[ steve doesn't notice the vague amusement in geralt, unfortunately, because as soon as geralt is reaching out to stop him, the sounds of everything become that much more clear. it comes from the other side of the tunnel, the screaming, the shadows, the...ghosts, he guesses? bodies that are moving towards them, but not them, necessarily.
it's possible that if he wasn't completely distracted, he might have noticed the hole in the ground in front of them a few moments earlier. but it's hard to take his eyes away from whatever this place is doing to his memories - because he can't see them, lucas and max and mike and dustin, but he can hear them. can hear himself, and then above it all, the loud barking cries of the hoard of demodogs that were chasing after them.
they are quick glimpses, barely a flash of an image of children running along what is now, apparently, their ceiling - flipped upside down just like the gate. steve walks on ahead, stopping right atop the hole, feeling like he has to be missing something. that there's going to be something here that he's not putting together.
the flashes come more quickly, then, as steve watches an inverted shadow of himself lift the kids up into the opening, even if the actual image he watches is those same figures coming from the ceiling, and being pushed down into the opening at his feet. the truth of the matter is that steve only really remembers this night in flashes, anyway - moments, conversations, fire. but the anxious feeling is still there, like they need to hurry, like there is something coming for them. ]
Yeah. [ he says, a bit distractedly, in answer to geralt's question. ] It's- [ it's the upside down. it's hard to tell if the voice in the back of his head is dustin's or nancy's, but it certainly isn't his own, providing the answer to what he's been trying to figure out this entire time.
( above them, the barking cries of ghosts of the demodogs go rushing past, and the image of steve holds dustin close to him. protects him, as best he can, though looking back it seems a bit stupid. what would he have done? what could he have done? all steve remembers thinking is dustin- and pulling the kid behind him, and then...
the wave of the creatures rushes by the ghosts of steve's memory, uninterested in them. )
upside down. how did he not put it together before now? ] Yeah. [ he repeats, a little more definitively, glancing through the opening before turning to geralt. ] We have to go down to go up.
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it's possible that if he wasn't completely distracted, he might have noticed the hole in the ground in front of them a few moments earlier. but it's hard to take his eyes away from whatever this place is doing to his memories - because he can't see them, lucas and max and mike and dustin, but he can hear them. can hear himself, and then above it all, the loud barking cries of the hoard of demodogs that were chasing after them.
they are quick glimpses, barely a flash of an image of children running along what is now, apparently, their ceiling - flipped upside down just like the gate. steve walks on ahead, stopping right atop the hole, feeling like he has to be missing something. that there's going to be something here that he's not putting together.
the flashes come more quickly, then, as steve watches an inverted shadow of himself lift the kids up into the opening, even if the actual image he watches is those same figures coming from the ceiling, and being pushed down into the opening at his feet. the truth of the matter is that steve only really remembers this night in flashes, anyway - moments, conversations, fire. but the anxious feeling is still there, like they need to hurry, like there is something coming for them. ]
Yeah. [ he says, a bit distractedly, in answer to geralt's question. ] It's- [ it's the upside down. it's hard to tell if the voice in the back of his head is dustin's or nancy's, but it certainly isn't his own, providing the answer to what he's been trying to figure out this entire time.
( above them, the barking cries of ghosts of the demodogs go rushing past, and the image of steve holds dustin close to him. protects him, as best he can, though looking back it seems a bit stupid. what would he have done? what could he have done? all steve remembers thinking is dustin- and pulling the kid behind him, and then...
the wave of the creatures rushes by the ghosts of steve's memory, uninterested in them. )
upside down. how did he not put it together before now? ] Yeah. [ he repeats, a little more definitively, glancing through the opening before turning to geralt. ] We have to go down to go up.