A/N: Content Warnings: Fear, Language, Disturbing Content, Death.

The danger of being sleep deprived was that he had a propensity to fall into slumber at the most inopportune times, certain such instances vastly more risky than others.

Like this one.

It would seem that he had fallen asleep in the bathtub. That wasn't his intention, and he had meant to get out before the water turned cold. But he had been so tired. He could only hope that he hadn't drowned as a result of his negligence. Though, he supposed if he had drowned he wouldn't still be standing in the void.

The thing about the In-Between when he was asleep as opposed to awake was the… uncertainty of it all. He had no control over anything when he was unconscious, and no amount of struggling would change that. This rendered the entire idea of trying to wake up pointless. Awaking would be something that he had to let happen naturally. If he didn't succumb to the water before then.

Though to be honest, he didn't think that ceasing to exist would be the worst outcome imaginable. There were worse fates.

He began to explore the shapeless void and wondered if he would see Joyce again. If he had any concept of shame he would be embarrassed that he was wearing no clothes, but such trivial things did not matter in his mind. For a moment he heard nothing but the sound of his feet wading through the water. But that sound that didn't stay isolated for long.

"Come on, come on!" The voice was faint, muttering to itself before increasing to a yell. "Nancy!"

The yell revealed the identity of the voice, and he looked around expecting to see Jonathan Byers. Instead he found a tree, but something was very wrong with the tree. The bark and the branches seemed almost dead, rotting, and there were vines of similar fashion twisted around it. At the base of the tree was a small, red, flesh-like opening. Images of Steve Harrington's pool and the wall in Hawkins Laboratory flashed through his mind.

"Where are you?"

He knelt down to examine the oddity, realizing that Jonathan's voice was coming from inside. Or rather, the other side. Which would mean that he was…

"Jonathan!" A scared voice echoed through the dark, but the new voice sounded far closer than Jonathan had. "Jonathan!"

He turned to see Nancy Wheeler running wildly through a litany of similarly warped trees, as if looking for something. He glanced down at the watery floor beneath him and confirmed his suspicions. In the reflection of the water, the trees appeared to be normal and healthy. That meant Nancy was currently trapped on The Other Side, which is what he had decided to call the dark and twisted place for the time being. And that must be the perspective from which he was experiencing the In-Between at the moment, if the surroundings were any indication.

"Jonathan! Jonathan, I'm right here!" Nancy spun wildly before running in a different direction. He was quite sure that she wouldn't find sanctuary that way.

"Nancy! Nancy! Come on!" The opening yelled back, Jonathan's voice betraying a heightened amount of frustration.

"Jonathan, where are you? Jonathan!" He watched Nancy pause, trying to catch her breath. She stared around at the base of the trees and he realized that she must be looking for the hollow opening. She resorted to more wild spinning. "Jonathan, I'm right...I'm right here!"

"I'm right here!" Jonathan sounded closer this time.

"Jonathan!"

The situation seemed comical in a way, as if they were running circles around each other. And they were, as it turned out, because without warning the whisper of Jonathan appeared in the reflection below them. The boy was sprinting through the trees, quite a distance from where Nancy was currently stationed.

Jonathan stopped running, waving his flashlight around. "I'm right here! Nancy! Just follow my voice!"

He could almost hear the pounding of Nancy's heart, she was so afraid. Not that he needed to hear it, he could sense her fear. He watched her run in the direction where she thought the voice was echoing from, which happened to be the opposite direction from where it actually was.

"Jonathan!".

The reflection of Jonathan was very close to the mirrored hollow when he replied. "Follow my voice, Nancy, I'm right here!" Nancy slowed down, trying to discern where to go, but then she turned to her left and her face twisted in terror.

He knew it had been there with her when he had arrived. He had felt the all too familiar chill shoot up his spine.

He followed her line of sight and took in the grotesque silhouette of the monster. With a growl, it turned toward the girl and she screamed as she fled in the opposite direction.

"Nancy!" Jonathan had finally found the hollow, the boy flashing his light into its mouth.

He turned back and witnessed Nancy hide behind a tree. She was on the verge of sobs, the panic beginning to override her senses. Would she die here? Would that beast kill her, just as it had Barbara Holland? Nancy seemed to realize that she needed to quiet her breathing, lest she be found. But he could still see her whole body shaking like a leaf in the wind. He knew, and she knew, that if the monster found her there would be no escape.

It was the predator and she was the prey.

The large creature stalked slowly through the dead woods just behind him before passing where Nancy was currently hiding.

"Nancy?" Jonathan called quietly through the hollow, as if he questioned the sanity of calling into the hollow in the first place. "Nancy."

He glanced down to see that the boy was now kneeling in front of the strange opening of the tree, staring at it with a fascinated and disgusted expression. When he returned his eyes to Nancy, he recognized that she had at last located the position of Jonathan's voice.

"Nancy!" Jonathan yelled yet again. "Follow my voice!"

Nancy peaked out from behind the tree to his left. Would the beast get her before she even made it to the opening? How fast could it move anyway? Was there some way for her to distract it? He could see that she was torn over what to do.

Stay or go?

He watched her gather her courage for a few silent seconds before she suddenly broke into a sprint for the hollow of the tree. As she neared the opening she dove, roughly shoving her arm through the barrier the instant her knees landed on the ground. In the reflection of the water, the length of her arm from the elbow to her hand appeared to rip through the mirror image of the barrier. The whisper of Jonathan leapt backward, falling onto his backside.

"Jonathan!" Nancy cried.

"Nancy!" Jonathan cried back. He tilted his head and blinked as the boy gripped Nancy's arm and, with a great heave, pulled the remainder of her body through the opening. She disappeared into the hollow, and both Nancy and the reflection of the forest, Jonathan included, vanished into smoke.

Well, that was an unexpected turn of events. They had both made it out alive. Moreover, it seemed those strange, red, flesh-like barriers did, in fact, serve as doorways between the two mirrored worlds. Was the lab behind this? His musings were cut short when he registered a deep, harsh growl. He turned slowly, coming face to face with a nightmare he hadn't known he had.

It wasn't possible...

About five trees away the monster stood, drool spilling from the folds of its head. But what was truly alarming was that the beast was facing him, almost as if it knew he was there. Almost as if the monster could sense him watching it from the In-Between.

For the first time in as long as he could remember, he was tasted his own fear. Fear from the knowledge that he was defenseless while asleep, unable to do anything to stop his imminent doom. The bloodthirsty beast suddenly sprinted forward, running on all fours directly at him and emitting a horrible roar.

He awoke with a choked gasp, water splashing all around him and his heart pounding rapidly. He thanked the water that he began to expel from his lungs for inadvertently saving his life.

Whatever that creature was, wherever it was from, of one thing he was certain. It had tried to kill him. And he didn't want to be alone when the monster tried again.

Part Six: The Monster

Steve rested one hand on the wheel as he drove through the dark streets of Hawkins. Next to him Tommy fidgeted with the glove box while Carol smacked her gum in the backseat. As the street lamps whirled by out the window, he mulled over his plan.

Was it really the best idea for him to show up uninvited? Yeah, Nancy had clearly lied to him about being busy earlier that day, but maybe that just meant she wasn't interested in hanging out. No, something else was going on. And he didn't care if she was going to be pissed when he knocked on her window, he was going to figure it out.

His face was expressionless as he stared out the windshield of the car. The conversation he had shared with that Pierrot guy about the 'girl who would be Queen' was what made him decide to follow through with checking on Nancy again. The words had been stuck in his head for hours.

"I just don't understand why we're coming out here," Carol groaned behind him. "She obviously doesn't want to talk to you."

To tell the truth, he also didn't know why they were going out there. They didn't even like Nancy! And it wasn't like he had asked them to tag along, Tommy and Carol had invited themselves.

"That's...that's not it," Steve replied, voice low. He didn't expect them to understand.

"Oh, really? Because no girl would ever blow off King Steve." Carol's use of the nickname made Tommy snicker.

Okay, yeah, Steve could admit that was also true, but he had a bad feeling about his interaction with Nancy in the garage. "She was acting weird. I mean, something was wrong."

When she had lied to him, she seemed almost anxious. But not about the lie, like she was worried about something else. And he needed to know what that something else was like he needed a better grade in English.

"So... what?" Carol scoffed, lip curled. "Like, you're worried about her?"

"What?" Steve meant for it to sound biting, like he couldn't believe she would think that of him, but it came out soft , sounding like he couldn't believe she had figured it out. He looked back at her quickly as he slowly approached Nancy's house before turning back to the windshield. Even at five miles an hour, he felt uncomfortable not paying attention to the road.

He may be many things, but he wasn't a risk taker.

"Aw, you are," Carol replied with a sickly sweet voice. She leaned in from the back and rubbed circles over his chest. "Aw, Steve has a heart!"

"Would you just stop," Steve muttered.

Tommy decided that was his cue to join in on the teasing. "Oh, Stevie's in love!"

"Would you just shut up?" He was beginning to get pissed off. He was tired of people judging him, especially people who were supposed to be his friends. Who cares if he liked a girl? It was his life!

Carol ignored the warning, continuing to joke. "Who knew?"

"Shut up!" Steve exploded. The sudden shift in volume made Carol flinch, sending a small jab of guilt through his chest. Tommy chuckled and looked at him with a mock-scandalized expression, clearly entertained by the outburst.

"Damn." Carol's eyes flickered between him and Tommy. "Sorry."

Steve tried to control his breathing as he pulled to a stop outside of the Wheeler residence. A few houses down he could recognize the house he had been standing in the yard of earlier that day. The same house he had found Pierrot painting in front of, where a light currently shined from one of the small windows facing the street. Apparently his strange classmate really did live there after all.

"So this is it, huh?" Tommy asked, drawing Steve's attention back to Nancy's house. "Princess' castle." He hadn't sounded very impressed, and he probably wasn't. Both he and Steve had more extravagant homes than Nancy.

Steve didn't look at either of his friends as he opened the car door and stepped out into the street. "I'll just be a minute," he announced, shutting the door behind him.

He didn't know why he was so anxious...like he was doing something bad. He adjusted his jacket and jogged across the Wheeler's lawn to the house. Hopping up onto a utility box, he stealthily pulled himself onto the low roof of the garage. Maybe the nerves were for nothing. Maybe Nancy would be happy to see him. The smile he put on his face at that thought slipped when he leaned forward and peered into Nancy's window, ready to tap it so she could let him in.

Nancy wasn't alone.

She was sitting on the edge of her bed, facing away from the window where Steve currently stood. And Jonathan Byers was sitting beside her. His jaw clenched as he watched Byers extend an arm around Nancy's shoulders and pull her into an embrace.

A wave of fury washed over him. He couldn't believe it. He was the most popular boy in town. He had the looks, the status, the charisma, the hair! And some lowly nerd who nobody cared about cheated on him with Byers?! He had tried to be nice for Nancy. He had defended Nancy to his friends. He had gotten in trouble with his parents for Nancy. He had changed for Nancy!

A voice echoed in Steve's head. "Are you still you?"

Fine… if there had been no point, if he had tried to become a better person just to be screwed over in the end, then that stopped here. His friends had been right, Nancy was beneath him and it was high time she learned. He was going to show Nancy Wheeler exactly how he had earned the title of King

Articles about Hawkins Lab, Dr. Martin Brenner, and Terry Ives lay across Joyce's coffee table as she and Hopper sat in her kitchen and discussed everything the man had discovered.

"Look, we gotta go through this again," Joyce said.

Hopper sighed heavily. "I told you everything that I saw.

"Oh, gosh," Joyce replied sarcastically. "Tell me again."

"Upstairs or downstairs?"

"Upstairs." She brought her cigarette back to her lips and watched Hopper from across the kitchen table.

"There was a laboratory. It was where they must do experiments or something, and then there was…" Hopper inhaled, visualizing what he had seen. "There was this kid's room."

Joyce frowned. "How do you know it was a kid's room?"

"More like a prison," Hopper corrected himself, resting his forehead against his right hand. A lit cigarette burned between his pointer and middle fingers.

"So why would you think it was a kid's room, then?"

The man irritably began to repeat what he had said earlier. "Because, I told you, the size of the bed, there was some drawings, there was a stuffed animal-"

"You d-didn't say there were drawings," Joyce interrupted. Her eyes were big and round, eyebrows raised in alarm at the development.

"Yeah, there were these drawings of a…a child with an adult, and again with another kid. They both said '11' on them." Hopper replied.

"Were they good?"

"They were a kid's drawings, Joyce," he clarified with exasperation, "They were stick figures."

Smiling excitedly, Joyce hurried over to a counter cluttered with many items and pulled out a sheet of paper. Turning back to the table, she slammed it onto the wooden surface in between of them. Hopper stared down at a detailed crayon drawing and found no stick figures in sight.

"Wasn't Will," she declared confidently before sitting down, puffing again on her cigarette, and gesturing at the drawing.

Hopper stared blankly at the woman, Joyce shrugging In response, and he looked toward the coffee table in her living room. Snuffing out his own cigarette in an ashtray, he rose from his chair.

"Earl…" Hopper began to recount his meeting with said man the other day. "The night that Benny died, Earl said he saw some kid with a shaved head with Benny." He moved into the living room and leaned over the small coffee table, peering at the scattered articles. He sat on the couch as Joyce joined him in his search. "Now, I pressed him, he said it might be Will, but maybe…"

He paused and rummaged through the reports, Joyce trying to catch up. "Wait...Maybe, it wasn't?"

Hopper pulled out the article he had been searching for. "Look...this woman, Terry Ives, she claims to have lost her daughter, Jane. She sued Brenner, she sued the government...Now, the claims came to nothing, but what if…" He stared into space as all of the evidence he had compiled since Will Byers had disappeared came together.

"I mean, what if this whole time I've been...I've been looking for Will...I've been chasing after some other kid?" Hopper asked both himself and Joyce.

In a million years, Jonathan would have never thought that he would find himself in Nancy's room. But here he was, rolling a pink tartan sleeping bag with blue flowers onto the floor at the foot of her bed.

His mind still hadn't really processed what they had just experienced. When he and Nancy had ventured into the woods, they had always intended to find the monster. They had intended to kill it. Instead, and he didn't even know how to begin explaining the science behind it, Nancy had crawled through a tree into what she claimed was another world.

Luckily he had heard her screams and had been able to rescue her before she was eaten by the monster.

He wasn't sure why she had crawled through the hole in the first place, but that would have to be a conversation for a later day. The experience had clearly shaken her, and Nancy had left to go decompress and wash the filth off of her in the shower while he prepared to spend the night. Not that he had asked about that last part.

Jonathan's head whipped up when Nancy came back into the room, now clean and in her pajamas. He froze with his hands on the sleeping bag as she softly shut the door and turned to gaze at him. "Better?" He asked, nerves spiking. Her body language indicated to him that she wasn't better.

Nancy clutched her torso and moved one hand to grip the back of her neck. She nodded slowly, face visibly troubled. "Yeah." He felt his nerves spike higher when she moved her eyes down to the floral pallet he had just made on the floor.

"Is this okay? Uh, I found it in the closet," Jonathan said awkwardly. Her eyes flickered between him and the pallet again and he added, " I can go home. I-I just figured…"

To his surprise, Nancy did not insist that he leave. "Yeah, no, I...I...I don't wanna be alone," she replied, looked at the floor again and then at him. "Do you?"

"No. uh...no.' Jonathan shook his head and looked uncomfortably at the sleeping bag at his feet. Honestly, he really didn't. He kind of felt like they needed to be together after everything that had transpired.

Nancy walked over to her bed and adjusted her pillows before pulling the blankets back and climbing underneath them. Following her cue, he slid into the sleeping bag he had prepared. Cynical thoughts swam around in his head.

What if the monster came back for them?

Jonathan grabbed Lonnie's gun and pulled it under the cover onto his chest, determined not to let it out of his sight ever again. He stared up at Nancy's ceiling, his head resting on one of her crocheted pillows. He doubted that he would get any sleep. Even though he hadn't seen the monster himself, he had heard its roars and Nancy's screams from beyond the rift. He had seen the dread on her face when he pulled her through the fleshy barrier.

There was this sinking feeling in his chest that the experience would haunt his nightmares for the rest of his life. And, though he was loath to admit it, he wanted nothing more than to just hug his mom.

"Can you just come up here?" Nancy suddenly asked.

"Yeah," Jonathan whispered, extremely grateful for the offer. Feeling vulnerable, scared, and uncertain, he silently slid out from the sleeping bag and climbed into the other side of her bed. He stored the gun under the pillows and laid atop the covers, attempting to give her as much space as possible. "Do you want the lights off, or-?"

"On," Nancy replied. Her answer was the one he had been hoping for.

"Yeah." He wanted to say something, anything, to comfort her. To make her feel better, safer. "You know, it..." Jonathan turned his head to gaze at the side of her face. "It can't get us in here."

He wasn't really certain about that, but he was clutching at what little information they had to keep himself sane. According to the map, it didn't seem like the monster really travelled outside of the small radius of the forest near his home.

"We don't know that," Nancy pointed out with a trembling voice.

Jonathan turned to rest on his side, facing her completely, and they laid there silently for a few moments. He had always dreamed of this moment, being in bed with her. But the reality was a dark cry from his fantasy. He gazed at nothing as they both waited for sleep to overtake them, still too afraid to close their eyes.

Mike sat alone in his family's basement, fiddling with his Rubix cube. He glanced over at the door leading outside, taking in the morning sunlight, and then at the hut he had made for Eleven. It sat near the door, untouched and abandoned.

He had waited for Eleven to come back all night, but she hadn't returned. He didn't know why he was so bothered, the fight was all her fault anyway. Tossing the cube onto the couch, he jumped up and stomped over to the tent. Anger and frustration coursed through Mike's body as he threw one of the chairs aside, yanked the blanket to the floor, and kicked the pillows and cushions over and over again.

It had all been her fault. Lucas' fault.

Will was gone, and they had no hope of getting him back.

Tears stung his eyes as he thought about Eleven messing up their compasses. About Lucas calling her a monster. About Dustin yelling over them, and Eleven's scream as she flung Lucas through the air.

It was all too much for Mike to deal with.

"Uh, yes, it's Ives. Terry Ives. That's with a "Y". Yeah, I got a pen. Hang on."

Hopper stood at a payphone on the side of the road leading out of Hawkins, his left hand holding the receiver against his right ear. The operator began to speak and he gripped the phone with his right shoulder, using his left hand to pull a pen from his jacket. Placing a lit cigarette into his mouth, he began scribbling notes on his palm.

"Mmm-hmm. Mmm-hmm," Hopper mumbled. After writing down the information he grabbed the phone with his left hand once more. "Great, thanks. I really appreciate this, Frank. Say hi to the boys for me, too, would you?"

Finishing the call, Hopper hung up the phone and exited the booth. He walked back over to Joyce's car, tossing his cigarette to the ground and climbing back into the driver's seat.

"Did you get it?" Joyce asked, gripping her leather jacket tight.

Hopper nodded. "I got it."

"Okay," she breathed in relief. Hopper shifted the gear into drive and pulled out onto the road, heading off to the address he had just acquired.

A/N: I'm not sure about the logistics of hinting at coming things or when one should do that, but the last line of Steve's section in this chapter is a major clue about the next work in this series.

I kept this chapter a bit shorter to have a better flow to the next chapter.

Until our stars next align!