THE FLEA AND THE ACROBAT
THE PARTY ALL sits in Mike's basement, trying to figure out what he was saying when they heard him at the Heathkit, Eleven still wearing the dress and wig.
"What was Will saying?" Mike questions to himself, "Like home..but dark?"
"And empty." Lucas adds, his head in his hands.
Dustin starts pacing around the basement. Melanie rests her head on Mike's shoulder, trying to think about what Will meant.
"Empty and cold." Melanie thinks out loud.
"Did he say cold?" Dustin asks, questioning if that happened or not.
"I don't know, the stupid radio kept going in and out." Lucas answers.
"Like home..." Mike continues, "Like his house?"
"Or Hawkins." Melanie suggests, putting her arm around Mike's shoulder and leans in, about to fall asleep.
"Upside down." Eleven says, quietly.
"What'd she say?" Melanie asks, closing her eyes.
"Upside down." Mike says, looking at Eleven. Mike pushes Melanie off his shoulder so she'd stay awake and walks over to the D&D board on his table.
"When El showed us where Will was," Mike demonstrates with the board, "she flipped the board over, remember?"
Everybody walks to sit at the table.
"Upside down. Dark. Empty."
"Do you understand what he's talking about?" Lucas asks Dustin and Melanie.
"No."
"I wasn't listening."
"Guys, come on," Mike gets their attention, "think about it. When El took us to find Will, she took us to his house, right?"
"Yeah," Lucas replies, "and he wasn't there."
"But what if he was there?" Mike defends, Melanie leaning back and raising her eyebrows, "What if we just couldn't see him? What if he was on the other side?" He demonstrates with the board, flipping it over to describe which side is which, "What if this is Hawkins...this is where Will is? The Upside Down."
"Like the Vale of Shadows." Dustin relates, getting what Mike is talking about.
"I'm way too tired for this." Melanie tells them all, standing to pull Mike down and resting her head on his shoulder.
Dustin gets up and grabs the D&D handbook, looking for the chapter on the Vale of Shadows, hoping they could find something to help their friend.
He reads from the book, "'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."
"An alternate dimension." Mike mutters, more to himself than the others.
"But...how do we get there?" Lucas questions as Melanie falls asleep on Mike's shoulder.
"You cast shadow walk." Dustin answers.
"In real life, dummy."
"We can't shadow walk, but..." Dustin looks towards Eleven on the couch, "maybe she can."
They all turn around and look towards Eleven, Melanie still resting on Mike's shoulder.
"Do you know how we get there?" Mike asks the girl, "To the Upside Down?"
She shakes her head no, causing Lucas to lean back while muttering "Oh my god" under his breath.
Dustin looks down at the book and stares at he picture.
IT'S TIME FOR Will's funeral, and although the party knows that it's not Will's body, they still need to seem like they're in mourning.
"Fear not, for I am with you." The pastor speaks, "Be not dismayed, for I am your God."
Everybody is standing or sitting around the casket of Will Byers.
"I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."
The party stands together, all holding hands. Dustin smiles, and bumps everybody else to point to Jennifer Hayes, who's crying.
"Wait til' we tell Will that Jennifer Hayes was crying at his funeral."
Mrs. Wheeler shushes him, making him stop smiling.
They all throw flowers in the pit after his casket is lowered, people staying after to say sorry to the Byers' family before going into the funeral home.
Melanie turns around and sees Mike's sister, Nancy, and Will's brother, Jonathan, sitting by a fence looking at something. Curious, she walks over.
"What you lookin' at?"
Nancy and Jonathan look up immediately, trying to cover it up.
"You're dating my brother so at this point, nothing you say will surprise me." Melanie says, looking deadpan at them.
They look at each other, before Jonathan starts explaining.
"My mom, claimed a creature came out of the wall. Of course, I didn't believe her, that was until Nancy came to me asking about a creature with no face that she saw in the woods, which is how my mom described it. A picture I took saw the creature and now we're marking the places we've seen it."
"No face..." Melanie mutters under her breath, "Do you have the picture?" Jonathan nods and shows it to her, and with the slight knowledge she picked up, she helped them.
"The Demogorgon," Melanie starts explaining, "The night Will went missing, they were having a D&D campaign. The Demogorgon went to attack them, and Will tried to fireball it, but missed his roll and was instead eaten."
Nancy's head turns immediately to Melanie, "So...Barb and Will were-"
"I don't know about Barb," Melanie cuts her off, "but Will is still alive."
Jonathan cuts into the conversation, to share what him and Nancy know, "We know he was at my house, your backyard, and where they found Will's bike."
"It's all so close." Melanie points out.
"It's not moving far." Jonathan states.
"You want to go out there." Nancy says to them both, knowingly.
"And if we do see it...then what?" Melanie questions, Jonathan looking up and sighing.
"We kill it."
"Have fun dying." Melanie tells them, walking away.
Nancy stands up, and looks between Melanie and Jonathan.
Nancy walks up to Melanie, Melanie stopping at the sound of footsteps behind her.
"What do we do?"
Melanie turns around, looking her in the eye, "I'm about to find out."
She turns back around, walking into the funeral home. Nancy turns around and looks at Jonathan, who shrugs as they decide to do what Jonathan's plan was anyway.
Who would ever listen to a 12 year old?
THE PARTY FINDS Mr. Clarke in the funeral home, hoping he could help them figure out how to get into the Upside Down to save their friend.
"Mr. Clarke?" Mike calls, getting his attention. He turns and looks down at the group.
"Oh, hey there. How are you kids holding up?"
Dustin grabs a bunch of snacks from the table and shoves them in his mouth, Melanie hitting his bicep as he does so.
"We're in mourning." Lucas says in an attempt to distract Mr. Clarke from Dustin.
"Man, these aren't real Nilla Wafers." Dustin mutters, and Melanie starts rubbing her temples as everyone looks at him.
"We were wondering if you had time to talk." Mike tells Mr. Clarke, changing the attention back to their main focus.
"We have some questions." Lucas adds.
"A lot of questions." Mike adds on as well, using her face to exaggerate the words 'A lot'.
The go to sit down at at table, Mike starting it up immediately.
"So, you know how in Cosmos, Carl Sagan talks about other dimensions? Like, beyond our world?"
"Yeah, sure, theoretically."
"Right, theoretically."
"So, theoretically," Lucas jumps in, "how do we travel there?"
"You guys have been thinking about Hugh Everett's Many-Worlds interpretations, haven't you? Well, basically, there are parallel universes. Just like our world, but just infinite variations of it. Which means theres a world our there where none of this tragic stuff happened."
"Yeah, that's not what we're talking about." Lucas states.
"We were thinking of more of an evil dimension, like the Vale of Shadows. You know the Vale of Shadows?" Dustin questions and explains.
"An echo of material plane, where necrotic and shadow magic-"
"Yeah, exactly." Mike cuts him off, not wanting to hear the full explanation and get to the point, "If that did exist, a place like the Vale of Shadows, how would we travel there?"
"Well..." Mr. Clarke starts, then looks for a plate to draw on to help him explain. He grabs a pen, and starts drawing what he's describing, "Picture...an acrobat...standing on a tightrope. Now, the tightrope is our dimension. And our dimension has rules. You 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. But the flea can also travel this way."
He starts drawing arrows, describing that the flea can go anywhere. "Even underneath the rope." He adds, Melanie and Lucas leaning forward in their chairs.
"Upside down." Lucas, Dustin, and Mike at mutter at the same time.
"Exactly."
"But, we're not the flea," Mike states, "we're the acrobat."
"In this metaphor, yes, we're the acrobat."
"So, we can't go upside down?" Lucas asks.
"No."
"Well, is there any way for the acrobat to get to the Upside Down?" Dustin questions.
"Well..." Mr. Clarke thinks, "you'd have to create a massive amount of energy. More than humans are currently capable of creating, mind you, to open up some kind of tear in time and space, and then..." He takes the plate he drew on and folds it in half, the pokes a hole in it with his pen, "you create a doorway."
"Like a gate?" Dustin asks, confirming.
"Sure, like a gate. But, again, this is all-"
"Theoretical." Lucas cuts him off, nodding.
"But what if this gate already existed?" Mike asks.
"I think we'd know. It'd disrupt gravity, the magnetic field, our environment. Heck, it might even swallow us up whole. Science is neat, but not very forgiving."
Mike leans back in his chair, Dustin puts his head in his hands, Lucas tilts her head and narrows her eyes, and Melanie just looks around at everyone.
MELANIE DIDN'T GO back to Mike's basement with the rest of the party. Instead, she went to go find Nancy and Jonathan to inform them:
They were probably right, but also in deep shit.
What Mr. Clarke said was helpful, but he said that it could swallow us all whole. And with a gate such as the Upside Down already being opened, Melanie wanted to make sure Nancy and Jonathan wouldn't die.
But Melanie did walk to Mike's house with the party, to find Nancy in the garage with Steve.
"Hi big brother, Nancy, you're in deep shit." Melanie says, walking up to the two. Steve gives a small wave and a confused look.
"Did you find anything out? On what to do?" Nancy asks frantically, leaving Steve confused.
"Oh, I found out a lot. Like uh, maybe something I shouldn't say in front of your boyfriend." Melanie eyes Steve.
"Nance, any news on Barbra?" Steve cuts in, not done with his conversation.
Nancy looks down, and Melanie answers for her, "She's either dead or alive but whatever the police say is bullshit."
"I should go." Steve says, standing up and looking into Nancy's eyes.
"Sorry," She says immediately, "I'll call you later. Is that okay?"
He nods, and she quickly kisses him before he walks away.
"I think I just threw up in my mouth." Melanie breaks the silence, sitting where Steve just was on top of the car.
"What'd you find out?"
"Well, there's another dimension, like ours but filled with evil, darkness, monsters. With enough energy, a gate can be opened to this dimension, causing the evil to leak into our world, which is where the Demogorgon came from-"
"And where Will and Barb went."
"Exactly. A gate with this much energy can do many things, mess up the gravitational force, electromagnetic fields, but most importantly, could swallow us whole."
Nancy's breath hitches in her throat once Melanie says those last words.
"You're brother and the rest of the party are going to look for the gate, to close it and find Will, and hopefully Barb. In the meantime-"
"We do what we can to stop the evil."
"Which in this case would mean-"
"We go kill that Demogorgon."
"Yeah, but maybe not with a baseball bat." Melanie says sarcastically, before standing up and walking away.
Nancy looks down at the bat, before realizing more in depth what Melanie had said and going to put it away.
"I better be invited to that killing session, sounds fun!" Melanie calls out while walking away, making Nancy laugh.
NANCY MAKES SURE to get Melanie before going out to find Jonathan.
They walk up, and see him trying to shoot down empty cans with his gun, working on his aim. He misses all of them, and Melanie stops to put her head in her hands.
They were gonna fucking die.
"You're terrible at this." Melanie speaks up.
"I thought you were-"
"Long story. I'll tell you later."
"Okay, but I was actually aiming for the space in between the cans."
"Ah." Melanie replies sarcastically, rolling her eyes.
"Any of you shot a gun before?" Jonathan asks the girls.
"Have you met my parents?" Nancy questions.
"Yeah, many times." Melanie answers.
"I'll let you shoot it if you tell me what you're doing here." Jonathan bribes, and Melanie nods. He hands her the gun with the bullets.
Melanie explains as she loads the gun, "There's another dimension, just like ours but filled with evil and monsters and shit. With enough energy, more than a human can create, a gate can be opened to this dimension, causing the evil to leak into our world, which is where the Demogorgon came from-and where Will and Barbra were taken."
"Do we look for the gate?" Jonathan questions.
"No," Nancy replies, Melanie cocking the gun, "The party is already doing that."
"In the meantime," Melanie aims at the empty can on a tree log, "we fight the evil."
Melanie shoots, and the bullet knocks the can over. She lowers the gun with a smirk, Nancy and Jonathan looking down at her with a surprised look, then chuckling slightly.
THE SUN HAS now set, and the three of them still walk around the woods near Mirkwood, flashlights in hand.
Nancy stops randomly, and when Melanie and Jonathan realize, they turn around annoyed.
"What, are you tired?" Jonathan asks.
"Shut up." Nancy replies, but it wasn't a teasing shut up. It was a real shut up.
The three went silent, as they were trying to hear what Nancy was hearing.
"I heard something."
A faint whimpering is heard, and now that the three of them hear it, they start walking to where they hear the sound.
They came across to a deer that seemed insanely injured, but Melanie couldn't stand to look at it, so she informed them that she wouldn't be far.
She hears them gasping and breathing heavily, so she runs over immediately.
"Wha-what happened?" She asks, frantically.
"W-we were about to shoot the deer and it-" Nancy starts, before Jonathan cuts her off.
"It was just pulled into the floor."
"Swallow us whole, fucks up gravity, shit this is bad." Melanie mutters to herself, grabbing her supercomm from her bag.
"Mike, do you copy?" She says frantically.
"Mel-are you okay? Over." Mike's voice is heard through the supercomm.
"Did you find the gate?"
"No, Eleven fucked up our compasses, Lucas and I got in a fight, Eleven knocked him out, and now we can't find El. What's going on over there?"
"Who's El-" Jonathan starts, but Nancy shushes him for Melanie.
"Mike, remember how Mr. Clarke said this gate could swallow us whole?"
"Yeah..."
"Well...it could be starting. Or it could be a creepy demon monster from the Upside Down. Both are deep shit."
"What just happene-"
"I can't explain right now, just please be safe and go find El."
"Stay safe, Mel. Please."
"Over and out."
Melanie puts her supercomm back in her bag, before shining her flashlight back on where the deer was mysteriously pulled back.
"Who's Eleven?" Nancy asks.
"I'll tell you later." Melanie replies, looking curiously at the bush the deer was found at.
The three started walking around, trying to find where the deer had went, but the only place they found blood marks was where the deer was found.
"Swallow us whole." Melanie mutters, causing Nancy and Jonathan to look up at her with concern.
But when they look up, they don't see her.
"Guys?" Melanie calls out, looking at the insides of a tree. She takes her bag off, and crawls into the hole.
She crawls out the other end, and finds herself in the Upside Down. It looks like their world but...emptier and darker.
Melanie turns and sees the Demogorgon feeding on something:
The deer that was pulled earlier.
Retreating slowly, as her flashlight flickers randomly, she steps on a twig, which snaps and causes the Demogorgon's head to turn and growl at Melanie.
Screaming and dropping her flashlight, she runs straight back to the tree she had just crawled out of.
Her screams were heard in our world, where Nancy and Jonathan frantically started calling her name.
But the gate to the Upside Down from the tree had closed when Melanie entered, leaving her trapped in the Upside Down with Jonathan and Nancy frantically looking for the girl in the middle of the woods,
In a different dimension.
word count: 2865
AY AY YES WE STAN MELANIE WOOOO
i didn't proof read i think you know this by now
vote and comment please !!
ok BYE !!!