The Butterfly Affect || Stranger Things x OC

Broken Compass !

As Mel and Dustin rode their bikes to Mike's house, they tried coming up with a story as to why Mel was all bruised.

"We could say that you crashed your bike?" Dustin tried.

"No. The only way they'd believe I crashed my bike that bad, is if I was hit by a car but my bike is completely intact." Mel argued.

"You could just tell them the truth..."

"No! They'll treat me differently. Like I'm some helpless puppy! I'm not helpless and they don't need to know the truth."

"You're gonna have to tell them eventually."

"No, I don't. It's my life and they don't have to know everything that's going on."

"Alright. So if you aren't gonna tell them the truth, then what are you going to tell them?"

"I'll just say I fell down the stairs when I was on my way back to Mike's house and that's why we're late. That'll work, right?"

"Mike and Lucas aren't the smartest people so they should believe it."

"Okay."

After a few minutes of silence, they arrived at Mike's house.

"It would take a lot of energy to build a gate like this. But that's gotta be what happened. Otherwise, how'd Will get there?" Mike said to El as Mel and Dustin walked downstairs.

"Right," El answered, a little unsure.

"Hey, guys. What's going on?" Mel asked as she and Dustin walked down the stairs.

"We were just asking if El knew where the gate wa-" Lucas started before being cut off by Mike.

"Holy shit! What happened to you?" Mike yelled.

"I um, fell down the stairs before coming here. That's why we're late... because Dustin was helping me clean the cuts."

"Cut the bullshit, Melissa! This isn't the first time you showed up at my house with cuts and bruises all on your body. What really happened?"

"That is what happened! If it was something else, I would tell you. I swear."

After a moment of silence, Lucas speaks up, "As I was saying, do you know where this gate is El?" She shakes her head no. "Then how do you know about the Upside Down?"

Everyone looks at her and she looks down until they hear a noise and look to see Dustin pacing back and forth and holding something in his hand.

"Dustin, what are you doing? Dustin? Dustin!" Mike says and Dustin looks up.

"I need to see your compasses."

"What?"

"Your compasses! All of your compasses right now!"

Everyone grabs their compasses and puts them on the table.

"What's exciting about this?" Mike asks.

"Well, they're all facing north right?"

"Yeah, so?" Lucas says.

"Well, that's not true north."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean exactly what I just said. That's not true north. Are you guys seriously this dense? The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Which means that's true north," he says, pointing to the north.

"So what you're saying is the compasses are broken?" Mike asks.

"Do you even understand how a compass works? Do you see a battery pack on this?"

"No."

"No, you don't because it doesn't need one. The needles are naturally drawn to the earth's magnetic north pole."

"So, what's wrong with them?" Mel asks.

"Well that's what I couldn't figure out but now I remembered. You can change the direction of a compass with a magnet. If there's the presence of a more powerful magnetic field, the needle deflects to that power. And then I remember what Mr. Clarke said, 'the gate would have so much power'-"

"'It could disrupt the electromagnetic field.'"

"Exactly!"

"Meaning, if we follow the compasses north..."

"They should lead us to the gate!"

Mel looks over to El and sees that she has an uneasy look on her face.

After a few minutes of gathering supplies, they start heading to the train tracks to find the gate.