Blue Lips

6

When Dustin woke up, it was cold. He opened his eyes and sat up, realizing that it was dark, he was on the ground, and the ground was damp. His clothes were damp. He sat up, looking around to see where he had ended up. He could hear DemoBats screeching. He turned his head to the left and saw Liz laying there, eyes shut, looking like she was asleep. He crawled over to her and grabbed her shoulder, which caused her to sit up with a start, gasping for air. "Holy shit," she whispered, whipping her head around, "it worked, Dustin." He nodded, standing up, unable to sit on the damp ground, anymore. "Yeah, it worked..." he said, trailing off as he spun around, trying to figure out where in the upside-down they'd ended up, "but where the hell are we?" Liz turned her head slowly, trying to decide where this would be, if they were in Hawkins. "I..." she stood up and turned in a circle, "I don't know, Dustin. I haven't ever seen anything like this, anywhere in Hawkins." She reached out and grabbed the boy's arm, careful not to squeeze too hard, but holding on firmly enough that he wouldn't disappear. She looked to her right, locking her attention on what looked like an old, abandoned factory. "Have you ever seen that building before?" She asked, pulling on Dustin's arm to get him to look in the same direction. He squinted at it for a moment, before shaking his head. "No," he said, after a long pause to think, "I haven't." Liz squinted at the building, trying to make out the words that were on the side of the building. There was a thick, smoke-like substance in the air, and it made it hard for her eyes to focus on the details of the building. "I think that we should go over there," she said softly, turning to look at Dustin. He nodded in agreement, taking a quick glance around the field to see if he could see anything that might tell him where they were, but he had no clue. All he knew was that they were definitely not in Hawkins. "I wonder if we're actually in his mind," Liz whispered next to him, breaking him out of his train of thought. "Maybe," he conceded, following close behind her, "I wonder how long we've actually been down. I know time moves differently in Hawkins than it does down here. I just wonder if it's been hours, or if it's only been a few minutes. I mean, how long were we laying on the ground, asleep?" His mind instantly shot to Mike, who was trapped somewhere, down here, with Dr. Death. "We have to hurry, Liz. Mike's probably still stuck." Their pace quickened and they made their way towards the abandoned factory, careful to avoid any vines or tentacles that they came across. They didn't want him to know that they were coming, so they were going to be as cautious as possible, just in case.

After jogging for what felt like half an hour, they decided to slow down a little bit, so that they could catch their breath and avoid being heard before they were seen. They made it to what Dustin assumed was the property line, and crouched below the grass line, behind some shrubs. He looked up at the building. It was probably 20 stories high, and it looked to be an abandoned mill. There was a name on the side of the building, in huge, faded block letters. Worley's. "Who the hell is Worley, and why is their abandoned mill the only building out here?" he asked, squinting to see if there was any movement inside through the sparse windows, but since the windows were so high up, there wasn't much of anything to be seen. He sighed, starting to stand up before Liz gripped his arm and pulled him back down. He looked at her and noticed that she was covered in goosebumps, staring straight ahead at the doorway into the building. "What is that?" she whispered, lifting her other hand to point. Dustin followed her finger, looking to see what she had seen. Standing in the doorway, was the shape of a man; but it didn't look normal. The proportions were off. The arms were too long, and the legs were too short. After squinting to look a little bit closer, Dustin noticed that he seemed to be wearing a cape. He had definitely not been in the doorway when Dustin had looked at the door previously, so why was he there, now? "Do you think he can see us?" he asked, trying to decide if the man really was looking at them. "I don't know," she answered, moving her head to peek through the shriveling grass and weeds. The man wasn't moving, as far as they could tell, until he suddenly appeared next to them.