The next day was Will's funeral. Even though Marley knew he was alive she couldn't help but think he was actually dead. She put on a black dress, and Steve helped her with her hair, Steve curled the ends and put a small black bow on her head like the one on her dress. She put on her shoes and headed out.
At the funeral Marley and the boys stood in the second row. As Marlow listened to the priests talk, the funeral started feeling more real to Marlow than it should. She dropped a tear or two as she looked at the coffin before her. Marlow and the boys stated looking around to see who had come to pay their respects to Will, there were some people from school and others that must be friends of Joyce and Will's father.
"Hey look over there!" Dustin whispered to them all and pointed to a girl about a two meters from them she was crying and holding a white rose
"wait till we tell Will Jennifer Hayes was crying at his funeral-"Dustin fell silent as mrs Wheeler told him to be quiet.
After the priest finished his words Marlow walked over to Joyce and hugged her, she wanted to tell her Will was alive but she didn't want to in front of all these people. Marlow also gave a hug to Jonathan who gave her a small smile. She dropped a flower onto Wills casket along with Mike, Dustin and Lucas. After the funeral reception everyone made their way inside, Marlow turned to see Nancy and Jonathan sat together looking at a piece of paper, this didn't bother Marley so much but she still wondered what they were doing.
"Marley you coming?!" She heard Lucas call, she nodded and ran over to them. Inside Mike noticed Mr. Clarke helping himself to some cake and water and dragged them all over to him, they all put on your fake sad faces and Mike started to speak.
"Mr. Clarke?"
"Hey there," Mr. Clarke began as Dustin helped himself to some snacks "how are you guys holding up?"
"We're in mourning" Lucas said as Dustin began to shake his head at his snack.
"Man these aren't real vanilla wafers!" Dustin exclaimed, they all turned to him and gave him a sarcastic look.
"We were wondering if you had time to talk?" Marlow asked Mr. Clarke ignoring Dustin.
"We have some questions." Lucas added.
"A lot of questions."
They all sat round a small table and began hitting there questions at Mr. Clarke.
"So you know how in Cosmos Carl Sagan talks about other dimensions? Like beyond our world?" Mike started.
"Yeah sure theoretically." Mr. Clarke replied.
"So theoretically how do we travel there?" Lucas asked.
"You guys have been thinking about Hugh Everett's 'Many-Worlds interpretation' haven't you?" Mr. Clarke replied and began to explain. "So basically there are parallel universes. Just like our world but just infinite variations of it. Which means there's a world out there where non of this tragic stuff ever happened."
"Yeah thats not what we are talking about." Lucas interrupted. "We were thinking of more of an evil dimension like the vale of shadows. You know the vale of shadows?" Dustin asked Mr. Clarke.
"An echo of material Plane, where necrotic and shadow magic-" Mr. Clarke replied.
"Yeah exactly." Marley answered 'if that did exist, a place like the Vale of Shadows, how would we travel there?"
"Theoretically." Lucas adds.
"Well..." Mr. Clarke starts. He picked up a paper plate and took a pen out of his coat and started drawing a diagram on the plate.
"Picture a 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 here's, where things get really interesting. The flea can also travel this way.." Mr. Clarke drew a flea jumping from one tightrope to the other, meaning one dimension to the other "he can go along the side of the rope. He can even go under the rope."
"Upside down" they all say together.
"Exactly" Mr. Clarke continued.
"But we're not the flea we're the acrobat aren't we?" Mike asked.
"In this metaphor, yes. We're the acrobat." Mr. Clarke answered.
"So we cant go upside down?" Lucas asked and Mr. Clarke shook his head.
"Well, is there any way for the acrobat to get to the Upside Down?" Dustin asked , continuing there list of questions.
"Well... 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 picked up his paper place and folded it in half. He poked his pen in the middle with a lot of force. "You create a door way"
"Like a gate?" Marlow asked.
"Sure like a gate." He responds "but again this is all-"
"Theoretical.' Lucas says finishing his sentence for him.
"But what if this gate already existed?" Mike asked
"Well if it did I'd think wed know" Mr. Clarke answered "it would disrupt gravity, the magnetic field, our environment. Heck, it might even swallow us up whole. Science is neat. But I'm afraid its not very forgiving." He finished while they all looked at each other they were all thinking the same thing 'how did Will get there?'
After the funeral, they all went back to Mike's house to show Eleven what they had learnt. Mike explained by using a piece of paper and a pen. Eleven jumped as he poked the pen through the paper, using the same example as Mr. Clarke.
"It would take a lot of energy to build a gate like this. But thats gotta be what happened, or else how did Will get there right?" Mike explained.
"Right" Eleven mumbled.
"What we wanna know is do you know where the gate is?" Lucas asked Eleven. Marlow looked to her right to see Dustin holding his compass walking in circles. Eleven shook her head to his question.
"Then how do you know about the upside down?!" Lucas exclaimed and Eleven fell silent, everyone turned to Dustin to see what he was doing.
"What are you doing Dustin?" Marley asked but he ignored her and kept walking in circles.
"Dustin. Dustin. DUSTIN." Mike yelled getting his attention.
"I need to see your compasses." Dustin said.
"What?" They all said together.
"Your compasses all of your compasses right now!" Dustin demanded.
They all slammed there compasses down on the table in front of Dustin as he examined all of them.
"What's exciting about this?" Mike asked with his sarcastic tone.
"Well they're all facing North right?" Dustin continued as they all responded with a nod.
"Well thats not true North right.
"What do you mean?" You ask.
"I mean exactly what i just said, thats not true North." Dustin repeated "are you all seriously this dense? The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, right. Which means that's true North." Dustin said pointing in between Marlow and Mike.
"So what your saying is the compasses are broken?" Mike said with his sarcastic tone.
"Do you even understand how a compass works do you see a battery pack on this?" Dustin said to Mike now with his sarcasm "No you don't because it doesn't need one, the needles naturally drawn to the Earth magnetic North Pole."
"So what's wrong with them?" Marlow ask.
"That's what i couldn't figure out, but then I remembered you can change the direction of a compass with a magnet. Then i remembered the gate would have so much power." Dustin explained.
"So your saying if we follow the compasses-" Marley starts, now understanding.
"They should lead us to the gate." Dustin finished.
Non of them realised Eleven's frightened face behind them