chapter xvi .
guinea pig antics
WHEN VAL LOOKED THROUGH THE GATE, she was half-expecting to see a militia of cops with guns aiming right at her and Eddie's faces, ready to either shoot her or take her into custody. So when she saw her friends, her brother—she could not stop the faint noise of relief that escaped her lips.
And she definitely couldn't stop her hand from reaching out in the darkness and finding Eddie's, their fingers intertwining with each other immediately. His fingers were rough, scarred with the physical tolls of playing guitar all his life. Their hands were considerably different sizes—Val's, nimble and smooth, and Eddie's, burly and uneven—yet they felt as if they were two puzzle pieces that fit perfectly within each other.
Val squeezed his hand once. He squeezed back twice. A content smile found its place on her lips.
"Bada-bada-BOOM!" Dustin shouted, his voice echoing through the gate and across both the real-world version and the Upside Down version of Eddie's trailer. A disbelieving laugh broke from Val's mouth. She shook her head, beaming up at the hole in the ceiling.
"Genius child," she repeated Robin's words from earlier, smiling to herself.
Nancy, Eddie, Robin, Steve, and Val all watched with a forced impatience as the kids on the other side of the gate rushed back to Eddie's bedroom to drag his mattress out onto the floor beneath the hole. The mattress was bare, without even a fitted sheet—which, Val thought, it could benefit from, judging by the stains dotting around the center of it.
"Those stains are, uh..." Eddie wet his lips, then gave Val a half-glance, his shoulders raising slightly. "I have no idea what those stains are."
Robin crinkled up her nose. "Ew..."
The kids gathered the sheets and blankets from Eddie's uncle's bed and tied them together to craft a makeshift rope for the elder teens to climb through the gate with.
Dustin climbed onto the mattress and stared up at the rest of them, raising his eyebrows and exhaling a heavy breath. "Not quite sure how these physics are gonna work, but, uh... here goes nothing."
With a grunt, he threw the makeshift rope up into the gate. Val half expected it to fall back down limply and ruin their chances of getting out via that gate—but, surprising her, the sheets fell through the gate and hung from the ceiling into the Upside Down. Her eyes widened, a scoff of shock leaving her lips. When Dustin let go of the sheet, it hovered mid-air. Robin tugged on it experimentally—no give.
"Sick," Val muttered, peering at the sheet as she circled around it. She tapped it, still surprised when it didn't fall to the ground.
"This is the craziest thing I've ever seen," Erica laughed, "and I've seen some crazy shit!"
Val's eyebrows scrunched together. She leaned towards Robin, whispering, "Who is that child?"
"Lucas's sister," Robin said. "She's.... a spitball. You'll get along well."
"Okay, now somebody has to try it out!" Dustin called, lifting his hands impatiently. "Who's up first?"
The five teens looked at each other, nobody jumping to make the first move. Val sure didn't want to be the first one through that gate— what if something went wrong? But she didn't feel any better when Robin volunteered herself and stepped to the rope, saying, "Guess I'm the guinea pig."
With a huff of exertion, she hauled herself upwards on the sheet, grunting with each tug of her arm. But the moment the top of her head made it through the gate, she was falling, landing on the mattress with a pained 'oof.'
"Oh, thank God," she panted, grinning at the kids. "That was kinda fun."
Nancy, Eddie, Steve, and Val exchanged a daring look, waiting for the next person to step up and go. Val's eyes met Eddie's. He nodded towards the rope, and she could practically hear the 'Ladies first' even though he didn't say it aloud.
"It's me, then," she said, stepping to the rope. She exhaled a heavy sigh, tilting her head to the side and grabbing a firm grip on the sheets. "Here goes nothing."
Even more grunts of exertion and strain left her lips than Robin. Val felt that maybe she needed to hit the gym when everything blew over—work on her upper arms a bit. But for the time being, she was dragging herself up the sheet with much more struggle than she thought she'd experience.
"I must've... skipped gym on rope day," she grunted. With one final reach, her head made it through the gate and she toppled onto the mattress on the floor.
The moment she was standing, Mason's hand was on her shoulder, and he was giving her his own form of an 'I'm glad you're okay' look. Val just pursed her lips in a tight smile and pat her own hand on top of his. Then she turned to Max and gave her shoulder a squeeze. The redhead offered her a smile, then returned the squeeze to Val's own shoulder.
"Glad you're okay, Red," Val said.
"Same to you," Max replied, nodding in acknowledgement. The headphones to her Walkman were hanging around her neck loosely. Val heard the faint voice of Kate Bush singing through them.
"Maybe I should do the same," she said, nodding to the Walkman. "Listen to Stevie Nicks on repeat until we kill this Vecna creep. Unless, of course, you're going to make fun of me for it again."
"Hey," Max smiled, "whoever saves you from Vecna is a good artist in my books. And if that means I'm a fan of Fleetwood Mac now, then so be it."
"You know what? Same for Kate Bush," Val laughed, turning back to the mattress as Eddie fell through, landing harshly onto his back.
He sat up, exhilarated, and grinned. "That... was fun. Shit!"
The rest of them peered through the gate to the Upside Down, watching as Steve and Nancy exchanged a few short words. Nancy turned towards the sheet, but before she could lift a hand to begin climbing, she froze.
Val's stomach plummeted to her feet. "No."
"Shit," Robin whispered, running her hands anxiously through her hair.
The rest of them watched helplessly as Steve took Nancy by the shoulders and began to shake her, yelling for her to wake up. He held her face. His voice grew louder in desperation, but Nancy wasn't budging.
The thought came to Val like a shock. "Music," she said, suddenly and urgently. "We need music!"
apologies for the short chapter
but now we get to dive into volume 2 ;)
