𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐲

twenty. IN THE PAST.

THE GROUP of five now hide under Upside Down Skull Rock, watching the sky for the swarm of bats that now fly over. "Those things are fucking scary." Rhys whispers, his hand was tightly interlocked in Eddie's. "No kidding." Eddie mumbled, leaning closer. Once they were out of sight, Robin got up carefully, "okay. That was close." She says as the others follow. "Yeah. Too close." Eddie agreed.

"Oh, sh... shit." Steve leans against the rock, making Nancy look over. "Steve? Jesus." She rushed over as he says he's fine to her, despite the fact he clearly wasn't. Nancy ushered him to sit as the other three just watched. Rhys turns around, crossing his arms as Robin rambled about rabies again to Steve who then tells him he wants to punch her which just made her chuckle. Eddie turns around, looking around all while Nancy bandaged Steve up.

"This place is creepy." Rhys mutters, walking over to stand by Eddie who just looks at him. "I'm gonna climb up there." He pointed and then did so while Rhys just watched. "Yeah, you go ahead and do that..." He says, staring. "So, uh," Eddie now stood on the top, turning around. "This place is like Hawkins, but with monsters and nasty shit?" He asked and Nancy looks over. "Pretty much." She says, helping up Steve and then Eddie softly nods, about to go back down. "Wait, watch out for the vines. It's all a hive mind." Nancy calls out to him.

"It's all a what?" Rhys asked as Eddie looks all around him, at the slithering vines. "All the creepy crawlies around here. They're, like, one or something. You step on a vine, you're stepping on a bat, you're stepping on Vecna." Steve says, gesturing around as Eddie glanced around. "Shit." He merely says and Rhys held out his hand. "Come on, I got you." He says and Eddie starts carefully walking closer to him, stepping over the vines as Robin asked Nancy and Steve questions, mentioning hijacking the police station for their armory.

"I got you," Rhys whispers as Eddie now jumps down, smiling faintly at his boyfriend. "I have guns in my bedroom." Nancy says making the two look over right away. "You, Nancy Wheeler, have guns, plural, in your bedroom?" Eddie asked and Robin points at him. "Full of surprises, isn't she?" She asked, grinning. "A Russian Makarov and a revolver." The curly headed girl now tells Eddie.

"Yeah, you almost shot me with that one." Steve came to stand by her and she looks over, smiling. "You almost deserved it." She says and Rhys glanced between them, grimacing a bit as Eddie ripped off his vest and tossed it straight at Steve's face. "For your modesty, dude." He says as Steve just softly nods.

The ground shook all of the sudden, rumbling as Rhys grabbed Eddie right away, falling to the ground as Robin clutched onto both of them. The three stayed on the ground like that, holding onto one another, until the earthquake stopped. The sound of a loud creature caught their attention as they slowly sat up, Eddie's arms around both Rhys and Robin. "Yeah, so guns seem like a pretty good idea to me." Eddie says quickly. "Yeah, me too." Robin says before she quickly leaned away from them.

"You okay?" Rhys asked Eddie who was about to ask him the same thing. "Yeah..." The Munson whispered. "So what are we waiting for?" Steve asked as he now passed by, wearing Eddie's Dio vest. "Come on." Rhys got up, holding out his hand and Eddie got up, grabbing his hands. They interlock their fingers together and they all walked together, following after Steve who's leading the way.

After some point, Steve had fallen behind the group, Nancy and Robin were up ahead and Rhys was following shortly behind them. He overhears Robin complain about how creepy these woods were and Nancy reassure her as Steve then called out to Eddie, "Eddie!" He got closer to the long haired boy and Rhys glanced back at the pair curiously.

Steve was thanking Eddie. He furrows his brows before looking to the front again, keeping his distance to give them space and privacy to talk. When Rhys hears the other two stop behind him, he slowed down and glanced back to see Eddie pointing towards the girls and telling Steve something before walking away from him, over to Eddie who smiles, holding out his hand towards his boyfriend who took it.

Right when their hands connect, the ground shook and rumbled beneath them, "shit!" Rhys falls to the ground, holding an arm around Eddie's waist. Up ahead, Robin was shouting after Nancy so once the earthquake was over, the three men follow Robin over to where Nancy was standing, staring off into the distance at a house, a house that Rhys assumed was hers. "Come on." She walks off and the other four were quick to follow.

The five walk into the house together, following behind Nancy. It's covered completely in vines and Upside Down gunk. "Might be time to get a maid, Wheeler." Robin says as they looked around. "Come on. I don't want to stay here longer than we have to." Nancy tells them, heading up the staircase with Robin, Rhys and Eddie right behind her.

She opens up the closer doors in her room with the other three behind her who then follow her over to the desk. They watch her open up the shoebox to a pair of high heels. "Those are so cute, but they aren't guns, Wheeler." Rhys looks at the girl on the other side of Eddie. "These heels are a bit pointy, but I was hoping for something along the lines of a deadly projectile." Robin looks at Nancy.

"I don't understand." She looks away. "Maybe you left them somewhere else." Eddie looks around. "There's a six-year-old in the house. I know where I keep my guns." Nancy says in a firm tone at the older and Rhys just stared at her. "And also, I threw these away years ago." Nancy says, looking back at the heels.

She now picks up a bunch of flashcards, flipping through them. "I get that grades are important to you, but perhaps studying can wait til we get out?" Robin asked and Nancy looks up. "These are from sophomore chemistry. And this... this wallpaper," she pointed at the walls, "this is old wallpaper." She added on.

"And this mirror," she pointed to a mirror framed by white wicker ontop of a dresser. "This went to a yard sale. And you..." The curly haired girl picks up the stuffed animal on the bed. "You're not supposed to be here. No, I gave you to cousin Joanna two years ago." She walks around her bed, walking over to the table by it where she picked up a journal.

"I--I don't understand..." Rhys looked around the room as the girl flips through the pages, landing on a paper with the date being November 6, 1983, the day Will went missing. "What is it?" Eddie asked the girl who's frozen in spot by her bed, looking at her journal. "Nancy? You're freaking me out." Robin says as Rhys watched Nancy with a careful gaze.

"I think the reason that my guns aren't here is because they don't exist yet." She says and Robin looks at Eddie who spoke up. "They don't... exist?" He asked. "This diary," she turns around to face them, "should be full of entries. It's not. The last entry is November 6, 1983. The day Will went missing. The day the gate opened. We're in the past." She explained and Rhys immediately looks at Robin and Eddie who also glance over at him.

"Dustin! Dustin!"

authors note man... i'm getting excited but so scared bc of like the ending and stuff

+ SORRY I FORGOT TO UPDATE TODAY HAVE THIS PHOTO

Fruity™️