Dustin spoke up. "This might be apropos of nothing, but I saw Eddie Munson in a dream last night. And I think he's alive in the Upside Down."
Dead silence. Dustin sighed, "I know, crazy right? Wishful thinking?"
"You told me he died," Steve observed.
"He did…but I didn't tell you after I left him there—his body, he was horribly covered in demo bats. I could only see his shoes. And when I got to the trailer and looked back he was gone."
Nancy appeared at the doorway being steadied by Jonathon. "Gone?" Asked Nancy.
"Just the bats, and they flew away, and I couldn't see very well."
"Why?"
"Because I was crying."
"Why the hell didn't you mention it until now?" Max complained.
"Our memory is fallible, as we all know. I wasn't sure if I was remembering things or if I saw what I saw."
Lucas joined in. "Are you telling me you think Eddie is alive in another dimension? How ridiculous is that?"
Will rubbed his neck, saying, "We've never had someone die *in the Upside Down* before. What if somehow they transport into another dimension?"
"I will look for him," El said.
"Thank you," Dustin said.
Jane walked off to her bedroom. Dustin handed her a photograph. She looked at a picture of Eddie. The group hovered around her. She closed her eyes. The Void was empty. She called out to him.
Presently a silvery rock archway appeared in the distance and as she reached it she saw the gossamer webs which covered it.
"An archway," she said.
Dustin paled and sat down.
In the Void, with its invisible light source from above and reflection of herself on the floor, she cleared away the cobwebs that faded into nothingness. She could see nothing but darkness between the arches, yet it seemed to have substance to it, so reached out with her hand. A sticky black film clung to her fingers which she examined closely. As she pulled her hand away the sticky membrane slipped off and created a reflection of a ripple as the doorway's surface reformed.
She examined the arch itself to find it made of stone blocks carved in patterns that reminded her of ancient England's simple fiendish animals of old. What primitive people believed monsters to look like, carved therein, but crudely added later as errs were common. One of them gave the impression of a Demogorgon. The stone itself seemed ancient, like bedrock, or stone as old as the Earth itself.
"I can't see through. If I walk inside, I don't know where I'll be," El said.
"Then don't," said Mike.
"Is there a sign of Eddie?"
El looked around the door sill, finding a thumbnail-sized object stuck to the film.
"A guitar pick," she said.
Dustin's jaw slackened. "Oh my God," he said. "Can you look inside at least?"
"No!" Mike ordered but fearing it was too late. El's body slumped to the floor, and Mike held her. He checked her pulse and breathing.
"She went in!" Mike yelled. "Damn you Dustin! Get away from her!"
"What happened?" Robin asked.
"Her soul or spirit, whatever, it's gone through. She's disconnected from her body," Mike said. "And it was Dustin's idea!"
"I'm sorry Mike. But she should be able to come back…"
"*How do you know that*?"
"I guess I don't," Dustin sheepishly replied. "El, please come back."
……..
Once she started to pass through it grasped her with black, sticky tendrils and forced her in.
She saw a cave—no more like a temple—with a far-off doorway through which the only light poured in. She looked behind her and saw a stone wall. She touched it.
It stuck like flypaper to her fingers again, wobbly, like a liquid. She pulled her hand away. Just looking at it, it changed by blending in with a stone wall until it became stone. She looked up at massive columns. The ancient stone floor looked to be covered in carvings and glyphs. She walked carefully to the doorway, where sand spilled in. Outside, floating massive rock clumps the size of mountains hovered over deserts. The sky was a golden color. It was the Hellscape.
She looked for tracks and saw none in the sand. But on a ridge nearby sat a young man in denim with long hair. As she started toward him she glanced behind her, seeing tall cliffs towering and the narrow opening of the doorway blended into the rock's structure.
She walked to him.
"Greetings," he said, "Who might you be?"
El looked at his rocker-style clothing and long dark curly hair. His jean jacket had buttons and patches, and he flaunted a HELLFIRE CLUB T-shirt like her friends wore. He smiled.
"Are you Eddie Munson?"
"The one and the only," he chuckled. "Who are you?"
"I'm Eleven, but my mama named me Jane. My close friends call me El."
"Like the number? Cool. Bitchin. I heard about you, it was all good."
"I came to find you. Dustin sent me."
"Henderson?" he asked. "Where is he? I miss that little booger. Well…where am I for fu—, I mean, Pete's sake?"
"You are in another dimension, I'll call it Hell."
"How about Hellscape. I like that better. Can you get me back?"
"Hellscape, okay."
El checked around her, behind her, and under her feet for danger.
"Dustin misses you. We will need to travel back the way you came in, through the Upside Down. Do you remember coming here?"
"Not really, the 'bats got me. Don't have a clue how I got here. Do you know something? My watch stopped," Eddie said
"There is a lot we don't know. Like how time works."
Eddie stood up. "This is a trip. Dustin and everyone…did they get that big-time assh*le bad dude?"
"Sort of," El said.
"Well, I'm game. Can you get me back?"
"Follow," she said. El turned and walked toward the cliffs behind her. Eddie came up alongside her. "We will check the way I came here first."
"It feels like only just got here. I assume you came after me just after I…died?"
"No."
"Oh, well, how much time has passed?"
"I was in Nevada when you died. It took a few days to get back here."
"So…" Eddie scratched his ear, "What happened? Did I fall through a crack in reality? What the hell?"
"The Upside Down has no people in it. Maybe they all went here."
The tall cliffs loomed overhead as she followed her tracks in the sand to the entryway. She stopped for a moment to look at Eddie. "I think you are the first person, besides Barbara to die in the Upside Down. I don't know what it means. Perhaps you fell through a small gate…"
The sand nearby began to move. El saw it and grabbed Eddie—pushing him toward the doorway.
"Get back," she said.
A serpent appeared with a giant shovel-shaped head. It lunged for El. She raised her hands and made a gripping motion, then pulled her hands apart. Simultaneously, the creature ripped in half. It writhed in its death throes as she backed away toward the opening.
"Holy sh*t sticks," he exclaimed. "If I hadn't seen it, wow!"
El walked back, saying "Let's go."
"You've seen those before?"
"Yes."
"That was awesome," he said and kicked a lump of remains with his shoe.
El reached the section of the wall covered in glyphs with an arch shape. She touched it. Nothing happened. She pushed on it, but again it didn't yield. She started touching all over the area.
"So…this is bad, right?" He asked.
"Yes, it's gone," she answered.
El stopped and looked all around.
"This is where I came through."
"Damn," he said. He looked at the archway. "It's like a rainbow in the dark."
"We have to go through the Upside Down again to get back. That's what I did last time I was here."
"The U.D? Cool, let's go. I think you got the monster thing under control."
They walked for a while. The light from above always seemed constant, the clouds weirdly racing, and the land barren. They stopped after what seemed like an hour.
A van-sized boulder nearby had cracks and shapes making it amenable to scaling up. They climbed atop. El looked around for something familiar. The land seemed somehow haunted and malevolent, it had the look of being hostile to everything. But then, there was a pool of water that she recognized in the distance.
"Over there," she said.
"The pool?" Eddie asked.
"The tree stump by the pool, it goes to the Upside Down, by Mike's house," she said. Then as she estimated it to be around a half-mile away, she saw movement. A young female walked toward the pool. It looked a lot like *her.*
"I think that is me," she said. "Something is wrong with time here."
Eddie tilted his head and squinted. "If you caught her, could you talk to yourself?"
El gave Eddie a blank look. "How do you do that?"
"What?" He said.
"Keep it all straight in your head? I'm confused and I've been here before."
"Drugs," he said. "Too many drugs."
"Oh," El said and hopped down off the rock. From this angle, she couldn't see her previous self anymore but kept trudging in that direction. Soon they came upon a pool, and rounding the back side, a huge tree trunk with large roots. A dark area between two roots El pointed to, and Eddie examined it.
"A gate. This is a small gate," he said. "All right, let's get the hell out of here. This reminds me of The Cult of Vecna module."
A blast of thunder caught their attention. A giant storm had swept into the desert and moved fast, sending bolts of lightning to the ground, across the sky, and to the floating mountains.
"Best book out of here," Eddie said.
They climbed between the roots in a dark gooey tunnel, emerging like new-born babies pushed out into a dark world of ash and cold. El led him to Mike's house.
…
Mike held El like a precious vase in his arms as he stroked her hair. "Last time…she reentered her body through the Upside Down in the same location as the Rightside Up."
"Yeah, we could figure out where she is going," Dustin said. "And if she found Eddie…"
"—Oh please," said Lucas.
"She told me she went to my house first like it was close to the little gate," Mike said.
Max stepped forward, "So if you take her body there…"
"Exactly," said Mike.
"That's good, and then Eddie could come through the Trailer Gate."
"Nice," said Jonathon. He helped Nancy stay upright, as she had quit using her crutches. "We split into two teams."
…
El breathed out and a fog formed from her breath while they walked toward the house. Eddie stayed quiet until they entered the basement door.
"Now I will see if they are here," said El. She reached up to the ugly brown light fixture on the ceiling over the D table, as Eddie looked through the modules in a box. "Mike has *The Descent* in here," he commented.
Eddie smiled. "Heya, Eleven, I'd like to write a song about you and Mike for my band; Corroded Coffin. Is that cool?"
"Yes," she said and waved her hand around the light fixture.
Eddie bounced from foot to foot, clutching his chest over his heart. "You rock! So cool. So cool."
Sparkling lights shimmered around El's fingertips. She could start to hear voices. "Check out the light!" Dustin's voice echoed.
"Dustin? Is that you?" Eddie yelled.
"Eddie? Eddie!" Dustin responded.
—-
"I see the sparkles," Steve said as he and Mike put El on the floor next to her blanket fort.
"Dustin? Is that you?" A faint voice echoed eerily.
Dustin's eyes bulged. "Eddie? Eddie!" Dustin responded. "You are alive? Holy Sh*t!"
Dustin leapt with joy.
"I'll meet you at the Trailer!" He giggled. His eyes glistened.
—
Eddie listened.
Dustin said. "You are alive? Holy Sh*t! I'll meet you at the Trailer!"
"Alright, Henderson! It's good to hear your voice! I'll head that way, okay?" Eddie said.
Mike's voice came suddenly.
"El? El?" He shouted. "I'm putting you in front of the fort! Okay?"
El shouted, "Yes, Mike, I hear you! I need a minute."
—-
Dustin heard, "Alright Henderson! It's good to hear your voice! I'll head that way, okay?"
He stood looking up at the lamp, his eyes wet and his arms trembling. "I'm going to get Eddie," he said.
"Hop in my car," Steve said. "Let's go."
Dustin and Steve ran up the stairs in a hurry. But Mike, Will, Max, and Lucas stayed with Eleven's unconscious body.
—-
Eleven put her hands on Eddie's shoulders, saying, "We split up now. I'll see you on the other side."
"I think I have a new favorite number," he said. "See ya." He ran out the basement door.
She lay herself down on the floor and then closed her eyes.
—-
Eleven's body began to glow a golden yellow and dissolve. Then it reformed and Eleven sat up. Mike grabbed her in a big hug. "Oh my God El, you scared the crap out of me," he said.
—————-tk1