caught between two slides

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

Going trick-or-treating with Max actually turned out to be quite a lot of fun. Although Alina hadn't wanted her to come in the first place, now that they were friends, it was a better experience than she thought it would be. She was still a little frustrated with Dustin and Lucas for inviting her without the rest of the party's permission, but she tried to forget that as she roamed the streets of Hawkins, collecting candy. It was nice to have another girl in the group, too.

Alina swung her pillowcase happily as she followed after her four Ghostbuster friends to another house. Technically, she and Will were breaking Jonathan's word and straying out of the neighborhood, but they wouldn't let him know about that. Loch Nora really was the best place to go trick-or-treating, which was demonstrated by the size of the candy bars that begun to weigh down their bags as the night continued. Long gone were the small 3 Musketeers bars they'd gotten earlier. These were full-sized candy bars.

Alina, Max, Lucas and Dustin were having fun, but as Alina looked back at Mike, she realized he wasn't. He was slumping behind, his lips turned down in a frown, and his 'trick-or-treats' barely had any energy to them. He didn't even look excited when he got a full-size Kit-Kat—his favorite. Max. It was the presence of Max. A twinge of guilt went through Alina. She should've told him about what Lucas and Dustin had done.

But it really wasn't her business. And if he was going to mope on the best night of the year—now Alina was experiencing why, exactly, Mike had called it that—that was his business. He hadn't even talked to Max yet. He didn't have any information on her and he had already formed a negative opinion about her. It was wrong.

As Alina and her friends left another house, Dustin was grinning. "Another full size," he said, staring into his pillowcase, which was almost filled up all the way. "Like, seriously, rich people are such suckers." Then he quickly turned to Max. "Wait. You're not rich, right?"

He, Lucas, Max and Alina all were up front, while Mike and Will trailed slightly behind, talking. Although Mike wasn't enjoying himself, Will seemed to be, and Alina hoped he was trying to cheer him up.

"No," Max let out a snort at Dustin's question, "I live up Old Cherry Road." Alina knew that section of Hawkins wasn't the nicest place to live and thought back again to what Max had said about her stepbrother Billy. She wondered what the rest of her home life was like.

"Oh."

"No, it's fine," said Max, perking up a little. One of her slender hands was clutching a plastic pumpkin basket she was using to collect candy, while the other held onto her fake knife. She'd pulled up her mask so she could talk to the other three. "I mean," she continued, "the street's good for skating."

"Hmm," said Dustin, through a mouthful of candy. "Yeah, totally tubular." It was quiet for a moment as Lucas, Alina and Max all stared at him, and Dustin's eyes widened. "What? Did I say that right? Or is it like, tubular."

"It's, it's like... it's like... totally tubular," said Lucas, thrusting out his hands as he imitated a surfer. Alina let out a laugh at his facial expression, slinging her arm around his shoulder, while Max merely chuckled, rolling her eyes good-naturedly.

"Totally tubular."

"What a gnarly wave, dude!"

"Totally brodacious, bro!"

"Stop," Max laughed, "my ears are hurting."

"No, come on, you and Alina should try!" Lucas suggested. He did the Shaka Bruh gesture with both hands, and Alina laughed again. "Come on, dudes. I wanna hear you two try it out."

"Woah, dude," Alina tested out. "Totally tubular." She was feeling ridiculous until she noticed Max, Dustin and Lucas all laughing. And when her gaze settled on Lucas Sinclair, the sight of his smiling face was enough to put a boost in her step.

After their terrible surfer impressions, she and Max went a little ahead of the group, deciding to speak just on their own. "So," Max said, "have your friends seen the scoreboard yet?"

"Not yet," Alina laughed, "but we might go to the arcade tomorrow. They're going to flip out."

"I can't wait." And then the two girls were walking in silence before she decided to speak again. "So, uh, I heard from Dustin that you live with the Byers."

"Yep." That was all Alina said, not wanting to push it any further. Or she'd start thinking of her dad again, and then she'd see the blood everywhere, and this Halloween evening would take a turn for the worse. She instinctively went back to her mantra. Breathe, Alina. Breathe in. Hold. Breathe out.

"I don't mean to pry." Max had stopped now. "And I know I'm being super invasive here, but... why? Why do you live with them?"

Alina's whole body tensed up. Don't think about the blood. Don't think of the way his body looked leaned against the wall. Don't think of him at all. She couldn't help the tears that begun to form in her eyes and quickly closed them, but that only made it worse. Stop it. Stop, it, Alina.

"Oh, shit." Luckily, Max was there to snap her out of it. Alina's eyes popped open to find the girl standing in front of her, shaking her head wildly, sending her hair whipping back and forth. "I'm so sorry, I'm so stupid, I shouldn't have asked. I should've known it was a sensitive subject. I'm so sorry."

Alina blinked, before regaining her ability to speak. "It's fine." She hated how weak she sounded, and looked down at her shoes. "People at school are always asking what happened, too. It's my dad... he, uh, he died last year."

"Oh, my God." Max's hands had shot to her mouth. "I'm so, so sorry Alina. Me and my big mouth."

Alina managed to turn the corners of her lips up. "It's alright. I know you didn't mean anything by it." She continued to walk, catching up with Dustin and Lucas, who were now ahead, and Max hastened to follow. She was hoping the night would continue like normal, but no luck. A pain bloomed in the center of her forehead, and Alina rubbed at the spot, hoping her headache would fade. Wincing, she shut her eyes, rubbing it with the heel of her hand, and just for a moment, she saw blue behind her eyelids.

She opened them, gasping, to find that Lucas was looking at her with concern. "Hey, Al, you alright?"

"I'm good," Alina replied. But some sort of instinct swelled up in her just then, and she turned around. Mike and Will, who had been trailing behind her, had vanished. "Hey," she said. "Where are Mike and Will?"

"Shit," Dustin swore. "Did we lose them?"

"I see them over there!" Lucas pointed, and sure enough, Alina saw the small figure of Will sprinting up to someone's house, Mike on his heels. Alina swung her pillowcase over her shoulder and followed, a runaway Santa Claus. The others followed, and Alina hoped he wasn't having another episode. What had Joyce said? If Will got a bad feeling, Jonathan needed to take them straight home?

Well, Jonathan wasn't here.

Alina found Mike crouched in front of Will, who had pressed himself against the wall, eyes wild, his breaths heavy. He looked very, very small to Alina, with the faint whimpers escaping him and his stupid Ghostbusters costume swamping his body.

"Holy shit!" Dustin swore from behind her, as him, Lucas and Max all came to a stop.

"Is he okay?" Lucas asked, filled with concern over his friend.

"I don't know," said Mike, sparing a second to look at the friends who'd just joined him before going back to Will.

Alina knelt in front of Will, grabbing onto his hand. The boy jerked for a moment, before his eyes settled on her and relaxed. "Will," she said softly. "Will, are you okay?"

Will didn't respond, closing his eyes again and trying to take deep breaths. Mike grabbed onto his shoulders. "I'm gonna get you home, alright? I'm gonna get you home. Hold on."

"I'm coming too," said Alina, squeezing on to Will's hands. He clutched at them desperately. "And don't even argue, Mike, he's my broth—he's my friend. And Joyce said I need to come back with him anyways."

Mike nodded, and put his arms around Will, helping him stand up. Alina stood back, but Dustin, eager to help, lunged forward. "All right," he said, "take it easy. Alright?" He put a hand out to help Will, but Mike just shrugged him off, an ugly look on his face.

"I got him."

Dustin stood back. "Mike?" he asked, confused at his friend's hostility.

With his arm around Will, Mike spoke. "Keep trick-or-treating," he spat. "I'm bored anyway." And that was when Alina knew that Mike hadn't gotten over his moping. He was mad. Still glaring, he began to walk away, then turned back to Alina. "Al, are you coming or not?"

"Yeah." Alina whirled to face her other friends, who were looking lost. "Sorry, guys, I have to go. I'll see you around."

"Bye, Alina," Lucas mumbled, and Alina hastened to join Mike and Will. She put an arm around the latter, whose eyes were squeezed shut, heavy breaths continuing to escape him.

"Hey, hey, it's okay," she soothed. "You're alright, okay? You're safe. We're right here, and we're gonna go home." She clutched him tighter, and Will hung on gratefully. "You're not there anymore. You're safe. And you're alright."

Alina, Will and Mike all sat on the couch in Mike's basement, candy strewn around them, sprinkled on the floor and covering the table. The first thing they'd done when arriving at Mike's was to break it open, and Alina was munching on a Snickers bar as she listened to Will, her other arm around his shoulders. When they'd gotten here, he'd regained his ability to speak, and finally, he had decided to tell them what he was feeling every time he had an episode.

"It's like... like I'm stuck."

"Like... like stuck in the Upside Down?" Mike asked.

"No." Will shook his head. "You know on a View-Master, when it gets, like..." He trailed off, trying to think of a way to describe it.

"Caught between two slides?" Mike volunteered, and Will nodded.

"Yeah, yeah. Like that. Like... like one's side's our world, and... and the other..." he bit his lip, attempting to use his hands to demonstrate. "The other slide is the Upside Down."

Alina couldn't stop her eyes from widening. "So, to us, you're here, in Hawkins, but for you, you're back in the Upside Down? Are your surroundings like, the same, but Upside Down, too, or are you back where you were a year ago?"

Will shook his head again. "No... no, when I have these... these episodes, I'm always in the same place. Like, if I were to have one here, I'd be in the Upside Down's version of this basement." He swallowed. "And... and there was this noise coming from everywhere. And then I saw something."

"The Demogorgon?" Mike asked.

"No. It was like... this... this huge shadow in the sky. Only, it... it was alive. And it was coming for me."

Alina froze. "A... a shadow?" she whispered. "A big shadow, in the sky? What..." her voice was trembling now. "What did the shadow look like?"

It was impossible. What she'd had had just been a dream. A terrifying, realistic dream, but a dream nonetheless. There was no way that this shadow Will was describing was the same one that had appeared in her dream. The same one Alina had run from. The one Will had saved her from by waking her up.

"It had... it had this long head." Will's face struggled with the memory. "And limbs. I don't know if they were arms and legs. And then... and then when I ran, it followed me. Tendrils of it came after me. And I knew it wanted me. Not to kill me. But to kill everyone else."

He turned his head to look at Alina, whose face had paled. He'd described the shadow she'd seen exactly. The giant head that tapered off to a point, the limbs it could thrust out. "And then..." Will wasn't done. "I could hear it, too. Not the sound from earlier. Voices. Voices I didn't recognize, but one that I did. It was your voice, Alina. It was calling to me."

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

a/n: 😳😳😳 this can't be good