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Grace Harrington

The water has surrounded me. It's cold, it's dark, it's scary. One of my other great fears is water, mostly oceans...but this damn lake too. As I swim deeper after my brother I see something illuminating the bottom...it's red. It's pulsing.

I see a vine start moving towards me and I reach for it. Hoping it pulls me into the gate fast enough for me to reach Steve.

It curls over my wrist, it's tight grip will probably leave blood later on. I squeezed my eyes shut in pain hoping for this to all be over as soon as possible.

The vine pulls me through the gate, it's slime covers my entire body as I go through it. I reach the other side and land on the upside downs lake. Except this has no water...it's just an empty space with boat wreckage, dead seaweed and ropes.

I see Steve being pulled across the lakes floor his bare back probably being scratched up to nothing.

"Steve!!" I scream. Something is around his neck...a bat? What the hell is that.

I look around me and see an old paddle inside a broken boat. I grab it and smack the nasty thing as hard as I can.

It does nothing. My brother is struggling to breathe as the thing tightens it's grip on him by it's tail.

I smack it again this time right in its face. It loosens up around Steve just giving him enough of a chance to grab ahold of it.

As I help him attack this thing something grabs my ankles. I look down and two of those bat things have my ankles.

"Ahhh," I scream, I fall to the ground on my stomach and get dragged across the ground. I try and kick them as much as I can but they still have me.

"Steve!" I yell. He can't hear me.

"Grace, give me the paddle" I hear Eddie yell from behind me. I throw it back to him and he catches it. He stabs one of the bats and steps on the other as hard as he can, while Nancy and Robin go and help Steve get that thing off his neck.

"Kill it Ed, Kill it" I scream. "Trying darling, trying"

I stand up after Eddie gets them off me and I hug him. "Thank you" we quickly let go and run over to the others.

"Here" Eddie yells and breaks the paddle in half giving me the other half.

"What the hell are these things?" Robin yells and ducks down from one flying over her head.

"Not sure, but they are fucking ugly" I yell back.

Steve finally gets it off his neck and bites it off his wrist. "Ew" I groan. "Watch out" Nancy screams at me and one of those things were coming straight for me and hits it with her flashlight. "Thanks" I whisper, she nods.

"Ahhhhh" Eddie screams and lunges towards Nancy stabbing a bat that almost grabbed her by the neck. We all take a second to catch our breaths as we stand in our now wet clothes in this god awful place of hell.

"Steve!" Nancy yells and runs toward him. "Jesus are you ok" She asks and looks down at his torso. He has bite marks all up and down his sides. Blood is slowly spilling from them making me look away.

"Jesus Fucking Christ!" Eddie yells and throws his paddle on the ground.

I look down at my ankles and pull my jeans up slightly, "ugh god, these nasty mother fuckers got us good" I spit. My ankles are both bleeding along with my wrist from that vine.

"Hey, let me see" Eddie says and walks over to me. He holds my wrist in his hand and looks at the tear of my skin. "Shit, are you ok?" He asks. "I'll be fine, are you ok?" I ask. He raises his brows and sighs. "I don't really fucking know. Is this- this that place you all were telling me about?" He asks. I nod.

"Steve you ok?" I ask and move towards him. Eddie follows.

"Well they took a pound of flesh, some blood and my dignity but besides that, never better...are you? The grabbed you by the ankles?" He states. I nod "I'm fine, just a little bloody, but what's new in the upside down?" I joke. He nods and holds the large gash on his side.

"Uhh, guys, do you think these things have, like, rabies?" Robin asks and she pokes a stick through one of the dead bats.

"Huh?" I say.

"I mean like, rabies are like, my like, number one greatest fear...and I think we should probably get you both to a doctor before you give me it...or I mean like any one else it. And before you die. Because I don't want you guys to die or us have to plan a funeral because how are we supposed to explain you got rabies from an upside down bat thing..." she frantically rants.

"Robin, it's fine. We don't have rabies." Right as I speak a loud screech from above us can be heard.

We all look up and see a few more of those bats flying towards us. They land near the gate and just look at us. They individually screech at us and I sigh.

We all run behind Steve and stand close together holding are makeshift weapons.

"That's not that many, I'm sure we could take them...right?" I say. Eddie looks back at me and shakes his head. I shrug and we look back up. The sky's red thunder lights up the clouds revealing more bats coming our way...and I mean...a lot more bats.

"Still think we could take them?" Steve asks and looks at me. "No" I say and start running behind us.

"Well let's go" I scream.

Eddie, Nancy and Steve follow. Robin stands still for a moment and groans. "Great, more damn running"

We all sprint towards the woods in front of us and hope they won't come after us.

~~~~~~~

"Do you think they are going to find us under here?" I whisper. "Hopefully not" Steve says.

We decided to hide under skull rock is hopes that it would be good enough to hide under. Which it seems to be since the bats are all flying past us.

The bats still continue to fly above the woods. You can feel everyone's fear just by sitting next to each other.

I feel Eddie's hand grip my own and I don't think twice before grabbing it. I hold his hand close to my side, and it's quite comforting. I wish I could say I wasn't afraid right now...but I truly am.

The bats finally pass over us and we all sigh in relief. "Okay..." Robin starts "I think we're ok"

We all stand up and move from under the rock. "That was close" I say "too close" Eddie adds.

Steve stops and tips over he grips the side of the rock in hopes of it keeping him up straight.

"Steve!" Nancy and I say in unison and move towards him. He leans back on the rock and holds pressure both of the wounds on the sides. "I'm fine, I'm fine" He groans. Clearly in pain.

"You're not fine idiot, you're bleeding" I state. "You're loosing too much blood Steve" Nancy adds, I nod in agreement. "She's right, we have to cover you up with something to stop it from bleeding" I explain.

"Well I don't know about you Grace, but I don't have any first aid kits on me so" Steve snaps, making me roll my eyes. "No...but..." Nancy mumbles and reaches for the bottom of her sweater.

I know he's in good hands so I go and sit on a small rock near Robin and Eddie. I pull up my jeans again to look at my ankles and it's gotten worse.

"It's turning...almost black." I say. Eddie kneels down next to me and looks at my ankles. "It looks fucking disgusting" I joke.

"May I?" He says motioning to my leg. I nod and he lifts both of my legs on his knee. He grabs a tissue from his jacket and places it on my left ankle. I wince in pain as the damp tissue hits my skin. "I know it's not the best but hopefully this will clean off something" he states and cleans off the blood.

He moves to my other ankle and does the same.

"What if the lake water has something in it, then you're going to add to her already have rabies" Robin states. Eddie and I look over at her and shake our heads. "Not helping Robin" Steve says.

Eddie finished up and pats my leg. "You're all set princess Gracie" He states. "Thank you Eddie" I say and hold his shoulder. He smiles and stands up then gives me a hand to help me up.

Eddie walks over to a larger rock and starts to climb it. He stands up in the top and looks around. "So...this place is Hawkins but has monsters and some nasty shit?" He asks.

"Yup, Monsters and Nasty shit" I answer. He folds his lips and nods. He starts to climb down but before he does I yell "wait! Watch out for the vines. It's all a hive mind Ed" I explain. He furrows his brows. "A what mind?"

"All the creepy crawlers around here dude...are connected...a hive mind. You step on a vine, you step on a bat, you're stepping on Vecna" Steve explains.
  Eddie raises his brows and nods. He jumps over each vine careful not to touch them.

"Wait, so everything from our world is still here right? Except people?" Robin says. I nod "that's what we've gathered" Nancy adds.

"So theoretically we could get bombs, guns, stakes, grenades basically anything we could to kill Vecna?" She wonders. "Yea theoretically, yes" I say.
  "Love the enthusiasm but I highly doubt the Hawkins police department has bombs, and grenades. Plus it's pretty far from here" Steve explains.

"We don't need to go to the police department...I have guns" Nancy's says. Eddie stands next to me and puts his hands in his pockets. "You...Nancy's Wheeler...have guns...plural?" Eddie jokes.

"Yes, yes! Full of darn surprises this one. Is it far? Your house, from here?" Robin states frantically. Nancy shakes her head. "We could walk there from here"

Eddie takes his Jean jacket off and throws it at Steve causing us to jump. "For your modesty dude..."
  Steve nods thanking him and puts it on.

As we stand here the ground starts shaking. Causing all of us to fall. I fall into Eddie and Robin falls into me. We all land on the ground and hold each other.

Eddie tightly grips my arms as I tightly grip Robins.

Something is wrong...something is happening here. I can feel it. Why can I feel it? I look behind us into the woods. I feel like something is watching me. But not from one specific place. From everywhere.

"Graceland..." I hear the same voice from earlier whisper to me. The shaking stops and I jump up. I walk forward and stop looking out into the woods hoping I see something.

"Your time is almost up Graceland..."

I feel a hand on my shoulder and turn to see Eddie and everyone staring at me. "You ok?" Eddie asks. I nod. "Sorry, thought I heard something. We should hurry and go" I say. Everyone nods.

Another loud screeching can be heard from behind us. The red lightning illuminates the sky again. Allowing us to see more of those bats heading our way.

"Lead the way Wheeler" Eddie states and we all start walking as fast as possible.