Steve frowned, hearing a familiar voice behind him. In the rotted gloom of his room, the squelching vines and decay, there was someone else, a voice that left his stomach lurching. He tried to turn around, but hands were suddenly on his shoulders, holding him fast. Not hard enough to hurt, but enough to tell him—don’t.
“I haven’t been able to find a way out. But everyone else got out, right? I haven’t been able to find anyone else. That means they’re safe? No one but us bats?”
A laugh, manic and bright, and Steve had to shut his eyes against the sound, worried he’d drown in it. They had left Eddie. His body was dead and rotting in the Upside Down. They should have tried—they should have tried to find a way.
Steve opened his mouth to say something, anything, but one of the hands on his shoulders came up to slide over his mouth, muffling any sound. The hand was warm and smelled of ash and smoke. (Why was it warm?)
“Nope, don’t want to hear it. If you’re not real and some Venca thing, you’re gonna say some real shit and I don’t think,” another manic laugh, “I could handle that right now. But it’s nice to see the back of you, Stevie.”
Suddenly there was an earthquake, the ever-present rumble of this hellscape and—shit, there was the loss of contact, and he was–
Currently 13K into a fic based on this art, with seven sections to go. Wont post til im done but this is what the fandom has done to me, Written more than I have in years. Also bless @arstyrannus art for inspiring me to write SO MUCH (jfc its gonna be over 30k by the time I’m done)