"Okay," Dustin starts. "You said you felt like you were really with Y/N in the upside down, right?" He asks.
"Yeah." I say slowly.
"And Lucas," he continues. "You told us the color practically faded from Mike's face, right?"
Lucas nods.
"Okay. So how could Mike be in two places at once, right? Well, I think I know a way." He plops a huge book down on the table, shaking it with a loud bang. Superpowers of Our World.
I frown. "Dustin, I really don't think this is the right way to go. I don't have s-"
He waves me off. "Just hear me out."
He skims through the table of contents and places his finger on a title I can't make out because he starts flipping through the book.
"Here." He says suddenly, all of us listening intently. "Astral Projection."
I roll my eyes. "Oh, come on Du-"
"Just Listen!" He whisper yells. I sigh, exasperated.
"Astral projection is a phrase used to portray a willful out-of-body, or OBE, experience during which the astral body travels to the astral plane."
"Uh...what?" Lucas asks.
"It's like...a part of you leaves your body and goes to another dimension." Dustin explains.
"Look, even if that's what happened, how did I get 'Astral Projection'?" I ask. "This has never happened before."
"Hold on," Dustin says, holding a finger up. He turns a couple of pages, then back one. "Ah." He says to himself.
"Astral Projection can be obtained by many different processes. Ordinarily, some form of toxins or chemicals are involved. On the rare occasion that the chemicals pervade throughout the brain and into the thalamus, they trigger a series of head pains, thus leading to the power of astral projection. It is an unusual event, because the chemicals travel more when their host is emotionally unstable, making their brain vulnerable. It is a complex power to handle at the beginning stages, but when the user has gained more experience they mainly learn to use their new abilities. They learn to control their astral body and their dreams." He finishes, then questions me. "Sound familiar?"
I shrug. "Well, I got a headache today." Then I remember something. "And yesterday too actually...right after I saw the-" I cut myself off with a gasp.
"Saw the what?" Will asks frantically.
"The toxic chemicals sign!" I shout.
I regroup my thoughts and shake my head.
"However, the type of chemical that the potential user is exposed to has great impact on their abilities, such as control, dreams, etc." Dustin reads aloud. My heart thumps in my chest.
"You don't know what you were exposed to, do you?" Lucas asks, seeming to already know the answer.
"No." I say sadly, most likely confirming his thoughts.
"Well then we have to find out." Will speaks up.
"Are we close?" Dustin asks after we checked out the book and started toward Hawkins Lab.
"M hm." I say, still dazed. I wonder if this is actually real. Do I really have superpowers? Despite the situation, the kid in me takes over.
"Okay." I say as I skid to a stop. "Here."
The same sign I saw a couple of days ago is laying on the ground. "This is it."
Lucas hops off his bike and heads toward it, but I hold him back and Dustin grabs his arm.
"Whoa, dude, careful!" Dustin exclaims.
"We don't want you exposed too. It's too dangerous." I warn.
"Oh, right, sorry." He says, embarrassed.
"How do we find out which chemical it is?" Will asks.
"We'll have to read. And read some more. And some more. The library is full of chemistry books." I say determinedly. Then I get an idea.
"But," I say as I grab my camera that's been sitting in my backpack forever. "We need to know what it looks like."
I snap pictures of everything. Every. Thing. The ground, which is darker in some places. The stream, which is more polluted than I've ever seen. The trees, basically anything in a five mile radius.
I frown once I take my last picture. The last time I used this camera...I shudder.
Lucas puts a hand on my shoulder, somehow reading my mind. "We'll find her, man. We're gonna find her."
I can only nod, my voice is not trustable at the moment.
"Now let's get back to the library." Dustin says.
(A/N: sorry it took so long I didn't feel like it. ALSO IM SO EXCITED TO WRITE THIS I HAVE SO MANY IDEAS KIDDOS)