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.

Looking up, she searched around for some sort of exit. She knew that the only way out was through, but there was no way through. The only way was up.

She stumbled her way through the tunnels, trying to find a way out. Finding a stick, she poked at the ground above her head, trying to find its weak points so the dirt could give way.

The dirt eventually caved in and the moonlight was shining down on her, like the light that you would find at the end of a. . .tunnel. Huh. She grabbed onto a root and struggled to pull herself up, weak from being dormant for so long. Getting a semi-decent grip on the grass, she dragged herself out of the ground just as she came face to face with bright headlights.

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'

"Here!" Will pointed, the path to the pumpkin patch becoming clearer the closer they got to it. Mrs. Byers made a sharp turn and the EMTs followed onto the dirt.

Just as they got there, the ambulance stopped next to them and shone their bright headlights on what seemed to be someone literally getting themselves out of a hole. Will was the first to jump out of the car, slamming the door shut, and being the first to help the person out, ignoring his mother's cries. Everyone soon followed, standing back a bit.

"Amanda?" Will asked as he helped her. The girl grabbed onto his arms and looked up, her warm brown eyes squinting in confusion. Her eyes then melted into a deeper brown when she recognized who she was looking at. "Will. . ." Amanda croaked groggily, her smile lopsided before it drooped as she passed out in his hold.

"Guys!" Will yelled and the EMTs were the first to help Amanda into the ambulance, quick to strap her into a gurney and give her an oxygen mask. Everyone was quick to get back into the car and follow the ambulance to the hospital.

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'

Will was the one to do the pacing this time.

Mrs. Byers, Mike, Max, Lucas, Dustin, and El were all seated in chairs, all nervously waiting for what was about to come. The sliding doors opened to reveal a frantic Linda Schwartz. She ran up to the receptionist, desperate to get to her daughter.

"My name is Linda Schwartz, my daughter is here and I need to see her! She was just admitted and I had received a call from Joyce Byers who had brought her here. I haven't seen my Manda Bear in God knows how long. I need to see her!"

Will was the first one to greet her. "She's here. We're all waiting for the results."

Linda brought him into a tight hug and saw over her shoulder that there were more people waiting for Amanda, recognizing a few of the kids she would see when she'd occasionally drop Amanda off. Seeing all of their familiar faces made her break down in tears. "Thank God," she mumbled. She finally let go of Will and went to go hug Joyce. After she did, she sat down next to her and waited with the others.

After a few more tension-filled minutes, a nurse came out to the waiting room, clipboard in hand. "If any immediate family would like to see Amanda, she's awake and stabilized. She's still a little out of it, but she's okay, overall. So be careful when seeing her."

Linda got up and introduced herself. "I'm Linda, her mother. Where is my darling girl?"

"Right this way." The nurse stepped aside to let Linda through. On a second thought, she tugged on Will's shirt sleeve and brought him along, as well. The first thing he saw upon entering Amanda's room was Amanda hooked up to an IV drip and a bucket of black goo next to her bed that must've been remnants of the Mind Flayer that was in her system.

Amanda looked up, and her eyes instantly welled up with tears at the sight of her mother. "Mommy!" she sobbed, holding her arms out for a long awaited hug. The two of them hugged and cried together, rejoicing in their reunion. "I knew you'd come back," Linda sobbed, "I told you you were a fighter."

Over Amanda's shoulder, through blurry tears, she saw Will standing idly in a corner of the room. Once she and her mother pulled apart, she waved Will over and brought him into a hug. Pulling back, but still in each other's grasp, he asked, "Do you. . .remember anything?"

"I remember your name," Amanda said, shrugging. "That's gotta count for something, right?"

The two of them smiled at one another before Amanda continued. "The major thing I remember was that I was having this crazy dream and we were fighting this thing called the Mind Flayer. Like from Dungeons and Dragons. And apparently the black stuff in the bucket is what came out of me." She nodded to the bucket on the floor.

"Mandy?" Will asked. "Yeah?" she asked in return. "That was. . .all real," he answered timidly.

"It was?"

Will nodded. "I think. . .you were in a coma. And what you were dreaming about was actually being seen through a projection of yourself. I don't know if the nurse told you all of this or not."

"She did." Amanda nodded. After a moment, she asked, "Can you grab my overalls for me?" Amanda pointed to her dirty overalls that were draped over a chair. Will walked over, grabbed them, and brought them back over to her.

     She reached into the left pocket and felt something. Pulling it out, there was a handful of Smurf Berry Crunch in her hand. "I also kind of remembered having a box of Smurf Berry Crunch with me and putting some of it into my pocket for good luck."

"Yeah. We had a bowl of it at a mini mart and Mike got mad that you brought the cereal box with you." Will smiled.

     "It was life or death! If I was gonna go out swinging, I might as well had a last bite of my favorite breakfast," Amanda laughed, then she looked up at squinted at him. "You also said that you were thinking about something?"

He reddened at that. "Oh." He shrugged. "I was just thinking about how cool it was to have a friend like you. Projection or not. You were really wise for how young you were."

     "I'm guessing I told you that I talked to the teachers during lunch?" Amanda giggled. Will nodded and the two hugged once more before the nurse had to, unfortunately, lead Will and Linda away so Amanda could get a few more tests done.

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'

It wasn't long until Amanda was released from the hospital and dressed in fresh clothes her mother brought her. When she went to go see everyone in the waiting room, everyone came up to hug her, Mike being the last one to do so.

     "Can I talk to you?" he asked quietly. Amanda nodded and she let him tug her to a different side of the waiting room. "What'd you wanna talk to me about?" Amanda asked.

     "For starters, I'm glad you're okay. I may be an idiot but I'm no dick." Mike smiled, laughing a little. "But, uh, I wanted to ask if you. . .remembered anything about me thinking I like you? And I know it's selfish of me to ask but I just. . .wanna know."

     "You think you like me?" Amanda raised an eyebrow at him.

     Mike shook his head. "It was complicated. El thought I liked you when I still liked her and then I thought I liked you but the world was ending and my emotions were all over the place. But then that thing between you and Will happened and. . ."

     "Wait," Amanda interrupted, "me and Will? I don't like Will like that. After what he told me that day in the cabin, that'd be weird of me to do."

     "Wh-what'd he tell you?"

      "That's for him to tell you when he's ready to. Not me." And with that, Linda called Amanda over so they could finally go home. Amanda hugged Will one last time and gave him a kiss on the cheek before leaving.

     "Before I forget. Ha, forget," she said softly, "you're not an afterthought. You're a kid. You've got time." She then turned around and left the hospital with her mother. 

     "Welcome home, Manda bear," Linda congratulated Amanda as they got into the car. "Can we go to the video store?" Amanda asked after a moment of silence. Her mother nodded. "Anything you want, sweetheart."

     They pulled into the video store and Amanda asked the store clerk if they had a copy of The Outsiders. Lucky for her, they did.

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'

SIDE NOTE!
we've come full circle! kind of
if a part looks familiar, that's because i copypasted it right into the chapter (with some changes)

i wanted you to have some déjà vu with amanda crawling out of the hole because she had some muscle memory of getting herself out of the pumpkin patch (i also wanted to be cool with the whole "the-first-and-last-lines-are-the-same" thing but it didn't land all that well)

this also sounds like the end but it isn't

i still have the epilogue and then we'll be done! *internal sobbing*
but i do wanna thank you for reading though!