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JACKIE PUSHED while Lucas navigated, explaining what exactly the Squawk was and how they'd practically taken over the building as a meeting place. It had been surprisingly hard getting Lucas to agree to let Jackie push Max around on the wheelchair, because as much as Jackie didn't want to abandon her sister's side, Lucas felt the same.
She still won the debate, though.
"My sister," Jackie stated, waving a finger in his face. "Sisters before misters. Move it, wench."
Lucas had thrown his hands up in defeat, and that's how they ended up where they were now—in the basement watching Dustin draw up a diagram on the glass. Jackie had snagged one of Steve's old sweaters that she kept in the Squawk van, grateful for another layer of warmth. They'd found an extra pair of jeans for Max, helping her climb into them.
Perched on the arm of the couch, Jackie remained next to her sister. She probably would—for the rest of her life. There was no chance in hell Max would ever be out of her line of sight again.
"This is Hawkins," Dustin went on to explain. He drew a simple diagram, a large circle with a line in the middle. "This is the Upside Down. We've always assumed the Upside Down was another dimension opened by Brenner, but it turns out, it's actually a bridge. More specifically, an interdimensional bridge that rips through space and time. It is wildly unstable, but held together by exotic matter. Which we found.. dead center right above the lab. In theoretical physics, they call this type of bridge a.."
"Wormhole," Erica stated.
Dustin pointed at her. "And this wormhole connects Hawkins to here. Another world that I've coined the Abyss."
"Any particular reason?" Robin asked.
"A realm of pure chaos and evil," Mr. Clarke mused. Jackie blinked at him.
"I'm sorry?"
"D&D," several of them explained in unison.
Hopper scoffed. "Jesus Christ."
"I believe this Abyss is the true home of the demogorgans, the vines, the Mind Flayer, all the nasty shit we found in the Upside Down." He nodded at Eleven. "And it's where all those years ago you banished Henry. He was lost for years, and he would've stayed lost if it wasn't for Brenner."
"He had me find Henry," Eleven elaborated.
"And when you made remote contact with the Abyss, the bridge formed. And ever since, Henry and his army of monsters have been using it to cross right back into Hawkins. We kicked Vecna's ass last year, but he just fled across this bridge back to the Abyss to lick his wounds."
"What a pussy," Erica scoffed.
"You can say that again," Jackie agreed.
"So all this time, Vecna's been hiding in the sky?" Joyce wondered.
