CHAPTER NINE.
1x08: The Upside Down

Who here is waiting for Diane and Anthony Hughes?

Us! Us. We are. We're their daughters. Are they okay?

You two might want to step into the hall with me over here.

Sam sat with an anxious frown on her face, much like everyone else around her—well, besides those who were sleeping: Lucas, Dustin (who were basically cuddling with each other), and of course Ted Wheeler (Sam didn't get why he thought he had the right to be here). Sam didn't understand how anyone could sleep at a time like this, but at the same time she wished she could. Yet her eyes refused to close.

I'm so sorry, girls. Your parents... There was nothing we could do. They were gone on impact.

Sam, Lucas, Mike, Dustin, Corey, Chief Hopper, Joyce, Jonathan, Nancy, and shockingly Steve Harrington had all come together because of the Demogorgon. Now they were accompanied by Mike's parents and waiting on (hopefully) good news about Will.

Steph. Steph, what does 'gone on impact' mean? Steph? Steph? Stephanie? Answer me, Steph! They're fine, right?

Joyce and Jonathan were in his hospital room right now, and Sam really hoped Will would wake up. She'd already lost Eleven tonight. She'd already lost her parents. She couldn't lose Will too.

Sammy, they're...

No!

Sammy, I'm so sorry. I'm—I can't—

No, no, they're fine!

They're not coming back, kid.

Shut up!

They're dead!

What broke the infuriating silence was Jonathan coming into the waiting room. All heads turned to him, but Jonathan was only looking at Sam and Mike, signaling they were allowed to go into Will's room now.

Sam and Mike whipped their heads to each other, looking the most excited they ever had been. Both kids quickly shot out of their seats and started shaking awake their sleeping friends.

"Guys! Guys, he's up! Will is up!"

"Wake your lazy asses up! Will's awake!"

Their vigorous shaking eventually got the two boys up; however, Lucas and Dustin weren't pleased to find they were lying on each other the whole time. They let out irritated groans.

Nevertheless, they stood up and made their way for the hospital's hallway.

"Wait!" Mike stopped in his tracks, causing everyone else to run into him in the process. He turned around, going back into the waiting room with the rest of the party. All of their eyes were on a particular, brooding delinquent. "Gray, you coming?"

"What?" Corey quietly responded, eyebrows pulling together in confusion.

The party didn't answer, but instead approached him. Sam pulled Corey out of his seat by his arms, and with Lucas and Dustin's help, they ushered Corey out the waiting room with them. Corey quickly joined in their ecstatic mood as the five of them headed down the hall where Jonathan was standing by a door.

Mike was first to push open the door and run into the room, followed by Sam, Lucas, Dustin, and Corey.

There on the hospital bed lay William Byers, with his mom sat beside his bed. When the party entered the room, Joyce moved from the bed and stepped to the back with Jonathan.

"BYERS!" Lucas exclaimed.

Sam, Lucas, Mike, and Dustin all attacked Will in hugs of their own while Corey awkwardly stood beside them, giving Will a stiff wave.

"You're alive!" Sam choked, tackling the boy to the mattress and shrieking into his shoulder, the pure exhilaration coursing through every vein and artery in her body. "You're alive!"

"I'm alive!" Will coughed, his voice considerably weaker but just as enthusiastic.

"Be careful," Joyce warned with a slight chuckle. "Be careful with him."

Sam would apologize for ignoring her requests later, too focused on squeezing the living daylights out of Will. Dustin had to physically wrench Sam off of him just so he could hug Will tightly for himself.

"Guys, guys, go easy on him," Jonathan advised.

Although they were done squeezing the living daylights out of Will, that didn't do anything to tamper their joy. All of the kids beamed down at their best friend, feeling the best they all had in a while.

"You won't believe what happened when you were gone, man!" Lucas started in excitement.

Dustin nodded vigorously. "It was mental!"

"You had a funeral."

"Jennifer Hayes was crying."

"And Troy peed himself!" Sam cheered.

"What?" Will responded weakly, eyes wide.

"In front of the whole school!" Dustin recounted incredulously, even though he'd witnessed it with his own eyes.

"It was awesome," Corey piped in with a chuckle. The other five joined in with their own, amused laughs.

However, their laughter died and was replaced with concern when Will's giggles turned into coughing fits, striking them all with the reminder of the more horrible events from the past week. Corey looked scared, almost as if he felt responsible for Will's coughs.

"You okay?" Sam asked once he stopped.

"It got me," Will replied solemnly. "The Demogorgon."

Mike frowned. But, "We know. It's okay. It's dead. We made a new friend."

Will's eyes moved over to Corey, an inquisitive look on his features. "Corey?" he wondered.

"Well," Mike was too flustered and stubborn to directly answer that question, "I was talking about someone else."

"But Corey is in our party now," Lucas informed, gesturing for Corey to move in closer to them all.

Will asked, "Really?" at the same time Corey questioned, "I am?"

Surprising everyone, it was Mike who answered. He did it after a sigh, and sounded like it was very hard for him to admit. "Yeah. He is. You are."

"We're still trying to figure out what his role is," Dustin said, trying to smooth past both boys' looks of surprise. "I think he'd be a great Barbarian."

Sam nodded in agreement, then added, "We also found ourselves a Mage."

"You did?" Will rasped. "Who?"

"She stopped the Demogorgon," Mike informed, seemingly grateful for the subject change. "She saved us... But she's gone now."

"Her name's Eleven," Corey said, slowly growing more comfortable.

"Like the number?" Will questioned in a tone of disbelief.

Lucas shrugged. "Well, we call her El for short."

"She's a badass," Sam gawked.

"Apparently so is Sam," Mike said, reminding the boys what had happened at the school. Their excited smiles returned in full, looking from Sam to Will with rapid nods.

Will opened his mouth to question her, but Sam was already shaking her head vigorously.

"No. I'm not."

"Yes. You are," Lucas countered. He turned to Will. "Sam had a gun!"

"No way!" Will freaked.

The other boys nodded, very eager to tell the tale.

"Yeah, man! She was all like—" Dustin recreated the motions Sam had went through with the gun, making it seem a lot cooler than it actually was.

"And the Demogorgon was all like—" Mike pretended to be the flailing Demogorgon while Dustin continued mock-shooting at him. Sam rolled her eyes fondly, trying to cover up the smile threatening to break through.

"And we also think she has superpowers—" Lucas began, but Sam cut that weed before it could sprout.

"I don't," she immediately protested. "But El does."

Corey allowed for the subject change. "She's basically a wizard."

"More like a Yoda," Mike disagreed, but there wasn't any heat between the two boys this time.

"She flipped a van—"

"—with her mind—"

"We were fugitives for the government—"

"Yeah, these agents were trying to shoot us—"

"—it flipped over us—"

"Dude, she squeezed their brains out—"

"—blood pouring out of their faces—"

"—chocolate pudding—"

"The agents just started grabbing us—"

"The Demogorgon shot out of the wall—"

"—through all this red goop..."

And Sam thought, finally, that they would all be okay. Despite the struggle, Sam and her boys would be okay.

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ONE MONTH LATER
DECEMBER 24

"Something is coming. Something angry. Hungry for your blood," Michael Wheeler said in an ominous voice. Samantha Hughes was hunched over her character's information sheet, raising an intrigued eyebrow as he went on. Mike was looking around at the entire party. "It is almost here."

William Byers leaned forward. "What is it?"

"It's the Thessalhydra, I'm telling you," Dustin Henderson said confidently.

Sam scoffed. "You think so."

"It's not the Thessalhydra," Lucas Sinclair sighed, always quick to shoot down Dustin's theories.

Mike's hand slammed down on the table, placing down a figurine Sam had yet to distinguish. "The Thessalhyrda!"

"Shit," Dustin muttered while Lucas cursed, "Damnit!"

"You guys are such nerds," Corey Gray commented from the couch of Mike's basement. He still had no clue how D&D worked, and after multiple attempts teaching him how to play, they all decided it was better to let him judge than actively participate.

"It roars in anger!" Mike ignored Corey, dramatically mimicking the Thessalhydra. "Will, your action!"

Will shook his head in distress. "What should I do?!"

"Fireball him!" Lucas shouted.

Will and Lucas looked to Sam and Dustin, waiting for them to disagree and tell Will to cast protection. But Sam and Dustin were sharing eye contact of their own, and Sam knew they were on the same page.

"Well, Specks?" Dustin offered, to which Sam restrained an eye roll.

"You can't call me that now," Sam said. "I don't have glasses anymore."

Sam hadn't worn her glasses in a month. When Uncle Dan found out she broke her glasses, he was so mad that he no longer trusted Sam not to break another pair. So he bought her a new pair, but he didn't allow her to wear them outside the house. This meant that Sam had to wear contacts instead.

(Yes, he had screamed to her about how expensive all of this was.)

"But," Sam continued, nodding with Dustin, "I say fireball."

Dustin smirked, looking to Will.

"Fireball the son of a bitch."

The party all shared smiles—even Corey, who was trying to hide his fondness from the couch. Will picked up two D-10's, enthusiastically rolling it in his hands before throwing it on the table.

"Fourteen!"

The party members released joyful and elated cheers, because Will had needed a seven or higher for that to hit. He just landed a number that was more than enough!

"It's a direct hit! Will the Wise's fireball hits the Thessalhydra! It makes a painful—" Mike let out a screeching sound before he fell to the table. "And then... it crumbles to the ground. Its clawed hand reaches for you one, last time, and... and... and... and—"

Mike slumped to the ground, playing dead.

"YEAH!" Sam, Lucas, Will, and Dustin cheered together in excitement. Lucas and Will hugged while Sam and Dustin high-fived. Sam could vaguely hear Corey mutter, "Nerds. Literal nerds," she ignored it, too happy to care. Sam and Lucas whooped, strutting up and down the open space next to the table, Will and Dustin laughing.

"Lucas cuts off its seven heads, Dustin places them into his Bag of Holding, and Sam conjures flames to burn its remaining body," Mike continued. "You carry the heads and tail out of the dungeon, victorious, and you present them to King Tristan. He thanks you for your bravery and service, and—"

"Woah," Dustin quickly interjected with a perplexed look. "Woah, woah, woah, woah. That's not it, is it?"

"No," Mike said steadily. "There's a medal ceremony—"

"Oh, a medal ceremony!" Dustin mocked, clearly unamused. "What are you talking about?"

Lucas nodded. "Yeah, man. The campaign was way too short!"

"Yeah," Sam and Will chorused.

Corey shrugged contemplatively from the couch. "It could've been longer."

"It was ten hours!" Mike exclaimed amidst an exasperated look.

"But it doesn't make any sense!" Dustin argued.

"It makes sense!" Mike snapped defensively.

"Uh, no," Dustin said, like Mike was an idiot. "What about the lost knight?"

"And the proud princess?" Lucas asked.

"And those weird flowers in the cave?" Will added.

"And that centaur Dustin and I had to seduce?" Sam questioned.

"I was also wondering about the centaur," Corey said, just to piss Mike off.

"I don't know." Mike shrugged defensively. "It's—"

He was cut off by impending footsteps heading down the basement's stairs. The kids' heads whipped over to the noise vigilantly, but it was only Jonathan walking up to them.

Jonathan wrinkled his nose. "Jeez, what's that smell? Have you guys been playing games all day, or just farting?"

The party laughed at Jonathan's teasing words, because sue them. They were kids. Fart jokes were like, the bullseye for their age caliber.

"That's just Dustin," Corey teased. "He farted."

Dustin's smile dropped in offense.

Although Dustin didn't find it funny, Lucas thought Corey's input was hilarious. Creating his own jingle, Lucas sang, "Dustin farted!" then blew a raspberry.

"Okay," Dustin deadpanned. "Very mature."

"Sam thinks it's funny," Lucas said, gesturing to Sam, who was covering a smile with her hand.

"I'd listen to that song," Sam admitted upon being acknowledged.

"Bye, guys," Will said—he'd picked up his bag after being told by Jonathan it was time to go.

"Bye, Will!" everyone chimed, pausing their teasing of Dustin. Sam rushed over and even gave him a hug for the road.

While Will started up the stairs, Dustin provoked Lucas in a wrestling match. The two boys stood up and moved from the table to the couch Corey was sprawled out on. Corey didn't have time to move before he was being squished by Lucas and Dustin's brawl, and next thing Sam knew, she was being very entertained by a fight between the three of them.

As amused as Sam was, she noticed Mike wasn't as interested. Instead, his focus was on the fort at the other side of the basement. A small sigh escaped her lips as the thought of Eleven crossed her mind.

"Mike," Sam gently called, and the boy glanced her way. "You okay?"

Mike put on a forced smile and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Alright."

Sam knew it was a lie, but she let it slide. She understood why Mike wasn't fine right now—hell, none of them were fine right now. But Sam was going to make the most out of every day she had with those she loved. Maybe that, all along, was her purpose: making her friends and family happy, and that was all that mattered.

╰━━━ ◦ ✸ ◦ ✸ ◦ ━━━╯

Published: January 14, 2024
Re-published: October 30, 2025

BAILEY YAPS...

Short chapter for our OFFICIAL WRAP ON SEASON 1!!!

We're now going into Season 2 which has always been my underrated baby. More of Sam and Corey (and Hughclair and Colorwheel) to come!

Anywho I really liked coming back and editing this story because 1) holy shit absolutely NONE of these chapters were edited like what was genuinely wrong with me I just wrote shit and published it without going back or anything like I need to beat my past self for that, and 2) I remembered how much I love Sam especially here because S1 Sam was so baby and bright and snarky and yeah. Like imagine being the light of humanity. I could never, but I admire her for it.