"sometimes an angel,
sometimes a hell raiser."
clara wheeler had no intentions of involving herself in her twin brothers little clan of misfits.
that all changed when the one boy she genuinely liked went missing, and clara would help get him ba...
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It was not the everprevailing Upside Down that haunted her. It was what it had left behind.
Memories, loss, and apparently, a missing little creature that had popped out a couple limbs like it was nothing.
"This is ridiculous."
Clara and Lucas were sat in their shared english class, the former complaining avidly.
"Why can't Dustin admit that the little demon is a threat to us! Will was in the upside down, for gods sake!"
"We went through literal hell to get him back, and if those demogorgon monsters that took El say anything about what's in there, Dart could kill us all!"
Lucas raised his head from where it had laid in his hand, sighing.
"I know, C."
The two scribbled on their project they were supposed to be doing, flourishing in a comfortable silence.
"You like Max, don't you Sinclair?"
Lucas startled slightly, eyes widening. "N-No! Where did you, uh, get that from?"
Clara rolled her eyes, "it's written on your face everytime you talk to her, Lucas."
The boy sighed, flopping back in his chair.
"It's that obvious?"
Clara nodded, "I've known you since we were little, Sinclair. Everything is obvious to me."
Lucas groaned, twisting his body. "It's not like a girl like Max will like me anyway. And even if she did, Mike would throw a whole shit fit because he thinks she'll replace El."
Clara knew this, actually. For gods sake, she'd talked with her brother about how Max is going to do anything but replace El.
"Does Max have no hair? Do Mike and Max like each other romantically? Does Max have superpowers? No."
"Mike is in the wrong," she continued, "if you like her and she likes you, it's not his god damn place to get in between that."
Lucas sighed. "Yeah, I know. You're right, Claire."
She smirked and sarcastically tossed her hair, "always am, Sinclair."
___
"Will didn't want me to tell anyone, but on Halloween night, he saw a sort of- shadow, in the sky."
Clara sat, back leant against the back of her chair in the AV club.
"A shadow?" she asked curiously, bringing a knee up and on to the chair.
"What kind of shadow?" Lucas pressed with his hands entwined in his lap.
"I don't know. But it scared him. And if Will really has true sight, if he can really see into the upside down, then maybe he saw the shadow against yesterday."
"So- that's why he was frozen like that?" Dustin inquired, pursing his lips.
"Maybe," Mike shrugged.
"Can it hurt him?" Clara asked softly in worry. "I mean, if it isn't from our world...."
"I don't know," Mike responded honestly. He had moved so he was now sitting on the table, legs swinging about.
"If you're in another plane, then you can't interact with the material plane. So no, theoretically it can't hurt him."
"This isn't some stupid board game, though. This is real life," Clara argued, standing and running a hand through her hair frustratedly.
"So, what do we do?"
Mike sighed, "we aqquire more knowledge. Clara and I will go to Will's after school."
Clara bobbed her head at this, pulling the straps of her bag higher on her shoulder.
"You guys stay here and find Dart," he added.
"Wait, what does Dart have to do with this?" Dustin asked defensively.
"What doesn't he, D? Will heard him in the upside down, he's connected to this somehow," Clara said.
"I haven't figured it out how yet, but Clara's right," Mike agreed, standing up.
"If we find Dartz maybe we can solve this thing."
Clara muttered her agreement, "more importantly, we can help Will."
____
"Uh, hello!"
"Will!" Mike shouted against the wood of the door, pounding his fist once more.
"It's useless, Mi-"
The door clicked open, and Mrs. Byers peaked her head out to greet the two.
"Hey, Mike. Clara."
Clara narrowed her eyes slightly, playing with the sleeve of her sweater.
"Hi, is Will here?" Mike asked curiously, his voice still urgent.
"Um, well, now isn't the best time," Joyce said, voice a whisper as she closed the door behind her and stepped on to the porch.
"Why? Is Will okay?" The twins chorused in unison, pressing the Byers mother.
"Yeah, you know he's just not feeling the greatest. He's in bed, I'll tell him you stopped by, okay?" she told them both, placing a careful hand on Clara's upper arm.
Clara and Mike exchanged a look, the twins having the same idea.
"It's about the shadow monster, isn't it?"
Clara was the one to ask, and when Joyce whipped around and stared at her in shock, she finished her sentence.
"We know about the shadow monster. We can help, Joyce."
