Chapter Text
CHAPTER ONE
Prologue - The Gate Opens
The boy rocked back-and-forth, staring at the wall.
This wasn’t good, it couldn’t be good. They’d left him alone all day, and he knew what had happened yesterday, no matter how much they told him it was all planned. He’d surprised them, he’d surprised everyone, and he’d scared everyone. If they hadn’t been so scared they might’ve punished him for what had happened.
God, he was so stupid. He’d played along for so long, but somehow he always knew, he always knew they hated him, if they gave a shit about him at all. They’d said he was helping, he was being good, he was doing good, and he’d played along because he was scared, he was so scared, and lost, and confused, and cold, and he couldn’t fucking take it anymore.
The door opened, and he leapt to his feet, hoping to God they didn’t notice him shaking, shaking from the cold and from the terror gripping him, even worse than he’d felt the last few weeks.
Two of the guards came in, one grabbing his arm. “Alright, kid, let’s get moving.”
“Wh-where are we going?” the boy asked, staring up at him.
“Don’t ask questions.” was his only response, and the other guard grabbed his other arm and gave him a push. The boy started walking, putting his head down and staring at his bare feet- they hadn’t seen fit to give him shoes, even though the floor was cold. It was so cold.
They went down the hallway, down the stairs, through more halls… he lost track of how many turns they took and how many rooms they passed, and that was impressive for him; he usually remembered his surroundings a lot better, mapping everything in his mind. Then again, his head was somewhere else at the moment, and he wasn’t sure he was quite alright at the moment. He didn’t think he was sick- the food they gave him, he’d been told, was full of whatever vitamins were needed to keep him as healthy as possible. But it wasn’t as if he was in his best mental place.
However, he figured out very quickly where they were going when one of the guards opened a door and took them into the elevator- they’d only used that once, when they were going to… when they were going to…
“No.” he said, paling as the doors shut, and the room was suddenly too small, and he could feel fingers digging into his skin, and could hear the guards sighing and see them rolling their eyes and feel the cold, cold ground underneath his feet. “No, no, no…”
“Shut up, kid.”
“No, no, no, no…” he tried to back up, his back hitting the wall of the elevator, and he could feel the cold from through his hospital gown. “No, no, no… please, no, take me somewhere else…”
“God, shut up.”
He was visibly shaking now, and he could tell he was going to cry. He didn’t want to cry, he’d cried enough the last few weeks. Stop crying, stop crying… “Please, please, do anything else. Take me anywhere else, please!”
The doors opened, and the guards simply dragged him out; they were stronger than him, and much taller, and even as he kicked and screamed they just kept moving forward, muttering something indistinct and giving him glares as they walked down the halls to the Basement.
To the fucking Basement.
He’d only been there once. He’d only been there yesterday.
“Let me go! Let me go!”
The doors opened, and he could see them all staring at him. He could see the large, white room ahead of him, he could feel the cold. And all the guards and doctors were staring at him. They wouldn’t stop staring at him. It would be one thing if he knew they’d do something, calm him down, take him somewhere safe, but he knew they were just staring at him because he was interesting, or annoying, or difficult. He was their stupid little experiment and he was a disappointment, he needed to stop being a disappointment, he couldn’t be like her.
The guards finally shoved him forwards, and he felt more hands grab him, pulling him into a smaller room, shoving him into a wetsuit, ignoring his screaming and crying and punching and kicking, acting as if he were a stubborn toddler who didn’t want to go outside. They barely even glanced at him, didn’t even think to talk to him as he screamed and sobbed.
And when he was dragged out again, dragged into the large room, still crying and shaking and pleading for them to please let him go, when he was shoved towards the stairs, when he shut his eyes, thinking, maybe I can disappear now, maybe I can just get away… that’s when he felt those hands on his shoulder.
He turned, slowly, tears still flowing down his face, staring up into the cold, shiny eyes.
“Please…” he said, his voice choked up. “Please, I can’t do that again… it’ll kill me, that thing’ll kill me, please…”
“Now, now, don’t be like that.” the man said darkly. “You did some amazing work yesterday, we just need you to do it again. We’d like to see exactly what you found. You’ll be prepared this time.”
“No, no, it’ll kill me, whatever that- that thing is, it’ll kill me, do any other tests, do anything else, drug me up again, I don’t-”
“Would you rather be put into Solitary again?”
The boy froze, eyes wide. Then he was sobbing harder, shaking his head. He didn’t know if he could handle that room again, that small, cramped room, barely big enough for him to move in, so dark he couldn’t see anything, left in there until they remembered to get him out again. But he didn’t want to go back there either.
“Then you won’t mind another test in the bath, will you?”
“Please…”
“Come along, Ten. You have a job to do, don’t you?”
The boy kept sobbing, but he followed as the man moved his hand to his arm and dragged him up the stairs. They put something on his head, and then put on a helmet and strapped him in, and the shiny-eyed man just told him, “Do what you did yesterday, alright?”
The boy nodded. He couldn’t do anything else.
Maybe getting killed wouldn’t be so bad.
He was lowered into the water, then, and it was cold, it was so cold…
And then there was nothing.
He shut his eyes, feeling the helmet and the wires and the wetsuit and thinking, Take me away. Take me away.
He had assumed he wouldn't be able to do it in the Bath. They’d figured out he couldn’t do it if he was strapped to something, if he was too distracted. But he was just as scared as he had been the day before, when they’d hurt him too much for not being able to do things, when the Bath had made him too claustrophobic, when he was just so tired and scared and cold…
And the fear built up the power inside him.
And it was breaking the barrier.
The wall started cracking again, just slightly.
He shut his eyes, and when he opened them, he could see the world change before him. Instead of the water, he could see the dark, cold, blue room ahead of him. It was the same room, but this time he could see out of the walls of the Bath, see what looked like broken glass, and roots (or vines?), and mold growing all around. He could see the wall to the right, the one where the crack had been, but this one had some kind of growth spreading the more he watched. He was reaching to somewhere he hadn’t seen- which was the problem, they’d wanted him to do that, and he’d just ended up here…
He heard the growl before he saw the thing.
He shook, wishing they would just pull him out, surely they had whatever it was they needed already. But, instead, he found himself trapped, only able to move a few inches, still strapped to the Bath. So he stayed in one place, shaking, struggling not to cry again, as the Monster entered the room.
It crept forwards, its eyeless face turning to stare at him, closed for now. It walked on all fours, but he’d seen it moving on two before. He could see its claws as it creeped closer towards him, closer and closer as if it knew he was there.
But I’m not there. I can only see there, I can’t be… I’m not there. I’m not there. I’m not here. I’m not here.
It came closer, so close he could start to see all the blemishes in its skin… or scales… or whatever it had. It got close, and then it opened its face, it opened its face, and he could see all the teeth, and down its throat, and it roared…
I’m not here. I’m not here. I’m not here!
He knew what he should do. He stared ahead, raising his hand. He’d just touch the walls. He knew that. He’d touch the wall of the Bath just like he did yesterday, and he’d be forced to remember he wasn’t here. And he could prove to himself he was safe, and he could shut his eyes and beg for them to pull him out of the water, and there would be nothing different but another crack in the wall. And then they’d stop asking him to do this, they’d stop making him do things, maybe they’d let him go…
He reached out his hand, to touch the glass, as the monster closed its face and crept closer.
His hand went through the glass, and touched the monster’s face.
He retracted his hand, and he screamed, and the monster screamed.
And then he was back in the Bath, the dark water around him, and he was still screaming, and he was lifted out and he suddenly heard alarms blaring, and people shouting, and there was too much noise, and too much light, and too much everything.
And then the wall burst open.
The cracks had built up, more cracks than should have appeared, spreading as fast as he’d ever seen. And they broke open the wall, and there were blue and red strands of light bursting through, goop he couldn’t identify spreading everywhere, and then…
And then the Monster burst out.
It leapt through the wall, letting out that inhuman screech. The people yelled, and the boy heard guns going off, but it didn’t seem to affect the Monster, who rushed at one of the nearby doctors, pouncing. The boy turned away, feeling one of the guards grab his arm, dragging him down the stairs.
They didn’t make it far.
At the bottom of the stairs, the Monster ran forwards, and the boy broke free from the guard’s grip, rushing away, hiding behind the staircase, breathing deeply and moving his hands to his ears to block out the screaming and the alarms and the yelling and all the noise and all the cold.
He ran towards the room he’d been changed in- an old storage closet, maybe?- and he rushed inside and shut the door. Everything was suddenly muted, everything but the cold. The cold got worse.
He was dripping water onto the floor. He wasn’t sure why his attention was drawn to that above all else, but it was bothering him, it was bothering him so much, and it just made him feel colder. It was such a small thing, but maybe that’s why he focused on it. If he had one thing he could fix, he just needed to fix one thing, and maybe he'd be able to figure something out, he'd be able to get himself somewhere safe…
He saw his hospital gown thrown over a chair in the corner, and he took off his wetsuit, throwing the gown back over his head. It didn’t help; instead, now the gown was wet. Wet and cold. Everything was colder than he remembered, even colder than before.
The shouting and yelling was still happening, and he could hear the monster roar. He crept to the edge of the closet door, listening, wondering how far away it was.
That was a mistake.
He moved away from the door just in time, hearing the footsteps drawing close. He was up against the cold wall when the door was broken down, and the Monster stared at him- even without eyes, he knew what it was staring at, what it was looking for.
The boy screamed and dropped down just as the Monster leapt at him, barely avoiding its claws. He rolled and pulled himself to his feet and took off running as the Monster regained itself and turned around, only looking behind him to see how much of a head start he had.
He didn’t have much.
The Monster was right on his heels, roaring as he ran. The Guards were still shooting at it, still yelling, and the alarms were going on and on and on and they wouldn’t stop.
He had to get away.
He didn’t mean to disappear. He really didn’t. He still couldn’t quite control himself when he was emotional, when he was scared. Scared out of his goddamn mind.
But he shut his eyes, and he thought of the room, the room that was the same as this one but darker and bluer and empty.
He’d been there, and now that the wall was open, it wasn’t far.
He felt himself pulled, pulled into the air, disappearing into the black. He held there for a second, the shouts and alarms and screams dying away, leaving him in an empty nothingness.
And then he felt the cold.
He collapsed to the floor, feeling something slimy and wet underneath his fingers. He sat up, rubbing his eyes and staring into the dark, blue room.
And he’d thought the Lab was cold. This… this was intolerable. How was it so freezing?
He stood up, turning around. He could see the cracks in the wall this time, opening up that blue-and-red door… was it a door? A portal? A gateway?
He stumbled backwards, not sure where he was suddenly. What was happening? Did he just…
But he couldn’t go through that gate. He couldn’t go back to that place , that horrible place full of horrible people and horrible tests and horrible punishments, and a Monster. The Monster was there.
That’s when he realized something.
If that was a Gate, it would be able to work both ways. The Monster would be able to come back.
He turned around and ran, ran to the elevator doors, sliding to a stop when he saw them already open, some kind of vines holding it in place. Shit, he wouldn’t be able to go out that way. There had to be emergency stairs, but how long would it take him to find them?
He shut his eyes, and tried to bring all that fear to the surface. He needed to use his fear now, use it like he just did.
The ground floor. He remembered walking on the ground floor, remembered the halls. He could go there, he knew where it was. It might be back on the Other Side, but it was close to the doors, and nobody would expect him to be there, he might be able to make it out a window.
He shut his eyes, and felt the nothing once more.
And then he felt the same cold. The same cold he’d just escaped.
He opened his eyes. He was on the ground floor, yes. But it was blue, and covered in vines and mold and cold.
He was still in the wrong place.
He stumbled forwards, confused. Why was he still here? He wanted to go to the other side, he wanted to…
He thought he heard another roar, and he stopped thinking so much.
He started running again, running down the halls. He found the doors within a few minutes and, heart pounding, he raced out of them, sliding to a stop once he reached the outside, shocked.
The sky was a dark blue, a dark blue he’d never seen the sky turn before. The stars were all gone, the moon was gone, and the ground under his feet was just as slimy and gross as the ground inside the building. The fence that had surrounded the building was broken, shattered, with more vines and mold growing on it. Beyond that, there was a murky, dark forest, one that looked as cold and lifeless as it had been inside the building.
He only stopped and stared for a second, and then he kept running. He had no choice. He had to hide. He had to hide.
He ran into the woods, leaping over roots and vines and trying not to cry. He was cold, and alone, and he’d never seen anything like this place before. He was once again scared and lost and confused and cold, only this time it was so much worse.
He finally found a tree with a large hole at the bottom, as if some animal had made a burrow. He slid towards it and then climbed into it, finding a damp spot to curl up in, hoping that the dark could hide him, that the awful discomfort would be worth it.
He started shaking, then, pulling the hospital gown down in an effort to cover himself more. It was so cold, and so dark, and he was somewhere… somewhere wrong, it just felt so wrong…
He was crying again, as he curled up into a ball, wondering why he couldn’t hear any wind, whether the Monster could get to him if he fell asleep, whether he was really awake or if he was just having a horrid, horrid nightmare. He’d been having a nightmare since the car crash, really. A horrible nightmare.
He was sobbing, trying desperately not to scream. And he couldn’t stop, he couldn’t stop.
And then he was crying out, not caring if the Monster heard him. Maybe someone else would hear him, take him somewhere safe, take him home.
“Mother!” he was calling, remembering her telling him it was alright just before the other car hit. “Mother! Father!”
Nobody came.
And he still called out. Maybe they couldn’t hear him. Maybe they really were gone for good. But maybe the rest of his family could find him, wherever he was.
“Duncan! Isadora!”
In the Other World, several other children felt very, very wrong.
In Hawkins, two triplets sat up- one in a bed, the other on a pile of blankets on the floor- suddenly feeling terrified, though they couldn’t explain why. Maybe a nightmare? The girl suddenly felt an inexplicable panic, curling up as the terror almost enveloped her, while the boy suddenly felt horrible thoughts, awful thoughts, pounding in his mind, and he buried his head in his pillow, hoping the noise would stop.
On the road, a girl shook slightly, staring out the window the bus. She was suddenly very cold, and she leaned up against the wall, hugging her legs, hoping that feeling would go away.
And, in a house in the middle of nowhere, while their baby sister slept on, a brother and sister shot awake. The boy stared at the wall for a moment, before slowly getting up to grab a book, rubbing his eyes and hoping the fear he felt was just from an already-forgotten nightmare, and the girl sat up and tied back her hair, trying to figure out why she was feeling so awful.
They all felt awful, and didn’t know why.