Shadows of the Night •a Stranger Things story•

I Search For You

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Mike and Will are hiding out in the Wheeler's basement. Candy is scattered on the floor and table as the two of them sit on the couch. Will sets down his candy, turning to Mike. He tries to piece it together for his friend. "It's like—like I'm stuck."

"Like, like, stuck in the Upside Down?"

Will sighs, wondering if anyone would really understand. "No." He pauses, "You know on a View-Master, when it gets, like—"

"Caught between two slides?"

Will nods, holding out his hands. "Yeah. Like that." He holds up his right hand. "Like one side's our world, and the other." He holds up his left hand. "The other slide is the Upside Down. And..." Will hesitates. "And there was this noise coming from everywhere. And then I saw something."

"The Demogorgon?" asks Mike, eyes widening.

"No. It was like this huge shadow in the sky. Only, it was alive. And it was coming for me."

Mike swallows, worry creeping onto his face. "Is this all real? Or is it like the doctors say, all in your head?"

Will frowns, dropping his hands. He leans back on the couch. "I don't know. Just—just please don't tell the others, okay? Not even Chris. She can't know. They won't understand."

"Eleven would," Mike confirms, longing in his voice.

Will sits up, staring at Mike with hope. No one really said much about Eleven anymore, and Will never got to meet her. She almost didn't seem real to him. The only person that Will knew like him was Chris. "She would?"

"Yeah. She always did." Mike continues, so glad that he can talk about her. "Sometimes I feel like I still see her. Like she's still around, but she never is. I don't know. Sometimes I feel like I'm going crazy."

"Me, too," Will admits.

Mike gives Will a tiny smile. "Hey, well, if we're both going crazy, then we'll go crazy together, right?"

Will chuckles quietly, picking up his candy bar again. "Yeah. Crazy together."

"Sometimes," Chris whispers, her eyes glossy. She looks at Steve, the headlight casting a shadow over her face. She leans back slightly, wanting to slip further into the drunk bliss, but she can't let herself, or she'll say things she shouldn't.

"Sometimes, what, Shadow Walker?" he wonders, reaching for her hand.

"...I feel it. The Upside Down. It's calling to me, and I start to feel cold."

Chris stares out at the quarry, the black water reflecting the thousands of stars in the sky. There are so many more of them out here than in New York. Where Sara would spend hours and hours counting them. It would take her days to do it here, in Hawkins. She misses the nights where she would meet Sara on the roof of their mother's apartment. Where they would go on and on about the world and what's out there.

"What's out there for me?" wonders Chris, recalling a conversation she's had with her sister. "Whatever you want it to be...What if that place is all that there is for me? What if the dreams and the shadows and the bad things are the only thing I have?" Tears start to well up in Chris's eyes.

"Chrissie," Steve mumbles, unsure of what to say. He pulls her hand up to his chest. "You have me."

Chris looks to Steve, then turns to the stars. Steve follows her gaze. "I search for you. I search for you in the stars, and sometimes I see other versions of you. Of everyone. Different places...different stars. My sister is there. There's a place where none of this ever happened." Chris sniffles, shivering. "And there's one where the bad things are everywhere."

Steve pulls Chris to him, holding her in his arms, the alcohol in her breath fills his senses. He gently kisses her forehead, feeling her tense shoulders relax. "You're here, Christine. This is your star. This is here for you. Don't let other things control your Shadow Walking."

"I see that boy, too. He wants me to save him." Chris snuggles deeper into Steve's side, closing her eyes. "He's Ronnie and Robbie's little brother. Julianne Jones tried to kill him when he was a baby. It was a cover-up, like Eleven."

Steve stiffens. "What? Chris?"

Chris sighs deeply, slipping into the bliss of sleep. "Don't...hmm...tell Ronnie..."

Despite a night cut short by an awkward scene, Dustin walks up his driveway with confidence. "Tubular. Tubular. Tubular." He passes the trashcan on the way to his front door. The porch light is still on. His mother will be waiting inside with their cat, Mews.

The trashcan rattles and Dustin turns at the noise of something growl. "Mews? Mews, is that—" The can shifts, thumping loudly. Dustin drops his bag of candy, grabbing his ghost blaster. "Shit. Shit." Dustin approaches slowly. "Shit. Shit." Dustin grabs the lid of the trash, crying out loudly. He lifts the can, pointing his blaster into the can.

He stares down in disbelief. "Holy shit..."

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