You Never Said Goodbye.

1: You Never Said Goodbye

Dustin sat on the ground, Eddie in his arms, a broken, bloody bundle of limbs that had been breathing not an hour before. His leg ached and he could feel the way this would affect him later, it hurt to lean on in the position he was sitting in, but it was okay because he couldn't feel it very much. He couldn't feel anything very much. He couldn't feel the scrapes on his shoulder or the sprain in his ankle or the tears rolling down his cheeks. He could only feel Eddie.

Eddie's curly black hair, some pieces of it were damp, with blood or sweat, Dustin didn't know. Eddie was laying in Dustin's arms, his legs were eaten down to the bone in some places and blood had pooled beneath them, but it had stopped expanding about 20 minutes ago. He'd been sitting there with Eddie for what felt like days, though only an hour had passed by. He vaguely remembered hearing his name being called, and looking up.

Suddenly, Dustin wasn't alone anymore.

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Steve was behind him now. Steve was picking up Dustin and Nancy was detangling Dustin and Eddie's limbs. Robin was helping and trying her hardest not to cry. Her eyes strayed from anywhere near the body below them, her hands working quickly but having to pull away before completing her task to remove the tears staining her cheeks.

Nancy finished the job and kept her eyes on the body as long as she could before Robin had to pull her away, and the two shared a teary-eyed hug. Robin's arms reached under Nancy's and wrapped up onto her back, holding Nancy against her chest, Nancy's arms circled Robin's neck, having to pull herself up to cry into the other girl's shoulder. They stood like that for a moment before pulling apart and trying to keep themselves from crying harder, just needing to get the others across to their dimension and out of the Upside Down.

Dustin cried into Steve's shoulder and gripped harder when he tried to lift him into the rift that ripped between their dimensions.

"You have to let go of me, Dustin." Steve's voice was the only real thing Dustin could make out as his fingers were pealed from Steve's army vest. The lighting of the Upside-Down obscured the color from its original greyer shade of green to an almost teal color as Dustin reached for it, unable to as he fell through the rift, landing on the hard ground, the thud echoing through his bones as he moved aside, body on autopilot.