“I can’t... entirely rule it out as a gate thing,” Steve replies with an apologetic wince, because he can’t entirely be sure. This place definitely doesn’t seem like the Upside Down, but what the hell does he know about what that place, or that thing, is capable of? “So they opened the gate then? For real?”

Steve was probably an idiot to think that he could put all of that shit behind him. He barely slept for weeks after it was closed the first time, spent months looking over his shoulder, and he had finally moved past it all. Or so he thought.

“Uh, Yeah. We’re not in Hawkins anymore, Dorothy,” Steve tells her. “It’s sort of a long story. Do you— maybe we should get you some real clothes while we’re here.”