steve yelled out, "What are you doing?" His eyes were wide and alarmed. "Are you crazy? We need to get out of here."
Will chimed in, "Jonathan." His brother turned. "It's not safe," Will pleaded.
"I'll be fine," Jonathan promised. "I won't even leave your sight." He pointed at Will. "Stay there."
"Jonathan, wait," Nancy called. She closed her door and made for the barrier.
Steve instinctively grabbed her arm as she passed him. "You're not going in there," he said solemnly.
Nancy shook her arm free, annoyed at Steve's overprotection. Always he insisted on being her knight in shining armor. "I've already been in there," she replied flatly. She approached the barrier and stood at Jonathan's side, staring into the vale. Their feet were inches from the ethereal membrane that separated their worlds. Nancy looked at Jonathan and nodded. He took her hand and together they stepped forward. For an instant, each of them had one foot in each world; then they passed through the border and stood together in the Upside Down.
The temperature dropped and the sun vanished. Instead, a pale violet glow emanated faintly from the earth itself, reflecting in the flakes that were suspended in the air around them. Nancy released Jonathan's hand and turned to look back the way they came. The barrier rippled hypnotically, showing a slightly warped version of Jonathan's car. Will was watching them with big, frightened eyes and Steve, still leaning against the passenger side door, looked indignant. The other two boys had moved closer to the barrier, standing in front of the Ford's bumper. Mike mouthed something to Nancy, but his words were muted.
Nancy motioned for him to stay and turned back around, taking a few steps deeper. The earth beneath her feet felt less solid somehow; it felt softer and more organic. She took care to step over the winding roots that glistened as she passed. Behind her, Jonathan was hunched over, examining the strip of police tape. His smallest movement echoed in the stagnant air. She made her way over to the sedan that was pinched between the light pole and van. The windshield and driver's side window were shattered, leaving crumbled bits of glass across the hood. Inside, Nancy's eyes drifted across the vinyl seat, pausing at the purse lying on its side, contents sprayed across the floor. Then she saw something that made her go cold. "Jonathan?" she cried out, not looking away from the black puddle on the dashboard, the smear on the steering wheel and lines dripping into the car's stereo. "Jonathan?" she cried again.
"Yeah?" he responded. She could hear him rushing over to her.
She turned quickly. "There's blood," she said.
"Blood?" came Mike's voice.
Nancy looked up to see that her brother and Dustin had crossed the barrier. "Get out of here!" she cried. Neither listened to her. Dustin's jaw was hanging open in awe and Mike was moving further into the vale, looking around, half terrified and half curious.
"It is blood," Jonathan confirmed. He was standing next to her, looking in the car with a concerned expression. They glanced at each other and Jonathan nodded. They didn't need to point out the obvious: the driver was missing. "We need to get out of here," he whispered urgently. He tipped his head toward the car. And that's when Nancy realized what it meant to be standing next to a puddle of blood. They were in danger.
"Come on," she said firmly to the younger boys. "We're leaving now."
Mike seemed to register the necessity in her voice, then turned suddenly, cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted into the shadowland, "Lucas!"
"Mike, shut up!" Nancy hissed.
"Lucas!" he cried again. Then Dustin joined him, his voice cracking as he shouted his friend's name into fathomless darkness.
To her right, Nancy thought she heard a rustling, like an animal moving across loose dirt. Her heart began hammering and panic swelled. To her left, Jonathan took a step forward. Catching his toe on one of the roots, he lost his balance and landed heavily with a pained grunt. Frantically, Nancy knelt and reached out to help him up. "Are you okay?" she asked. She tried to listen for the footsteps in the darkness, but the boys' cries for Lucas were drowning out every other noise.
Jonathan rolled to his side, clutching his hand. Maybe he'd sprained it, or broken it? "We have to go," Nancy urged him. When he pulled his hands apart, Nancy saw the laceration across the palm of his left hand. He'd landed on a piece of metal from the car wreckage. Now blood wept from the wound, dotting the ground and streaming down his arm.
Nancy's breath caught in her throat.
In between the boys' cries, a distant thumping, like a gallop, echoed chillingly. Mike dropped his hands from his mouth and turned to Nancy, his lip twitching. "What was that?" he asked.
"Run!" Jonathan screamed. His hand was clamped around Nancy's wrist and he was up and running, tearing over the roots and dragging her back through the barrier. "Go go go!" he cried as Mike and Dustin broke through the veil, kicking up dirt and stones as they flew to the Ford.
The doors weren't even closed before Jonathan was spinning the car back around and tearing up the dirt road, away from Hawkins. "What happened?" Steve was asking, frantically. He and Will looked equally terrified and lost. "There's blood," Steve said. "Byers, you're bleeding! What the fuck happened?"
No one answered him while they careened across the potholes and loose gravel. Jonathan, Nancy, Mike and Dustin gasped and panted as they drove, unable to say what happened and unwilling to believe it. Jonathan's left hand was crumpled into a fist, pressed on top of the steering wheel. Droplets of blood seeped out between his clenched fingers and dripped, every few seconds, onto the floor.
