Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Jason

“There’s another one over here!”

Voices crowded around Jason, muffled like he was underwater. He couldn’t move, couldn’t open his mouth to scream.

Jason remembered screaming. He remembered waking up to searing-hot pain, so blinding he’d barely even noticed his throat tearing from the force of his scream. Then there was nothing, no more pain, no fire burning him up from the inside, only a vague awareness that he wasn’t completely gone.

It was almost peaceful, like what Jason had been taught every Sunday since he’d been born. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

Jason had no idea how long he stayed in that nothingness, only that now there was something else, someone else there with him.

Forcing his eyes open, Jason only saw darkness. Twitching his fingers yielded only a thick, sticky feeling, like he’d stuck his hand in molasses.

More voices, closer now, then light cut through the darkness in a jagged line.

All at once, Jason fell forward, no longer supported by whatever was holding him up. Hands grabbed him, pulling him out of the sticky liquid. A rough feeling scraped against his face, wiping it clean until he could blink his eyes open properly.

The first thing Jason saw was an egg-like thing, not with a hard shell, but like a spider’s sac. Something thick and black was pouring from the hole Jason had been pulled out of.

Jason bent double, vomiting up more of the viscous ooze, tasting a disgusting mixture of bile, blood, and meat.

Someone bent down beside him, pressing a bottle to Jason’s lips. After the first gulp of water, he vomited again, but they kept feeding him water until he’d brought up all of the ooze.

“Finally got it all out?” a voice said from behind Jason. “I don’t want you barfing on me later.”

Blinking hard, Jason looked over at the person beside him. A teen girl with red hair and big glasses was holding the water bottle and watching him with concern. She looked familiar, but no, that couldn’t be her. Barbara Holland was dead. Besides, this girl had jagged white scars splitting her face into five pieces, and Barbara definitely hadn’t had that when he’d seen her in the class they shared.

Jason turned his attention to the boy standing a few feet away. Blond curls pulled back in a ponytail, a half-buttoned shirt, and a shit-eating grin that was frightening when paired with the rats perched on his shoulders, climbing up and down his legs, and peeking out from inside his shirt.

“You…” Jason croaked, his voice rough and scratchy. He knew the boy in front of him, not personally, but from school and from the obituaries and memorials after the mall fire.

Billy Hargrove spread his arms out wide, ignoring the rats taking the opportunity to run along them. “Welcome to hell.”

Chapter Text

Barb

Barb had been on her own for so long. Sure, there were the people from the lab, but they were scientists and soldiers—no one with good intentions was interested in hanging out with a teenage girl. So she walked alone, sometimes checking in on people in the town.

Going back home was always hard. Barb wished she could reach out to her parents, tell them I’m right here, but they could never hear her.

Checking on Nancy was harder. She blamed herself for what happened and no one could convince her it wasn’t her fault. But Nancy put on a brave face, pretended to be normal, kept the secret the government was forcing her to keep. Barb was proud of her, and so, so scared for her.

-

The only way out was through the lab, past armed guards and flamethrowers. They all felt it every time the flames burned the vines at the gate. It hurt so much.

What would the lab do if a group of dead people tried to escape? According to the scientists, they would without a doubt be experimented on. A fancy word for torture. That was if they weren’t killed first.

Then one day, the tunnels opened. A way out without risking death, or worse. A group of the scientists and soldiers left to set up a base camp and scout out a way to return without catching the government’s notice. Barb was threatened into staying—they were scared she’d run to her parents and ruin the whole thing.

The joke was on them—Barb didn’t even know what she would say if she went back to her parents. Hi Mom, hi Dad, I’m back from the dead. Don’t mind the scars, that’s just where my face splits open like the monster that killed me. Wanna see?

-

More people appeared after that, killed by the creatures inhabiting their new world. It would take time for them to adjust—most people didn’t want to spend their afterlife surrounded by the thing that killed them.

That was what Barb had come to think of it as—a kind of purgatory. Or hell.

When the gates closed again, no one knew what happened to the group that escaped. One moment, those remaining were all going about their usual business, then they were writhing on the ground as so many strings were cut, their connections severed.

The scientists theorized that without the connection to the hivemind, the ones who escaped couldn’t survive for long. Barb hoped they were wrong.

There still wasn’t anyone close to Barb’s age, which she supposed she should be grateful for. She never thought anything would make her miss high school, though.

One day, Barb heard a voice. “Are you okay?”

Looking up, Barb recognized the man. Bob Newby. She’d seen him with the Byers when she’d done her rounds, checking on everyone Nancy knew. She wondered briefly how he’d died—he didn’t have any obvious scars or other signs. Then she saw them, a pack of the smaller creatures that lingered a few steps behind him, watching him as if waiting for orders.

Bob followed Barb’s gaze, then gave her a sheepish smile. “I think they see me as some kind of leader?” he said. “It’s… strange.”

Stranger still was the orange cat weaving its way around them, its tail held high as it approached Barb. Squinting at the cat, Barb didn’t recognize it until it gave a small meow, one she’d heard before.

“Hi, Mews,” she said, holding her hand out for the cat to sniff. Poor thing. Mrs. Henderson must be devastated.

After sniffing Barb’s hand, Mews sat down, her mouth opening on a yawn. Then her entire face opened up, a horrifying mimicry of the creatures behind her. After her features settled back into place, she licked her lips like nothing had happened.

Barb stared at Mews. She didn’t think she’d see anything more horrifying than the monster that killed her, but that could certainly give any monster a run for its money.

“You two know each other?” Bob asked, leaning down to scratch the top of Mews’ head.

“No,” Barb said. “She belonged to the Hendersons.”

“You’re Barbara, right? I’m Bob.”

“Barb.”

“Nice to meet you, Barb.” When Barb raised a brow, Bob shrugged. “Well, you know what I mean.”

Barb smiled. “Yeah, I get it.”

“Mind if I sit with you?”

“Sure.”

-

Barb wasn’t alone after that. She hadn’t expected Bob to be such good company, but he really got it. The loneliness, the guilt of being unable to help the people you love, even the normal teenager stuff that Barb thought about when she wasn’t busy with the existential crisis of being turned into some half-monster hybrid. He kept Barb company, always accompanied by Mews and his pack of messed up dogs.

Chapter Text

Eddie

One minute, Eddie was talking to Dustin, choking out his words through the blood filling his mouth, then the next he was vomiting up a disgusting black ooze.

“Dustin?” Eddie croaked when he could finally speak. What the hell happened?

“Heather,” a voice said, a hand appearing in front of Eddie to help him up.

Eddie took the offered hand and stood, slowly coming back to awareness. He was in the Upside Down, he could tell that much. Even the air was different there. In front of him was a teen girl with brown curls, hands on her hips as she looked him up and down. Eddie became very aware that he wasn’t wearing any clothes in that moment.

“Your name’s Munson, right?”

Eddie nodded, trying to cover himself as best as he could. “Eddie.”

“Right. Good news or bad news first?”

“Get it over with, I guess.”

“You died.” When Eddie didn’t react, she added, “A monster killed you.”

“A bunch of them, actually. Bats,” Eddie said.

“Oh. Normally people don’t really get what happened. Good news, then.”

“I’m not actually dead?”

“Yep.” She shrugged. “Dunno how it works, so don’t ask me that. We just ended up here after we died.” She reached into a backpack she had with her, pulling out a set of clothes. “Figured these might fit you.”

It was a pair of slacks and a polo shirt that were way more preppy than Eddie would ever be caught dead in, but there wasn’t much choice. Once he was dressed, he asked, “Where’d you get these, anyway?”

“The Harrington house. Whatever this place is, it’s got all the same places as Hawkins. Except the mall," she added, frowning.

Steve’s clothes. Eddie wrinkled his nose. A shirt and pants seemed like a fair trade for his vest, but borrowing his underwear felt like a step too far. Beggars can’t be choosers, he thought.

Looking around, Eddie saw they were in a tunnel, clearly part of the Upside Down. “How do we get out of here?” he asked.

“We don’t,” Heather said. “Sorry. Come on, I’ll explain on the way.”

As they walked, Heather talked about the Upside Down. Parts of it, Eddie already knew—it was a copy of Hawkins, had lots of monsters, portals to Hawkins. Then she said, “We can’t go through the portals.”

Eddie froze mid-step. “Why not?” I have to get home, he thought.

Heather stopped, studying Eddie. “You know a lot about this place,” she said. “You know how the monsters are all…” she waved her hands around. “Connected?”

“Yeah?”

“When the portals close, any monsters on the other side die. The same goes for us.” Heather put her hands in her pockets and shrugged. “It’s not so bad once you get used to it. The company’s decent.”

“Who else is here?”

Heather gestured with her head for him to follow her instead of answering.

They made their way through the tunnels, ending up in an open area not far from the Creel house. Eddie squinted, looking for the bats, but they were nowhere to be seen.

How long was I out? Eddie wondered. He hoped the others made it out of there.

Heather led Eddie through the forest, stepping around the vines like she’d been doing it for years. Eventually, they ended up on a street Eddie recognized—he’d dealt enough to the rich kids in town to be familiar.

“Some of us hang out in our houses,” Heather said. “But it’s dangerous to be alone out here.”

The street ended in a cul-de-sac, where Eddie spotted the first lifeforms he’d seen aside from Heather. There were people sitting on porches and standing together in groups—aside from the red skies, the barricade of spikes at the entrance to the street, and the arsenal of weapons they were all carrying, it could have been a perfectly normal neighborhood.

Eddie watched a young teen run up to an elderly woman sitting in a rocking chair, yelling, “Hey, Mrs. Driscoll, look what I found!”

Driscoll took the board game the teen handed to her, smiling wide. “Thank you, Adam! Would you go and see if Heather has time for a game?”

“Later, Mrs. Driscoll!” Heather called. “Gotta show the new guy around.”

With a sad smile, Driscoll nodded at Eddie. Eddie awkwardly returned it, realizing that if she was here, she’d died, too. They all had.

With a sick feeling in his stomach, Eddie followed Heather to one of the houses, stepping inside. They followed voices to the kitchen, where a group of people were talking over a map.

When Eddie spotted a familiar head of red hair, his heart dropped into his stomach. “Chrissy?”

Chrissy’s head shot up, her eyes wide. “Eddie,” she breathed, looking like she might cry.