𝐈 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐘𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧 𝐈𝐝𝐢𝐨𝐭 (𝘋𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯 𝘏𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯)

23. Escape.

┏━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┓
𝐘/𝐧'𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐯
┗━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┛

The three of us walked into the living room with our plan while Max was still being interrogated, and I watched as Lucas swiftly pulled the plug on the lite brite that sat up in front of Holly.

She frowned and Dustin swooped in and grabbed the entire thing from the girl. I handed her a bag full of Skittles, unopened.

"For your understanding." Erica said briefly.

"Sorry, Holly." I smiled guiltily at the small blonde girl.

We hurried back upstairs to Nancy's room to get everything ready.

"Okay, that's it, that's it!" Dustin said, turning to Lucas who put the last bit of the light bright in. "Go, go, go, go!"

I rolled my eyes at the boys but sat next to the light bright intently.

Lucas grabbed the plug and dove to the ground.
He put the plug in the socket and the lite bright softly illuminated with colors. "Okay, you guys seeing this?!" He called out.

The lite brite hummed with energy, and the light pulsated slightly. "Holy shit!" Erica exclaimed, and Dustin laughed in excitement and smiled at me.

Dustin wrapped his arms around me in a hug, surprised that his plan worked. I giggled and hugged him back as he shook me.

"We're not moving it, but we're gonna unplug it." Dustin called out to Nancy and the others.

"Stand by!" I called out to the air, feeling silly.

Dustin turned to Lucas. "Yank it!" He ordered.

The lite brite template shut off, and we all waited in front of Nancy's bed with anticipation.

"Okay, try it now." I said, loud enough I figured they could hear from the presumable upside down.

Suddenly, the pegs of color on the light bright started to draw letters.

"H..." Dustin started to spell out.

"Hi!" I finished with a smile of excitement.

"Hey!" Dustin grinned. "Hi! That worked!"

The letters disappeared and we waited for the next set of words to appear. "S... T... U..." We all paused since it didn't seem to make a full word.

"S-stupid?" Dustin frowned. "Stupid?"

"..C..K." I read as the last letters lit up.

"Stuck." Erica said.

"Oh." Dustin sighed.

"Okay, they're stuck in the Upside Down!" Lucas said.

"Uhh, you can't get back through Watergate?" Dustin asked.

"Is that a six?" Dustin asked, confused.

"No... I think it's- I think it's a G?" I said, unsure.

"It's a G." Erica confirmed.

"U... A... R..?" We read in unison.

"Guar?" Dustin leaned forward, hoping that would be it.

"Like the band?" I said, earning an eye roll from Dustin who giggled.

"D...E...D..." Lucas continued to read. "Guarded?" He offered.

"Guarded!" Dustin confirmed, staring at the shimmering lights. "Okay, uh, Watergate's guarded."

"...Perfect, yes!" I heard Steve's voice echo.

"Okay, think we have a theory that can help with that! We- er, Dustin thinks Watergate isn't the only gate. That there's a gate at every murder site." I spoke slightly too loud and Dustin motioned for me to tune it down.

A question mark formed on the template in the rainbow of colors.

Lucas lowered his head and I sighed.

"Okay, seriously? How many times do I have to be right on the money before you guys just trust me?" Dustin huffed, annoyed.

——

Dustin and I clambered down the stairs together with our hands interlinked, towards Max who was playing her mixtape again. I waved her over, and she managed to slip away.

"Where are we going?" Max asked us, as she followed us back up the stairs.

"We'll explain on the way!" Dustin whispered back. "Right now, we've got to go get some bikes."

We met back in Nancy's room, where Lucas and Erica were opening the window, and finding a way out. The boys led us girls to the garage to grab the bikes the Wheelers' kept in the basement.

"Let's go!" Lucas whispered.

We all snuck out of the basement door and around the front of the house, dragging our bikes through the front lawn carelessly.

"Careful!" Max scolded quietly.

Suddenly, commotion sounded from the big front window and I could see the two officers heading towards the front door.

"Guys, we gotta hit the road." I said quietly, my voice antsy as Dustin pushed my bike with his foot to keep it from toppling over when I checked over my shoulder.

"Hey!" Officer Callahan called from the window.
"Excuse me! No, get back here!" We turned to see him starting across the lit up living room, towards our group.

"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" Dustin panicked, and hopped on his bike.

"I guess it's just a minor misdemeanor." Erica muttered to herself, as she popped the tires of the police cars parked in the driveway.

We pedalled off into the dark night in a row of bikes, like a little family off to god knows where.

Word count: 1k (sorry it's short I'm unmotivated and feel bad for leaving u hanging)