Time After Time (a Stranger Things fanfiction)

Oh, My Love

"Oh, My Love"

Oh my lover for the first time in my life

My eyes can see

- John Lennon

Murray was staring at the little screen, watching as Hopper and the other surviving prisoner scrambled through the open doors. "Close it, Joyce," he whispered. Then he said it again, screaming this time: "Close it!"

Joyce slammed her hand on the button.

Hopper stood in the doorway with the dying torch, desperately holding the Demogorgon at bay. He didn't know what sadistic torture it was to let him and Antonov live another day, but now that he was here, nearly safe, he intended to take full advantage of every moment. He was not about to be eaten by this thing when steel doors were a foot away from slamming shut between him and it.

And then it happened: The flame went out. He stared at the tip of the spear, his eyes wide. No. Not now. Not yet. Another minute, maybe two. But the fire wasn't listening to his pleas. It was gone, and the doors hadn't closed.

Even as he realized the peril, the Demogorgon's claws closed around the edges of the doors. It roared at him. He might not speak its language, but he knew triumph when he heard it. Still shrieking at him, it put pressure on the doors, and they began to open again. It managed to pull them far enough apart to stick its face inside, screaming so that all the petals opened up, exposing its gaping maw.

Hopper had only one weapon left, the lance, and only one thing left that he could do with it. Without even thinking about it, he hurled it straight into the Demogorgon's open mouth. And for once, something went right. The lance landed dead center, sending the Demogorgon staggering back with the force of its strike.

Slapping at the giant stick hanging from its face meant the Demogorgon had to let go of the doors. It moved out into the center of the pit.

Slowly, the doors began closing again. At last they slammed shut with a clang, leaving Hopper and Antonov alone in the dark. Alone, and safe. At least for now. For long enough to take a breath.

But it wasn't completely dark inside. A single bulb flickered on the other side of the cell they found themselves in. One prison for another; one enclosed space full of known danger leading to another enclosed space full of danger they couldn't yet predict.

Hopper found his breath again and turned around, joining Antonov next to the interior door. This one was metal, too. Of course it was. This cell had been built to hold a far more powerful creature than two injured and exhausted men.

Antonov looked at him, panting and smiling. "For a second, I thought we had your miracle." They both moved, grasping the bars at the side of the cell, assuring themselves that there was no way out. "But out of one prison into another."

Inside the prison, an alarm was blaring. Well, of course it was. Whatever had happened to let them in here was not supposed to have happened. The courtyard was supposed to be painted with their dead bodies, the Demogorgon sated and victorious back here where they were. Hopper wondered what the punishment would be for not dying. Would it be worse than death would have been?

*****

Joyce watched, her heart in her throat, as the doors began to close, as the monster tried to get in.

Relief filled her as it staggered back into the pit, clawing at the spear hanging off of its face. She and Murray stared at the screen, barely daring to breathe, until the doors had closed fully.

"The gate, Joyce. Open the gate."

"Which one?"

"I don't know! You found the other button."

"You told me not to press them all!"

"Well ... maybe I was wrong."

At any other time, she would have made a sarcastic remark at the admission—it was the first time she had ever heard him suggest that he might be wrong about anything—but not now. Now she needed to get to Hopper, needed to hold him and be sure that he was real, that he was actually there and alive, that she wasn't just dreaming this whole crazy situation.

She cursed the Russian prison builders for making all the walls and all the floors look exactly alike. How was she to know she wasn't taking a wrong turn, burying herself deeper into the bowels of the prison, instead of getting closer to where Hopper was?

*****

Hopper and Antonov had barely had time to sink into the depths of despair when they heard the clonk of metal, the interior door beginning to open. He wanted to prepare himself for whatever punishment, whatever fresh level of hell lay on the other side, but he was so tired, he was willing to take whatever it was, just to have some peace.

Still, out of long habit, he prepared himself for a fight as the door slid open in front of him, ducking through it and coming out to find that he was to endure the worst punishment of all: He had lost his mind. He must have. Because there was no other way that Joyce Byers could be standing in front of him in the middle of a prison in the depths of the Russian wilderness.