The Flea and the Acrobat 

LIKE HOME. What had Will meant by that? It's like home, but dark and cold. Dan chewed on their nails as they tried to think. What could that meant?  It didn't make sense, unless it's for something stranger than they expected. Because like home wasn't something people said if they were just lost in the woods or in another town. It implied something that was like home but shouldn't be. Or was too strange to be the same in a normal way. Another world, Dan had suggested when El flipped over the board to show where Will was. Lucas had called it stupid. 

It didn't seem so stupid now. 

Dan glanced over at El and Eve. The two were huddled together on the couch, trying to rest. They had practically passed out after using their powers. There had been a lot of blood where their noses bleed. Dan was worried about them. Once they'd read Firestarter in the library. They had made notes of which chapters they finished on, to avoid having to check it out and trying to convince Mom to let them read a horror book. In it, people were given powers with drugs, and those powers caused brain hemorrhage. Dan wasn't entirely sure how those worked, but they knew it was bad, and that El and Eve's powers could be hurting them. 

"Empty and cold," Dustin muttered. "Wait, did he say cold?" 

"I don't know! The stupid radio kept going in and out," Lucas said.

"Yeah, well, it's not like channeling people with your brain powers is super easy," Floris said. He paused, glancing at El and Eve. "How'd they do that, anyway? Why couldn't we talk back?"

That was something Floris had been stuck on since they got back to the Wheelers'. Why couldn't they talk to Will? He'd wanted more than anything to tell Will they were looking for him, that he hadn't been forgotten. Except they couldn't. They could barely hear what Will was saying. 

"It's like riddles in the dark," Dustin groaned.

"Like home," Mike muttered as he paced the room. "Like his house?"

"Or maybe like Hawkins," Lucas said. 

"Upside Down," El croaked. 

"What'd she say?"

"Upside Down, like the board," Dan motioned to the board, still flipped over on the table. They picked it up to show to the others. "Remember? When they were showing us where they saw Will, El flipped the board over, and I said it's like another world, and Lucas said that was stupid, but what if it wasn't stupid?" 

"When they took us to find Will, they took us to his house," Mike added.

"Yeah, and he wasn't there," Lucas said.

"But what if he was there?" Mike said. "What if we just couldn't see him? What if he was on the other side?"

That would make sense. Say this was another world, that was just like Hawkins but cold, and empty, and dark. Where would Will go to be safe? Somewhere he knew. A house. His house. It was somewhere he knew, somewhere he could set up a base without worrying about monsters or exposure or whatever. Maybe there was even Upside Down food in the fridge - though Dan bet it was moldy and gross. It sounded like the sort of place that would have moldy and gross food. 

"Like the Vale of Shadows," Dustin said. He ran to get their Dungeons and Dragons book, flipping through the pages until he found the one he wanted. "'The Vale of Shadows is a decision 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.'"

"Holy shit! Will discovered another dimension," Floris said. "Wait, are we actually calling it the Upside Down? Because that's kinda lame -"

"That's not the point, the point is that Will is in there, and we need to get him out," Mike snapped. 

"I know, I'm just saying - ugh, whatever."

"How...how do we get there?" Lucas asked.

"We cast shadow walk," Dustin said.

"In real life, dummy."

"There's probably a portal or something," Dan said. "Or some kind of machine. That's usually how it works in sci-fi, and that's a lot more realistic than Dungeons and Dragons."

That is to say, it was built on science that people could - or should be able to, assuming it was good sci-fi - eventually make one day. People couldn't cast shadow walk, but they could build machines. 

Mike turned to look at Eve and El. 

"Do you know how we get there?" he asked. "To the Upside Down."

The two only shook their heads. 

°。°。°。°。°。°。

THE FUNERAL WAS TODAY. Bonnie knew that she should have to fake being sad. After all, she knew that Will might actually be alive. That at the very least that what they were burying wasn't actually his body.  Yet the atmosphere seemed suffocating enough that she felt genuinely miserable. She looked around at the faces in the crowd. Will's friends, huddled together as they stared into the crowd. Joyce Byers. Bonnie didn't even risk looking at Joyce Byers, knowing they could help with her suffering and didn't. Dad stood next to Bonnie, intermittently pressing the back of his hand to his face. He was upset, Bonnie knew despite him never saying it, that they hadn't saved Will. That they might not save the others, either. Lykke held Cas tightly. The boy began to whimper, sensing a tension he didn't understand. He was only four. They couldn't tell him Will had died, and people are going missing, and they were scared he would be next. 

People filed forwards to drop flowers into the grave. Bonnie did the same in silence. Karen and Ted Wheeler were giving Joyce their condolences when she passed. A relief, as she didn't have to try to say something. The older woman's face was unreadable. 

The church bells tolled as the four came together. No one noticed them sat behind a fence, pointing to a map. On it they had drawn three little red Xs.

"This is where we know for sure it's been, right?" Jonathan said. 

"So that's..." Nancy pointed to one of the Xs.

"Steve's house," Jonathan explained. "And that's the woods where they found Will's bike, and that's my house." 

"Our house is also near there, and so are some of Clem's friends, so she'd go pass there where ever she was trying to go," Moses added.

Bonnie glanced over at Moses. It was strange. Clem was the only one didn't have anything on. Will had been a whole search party and a funeral. Barb had been forgotten quietly as the police claimed she ran away, but they at least knew she was last need at Barb's house. Clem had just missed the bus one day, and that was it. A little fan fair from her parents, then it all died off when they found Will's body. It was like Hawkins was tossing her aside, considering closure for Will closure for her. It was disturbing. 

"It's all so close," Nancy said.

"Yeah, exactly," Jonathan agreed. "It's all within a mile or something. Whatever this thing is, it's not traveling far."

"Which means it's probably connected," Bonnie said. "Or it could be, anyway. That sounds like the distance an animal would be willing to hunt."

Or a person would. Bonnie didn't know which was worse - a monster with human level intelligence or one that had an animal's instinct. 

"You want to go out there?" Nancy asked.

Jonathan shook his head. "We might not find anything."

"I found something. And if we do see it...then what?"

"We could take a clearer picture, for one," Bonnie suggested. "Get some real evidence."

"How do you know they won't say we faked it?"  Moses asked. 

Bonnie shrugged. Personally, she didn't know how they could fake such a thing. The point still stood, though. Dad always warned that people saw what they wanted to see. He'd mostly meant when it came to people being innocent or guilty, or personal biases against others, but it applied here. If people didn't want to believe there was a monster hunting their children, they would find any excuse not to call it fake.

"We kill it," Jonathan suddenly decided. 

With that, he hurried off. They had to run to catch up. Jonathan opened the side of a car. Bonnie hoped it was his family's car. Because he promptly picked the lock to its glove compartment and pulled out a gun. Bonnie's eyes widened. 

"This a terrible idea," Nancy said.

"For once, she's right," Moses said, watching Jonathan with wide eyes. "You know that's going to get us arrested, right?"

"Yeah, well, it's the best we've got," Jonathan said. "What? You can tell someone, but they're gonna believe you. You know that."

"Your mom would," Nancy suggested.

"She's been through enough."

Bonnie spotted Joyce in the distance. A man stood beside her. He tried to wrap an arm around her shoulder, and she quickly moved away from him, earning a scoff. At this point, Bonnie didn't know what was the right thing to do. Joyce deserved to know her son was alive. Of course she did. Except what relief would the truth give her? Your son isn't dead, they'd say, he's just been captured by this faceless monster?

"Jonathan's right. Joyce is worried enough, we can tell her when we bring Will," Bonnie decided. "Before that and it will just make it worse."

°。°。°。°。°。°。

FLORIS WAS A UNIQUE SORT OF MISERABLE AT THE MOMENT. He had stood stiffly as the pastor gave a sermon about death and loss. Dustin joked about Jennifer Hayes, one of the most popular girls in school, crying for Will. Normally Floris would find it funny. It was funny. Will would have blushed so hard. But at the moment, all he could do was stare at the air next to the pastor's head and pretend he was listening to the man. 

The tie around his neck felt too tight. His collar was digging into his chin. It was one of the few things Dad had actually cared to help him with. Got to look respectable for the funeral. Got to look respectable when they went to church, or god would hate them or something. Floris tried to joke about it in his head. Like, sure, the All Knowing Lord really cared about how straight his tie was. It didn't work. Even in the small wooden funeral home instead of the church, without that creepy wall Jesus that made Floris's Sundays hell, the sense of religion was stifling. 

Except he couldn't run. Not yet. Dad would be angry and, more importantly, they wouldn't get the answers they needed.

They found Mr. Clarke at the buffet. He turned when he noticed them, and they tried their best to look sad. Some of them did better than others. 

"Oh, hey, there," Mr. Clarke studied their faces. "How are you boys holding up?"

"We're...in...mourning," Lucas said robotically.

"Man, there aren't real Nilla Wafers," Dustin complained.

"Seriously?" Floris snatched the cookie from his hand and tried it. They weren't. "Will just died and they got the cheap shit?"

"Benjamin," Mr. Clarke scolded. 

Floris gave their teacher a sheepish look. In his defense, that could still be considered a grief response. Wasn't anger one of the seven stages or something? 

"We were wondering if you had time to talk?" Mike asked.

"We have some questions," Lucas added.

"A lot of questions." 

Mr. Clarke agreed. Of course he did. So the group let him get his food and dragged him to the nearest table. Luckily, the nearest table happened to actually be empty.

"So, you know how in Cosmos, Carl Sagan talks about other dimensions?" Mike said. "Like, beyond our world?"

"Yeah, sure, theoretically," Mr. Clarke nodded.

"Right, theoretically."

"So, theoretically, how do we travel there?" Lucas asked.

"Like, right now," Dan added. "Not in, like, a billion years when they invent that kinda stuff."

"You guys have been thinking about Hugh Everett's Many-Worlds Interpretation, having you?" Mr. Clarke said. 

Whatever that was. Floris just nodded along. If it got them the answers they needed to find Will then, yeah, that was exactly where they got the idea. Not from some creepy psychic kids in their basement, or a Dungeons and Dragon's manual. Totally. Dan, at least, seemed to have a better understanding than they did.

"Yeah, like the Parallel in the Twilight Zone, or that evil timeline in Star Trek were Spock has a goatee," Dan agreed. 

"Ah," Mr. Clarke nodded. "There are parallel universe, just like our world, but just with 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," Lucas said quickly.

"Great for parallel us, but we're thinking more like a Goatee Spock kinda world," Floris added. "Or, like, um..."

"The Vale of Shadows," Dustin said. "You know, the Vale of Shadows?"

"An echo of the Material Plane were necrotic and shadow magic -" Mr. Clarke said. 

"Yeah, exactly," Mike interrupted. "If that did exist, a place like the Vale of Shadows, how would we travel there?" 

"Well..." Mr. Clarke shifted his plate and pulled a pen out of his pocket. He drew as he explained, "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 aero bat, there's a flea?"

Mr. Clarke drew a little dot next to his acrobat.

"Now, the flea can also travel back and forth, just like the acrobat. Right?" 

"Right," they all agreed.

"Here's where things get really interesting. The flea can also travel this way..." Mr. Clarke drew an arrow between the two lines of his rope. "Along the side of the rope. He can even go underneath the rope." 

"Upside Down," the group whispered. Exactly what they were looking for.

"But we're not the flea, we're the acrobat," Mike pointed out.

"In this metaphor, yes, we're the acrobat," Mr. Clarke agreed. 

"So, we can't go upside down?" Lucas asked.

Floris felt his chest clench. They knew Will was upside down. There had to be some sort of way, otherwise he wouldn't be there. He'd be safe, with them. But if Mr. Clarke didn't know how to do it, then no one did. If no one knew...they might never find Will. He might actually die, alone in some other dimension. 

"Well, is there any way for the acrobat to get to the Upside Down?" Dustin asked. 

"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 folded his plate, and then punched a hole in it with his pen. "You create a doorway." 

"Like a gate?"

"Sure. Like a gate. But agin, this is all -"

"Theoretical," Lucas said.

"But...but what if this gate already existed?" Mike asked.

"Well, if it did, I...I think we'd know," Mr. Clarke said. "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." 

That was interesting. Because this gate had to exist, otherwise Will couldn't enter, but Floris was pretty sure gravity was still working. Nor had they been swallowed up. So what was actually going on? 

°。°。°。°。°。°。

EVE WAS SILENT AS THE BOYS EXPLAINED WHAT THEY HAD FOUND. He could feel his heart beat pounding in his ears. They'd asked Mr. Clarke - the man who had stopped them at their school - about alternate dimensions. They were getting close. Too close. Eve remembered the monster that had ripped its way through the lab. The way it snuffed out lives one after another. That strange, familiar consciousness he had felt around it, and around the tear El had opened. What if they found out everything? What if they approached the lab?

They'd die. Eve knew it. The lab would kill them like they killed Benny. Or, worse, the monster would catch them. Fear and shame swirled together in his head. The two should have run when Eve wanted to. He shouldn't have let El convince him to stay. Now they were getting all of them killed.

"It would take a lot of energy to build a gate like this," Mike said as he finished stabbing a paper with a pencil. "But that's got to be what happened. Otherwise, how'd Will get there, right?"

"R-right," El stuttered.

She pressed herself closer to Eve. A lot of energy. Eve remembered how El had been able to run after she opened the gate, how she'd even slammed open his door. She'd told him what had happened in her void. How she'd touched the creature and been thrust back to reality to the sound of screaming. It hadn't taken her much energy at all. It had just been an accident. 

"What we want to know is, do you know where the gate is?" Lucas asked.

The two shared a look. At once they had the same thought. No. This was their chance to keep the boys safe. Maybe they were strange. Maybe they weren't alway kind. But, Eve thought as he ran his fingers over the collar of his borrowed coat, they wouldn't send them to their death. So they shook their head.

"Then how do you know about the Upside Down?" Lucas cried, frustrated.

"Probably the same way they know about Will," Dan said. "Maybe they contacted it, like they contacted Will, but they never saw the gate."

Eve almost gave Dan an appreciative look, before reconsidering if that made him look suspicious. It wasn't entirely a lie. After all, they hadn't said it, and in Dan's mind it was the truth. It saved the from trouble. For now. 

The sound of foot steps interrupted them. Eve turned to look at Dustin. The boy had been pacing the room since they had returned, a device in hand. Eve considered peaking into his mind a few times. It was clear he was focused on something. The only question was what.

"Dustin, what are you doing?" Mike asked. Dustin ignored him. "Dustin? Dustin!"

"Dustin!" Lucas tried. 

It was then that Dustin looked up at them.

"I...I need to see your compasses," Dustin insisted.

Compasses? Those must have been the thing in Dustin's hand. The boys hurried to grab more, dumping them onto a table. They all looked similar. Round objects - though some where stuck on blocks - with a middle in the center. All of the needs pointed the same direction. To a little red N.

"They're all facing north, right?" Dustin asked.

"Wow, Dustie, did you just learn that?" Floris teased. 

"So?" Lucas asked.

"Well, that's not true north," Dustin said.

"What do you mean?" Mike asked.

"I mean exactly what I just said. That's not true north. Are you all seriously this dense?" Dustin said. "The sun rises in the east, and it sets in the west. Right? Which means that's true north."

Dustin pointed in a direction that definitely was not the one the compasses were. Eve blinked. So the compass were broken? He didn't understand where this was going. Except when Mike suggested that exact thing, Dustin replied:

"Do you even understand how a compass works? Do you see a battery pack on this?" Dustin held up the compass for Mike to see.

"No," Mike admitted.

"No, you don't. Because it doesn't need one. The needle's naturally drawn to the Earth's magnetic North Pole," Dustin said. 

"So, what's wrong with them?" Lucas asked.

"Well, that's what I couldn't figure out, but then I remembered. You can change the direction of a compass with a magnet," Dustin explained. Eve remembered what Mike had said about the gate moments before and winced. "If there's the presence of a more powerful magnetic field, the needle deflects to that power."

"And Mr. Clarke said the gate would mess with magnetic fields," Dan realized. 

"Exactly," Dustin nodded. 

"Meaning, if we follow the compasses' north..." Lucas said.

"They should lead us to the gate."

And right into the lab's waiting arms. 

°。°。°。°。°。°。

MOSES WATCHED AS JONATHAN TOOK AIM. A pull of the trigger and a crack. Once again, Jonathan was a mile off from the can he was aiming at. Moses winced. He didn't know why Jonathan insisted he be the one to carry the gun. At least when Moses tried he sort of nicked the target. That could do some damage, maybe get lucky and kill the creature. 

Kill the creature. Moses scoffed at the thought. They were going monster hunting with Nancy Wheeler and Bonnie Olen. This was insane. He'd never even imaged he'd talk to those two. Let alone that they'd give them the time of day, nor that they'd be using that time to walk around in the woods. Killing monsters. 

They would definitely be killing that thing. It was the only way to make sure more people weren't taken. That Will and Clem and Barb would come home safe.

"You're supposed to hit the cans, right?" 

The two turned at the sound of Nancy's voice. She was hiking out of the woods with a bat in hand. Bonnie followed her with a bag slung over her shoulder. Out of the four of them, Bonnie was probably the one Moses trusted the most on the defense front. Apparently she'd done self-defense lessons. How much those helped, Moses didn't know, but it was definitely more than the rest of them.

"Actually, he's aiming between them. A lot harder," Moses gave Jonathan a smirk. "Or so I've been told."

Jonathan rolled his eyes. Still, Moses didn't miss the small smile that grew on his face.

"You ever shot a gun before?" Jonathan asked the girls.

"Yeah, couple times," Bonnie said. "My dad wanted me to know how, in case something happened. I'm not a master, though. I didn't like it enough to keep practicing." 

Jonathan looked to Nancy next. The girl just scoffed.

"Have you met my parents?" Nancy asked.

At that they chuckled. Moses hadn't met her parents personally, but he'd seen them. They were the sort of people who'd be all for gun rights, except for for their daughter. Too masculine. He wondered what they'd think of her hanging out with him, with his earring and his cropped shirts. Probably had a hundred and one slurs stored up for just that moment, just like the rest of the town.

"If it makes you feel better, I've never even seen one of those things," Moses admitted. "Parents said it's too dangerous."

They'd also narrowed their eyes suspiciously and asked why he even wanted a gun. Moses didn't mention that part. 

"I haven't shot one since I was ten," Jonathan said. "My dad took me hunting on my birthday. He made me kill a rabbit."

Bonnie let out a small yelp.

 Nancy gave an incredulous look. "A rabbit?" 

"I guess he thought it would make into more of a man or something. I cried for a week."

Moses scowled. He'd been blessed with never meeting Lonnie Byers, at least until the funeral. But he'd heard enough about him from Jonathan to know he was a grade A asshole. 

"Jesus," Nancy muttered.

"What? I'm a fan of Thumper," Jonathan said. 

"She meant your dad," Bonnie corrected. "That's...that's horrible. I can't imagine my dad making Cas do that, and neither of them even like rabbits that much."

Jonathan sighed.

"I guess he and my mother loved each other at some point, but..." Jonathan cocked his gun. "I wasn't around for that part." 

Nancy held out her hand. Jonathan seemed to get what she was implying, as he passed the gun off to her. 

"I don't think my parents ever loved each other," Nancy said. 

"Must have married for some reason," Jonathan said. 

"My mom was young. My dad was older, but he had a Chucky job, money, came from a good family," Nancy lined the gun up with the can. "So they bought a nice house at the end of the cul-de-sac..and started their nuclear family."

"As one does," Moses said with a scoff. It seemed like that was all anyone cared about - if they looked like a nice, proper family. "Screw that."

"Yeah. Screw that."

Nancy squeezed an eye shut. When she pulled the trigger, she blasted the can right off its post. 

°。°。°。°。°。°。

THEY KEPT LOOKING BACK. Why did they keep looking back? Eve tried to mask his emotions. Don't look suspicious. Don't let them see what you're doing, what you're planning. It was how he'd survived the lab. But it was different now. The group seemed to look at them - really look at them, instead of just glancing over their head. So they noticed things that others didn't. They watched when others ignored them.

El was doing most of the work. She kept their compasses turned every so slightly, just enough that they turned back home, but not enough that they noticed. Eve was a sort of look out. He listened in case they became suspicious. If they did, he would turn their thoughts away from it. Not mind control. He wasn't strong enough to do that now that they knew it could, just like in the lab. But Eve could give slight suggestions. Distract them with something else. Move their thoughts else where, like El moved their compass needles.

It had been their mistake to tell them out the compass worked. El wouldn't have been able to tamper with them without that knowledge. But Dan loved explaining, so the second Eve asked them how it worked, they'd gone over every part of it. 

Most of the group walked in front of them. Eve could slightly make out their conversation. Lucas and Dustin were arguing about the compass, while Floris joked about their annoyance and Mike ordered them to stop talking so he could focus. Only Dan walked next to them. Eve wished they wouldn't. They kept trying to show them things and talk about whatever came to their mind. Every time they did, it risked the two getting exposed. One Dan had almost seen blood leak from El's nose. Eve had barely distracted them in time by asking about the railroad they were walking on.

"The bath?" Seven asked.

The boy stared up at Papa. He stood opposite of his bed. Once Seven would scrunch himself up to avoid Papa. Make himself small, hide away in fear. Then Seven began to learn the limits of Papa's patience. How to push just enough that he took whatever freedom he could get, but not so much he got in trouble. This was one of them. If Seven sat up and faced him, Papa wouldn't sit on his bed. Wouldn't invade his personal space. 

"Yes, the bath," Papa pulled out a photo. It was of a man. "It's far, farther than we've ever gone before. Eleven will need your help today. Do you understand?"

Seven nodded. Sometimes Eleven couldn't reach as far on her own. If she failed, she would be punished. He couldn't let that happen. 

Papa lead Seven through the corridors. Other scientists were waiting in the room for them. He One of them passed Seven is suit. It was white and skin tight, with blocks on it that Seven didn't know the use of. He was allowed to change in another, smaller room. A man waited on the other side of the door. That way he wouldn't escape.

The bath was too cylinders full of water. One for each of them. They needed to be close to use their powers together. Seven glanced over to the walk way next to him. Eleven stood next to him. Each had wires attached to their head. Each stood on platform over the water, with two guards to put helmets upon their heads. That way they could breathe. Papa held up a hand. Eleven pressed a hand against the glass. Seven did not.

Moments later, the outer casing closed. They were plunged into darkness. 

"Turn back," El suddenly said, grabbing Dan's sleeve. "I'm tired."

"Shoot, uh...maybe we could rest?" Dan glanced at the others. They seemed to think better of the idea. "Just a little longer, okay? We're probably almost there. We'll turn back if we don't find anything."

"Promise?" El asked.

"Promise," Dan swung their book bag around their shoulder so they could dig through it. They produced a small bar. "Here. They don't taste good, but Mom saids they're good for hikes, 'cause all the protein."

El carefully took the bar. Eve sighed and stared at the crowd in front of them. They needed to think of something. And fast. 

°。°。°。°。°。°。

THEIR TRAVELS WERE SURPRISINGLY COMFORTABLE. At first the silence had been awkward. Small talk was made not because they had something to say, but because they felt like they had to. After an hour, however, they seemed to calm down. Moses suddenly found himself comfortable with Nancy and Bonnie's presence. He didn't know when it happened. One second he was hyper aware that they were next to him, nervous about what that meant. The next he hardly thought about it.

Leaves crunched under their feet. Moses scanned the horizon. It sounded stupid, but he could help but think they might stumble across Clem and Will out here. That maybe they were hiding. That'd they come running up, laughing at this joke they'd played on them. Barb might even be with them. But it didn't happen, because that was impossible.

Night began to fall as they walked. Bonnie passed out flashlights from her bag. Moses felt a cold run down his spine. The woods were never a fun place. They were even worse in the dark, with a monster lurking within them. Even with Jonathan and Nancy switching weapons, Moses was hardly comforted by their "protection."

Nancy came to a stop. Moses slowed next to her, letting the others walk past. 

"What, are you tired?" Jonathan snapped. 

"Shut up," was Nancy's only reply. She turned her head, peering into the darkness. "I heard something."

Moses tried to listen. At first, all he could hear was the owls in the distance. Then...something else. A faint whimpering. They started towards the noise. It was high pitched and distressed.

A little into the woods, they found the source. A deer. It was sprawled out in the grass. Bloody gashes ran along its throat. When Moses looked closer, he could see more under its stomach. After that he didn't risk searching for the rest of the damage. It wouldn't live, but it wasn't dying quickly, either. A horrible fate, one that made Moses shutter at the thought. Nancy approached. 

"It's been hit by a car," Nancy said. 

Nancy stroked the deers leg. It turned its head to look at her. Bonnie clasped a hand over her mouth. It did little to hide the small sob she'd let out. 

"We can't just leave it," Nancy turned back to them. 

They looked down at the gun in Nancy's hand. She raised it to the deer shakily. Yet she couldn't pull the trigger. In truth, Moses didn't think he'd be able to, either. Finally, Jonathan held out his hand.

"I'll do it."

"I thought you said..." Nancy started.

"I'm not nine anymore," Jonathan insisted.

Maybe he wasn't. Moses still knew he hated the idea. Jonathan aimed the gun and cocked it, but he hesitated just like Nancy had.

They didn't get a chance to fire. Something grabbed the deer. It was wrenched into the bush behind it. The group jumped back. Moses gasped for air as he stared at the patch of blood that had once been a dear. The monster. For a moment, all they could do was stare. 

The followed drops of blood through the woods. Jonathan kept the gun trained in front of him. Next to him, Moses could see Bonnie tightening her grip on her bag, as if she meant to swing it at whatever attacked them. But nothing appeared. No monster. No dear. 

As they searched, they seemed to split up. Nancy and Moses, Jonathan and Bonnie. It hadn't been on purpose. But one second they were all together. The next Moses could only find Nancy.

Something glistened in their flashlight beam. Moses froze. Hesitantly, he moved his light back towards it. It was a hole in a tree. A wet film covered the opening. Something was dripping off of it. Even stranger, when they bent down, there seemed to be things behind it. Not the woods behind the tree - there wasn't even an opening on the other side when Moses checked. But not the inside of a tree, either.

Nancy approached. she bent down, pressing a hand against the film.

"Jonathan? Bonnie?" She called. 

Neither of them replied.

"I don't think we should go in there," Moses started.

Nancy promptly ignored that. She stuck her head into the hole. Than her entire body. Moses looked around. No one was there. Nancy Wheeler had just crawled through a hole. Before he could think better of it, he followed. It was a tunnel of sorts. The walls were soft and wet, and smelt like rot. Moses almost gagged. He had to push through it to get to the other side. His flashlight flickered when he reached the other side. 

When he looked around, Moses instantly regretted his choice. It looked like another world. The temperature had dropped significantly. There was a blue tint to the air. Something was growing up the barren trees around them. Something that looked like rotting vines. Ash-like particles floated in the air. Moses held his breath the best he could to avoid inhaling them. That was the last thing he needed. 

"Nancy, what the hell?" Moses demanded.

"What if it's in here?" Nancy turned to look at him.

"Then we're totally screwed," Moses whispered as they walked forwards. "We left the weapons back there, remember?"

Nancy seemed to realize that as well. She turned back, only to be cut short by a gargling sound. Her beam had fallen across something. A humanoid something, hunched over the ground. Its pale grey skin was stretched over a long, boney figure. It was eating something. The deer, Moses realized. 

The creature turned to them. It let out a guttural roar. As it did, its entire face split open, revealing a flower full of teeth, surrounding a circular maw. That was the last Moses saw of it. Because seconds later he'd grabbed Nancy by the wrist and hauled her in the other direction. 

°。°。°。°。°。°。

"OH, NO."

The group came to a stop at Dustin's words. They were stood in the middle of a junkyard. It felt like they had been walking forever. The sun was setting, and Floris's feet felt like they'd fall off. Dad would definitely be pissed when he got home late. But none of this seemed oh no worthy. Especially with as much horror as Dustin said it.

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

"We're heading back home," Dustin said.

What? Floris shook his head as he stared down at the compass. No way. They knew the gate wasn't there. They would have seen it. More importantly, he would have noticed if they'd circled around. That seemed sort of obvious. And yet...now that Floris was really looking, he could see it. He could see Hawkins' Main Street in the distance. When he looked back, the forest they were meant to be searching was long abandoned. Nothing between the junkyard and their house could be hiding a gate. 

"Setting sun, right there," Dustin motioned above them. "We looked right back around."

"And you're just realizing this now?" Lucas complained.

"Why is this all on me?" Dustin asked.

"Because you're the compass genius!" 

"It doesn't take a compass genius to notice that kinda thing," Floris defended. "We were all tricked, Lucas, back off."

Lucas scoffed. Dustin had them all checked their compasses. As expected, they all said north. They had said north the entire time. Floris slapped a hand to his forehead. They'd been so focused on their compasses they hadn't even thought to look at their surroundings. 

"Maybe it moved?" Dan suggested. 

Not even they sounded convinced.  Floris wouldn't be surprised if it happened, though. A moving gate to another dimension wasn't much weirder than one that stayed still. 

"No, I don't think it's the gate. I think it's something else screwing with the compasses," Dustin said. 

"Maybe it's something here," Mike suggested.

"Something that's strong enough to change a compass again?" Dan looked around. "Doubt it." 

"It's not a magnet," Lucas said. They turned to see him glaring at El and Eve. "They've been acting weirder than normal. If she can slam doors with her mind, she can definitely screw up a compass. And I bet he's been keeping us from noticing."

"Why would they do that?" Mike asked.

"Yeah, all they've done is help us," Floris added. He gave the two a confused look. "Right?"

It hadn't always been the clearest help, yet they were absolved every time. They took them to Will's house, they just didn't tell them he was in another dimension's version of it. There was the dead body, but it wasn't really Will's body. Floris couldn't think of any other time they'd done anything to betray them. 

And in truth? He didn't want to believe they'd betray them. They were the only way they could find Will.

"Because they're trying to sabotage our mission. Because they're traitors!" Lucas accused.

"Seriously?" Dan interrupted. "That's so not fair, we don't even know if they did it."

"Yes, we do!"

"You didn't ask them -"

Lucas shoved past Dan and started towards the two. Eve was quick to step between Lucas and El. The two glared at each other as the others crowded around them.

"You did it, didn't you?" Lucas accused.

Eve jutted out his chin, glaring at Lucas. His refusal to answer only seemed to anger Lucas more. 

"You don't want us to reach the gate. You don't want us to find Will," Lucas continued. 

"Lucas, come on, seriously," Mike protested. 

"Admit it."

"Quit being a jerk," Dan insisted. "You're just scaring them so they'll say what you want -"

"Admit it!" Lucas screamed. 

He lunged forwards and grabbed Eve's arm. The boy winced as he did. El's eyes widened. Her face darkened as Lucas yanked Eve's arm forwards, revealing...blood. 

Floris felt his heart drop. There was blood on Eve's sleeve. Fresh, red blood. Blood from a nose bleed, like when they used their powers. They really had been tricking them. His brain didn't seem to what to process it. Why? Why would they do that? Maybe they had done something wrong, hadn't been as nice as the two wanted, but what about Will? Will deserved to be saved. How could they listen to his terrified cries and think anything else?

"Fresh blood, I knew it," Lucas thew Eve's arm away from him. "I can't believe I liked you!"

"Lucas, come on!" Mike cried.

"I saw him wiping his nose on the tracks! Both of them, they were using their powers," Lucas snapped.

"That doesn't mean they're traitors," Dan said. Floris stared at them in surprise. "We don't know why they did it."

"Why else would they sabotage our mission?" Lucas snapped.

"Maybe they're scared, I don't know! You didn't ask them," Dan turned towards them. "Why did mess with our compasses?" 

"Not safe..." El whispered. 

Lucas shook his head at that. "You practically told her to say that." 

"But it isn't safe, we know there's a monster -"  Dan started. 

Lucas threw up his hands in frustration. He turned Dustin and Floris for support. All Floris could do was shake his head. He didn't know what the hell was going on, and the yelling was only making it worse. 

"What did I tell you? They've been playing us from the beginning!" Lucas shouted. 

"That's not true, they helped us find Will," Mike said.

"Find Will?" Lucas looked around. "Find Will? Where is he, then? Huh? I don't see him."

"They took us to his house! It's not their fault he was in another world," Dan pointed out. "And they channeled him at school, and that's how we found out about the gate in the first place." 

"And then they betrayed us," Lucas said. "Just think about it. They could've just told us where the Upside Down was right away, but they didn't. They just made us run around like headless chickens."

"Because they didn't trust us. I mean, come on, you've been totally weird to them," Dan replied. 

Lucas blinked like he'd been slapped. Floris inhaled sharply. It wasn't wrong, Lucas had been hot-and-cold with the two constantly. It just wasn't something he thought they'd ever talk about. Not without it getting really weird.

"I'm being weird?" Lucas snapped back. "You're totally obsessed with them, both of you. You're blind! Blind because you get to hang out with girl who doesn't think you're a freak for once -"

"Screw you, Lucas," Mike interrupted. 

Floris couldn't tell if Mike was more mad at him for what he was saying about El and Eve or about Dan. Which ever it was, he was definitely pissed. Tension seemed to build in their air. A buzzing with it. 

"No, screw you," Lucas retorted. "They know where Will is, and now, they're just letting him die in the Upside Down." 

"Shut up!"

"For all we know, it's their fault."

"Shut up!"

"We're looking for some stupid monster...but did you ever stop to think that maybe they're the monster?"

"I said shut up!"

With that, Mike swung at Lucas's head. Lucas wrapped an arm around his neck. Dan cried out as the two nearly stumbled into them. They barely avoided being crushed when the two collapsed to the ground. Everyone screamed for them to stop. Floris was really panicking now. They never fought before. Argued, sure, but fighting? Actually rolling on the ground and punching each other? Never. They didn't know what would happen.

They rolled over so Lucas was on top of Mike. A scream broke through the air. There was as thrumming sound so loud that Floris doubled over, clutching his ears. Lucas was wrenched off Mike and thrown like a ragdoll across the field. The others ran to check on him. 

For a moment he didn't respond, no matter how they begged. Floris was vaguely aware of Mike screaming at El and Eve. He didn't listen to what he said. Instead he focused on waking Lucas up. 

Finally, the boy's eyes fluttered open. For a moment he stared in a daze. Then he realized what was happened and shoved them away. Floris caught tears growing in his eyes as he stormed off. It was only then that he realized that El and Eve were missing.

This was definitely a wild chapter, holy shit. Some things I wanted to clear up:

1. I know I got rid of the teens' scenes. It just didn't make sense to have the "what was I saying?" discussion when Jonathan didn't even mention it in this fic. Besides, it was pretentious as hell for him to be like "yeah, I took creeper shots of you, but you're fake!" Like, bitch, please...

2.  Lucas was not being transphobic when he said "you get to hang out with girl who doesn't think you're a freak for once"! I know it could be taken that way, but keep in mind he doesn't know Dan is trans - not even Dan knows that. He just knows that Dan doesn't get along with girls at school, and that they think he's weird, so it means as much as his original line to Mike in the show. A harsh thing to say, but not particularly cruel. 

I make this distinction because it's a bit of a "it's not my fault you don't like girls" situation were what is meant as a benign accusation/deflection is 100% more hurtful because of stuff the speaker doesn't know. 

3. I know it probably would have made more sense for Dan and Lucas to fight, since Dan's El's love interest in this, but I didn't want to take that moment away from Mike. Because even without romance, Mike is still protective of them. That's just how he is. So...enjoy protective Mike! And also some protective El (she was definitely going to throw Lucas earlier if he hadn't let go of Eve and start shouting at Mike and Dan instead.)