Chapter Text
"I think it's happening again, Bev."
The moment Beverly Byers let the telephone slip from her grasp and settle back into its place - hanging up on Nancy Wheeler in the process - was the moment she had been dreading for the last four months.
Her dark eyes shut immediately as the pressure in her head continued radiating throughout her skull. The feeling caused her to hunch over and clasp both hands over her ears.
No. No! This wasn't happening. It couldn't be happening again. El and Hopper had been both able to close all of the gates during the travesty that would forever be called "The Fire at Starcourt Mall".
The reality of it all was that it wasn't really a fire. It was something more sick and twisted then anyone outside of the small group of those in the know could ever imagine. Beverly hated that she knew. She hated that this sick and twisted world was tormenting her and those she loved.
The bile rose up quickly in her throat and she sprung into action, diving headfirst into her bathroom to expel the omelette she had made herself earlier that morning.
Why did Nancy call her? Why didn't her younger brother, Jonathan receive the call instead? After all, the eldest Wheeler sibling and Jonathan had been inseparable other than the fact that her mom, Joyce, packed up their things and took Jonathan, Will, and El as far away as California.
While Beverly also moved out of Hawkins, Indiana, she was not as far away as the rest of her family. The eldest Byers sibling moved to Virginia after everything that happened. As a child, she had always loved the ocean. Never having the monetary means to travel as a family - she never got a chance to see it. Atleast not until she turned eighteen and had saved up enough money to get out on her own.
She knew what she had to do. And so with trembling hands, Beverly grabbed the bag beneath her bag and began packing things she might need. Pants, shorts, socks, underwear and a few bras - she made sure she grabbed a little bit of everything. After she tossed in the necessary toiletries, Beverly stomped her petite feet into the mucked up pair of converse her mom had gifted her for her last birthday.
With a glance down at the once pristine white pair of shoes, Beverly sighed loudly and spoke to her feet as those they would talk right back to her, "You've seen better days, my friends."
She rushed from her apartment and had made it down two flight of stairs before she realized she had not even told Nancy of her plans to return. Turning quickly on her heels, Beverly rushed back into her apartment and picked up the phone.
She shuffled her weight from one foot to the other as she waited for someone to pick up.
"Wheeler Residence."
"Hi, uh, Mrs. Wheeler! It's Beverly. Beverly Byers..." she paused and immediately sunk her teeth down into her bottom lip. "Is Nance there?"
"Oh, Bevy! It's so nice to hear your voice. Yes, give me a moment." Mrs. Wheeler must have set the phone down to go and get her daughter, Beverly could hear the clanking of plastic against the kitchen countertop and the dying out click of Mrs. Wheeler's heels.
"Bev?" Nancy sounded exhausted and slightly panicked.
"I'm coming home." Beverly told her quickly, readjusting the strap from her duffel bag. "It's going to take me a few hours but I'll- uh, I'll be there."
"I'll tell Steve and Robin... and the others, of course. They'll be happy to see you." Beverly could tell that Nancy was forcing out some kind of excitement in seeing their old friend again.
Beverly knew it was stupid to rush back to Hawkins. She didn't even know the full story. She didn't know what was happening and whether or not the upside down was even involved. And she definitely didn't know that in just a few short hours she would be face to face with the boy - no the man - that was in the middle of it all.
On the other end of the line, Nancy had held her tongue with the details of what was happening and who was involved. Robin and Steve lingered behind her, pantomiming the information they thought Beverly needed to know to the best of their ability. Robin played with Steve's hair, trying to tug the strands down around his face to signify Eddie "The Freak" Munson. She was doing a terrible job and the expression on Steve's face said it all.
"Right. I'm sure." Beverly forced out a breathy laugh, her fingers now curling around the phone cord before she stood up. "Meet you at your house, then?"
"Yes. We'll be here. Steve and Robin, I mean. They're here right now. We'll wait."
Beverly hung up again, her movements were slower this time. As the phone was pressed down into its rightful slot, she kept her hand there as the thoughts began to sail around her mind. Should she call her brother? Should she call her mother?
The Byers Matriarch was still struggling with the loss of Hopper, Beverly knew her mother had been through too much to be dragged back into this mess. Her head shook with the thoughts swirling in her mind, removing her hand from the phone and leaving her apartment once more.
Tossing her bag into the backseat of her crappy Oldsmobile, where the red paint was beginning to chip away and the handles beginning to rust, Beverly started on the journey back to Hawkins.
This was not the way she envisioned how 1986 was going to do.