Together Again

Chapter 4 - The In-Between (part 3)

  Joyce was bewildered. Everything that El described sounded like Wills map. But when she closed the gate, didn't those close off too? She couldn't remember any flowers in there either. What was El talking about? She clenched her fists together again.

  She was so scared. She hadn't been this scared since last year, when Will was overtaken by the shadow monster. She was scared for El. What was that place like for her? She almost loved her like her own daughter, almost. She was even more scared for Hopper. What would happen without him? Hawkins needed him. She needed another adult who she could trust with information about the upside down. But there was also something more. Another reason she was scared for Hop, but she couldn't quite place what that reason was. She looked back over to see El sitting, breathing quietly.

  El stood in the darkness, looking around the tunnels. She closed her eyes so she couldn't see the tunnels anymore. She had had enough of the upside down. She thought about Daddy. When she opened her eyes again, the tunnels had gone, but the beeping had returned. In the distance lay Hops hospital bed. He sat in it, repeating the word flower again and again. There was a chair that Mike sat in beside the bed. Mike was talking.

  "Hopper! You have to come back! You can't do this. You can't do this to El." At the mention of her name, Hopper seemed to snap out of it. He looked once again like he wanted to say something. Only this time he did.

  "El?" He asked. El was filled with joy. Was it her name that really brought him back? Did he love her that much?

  "Yes El, she needs you." Mike talked gently and softly.

  El closed her eyes again, willing herself to snap out of it. She yanked off the blindfold. "Daddy's awake!" She was out of the car and running inside before Joyce could even turn off the car. Her feet pounded against the ground as she he raced inside the building and straight to Hoppers room.

  "El!" Mike exclaimed, before she got in the room, he was on his way out to go find her. He started telling her about Hop.

  "I saw." She said, then ran into the room, slamming open the door. She raced over to his bed. He held his arms open as she ran straight into them. "Daddy!" She cried. "I was so worried."

  "I know." He talked softly, he felt weak. "I would never leave you."

  "I thought the black hole got you." She whispered as tears streamed down her face.

  She let go to see Joyce stumbling in the door, her keys in her hand.

  "Hopper!" She said excitedly. She did an awkward little wave to him.

  Hopper held open his arms. "What, I don't get a hug?" He asked Jokingly.

  Joyce walked over to him and wrapped her arms around him. She could feel his arms around her. Every spot that touched she became so aware of. Her heart raced, and not just from the running. His grip was strong, even after he had been unconscious. She patted his back. "I'm glad your okay." She longed to stay there forever in his arms, but she remembered that Hops daughter and friend were watching and pulled away before things got weird.

  El stared at Joyce hugging her Dad. They hugged for a little too long. She knew she shouldn't feel this way, but she couldn't help it. She liked Joyce, but she didn't want daddy to like her, at least in that way.

  Mike spoke up. "Chief, what flower were you talking about?"

  "Flower?"

  "Yeah you kept repeating the word flower over and over again." Joyce chimed in.

  "What are you talking about, I just woke up." Hopper commented

  Joyce explained to him what he had been saying. He had no idea what he meant by flower.

  "Wait a second, what did you see in the upside down El?" Mike asked. They had all forgotten about her trip to the upside down.

  "Not the upside down, but almost." El corrected. She had always wondered what that place was. It was like her imagination, only she saw real things, mostly things from the upside down. It felt like the upside down there, it was cold and damp, but she wasn't actually in the upside down. Nothing there could hurt her. She tried to explain that to Mike, he looked confused. It was hard for him to picture what she described without actually seeing it. He decided to take his best guess at it.

  "So like the in-between?" Mike questioned.

  "Yeah, the in-between." El agreed. That was a good name. It was like she went halfway to the upside down every time she visited the in-between.

  She went on to explain what she had seen there. She told them about the cave. It's tunnel shape, and the flower on the wall. She described the vines, and how they moved, and how it smelled like the upside down. She felt like she wasn't making any sense, but they all seemed to understand what she was saying. It was like they recognized the place. Had they been there before?

  "That's Wills map." Hopper concluded after hearing her description. The memory of the flower like thing in the cave spraying him came flooding back to him. "That's it. The flower, it sprayed me."

  Mike's eyes widened. It was like he could hear Dustin's screams again. He felt as if he was back, in the tunnel again. The round damp walls, the walking, the screams from behind, the spitting. He could hear Dustin's reassuring voice as if he were there. "I'm okay." But he wasn't.

  Mike didn't know how to tell Joyce and Hopper. They weren't supposed to be in the upside down that night, they never told anyone else about their trip into Wills map. They couldn't risk getting Steve in trouble. But he had to tell them, for Dustin's safety. Mike looked up at the rest of them and said four words that scared them all. "It got Dustin too."