The Other Side

Projection

Jamie was still there looking at the pile of debris long after everyone had left. The only people there were the two guards by the door who were talking between themselves too softly for him to hear. He was laying on the floor, wondering why he was still there he hadn't been able to do anything significant and it had been hours. Maybe if he ate or something he'd feel better or be stronger but he didn't want to do that either. He knew Cordelia was alive, sure, but he wondered how much help he could even be going in there. How much help anyone could be. Wouldn't it be better to keep the portal blocked? He didn't want to condemn Cordelia to an eternal prison of dealing with Vecna but he also thought that she had gone in there willingly with this purpose so was it wrong to meddle with it?

There was also the question of if Vecna could do anything about it. In the hours that he had been laying there nothing had happened to him. He hadn't lost any time or done anything weird. Beth had said there wasn't any indication Vecna could do anything in their world other than control him. Was that only when the gate wasn't blocked? If that were the case then moving the debris would be idioitic because that was the solution to the problem. Keep the gate covered, never uncover it and make sure Vecna didn't step through. It still didn't solve his Cordelia issue or why he felt so strongly for her even if they had only known each other for a fleeting moment in time before she'd done any of this.

He closed his eyes, for just a moment he thought, but when he opened them he wasn't in the base anymore. He was in what looked like Eddie's trailer, and not the upside down version. The real one. From the bedroom he could hear what sounded like soft singing and maybe guitar, though it would have been Eddie's guitar and it wasn't plugged into an amp. Not knowing what it was he walked towards it slowly, since this could have been a dream or he could have actually been there somehow. Probably not physically, he doubted that, but when he ran his fingers over the walls he could definitely feel them. Like he was there and solid. He looked into the room and saw Cordelia on the bed playing the guitar which was in tune.

"...under the swells, inside this spell, holding my breath, insane I yell, words I can't speak, sweet lunacy..." She suddenly paused because one of the strings broke, "Fuck." Shaking her hand off she looked up and gasped.

"That was...did you write that?"

"A long time ago, how are you here?" She asked then looked at her nail which was broken from the string she sighed and set the guitar on the bed then stood up. "Or are you...somewhere else?"

"Probably somewhere else." He said, "The last thing I remember doing was falling asleep in that...that room. Where the portal is or was. It all collapsed thanks to the grenade. Did you know that part?"

"Yes. Only because Vecna knows it. He's in my head and I'm in his. I can see everything if I want to." She sighed. "Tell Eddie I'm sorry I broke one of his guitar strings, he probably has one laying around I can replace it. Kind of a bitch to do but, what else do I have going on? Also, I may have killed someone named Nancy. Vecna wouldn't tell me her last name." She started to look around the room through drawers and boxes probably looking for a replacement string like she hadn't just said that last part like it was normal.

"Uh...you may have or you did?"

"Well, you know my situation. I died. Vecna killed me, very, very slowly. He broke every bone in my body one by one. I felt everything. Eventually, he snapped my neck. When I woke up I was in some attic and I was hungry. Upir feed on human blood, I guess flesh as well. As I've come to understand it from some help with Vecna's mind and my own memories, let's just say I had no control over it. Vecna knew that and he knew Nancy was going to be in what I think was his house so...I kind of ate part of her." She pulled out a new guitar string from a box and went to sit back down on the bed.