Chapter Eighty-Eight: Home Sweet Home

We decided to leave the car at Skull Rock and cut through the woods to get back to Lover's Lake in order to draw as little attention to ourselves as possible. 

It was dark by the time we got there, and sure enough, the Compass started going crazy the closer we got to it.

"Something's happening." Dustin commented, running ahead excitedly.

"Dustin? Can you slow down? Dustin!" Eddie called.

"I think we getting close!" He called over his shoulder. Eddie ran up behind him, grabbing his shoulder.

"Watch your step, big guy."

If Eddie hadn't stopped him, Dustin would've walked right into Lover's Lake. I nodded.

"You know, sometimes I hate being so smart." I said sarcastically, hiking my dufflebag up on my shoulder and turning to look at Steve. 

"Yeah...sometimes I hate you being so smart too." I stuck my tongue out at him before turning to look at Eddie.

"Hey Eddie," I called, "Do you remember where you stashed that boat?"

He nodded, leading us over to a small, clearing area and pulling the tarp off of the motor boat that had been in Reefer Rick's boat house. He and Steve got down on the ground behind it and started pushing it towards the water.

"Easy, I-" Eddie set it down with a clunk, splashing water on Steve, "I said Easy man."

"Sorry." They both held the boat in place and Steve turned around, holding out a hand to Robin.

"Here you go."

"Yeah, I'm just gonna do that." She opted to putting her hands on top of each of their heads, using them as leverage to step into the boat. "Thank you."

"Yeah, that works too."

Eddie climbed in next, followed by Nancy, who gratefully accepted his hand as he helped her into the boat.

"Wheeler."

"Thanks."

I walked past Steve, dropping my bag  in the bottom of the boat and climbed inside on my own, sitting down on one of the benches. Dustin tried to board next, but Eddie held out his hand.

"What you trying to sink us?" He asked. "This thing holds four people, tops, plus Riley's duffle bag, which is basically the size of a person."

"If we end up in the Upside Down, you'll be thankful for this Duffle bag." I shot back.

"Its better this way, ok?" Nancy told him. "You guys stay here with Max. Keep an eye out for trouble."

"You keep an eye out." Nancy narrowed her eyes at him and he made a face in return. "Its my gosh dang theory."

"Actually its my theory," I pointed out, "You only figured out the compass part."

"You heard Nance." Robin told him.

"Who put her in charge?"

"I did."

"Yeah, I seconded, we had a whole meeting about it with Parliamentary Procedure and everything, looks like you missed it." I stated.

"This coming from the girl who literally led the charge into the Mind Flayer tunnels." Dustin argued.

"Mind Flayer Tunnels and the Upside Down are two completely different animals," I told him, standing up in the boat again, "And if you won't listen to Nancy then you're going to listen to me, and as our Upside Down Vet, you're not stepping foot into that place unless I say so, is that understood?" He sighed and I held my hand out. "Compass."

He stomped in defeat, but handed it to me anyway.

"Hey. Here ya go." Steve threw his backpack at him, pushing the boat into the water before jumping into it at the last second, sitting beside me.

"You said four!" Dustin shouted.

"Sorry." Steve whispered. I kept my eyes locked on the compass as Robin and Eddie rowed away from the shore.

"Bedtime's at Nine, kiddos!" Robin yelled at them. "Miss you already!" 

I monitored the compass while Steve and Nancy kept their flashlights trained on the water, looking for any signs of the gate. The compass kept getting progressively crazier until we neared the middle of the lake.

"Whoa, wait, slow down!" I told them. They stopped rowing, turning around to look at the compass, which was spinning completely in a circle.

"Whoa." Steve stated.

"Guys, what's going on?" Dustin radioed. "Come on guys, talk to me, what's going on?"

"Uh, Dustin, your compass has gone from wonky to wonky with a capital 'aah'." Robin reported. The hair on the back of my neck stood up and a shiver passed through my body.

"This is it." I said, looking up at the others. "I can feel it, the compass is going insane, it has to be here."

As soon as those words left my mouth, Steve started pulling off his shoes and socks.

"Whoa, what are you doing?" I asked.

"Somebody's gotta go down and check this out."

"Yeah, somebody not you." I said, reaching down to pull my sweater over my head.

"Barbie, no, I'm going."

"No you're not-"

"Unless you or one of these guys can top being a Hawkins High swim co-captain and a certified Lifeguard for three years, then its gotta be me, no complaints, alright?"

"Yes, there are complaints!" I said, grabbing his arm.

"Riley, listen to me," He turned to face me again, grabbing my arms, "Yes, obviously I know that as far as the Upside Down goes, and let's be honest, probably every other area of survival, you've got me beat but swimming? How long can you hold your breath?" I sighed, shaking my head.

"No! No, I don't like this, not even a little bit!"

"Yeah well, I'm not exactly thrilled about it either," He admitted, "But all these years, in all of these situations, I have stood by you while you took all the risks, not because I wasn't scared for your safety, but because I knew you were the best person for the job, so now I need you to return the favor and let me do this."

I sighed, biting my lip. After a moment of struggling, I nodded begrudgingly. He leaned down, pressing a quick kiss to my lips before standing up and pulling his sweatshirt over his head. Eddie took one of our flashlights, wrapping it up in a plastic shopping bag before handing it to Steve.

"Hey...good luck."

"Thanks." He looked back at me and I reached out, grabbing his hand.

"Please be careful," I said, "And Steve, if you don't come out of that water, so help me..."

"I love you too." I shook my head as he dove overboard, plunging into the water. I took a deep breath and Nancy put a hand on my back while Eddie held a cigarette out to me.

"It'll help with the nerves-" He started, only to have Robin pluck it from his fingers and toss it into the lake.

"Gross." She told him. I looked at Nancy, who looked down at her watch.

"Time it," I told her, "If he's not back in...three minutes, I'm going in after him."

"He'll be ok." Eddie told me. I shook my head, feeling myself begin to shake worriedly. 

"There is absolutely no certainty of that." I replied. "Steve, come on just..."

I swallowed hard, averting my eyes to the engagement ring that sat on my left ring finger. 

"Don't you dare die on our wedding day." I whispered.

"Where are we at, Wheeler?" Robin asked nervously.

"Closing in on a minute."

"Ok."

Silence fell over the boat, and we all sat in nervous anticipation, waiting to see if he was going to come back up.

We were almost at two minutes when the water burst upwards, causing us all to jump in fear, luckily seeing that it was Steve.

"I found it." He breathed.

"You found it?"

"I found it, yeah. I found it." He said, grabbing the side of the boat. Robin grabbed the radio.

"Dustin, you are a gosh dang Einstein, Steve found the gate."

"Its pretty wild," He told us, "Its more of a snack-size gate than the mama gate, but still, its pretty dang big-"

Suddenly his head disappeared below the water, and it dipped down as his hands still clung to the edge.

"STEVE!" I screamed, putting a hand over his as he popped back up. He paused for a second, looking and down and seeming unconcerned before disappearing fully into the water.

I grabbed my duffle bag, strapping it across my chest.

"Riley, what are you-"

I didn't wait for the question to finish, but instead dove into the water after him without a second's hesitation. He wasn't that far under the water, so I managed to catch up with him, grabbing onto his hand. I grabbed his wrist in both of my hands and he wrapped both of his around mine and we both kicked as hard as we could, trying to swim in the opposite direction. 

Whatever was pulling Steve, however, was stronger than both of us combined. I let go of Steve with one hand, reaching backwards as I tried to get to my Duffle bag zipper so that I could get to my axe, but by then we were already at the threshold of the gate, and before I knew it, we were propelled through it and dropped onto the ground of the Upside Down.

The vine didn't stop there though and continued dragging Steve across the ground. The water that was on our hands caused me to lose my grip on him.

"STEVE!" I ripped my bag off of my back, pulling my axe out of it before putting it back on and chasing after him again.

"RILEY!"

The vine was pulling him at a speed far faster than I could run, but luckily Steve's body collided with a large pile of the vines, giving me just enough time to catch up and axe the one that was tied to his ankle.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" He exclaimed as I dropped to my knees, pushing up his pant leg to check his ankle.

"Are you ok?!" I asked, putting a hand on his leg and looking up at him.

"Yeah! Yeah, I'm fine! I'm ok, I'm..." He trailed off, looking away from me. I furrowed my eyebrows, following his gaze, only to see that he wasn't looking at anything in particular. It was just the sudden realization that we had crossed the threshold,  and were no longer in our world...but Vecna's.

"Home sweet home." I said, standing up and holding my hand out to him. He took it, allowing me to pull him to his feet. "We have two options, we either need to try and get back through the gate, or we need to get out of the open. A clearing like this is a death sentence in here-"

My words were cut off by a low, warbling screeching sound, and we both whirled around to see flying, bat-like creatures flying through the air towards us. They started out behind us, but more appeared on all sides, slowly closing in on us and blocking us in.

"Steve, we have to go." I said, grabbing his hand and dragging him along behind me. "STEVE RUN-"

One of the bats swooped down from the sky behind me, wrapping some kind of tentacle around my neck. It began dragging me backwards, knocking my feet out from under me and dragging me along the ground. Steve ran over to the boat that was sitting beside him, grabbing one of the oars and running after me. He hit the bat out of the sky, knocking the tentacle loose and allowing me to breathe again. I fought my way to my knees, crawling back to my axe.

Steve managed to narrowly dodge one of the others, ducking as the rest of the creatures finally caught up to us. It swooped back around, doubling back and wrapping another tentacle thing around Steve's neck, dragging him onto his back.

I grabbed my axe, climbing to my feet and running to take a swing at it, when one of the others grabbed it, dragging both the axe and me several inches into the air. I looked back to see that not only did Steve still have one bat wrapped around his neck, but two more and descended upon him and were digging their teeth into his sides.

I grabbed the tentacle closest to the axe blade, dragging it across it until it cut through, dropping me and the axe back to the ground while the bat screeched in pain. I ran back to him as fast as I could, flipping the axe around and using the handle to wack one of the bats off of his abdomen, when suddenly the second one followed soon after, flying across the field with a whimper of pain. I turned around to see Robin, Nancy, and Eddie standing there, all of them soaking wet and armed with oars.

"Hey there." Nancy greeted,  as Robin stepped on the tentacle still wrapped around Steve's throat, attempting to hold it in place. By now, even more bat creatures had gotten the memo and we're flying around our heads as Eddie fended them off with his oar. I lifted the axe to chop through the tentacle, when one of the bats flew directly into the side of my face, knocking my head to the side and tangling my hair in its claws.

Another one flew up behind Nancy, attaching itself to her back.

"Robin, get it off of me!" 

"Got it, got it, got it, crap!' Eddie screamed as his oar broke around a bat's body. 

With none of us able to get the tentacle off of his neck, Steve took matters into his own hands by sinking his teeth into it. The bat let go and tried to fly away, but Steve grabbed the tentacle, holding it in place.

Robin tried to pry the bat off of Nancy with the end of an oar, causing the bat to attach itself to that instead. She slammed the oar and the bat into the ground, holding it down long enough for Nancy to stab through it with the oar that she had previously dropped. 

The bat that was attacking me had both of its claws tangled in my hair and was trying to use it to drag me away. I dropped down into a crouched position, grabbing the bats head with one hand and pinning it to the ground so that its body was stretched out vertically between the ends of my hair and the ground. It sunk its teeth into my hand, but I ignored it, using my free one to grab the axe right underneath the blade and slide through the middle of the bat, causing it to fall into two limp, dead pieces. 

I stood up, trying to detangle its lower half from my hair as Steve used the tentacle to slam his bat back into the ground. He did this two or three times before pinning it to the ground with his foot and using the tentacle to rip the b at creature in half.

This, luckily, meant the last of them, at least for now, giving us all a second to catch our breath. Steve stood in the center of our group, bat monster blood still dripping from his lips.

"Steve!' I ran over to him, dropping the Axe at his feet and turning him to face me. I winced as I saw the mangled state of his stomach.

"Well, the took about a pound of flesh." He told me. "But other than that, yeah never better."

I looked up at him with tears in my eyes before turning to face the others.

"We have to get out of the open," I told them, "The woods are a lot safer, with a lot more places to hide.

"Uh, do you guys think these bats have like, rabies?" Robin questioned.

"What?"

"Its just that rabies are, like, my number one greatest fear, and I think we should probably get you to a doctor like really soon because once the symptoms set in, its too late, you're already, like, dead."

"Well, we're all gonna be dead a lot faster if we don't get a move on." I said, picking up the axe. "Come on. Its been a while, but I know where we can go."

More bats began flying towards us, but this time they just crowded around the gate, growling menacingly at us.

"Its not that many," Steve said, "We can take 'em."

"Trust me, you can't," I told him, "Where there's a few, there will be more, and fighting is not always your best option down here, please just listen to me."

"Hey, if she's the one that got stuck down here and lived to tell the tale, I'm with her." Eddie agreed. " I put a hand on Steve's shoulder, prompting him to look at me. 

"Please." He nodded and I grabbed his hand, taking off in the direction of the trees.

"Wait, where are we going?" He questioned as I kept my eyes trained on the red-lightning filled sky.

"My place," I said, finally glancing over to look at him again, "Though I must admit...I was really hoping you would never have to see it."