Ryan felt sick. The television in her house was portraying the news of a new dead body. "People are dropping like flies here." Lucy said coming up from behind her daughter to turn the television off. Ryan sighed as she sat at the table where her mother had prepared breakfast. Ryan stabbed her fork into one of the waffles before letting it fall on her plate making a clank noise ring through the house. "Can you pass the syrup?" Ryan asked her dad as he was closest to the syrup.

Her dad grabs the syrup while still reading the newspaper in his hand. Ryan muttered a small thank you before pouring it on the waffles. "Ryan, your school won the state championship last night. How exciting is that?" Her mom said to spark a conversation between the two. "Super exciting!" Ryan responded sarcastically as she didn't care about a game with balls.

"I'm sick and tired of your attitude!" Lucy snapped making her dad, James, put down the newspaper to see the commotion of the two. "Well, I wonder where I got it from!" Ryan yelled back at her mother making it tense in the air. "James, care to back me up here?" Lucy crossed her arms looking at her husband as he was just sitting in silence. James sighed before getting up from his seat and heading out of the door for work.

"Well look at that, you made dad leave." Ryan said smirking resulting in a very angry mom. "You are grounded!" Lucy screamed at her daughter.

"What? You can't do that!" Ryan argued getting up from her chair. "I'm your mother, and as long as you live under my roof you'll respect my rules!" Ryan huffed out at Lucy's words before storming off to her room slamming the door behind her.

"Don't slam my doors!" Ryan flipped her mother off from behind her door before slumping down on her creaky bed. Ryan reached into the back pocket of her jeans she was wearing yesterday pulling out the baggie. Ryan sat on the floor going under her bed before pulling out a random box. She dumped all the powder onto the box before grabbing a random card splitting them into lines. "I'm such an artist." Ryan smirked looking at the lines in front of her.

Ryan bent down to one of the lines plugging her other nostril and snorting the powder. Ryan rubbed her nose as her eyes started to water from the strong drug. Ryan fell backwards onto her back laying in the middle of her room. The room was starting to spin. Then a clock chiming. Ryan quickly stood up from the floor looking around her room to try and find the clock but finding nothing. "What the fuck?" Ryan asked herself noticing she's starting to lose her mind from all of the drugs. Ryan looked down at the last couple of lines on the box. Ryan was startled when her door opened making her kick the box to get rid of the white powder.

Ryan spun around to see who barged into her room. When she looked at the door it was shut, and locked. What the fuck is happening. Ryan hopped on her bed before prying the window open to sneak out and go meet Steve or someone. Ryan looked down realizing she was wearing a short tank top and sweatpants. Ryan cursed herself as she forgot to change but still heading towards the town to Lily's house. Cops were swarming the streets making it very hard to walk towards Lily's house which was all the way in the rich neighborhood.

A cop car stopped in front of Ryan making her stop in her tracks. The cop rolled down his window to talk to the girl. "Have you seen Eddie Munson?" The cop asked her making her glare at him. "No. What does he have to do with this?" Ryan's question wasn't answered as the cop drove off making Ryan ponder in her thoughts. Is Eddie Munson a murderer?

-

Ryan climbed up the ladder in the back of Lily's house that led to her room as her parents hated Ryan. Ryan lifted the window up before diving into Lily's room. "Lily?" Ryan whispered seeing as she wasn't in her pink room. The door closet to the window opened revealing a toweled Lily. "Ryan!" Lily shouted before cursing herself for yelling out Ryan's name. "Honey? Are you alright?" Lily walks towards her door before opening it up a little. "Yeah it was just the television! I forgot to turn it down last night." Lily covered up for Ryan.

The two girls laughed quietly when Lily shut the door. "What are you doing her?" Lily asked going into her closet to pick out clothes for the day. "I got grounded so I decided to see if you wanted to do anything." She admitted sitting on the bed. Lily threw a pair of shorts and a long sleeved shirt at Ryan for her to change into.

"You're the best." Lily smiled at her before heading back into her bathroom to change leaving Ryan alone to change as well. The shorts were blue and the shirt was white. Definitely not Ryan's style but she could wear it for a day or two if she needed. "I'll meet you out in the front of the house." Lily stated coming out of the bathroom once more as Ryan would have to climb down the ladder again.

Ryan quickly climbed down the ladder skipping the last two notches and just jumping down from the ladder making the leaves under her crunch loudly. "Bad idea." Ryan said, walking towards the front of the house hearing the door open and close. Ryan runs up to the sidewalk next to Lily before getting into her car. "Where to?"

-

Lilly pulled into Family Video before parking in one of the vacant spots. Ryan didn't wait for her to shut the car off. She immediately got out and ran into Family Video seeing Steve, Robin, Dustin, and Max.

Dustin was on the computer behind the counter typing away and writing down numbers. "Ryan, please get Dustin and Max out of here." Steve pleaded seeing his friend walk into the store. "No." Ryan walked around the counter before heading into it and standing next to Dustin. "What's he doing?" Lily asked watching him write things down. "He's trying to find Eddie." Steve said while helping Robin pick things up that had fallen to the ground.

"He's missing?" Ryan questioned and Dustin gave a slight nod before grabbing a phone and dialing numbers. Pretty soon everyone was calling someone to find Eddie. Ryan was not, she was outside smoking. "Ryan! Let's go." Ryan turned around seeing all of them run out of the store. Another cigarette gone. Ryan dropped it on the floor smashing it with her foot and running into Lily's car.

The ride felt long, since Ryan didn't know where they were headed until the scenery started to become familiar. Lovers Lake. That's ironic. Dustin rings the door bell many times before signing. "Well looks like no one is here." Ryan was looking off into the distance seeing a shack in the distance.

Ryan starts to walk towards it making Lily follow then the rest followed as they didn't want to be alone out here. Ryan pushes the door open to the dark room. Steve grabs an oar and starts poking in the boat that was covered with tarp. "Just take the tarp off!" Ryan yelled at Steve making him stick his tongue out at her. Suddenly the tarp flew off the boat and Steve was pushed towards the wall with a knife to his neck.

"Eddie!" Ryan yelled out seeing how he was pressing a knife towards Steve neck. Dustin got his attention and started to explain who everyone was. "This is Steve. He's not gonna hurt you, right, Steve?" Steve said frantically, "right, yeah."

"Steve, drop the oar." Ryan demanded and he dropped the oar without hesitation. Eddie pressed the knife harder against Steve's neck. "What are you doing here?" Eddie asked in which Dustin responded, "we're looking for you. Eddie these are my friends." Ryan scoffed quietly at Dustin before getting elbowed in the rib by Max. "ow."

"You know Robin, from band. This is my friend Max. The one who never wants to play D&D. Lily, she's just a harmless rich girl. Eddie, you know Ryan. We're on your side. We swear on my mother!" Dustin finished looking at everyone to repeat him. "Yeah, swear on his mother," Lily said confused. Eddie let Steve go before slumping down on a crate. Ryan noticed his whole body was shaking. Dustin bent down and reached out to touch him but he flinched away. "We want to know what happened." Robin said quietly while bending down. "You won't believe me." Eddie said making eye contact with Ryan. Ryan gives him a slight smile while Max responded, "try us."

-

"Her body just, like, lifted up into the air, and, uh. And she just, like, hung there. In the air. And her bones... Uh, she... Her bones started to snap. Her eyes, man. It... it was like there was something, like, inside her head, pulling. I... I didn't know what to do, so I... I ran away. I left her there. You all think I'm crazy, right?"

Ryan sat down next to him, "no, this isn't the first time something like this has happened to us." Ryan reassured him. "Don't bullshit me! I know how this sounds."

"We're not bullshitting you." Max said before Robin added, "we believe you." Eddie sighs out rubbing his temple. Ryan rubs his back lightly to calm his nerves. Dustin started to explain the Upside Down to Eddie making him very confused.

"Basically what Dustin is saying is, there's another world. A replica of our world just cursed and has monsters and shit like that." Ryan explained to him.

"It's like Vecna." Ryan rolled her eyes at the name from the D&D game. "Exactly. Vecna's curse!" Dustin agreed piecing the facts all together. "Okay, Ryan, you need to stay here. The rest of us are going to go out and try and figure something out." Dustin said much to Ryan's dismay.

"Fine, only because I got grounded again." Ryan gives in and Dustin gives a quick hug before they all leave the shack leaving just Eddie and Ryan. "How are you feeling?" Ryan asked while reaching over to lightly touch his hand. "I didn't kill her. You have to believe me." Eddie stated to Ryan.

"I know you didn't kill her. Just because you're a freak doesn't mean you're a murderer." Ryan joked making Eddie push her slightly. "Dipshit." Ryan mumbled out under her breath.

"I'm sorry, what was that? I couldn't hear you over your bitchyness." Now it was Ryan's turn to push him. "I'm sorry you had to see that." Ryan spoke before making eye contact with him. "It's fine. At least now I get to spend time with the queen of bitching before I go to jail."

Ryan forcefully shoved him this time to make him fall off the crate before laughing at Eddie on the ground. "You're going to regret that." Eddie stated getting up and dusting himself off and heading for Ryan. Ryan quickly got up and started running around the shack with Eddie hot on her tail. "Get back here Sullivan!" Eddie screamed as he got a hold of her waist and made her slam into his chest.

Ryan squirmed in his arms trying to break free but it was no use as he had a tight grip on her. "Let me go, you freak!" Ryan was kicking her feet as Eddie was dragging her to the boat. "Why are you putting me in the boat!" Eddie laughed as the girl was freaking out.

He put her down in the boat and he quickly followed. Eddie brushed Ryan's hair out of her face from when she was freaking out. "You're a dick, Eddie Munson." Ryan laughed out.

"You're a bitch, Ryan Sullivan." Eddie said smiling. Eddie thought that it was now or never. Eddie gripped her face with one hand before looking at her lips and leaning in.

~

wc: 2058

lmfao.
tehe.