the fight in the junkyard

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

Alina walked down the train tracks with her compass held out in front of her and her heart hammering in her chest. She couldn't believe she was doing this; searching for a gate to another dimension, and accompanied by four others, no less. She walked in the middle of Dustin and Lucas, while Mike and Eleven hung back, talking quietly. They all were wearing more practical clothes, and Alina's bag rested on her back as she walked, packed to the brim with supplies needed for travelling in other dimensions.

She was feeling much better after talking with Dustin, but still not great. A month ago, she would've been disgusted at herself for this. She was with friends! She was doing something other than reading comics! But now that everything was happening, it seemed to go by too fast, moments rushing by before she even had a chance to process them, only the big ones staying. It made her wonder that if, in around twenty years or so (if they survived their deadly mission into the Upside Down) she would remember the little ones. The way Lucas smiled. The color of Dustin's hat. The way Eleven looked to Mike before doing anything. The way Mike looked at Eleven like she was the only girl in the world.

Alina hoped she wouldn't forget them.

Just then, Dustin spoke up from beside her, a grin on his face. "This is pretty cool, you know. We're kind of like superheroes. A team of superheroes off to save their friend! You know? This would be a great comic."

Lucas huffed out a breath. "I bet superheroes don't have to walk this far. Seriously, guys, my legs are getting tired. We've been out here for three hours, and we haven't found a gate yet." He rubbed his 'sore' legs for emphasis, and Alina snorted, rolling her eyes.

"Lucas, we're literally going to the Upside Down. Are you going to be complaining about your tired legs then, too?" she deepened her voice and began to mimic him. "'When are we going to find Will? My legs are getting tired, and I've tripped over like, three corpses already!'"

"Oh, my God, Al." Lucas tried to keep the frown on his face, but after seeing Dustin and Alina laughing, he began to chuckle as well. "Okay, fine, I have to admit, that was good."

"I know," said Alina perkily, throwing her arms around both Lucas and Dustin. Somehow, she couldn't stay miserable while talking to them. One of her best (and only) friends, and... well, she didn't know what to call Lucas anymore. Friend for now, but perhaps...?

No, she thought to herself. We've already been over this. Don't set yourself up to be heartbroken.

"No, but seriously, this is so cool," Dustin said, squeezing out of Alina's embrace to check his compass, making sure they were going in the right direction. "Like, I've always thought that the only adventures I could go on were in D&D, but I guess life surprises you sometimes."

"We just have to, uh, try not to die," said Lucas.

"Hey," said Alina. "You know, Hawkins is the perfect place for things like this to happen. You know, parallel universes, government conspiracies... all that shit. Because everyone thinks that nothing happens here. That's what I thought, too, when I heard that Will had gone missing. I think it's why most people accepted his death, even before they found his fake body. They couldn't imagine something more sinister happening."

"That's true," said Dustin, and Lucas let out another sigh, staring at his compass, leaves crunching under his feet as he walked.

"How much further?"

"I don't know," said Dustin. "These only tell direction, not distance. You really need to learn more about compasses."

"I think he knows that, Dustin," said Alina with a snort, raking her hair out of her face. "He was just expressing his annoyance that it's been..." she checked her watch, "three hours and fourteen minutes and we still haven't found the gate."

"Oh," said Dustin, going quiet.

"Yeah, I'm just saying," Lucas piped up. "How do we know when we get to the gate?"

"Probably when our legs fly off or something," muttered Alina, causing both Dustin and Lucas to laugh again. The sight of Lucas's face lit up, haloed by the sun and his smile, nearly made her stop walking. She looked away from him, blushing. I don't like Lucas Sinclair. Not like that. I don't.

"Uh, I think a portal to another dimension's gonna be pretty obvious," Dustin added after they'd finished laughing.

Lucas let out another sigh and turned to look at Eleven and Mike behind them. Eleven was wearing a small blue jacket they'd found, and was in the midst of a deep conversation with Mike. Alina wondered what they were talking about, considering the fact that Eleven didn't exactly have the best vocabulary—which wasn't her fault, but still. As Alina and Lucas watched, Eleven wiped her nose on the sleeve of her jacket, her head bent down as she listened to whatever Mike had to say. It made Alina all the more suspicious.

"Do you think she's acting weird?" Lucas asked them.

"I thought I was the only one," replied Alina, relieved that she wasn't the only one suspicious. Dustin turned to look at the girl, letting out a scoff.

"You're asking if the weirdo is acting weird," he said. As much as Alina didn't want to admit it, Dustin had a point. What wasn't weird about Eleven, a twelve-year-old girl with telekinetic abilities, a shaved head, and a vocabulary of someone much younger? But Eleven was clever, too. She'd been able to use the game board to communicate the idea of the Upside Down to them, as she hadn't had the words to use for it.

"I mean, weirder than normal?" Lucas clarified.

Alina just nodded. "Yeah. She was avoiding my eyes at Mike's when I asked her about the gate. She looked a little guilty, too, like she knew something we didn't. And... I think she was lying when she said she didn't know where the gate was. I don't know why she'd lie; I just got the feeling."

Dustin blinked. "I guess Detective Alina is back," he said. "But still. It might be nothing. I think we just need to focus on finding the gate, anyway."

Alina nodded, but glanced back to Eleven once more. "Yeah," she said. "You're right, Dustin."

They continued to walk, feet crunching on leaves and the bitter November wind whipping into their faces. Alina wondered if it snowed in the Upside Down. It would probably be worse than snow here. She imagined a blackened blizzard sweeping the abandoned streets, Will curling into a ball inside a broken-down house and praying for it to stop. It wasn't the first time she'd imagined what the Upside Down looked like. In her mind, it was black, houses rotting and a poisonous feeling occurring inside you when you arrived. She imagined it festering inside of you, deeper and deeper, until you didn't know who you were anymore.

The monsters weren't even the worst part.

Alina bit her tongue, and the warm, metallic taste of blood flooded her mouth. She didn't want to think about Will like that, with poison inside him, already gone. She clenched her fists and banished any thought of the Upside Down from her mind. She'd deal with it when she got there.

Eventually, the group ended up entering a junkyard. Rotted, rusting cars sat beside pieces of scrap metal, a giant bus too old to function in the middle. Alina squinted at the scene. Surely the gate was not here?

Dustin, who was leading their little train, looked up, stopping in his tracks. "Oh, no."

"'Oh, no'?" Lucas repeated. "What's 'oh no'?"

Dustin swallowed. "We're headed back home."

"What?!"

"How is that even possible?" Alina asked, throwing up her arms. Sometime while they were walking, the sun had begun to sink down, the early evening glow lighting up the junkyard that certainly wasn't the gate.

"Are you sure?" Lucas asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure," said Dustin. "Setting sun, right there. We looped right back around."

Lucas clenched his jaw. "And you're just realizing this now?!"

"Why is this all on me?!"

"Because you're the compass genius!"

"What do yours say?" Dustin asked, desperate to get some heat off of himself. Alina, Mike and Lucas all pulled out their compasses, glancing down at the shiny faces.

"North."

"Makes no damn sense," Dustin groaned, eyes locked onto the setting sun, their one navigational guide that wasn't completely busted. Alina crossed her arms, her legs aching at the prospect of doing that whole trek again.

"Maybe the gate moved," Mike suggested after a minute.

"Mike," said Alina, somewhat impatiently, "I don't think a whole portal to another universe somehow moved. That doesn't make any sense."

"Nothing about this makes sense!" Mike threw up his arms in frustration. "And if you're so smart, Al, how about you figure out what's wrong?!

"I don't think it's the gate," Dustin said slowly. "I think it's something else screwing with our compasses."

"Or someone else," muttered Alina, whirling and locking eyes with Eleven, who was standing a few yards away from them, looking nervous. Eleven stared defiantly back for a minute before looking away, and Alina gritted her teeth, the tugging in her stomach making it impossible not to step forward. All she wanted was to be friends with the girl, but Eleven was currently making that pretty hard to do.

Like Alina, Lucas had turned to glare at Eleven, but Dustin and Mike still weren't getting it. "Maybe it's something here?" Mike was suggesting, looking around the junkyard.

"No," said Dustin, "it has to be like a super magnet."

Magnet. There it was again. The word that kept describing Eleven.

"It's not a magnet," Lucas said, pointing accusingly at Eleven, Dustin and Mike turning to follow his and Alina's gaze. "She's been acting weirder than normal. If she can slam doors with her mind, she can definitely screw up a compass."

"Lucas is right," said Alina. "She was avoiding my gaze back at the basement when I asked her if she knew where the gate was. Maybe she—"

Her words were cut off by Mike. "But why would she do that?"

"Because she's trying to sabotage our mission," Lucas spat. "Because she's a traitor!"

Even though Alina was currently angry at Eleven, she didn't want Lucas to go too far, like last time, so she came up to him and rested a hand on his shoulder. "Lucas, it's okay," she told him. "We'll find another way. We can—"

Lucas wrenched out of her grip and stomped towards Eleven, who hadn't moved, just stood there with dread written on her face. "Lucas, what are you doing?" Mike cried out, but his voice fell on deaf ears as Lucas got closer, an ugly glare on his own face.

"You did it, didn't you?" he asked Eleven. "You don't want us to reach the gate. You don't want us to find Will."

"Lucas, be rational," Alina begged, for she knew that if this escalated any further, things would get messy. She didn't want a repeat of Mike's room, where Eleven had to resort to slamming the door and locking them into the room to stop Lucas from telling Mike's mother. And although Alina wanted answers, this wasn't the way to do it.

"Lucas, come on, seriously," pleaded Mike, who stepped forward until he was just behind him, "just leave her alone!"

"Admit it."

"No." Eleven's voice was soft, and she was trembling.

"ADMIT IT!" Lucas's yell caused Eleven to jump slightly, and he grabbed her sleeve, pulling it up for all of them to see. Sure enough, there was blood streaked onto the blue fabric. Lucas jerked his hand away from Eleven's wrist. "There's fresh blood! I knew it!"

"Lucas, come on!" Mike's voice had reached a yell now, too, and Alina and Dustin exchanged panicked glances. They didn't know how far this fight would escalate.

"I saw her wiping her nose on the tracks!" Lucas yelled. "She was using her powers!"

"Bull!" Mike cried. "That's old blood! Right, El?" Eleven didn't respond, her guilt-ridden expression morphing into one of sadness, so that even Mike could see the truth written in her eyes. "Right, El?" he asked again, desperation lacing his voice. Alina stepped forward, wanting to put an end to this argument, but Dustin grabbed her arm, his eyes telling her that she might make it worse. Either of the boys could kick her out of the party completely if she stepped in (although she wasn't an official member yet, they could make sure she didn't have to chance to ever become one).

Eleven's bottom lip was trembling, her face wet with silently shed tears. "It's... not..." she choked out in a sob, "it's not safe."

And she didn't seem to be lying about that.

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

a/n: wattpad stop putting the whole chapter in italics challenge

okay, so idk if you guys will read this or care, but im having trouble writing mad'ouk, the second book to acatalepsy, even though it's a rewrite. there's just this plot point i'm having a lot of trouble with, so if you want to help and don't mind spoilers, could you pm me? idk i just think i need someone else's view on this.

thanks! 'till next time!