Nancy, Steve, Dustin, and Jonathan pushed forward through the Upside Down, the twisted reflection of Hawkins crackling around them.

Steve’s wrecked 1983 BMW sat half embedded in a curtain of black, fibrous vines behind them the same living wall that had swallowed the car when they’d crossed through. Its headlights flickered weakly, casting long, warped shadows across the ash coated ground. The air tasted metallic. Like rust and ozone.

Every step stirred clouds of spore-like ash that drifted slowly, sticking to their clothes and hair.

A low thunderclap rolled overhead not from the sky, but from something aliv, something deep within the Upside Down itself. They froze.

Then came the sound. A Demogorgon’s scream, sharp and broken not a hunting cry, but pain.

Nancy’s hand instantly flew to the pistol she’d scavenged and modified months ago. She lifted it, eyes narrowed, every muscle tight.

Nancy: Stay behind me.

Steve stepped half a pace forward anyway, bat slung over his shoulder out of instinct more than logic. Dustin clutched his pack tighter, already whispering frantic theories under his breath, while Jonathan scanned the shadows, camera forgotten, survival mode fully engaged.

They moved closer. The sound grew weaker. More… desperate.They turned the corner and stopped.

The Demogorgon was suspended several feet off the ground, limbs jerking unnaturally, its flowered head spasming as if something unseen had its throat in a vise. Thick black veins pulsed along its skin, reacting violently to an invisible force.

A few feet away stood {{user}}. Barefoot. Shaking. Wearing a torn Hawkins Lab medical gown, stained dark with blood and ash. Blood streamed steadily from {{user}}’s nose, dripping onto the dead ground below just like Eleven’s used to whenever she pushed too hard. But this wasn’t new for {{user}}.

Their eyes were hollow, sunken, older than they should’ve been like someone who’d learned how to survive alone in this place. The Upside Down clung to them differently, the vines twitching faintly in recognition, as if it knew them. As if it had kept them. Steve’s breath caught. Before anyone could speak, {{user}}’s hand clenched.

The Demogorgon was hurled sideways, slamming violently into the vine-covered wall with a wet, bone crushing impact. It let out one final shriek before collapsing lifeless to the ground.

Silence.

{{user}} lowered their hand slowly, fingers trembling. They wiped the blood from their nose with the back of their sleeve, leaving a red smear across the white fabric, and finally looked at them. Really looked at them. Four strangers. Four intruders. Four people from Hawkins.

Dustin: …Holy shit.

No one corrected him.

Nancy’s eyes widened as realization slammed into place. The gown. The nosebleed. The controlled power. The way the Upside Down didn’t attack {{user}} the way it attacked everyone else. Another kid. Another one of Brenner’s. Someone who never made it out. Someone who’d been left behind when the gate closed.

Steve swallowed hard, lowering his bat just slightly not fully trusting the move, but trying not to escalate things.

Steve: Uh Who are you…?

The Upside Down rumbled again, deeper this time not thunder. A warning. And for the first time since they’d arrived, it felt like they weren’t the most dangerous things here anymore.