WILDFIRE ↝ E. MUNSON

[20]

Lily Mayfield had never been privy to the gates of the Upside Down. She hadn't lived in Hawkins when the Demogorgon first attacked, leaving small openings in its wake with every strike. She'd been blissfully unaware a year later when the Mind Flayer had inhabited Will Byers, up until the gate underneath Hawkins Lab was closed. And she'd been too busy fighting alongside her friends in the mall while a gate ran wild in the basement, until it'd been shut for what they had always hoped was for good.

When she swam down through the dark, murky depths of Lovers Lake, she didn't quite know what she was searching for. She couldn't see anything in front of her, but the instant she caught a glimpse of the faint red glow, every nightmare she'd ever had, every waking thought since the summer before, was now given a face.

An eerie red light pulsed through the endless mass of vines surrounding the gate, clinging like tentacles to the mud at the bottom of the lake. She continued to swim towards the center, reaching a hand out in front of her, and as the gravity began to shift, Lily was no longer swimming, but instead was flying through the air as it spat her out, landing on the hard, cracked ground a few feet away and she groaned, shutting her eyes tightly as she attempted to catch her breath.

"Lily!" a voice exclaimed, and Lily opened her eyes to reveal Sarah standing over her, offering her a hand.

"Thanks," Lily mumbled, allowing the girl to help her up to her feet, and it was only then that Lily allowed herself to take in their surroundings.

Where the mud normally lined the bottom of Lover's Lake, the ground beneath them was hard and dried out, giving it a cracked appearance. The lake was empty, with no sign of water in sight, though cliffs had still formed up above where the shoreline was in the real world. Vines not unlike the ones surrounding the gate stretched out as far as the eye could see, covering not only the ground, but everything in sight. In the distance, she could make out Reefer Rick's house and the boathouse against the shore, vines climbing up the sides of the buildings from several angles. The sky was dark, tinged with red as crimson streaks of lightning shot through the clouds, and everywhere she looked, white particles floated through the air.

She'd spent a lot of time trying to imagine what the Upside Down was like, and seeing it in her nightmares, but it had never looked quite as horrifying as this.

"Where's Eddie?" Nick asked. "Is he safe?"

"I don't know," Lily said. "He was still on the boa-"

Lily was cut off by a yell as Eddie fell through the gate, landing with a groan a few feet away from where the girls stood. He pulled himself up into a sitting position, rising to his feet while he grumbled about their current situation.

"Son of a bitch," Eddie began, studying the scene around them as a look of horror crossed his face. "God damn it. Whose fucking idea was this? Nicolette, you and I are going to have a chat later." As Eddie's eyes found Lily's, he took a step forward, an indiscernible expression taking over his features. "And what the hell were you thinking?" he demanded.

"I couldn't just let them go in alone, Eddie." she explained. "I had to help our friends."

"I'm not talking about that!" he exclaimed. "I'm not mad that you came to help them, I'm mad that you left without me! I thought we weren't getting separated again, not after all of this."

"Eddie, I-" she began, but was cut off by Steve's scream echoing in the distance, pulling all of their attention in the direction it had come from.

"Over there!" Nick exclaimed, taking off into a run, and the others followed.

Lily sprinted after them to see a group of winged creatures covering Steve's struggling form lying on the ground. The creatures were gray, batlike in appearance except for the long tail wrapped around Steve's throat and pinning him to the ground as two more attacked his sides. His blood pooled where the bats had torn into his skin, though it slowly dripped onto the ground below him. Next to him lay a discarded oar from a nearby boat, and Nancy picked it up, swinging it like a baseball bat as the nearest creature, knocking it away as it screeched and began to fly off into the distance.