suıʞʍɐɥ oʇ ǝɯoɔlǝʍ sƃuıɥʇ ɹǝƃuɐɹʇs

Chapter Five: The Flea And The Acrobat

ʇɐqoɹɔɐ ǝɥʇ puɐ ɐǝlɟ ǝɥʇ
ǝʌıɟ ɹǝʇdɐɥɔ

November 10, 1983

After we left the school I headed to the middle school and what I saw made me worry. I jumped out of the car and helped the boys with El. Once everyone was in the car they told me what had happened. Apparently they were able to hear Will but the radio blew up and Eleven was now drained. I carried inside the house and down to the basement, laying her on the couch.

"What was Will saying?" I asked. I no longer thought that they were just grieving, not after what I saw in that picture and what Jonathan had told us about his mom. "Like home... like home... but dark?" Mike said, trying to remember. "And empty," Lucas said. "Empty and cold. Wait, did he say cold?" Dustin asked. "I don't know. The stupid radio kept going in and out," Lucas said. "It's like riddles in the dark," Dustin sighed. "Like home. Like his house?" I asked. "Or maybe like Hawkins," Lucas said. "Upside down." We looked over at El. "What'd she say?" Lucas asked. "Upside down," Mike said. "What?" Lucas asked again. "Upside down."

Mike went over to the overturned game board on the table, "When El showed us where Will was, she flipped the board over, remember? Upside down. Dark. Empty," he said. "Do you understand what he's talking about?" Lucas asked. "No," Dustin and I said at the same time. "Guys, come on, just think about it. When El took us to find Will, she took us to his house, right?" Mike asked. "Yeah. And he wasn't there," Lucas said. "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... this is where Will is? The Upside Down," Mike explained. "Like the Vale of Shadows," Dustin said. "What's the vale of shadows?" I asked.

Dustin pulled out a book and opened 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," he read. "An alternate dimension," Mike said. "But... how... how do we get there?" Lucas asked. "You cast Shadow Walk," Dustin said. "In real life, dufus," I said. "We can't shadow walk, but...
maybe she can," He said and we turned to look at Eleven. "Do you know how we get there? To the Upside Down?" Mike asked. She shook her head and Lucas threw his head back, "oh, my god."

November 11, 1983

Today was Will's funeral. I was in my room fixing my hair when Dustin walked in. "Can you help me?" He asked. I looked over to see him fiddling with his gray tie. I chuckled a little and stood up, "come here," I said. He walked over to me and I moved him in front of the mirror and stood behind him. I wanted to show him and explain to him how to do it. "Okay. So you take both ends and cross the wide end over the narrow end. Then you loop the wide end back underneath the narrow end," I said, while showing him slow enough that he wouldn't get confused.

"Bring the wide end over the narrow end once more.You' have the loop now to knot the tie with. Hold the front of the loop with your index finger and thumb, and bring the wide end up behind through the neck loop," I said. I slowly did that as he watched. "Now pass the wide end down through the loop in front. And to tighten, pull the wide end of the tie downwards and slide the knot up towards your neck." I made sure his tie was straight and then stepped back. He turned around and hugged me, "thank you, NN, you're the best," he said and then ran out of the room. I smiled and sat back down at my vanity to finish my hair.

I stood behind Dustin, the other two boys standing on either side of him. Nancy was standing behind Mike with their parents. Mom was standing beside Mrs. Wheeler, and Lucas' parents were beside them as well. We listened as the pastor spoke. "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, 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."

"Just wait till we tell Will that Jennifer Hayes was crying at his funeral," Dustin said. I leaned down a little, "shh," I said and looked at the boys. They tried to hide their smiles but went back to paying attention. After the funeral everyone said their condolences and started to leave. Dustin went off with his friends and I found Nancy and Jonathan. "This is where we know for sure it's been, right?" Jonathan said. We knelt down on the ground by a few graves that were fenced in by metal posts. "So, that's..." I pointed to the map Jonathan had. "Steve's house. And that's the woods where they found Will's bike and..." he pointed at the map were he had made three red X's "that's my house. It's all so close," Nancy said.

"Yeah. Exactly. I mean, it's all within a mile or something. Whatever this thing is, it's... it's not traveling far," he told us. Nancy and I looked at each other then at Jonathan. "You want to go out there," she said. He nodded his head, "We might not find anything," he said. "I found something," Nancy told him. "And if we do see it... then what?" I asked. Jonathan sighed, "We kill it," he said and stood up. Nancy and I followed him as he headed for his dad's car. He opened the passenger door and pulled a pocket knife out. He started picking at the lock of the glove department. "What are you doing?" Nancy asked.

I looked around to see if anyone was watching us. "Just give me a second," he said. After a couple seconds he was pulling out a gun. "Are you serious?" I asked. "What? You want to find this thing and take another photo? Yell at it?" He asked. I gave him a look that told him I didn't need his sarcastic remarks and the hint of a smile started to pull at his lips. "This is a terrible idea," Nancy said. "I agree."

"Yeah, well, it's the best we've got," Jonathan told us. "What? You can tell someone, but
they're not gonna believe you. You know that," he said. "Your mom would," Nancy said. She's been through enough," he told her. I had to agree with that. She has been through enough. "She deserves to know," Nancy argued. "Yeah, and I'll tell her... when this thing is dead."