Chapter 13
They stepped through the doorway of the Wheeler house. Robin looked around the slimy, vine covered room.
"Might be time to get a maid, Wheeler,"
"Come on. I don't want to stay here longer than we have to," Nancy hopped up the stairs with Robin at her heels. Kate pulled herself out of Eddie's arm's and onto a kitchen chair. The mind-numbing pain in her leg has subsided to a dull, throbbing ache.
"You ok down here on your own?" Eddie asked her carefully.
"I'll be fine. Go help,"
"Ok," Eddie nodded cautiously and followed the girls upstairs. Kate watched Steve move to follow Eddie, but he stopped in his tracks.
"Steve?" Kate frowned, tilting her head to look at him. "You just OD over there?"
"Shut up," Steve held up a finger, shushing her.
"Don't tell me to shut up asshole,"
"No listen," Steve tilted his head and Kate copied. A familiar, faint sound echoed around them.
"Dusty?" Kate whispered. Steve nodded excitedly. "Dustin? Hello?"
Steve joined in. "Dustin! Dustin! Dustin! Can you hear me?"
"Dustin! It's us! Answer!" Kate shouted, balancing against the table while Steve frantically paced the kitchen, flashlight pointed at the ceiling.
"Dustin! Dus- Hello? Hello?" Just then Nancy, Robin and Eddie rushed down the stairs. They stood there staring at them.
Robin whispered to Nancy, "Maybe they really do have rabies…"
"Guys! What are you doing?"
Kate ignored her, screaming for Dustin. "Dustin! Where are you? Dusty!" Steve walked over to the rest of them, breathlessly explaining the situation.
"He's here. Little Henderson. That little shit, he's here. He's like- he's in the walls or something. Just listen," Nancy's eyes widened when they heard him and helped call for him.
"Dustin,"
"Dustin!"
His name chorused through the house. Steve put his hands on his hips and looked up. "All right, either this kid can't hear us or he's being a total douchebag,"
"Will found a way," Nancy said, in thought.
"What?" Robin looked at Nancy like she had rabies too.
"Will," Nancy repeated. That's when Kate finally understood what she meant. She snapped her fingers, startling Eddie who stood next to her.
"Christmas lights,"
Eddie looked between the two of them, puzzled, and then at Robin and Steve. "EIther of you know what the hell they're talking about?"
"No," Robin said.
"Yes," Steve said, jumping to the lamp and twisting the knob. Kate giggled at the look that Eddie and Robin were giving them.
"The switch. Try the switch," Steve gestured to the light switch on the wall.
Nancy flipped the switch back and forth, glancing between the switch and the chandelier above the dining room table. "It's not working,"
"Guys? Are you seeing this?" Kate whispered, staring at the light. It had begun glowing with a faint golden light. She reached up, letting her fingers move the particles around. They were like the particles outside, but unlike the darkness of outside, this was full of warmth. Her four friends followed, their hands following hers into the golden light.
"It tickles," Eddie grinned.
"It kinda feels good," Robin whispered and Kate and Eddie giggled softly, like small children. Nancy interrupted them.
"Does anyone know Morse code?" A chorus of negative answers came from them. Eddie turned and frowned.
"Wait, does SOS count? Is that- is that good?" He looked around at the four glares staring him down.
"Oh my god," Kate turned away, covering her face with her hands.
"What?" Eddie shrugged. "What?"
"Just do it man," Steve told him, exasperation clear in his tone.
A couple minutes of Eddie flicking his hand into the light and Dustin's voice called out.
"Hello? Can you guys hear me? One blink for yes, two for no,"
Eddie smiled and flicked his hand once into the light. A chuckle was heard from someone on the other side.
"Ok," Dustin replied. They heard snippets from a conversation. From what Kate could hear, Lucas and Erica were with Dustin. "Ok, meet us in Nancy's room in 5,"
Kate strained to push herself off the chair, using the heels of her hands. When she made it to her feet, or foot, she would've fallen if Steve wouldn't've caught her.
Eddie wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her limp hand until her arm wrapped around his shoulders. "Whoa. You need to sit back down,"
"No, I'm fine,"
Steve grimaced, holding her up on the other side. "He's right, you've lost too much blood and we're gonna need to rebandage this. We'll be your human crutches for now,"
"Wait a minute," Nancy said, her eyes widening.
"What?"
"Gimme a second," Nancy said as she rushed down the stairs to the basement.
Robin ran after her. As she left, Kate heard Robin mumble, "why does she always do this,"
And Kate laughed. A pure laugh of humor. It had been a while since she laughed like that. Or maybe it just felt like it. It felt like they had been down in this shithole forever. She hoped whatever scheme or plan her brother was cooking up was good. Steve and herself were both in desperate need of medical professionals and they still needed to figure out how to get past the bats, and hopefully get out of the Upside Down without Vecna ever knowing.
Nancy stepped back up the stairs with Robin behind her. "Sorry,"
"What?" Kate asked her, frowning.
"Nothing. What Steve said- it gave me an idea and I thought of the crutches I had when I broke my leg junior year. But with the time difference, they're not there,"
Steve and Kate looked at each other and said in unison, "Time difference?
After a little persuading, and a lot of arguing, Kate had convinced the others to let her come upstairs and talk to Dustin. She wrote in the golden light with her index finger. "Hi" She breathed after writing the word. Her chest was tight and her shoulders tense as she wrote carefully, praying that this would work and they could finally go home. She begged to be in the safe, familiar environment of laying on her living room couch with Tews and watch rom-coms Robin had given her with popcorn that had too much butter on it. She wanted Dustin to come in and complain that he wanted to watch Star Wars. Her mom to come wake her up late the next day when Eddie would come to see her. She pleaded for normalcy. But maybe if they could just get out of here and kill Vecna, it would be done. Maybe if this could all end, the nightmares could end with it. Maybe the awful panic attacks that followed.
"Hi!" rang out through the room, echoing from around them. Kate smiled at her brother's cheerful reply. "That worked!"
"Yes!" Steve and Nancy smiled, high fiving each other. Kate was no longer just smiling at her brother. Her and Robin shared a knowing look, grinning at the two goofballs behind them that clearly loved each other.
"Ok," Kate exhaled slowly. She lifted her finger and wrote a new word. "Stuck,"
"Yes. We are," Eddie said behind her, nodding.
They heard Dustin call again. "Uh, you can't get back through Watergate?"
Steve frowned and said what they were all thinking. "What the hell's Watergate?"
"Cause it's in water and it's a gate," Robin replied.
"Oh,"
"That's cute," Eddie shrugged.
Nancy shook her head. "Um, no," Kate tried a better way of explaining it. "Guarded," she wrote. Dustin echoed from the other side. "Guarded"?
"Perfect," Nancy said.
"Yes,"
"We think we have a theory that can help with that," Dustin yelled back.
"Genius child," Robin whispered into Kate's ear.
Dustin continued his theory. "We think Watergate isn't the only gate. That there's a gate at every murder site,"
"Does anybody understand what he's talking about?" Nancy said, looking around at them.
- "No idea," Eddie said.
Kate thought for a moment. "I think I might," Everyone turned to her. "We have to get to Eddie's trailer. If Dustin thinks there's a gate at every murder site, than we should be able to get through the one at Eddie's,"
Without waiting, Kate wrote "Eddie's"
"We'll be there!" Dustin yelled back.
"So how far is your trailer?" Nancy asked Eddie.
"Seven miles," He said.
"Shit. We'll never be able to make it there soon enough, even without Kate's leg," Nancy shook her head. But Robin interrupted.
"Nancy? Uh, I know your house here is, like, weirdly, creepily frozen in time and shit, but haven't you always had bikes?"
Nancy smiled, but it didn't last long. "What about Kate?"
Kate frowned. "From all the times I was here as a kid, I remember one thing that we used to be obsessed with…"
Her and Nancy shared a smile and the others looked between them uncertainly.
10 minutes later, Kate was sitting in a Radio Flyer wagon that was tied to the back of Eddie's bike.
30 minutes after that, they dropped the bikes outside Eddie's vine covered trailer and he helped her out of the wagon.
"Almost there," She breathed.
Eddie frowned at her. "What'd you say princess,"
"We're almost back," She smiled, wrapping her arm around his shoulder for support. Robin backed up to help him and together they lifted a lightheaded Kate into the trailer.
"That's gotta be a Guinness World Record. Most miles traveled interdimensionally," Robin said.
Steve coughed, "Just inhaled a bunch of that crap. It's stuck in my throat," Steve and Nancy followed them into the trailer. A writhing, gooey red portal stretched across the ceiling.
"Goddamn," Steve said, clicking his flashlight on.
Eddie's eyes widened and he looked at the rest of them. "This is where Chrissy died. Like, right where she died,"
Kate interrupted. "Guys- I think there's something in there," Something was poking at the gate. "What the hell is that?"
All of a sudden, the red goo in the middle of the gate burst open. Kate stepped in front of everyone else and cautiously half-limped half hopped until she was under the gate. She looked up in shock and her brother stood above her with Lucas, Max, and Erica, the gate like a mirror image.
"No fucking way," Kate could've cried with relief.
Dustin waved. "Hi there!"
"Hi," She whispered. Now she actually was crying.
Eddie wrapped his arms around her from behind. "Hi," He said to the kids.
Robin then followed, standing under the gate with them. "Holy shit, this is trippy,"
Dustin giggled before yelling. "Bada-bada-boom!"
A couple minutes later and Dustin and Erica had made a makeshift rope out of sheets. Lucas and Max pulled a mattress out and dropped it below the gate. Dustin stepped on it and under (or over) the gate. He picked up the rope and the others stood around him.
"Not quite sure how these physics work. But, uh here goes nothing," He threw it up in the gate, where it then came down to Kate, Eddie, Robin, Steve, and Nancy.
"There we go. And if my theory is correct-" Dustin let go of the rope and it hung down on both sides. "Abracadabra,"
"Holy shit," Kate said, laughing.
Dustin shouted (although he didn't need to) "All right, pull on it! See if it holds!" Robin grabbed onto the rope and pulled her feet off the ground. It held.
"This is the craziest shit I've ever seen in my life. And I've seen some crazy shit," Erica said, high-fiving Dustin. Kate almost laughed at the young girl's observation. Robin stepped up and held onto the rope.
"Guess I'm the guinea pig,"
Dustin pushed everyone off the mattress before stepping off himself. "Let's clear the landing pad,"
When Robin got to the gate, all of a sudden, gravity changed and she was upside down. She let go of the rope and landed flat on her back on the mattress. "Oh my God! That was fun," Nancy went next, repeating Robin's actions. Soon, Kate, Eddie, and Steve were the last ones.
"How are we going to get you up there princess?" Eddie asked her.
Steve thought. "Maybe we can lift you and everyone else can catch you," he said to Kate.
Kate snapped her fingers. "That works," They told the plan to everyone else, who hovered under the gate, arms outstretched.
"'Kay! We're ready!" Robin yelled.
"Alright," Eddie put his hands on her waist and lifted her as high as he could, Steve trying his best to lift her by her feet without further injury to either of them. Kate grasped the edge of the gate and pulled herself through, landing with a thump in the arms of her friends. They set her on her foot and she threw herself into Dustin and burst into tears on his patted her back nervously. When she let go, Dustin inspected the damage done to her leg.
"Shit,"
Eddie and Steve came through the gate and Eddie made Kate lay down on the couch. "Stay here, I'm gonna grab something to help with that,"
The agony in her leg was not easing, but for now she was happy to be somewhere so familiar.
Finally! I already have 14 mapped out, so hopefully it won't take another month for the next chapter