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The only thing Steve could think as he was yanked to the bottom of Lover's Lake was holy shit, I am going to die.
The initial tug on his body had barely left him underwater for a single moment, but once he resurfaced, he knew that there was no way it wouldn't happen a second time. He simply couldn't predict how bad it would've been.
Despite how meaningless and vain, Steve couldn't stop himself for grasping the water above him, trying to grip the side of the boat and yank himself away from the portal no matter how far down he had gotten. The cold water passed through the crevices of his fingers, and he cringed. His eyes were fixated on the surface, watching the floating vessel grow smaller and smaller; the red light shining below him began to cloud him vision until, suddenly, the tendril wrapped around his ankle yanked him through the opening.
Hanging onto the side of the portal to prevent his entry into the Upside Down wasn't an option, either. It was completely covered in the same vines that were attached to his leg, so it wasn't an option. Steve's nearly certain that he wouldn't have the strength to even if he had a spot to, as the appendage yanked him out of the water, throwing him onto the ground. For a brief moment, Steve envied the part of his back that was cushioned from the harsh landing by a strand of vine, but it soon washed away as he was dragged across the ground. The rough textures broke up the cool rock, digging into his skin and scratching across his entire back.
No matter how hard it pulled, Steve continued to grapple at the passing ground beneath him, hands falling on open air as he failed time and time again to get a stable place to hold on to.
Is this really how he dies?
For some odd reason- maybe the supernatural has gotten tired of a helpless man- the limb lets go of his ankle, but not without tugging harshly, which happens to send him flying into a mound of vines. He groaned as he landed, but they were softer than the floor of this place, so it was a nice break. Yet, Steve's head was pounding, so he pinched the bridge of his nose, squeezing his eyes shut before looking around at the area.
Steve rolled up from where he was laying, pushing himself onto his hands and knees, then finally to get stable on his feet. And, holy fuck, was this place different than the very real, very right-side-up version of Hawkins. The rolling dark skies seemed to be deeper than the depths of Lover's Lake, but they were broken up by the existed of oddly red thundering lightning clouds. The chunk of forests stretching all the way around was completely barren, branches on the trees looking almost dead and dry. Most of the ground he could see was covered in an erratic splatter of twisting vines. Periodic masses of fog floated about in the air and, distantly, Steve wondered where all the ambient noises around him were coming from.
Huffing, Steve turned around as he heard a screeching noise from behind him. He couldn't deal with anything right now- not after being literally ripped from reality and tossed into a nightmare world- he was exhausted. Back at home in Hawkins, Steve probably wouldn't have run from the bat flying overhead. If anything, he'd just let it fly above him and away. Yet, he wasn't naive; Steve knew that the animals here were not like the animals in the real world. There had to be something more to this bat. That knowledge, and the fact that it was flying straight towards him, was enough to make Steve take a few steps backwards.
It didn't get him very far. Once Steve turned around, he spotted a second bat a bit farther away, also flying right in his direction, fixated on his body. If Steve hadn't known about all this before, he'd have thought he was dreaming, but he knew better now than he had in the beginning. He jogged a few steps over to a pile of vines wrapped around an old boat, ripping out the stray oar that had laid there, useless. He steadied it in his hands, wishing that it was his trusty nail bat, and whipped his head around in an attempt to focus on all three demo-bats at once.
The first creature swooped down, attempting to make its first attack on him, but Steve was quicker. He jumped up a little as he swung the oar, tossing it to the ground. He was purely shocked at how much force it took to whip it down and yet, the bat got up again almost immediately.
Steve churned his focus away from the first bat and turned around, finding that both of the others were swooping down simultaneously, which served as much more of a problem for him. He ducked from the second, lower bat and swung at the third, but missed. The three bats regrouped, circling around an already-injured Steve at various heights and speeds. It finally hit Steve that he was absolutely no match for these things.
Suddenly, the second demo-bat had swooped in from behind, wrapping its tail around his neck and pulling. Steve dropped the oar, desperately trying to tug at the constricting tendril around his neck, but the bat pulled harder. Steve was thrown to the ground, and though his back tried to break his fall, his head was soon to smack the ground right afterwards.
His eyes slipped shut as an incessant ringing sparked in both of his ears. It was louder in the left, then the right, and ultimately settled to be just slightly more ear-piercing in the left ear. They feel heavy, incredible pressure pushing into the sides of his head as though someone was pressing their fingers in as hard as they could. Steve screamed, still trying to loosen the bat's hold on his neck while using his other hand to swat it away from him. He could barely feel the slimly skin through the intense pressure around his throat and couldn't even hear the one of the bats landings beside him through the ringing.
Actually, Steve couldn't hear anything aside from the ringing.
Barely a full second later, he wishes that the ringing was the most of his worries as a creature digs its sharp teeth deep within his skin, ripping chunks of flesh from his abdomen and yanking blood from his body. Steve's eyes slipped shut as he screamed in pain; his arm trying to wash away the demo-bat around his neck quickly moved to the one attached to his side.
The final bat went straight from the air and latched onto the opposite side of his stomach. No matter how much he swung his arms and kicked his legs, they just kept finding a place to replace their grip until Steve couldn't ward them off any longer. His throat was hurting from both the constriction and the scratchiness of his screams tiring out his worn vocal cords. His eyes were getting blurry, body tired, and his stomach was absolutely burning from the constant tearing of his own skin and tissue from his body.
His body flayed, spasming as his limps flung around in sporadic directions. No amount of effort that Steve put into his escape could actually counter the pure strength of these fucking creatures that had him splayed useless on the ground.
Steve had completely given up.
That was, until his foot hit the oar he had formerly deemed as too far from his reach. He hadn't kicked it any farther, Steve realized, and he managed to wriggle his foot onto the other side of the wooden rower. Steve bent his leg, sliding the oar underneath his knee and towards him. As much as he tried to bend around the bat, he couldn't move his head much, so Steve had to settle with brushing his arm against the flapping wings of the bat. He felt like he was reaching around in thin air when his fingers finally brushed against the wooden pole. It settled into his palm and, once Steve realized that he didn't have much time to conjure up a plan, he sprang into action.
With all the energy he could muster up, Steve swung the oar and whacked the demo-bat strangling him with enough force to knock it off course. He had trapped the wing between the oar and the ground, causing the creature enough pain to let go of Steve's throat and fly off to attempt to regroup. Coughing while trying to catch his breath, Steve pushed his hands off of the floor and got onto his own two feet. He stumbled around before remembering the bats were still crunching into him by a sharp sting of pain.
Steve moved his hands to grab the back of both bats, one in each hand, and began to rip them off of his body. They wouldn't loosen their jaws, but he kept pulling nonetheless, feeling them tear chunks of his stomach from where they once were. Once he has them in his hands- detached from his side- he kneels down and smashes them both into the ground. They're not dead, just too injured to get back up.
He reached back for the oar he had left forgotten and jabs the center of the creatures. Blood spurts from the wounds, and Steve sighs in relief that two of them are dead. However, he doesn't hear the third one screech from behind him, but even the feeling of air from the flapping of its wings can't give Steve half the mind to duck and turn around. It wraps around his neck once again, but his adrenaline is pumping now, and Steve's far more prepared than he was at the front of all of this. It tries to tug him down, but his feet are planted, so Steve pulls with all his might and manages to unravel it from around his throat. Steve grins a sick smile, and he keeps a tight grip on the tail as the demo-bat tries to fly away. It's sort of like flying a living kite.
Knowing that it won't go anywhere, Steve tightens his fist around the demo-bat and smashes it into the ground. He can't hear its cries, but even if he could, Steve's not sure he would stop as he repeatedly drives the demo-bats head into the ground. In a final act of vengeance, Steve grabs it into his mouth, traps the opposite side of the creature underneath his bare foot, and pulls.
The bat tears in half. Steve spits the thick blood out of his mouth and stares at the mess beneath him. He finally realizes that just because the ringing in his ears had mostly subsided, doesn't mean everything was okay.
Nancy's known about the Upside Down for a long time now. And, despite everything she's learned about it- how it took Will, how El can control the gates, how there's an endless number of hybrid-like monsters that are fully prepared to ravage anything in their paths- she never expected to watch her ex-boyfriend get dragged to the bottom of a lake right in front of her eyes to what seems to be his inevitable death.
Though, Nancy is glad she's not the only one scared; the second Steve goes under so dramatically that it's certain he won't resurface, screams are leaving both Robin and Eddie's mouth, as well as her own. She finds herself gripping the side of the boat, staring down into the empty abyss that is Lover's Lake, which apparently has an interdimensional portal at the bottom of it, which just dragged someone near and dear to her heart through.
Anyone who knows Nancy would know that once she makes up her mind, there's pretty much no stopping her. So, as Nancy stands up, steadying herself on the rocking raft, she knows that neither of the people sitting there can stop her from saving somebody that she loves.
"Wait, wait, wait-" Eddie interrupts. Robin's eyes snap from the side of the boat that formerly housed Steve Harrington and immediately settle on Eddie. When she sees that he's staring straight at Nancy, she whips around, and her eyes manage to widen even farther when she notices that Nancy is standing. "You're not going in there, are you?" he asks, and Nancy remembers that he barely knows Steve. Why else would he question her risking herself for him?
"Just-" Nancy huffs. She looks down at the water, then back at her friends. "Wait here," she says, and ignores their protests as she gently leans backwards before thrusting herself over the side of the boat. The second she hits the water, their voices become muddled together and she can't distinguish the noises anymore. Despite every bone in her body telling her that this water probably isn't the best place to be sanitation wise, Nancy forces her eyes open and finds the gleaming red light from the bottom of the lake.
It's weird to swim out of the portal; it's wrapped in intertwining tendrils of something, and they feel absolutely disgusting underneath her damp palms. Yet, she manages to drag herself into the Upside Down. It was a long way from the surface to the portal, so Nancy collapses onto her hands and knees and huffs, her nails digging into the ground and finding a stable place to regroup.
Robin isn't far behind her, and she's just slightly less out of breath than Nancy. She stumbles around on her feet as she tries to catch her breath, but ultimately settles with her legs crossed on the ground. The time between Eddie's arrival is longer, but he shows; his hands find his knees and he's hunched over, gasping and mumbling underneath his breath that he can't believe they actually just did that, and that Harrington better be worth all this trouble.
Normally, Nancy would be angry at his muttered complaints, but it kindly reminded her of the reason the three of them stumbled into the portal; it was all for Steve. With a final inhale, Nancy pushes herself up and looks at Robin. "Steve," she reminds. Robin doesn't answer her. "Do you see him?"
Robin pauses and looks away, her eyes fixating on something in the distance. "There," she breathes, raising a hand and pointing in that direction.
Nancy looks in the direction she had was she spoke, and suddenly, she realizes why Robin sounded so exasperated when she had made her observation. Steve's faltering figure was there- farther away than Nancy had hoped. He's standing up- or at least, he's trying to- but there's something flying around the air near him, and there's two more things stuck to his side. His hands grab the two creatures, tugging them from his side, and that's when Nancy realizes that they're holding onto his bare skin because they're digging into his bare skin. Steve pulls harder, and they separate, but they bring part of Steve with them, and his blood goes flying, and Nancy wants to vomit. "Oh my god," she gags.
Setting a foot in front of herself, Nancy starts running, calling out Steve's name. It's not too scary that he can't hear her, given that they're pretty far away from each other, but she watches as Steve slams the things onto the ground. He grabs hold of a wooden pole and slams it down; the things go limp. Nancy can't tell if she's relieved or horrified. The grumble Eddie gives tells her that he's the latter.
Suddenly, the forgot flying creature dives down from the air and wraps itself around Steve's throat, and a terrified screams rips itself from Nancy's throat as she witnesses Steve's hands let go of the oar and fly to his throat. He's being choked. Louder than she thought possible, Nancy calls "Steve!" Her worried notes are echoed through the others.
Somehow, Steve doesn't go down. Nancy watches in shock, her steps slowly as he grapples the creature's tail from around his neck before slamming the living thing into the ground, just like the others. She flinches but doesn't stop walking. He doesn't stop, even when Nancy is still screaming his name from a much shorter distance. In fact, he doesn't even flinch at the calling of his name when Nancy supposed he would've. Steve hasn't noticed.
Steve should've noticed.
Blaming it on fear, she watches intently as he finally stops driving its body into the ground. Instead, one side of its body sticks underneath his foot, while the other in between his teeth, and she wonders why Steve is stretching it from the ground all the way to his head.
"What is he doing?" Nancy gawks.
Steve's head jerks back and the creature rips apart. The bottom half whacks into the ground, the top whipping into the air, and blood squirts everywhere.
Robin blinks, stopping in her tracks completely. "I think he just eviscerated that thing with his teeth."
Steve turns and spits dark blood from his mouth. She's not quite sure whose blood it is.
"What the fuck," Eddie gasps. Nancy agrees.
Nancy picks up her speed and lunges over the little bit of ground-tentacles until she's stumbling into the open area Steve was fighting these bat-looking-hybrids in, riddled with a sick mix of his blood and the guts of these Upside Down monsters. Here, she can finally get a full view of her friend. Steve's neck is covered in blood and already-forming bruises that wrap all the way around his throat multiple times; Nancy knows that those couldn't have formed in the short time they watched him being choked. His back is also bruised, cut, and bloody, and Nancy supposes that he was on the ground. Maybe while being choked. She guesses that there was a lot more going down than they had witnessed.
Steve's torso was a wreck, too. His stomach was bedraggled into wounds; his sides looked as though they were still loading in, missing chunks of his flesh making missing pieces in his body. He's bleeding profusely. Nancy's not quite sure how he's still standing, or how he managed to kill three of these things. He's still staring at the ground in front of him, despite Eddie's loud gasp of "Jesus H. Christ," and he hasn't reacted to any of them.
"Steve," Nancy whispered. He doesn't answer, he just continues to stare at the dead, dismembered bat that laid on the ground in front of him. Her eyebrows furrowed together in concern. "Steve," she repeats much louder. It draws the attention of Robin, who also gives a glance of concern when Nancy glances over. She finally reaches forward with a yell of "Steve!", grabbing his shoulder to get him to look up.
Steve practically fucking flies; he jumps more than a few feet backwards, nearly tripping over his own bare feet as he tries to ground himself. Nancy's eyes aren't nearly as wide as his are. His breath is ragged and heavy. Nancy gives him a nod before lunging forward again and putting her hands on his shoulders. He looks fucking terrified.
"Steve," she says in relief, "oh my god, Steve."
Still, he doesn't answer.
"Ok," Nancy breathes, and she smiles out of pure concern. "That's ok. I know- I know that you're probably scared, and- and hurting, but we really need to get going, ok, Steve?" she rambles. Yet, Steve doesn't even nod. He just keeps blinking, eyes bouncing in between Nancy's eyes and her moving lips. "Hello?" she practically yells, snapping her fingers in front of Steve's face and shaking his shoulder. He winces. "Steve!"
"Are you saying something, Nance?" Steve finally speaks. His voice is raw and cracking, words even slightly slurred. Suddenly, she feels a knot forming in her stomach, and the mumbling of Eddie about how crazy this all is and Robin about these bat-things possibly having rabies comes to a halt. "I- I can't hear you," he explains.
It's Nancy's turn to finally blink without an answer, because he's right in front of her face, and there's nothing covering the sides of his head. Steve was perfectly fine when he was swimming around back in the lake, so what could've happened for Steve not to hear her?
There's a screeching from behind them that everyone notices, getting up from their relaxed positions. Eddie grabs hold of the pole as they face the bats. There's a hoard of them, a ginormous mass of demo-bats flying all towards them. They only person who hasn't seemed to react is Steve.
"I can't-" he gasps, hands flying up to his head, Steve pats over top of his ears, then flattens his hands and presses. "I can't hear you. Nance- Nancy, I can't hear anything."
Robin points out how they can't possibly fight off the ward of monsters, so Nancy tugs onto Steve's wrist and drags him in the direction of the woods. As they run, Nancy keeps looking over her shoulder at Steve, wondering how they're going to get out of this one, and if Steve would ever be able to hear her speak again. She tried to push away the gut feeling that told her no.