dustin pleaded, grabbing a chair and setting it underneath the gate opening. he was still crying, and meadow was still in complete and utter shock.

"dustin, no." she said, her voice coming out much more quietly than she'd anticipated. "no, you can't go back in there. it isn't safe."

he shook his head. "we can't leave him there by himself!"

"he made that choice!" she argued, and her voice broke. "dustin, i love eddie, too, but i.. i love you more, okay? and i can't let anything happen to you."

dustin shook his head. "i'm sorry." he mumbled. "i have to try to help."

meadow moved to stop him, but dustin had already made a running jump off of the chair and had landed on the ceiling. she reached for him, but wasn't quite tall enough to stop him. he struggled for a moment before pulling himself through, landing and twisting something in his ankle.

his sister's eyes widened out of her skull as he screamed in pain. "dustin!" she cried, moving up to help him. he'd already sat up, though, and was limping out of her view. "holy shit, holy fucking shit." she mumbled to herself before standing up on the chair.

she was almost tall enough, from here, to climb through the hole. when she flipped upside down, though, she lost her grip, and fell onto the mattress that she hadn't even seen dustin move over.

meadow was then immediately on her feet, running out the front door and after dustin, who was hobbling towards eddie. he was completely surrounded by bats. "eddie!" she heard her brother plead. she could also faintly hear the sounds of eddie's anguished yells.

"dustin!" she called, running after him. he'd gotten enough of a head start that, by the time she caught up to him, the bats had fallen from the sky, landing around eddie's body. "hive mind." she breathed before immediately wrapping one of dustin's arms around her shoulders, helping him jog to where eddie was laying. "holy shit."

eddie had clearly been bitten by the bats, just like steve had, only this was worse. significantly. meadow felt her hands start shaking as she knelt down next to him, watching as dustin pulled him into his lap. "eddie! oh, god, eddie!"

"bad, huh?" eddie asked, somehow still keeping his twinge of humor.

dustin shook his head. "no, no, you're going to be fine. we've just gotta get you to a hospital, okay?"

"okay."

"alright, alright." dustin said, trying to pull eddie up. "meadow, you take his upper body, and.. and i'll take the legs, and.. and we'll carry him through, and.. meadow!"

he looked to his sister, who was sitting in complete shock. she'd been though a whole lot of shit because of the upside down, but never had she had to watch someone die.

"i need a second, i need a second, okay?" eddie said to dustin, who was still trying to pick him up.

dustin nodded. "okay."

"you know, i had a crush on you, henderson." eddie said to meadow, who seemed to then be blinking for the first time.

"this isn't the time for that, eddie-"

he shook his head. "i know. i loved you with harrington too much to say anything." he teased, and the look on his face didn't convey if he was kidding about having feelings for her or not. the raise of his brow gave off the implication that she would've left steve for him, and then he would've felt guilty about it, and meadow couldn't believe how he could be making jokes at a time like this. "everything aside, i.. i really wanted us to be friends."

"we are friends." she said, looking down at him. "and you're.. you're gonna be okay." she said, though she was lying through her teeth. she was terrified for him.

eddie stifled a smile. "i didn't run away this time, right?" he said, though he was speaking around his own blood.

dustin began to sob. "no. no, no, no, no. you didn't run."

"i guess we're not going to get to.." eddie coughed. "get to go to that metallica concert after all, huh, henderson?"

meadow shook her head, still holding onto hope. "no, no. we're getting front row. it's going to be even better than the metallica you just played."

"nothing's gonna be better than the metallica i just played." the older boy continued to smile as he looked back at dustin. "you're gonna have to look after those little sheep for me, okay?"

"no," dustin begged, "you're gonna do that yourself."

"nah, man." eddie sighed. "say 'i'm gonna look after them'." dustin shook his head, letting out a sob. "say it."

"i'm.. i'm gonna.. i'm gonna look after them." he said tearfully.

eddie nodded. "good. cause i'm actually gonna graduate. i think it's my year, henderson. i think it's finally my year." he struggled for a moment. "i love you, man."

dustin shook his head, grabbing eddie's hand. "i love you, too." he said, and his voice trembled. eddie began choking, and dustin teared up again. "eddie.. eddie?"

the choking stopped, and meadow felt herself nearly stop breathing as she watched it happen. dustin was still calling out for him, shaking his limp body in an attempt to wake him up.

"eddie! come on.." he pleaded. "eddie!" he let out another wail before sobbing over his body.

meadow put a hand on his back after a moment, and dustin immediately turned around and fell into her arms. she held him tightly, feeling him sob into her neck. there was nothing she could say, nothing she could do. she was crying herself now, holding her brother close to her.

she sat with him like that for minutes before the ground began to shake, and she moved dustin closer to the ground, waiting for the earthquake to stop. when she turned to the side, though, she could see the gate in eddie's trailer begin to spread. "holy shit." she whispered, wiping her tears with the back of her hand and helping her brother to his feet.

"no, we can't leave him!" dustin sobbed.

"we can't.. we can't explain what happened to him, either, if we bring him back."

he let out another choked sob. "we can't leave him.."

dustin looked over his shoulder at eddie's body before allowing his sister to carry him into the trailer and towards the gate. she had already laid the mattress out on the other side for them to get back through, and she helped lift him up and watched as he rolled onto the mattress.

meadow looked up at the gate before pausing, moving further into eddie's trailer. "meadow!" her brother sobbed. "what are you doing?"

she reappeared to the gate with the upside down version of eddie's guitar in her hands. "he wouldn't want anything to happen to it." she said, noticing that two of the strings had been plucked off by the bats in his trailer.

she then wordlessly climbed back through the gate, and meadow and her brother waited in max's trailer for steve, nancy, and robin, who were supposed to meet them there. the siblings sat on her sofa, meadow looking down at the guitar in her hands.

dustin was mindlessly staring at either the wall or his hands, but he didn't protest when his sister put her arm around him. the door opened after about ten or fifteen minutes, and meadow shot to her feet as steve opened the door.

"steve." she gasped, practically running into his arms.

he looked between her and dustin, who was still sitting silently on the couch. "where's eddie?" he asked, and meadow only hugged him tighter. "oh."

meadow had started crying again, and held onto steve to keep her standing. "how did it go with vecna?" she asked after a minute.

she pulled away to see nancy and robin. "he.."

"the clock struck four times." nancy said. "he claimed his final victim."

meadow shook her head, immediately thinking about max. "no. no, you're lying."

she looked up at steve to see if it was some kind of sick joke, but his face was completely somber. "we were going to go to the house to get them, but erica said they're already headed to the hospital."

"no." meadow whispered, feeling her eyes begin to swell once more with tears. "if that.. if that's true, then.."

"then hawkins is about to get wiped off the map." robin replied.