and the boy thought that they were nearing the location of the new gate. meadow looked down at her feet as she walked, feeling her feet crunch on leaves that had fallen months prior.

"hey, are you okay?" steve asked, looking down at her. the two had trailed a bit further back from the others.

meadow nodded her head. "yeah. yeah. i guess i'm just.. this is getting to all be really.. real really fast, you know. and i'm totally down to go stop another monster, i just.." she looked up at him. "we've gotten really lucky, steve. all of us have. it's a miracle we aren't all dead by now, and honestly i don't expect us all to make it out of stuff like this anymore-"

"hey, hey, hey." he coaxed. "we're all going to survive this, okay? just like we've survived everything else that has happened."

she bit her lip, but nodded again. "yeah. yeah. i know. you're right. i just.. i don't know. gut feeling, maybe?"

steve looked between her and his flashlight. "yeah, i get what you're saying. it's okay for you to feel nervous about this, i'm nervous. but we've made it out of this before, we'll do it again."

meadow looked over at him, and then smiled. "yeah. i know. i guess i'm just not too at ease going into the lair of the demon in an attempt to kill it."

he nodded. "no, yeah, yeah, when you put it more like that it does sound like a bad idea." the two laughed, and steve smiled fondly as he looked at her. "you have my jacket." he commented, gesturing to the gray one she'd chosen to wear.

"my jacket." she argued. "i wear it.. much more than you. and it barely even smells like you anymore, so-"

"oh, so it used to smell like me, huh?" steve asked with a raised brow and a smirk.

the girl rolled her eyes. "i just.. you know, i mean, i've overruled you. and the jacket is mine now."

"right, yeah, okay." he nodded. "i'm only letting you win this because it looks better on you than it does on me."

she shook her head. "now we can just agree to disagree."

the two laughed, and were standing close together when the group in front of them halted.

"something's happening.. i think we're getting close!" dustin then called, only to be held back by eddie.

"watch your step, big guy." he said. dustin was about to walk directly into lover's lake.

"oh, man." steve sighed, looking out at the water. "you've gotta be shitting me. i thought these woods were familiar."

robin nodded. "lover's lake." this was exactly where the other student had just been murdered.

"this is.. confounding." dustin said.

"there's a gate in lover's lake?" max asked.

"whenever the demogorgon attacked, it always left an opening." nancy, who had crawled through one of those said openings, said. "maybe vecna's the same way."

steve nodded. "yeah, only one way to find out."

they uncovered a small boat from the side of the shore and eased it into the edge of the water. robin and meadow walked in first, followed shortly by eddie and nancy. when dustin moved to climb onto the boat as well, eddie stopped him. "hey, hey, hey, you trying to sink us?" he accused. "this thing holds four people tops, okay?"

meadow nodded. "you guys stay here with max, make sure nothing happens."

her brother groaned. "no, no, you are not leaving me here, meadow! it's my goddamn theory!"

"you heard meadow." robin told him.

"who put her in charge?" dustin whined.

robin shrugged. "i did."

she held her hand out to her brother. "your compass?" reluctantly, he handed it to her. "i love you, stay here. we'll be back soon."

after pushing the boat into the water, steve climbed into the boat. "you said four!!" dustin accused.

"sorry." the older boy whispered back, giving him a small wave.

"bedtime at nine, kiddos." robin called. "miss you already!"

meadow looked down at the compass as it started to move more violently. "woah, woah, slow down, guys." she directed to eddie and robin, who were rowing the boat.

"what's going on?" dustin asked on the walkie talkie. "guys, talk to me, what's going on?"

robin was the first to respond. "uh, dustin, your compass has gone from wonky to wonky with a capital.. aah!"

after waiting a few seconds, steve started to get up. "woah, steve, what are you doing?" meadow asked, watching as he took his shoes off.

"somebody's gotta go down and check this out." he explained.

she shook her head. "steve, what, no. no, you're not going down there by yourself, that's stupid."

"i was a hawkins high swim co-captain and a certified lifeguard for three years." he reminded her.

meadow gave him a look. "okay, yeah, i'm a certified lifeguard, too, but we don't know.. we don't know what's down there and how dangerous it would be-"

"hey." he looked into her eyes. "i'm gonna be fine. i'm just.. gonna go down there and figure out if we're right. if there's a gate. then i'll be back." he took his shirt off, and eddie handed him a flashlight wrapped in a plastic bag.

"good luck." he said.

steve nodded. "thanks." then looked back to meadow, who was pretending to be much less worried about him than she was. "two minutes, tops. then i'll be right back."

"steve!" she got his attention. "be careful, okay?"

he nodded. "i will be." and with one last look into her eyes, he jumped into the water. he quickly disappeared into the pitch black water, and the other three sat and waited for him to return.

"how long can he.. hold his breath. underwater." robin stammered.

meadow shrugged. "the average human being can go anywhere from thirty seconds to two minutes underwater without breathing, but steve and i.. that never came up in conversation." she said, but her words came out much too quickly.

"okay, so how long has it been?"

nancy looked at her watch. "about a minute."

after a few more seconds, steve burst through the water, rocking the boat. "shit, shit, oh my gosh." meadow said, moving to the edge to see him.

"i found it." he said, grabbing onto the side of the boat that she was on. "i found it. yeah. i found it."

robin grabbed the walkie talkie. "dustin, you're a goddamn einstein." she told him. "steve found the gate."

"it was pretty wild." he told them. "it's more of a snack-sized gate than the mama gate, but still it's pretty damn big." the smile left his face as something grabbed him, immediately pulling him underwater.

"steve!" everyone screamed, and he returned for a second only to be pulled completely under. "steve!"

eddie was terrified. "what the hell was that, man?"

meadow stared down at the water for a second before groaned. "fucking.. shit." she said, contemplating taking off her jacket or shoes before deciding against both. why waste the time.

she stood up, and eddie gave her an incredulous look. "woah woah woah what are you doing?"

"i'm gonna follow him."

"what? are you crazy?"

meadow shrugged. "not the craziest thing i've done since 1983. might as well make a new addition to the top three, though."

without another word, she dove off of the boat and underwater.