When Nancy and I got back to her house, Mike came upstairs, grabbed my hand and pulled me along with him.
"Sorry Nancy, I need to borrow Danielle for a sec!" Mike said before he slammed the basement door shut.
Dustin, Lucas, and El were already down there waiting.
"What did I miss?" I ask no one in particular.
"We got in contact with Will." Dustin said.
"And?"
"Well sort of. It's like he was already talking to someone?" Mike cuts in.
"So now we need to figure out exactly where he's at." Lucas says, sitting on a chair.
"Wow." I say a little shocked. "What did Will say?"
"Like home... Like home... but dark?" Mike says confused as he now stands in the middle of the room.
"And empty." Lucas says
"Empty and cold. Wait, did he say cold?" Dustin says, now sitting on the stairs.
"I don't know. The stupid radio kept going in and out." Lucas says.
"It's like riddles in the dark." Dustin sighs.
"Like home. Like his house?" I ask.
"Or maybe like Hawkins." Lucas says as he points at me.
"Upside down." El mumbles from the couch that she's laying on.
"What did she say?" Lucas asks.
"Upside down." Mike says.
"What?"
"Upside down." Mike says as he walks over to the D&D playing table.
Mike sits down at the table and we do the same.
"When El showed us where Will was, she flipped the board over, remember?" Mike says as he flips the D&D board over.
"Upside down. Dark. Empty."
"Do you guys understand what he's talking about?" Lucas asks.
"No." Dustin says.
"Just continue Mike." I say while motioning for him to continue.
"Guys, come on, think about it. When El took us to find Will, she took us to his house, right?"
"Yeah. And he wasn't there." Lucas says.
"But what if he was there? What if we just couldn't see him? What if he was on the other side?"
Lucas looks at Dustin and I skeptically.
Mike flips the board back over to the front and says, "what if this is Hawkins and..." he flips it over to the dark side, "this is where Will is? The Upside Down."
"Like the Vale of Shadows." Dustin points out.
"What's the Vale of Shadows?" I ask.
"My young Padawan, let me show you." Dustin says as he gets up from the table.
He soon comes back with the D&D handbook. Dustin sits back down and opens it up to the Vale of Shadows page and starts reading.
"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."
Dustin looks up from the book and we all look at each other worryingly.
"It is right next to you and you don't even see it." He finishes.
"An alternate dimension." Mike says.
"But... how... how do we get there?" Lucas asks.
"You cast shadow walk." Dustin says.
"In real life dingus." I say sarcastically.
"We can't shadow walk, but... maybe she can." Dustin says and nods to Eleven.
All of us turn our heads and look at her.
"Do you know how we get there? To the Upside Down?" Mike asks.
El shakes her head no.
"Oh, my God." Lucas says with a sigh.
Don't worry Will, we'll figure it out.
**
The next day.
I'm standing behind Dustin at the funeral, next to Nancy. I overhear Dustin talk to Mike and Lucas.
"Just wait 'til we tell Will that Jennifer Hayes was crying at his funeral." He says a little too loud.
Mrs.Wheeler cuts in between Nancy and I and shushes Dustin.
Soon, the funeral is over and we all walk by the casket, throwing roses on top. We give our fake condolences to the Byers'.
Nancy and I are walking back to her parents' car and she spots Jonathan standing next to a tombstone.
"Will you come talk to Jonathan with me?"
"Yeah, sure." I say and I turn to Dustin. "I'm going with Nancy." I tell him.
Nancy pulls me along with her to Jonathan. He pulls out a map and the three of us sit down.
"This is where we know for sure it's been, right?" Jonathan asks while pointing to red x's on the map.
Nancy points at the map and says, "So, that's..."
"Steve's house. And that's the woods where the found Will's bike and... that's my house."
"It's all so close." I say
"Yeah. Exactly." Jonathan says "I mean, it's all within a mile or something. Whatever this thing is, it's... it's not traveling far."
"You want to go out there." Nancy states.
"We might not find anything."
"But what if we do? How do we kill it?" I ask
"Come with me." Jonathan says and the three of us stand up. Nancy and I follow him to his dad's car.
Jonathan opens the passenger door and uses his knife to open the glovebox.
"What are you doing?" Nancy asks him.
"Just give me a second." He says.
I turn and look around to see if anyone is coming.
No one is coming. Oh, maybe that guy? Nope, false alarm.
When I turn back around Jonathan pulls out a gun.
"Oh my, God. Are you serious?" I ask kinda loudly.
"What?" He asks nonchalantly as he tucks ammo away in his jacket. "You want to find this thing and take another photo? Yell at it?"
Jonathan gets out of the car and shuts the door.
"This is a terrible idea." Nancy says.
"Yeah, well, it's the best we've got."
Maybe not, if I knew how to use my powers a little bit better, we might stand a chance against this thing.
"What? You can tell someone, but they're not going to believe you. You know that. Both of you do." He says, speaking to Nancy and I.
"Your mom would." Nancy says
"She's been through enough."
"She deserves to know."
"Yeah, and I'll tell her... when this thing is dead."
**
I'm standing at the funeral reception with Dustin, Lucas and Mike. They spot Mr. Clarke at the food table and start walking towards him. I follow.
"Mr. Clarke?" Mike says.
"Oh, hi there. How are you all holding up?" Mr. Clarke asks.
"We're... in... mourning." Lucas says.
"Man, these aren't real Nilla Wafers." Dustin says while shaking his head a a fake Nilla Wafer.
"We were wondering if you has time to talk?" Mike asks Mr. Clarke.
"We have some questions." Lucas says.
"A lot of questions." Mike clarifies.
"Sure thing." Mr.Clarke says.
We all walk towards an empty table and take a seat.
"So, you know how in Cosmos, Carl Sagan talks about other dimensions? Like, beyond our world?" Mike starts off.
"Yeah, sure. Theoretically." Mr.Clarke says.
"Right, theoretically."
"So, theoretically, how do we travel there?" Lucas asks
"You guys have been thinking about Hugh Everett's Many-Worlds Interpretation, haven't you?" Mr. Clarke asks.
"Yeah. Yeah totally." I say.
"Well, basically, there are parallel universes. Just like our world but, just infinite variations of it. Which means there's a world out there where none of this tragic stuff ever happened."
"Yeah, that's not what we're talking about."
"Oh."
"We were thinking of more of an evil dimension, like the Vale of Shadows? You know the Vale of Shadows?" Dustin asks excitedly.
"An echo of the Material Plane, where necrotic and shadow magic-"
"Yeah, exactly." Mike interrupts. "If that did exist, a place like the Vale of Shadows, how would we travel there?"
"Theoretically." Lucas says.
"Well..." Mr.Clarke starts to say as he separates two paper plates and takes a pen out of his jacket. "Picture... an acrobat..." He says as he draws two parallel lines and a stick person on the paper plate. "Standing on a tightrope. Now, the tightrope is our dimension. And our dimension has rules." He draws two arrows pointing in opposite directions, on either sides of the stick person. "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. Right?"
"Right." Mike says.
"Here's where things get really interesting. The flea can also travel this way... along the side of the rope. He can even go, underneath the rope."
"Upside down." Dustin, Lucas, Mike, and I all say simultaneously.
"Exactly."
"But, we're not the flea, we're the acrobat." Mike states.
"In this metaphor, yes, we're the acrobat."
"So, we can't go upside down?" Lucas asks.
Mr.Clarke shakes his head. "No."
"Well, is there any way for the acrobat to get to the Upside Down?" I ask.
"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..." Mr.Clarke folds the paper plate in half and pokes a hole right in the middle with his pen. "You create a doorway."
"Like a gate?" Dustin asks.
"Sure. Like a gate. But, again, this is all-"
"Theoretical." We all say nodding our heads.
"But... but what if this gate already existed?" Mike asks Mr.Clarke.
"Well, if it did, I... I think we'd already know. It would disrupt gravity, the magnetic field, our environment. Heck, it might even swallow us up whole. Science is neat. But, I'm afraid it's not very forgiving."
**
We're back at Mike's house asking Eleven more questions about the Upside Down. Mike just explained the flea and the acrobat thing that Mr.Clarke showed us. But, she still doesn't know how to get there. Lucas, Mike, and I are asking her questions while Dustin is messing around with his compass.
"Then how do you know about the Upside Down?" Lucas asks.
El looks down at her hands not answering. But, then she looks back up at Dustin. Soon we're all watching Dustin.
"Dustin, what are you doing?" Mike asks.
When Dustin doesn't answer, he asks again.
"Dustin?"
"Dustin!' Lucas and Mike shout at the same time. Finally, gaining his attention.
"I need to see your compasses." Dustin says.
"What?" Mike asks.
"Your compasses. All of your compasses, right now!"
Mike and Lucas grab their compasses and dumps them on the table.
"What's so exciting about this?" I ask.
"Well, they're all facing north, right?" Dustin says.
"Yeah, so?" Lucas says.
"Well, that's not true north."
"What do you mean?" I ask
"I mean exactly what I just said. That's not true north. Are you three seriously this dense?"
"Wow. Thanks for that."
"The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Right? Which means, that's true north." Dustin says and points to the wall behind me.
"So what you're saying is the compasses are broken." Mike states.
Dustin sighs, very loudly, and picks up a compass.
"Do you even understand how a compass works? Do you see a battery pack on this?"
"No."
"No, you don't. Because it doesn't need one." Dustin says as he sits the compass back down on the table. "The needles naturally drawn to the Earth's magnetic North Pole."
"So, what's wrong with them?" Lucas asks.
'Well, that's what I couldn't figure out, but then I remembered. You can change the direction of a compass with a magnet. If there's the presence of a more powerful magnetic field, the needle deflects to that power. Then I remembered what Mr. Clarke said. The gate would have so much power-"
"It could disrupt the electromagnetic field." I say cutting him off.
"Exactly."
"Meaning, if we follow the compasses' north..." Lucas says.
"They should lead us to the gate." Dustin finishes.
"Hey Dani, do you want to start getting ready?" Nancy shouts from upstairs.
"Yeah, I'll be up in a second!" I shout back.
"What are you and Nancy doing" Dustin asks.
"Oh, um, yeah about that, there's something I need to tell you guys."
"What?" They all ask simultaneously.
"Nancy, Jonathan, and I may have found a monster from the Upside Down and it might be the Demogorgan." I say nonchalantly.
"What!" Dustin and Lucas shout.
"And you're just telling us this now?" Mike asks.
"Sorry, it slipped my mind. But anyway, we're hunting it. We haven't really found it, but we think it might have taken Barb. Guys, it might have even taken Will."
"Then we need to come with!" Mike says.
"No! You guys need to find the gate. If we find the Demogorgan, we're going to kill it. You guys need to find Will." I say while shaking my head no.
"She's right." Dustin says.
"Yeah." Mike says as he and Lucas nod their heads agreeing.
"Another thing you guys should also know, you know, since I'm spilling secrets and all."
"Dani, are you coming?" Nancy calls downstairs again.
"Yeah!" I yell back. "Sorry, I have to go. I'll tell you guys later." I say as I grab my jacket and start making my way upstairs.
**
Nancy let me borrow some clothes so I wouldn't be trekking through the woods in a dress. She was waiting for me in the garage. When I walk out, she's talking to Steve, with her back facing me. Steve notices me first.
"Oh, hey Danielle." He says shyly stepping away from Nancy.
"Hi. Steve." I say nodding back at him.
"I should go." He says to Nancy.
"Sorry." She says to him. "I'll call you later. Is that okay?"
Steve nods his head and before I could look away, they share a quick kiss.
"Yeah. Of course." Steve says smiling down at her. "See ya, Dani." He says to me. "Just take those old records off the shelf." He starts to sing while heading back to his car.
"Got another one of those." I say to Nancy, pointing at her bat.
"Oh, yeah, over by the window." She says and points to the window.
I walk over and pick up the bat. When I turn around Nancy is taking practice swings at the air. I shrug my shoulders and join her.
**
Nancy and I meet Jonathan in the woods, at an open field. He's shooting at cans... horribly.
"You're supposed to hit the cans, right?" Nancy calls out.
"No actually, you see the spaces in-between the cans? I'm aiming for those." He says jokingly.
"Ah." Nancy says as she puts her bag and bat down.
"You ever shot a gun before?" Jonathan asks.
"Have you met my parents?"
"How about you Dani? Have you ever shot a gun before?" He asks me.
"No, I haven't, last time I checked."
"Yeah, I haven't shot one since I was ten." Jonathan says as he empties the shells from the gun. "My dad took me hunting on my birthday. He made me kill a rabbit."
"A rabbit?" Nancy asks sadly.
"No, not Thumper." I say
"Yeah. I guess he thought it would make me into more of a man or something. I cried for a week."
"Jesus." Nancy whispers.
"What? I'm a fan of Thumper."
Nancy and I laugh lightly and she says, "I meant your dad."
"Yeah. I guess he and my mother loved each other at some point, but... I wasn't around for that part." Jonathan says as he loads the gun.
He goes to aim, but Nancy holds her hand out for the gun. He hands it over to her.
"Yeah, I'm going to step back for this one." I say and take two steps back.
"Ha. Ha." Nancy says sarcastically.
"Just, uh, point and shoot." Jonathan says as he points at he sans in the distance.
"I don't think my parents ever loved each other." Says Nancy.
"They must've marries for some reason."
Not again. I'm third wheeling again.
"My mom was young." Nancy continues as she lines up her target. "My dad was older, but he has a cushy job, money, came from a good family. So, they bought a nice house at the end of the cul-de-sac and started their nuclear family."
Damn Nance, that's kinda deep.
"Screw that." Jonathan says.
"Yeah. Screw that." She says and shoots at the can, hitting it.
They look at each other and smile. I'm looking back and forth between the two.
Seriously, what the hell is going on between these two. I'm getting a little worried that I'm actually going to become a third wheel.
**
We're trekking through the woods, again, I'm behind Jonathan and Nancy swinging my bat at the dead leaves. I'm not really listening to what they're talking about until I nearly run into Jonathan's back, realizing they've stopped walking.
"I am not trying to be someone else. Just because I'm dating Steve and you don't like him." Nancy says facing Jonathan.
"You know what? Forget it." He says walking ahead. "I just thought it was a good picture."
Oh, we're back on that topic?
"He's actually a good guy." She says and walks faster to keep up with him.
Then I walk faster to keep up with them.
"Okay." Jonathan says without turning around.
"Yesterday, with the camera... He's not like that at all." Nancy says defending Steve. "He was just being protective over Dani and I."
"Yeah, that's one word for it."
"Oh, and I guess what you did was okay?"
"No, I... I never said that."
"He had every right to be pissed-"
"Okay, all right. Does that mean I have to like him?" Jonathan says as he finally turns around and stops walking.
"No."
"Listen, don't take it so personally, okay? I don't like most people. He's in the vast majority."
Nancy looks at me shocked as Jonathan starts to walk away again.
"You know. I was actually starting to think that you were okay." Nancy says to Jonathan.
"Yeah?" He says stopping and turning around again.
"Yeah."
Where's the popcorn when you need it?
"Yeah, I was thinking, "Jonathan Byers, maybe he's not the pretentious creep everyone says he is"."
"Yeah, I was just starting to think that you were okay."
"Oh."
"I was thinking, Nancy Wheeler, she's not just another suburban girl who thinks she's rebelling by doing exactly what every other suburban girl does... until that phase passes and they marry some boring one-time jock who now works sales, and they live out a perfectly boring little life at the end of a cul-de-sac. Exactly like their parents, who they thought were so depressing, but now, hey, they get it."
Jonathan goes to walk away, but quickly turns around.
"Oh and one more thing. The next time you see Steve, you might want to ask him why he put the picture I took of Dani in his pocket, the only one he didn't rip up."
He turns around and leaves. Leaving Nancy and I alone staring at each other.
Three words. What. The. Fuck
**
Nancy and I haven't said a word to each other. It's dark outside now, so we pull out or flashlights. I hear a noise that causes me to stop. I guess Nancy heard it too, because she also stops walking. Jonathan notices and turns around.
"What? Are you both tired?" He asks.
"Shut up." Nancy says as she and I try to listen for the sound again.
"What?" Jonathan asks us.
"We heard something." I whisper.
We then hear a small whimper in the distance. We knew Jonathan heard it that time. We start to follow the sound, getting closer, and closer. We eventually come up to a deer.
"Oh, God." Nancy says sadly.
The three of us squat down in front of it. Nancy and I next to each other, Jonathan is behind us.
"It's been hit by a car." I say as Nancy goes it to touch it.
"We can't just leave it." Nancy says as she turns to look at Jonathan and I.
Nancy picks up the gun to put it out of its misery. She hesitates, but Jonathan holds his hand out to take the gun from her.
"I'll do it." He says.
"I thought you said-"
"-I'm not nine anymore." Jonathan says cutting her off.
She hands him the gun and the three of us stand up. Nancy and I are pointing our flashlights on the deer as Jonathan cocks the gun, aiming at the deer.
Before he has the chance to shoot, out of no where, the deer gets pulled away.
We all get scared and jump away from where the deer once was.
"What was that?" I whisper.
We start to follow the trail of blood, trying to find out what happened to the deer. Jonathan is behind Nancy and I as we lead the way with our flashlights. On guard, my bat is raised in my right hand and I'm holding my flashlight with my left.
Eventually the trail of blood just stops.
"Where did it go?" Nancy asks looking around more.
"I don't know?" I say, also looking around.
"Do you see anymore blood?" Jonathan asks as he is pointing his gun around while we look.
"No." Nancy says.
Nancy and I split up from Jonathan as we try to find the deer.
"Dani, I think I found something." Nancy says.
"What?" I turn to look at her and she is crouched down in front of a tree with an opening at the base.
I get down next to her and we both shine our lights into the tree. The tree is hollowed out at the bottom, almost like a tunnel of some sorts.
"Jonathan!" Nancy calls out.
We both look around for him, only for him to be no where in sights. Nancy turns back to the tree and takes her back pack off.
"Wait, you're not going in there are you?" I ask grabbing her arm, stopping her from going in.
"I need to find out where it leads. Come with me."
With a sign I nod my head yes. Nancy starts to crawl into the tree and I follow after, leaving my bat behind.
We crawl through the tree and make it out to the other side. Once we get out, I notice the difference in the air. There's some type of dust floating in the air and it's noticeably colder. Oh, shit. Nancy keeps hitting her flashlight to stop it from flashing. This alerts a noise coming from the right of us. We take a closer look to find this thing eating the deer that we were looking for. We start to slowly walk backwards, only for us to step on a branch. It quickly turned around and opened its flower like mouth, full of teeth.
Oh, shit!