Chapter Ninety-One: See You On The Other Side

"Dustin! Can you hear me, Dustin! Hel-hello? Helo?!"

We all came to a stop at the bottom of the stairs to see that Steve was turning in a circle, yelling into the empty air as he shone his flashlight all around the room.

"Maybe he does have Rabies." Robin stated.

"Steve, what are you doing?" Nancy asked, as he turned, shining his flashlight in our faces and causing us all to wince.

"He's here," Steve said, coming to stand in front of us, "That little jerk, he's here. He's like, he's in the walls or something, just listen. Dustin. Dustin! Dustin! Can you hear me?!"

"He can't hear you," I said, prompting Steve to look at me, "I tried that back then too. Its like a loose connection or something. We can hear them but they can't seem to hear us."

"But he is here though." He stated. I nodded.

"That brings us to the question you first raised," Dustin's voice echoed, warbling quietly through the air around us, "How and why is there a gate at Lover's Lake? Let's analyze. What do Eleven and Vecna have in common?"

"If we can hear him, he's here on the other side," I explained, "But I tried to get in contact with people on the other side, and they never seemed to hear me. All I ever succeeded in doing with bringing monsters down on top of me and giving myself a sore throat. After a while, I just...gave up on talking all together, as you'll recall."

"Will found a way." Nancy stated.

"What?"

"Will. He found a way to speak with Joyce, through the-"

"Lights!" We said in Unison. Nancy ran over to the nearest lamp and I looked up at the celling fixture, trying to see if there was anything I could see that would trigger them.

"The switch, try the switch." Steve suggested. Nancy did that, but nothing happened.

"It's not working." Steve turned around, shining his flashlight on the light fixture.

"Guys... You seeing this?"

We all followed his gaze to see that in the area where he had pointed his flashlight, surrounding the light fixture, the dust taht filled the upside down had transformed into something else. It was like glitter, it sparkled in the flashlight beam and moved around the fixture in slow motion, in a way that the rest of the particles didn't. 

I slowly lifted my hand up to it, causing the particles to flash and change as my fingers moved through them.

"Whoa." They others surrounded me, watching as my fingers traced shapes through the glitter. They then all gathered around the fixture, touching it as well.

"It...tickles." Eddie observed.

"It kinda feels good." Robin said as Nancy put her hand down.

"Does anyone know Morse Code?" Robin asked. I smiled.

"My father is saving our lives from beyond the grave." I said, holding my hand up again as the others took theirs away. I began tracing out dashes and dots through the sparkling orbs.

|...| _ _ _| ...|

S        O      S

"Its working." Robin said. I stopped once I was sure that they'd seen it before an idea suddenly popped into my head and I began signalling again.

"I really hope they remember their Morse Code." I said, flashing my fingers in the pattern. 

"What are you saying?" Steve questioned. 

|._..|..|_|.|  |_...|._.|..|_|.|

"What does that mean?" Robin asked as I repeated the phrase. I smiled, turning around to face them.

"Lite Brite." I translated. Nancy nodded, figuring out my plan and we all bolted into Nancy's room. I jumped up onto her bad and rapidly flickering the lights in the hopes that they'd figure out to bring Holly's Lite Brite there.

"Ok," Dustin called, "We're bringing Holly's Lite Brite to Nancy's Room!"

"Yes! Oh, you smart, little dork!" I exclaimed, jumping off and crouching on the ground beside her bed. The others gathered around me.

"Ok, that's it, that's it, go, go, go, go, go! Ok, you guys seeing this?"

Steve aimed his flashlight over the bed, and I held out my hand, and sure enough I felt the strange, tingling sensation engulf my fingers. Dustin's high pitched laugh filled the room, while another voice said:

"Holy Crap!" Another voice said, which I recognized instantly.

"We're not moving it, but we're gonna unplug it, standby. Yank it."

Just as he said this, the glowing light beneath the flashlight beam disappeared.

"Ok, try it now."

I instantly began tracing letters in the air, wondering if I had identified the third voice correctly. Dustin laughed again.

"E...R...I...C...A. Yes! Yes, Erica's here too! That worked!"  We all exclaimed excitedly, and Steve put both of his hands on my shoulders.

"Ok, um..." I thought about what to write next before doing so.

"S...U..T...Stupid? Stupid...Stuck! Stuck."

"Mhm."

"Yes. Yes we are." Steve confirmed.

"They're stuck in the Upside Down." Lucas translated.

"Uh, you can't get back through Watergate?" Dustin called.

"What the heck's Watergate?" Steve asked. 

" 'Cause its in water and its a gate." Robin explained. I nodded.

"Oh."

"That's cute."

"Right."

"That's pretty funny, I won't lie." I said, writing out my next response. 

"Is that a six?"

"G...U...A...R...Guar?"

"Guard...Guarded. Ok, uh, Watergate's guarded."

"Perfect, yes, yes, yes!" Steve praised as Eddie clapped beside me.

"Ok, we think we have a theory that can help with that!" Dustin called.

"Yes."

"Genius child."

I began writing again.

"D...E...A...T...H, Death? Ok Death...S...I...T...E...S. Death Sites? This is Riley isn't it? Yes, we think that Watergate isn't the only gate, that there's a gate at every murder site."

"Its just like with Lover's Lake," I told them, "I'm not positive if he's opening the gates to get to his victims or using his victims to open the gates, but I'm guessing there will be a gate at every location where someone died."

"Ok, so how far is your trailer?" Nancy asked.

"Seven miles."

"Uh, Nancy?" Robin asked. "I know your house here is like...weirdly, creepily frozen in time and crap but...haven't you always had Bikes?"

"Its November 6th," I recalled, turning to look at Nancy, "If I recall, November 6th was the end of a weekend-long D&D campaign, which should mean the boys' bikes should all be here, depending on the time we're stuck in. So that's Lucas, Dustin, Mike, Will-"

"That's only four." Steve pointed out. I shrugged, turning to look at him. 

"I guess we're doing this Mike and Eleven style." I said, turning back to the bed to write out our plan.

"E...D...D...I...E. Ok, Eddie. You're headed to Eddie's Trailer?" I nodded, writing out 'Yes'. "Ok, we'll meet you there!" 

~~~

We headed down to the garage and sure enough, the boys bikes were all there. We all climbed on, with me having to sit on Steve's handlebars as we made our way to the trailer park.

On the way there, we could  see Victor Creel's house in the distance, surrounded by demobats and seeming to be the origin point of the red lightning storm that was roaring through the sky. I swallowed as my hair stood on end, the mere sight of the house setting off my powers.

"Its right here." Eddie told us, leading the way into his front yard. I jumped off of the handle bars and the others dropped their bikes into the grass.

"That's gotta be a Guinness World Record," Robin panted, "Most miles traveled interdimensional."

"Well, hopefully we survive long enough to get back to the real world and get our certificates." I said, pushing my hair back with one hand before fighting my grip on my axe and walking towards Eddie's front door.

"Just inhaled a bunch of that crap," Steve coughed, turning on his flashlight, "Its stuck in my throat."

"Yeah, it'll do that." I said, stopping right in front of the door and looking over my shoulder to make sure the others were following me.

Once they all stepped up behind me, I ripped the door open, charging inside and glancing around to make sure nothing was going to surprise us. Once I was confident, we were alone, I waved the others inside, where we all gathered around the giant, vine covered portal that glowed red in the center of the ceiling...the very place where Chrissy Cunningham died and set all of this off.

"This is where Chrissy died," Eddie confirmed, "Like, right where she died."

"Its a gate alright." I added, walking over to stand directly underneath it.

"I think there's something in there." Robin reported, just as something slowly began poking through the slimy membrane of the gate.

"What the heck is that?" I held out a hand behind me before raising my axe in a defensive position. Steve joined me, standing directly across from me with his bat in his hands. We both shared a look, averting our eyes back to the portal as the object inside of it retracted, only to explode open a few seconds later, covering us both with slime.

Robin screamed, and I might've started attacking whatever it was immediately if I hadn't spotted the broom handle wacking all of the gross, stringy vines out of the opening. I laughed, letting out a sigh of relief as I looked up to see Dustin, Lucas, Max, and Erica looking at me through the ceiling of Eddie's trailer on the other side.

"Hey, Kiddies!" I exclaimed, causing the others to gather around me.

"No way." Steve said.

"Hi there!" Dustin laughed as they all waved at us.

"Hi!" The others chorused.

"Holy crap, this is trippy."

"BADA BADA BOOM!" Dustin shouted.

"You got a plan to get us out of this hole, Kid Genius?" I asked, putting the top of my axe on the floor and leaning against the handle.

"Oh yeah!" He remembered. "Yeah, just give us one second."

They all disappeared from view and I chuckled, shaking my head and looking down at the others.

"We went into the Upside Down and lived to tell the tale," I stated, "Congratulations, guys. There's unfortunately, a very small population of people who can say that."

"Yeah?" Steve asked. "Well now you've done it twice, so what does that say about you?"

"So has Nancy." I argued, remembering when she went through the gate in the woods.

"Yeah, for like five seconds." She retorted.

"Longer than other." I said with a shrug. She nodded, knowing exactly who I was talking about.

I heard a thump, and we all looked up to see Max and Lucas plop a stain-covered mattress directly under the gate.

"Those stains are uh..." Eddie trailed off. "I don't know what those stains are."

"Mmm."

"Doesn't matter now," I pointed out, causing him to look at me, "You're a real life hero now." He smiled at this.

Dustin appeared under the gate again, holding a line of sheets knotted together.

"Not really sure how these physics are gonna work, but uh...here goes nothing." He threw the sheets upwards through the hole, causing them to fall down towards us rather than falling back down on his head. I gave it a test pull. "There we go. And if my theory is correct..." He let go of it, and surprisingly enough, it stayed in place all on its own. "Abra Cadabra."

"Holy crap." Max muttered.

"Alright pull on it, see if it holds." Robin looked at us and we gestured for her to go ahead. She grabbed it, giving it a tug.

"This is the craziest crap I've ever seen in my life, and I've seen some crazy crap." Erica said. Dustin held up a hand and she high-fived it.

"Guess I'm the guinea pig." Robin said, jumping up and wrapping her legs around the sheet.

"I hope you paid attention in gym class." I told her, holding my hand up to catch her in case she fell.

"Alright, let's clear the landing pad." She climbed through, her hair suddenly standing up as she came through the other end upside down.

"Oh my gosh!" She fell forward, flipping onto her back on the mattress and looking up through the hole at us. "Oh, thank God. That was fun."

Dustin grabbed her hand, helping her off of the mattress.

"Eddie, you next." I told him. "We're all armed, so...it only makes sense we'd stay back in case this goes bad."

"Alright, I guess I'll go." He said, grabbing the sheet and beginning to climb.

"Easy, easy." Steve warned as he fell through the other side.

"That...was fun." He confirmed, grabbing Dustin's hand.

Steve, Nancy, and I all chuckled before turning to look at each other again.

"Nancy-" I started.

"I have the gun." She pointed out.

"I brought the gun." I argued. "If anyone's getting stuck down here, its me, and I guess...since Steve and I are married, that means he signed up for this too."

"Yup, agreed. Get climbing, Wheeler." He agreed. She sighed, but did as we said, climbing up and falling through the portal just like the others. I turned to look at Steve.

"See you on the other side." He said. I nodded, gesturing for him to go first. He shook his head. "Oh no you don't, Barbie."

"You're injured," I argued, "And I-"

"Have a little sister in California who is going to want to see you again," He said, "We're not even sure if something is going to happen, but just in case it does, you know what its like to lose a sister. Do you really want her to go through that? Especially so soon after your Dad."

I sighed. He made a valid argument. I crowded into his space, grabbing the opening of Eddie's vest.

"You better be right behind me." I pulled him forward, kissing him goodbye before turning to face the sheet rope. He took my axe out of my hand, as well as the duffle bag off of my back, leaving me freedom to climb. I took a deep nervous breath before jumping up onto it and wrapping my legs around it.

My hair flopped up on top of my head, and I felt the direction of gravity change before falling through the gate and bracing myself for the landing.

Only...I didn't land. I kept falling, and the trailer and the gate, and all of the others disappeared from view, leaving only darkness as my limbs flailed through the air.