"i heard will this morning."

—

after leaving the school, the kids made their way back to mike's house. his basement, specifically. they had been sitting on the couches and floor, processing what all had happened when mike spoke up.

"what was will saying?" he asks. "like home.. like home.. but dark?" he stands up,

"and empty." lucas adds on. "empty and cold." dustin sighs. "wait, did he say cold?" he then questions, looking at the ground.

"i don't know. the stupid radio kept going in and out." lucas complains.

dustin sighs. "it's like riddles in the dark." his head leans back. erin leans back on her palms as she was sitting on the floor from across the table. she glances to her right at eleven, who's watching mike walk back and forth.

"like home? like his house?" mike stops. "or maybe like hawkins." lucas suggests.

"or his actual home life?" erin asks. "i mean, you guys know how his dad is." they all look at her and then glance at each other sadly at the mention of will's abusive father.

"upside down."

erin's head snapped over to the girl laying down on the couch. she had been completely silent the entire time, too exhausted to move.

"what'd she say?" lucas asks.

"upside down." mike states. "what?" lucas immediately asks him.

"upside down." mike repeats. he walks over to the table, where the d&d game board is still flipped upside down. mike picks it up and re-flips it. "when el showed us where will was, she flipped the board over, remember?" he flips it back to how it was. erin, lucas, and dustin all make their way to the table and sit down. "upside. down."

"dark. empty." mike goes on. lucas sighs. "do you understand what he's talking about?" he asks his other two friends.

"no." dustin and erin reply at the same time.

"guys, come on, think about it." mike says. "when el took us to find will, she took us to his house, right?"

"yeah." lucas states. "and he wasn't there." erin lets out a sigh at the pessimistic boy.

"but what if he was there? what if we just couldn't see him? what if he was on the other side? what if this-" he flips over the board so it looks normal. "-is hawkins and.." he flips it back over. "..this is where will is? the upside down." he looks around at his friends.

"the vale of shadows." dustin suddenly mutters. erin leans back in her chair as they all share looks. she shakes her head.

"i did get caught there once, remember? it took forever for you to get me out, dustin, but you did." erin says, thinking back to when her character, their rogue, had accidentally entered the vale of shadows, only to be returned by a bard using their arcane magic. she looks between her best friends.

"now we have to get will out."

with that, dustin stands up quickly, walking over to the corner of the room, where mike kept his books and papers for their campaigns. dustin scans through one of the small bins, yanks out a book, and then all but runs back to the table. he slams down the patchy book and erin recognizes it as mike's d&d manual that explained literally everything.

mike's name is on the front, although erin thinks that dustin probably has it all memorized just by seeing it a few times. he opens it, flipping through the brightly colored pages. he looks through all of them as the other three wait patiently. the curly haired boy then jumps and points at the page as he starts reading.

"'the vale of shadows is a dimension that is a dark reflection of 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.'"

erin lets out a shaky breath, looking at her palms.

"an alternate dimension." mike states.

"but.. how.. how do we get there?" lucas stutters.

"you cast shadow walk." dustin answers.

"in real life, dummy."

"well, we can't shadow walk, but.." dustin starts. he then looks over at el. "maybe she can." he nods to her.

they all turn to look at her. the girl stares back solemnly. "do you know how we get there? to the upside down?" mike asks softly. eleven blinks once before slowly shaking her head.

"oh, my god!" lucas sighs out. the others look down, unsure of what to do now. erin sets her head in her hand, feeling utterly hopeless.

-

after they all disperse, not knowing what to do, they go home for will's funeral that morning. erin was unsure of what to do, knowing will was alive but having to play it off. she knows that everyone knows how much she cares about will, so she had been wondering if she should cry.

she sat on her bed, facing away from her door. she was wearing a short, black dress. the collar was higher on her neck, and the sleeves reached her wrist. it was a little bunchy at the middle, but then flowed around her when she was standing. it comes down to her just above her knees.

she's staring at the wall, trying to make herself act like this was actually will's funeral. she lets out a long sigh, thinking about how scared will was probably is, wherever he is.

erin.

the girl flinches at will's voice. she turns around. elizabeth is standing at the door. she's wearing a black skirt and sweater, and holding erin's winter coat in one hand, and erin's pill bottle in the other.

"mom says you haven't taken it for lunch yet." elizabeth says, holding it out to her younger sister. erin nods, standing up. she walks to the door, grabbing both items from lizzie. lizzie smiles at her comfortingly before walking down the hallway to the kitchen.

erin gives her room a once-over, knowing well that that was will's voice. it was him. he's alive. erin had heard his voice enough in her life to know if it's him even when he sneezes.

she then walks away, and down the hall after her sister. she stops at the bathroom, taking the two pills while using the sink's water. she gulps them down and sighs, looking at her reflection. she turns off the light, and closes the door behind her on the way out.

both her mom and her sister are standing by the door. they don't speak to her, and erin notices her mom give her a pitying look when she's putting on her coat.

they make it to the funeral sight in 5 minutes, having to drive across town to get there. many people are already there, including mike, lucas, and dustin, and erin wonders if some of the people there even care about the byers. if they're there just to be able to say they were, if they're just acting like they knew will, or maybe their kid was friends with him.

she also knows that there's probably some actually nice people. people who did care, despite not knowing the byers very well. and she sighs, walking to her friends. they're standing off to the side, heads bent, no doubt talking about something to do with the upside down. lucas spots her and waves her over. when she reaches them, she hugs dustin to act like she's sad.

before she can ask what they were planning, pastor charles walks to the front of the casket, and asks everyone to kindly make their way over, so the memorial could begin.

they walk over to the side of the casket, and after a few minutes, pastor charles begins speaking. he says a few things about how will was so young, so kind, and then he opens his bible.

"fear not, for i am with you," he goes on. "be not dismayed, for i am your god. i will strengthen you. yes, i will help you. i will uphold you with my righteous right hand. it's times like these that our faith is challenged. how, if he is truly benevolent.. could god take from us someone so young, so innocent? it would be easy to turn away from god, but we must remember that nothing, not even tragedy, could separate us from his love.."

he continues talking, but erin is brought out of her daydreams about will by dustin elbowing her in the side. she looks over, and he's smirking as he nods over to in front of the casket.

jennifer hayes is standing at the foot of the casket, sniffling as tears run down her face. erin squints her eyes.

"just wait 'till we tell will that jennifer hayes was crying at his funeral." dustin mumbles, trying not to laugh. erin scowls at him and then at the girl. from behind dustin and mike, karen shushes them gently.

afterwards, they all gently throw different colored roses into the casket. a slight breeze was blowing now, and it bit at erin's rosy cheeks. they pass by joyce, jonathan, and.. lonnie, jonathan and will's dad. erin squints at him suspiciously as she walks past him.

michelle and karen and ted wheeler have different ideas, though, and they stop in front of him and all converse quietly. erin frowns at the back of joyce's head as she stares into the small casket.

-

at the reception center back in town, everyone's grouped off in huddles, including the kids. after filling erin in on what they're new plan was, they immediately tried to get it into action.

they stand by the food table, waiting for the line to get shorter and for mr. clarke to get closer to them. he's starting to turn away when mike quickly steps forward.

"mr. clarke?" he asks, gaining his attention. the man stops and smiles. "oh, hey, there." erin stands beside mike and looks up to the man.

"how are you boys holding up?" he asks. erin sighs loudly. mr. clarke blanches and sends her an apologetic smile. "you too, erin."

"well," erin starts to answer. she's interrupted by a sudden munching sound and she glances down the line at dustin, who's shoving vanilla wafers into his mouth.

"we're.. in.. mourning." lucas says, but it almost sounds like a question. erin sadly looks down.

"man, these aren't real 'nilla wafers."

erin shakes her head silently, turning back to her teacher. "we were wondering if you had time to talk?" mike asks.

"we have some questions." lucas says. "a lot of questions." mike agrees.

mr. clarke immediately said yes. he brought them over to a table in the middle of the room, and they all sat down in a circle.

"so, you know how in cosmos, carl sagan talks about other dimensions?" mike asks. erin nods her head along, looking at mr. clarke for any signs of familiarity. "like beyond our world?"

"yeah," the teacher replies casually. "sure. theoretically."

"right, theoretically." erin leans in closer, setting her crossed arms on the table.

"so, theoretically, how do we travel there?" lucas asks from beside her. mr. clarke sighs and gives a small smile.

"you guys have been thinking about hugh everett's many-worlds interpretation, haven't you?" he asks. the kids give each other small, confused glances. erin purses her lips and squints her eyes, tilting her head.

"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." mr. clarke explains. lucas sounds too loud when he speaks next.

"yeah, that's not what we're talking about." he sighs. mr. clarke scrunches his eyebrows together. "oh."

"we were thinking of more an evil dimension, like the vale of shadows." dustin says quickly. erin's eyebrows widen and her eyes shoot to her teacher to see his reaction. "you know the vale of shadows?" dustin asks, munching on a vanilla wafer.

"an echo of a material plane, where necrotic and shadow magic-" he starts to explain, dustin smiling at him, when mike interrupts. "yeah, exactly!"

"if that did exist, a place like the vale of shadows, how would we travel there?" mike asks. "theoretically." erin adds on.

mr. clarke sighs, "well," he then looks down at the table, and then fiddles with his paper plate before picking it up. he reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out a pen. he clicks it once and holds up the paper plate.

"picture.. an acrobat.. standing on a tightrope." he draws two sets of parallel lines, and then a stick figure on top of those lines. "now, the tightrope is our dimension. and our dimension has rules. you can move forwards and you can move backwards." he draws two arrows going left and right next to the stick figure. "but.. what if right next to our acrobat, there is a flea?" he draws a small circle with legs protruding out of it. "now, the flea can also travel back and forth, just like the acrobat. right?" mr. clarke says, drawing two arrows going left and right beside the flea. they all nod. "right."

"here's where things things get really interesting." the science teacher starts. "the flea can also travel this way.. along the side of the rope." he draws arrows going left and right in between the two lines. "he can even go.." he draws an arrow curving underneath the bottom line. "..underneath the rope."

"upside down." they all murmur, looking at one another with wide eyes.

"exactly." mr. clarke says, satisfied he got his point across.

"but, we're not the flea, we're the acrobat?" mike asks.

"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?" they all nod at dustin's question, eagerly waiting for mr. clarke's trusted answer.

"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," erin perks up at the mention of space. she likes 'space stuff', as lucas referred to it once. "and then.." mr. clarke picks up the paper plate, and folds it in half. he clicks the pen and then promptly stabs it through the middle of the folded plate.

erin scoffs quietly, and leans back in her seat, staring at the paper with her eyebrows raised.

"..you create a doorway." their teacher finishes.

"like a gate?"

"sure, like a gate." mr. clarke replies. "but again, this is all-"

"theoretical." lucas interrupts.

"but.. but what if this gate already existed?" mike asks hesitantly.

"well, if it did, i.. i think we'd know. it would disrupt gravity, the magnetic field, our environment. heck, it might even swallow us up whole."

erin shivers, and places her hand to her forehead and listens to mr. clarke continue. she hears dustin sigh heavily.

"science is neat. but i'm afraid it's not very forgiving."

-

"how the hell are we gonna get there? this is crazy! we have to get will."

erin collapsed against the building wall. dustin shook his head, looking down at his black shoes.

"we'll get him, okay? we can." mike tells his friends. "we'll figure it out."

it's silent for a moment as they all separately think. erin's having an inner turmoil with herself. she wanted to tell the boys about this morning, when she heard will.

"guys?" she speaks softly. they all look to her. she lets out a sigh.

"i heard will this morning."

they all gape at her, their mouths hanging open. lucas takes a step forward. "are you sure? had you taken your medication?"

she crosses her arms. "well, i had taken it already that morning, and i was about to take it for lunch, when he said it." she says. "i swear guys i'm not just saying this. he spoke to me." she tells them, desperately looking at their faces.

"well, what did he say?" mike asks. she shrugs gently. "just my name. but it sounded sad. i've never heard will sound sad."

dustin places his hands over his hair. "oh, my god. oh, my god." he mutters. mike sighs in annoyance and steps in front of the girl.

"hey, listen. i believe you." he tells her. he spins around to look at the two boys behind him. "we all believe you. but.. how did you hear him?"

"i don't know, i just did. i was thinking about him, a lot, and i just did. i can't describe it." she says. mike frowns and opens his mouth to say something, when mike's name is suddenly called.

erin looks to her right, where his mom is standing. her hands are in her pockets, and holly's at her side. erin thinks that that's what nancy's gonna look like when she's older.

they all start walking, having already told their own parents that they were gonna head to mike's, for 'emotional support'.

"hey, guys, wait. oh, my god." dustin stops. lucas, erin, and mike both stop and turn around to look at him. lucas is already annoyed.

"do you think erin could be a 'flea'? because she can't always tell what's real and what's not? she said she heard will, and isn't he in the upside down?"

erin looks visibly astonished, a little uncomfortable. the other two boys look at her, each other, and then dustin. mike lets out a small breath. "maybe we should ask mr. clarke."

"no, that's weird!" erin says, lightly slapping mike's arm.

"well, then i don't know, dustin, but we'll figure this out." mike tells the group. erin swallows and glances around at the boys, before smiling and continuing their walk onwards.

—

sorry the last part was just a quick idea