𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐒, ronance

𝟎𝟐. 𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗗 𝗢𝗙 𝗙𝗔𝗧𝗘

The revelations of the experiment lingered in the air like an unspoken truth.

Robin and Nancy emerged from the dimly lit room, their minds racing with questions and a growing sense of unease. They navigated back through the labyrinth of corridors; the distant echoes of their footsteps reverberated through the stillness.

Nancy glanced at Robin, her eyes reflecting the shared gravity of their discovery. "We need to find out what they were doing here, who was behind it. Would it have been El?"

Robin blinked at the ground, thinking it over in her head. Then she shook her head, "I'm not sure, but whatever it is, it goes beyond a front-page story, Wheeler. We could be dealing with another Upside Down-sized catastrophe!"

Robin could feel herself spiral as her brain started to pick up speed. She began to pace, mumbling something to herself that even she couldn't quite understand.

A flickering light at the end of the corridor caught Nancy's attention. She grabbed Robin's sleeve and tugged, causing her to freeze mid-pace. Robin tightened her grip on her camera as Nancy moved her torchlight over another room. This door wasn't hanging off the hinges like the last one; this one was missing the door completely.

As the two girls walked down the corridor toward the door, Robin didn't let go of Nancy's hand. She shouldered her camera by the strap and followed Nancy through the door.

This room was the same size as the last one and dimly lit. The walls were covered with charts, diagrams, and photographs, each revealing small fragments of the experiment's purpose.

Nancy scanned the room, her gaze narrowing on two interconnected... timelines?

"What the hell?" Nancy asked in a whisper, breaking the silence that had fallen over the room, "Robin, look at this."

"Hmm?" Robin made a noise as she turned around, following Nancy's gaze to the two intertwined lines, "Is that-"

"Time travel," Nancy finished.

"But it's also about merging realities," Robin returned, slightly hurt that Nancy cut her off. Noticing the confusion on Nancy's face, however, the hurt disappeared.

Robin bit her lip, then pointed toward the two lines, "See? The Upside Down, our world... it's all connected here."

"But why would they want that horrible place to merge with Hawkins?" Nancy asked, looking back at Robin with concern on her face.

Robin shrugged, "Dunno. Your guess is as good as mine."

Nancy stood up abruptly, pacing in a small circle, mulling over everything she had just learned in her head, "So this experiment... they tried to stitch together two different dimensions and failed? Which is why the Upside Down is still bleeding into our world?"

Robin's attention shifted to a dusty chalkboard covered in arcane symbols and equations. The room seemed frozen in a moment of forgotten urgency, as if the people had abruptly abandoned their work, leaving behind this mess.

Before Robin could respond, a sudden gust of wind swept through the room, knocking the flickering light overhead off one of its chains. It swung on its final chain, right for Robin's head.

Nancy grabbed Robin's arm and yanked her forward. Robin tripped over the chair between them, and Nancy fell forward, catching herself before she fell on top of Robin. The room plunged into darkness, and the whispers they had heard before started to grow louder into an unintelligible murmur.

Nancy pulled Robin to her feet but didn't let go of her, "We need to leave," she said, looking around for the exit. The darkness seemed thicker than it should've been. Nancy could stick her finger out and touch it, almost as if it were the surface of a bottomless black lake.

Nancy started toward what she thought was the exit, but Robin wouldn't move. She was frozen, glued to the spot. Nancy felt for her in the dark, and she felt her fingers brush Robin's hair.

"Robin, we need to leave. We need-" The murmuring grew louder, and Nancy could feel Robin shaking under her hands. Without waiting for Robin to come to her senses, Nancy grabbed Robin around the wrist and started to retrace her steps through the room.

When she reached the door, Robin seemed to wake up and help Nancy find her way. The murmurs grew even louder and eventually erupted into a chorus of urgent warnings. The air crackled with electricity, and the shadows started to stretch. Robin glanced around and could barely make out dust floating around in the air.

Not dust, she thought. Particles.

Nancy and Robin ran harder than they'd ever run before, and once they reached the exit, they threw open the doors, gasping for breath. Having the same thought, the two girls spun around and threw their backs against the door, each clutching a stitch in their side.

Nancy doubled over, groaning. Robin put her hand on Nancy's back, rubbing a series of circles over her spine. "Alright, there, Nance?" Robin asked, blowing a piece of hair out of her face.

Nancy sucked in a large breath, then stood up straight, squeezing her eyes shut. When she opened them, she was looking right at Robin. The two girls exchanged a wary glance, and a new layer of understanding settled between them. The mysteries of Hawkins had deepened. Again.

The night air outside the lab felt charged, and a distant rumble of thunder made Nancy jump. Robin still didn't have a license, so they had come in Nancy's car.

Together, they sat in a hesitant silence that was heavy with unspoken thoughts.

"Time travel..." Nancy said to herself, "This all seems like something Murray would think up," she added absently.

Robin snorted, caught off guard by how funny, yet accurate, Nancy was.

"It seems a bit more than another Hawkins conspiracy, don't you think, though?" Nancy continued, "I mean- it's like they were messing with the very essence of our reality!"

"Could be," Robin responded absently, "That, or maybe you're just looking for an excuse to use the word essence." Robin smiled over at Nancy.

"It explains the whispers, doesn't it?" Nancy asked, returning to seriousness but not letting the smile fade from her eyes.

Robin tapped her fingers rhythmically on the dashboard with a nervous energy that was seeking an outlet, "Whatever they did, it's still happening. We must figure out how to stop it before Hawkins becomes ground zero, yet again, for another supernatural disaster."

Nancy took a breath and then looked at Robin, who met her gaze, "We can't do it alone. We need to get the party back together."

Robin smiled, "Hell, yeah, we do," she said, clicking her seatbelt in place, "We've got a town to save! Again," Robin laughed at this, and Nancy did, too.

The tension in the car began to ease as a plan started to take shape. Little did they know, however, that the shadows cast by the experiment had already begun to weave a different fate, intertwining Hawkins' residents' lives in ways they couldn't yet comprehend.

As the car pulled away from the lab, the distant thunder grew louder, echoing the uncertainty that lay ahead.

What Robin and Nancy didn't know was that a subtle shift had occurred in that car -- a glance was held a fraction longer, and the touch of fingers lingered for an extra beat of the heart.