𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐲

nineteen. THE GATE.

IT'S BEEN nearly a whole minute since Steve dived in, "where are we at, Wheeler?" Robin asked, sounding worried. "Closing in on a minute." Nancy glanced at her. "Okay." She says as they go back to looking at the water. Eddie makes a small grunting noise making Rhys look over. "You okay?" He whispers, reaching out and Eddie just looks at him.

"Yeah..." He grabs Rhys' hand and they stare at each other for a couple of moments, smiling. For a moment, Rhys forgot the situation they were in but Steve emerging from underneath the water, frightened him back into reality as they look over. "Oh, Christ!" Eddie exclaimed, his hand even had squeezed around Rhys'. "I found it." Steve says and Rhys sighed.

"You found it?" Nancy asked quickly. "I found it. Yeah. I found it." Steve swims over, grabbing the edge of the boat. "Dustin, you are a goddamn Einstein. Steve found the gate." Robin says into the radio. "It was pretty wild. It was more of a snack-size gate than the mama gate, but still, it's pretty damn big." Steve tells them then went underwater again, holding onto the boat. He came back up, looking at the water, "if this is some sick joke--" something pulls Steve underwater as they all yelled.

"Steve! Steve! No! No!"

"Steve! Steve!" They exclaimed over one another. "What the hell was that?!" Rhys shouted over them. "Nancy, really, what happened?" Robin exclaims at the girl who's staring at the water. "Jesus!" Eddie shouted as Rhys grabs Nancy's arm. "What do we do?!" He asked the girl who's just frozen in spot for a couple of seconds, then she steps up. "Woah, wait, wait, you're not going in there, are you?" Eddie asked the Wheeler who looks at the water, "just," she turns back to them.

"Wait here." She says before turning back to the water. "No, Nancy!" Robin says and before Rhys can stop her, she jumps in. "What the fuck?!" He exclaimed and looked at the other two as Robin sat onto the edge of the boat. "No, no, no, no, no," he says, shaking his head. "What are you doing? She said wait." Eddie says and Robin looks at him. "Yeah, I heard her." She simply says. "She's in charge!" Eddie pointed to where Nancy had jumped off.

"Are you kidding me? I made that shit up." Robin covered her nose. "No! No, Rob--" Rhys groans when she fell back into the water, looking at Eddie who threw down the oar. "Goddamn it! Lying son of a bitch!" He shouted and Rhys just held out his hand. "Come on. We'll go in together." He tells his boyfriend who got up. "Oh, this is stupid." He says and Rhys couldn't help but agree. "Just come on, we gotta help them." He merely tells Eddie.

Then they swim through the water together, down to a gate glowing red where Rhys went on through first then helping Eddie out. "What the... shit." Rhys whispered as the whole thing was a little trippy, looking around as red thunder clouds clashed and flashed brighted. The four of them ran together to the source of screams and creatures chittering.

There were bat like creatures with long tails, one had it wrapped around Steve's neck and two other bats were biting his stomach. Nancy smacks one of them away, "hey there." She says before she smacks the other one away and Robin rushed over. "Quick! Hold it, Robin!" Nancy says and Robin steps on the bat on Steve's neck. "Kill it! Kill it!" Eddie says as Nancy repeatedly hits it.

"Shit!" Eddie says and Rhys turns around, seeing the bat flying around nearby. When it came towards him and Eddie, he pushed his boyfriend behind him and smacked it away. As Robin and Nancy repeatedly hit the bat around Steve's neck, Eddie pointed. "Nancy! Behind you! Watch out!" He says as a bat attached itself to her scarve on her back so Robin rushed to help her. "Robin, get it off me!" She shouted and Rhys swings at another bat flying way too close to him and Eddie. "Goddamn it!" Eddie exclaimed, grabbing onto Rhys as Steve bit the bat's tail that was around his neck.

Rhys watched as Steve now got up, holding the bat's tail and Robin finally got the one off Nancy's back that the other girl then kills with the oar. "Rhys!" Eddie says and Rhys looks to see another bat flying towards them so he swung at it once more, smacking it to the ground this time, stepping on it then stabbing it with the oar the same way Nancy did.

The two now turn to Steve who was being watched by Nancy and Robin as well as he swung the bat around by its tail onto the ground before stepping on it and ripping it in half. "Wow." Rhys whispers when Steve slowly turns around. "Steve! Steve, oh my God." Nancy rushed over to him as Eddie sighed and Rhys dropped the oar. "Jesus H. Christ!" Eddie exclaims, turning around and looking at their surroundings. "Eds." Rhys grabs his arm gently. "Rhys..." The other turns to him, wrapping his arms around the blond's neck, sighing.

Rhys hugged the brunette back tightly, closing his eyes and wishing the two of them were at home, in Rhys' bed, not in whatever this place was. "Uh, do you guys think these bats have, like, rabies?" Robin spoke up and the couple pull apart, looking over. "What?" Steve says as Rhys' arm was still around Eddie's waist and Eddie's arm was more like on top of his now. "It's 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, it's too late. You're already, like, dead." She rambled.

The creatures in the distance tear their attention away from her. Robin panicks, rushing behind Nancy and Steve as Rhys rushed over to Steve's side, pushing Eddie behind him. The group of bats land near them, over the gate. "Alright. There's not that many." Steve says as the creatures screech at them. "We can take 'em?" Rhys glanced at the Harrington. "We should." He nods confidently.

But then a whole swarm came flying. "Or not..." Rhys says quietly as Eddie just squeezed Rhys' hand in his, stepping closer. "The woods. Come on." Nancy ushered them before they all began running, following after her.

"Great. More running."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

authors note i saw a tiktok about robin's lines being a theatre kid's "one liners" and i kinda get it... like the "you were saying?" or "great more running" now i can't hear it the same anymore as i did the first time 😭
+ i nearly forgot to update lol