DANCIN' ► DUSTIN HENDERSON [1]

1/4

November, 1983

JASPER'S EYES SHOT OPEN, her body aching with pain as she immediately began coughing uncontrollably. Her hands flew to her chest as a gooey liquid erupted from her lips, spilling out onto the stony floor. After her coughing fit had subsided, she began to grow more aware of her darkened and cold surroundings.

Black vines swallowed every inch of the floor and wall in its path, covering the room with itself. The air itself was filled with blackness and strange dust particles floating among her, bringing a bitter chill. Every small sound that occurred would bring painful echoes with it.

Her breathing began to slow as she clambered to her knees, sitting on her feet. Incredulously, she gawked at her palms, which were dry and cracked with calluses. "I'm not dead?" She murmured to herself in astonishment.

"Jas..." A weak voice pleaded, causing the redhead to let out a huge gasp. El was laying on her side painfully, coughing up the same strange fluids as she had.

"Eleven!" Jasper drew in a sharp breath, crawling to the young girl's side. Her usually warm hands, now infected with a sharp freeze from the Upside Down, gently placed themselves on El's body as Jasper did her best to calm the seizing girl. "We're okay!"

"Where's Mike?" She muttered feebly, pushing herself to her feet. Her brown eyes scanned the broken classroom, desperately searching for any sign of the Wheeler boy. "Where are we?"

"I think we're in the Upside Down," Jasper answered, refusing to release her assuring grip on El. Despite the horrifying sounds ringing in her ears and the fact that she was in the Upside Down, a small smile etched its way onto her cracked lips. Like Dustin had always said, finding the small light in a large darkness was her best quality.

"We did it, El," she gleamed triumphantly at the girl, supporting her from stumbling over again. "We killed the Demogorgon. Our friends are safe."

El was still panting heavily, shaking her head in refusal. "Mike? Mike!" She began calling out fearfully, freeing herself from Jasper's grasp and bursting into the long hallways. "Mike! Mike!" Her volume had increased into terrible screams as she continued crying out for her first love.

Jasper followed El into the hallway, noticing how it shared the same design as their school did. The Upside Down was a mirror image of their world, just filled with rotted disease and the looming threat of death. Hearing El caterwaul Mike's name only reminded her of a certain curly-haired boy with a toothless grin.

"Dustin," she whispered, saving her voice as she felt burning tears form in the creases of her eyes. She wanted to see him again, and feel his arms wrap around her waist in a reuniting embrace. The more she thought about Dustin, the more names and images appeared in her mind.

Hopper, Ruby, Mike, Lucas, and Will. They would all be wandering aimlessly for answers, blaming themselves for the disappearance of her and El.

And Dustin. Jasper didn't even want to imagine how he would handle her being gone. Did he think she was dead? Her body was racked with shudders as she contemplated how Dustin was feeling in that very moment. She couldn't leave him alone. He needed her just as much as she needed him.

Almost as an answer to her silent prayers, the sounds of soldiers speaking began to echo faintly in the halls. A faint red glow from the distance caught both of the girls' eyes, drawing them to it like moths, hungry for light.