[ 𝚃𝚠𝚒𝚐𝚜 & 𝙳𝚒𝚛𝚝 ] ~ 𝙳𝚞𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚗 𝙷𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚘𝚗 𝚡 𝙾𝚌

VI - Tightrope

The kids were in the Wheeler's basement, having successfully gotten out of the school without anyone seeing them. Lucas was sitting in a chair, Dustin and Lucy sat beside one another on the stairs. El was laying on the couch, resting. And Mike was sat at her feet. "What was Will saying? Like home. . ."

"He said it was dark. . ." Lucy mumbled, leaning her cheek on Dustin's shoulder. She was drained, not used to this much social interaction throughout her week.

"And empty." Lucas added.

Dustin sighed, "Empty and cold. Wait- did he say cold?"

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

Dustin sighed again, looking up, "It's like riddles in the dark."

"Like home." Mike repeated again, "Like his house?"

"Or maybe like Hawkins!" Lucas pointed to Mike.

"Upside down." El murmured.

"What'd she say?"

"Upside down." Mike remembered from the other night.

"What?" Lucas scoffed.

"Upside down." He ran over to the table, sitting down in front of the D&D board. "When El showed us where Will was," The other three kids stood up, wanting to see what Mike was on about. "She flipped the board over, remember?" He flipped it right way up as he spoke. He flipped it again, "Upside down. Dark. Empty."

"Do you understand what he's talking about?" Lucas looked across the table at Lucy and Dustin.

"No." Dustin said, Lucy shaking her head.

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

"Yeah, and he wasn't there." Lucas huffed.

"But what if he was there? What if we just couldn't see him? What if he was on the other side."

"Like. . .an alternate dimension?" Lucy looked up, her amber eyes matching Mike's brown ones.

He nodded, flipping the board color side up again. "What if this is Hawkins and. . ." He flipped it so the black was showing. "This is where Will is? The Upside Down."

"Like the Vale of Shadows." Dustin uttered.

"The what?" Lucy quirked, looking at the curly haired boy confused.

He jumped up, going to get his Dungeons and Dragons binder from out of his backpack. He slammed it onto the table with a loud thud and started looking through it, stopping on a page entitled 'The Vale of Shadows.' "'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.'" He read.

"An alternate dimension." Mike huffed. Lucy hit him in the arm, "Ow! Just like Lucy said." He rubbed at the spot she had smacked him. "But. . .how. . .how do we get there?"

"You cast Shadow Walk."

"No- In real life-" Lucy looked at him, dumbfounded.

"We can't shadow walk, but. . .maybe she can." He nodded at El, looking her direction.

"Do you know how we get there? To the Upside Down?" Mike asked her softly. She just looked at them, not saying anything.

"Oh my God!" Lucas groaned.

"Mr. Clarke might know." Lucy looked around at her new friends. "We could ask him tomorrow at Will's funeral."

"Yeah- Yeah, he might!" Mike jumped up, smiling.