"I swear, if I'm dying tonight because of you, I'm gonna haunt your ass so hard, Harrington!"
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah! I'm gonna go full Poltergeist and shit!"
"Then bring it, Graveswood."
"Challenge accepted."
***
In which after years of suppressing their...
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Chapter One-Hundred-And-Forty-Five: Lights Out
(The Nina Project, Pt. 3)
***
Rowan stared at the flickering lights of the defunct chandelier, her throat dry.
She wasn't looking at the chandelier. She was looking at the berserk rainbow of Christmas lights in the Byers house, the smell of gasoline and burned flesh in her nose. She was looking at the neon frenzy of the lights at Starcourt Mall, the feel of blood on her hands. She was looking at every single goddamned light that flickered with the Upside Down's presence, of the person or thing that was on the other side. The alert that something was walking underneath the lights...
Or trying to break through.
Steve's hand found hers, holding it tight. His hand holding hers was comforting, a support that grounded her, that let her know he was here, that he knew how she felt seeing flickering lights. Rowan smiled and squeezed his hand back, both in appreciation and in support. She knew how he felt toward flickering lights, too.
Looking back again at the chandelier, Rowan frowned. There was only one reason those lights could be flickering like that—fuck, the only reason they were even on.
The Upside Down.
"It's like the Christmas lights," Nancy whispered, eyes also fixed on the hazy golden light that flickered steadily.
"The Christmas lights?" Robin echoed, frowning. Beside her, Valerie and Leo also looked confused.
"Yeah, when Will was in the Upside Down, the lights... came to life," Nancy explained.
"It's how Joyce knew he was still alive," Alistair pitched in softly.
"And it also served as a pretty damn good alarm for the Demogorgon," Rowan muttered, the scar on her hand twitching with the memory. Nancy's hand—the one with her scar—also gave a reflexive twitch at the memory as she nodded and murmured, "Yeah, it did."
Steve looked at her, his fingers grazing that scar as Rowan looked back and whispered, "Do you remember that night, Steve?"
"Yeah, I remember. I don't think I'll ever forget it... or how fucking scared I was I wasn't there in time to save you, or Nancy," Steve replied, low enough for only her to hear. "You?"
"I don't think I could forget it even if I tried."
Steve pressed the side of his body against hers, and Rowan leaned into it, the comforting support.
"Okay, so lights flicker because of alternate dimensions. Cool, that's cool. Not terrifying at all," Leo muttered, voice sounding strained. Valerie patted his shoulder in support.
Nancy's frown deepened, her mind working as she looked at the lights, as Lucas said, "Vecna's here. In this house. Just on the other side."
The words sent a chill through Rowan even as a sense of relief filled her at knowing where Vecna definitely was, why her dreams took her to Upside Down Creel House. Vecna was a creature of the Upside Down—the flickering lights proved it. He just... somehow could kill teenagers and a family despite the lack of an open gate with his Freddy Krueger shtick.
