𝚒𝚐𝚗𝚘𝚛𝚎𝚍-ᴡɪʟʟʙʏᴇʀxғᴇᴍ!ᴏᴄ

11.

*Brooke's POV:*

"What was Will saying? Like home... Like home... but dark?" Mike said sitting on the couch in his basement "And empty." Lucas added. Dustin sighs "Empty and cold. Wait, did he say cold?" Dustin asks "I don't know. The stupid radio kept going in and out." I reminded. "It's like riddles in the dark." Dustin mumbled "Like home. Like his house?" Mike questions "Or maybe like Hawkins." Lucas recommends
"Upside down.." eleven whispered "What'd she say?" I asked "Upside down." Mike said realizing what she's been saying from the start
"What?" Lucas asked "Upside down.  When El showed us where Will was, she flipped the board over, remember?"he demonstrates at the dnd table that we played at the first day I came to his house "Upside down. Dark. Empty." He says trying to get us to understand "Do you understand what he's talking about?" Lucas asks Dustin and I
"No."
"Kinda" "Guys, come on, think about it. When El took us to find Will, she took us to his house, right?" Mike motions with his hand "Yeah. And he wasn't there." Lucas rolls his eyes
"But what if he was there? What if we just couldn't see him? What if he was on the other side? What if this is Hawkins and..." he goes to the dnd table and he flips the board upside down "this is where Will is? The Upside Down." Mike explains "Like the Vale of Shadows." I say.
Dustin gets out a dungens and dragons book and starts reading it
"The Vale of Shadows...is a dimension that is a dark reflection or echo of our world. It is a place of decay and death.A plane out of phase. A place of monsters. It is right next to you, and you don't even see it."
"An alternate dimension. But... how... how do we get there?" Mike questions
"You cast Shadow Walk." Dustin answers
"In real life, dummy." I tell him "We can't shadow walk, but... maybe she can." he motions to El.
"Do you know how we get there? To the Upside Down?" Mike asks her softly. El shakes her head. "Oh, my God!" Lucas sighs

*time skip*

"Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." It's times like these that our faith is challenged. How, if He is truly benevolent... could God take from us someone so young, so innocent. It would be easy to turn away from God... but we must remember that nothing, not even tragedy, can separate us from His love. We are here today to find comfort in the truth of scripture and to surround Will and his family..." Pastor Charles says at the funeral.we're all surrounded in a half circle when we start hearing sniffles.
We look to the direction and see Jennifer Hayes crying.
"Just wait till we tell Will that Jennifer Hayes was crying at his funeral." Dustin says I look at him and ask "who cares, she doesn't even know his name, the last time I remember she didn't even know his name she called him bill,Phil and dill in one sentence" They all look at me and smirked they were about to ask something but Karen also known as Mrs.wheeler shushes them.

*time skip*

After the funeral the Wheelers approach Joyce and Lonnie which I've only met twice from when I would go and do projects at wills house (which mr.Clarke obviously chose them together on purpose in every project they've ever done) but he's told me about him and they weren't good things. "I'm so, so sorry." Karen says "Oh, thank you so much for coming." Lonnie says while I give him a death stare "Yeah, if there's anything we can do..." Ted insists but Lonnie is quick to take down the offer "I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Take care, all right? Thanks. Thanks for coming out." He finally notices my stare and looks at me up and down and with full discuss. I look at him with pure anger. I was about to leave but suddenly his nose starts bleeding super fast and I run out of there in case I had something to do with it.

"Mr. Clarke?" Mike says going up to him
"Oh, hey, there. How are you boys holding up?" We all hear munching and look at Dustin who's looking at the snacks I go up to him and see Nilla wafers and take one I shrug and take a bite I look at him and see him doing the same thing "We're... in... mourning." Lucas looks down trying to look sad "Man, these aren't real Nilla Wafers." Dustin and I say at the same time. we look at each other in discuss of how they taste and I spit mine out but he keeps eating it.
"We were wondering if you had time to talk?" Mike asks trying his best to ignore us "We have some questions." Lucas adds
"A lot of questions." Mike says. we are sit at a table to discuss and Mike is the first one to speak up.
"So, you know how in Cosmos, Carl Sagan talks about other dimensions? Like, beyond our world?" "Yeah, sure. Theoretically." He answered when suddenly I heard a voice in my head 'where are these kids going with this?'
I shake my head thinking I just imagined it.
"Right, theoretically." Mike said trying not to be suspicious "So, theoretically, how do we travel there?" Lucas added "You guys have been thinking about Hugh Everett's Many-Worlds Interpretation, haven't you? Well, basically, there are parallel universes. Just like our world, but just infinite variations of it. Which means there's a world out there where none of this tragic stuff ever happened." He says but we all shake our heads and lucas says "Yeah, that's not what we're talking about." "Oh.." he mutters "We were thinking of more of an evil dimension, like the Vale of Shadows. You know the Vale of Shadows?" I say already knowing he knows since he's the one who taught me but just to make sure "An echo of the Material Plane, where necrotic and shadow magic-"
"Yeah, exactly. If that did exist, a place like the Vale of Shadows, how would we travel there?" Mike urged "Theoretically." Lucas says again
"Well..." he says grabbing a paper plate and starts drawing a rough diagram as he speaks. "Picture... an acrobat... standing on a tightrope. Now, the tightrope is our dimension. And our dimension has rules. You can move forwards, or backwards. But, what if... right next to our acrobat, there is a flea? Now, the flea can also travel back and forth, just like the acrobat. Right?"
"Right." We all say at the same time "Here's where things get really interesting. The flea can also travel this way... along the side of the rope. He can even go... underneath the rope." He shows us. "Upside down." Me and the boys say "Exactly." He said and I heard that voice in my head again 'what's the upside down?' I look around in confusion but shake it off. "But we're not the flea, we're the acrobat." Said mike "In this metaphor, yes, we're the acrobat."
"So we can't go upside down?" Lucas asks
"No." "Well, is there any way for the acrobat to get to the Upside Down?" Dustin asks
"Well... you'd have to create a massive amount of energy. More than humans are currently capable of creating, mind you, to open up some kind of tear in time and space, and then..." he stabs his pen through the paper plate "you create a doorway." He continued
"Like a gate?" I ask "Sure. Like a gate. But again, this is all-"
"Theoretical." Lucas softly cuts him off "But... but what if this gate already existed?" Mike asks "Well, if it did, I... I think we'd know. It would disrupt gravity, the magnetic field, our environment. Heck, it might even swallow us up whole. Science is neat. But I'm afraid it's not very forgiving." He says "Well thank you Mr.Clarke but uh we should get going we'll see you at school tho!" I say and we leave.