𝐁𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐑²━━w. byers

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐘𝐖𝐎𝐆→ 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝟏

THE SIDEWALK Y/N TREADED upon lacked the colorful streams of costumed people, making it easier for the girl to pull her wits together. Minutes after Mike had stormed off with Will, Y/n parted ways with the remaining three and headed down her own path, avoiding the worried eyes of Dustin and Lucas. Before she could even turn the curb, Lucas had pulled her aside and asked if she would like for him to accompany her, to which she hesitantly declined.

And for the second time that night, anxiety began to bubble to her surface. The familiar wave of thick emotions drowned her beneath its swell and suddenly weighed upon her damned ankle. Her breath hitched, abruptly stiffening when she felt the palm of a cold hand press against her neck and compress the tender skin beneath its hold. Y/n issued a voiceless gasp as her frame pressed against a faltering barrier. Something wanted her in its physical grasp.

The girl muffled out a cry and yell, mustering all the strength left in her frail entity. Her arms violently trembled as she exerted beams of intangible energy, nearly wavering when she distinguished the awfully familiar sky and the decaying land below it.

The pavement underneath her worn out Vans began to crawl with vines that writhed from the otherside of the barrier, reaching out for her infamous ankle. Her e/c eyes followed the trail of creeping vines, arms weakening as she laid eyes upon an impossible sight.

'The boy's regard remained on the sky. It was hard not to see the trembling of his hands and the buckling of his knees.'

That night at the arcade, she had accompanied Will out the door out of worrisome curiosity. Everything had been going so well, so why was there a sudden expression of panic painting his boyish smile? She'd first call out his name then take his hand in hopes of pulling him out of the vision altering his reality. It would take her a second to notice the swelling form of a sinister creature reflecting in his amber eyes.

'The bright neon lights darkened the shadow passing over the terror that was his vision.'

In between the mending crevices of the universe's tapestry towered an unworldly animal. Its several limbs twitched and its blind eyes narrowed as it sensed her. Y/n froze under its menacing gaze. A forgein voice whispered in her ear as it washed the sensitive skin with a bitter tingle, coaxing her with its threatening timbre to ‘follow the vines’. Her left ankle promptly jerked forward and gradually began to drag the girl over into the Upside Down. In a stupor of intense and utter dread, the tips of her fingers bloomed a blaze of scarlet fire.

The tongues of red kissed the flailing vines and seared its freakish scales, the plants themselves screeching as it inaudibly promised the agonized girl a grisly demise. It slowly retreated back into the eldritch realm and a heavy fog concealed the new threat, The Shadow Monster, that now allowed its daunting figure to be enveloped by the recoiling vines before the torrid fire at last stitched the final tear in the fabric of reality.

Y/n stumbled back against the concrete several steps behind her, sliding down the wall as her lungs fought to gulp down air. The girl's body vigorously shook from the adrenaline that pumped through her veins and fear that gripped her. Everything had happened so quickly, she could barely collect herself from the mess she had shattered into.

The blanket of stars shimmering above her illuminated the tears rolling down Y/n's numb cheek, her burning hand covering her quivering lips before a sob escaped her raw throat and twisted into a blood curdling cry as she progressively processed the terrible pain enshrouding the ankle that'd been gifting her all those sleepless nights with horrific nightmares.

"Y/n?"

Y/n's blood ran cold.

"Are you-- Holy shit, are you okay?!"

Like a bullet out of a gun, a whirl of ginger hair colored the street in front of her and pale hands gripped her trembling shoulders.

Max Mayfield hadn't a clue of what to do next and was caught dumbfounded as she observed Y/n gradually slip into an alarming panic. She just stared and began to panic when she realized she had to do something. Although Y/n had been nothing more but a stranger to her thus far, a sudden wave of sympathy drowned her in an ocean of pity.

Max then pulled the hysterical girl into a hesitant embrace when memories of her own trauma clouded her vision, rubbing soothing circles on her back as she whispered what she wished had been whispered to her all those times she felt as if the world had been collapsing in on her, "Don't worry, everything's going to be okay. You're going to be okay."