The Devil's Gift/The Bloody Handed

5

Eddie slides the picture to the center of the table. As it develops, you can see the dead expressions in our faces. Eddie was sticking his tongue out and holding out a rock symbol while Steve was just smiling.

"And you guys say you aren't the mom and dad of the group." I laugh as I pick up the picture tilting it.

"Oh whatever, Gregerson." Eddie grabs the picture from me and shoves it into his pocket. The lady comes back with all of our waters and pulls out her notepad and pen.

"Are we ready to order here?" She tilts her head up as she gives us a sweet smile.

"Yeah, I'll have your Lauretta's Burger with fries." I softly throw my menu to the center of the table and everyone else orders.

"Alright! I'll have that out in a jiffy." She takes the menus and walks away, humming.

"Let me tell you- I cannot wait." Robin says taking a sip of her water.

"Yeah, same." I rub my ears and take a breath. They still slightly had pressure on them, around my ear drums.

"So, where are we going after this?" Dustin asks.

"I say we just look around until we find a reason to stop. It's a smaller town so it's shouldn't be too hard," Steve says.

"Agreed. I think maybe we should try going to some hot spots in town." Eddie says stirring his water with his finger then stops. "This is a hot spot." He looks to me then to the rest.

"After they close we need to look and investigate here." Nancy says following along with Eddie.

"Yeah. Let's just focus on not getting thrown into jail- because they will do that here. We are unknown to them." I say as I crumble up my straw wrapper. "We will check around the side alley and see if we can find any concoctions. Vecna is more likely to sneak attack from where no one goes versus out in the middle of attention."

"You got a point," Steve says. "We just need to make sure to bring something to defend ourselves.. just in case." He leans back and looks out side of the window, his arm up on the top of the seat. He immediately notices Nancy's tension and adjusts himself the next second. He frowns.

"Alright!" The waitress approaches the table holding three plates on each arm. It surprises me how someone can have such balance. She dances over and slides the plates onto the table effortlessly, to each one of us. "Anything else I can get y'all?" She puts her hands on her hips.

"Here, we will pay now. And keep the rest." Robin hands the waitress a $50. Our meals came up to at least $30. 

"Wow, thank you dear!" She smiles as she pockets the cash and skips over to the counter. She deserved it. Jobs like this weren't easy; they were pretty draining. Mom had worked a diner job back when I was five. She would always come home, exhausted and covered in dish water. She had to be a waitress and a dish washer because of staffing issues in a small town. It broke my heart how badly they were treated sometimes.

I look down at my plate, feeling my mouth salivate at the smell. The burger was steaming, and glistening with grease. We all pick up our food and take a bite of it, everyone moaning in pure bliss.

"Well needed" Steve says pointing to his plate nodding.

"Agreed, Harrington." Eddie says plopping a fry into his mouth.

We all laugh and eat over dinner, talking about the most random things possible. It felt normal, it felt right. It just felt weird. Knowing we wouldn't be able to reciprocate a life where we didn't worry about sleeping at night.

**

We all exit the diner, and head back to the alley way. It was at least eight by now, and the diner closed about thirty minutes ago.

"You think we'll run into something?" Eddie whispers and asks me as we slowly approach the alley.

"I'm not sure." I whisper back. "Guys, grab a wood plank or one of these poles just in case." We all grab one and slowly turn to the right.

"What the..." Steve starts.

"Fuck." Dustin finishes.

In the alley, were black flying particles. The green dumpster that stood against the brick wall had black webs stemming from it, looking like it was growing with every second. It had a slime cast look to it, and it looked like it was trying to form some sort of a portal for transportation.

"It looks like.. webs.. forming some sort of portal?" I kneel down and examine it a little closer.

"Anything going on in that head of yours yet?" Robin asks.

"No.. just that I know this is indeed Vecna. Or like some sort of portal.. kind of like the one we went through underwater but different." I poke at it with my stick and see the webby slime retaliate. "Ugh." I make a disgusted sound and stand up. "We need to see what this stuff does."

I look to Eddie, who shakes his head immediately "there is no way we are doing that!" He points. "We don't know where that thing leads."

"But we have to try, don't we?" Nancy says shrugging.

"Yeah, I guess we do." Dustin says. We all stand side by side, and look at one another.

"Only one thing to test it out." Eddie reaches down and grabs a rock, throwing it into the black abyss. And just like that, it was gone.

"Portal.." Steve sighs.

"Who knows how many more of these things there are" Robin says. "We need to go inside of it; we already know it leads to the Upside Down. That's where Vecna charges his social batteries."

"You're right," I say nodding my head. "We need to go inside and check it out. Kind of like last time. But we need to throw any weapon we can through first. Throw it far and at an angle so we don't land on it as soon as we get in."

Everyone throws their weapons through the hole. Then each of us take turns going through. I slowly walk toward, and reach my hand in. My arm disappears and I fully submerge myself. Eddie follows suit.

Unlike the other portals, we didn't just suddenly end up in the Upside Down. It felt as if we were sucked through. I harshly land on my hands and knees and look up.

This was the Upside Down.

Except it got a whole hell of a lot darker.