Hellfire (Eddie Munson x OC Stranger Things Fanfiction)

Chapter 19: Dustin, Can You Hear Me?

Nancy slowly opens the door, entering the Upside Down version of her house, followed closely by Steve, Robin and then Eddie and I.

Steve looks around with the flashlight, looking for a sign of any potential monsters. I look around as he shines the flashlight, noticing a dust-like substance swirling in the air and vines covering every surface.

"Might be time to get a maid, Wheeler," Robin jokes, causing me to snort.

"Come on. I don't want to stay here longer than we have to," Nancy says, leading us to the stairs.

As I start to go up, I feel a hand gently slap my ass. I turn quickly spotting Eddie looking far too happy with himself. I raise my eyebrow at him. Fortunately, it wasn't the side he was spanking.

"Sorry, sweetheart. Couldn't resist," he whispers, followed by a chuckle. I roll my eyes but continue moving up the stairs closely following Nancy and Robin, Eddie behind me.

Nancy strides into her room, quickly closing the distance to her wardrobe. She pulls the doors open, pulling out a shoe box from the top shelf.

We follow as she places the box on her desk, quickly opening it up. Her hand slows as she opens up the tissue paper inside the box, revealing a pair of white pumps.

"Those aren't guns," Eddie says, pointing out the obvious. What the hell are we going to do now?

"These heels are a bit pointy, but I was hoping for something along the lines of a deadly projectile," Robin says, looking at Nance.

"I don't understand," Nancy says, confusion on her face.

"Maybe you left them somewhere else?" Eddie asks Nancy.

"There's a six-year-old in the house. I know where I keep my guns," she snaps. "And also, I threw these away years ago."

I notice Nancy looking at some flip cards, another look of confusion crossing her face. She picks them up and flicks through them.

"I get that grades are important, but perhaps studying can wait till we get out?" Robin says.

"These are from sophomore Chemistry, and this...this wallpaper, this is old wallpaper."

Nancy starts pacing around her room, something slowly clicking into place in her mind.

"And this mirror, this went to a yard sale, and you...you're not supposed to be here."

Nancy picks up a stuffed toy, gently holding it in her hands as she continues her pacing.

"No, I gave you to Cousin Joanna two years ago."

She walks over to the other side of her bed. Noticing her diary, she picks it up, flicking through the pages. I glance at Eddie as he looks at me, shrugging.

"What is it?" Eddie asks, seeing Nance freeze on a certain page in her diary.

"Nancy? You're freaking me out," Robin says, moving closer to me.

"I think the reason that my guns aren't here is because they don't exist yet."

"They don't... exist?"

"This diary 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."

Eddie grabs my hand as I share a look with both him and Robin.

"Dustin! Dustin!" we suddenly hear Steve yell out from downstairs.

Robin starts running towards his voice, the rest of us bringing up the rear. I panic thinking the worst has happened to Dustin.

"Dustin! Can you hear me? Dustin!"

We race into the room, myself almost slipping. Just to see Steve losing his mind.

"Dust- Hello? Hel... Hello?" Steve shouts.

"Maybe he really does have rabies," Robin whispers.

I snort at Robin's comment, but she does have a point.

"Hello! Hello?" Steve continues.

"Steve, what are you doing?" Nancy says, pulling Steve away from his shouting.

Turning towards us quickly, Steve manages to blind us with his flashlight. I didn't want to see anyway. Thanks Harrington!

"He's here. Henderson. That little shit, he's here. He's like... he's in the walls or something. Just listen."

But, before we could actually hear for ourselves, Steve continues shouting for Dustin.

"Dustin! Dustin! Can you hear me?"

Then, I hear it. The unmistakable intelligent ramblings of our beloved little Henderson.

"That brings us to the question you first raised. How and why is there a gate at Lover's Lake?" we hear an eerie echo of his voice say.

We each split up, looking around for any sign of Dustin.

"Dustin!" Nancy shouts as she moves across the room, passing Eddie.

I notice him look behind a small curtain so I stand and stare at him, hand on my hip. He turns and notices.

"What?" he asks.

"What makes you think he's going to be behind a curtain?" I ask in return.

"I wasn't looking behind the curtain. I was looking outside. Why aren't you looking?" he replies and I roll my eyes before continuing my search.

"Dustin?"

"Dustin!"

"All right, either this kid can't hear us or he's being a total douchebag," Steve says, finally giving up his search.

"Will found a way," Nancy says.

"What?"

"Will. He found a way to speak to Joyce through the lights."

"Lights? The switch. Try the switch."

"Okay."

Nancy flicks the switch, but nothing happens.

"Guys? You seeing this?" Steve says, shining his flashlight at something near the ceiling.

I look at where Steve is shining his flashlight, noticing a light fixture surrounded by glowing particles. Nancy slowly moves towards it, holding out her hand and moving it into the particles.

"Whoa," Eddie says, noticing the way the glowing particles react to Nancy's hand. He takes my hand in his as we walk over to the light fixture with Robin.

Nancy removes her hand and the glowing particles stop moving and as we reach the light fixture, Steve puts his hand into the glowing particles.

I join and seeing my face light up at the sensation, Eddie sticks his hand in. He's followed by Robin then Nancy again, so we're all standing there fondling some glowing particles.

"It...tickles," Steve says and I nod. It certainly does tickle. It feels really nice.

"It kinda feels good," Robin says.

"Does anyone know Morse code?" Nancy asks, removing her hand again.

"No," Robin, Steve and I say in unison.

"Wait, does SOS count?" Eddie asks and I look at him, dumbfounded. "Is that...is that good?"