Alexithymia | STRANGER THINGS [ON HOLD UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE]

five | the flea and the acrobat

While Matthew simply paced around the inside of his own basement with his hands tugging at his own hair yet again, Mike asked, "What was Will saying? Like home... Like home... but dark?"

Lucas said to him, "And empty."

With a sigh, Dustin said, "Empty and cold. Wait, did he say cold?"

Lucas replied, "I don't know. The stupid radio kept going in and out."

With a sigh, Dustin said, "It's like riddles in the dark."

Then Mike said, "Like home. Like his house?"

With a point of his finger, Lucas said, "Or maybe like Hawkins."

It was then that El said to them, "Upside down."

While looking around at his two friends, Lucas asked them, "What'd she say?"

While looking over at El, Mike said, "Upside down."

In turn, Lucas said, "What?"

Then Mike said to them, "Upside down." After sitting down at his table, he grabbed their board game and said, "When El showed us where Will was, she flipped the board over, remember? Upside down. Dark. Empty."

While looking over at Dustin, Lucas asked him, "Do you understand what he's talking about?"

Dustin replied, "No."

Mike said to them, "Guys, come on, just think about it. When El took us to find Will, she took us to his house, right?"

Lucas replied, "Yeah. And he wasn't there."

Mike asked him, "But what if he was there? What if we just couldn't see him? What if he was on the other side?" After flipping the board over yet again, he asked them, "What if this is Hawkins and... this is where Will is? The Upside Down."

While he looked between his two friends, Dustin said, "Like the Vale of Shadows."

With a sigh, Matthew said to himself, "It's official. After this shit is done and over with, I'm gonna find my drug dealer and see if I can buy some drugs off of him because this shit is fucking insane."

* * *

After stopping on a page in his book, Dustin read aloud, "'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'."

While staring ahead of himself, Mike said, "An alternate dimension."

Lucas asked them, "But... how... how do we get there?"

Dustin told him, "You cast Shadow Walk."

Lucas replied, "In real life, dummy."

Dustin said to him, "We can't shadow walk, but... maybe she can."