AS ABOVE, SO BELOW (BENEATH HIS FEET) | STRANGER THINGS ✓

CHAPTER TEN | IN AND OUT OF EXISTENCE

While on the ride to the hospital, Mike, Amanda, and Will figured out a system to make the ride as smooth as possible. Mike and Amanda made space for Will to put his legs in between theirs, and Mike wound his arm around Amanda's shoulders to keep from elbowing her. When they arrived at the hospital, it was easy for the three to just slide on out of the back and enter the hospital with everyone else.

     "So," Nancy's expression was smug as she walked alongside Amanda, "how was it?"

     "I think I have a bruise from your brother stabbing me with his pointy elbow." Amanda rubbed her side. "Other than that I think the ride was okay. Made me a little claustrophobic, but otherwise the ride was survivable. But could you not enable this? There is absolutely nothing going on between me and Mike and I'm pretty sure he's still hung up on El."

     "My lips are sealed." Nancy made the motion of zipping her mouth closed as they all made their way into the hospital. The receptionist at the front desk stopped Nancy and asked her what the kids were all doing here.

"This is my family." Nancy motioned over them, then paused at Lucas. "Extended. This is my extended family. We're here to see my grandma again."

     "You know the rules. Two." The receptionist held up two fingers. Nancy nodded. "You guys stay here. Johnathan and I are gonna go see Mrs. Driscoll."

     They all nodded and went to go find a seat in the waiting room. Amanda sifted through the magazines and found a Seventeen magazine from two years ago and flipped through the articles, her eyes flitting over the cute actors. There was a picture of the cast from The Outsiders so that's when Amanda started reading. "Hey," she said aloud as she lowered the magazine, "have any of you guys seen that movie 'The Outsiders'?"

Mike, Will, Lucas, and Max all shook their heads "no" and El asked what the movie was. "Why do you ask?" Max wondered.

     Amanda shrugged. "I just wanted to know if the movie was any good. I read the book and I really liked it and I just wanted to make sure that it was at least pretty accurate. But I guess I'll never know." She then went back and stuck her nose into the magazine. She lowered the magazine a little bit and she could see Mike and Lucas trying to grab snacks from the vending machine.

     "It ate my dollar!" Mike spat in indignation before smacking the machine. He and Lucas began to beat up the vending machine together to see if that would work, but nothing budged. Then there was a thud and a majority of the snacks came tumbling down from their place. Amanda turned her head to see El wiping the last of the blood from her nose before going to sit back down.

     "That was it," said Mike. "What was it?" asked Lucas.

     "The olive branch."

     Lucas rolled his eyes. "Dude, you are hopeless. I'm gonna talk to Max and distract her, get you an opening."

     Amanda lowered her head and stuck her nose back into the magazine.

     "You want some?" Will stood next to her, holding a bag of M&M's in one hand and a handful of colorful chocolates in the other. Amanda put the magazine down before sitting up and accepting his offer. "Thanks."

     He poured some out into her palm before sitting down and she began to eat them one by one, color by color. "Did you know that you eat M&M's weird?" Will observed as he watched her pick out the chocolate candies.

     "Oh." Amanda looked down at her palm. It was just the red M&M's that were left. "Yeah. I developed this weird color-coding habit when my dad left. My mom doesn't exactly know what triggered it but she figured it was harmless, thought it was a coping mechanism I developed." She continued on eating the red M&M's.

     Will smiled and poured out another handful for her.

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'

They were all just getting into a smooth waiting rhythm when the lights began to flicker. Amanda watched as Will sit up straight and stock-still for a second before slowing reaching for the back of his neck. "He's here."

It was those words that got everyone up and moving. "Two at a time!" the secretary yelled at them but they all ignored her. They all made it to the elevator and Max began to push the "Up" button frantically.

"Not to be the party pooper, but if the lights are going crazy then chances are that the elevator isn't gonna work right," Amanda piped up. "Stairs," Mike said quickly and they all went to go find the nearest staircase. "Where could Johnathan and Nancy be?" Amanda asked, "they could be anywhere!"

"I guess we just follow the trail of bloody goo." Max pointed to the floor. And indeed, there was a bloody trail that contained some sort of mushy remnants of The Mind Flayer rampaging through the hallway.

     "I'm seriously hoping that the Mind Flayer isn't like a spider, molting its skin and getting bigger. I would really hate for that to happen," Amanda pleaded.

     "Let's go!" Mike led the way and they all followed suit. There was a loud screeching so it must've meant that they were getting close.

Then they all caught sight of Johnathan trying to break through the window with a fire extinguisher. El blew down the door and took hold of the Mind Flayer, tossing it to the wall, to the ceiling, to the floor, and then out the window.

     "Go, go!" Mike commandeered and the kids went down the stairs and busted through the hospital doors to see the Mind Flayer fold in on itself and slip through the sewer grate, leaving behind solid bones and whatnot. Amanda wanted to puke.

"Everyone okay?" Nancy asked as she and Johnathan got there. They all nodded, Amanda following reluctantly, but only because she was distracted by something. "Mandy?" Nancy asked, "you okay?"

Amanda turned around to show them her glitching forearm. It wasn't necessarily glitching per se, but it was coming in and out of existence. "I don't know what's happening but I'm either disappearing or my physical self is waking up."