What happened after I hit my head?
Well.
That was a fun question.
I stared at Will.
How exactly was I supposed to explain this?
Oh, you know. Nothing much. You got kidnapped by an interdimensional monster, dragged across Hawkins, cocooned to a wall above what I can only describe as a Demogorgon maternity ward, had a disgusting tentacle shoved down your throat, stopped breathing, nearly died while I desperately tried to remember everything Bruce ever taught me about CPR, and then I carried your unconscious ass halfway across the Upside Down while being chased by monsters.
Yeah.
Probably not that.
"You were captured."
Will went pale.
Okay.
Maybe starting there hadn't been my greatest idea.
"I figured that part out."
"Right."
I shifted against the wall of Castle Byers, immediately regretting it when pain shot through my shoulder.
Fucking fantastic.
"I think you were unconscious when they took you. I found my backpack here, figured you'd have found those things useful and wouldn't have willingly left it behind, so I went looking for you."
"Where?"
"I followed the traces to the library."
I couldn't exactly tell him I'd found him based on a hunch about where he would eventually end up. Though, admittedly, a ten-year-old tracking him through this hellhole like an experienced hunter probably wasn't much easier to believe.
His eyebrows pulled together.
"The library?"
"Apparently evil interdimensional monsters are big supporters of public education."
He stared at me.
"Erica."
"Fine."
I sighed.
"They had a nest there."
His expression changed immediately.
I probably should've found a less horrifying word.
Too late now.
"A nest?"
"Yeah."
"With... those things?"
"Several."
His eyes widened.
"How many?"
"Not relevant."
"Erica."
"More than one."
Technically accurate.
Extremely unhelpful.
Perfect.
Will looked like he wanted to argue, but another memory must've hit him because his hand suddenly moved towards his throat.
I noticed immediately.
His fingers stopped just below his neck.
"There was something..."
Shit.
I knew exactly where this was going.
"In my throat."
I didn't answer quickly enough.
His eyes snapped towards mine.
"There was something in my throat."
"Yeah."
His face went white, and he doubled over, retching uncontrollably.
I leaned forward.
"Hey. It's gone."
He stayed like that for a moment, breathing hard. I waited, giving him time to get himself back under control.
Eventually, the retching stopped. He swallowed a few times, took a shaky breath, then slowly straightened.
"What was it?"
"I don't know."
That part, at least, was true.
"A vine. A tentacle. A tube. Some disgusting bullshit. Pick whichever description makes you least likely to throw up."
His hand stayed against his throat.
"What did it do?"
"No idea."
That was also true.
I had a pretty damn good idea that whatever had been pumped into him was responsible for his connection to this place. I'd seen enough of what came later to put those pieces together.
But knowing the result wasn't the same as knowing how the fuck it worked.
I didn't know exactly what that thing had put inside him, what it had changed, or whether the connection was the only thing it had done.
That thought made my stomach twist.
I'd seen the series. I knew more about what was coming than anyone here probably ever would.
But that didn't mean I knew everything.
Back then, I hadn't cared about every unanswered question. It was entertainment. If something wasn't important enough to explain, I could shrug and keep watching.
Now I was fucking living it.
And suddenly, every little gap in my knowledge felt a hell of a lot more important.
Especially when one of those gaps was what the hell had happened inside Will.
Still, there was no point scaring Will with questions I couldn't answer. For now, I focused on the one thing I knew for certain.
"But I got it out."
He swallowed and immediately winced.
Then he went quiet.
Too quiet.
I knew that look.
He was remembering something.
"Fire," he whispered.
I froze.
"What?"
"There was fire."
Oh.
That.
"Yeah."
"And screaming."
"Also yeah."
His eyes slowly moved towards me.
"What did you do?"
Why did everyone always ask me that like they were already expecting the answer to be insane?
"I improvised."
"Erica."
"I set the library on fire."
His eyes widened.
"On purpose?"
"Mostly."
That was perhaps not reassuring.
"There were monsters between us and the exit. Fire worked."
He stared at me.
Again.
Apparently that was becoming a thing.
Then his eyebrows pulled together.
"And you..."
He stopped.
"What?"
"You were pressing on my chest."
Every sarcastic response I'd been preparing disappeared.
Oh.
He remembered that.
I looked away.
"You weren't breathing."
Silence.
I hated silence.
Especially this kind.
"So I did CPR."
Will didn't say anything.
I could feel him staring at me.
"I remember watching an emergency training video at school."
The most plausible excuse I could come up with. Something no one would think to question, even if it had never actually happened.
"Thirty compressions, two breaths. Very exciting. I wouldn't recommend it."
I tried to crack a small joke, hoping it would lighten the mood a little.
Nothing.
Jesus Christ.
"Will."
"You thought I was going to die."
Not a question.
My mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
Because what the hell was I supposed to say?
Yes?
That for several minutes, I'd been kneeling over him, thinking I'd crossed into another dimension, fought my way through an entire fucking nest, and found him. Only to watch him die anyway?
That I'd been fucking terrified?
No.
Absolutely not.
"You didn't."
His eyes stayed on me.
"That's not what I asked."
I sighed.
"No."
"What?"
"No, I didn't think you were going to die."
Lie.
His expression told me he knew it too.
Great.
Apparently nearly dying had somehow improved his bullshit detector.
"You were yelling."
Oh.
Please don't die!
He remembered more than I thought.
"I was under a lot of stress."
"You sounded scared."
"I was fighting an interdimensional monster infestation. I think I was entitled to be slightly concerned."
"Erica."
"What?"
He just looked at me.
And suddenly I understood exactly what he was doing.
Nope.
Absolutely fucking not.
We were not having feelings.
Not here.
Not while surrounded by monsters.
Not ever, preferably.
"Don't."
"I didn't say anything."
"You were about to."
"I wasn't."
"You had the face."
"What face?"
"The feelings face."
For the first time since he'd woken up, Will actually laughed.
It immediately turned into a painful cough.
I moved towards him.
"Easy."
"I'm okay."
"No, you're very obviously not."
He settled back into the sleeping bag.
For a few seconds, neither of us spoke.
Then—
"Still... thank you."
I went absolutely still.
That made me feel guilty.
Will didn't know I'd known he would be taken.
And I'd let it happen.
Greater good. Preserve the timeline. The end of the world. I'd had my reasons.
It didn't make me feel any less shitty about it.
Especially with him lying there, thanking me for saving him from something I could have spared him completely.
"Yeah," I said quietly, looking away.
I thought that was the end of it.
Apparently not.
"You gave me CPR?"
Oh, for fuck's sake.
"Yes."
"So..."
I knew exactly where this was going.
"No."
"But you had to—"
"It does not count."
His mouth twitched.
"It kind of counts."
I stared at him.
No.
Absolutely fucking not.
I'd gone through two entire lives without ever kissing anyone. I was not letting CPR on a dying twelve-year-old become my first kiss.
Especially when part of me still remembered being nearly five years older than him.
That made the whole idea feel deeply fucking weird.
And then there was the other reason.
The one Will hadn't figured out yet.
And that I had absolutely no intention of figuring out for him.
"It was CPR."
"Your mouth was on mine."
"Because you weren't breathing."
"Still counts."
"It absolutely does not."
He was trying not to smile now.
Little shit.
"William Byers, if you tell anyone my first kiss happened while I was resuscitating your dying ass in an interdimensional hellscape, I will personally put you back into cardiac arrest."
He laughed again.
And despite everything—
The monsters.
The blood.
The pain radiating through practically every part of my body.
The fact that we were still trapped in another fucking dimension.
I smiled.
Just a little.
Because Will was laughing.
He was breathing.
He was alive.
For now, that was enough.