The Long Game━ (l. sinclair)

little assholes

Mike scoffed incredulously. "Yeah, we heard what he was saying! 'Like home.' Like his house?"

"Or maybe like Hawkins!" Lucas pointed out, sitting on a spare, wooden chair in the basement.

From the couch, Eleven spoke up in a quiet, tired voice, "Upside down."

"What'd she say?" Lucas's face screwed up judgmentally.

Heart dropping in her stomach by the minute, Sam swallowed, then said, "Upside down."

Out of nowhere, Sam blurted, 'Upside down.'

'What?' Lucas asked, thoroughly done with all the weirdness going on.

Sam shook her head, snapping out of it. She stammered, 'Sorry — um — I just... she... Eleven turned the board upside down. Why is it upside down?'

"Upside down," Sam repeated firmer, clearing her throat to rid her voice of the shakiness it held. She walked back over to the table they played D&D on. Sam sat down, grabbing the playing board and turning it right-side up, re-enacting Eleven's actions. "When Eleven showed us where Will was, she flipped the board over, remember? And I... I said—"

"'Upside down,'" recalled Mike with now-wide eyes as Sam slammed the board face-down again. He had walked over to the table where Sam was with Lucas and Dustin, realizing that's two times now Sam had accidentally tied herself to all this mess. Referring to Will's words, he continued, "Dark. Empty."

"Do you understand what they're talking about?" Lucas asked Dustin, eyeing Sam and Mike judgmentally.

"No," responded Dustin responded.

Sam sighed, rolling her eyes under her lids while Mike argued enough for the both of them.

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

Raising a deadpan eyebrow, Lucas answered, "Yeah. And he wasn't there."

"But what if he was there?" Sam interjected quietly. She wasn't making eye contact, biting the nail of her thumb anxious. Finally, she met Lucas's stare, said, "What if we just couldn't see him? What... if he was on the other side?"

Mike nodded, on perfect track with Sam's train of thought. He picked up the board, flipping it over and pointing at the right side. "What if this is Hawkins and" — he turned the bottom back facing up — "this is where Will is?"

Ironically, it was Sam who finished with, "The Upside Down."

Dustin's eyes went wide, and Sam knew exactly how to tell when he was struck with a realization. Now would be one of those times.

"Like the Vale of Shadows," recalled Dustin within a gasp.

Sam's eyes enlarged, too.

"Exactly like the Vale of Shadows."

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Dustin grabbed Mike's personalized D&D playbook, slapping it down on their playing table. He began flipping through it with a destination in mind. Sam watched as he finally reached the pages of the binder he was looking for — she squinted to see a monochrome picture of a dark, eerie woods.

"'The Vale of Shadows,'" Dustin read verbatim, "'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.'"