The Babysitters ♡ Steve Harrington

Episode 6

"Jonathan! Nancy!" Dustin continued to call their names as we ran up the flights of stairs, our footsteps echoing against the metal.

Turning for the next set of stairs, my body collided into a figure. Strong hands caught my waist before I could fall and I looked up to see Steve's startled face. 

Dustin crashed into my back before shoving by us and continuing to climb.

"Woah! What the hell are you doing!?" Steve shouted, but I didn't answer as I grabbed his wrist and dragged him after Dustin.

Dustin lifted the walkie to his mouth. "Listen to me! Don't touch anything!"

"What is happening!?" Steve demanded as we ran. "Thena, talk to me!"

"I don't know! Dustin found something!" I called back as my heart pounded in my chest.

Whatever Dustin found, it certainly wasn't good because I've never seen him like this.

Out of nowhere, the entire building shook, throwing us all off-balance. Steve and I fell to the ground as he tried to protect my body from getting hurt. 

My head snapped up as Dustin was still on the landing above us.

"Dustin!" I crawled up the stairs as he sat stunned on the floor.

"Henderson!" Steve climbed forward and joined us. "Dustin. Dustin. Hey. What the hell was that? Was that the shield generator? Did they find it?

Dustin looked out of it as he stared at the ceiling. "I was wrong. I was terribly, catastrophically wrong."

"Dustin..." I grabbed his arm. "...what the hell did you find?"

Dustin took a moment before glancing at Steve. "After you left, Steve, we found a journal. Brenner's journal. The key to destroying that wall is in this lab, but it is not a shield generator. It isn't dark magic. Vecna didn't make it. Science did. Theoretical physicists call it exotic matter. A single source of energy that is holding that giant wall together and I think Nancy just shot it."

Steve furrowed his eyebrows. "How is any of that bad? That's exactly why we're here, to get through this wall."

"You are not listening to me!" Dustin snapped.

"Yes, I am listening to you." Steve argued.

"Steve, if Vecna didn't make that wall...he isn't on the other side." I explained.

"Which means Holly and the missing kids aren't either. Nobody is." Dustin continued.

Steve looked between us. "Then what the hell is on the other side of that wall?"

Silence remained for a very long moment as tears glistened in Dustin's eyes.

"Dustin?" I whispered.

"What is on the other side of the wall?" Steve repeated his question.

"Death." Dustin revealed and my stomach dropped. "This whole time, everything we have ever assumed about the Upside Down has been dead wrong. This place, the Upside Down, it isn't another dimension. It's not another world. It's a wormhole. A bridge between two points in time and space, between our world and another."

"What if...the bridge collapses?" I asked. "What happens?"

"It will take us with it." Dustin met our eyes. "All of us."

-

The stairwell hummed faintly while Dustin continued flipping through Brenner's journal. Steve paced the small landing area while I sat leaning against the railing, bouncing my leg.