𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐬. ༄ s. harrington

ix.

ALL the four kids along with mad, went to the middle school. as they made their way through the hallways, there was an announcement saying there was some assembly for will. mike tried to open the door to the heathkit but it was locked. dustin had asked el if she could open the door with her mind. but before el could even say anything, mr clarke came and saw them.

"boys? assembly's about to start."
"we know. we're just...you know..." mike said, looking down to his feet.
"upset." lucas continued the sentence for mike as he looked down too, 'sadly'.
"yeah, definitely upset." dustin said.
"we need some alone time." mike said.
"to cry."
mr clarke then spoke up, "listen, i get it. i do. i know how hard this is but let's just be there for will, huh?" the boys slowly nodded.
"and then, the heathkit is all yours for the rest of the day." he tossed over the keys he pulled out from his pocket to mike.

"what do you say?"
mr clarke then looked over to madeline, "oh hello madeline, glad you're here today." madeline nodded as he then looked over to el.
"i don't believe we've met. what's your name?"
"ele—"
"eleanor! she's my uh..."
"cousin!" lucas exclaimed.
"second cousin."
"she's here for will's funeral." mike explained.
"ah, well, welcome to hawkins middle, eleanor." mr clarke said, but right after he asked where she was from.

"bad place.." el trailed off.
"sweden!" mad said.
"i have a lot of swedish family. she hates it there."
"cold." lucas said.
"subzero."
mr clarke stared weirdly at the kids as he said, "shall we?" he lead them to the hall where the assembly would take place.

-

basically, what happened after the assembly was that some boys started laughing about will and how that whole assembly was crap and they even started mocking the teacher that was currently talking on the microphone. madeline wasn't gonna lie about this, it made her furious. will's 'death' wasn't some sort of joke to laugh about. so mike bravely called them out. they made fun of him and will, so mike got more angry and pushed one of the boys onto the floor, making everyone gasp.

the boy, whose name was troy, got up and was going to punch mike when all of a sudden he stopped. and then he found himself peeing his pants, in front of every single person in the school. everyone laughed. including the other boy that was with troy. mike looked behind him to see eleven, with her nose bleeding. she was the one that done that.

so now they were in mr clarke's heathkit ham shack. eleven closed her eyes, trying to focus and concentrate so hardly.
"she's doing it."
"this is crazy."
"calm down, she just closed her eyes." lucas said as the light in the room turned off, making the room go pitch black. "holy.."
there was a banging noise coming from the heathkit. "what is that?" madeline questions.
"mom?" they all heard the voice of will say.
"mom..." they heard will say again. "mom!"
"will!" mike called.
"will, are you there?!" lucas exclaimed.
"can you hear us will?!" mad said.
"mom!" will says again.
"why can't he hear us?" lucas asked.
"i don't know!" mike replied.
"it's like home, but it's so dark. it's so dark and empty. and it's cold!" will cries out. "mom? mom!"

suddenly, the heathkit burst into flames and the light in the room switched back on. dustin quickly got the fire extinguisher and helped put the flame out. eleven looked light headed and couldn't move so mike and lucas helped her up and took her out. and just like that, they all rushed out of the school with el in a wheelchair.

-

the next day, not much people had arrived to will's 'funeral', but those who did seemed really upset. but oh just wait until they know that will wasn't really dead. they all looked down, some were crying as they were dressed, head to toe in black. madeline was looking down, straightening her black, flared dress which came to a stop just above her knees. as the funeral came to an end, people threw white and yellow roses on will's coffin as they started to leave to the funeral's luncheon.

at the luncheon, everyone sat around eating in circular tables that were covered with a white table cloth. madeline, mike, dustin and lucas went up to mr clarke who was pouring himself a drink. they asked if they could ask him a few questions. sitting around a table, mike starting explaining, "so, you know how in cosmos, carl sagan talks about other dimensions? like, beyond our world?"
"yeah, sure. theoretically." mr clarke replied.
"right, theoretically."
"so theoretically, how do we travel there?" madeline asked.
"you guys have been thinking about hugh everett's many-worlds interpretation, haven't you? well basically, there are parallel universes.  just like our world, but just infinite variations of it." he explained about these other dimensions, theoretically.

"oh that's not what we're talking about." lucas said. "we were thinking more of a evil dimension, like you know the vale of shadows?"
"an echo of the material plane where necrotic and shadow magic—"
"yeah exactly. if did that exists like the vale of shadows, how would we travel there...theoretically."
mr clarke grabbed the paper plate that was on the table and a pen from his pocket. he started drawing an acrobat on a tightrope.
he started explaining that the tightrope is our dimension, and that our dimension has rules. we can move forwards, or backwards.

"but what if right next to our acrobat, there is a flea? now the flea can also travel back and forth, just like the acrobat. right? here's where things get really interesting. the flea can also travel this way..." he drew a line on the paper plate. "along the side of the rope. he can even go..." mr clarke drew another line. "underneath the rope."
"upside down." all of them said in sync.
"exactly."
the boys asked how the acrobat would be able to go to the upside down. mr clarke said that you'd need to have a massive amount of energy, more than humans are currently creating to do so.
"mind you, to open up some kind of tear in time and space, and then..." he folded the paper plate and stabbed his pen through it.
"you create a doorway."
"so like a gate?" madeline asked.
"sure, like a gate. but again this is all—"
"theoretical." lucas said, nodding.
mike asked a question on what if this gate already existed.
"well if it did, i think we'd know. it would disrupt gravity, the magnetic field and our environment. heck, it might even swallow us, whole." the kids all looked at each other. "science is neat. but I'm afraid it's not very forgiving."

-

madeline went back home after, the boys were still at mike's. she was quite tired from that day and needed a little break from everything. she changed out of her black dress into a big red t-shirt and sweat pants. mad got a book from her bookshelf and flopped onto her bed which she had done earlier in the morning. pulling the bookmark out of where she'd finished reading from before, she continued reading. but she couldn't read for much longer when the phone beside her bed started to ring. she ran a hand through her dirty blonde hair and groaned as she turned over to answer.

"hello?"
"senior henderson? hey." madeline heard a very familiar, masculine voice say from the other side of the phone.
"oh. it's you harrington." she still hadn't forgave steve yet for breaking jonathan's camera.
"listen, i know i shouldn't have done what i had done that day. i felt really bad about it. i'm so so sorry."
madeline scoffed, "why are you apologising to me? you should be apologising to the person whose camera you broke."
"i know and i will. but i thought i'd apologise to you now"
"okay well, i'm sort of busy at the moment and all so, um...i gotta go."
"oh okay...uh, I'll see you around?" steve said.
"yeah." madeline said, ending the call.

she turned over, onto her back again and grabbed her book to finish reading. somehow she felt relieved and glad that steve had called after two days.

♡.°୭̥ ୨୧

AUTHOR SPEAKS!
hi ok bye