𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙒𝙊𝙐𝙉𝘿𝙎 𝙒𝙀 𝙎𝙃𝘼𝙍𝙀 ᵉᵈᵈⁱᵉ ᵐᵘⁿˢᵒⁿ

☼ 17

; W O R L D S
b.g.‚s one eye by THE NUCHEZ'S

As Matilda dived deeper into the water, she started seeing little flickers of red light. She tried to look around to see if Robin was still close to her, but she couldn't do anything but tensely move forward.

She didn't like water in the best of situations, but this was really starting to get on her nerves. She felt her lungs tighten as her last air-reserves left her, leaving her panicking in the middle of the lake.

She stopped for a moment, what she would later on consider her biggest mistake on her way to the gate. As soon as her body even slightly turned, she lost all grip on reality, let along up and down.

Her rational mind knew she just had to look for the pulsing red light, but the Matilda-part just wanted to scream and cry.

Maybe she'd die now, she thought. Maybe it would be for the best.

Suddenly she felt a grip on her hip and immediately tried to pull herself loose. She was not ready to be pulled away by whatever had pulled Steve down there too.

But when she opened her eyes, she didn't see some sort of inter-dimensional water-monster or anything even remotely related, but the silhouette of Eddie's face and hair, his handkerchief tightened on his head.

She attempted to sigh in relief but only ended up breathing in water, what caused her to caugh uncontrollably.

Eddie started pulling her forward, visibly struggling with the extra weight but not even thinking about letting her go.

The red light that had only reflected in certain rays of light before got more prominent by the second, until, for a moment, everything Matilda could see was red.
Her stomach turned as gravity shifted around her and from one second to another the water cleared and she was pushed out of a hole in the ground.

She wasn't sure what she'd expected this other dimension to look like. She wasn't even really sure if that was what they'd end up in. Looking at Eddie, he had made a couple guesses, but none of them compared to this.

A seemingly dimmed wasteland covered in dark black tentacles which were moving from time to time, almost looking like magical roots, as well as a thick fog covering most of what would be around ten feet from them, but unable to hide the bloody-looking sky.
"Holy shit", Matilda gasped between coughs, only seeing Steve about a full second later. He was being held on the ground by a few animals that almost looked like tiny dragons or giant bats – generally horrifying.

Then Nancy and Robin stepped into frame, both holding paddles in their hands, ready to fight. Without hesitation, Nancy stabbed one of the dragon-bats, while Robin stepped on it to hold it to the ground.
Eddie suddenly had a paddle in his hand too and slammed it against one that flew right at him, coming out of the depths of the fog.

Matilda tried to pull herself together and got up from the ground, only to be knocked back down by another dragon-bat.

She screamed as it bit into her waist, but managed to push it off just before Eddie slammed the paddle on it multiple times.
"You good?", he yelled, but before Matilda could answer, another bat landed on Nancy's back and threatened to bite her neck open. Robin immediately ran to help, what caused Steve to be left alone to fight the bat that was currently choking the life out of him.

Matilda ran toward him and tried to get a grip of its tail, but she had no chance as it hissed and bit in all possible directions.

"Steve! Steve, listen, you gotta bite it!", she screamed, not thinking about what she was telling him to do. "Come on! I can't reach it!"
Steve took a second to consider his options, then he chose life and bit the tail as hard as he could. Contrary to what Matilda had expected the tiny beast actually loosened its grip and tried to fly away, but Steve grabbed it before it could get a head start.

Without thinking straight, he started slamming it to the ground in hopes it would at least be knocked out be the sudden contact with stone-hard earth.
Matilda turned to Nancy and Robin who had just managed to get their bat to the ground and as she turned to Eddie she stared right at one flying towards her.

She ducked down, but before it could even reach where she stood, it snarled loudly and dropped to the ground. The holding part of a paddle was stuck in its back and a couple feet behind stood Eddie, panting heavily, holding the other half.
"Steve!", Nancy yelled and ran toward the boy who was currently spitting blood. "Are you okay?" Eddie threw his paddle to the ground and ran towards Matilda, who was still crouching in shock.

He leaned down in front of her and put his hands on her shoulders, trying to stop her from staring at the bat.

"Are you alright?", he asked instantly, looking her up and down carefully.
"Yes, yeah, I'm good", she mumbled in response. When she tried to see if the others were okay, she felt the wound in her waist protest against any motion, so she backed down again with a groan.

"Fucking hell", Eddie mumbled and looked up. "Matilda's bleeding."
"So am I", Steve answered, "but we're tough cookies, aren't we?" Matilda laughed painfully and put a thumb up. Steve turned back to Nancy and reassuringly smiled at her.

"Uh, do you guys think these bats have, like rabies?", Robin suddenly asked, inspecting one of the corpses on the ground.
"What?", Steve asked frowning, not understanding the importance of that concern.
"It's just that rabies are, like, my number one greatest fear. And I think we should probably get you guys to a doctor, like, really soon, because once the symptoms set in, it's too late. You're already dead." Matilda and Steve shared a glance.

"Well, that's reassuring." Before Robin could answer to their sarcastic response, they heard loud snarling in the distance. The sky lit up red with a growling and shone light on the swarm of bats flying towards the group in a fast tempo.
But instead of speeding up as they got close, they slowed down, eventually landing surrounding the pulsing gate.

"All right, there's not that many. We can take them", Steve said quietly, getting ready to fight. As Matilda was about to protest, the sky erupted again and revealed a swarm around trice as big flying towards them as well.

"You were saying?", Robin asked, sounding more than just mortified.
Nancy turned around and detected a couple dead-looking trees in the distance, which didn't seem very revolutionary but currently like their best option.

"The woods. Come on!", she yelled and after another hopeful glance towards the swarm, Steve and the others followed her into the forest.
"Great", Robin hissed with a glance to Matilda, "more running."