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

CHAPTER SIXTEEN | WILL. . .

They were everywhere.

Firemen, policemen, EMT, you name it. They were there. Will was sitting in the back of one of the many ambulances in the parking lot when his mother caught sight of him. When Will met up with her in a hug outside of the mall, something felt off. He was glad that his mother was okay, of course, but. . .

     "Where's Mandy?" Will asked as soon as he retracted from her bone-crushing hug. "What?" asked his mother, "sweetheart, I don't know where she is."

     In a moment of realization, Will remembered that the Amanda he was seeing was a projection that was produced by the Mind Flayer. And now that the Mind Flayer was officially pronounced dead, Amanda was gone. But that didn't mean her actual body was gone, too.

Tugging on his mother's arm, he said, "We gotta go."

     "Go where? Honey, where do we need to go? I can't take you if I don't know. And frankly, we shouldn't be going when you're — when we're — like this."

     "We need to go to a pumpkin patch."

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'

"Why are we going to a pumpkin patch, sweetheart?" Mrs. Byers asked as she frantically made her way down the street. She and Will rounded the kids up and a few of the EMTs to follow her to the pumpkin patch.

     "Not just a pumpkin patch, mom," Will explained, "the pumpkin patch. The one the Mind Flayer was making his tunnels out of. The one where he kept all of his Demodogs."

     "Are. . .are you saying that Amanda could be down there? That she was  actually there the whole time while her. . .spirit was up here with us?"

     "Yes!" everyone in the back chorused. The next few minutes of the drive were spent in panicked silence, everyone still shaken up from what had just happened. Mrs. Byers's hands were shaking, but she was doing a good job at keeping the steering wheel steady while her mind was running a mile a minute.

"Did someone call Mrs. Schwartz?" Will inquired. "We'll call her when we get to the hospital," Mrs. Byers responded. "We've got enough on our plates as it is. One thing at a time, okay?"

Will nodded, and no one else spoke a word for the rest of the ride.

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'

Down in a long-winding tunnel beneath a long-destroyed pumpkin patch, there was a hand breaking and tearing through the dirt and dead vines. There was a girl who pulled herself out and removed what seemed to be some sort of feeding tube from her mouth.

     Coughing and spluttering, she got up, stumbled a little, and dusted herself off. Then she felt her stomach gurgle and as soon as she knew it, she was vomiting. Her knees buckled and she let out a cry as they fell to the ground.