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Motherly Talk

"Like home, like home" Mike repeated Wills words over and over as they all sat in the basement. El laid with her head in Mavis's lap and played with the end of the lacy dress she had on. Mavis kept her hand on El's shoulders, rubbing them every few seconds.

"But dark" Mike added in as Mavis paid close attention, considering she hadn't been there when it happened.

"God I wish I could have heard his voice," she said sadly while dropping her head back on the couch.

"And empty" Lucas added in to Mike's sentence as the pale boy stood up and walked toward them.

"Empty and cold- wait did he say cold?" Dustin questioned as he looked at the group.

"I don't know, the stupid radio kept going in and out," Lucas said annoyed while Dustin sighed.

"Like home.. like his house?" Mike questioned.

"Or maybe like Hawkins," Lucas said suddenly before El spoke up softly.

"Upside down," she said weakly as Mavis sat up again to look down at her in her lap.

"What'd she say?" Lucas asked as Mavis look up toward him.

"Upside down" she confirmed for the blonde.

"Upside down! When El showed us where Will was, she flipped the board over, remember? Upside down, dark and empty" Mike said in realization as he grabbed the board and flipped it to the opposite side.

"Do you have any idea what he's talking about?" Lucas asked as he looked to Dustin with a look of disbelief, making the blonde boy answer with no.

"Cmon guys just think about it, when El took us to find Will she took us to his house, right?" Mike questioned as Mavis looked down at El before the two boys.

"Yeah, and he wasn't there," Lucas asked as if he was trying to get through Mike's head.

"But what if he was?" Mavis asked in a whisper as the boys looked over at her.

"What if we just couldn't see him... because he was on the other side?" Mavis asked with wide eyes toward them.

"What if this is Hawkins, and this is where Will is. The Upside Down" Mike added in with her as he flipped the game over once again.

"Like the vale of shadows," Dustin said as he looked to each of his friends with realizing eyes before grabbing the book.

"The Vale Of Shadows is a dimension of 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" Dustin read from the book as Mavis felt the chills go down her spine.

"Oh my god," she said quietly as things began to fall into place and her heart rate sped up.

"An alternate dimension" Mike added in while staring at the book.

"But how do we get there?" Lucas asked as Mavis slowly lifted El off of her and laid her head back on the couch. She hurried to stand with the boys over the book.

"We cast shadow walk," Dustin said as Mavis slapped him upside the head.

"In real life dummy," Lucas said to him as Mavis swallowed hard.

"It's gonna have some type of gateway right? Like a place that connects from our world to theirs" Mavis spoke up as she began to tape her foot anxiously.

"We can't shadow walk but... maybe she can," Dustin said as they all looked to El.

"No. No way, I'm so done with the three of you using her as some type of science experiment!" Mavis shouted as the boys looked her way.

"It might be our only chance to get Will back," Dustin said to her in a louder tone to match hers.

"Do you even know how to get there? To the upside down?" Mike questioned El as she shook her head, making Lucas groaned.

"Mav?" El asked as she rolled over that night as the two tried to sleep. Mavis turned her head to look at her.

"Yeah?" she asked, the moonlight shining onto their faces.

"Upside down... isn't safe," El said as Mavis nodded.

"I know, but we have to get Will back. We really have to, I'm not gonna put you in any danger" Mavis said to her as she turned her body so they were completely facing.

"Promise?" El asked her as Mavis scanned her pretty eyes.

"Promise," she said in confirmation making El slowly wrap her arms around Mavis's shoulders and pull her into the crock of her neck.

"Pretty" El said as she watched Mavis put on a little lip gloss the next morning before Wills 'funeral'.

"Think so?" Mavis asked her with a smile as she walked to her closet to get her black dress shoes.

"Think so" El nodded in agreement as Mavis slipped the shoes on.

"I'll be back, okay? Won't be gone long, feel free to watch some tv up here or anything really just please please please don't go downstairs. If my Mom saw you she'd... she'd do something bad to both of us" Mavis said as El stood up and grabbed her arm slightly. She slowly slides up the sleeve to see a burn mark right below the inside of her elbow.

"What... happened?" El asked as Mavis signed, the memories haunting her more and more. Her own screams filling her brain as she was dragged down the hallway of the asylum, away from her mother, who held a look of disgust on her face.

"I went away once... for a while actually. A place that isn't good, they hurt me there" Mavis explained as she quickly pulled down the sleeve and locked eyes with El.

"Why?" the girl asked her as Mavis stayed silent for a second.

"Mav... friends don't lie," El said as Mavis nodded her head slowly.

"For feeling a certain way, something people think is wrong when it's not wrong it's just rare," Mavis said with a swallow as she looked to El,who opened her mouth to talk again but was cut off.

"I'll be back shortly, stay safe," Mavis said as she quickly kissed El's cheek and hurried down the stairs. Her Mom glared at her before she fell onto the couch again, drink in hand.

Mavis chose to stay with Joyce throughout the funeral instead of the boys. She kept a hand in the woman's, who looked as if she hadn't slept in days and possibly was starting to lose her mind. She would give a squeeze of reassurance every few minutes until everyone started to drop flowers into the grave as Joyce and Jonathan greeted everyone who came to the funeral. Mavis stood above the grave, watching as the flowers fell.

"Mav?" Lucas said as he approached her.

"It feels so real" she explained, voice cracking as she did so.

"Hey, it's not though," he said as he grabbed her arms to look his way.

"But how do you know? What if we're all wrong and he is actually gone" Mavis said as Lucas shook his head.

"He's not, you'd know. Remember?" she asked as Mavis slowly nodded, he wrapped his arms around her in a hug.

"Mr.Clarke?" Mike spoke up as he approaches the man who was making a small plate.

"Oh, hey there. How you four holding up?" he asked while Dustin grabbed out of one of the bowels.

"We're in mourning," Lucas said awkwardly as Mavis quickly added in.

"We could be better" she shrugged as Mr.Clarke frowned their way.

"Man, these aren't real nilla' wafers," Dustin said as he looked down at the cookie.

"We were wondering if you had time to talk?" Mike after him softly while looking up at the man.

"We had some questions" Lucas added in as Mavis nodded.

"A shit ton of questions," Mavis said to him as her teacher gave her a look at the language before following them to a near table.

"So you know how Carl Sagan talks about the dimensions? Like beyond our world?" Mike asked him.

"Sure theoretically" Mr.Clark nodded as a a voice cut in.

"Mavis," The voice said, making Mavis turn and see Luca's Mom standing there. Lucas and Mavis shared a looked as they looked back at the woman.

"Mrs.Sinclair, it's nice to see you again," Mavis said as the woman smiled and walked closer.

"You four young boys wouldn't mind if I stole her for a moment would you?" she asked as Mr.Clarke laughed at her choice of words.

"Sure, just bring her back," Mike said as Mavis grinned at him before taking the woman's hand and following her outside where it wasn't so loud. A nice breeze flew through the air as Mavis turned to her with an awkward smile.

"Is everything okay? If you heard about what happened at school the other day I'm really sorry and I hope this isn't gonna end with you telling me I can't see Luc-" Mavis began but was cut off by Mrs.Sinclair again with a small laugh.

"No honey, it's nothing like that" she shook her head as Mavis nodded her head and waited for the woman to go on.

"I know right now is hard on you, Lucas said he was always so jealous about how close you and Will were. Said you were his best friend and his best friend only" Mrs.Sinclair said as Mavis smiled slightly and looked at her dress shoes.

"I only wanted to see how you are holding up?" Mrs.Sinclair asked as she caught her gaze again as Mavis sighed.

"I've been better," She said sadly with a shrug as the woman frowned and wrapped her in a hug. Mavis didn't know how to react at first, she couldn't even remember the last time she was hugged lovingly. Sure, the boys would love on her to replace the feeling her Mother should and El definitely helped too. But this was different, maybe it was because she was a mother and knew how to comfort a child. But Mavis melted into the hug and wrapped her arms around her back.

"Sweetie if anything is going on and you're scared to say, or just don't want to, I can promise you we can help you" Mrs.Sinclair whispered as Mavis pulled away from her.

"Nothings going on," she said quickly with a shake of her head. She was such a liar, and she was good at it by now. She wanted to break down and tell Lucas's Mom how broken she felt from her Brother passing a few years ago, how she felt left and unloved by her father after he chose to break the law instead of be her dad, and ended himself in jail, and how her Mother hurt her all the times she wasn't drinking herself to death.

"Our door and the phone are always opened for you, okay?" the woman said as she flattened Mavis's hair down a little. Mavis found herself leaning into the touch slightly, longing for the Motherly feeling once more.

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my poor baby that just wants a momma to love on her :(