A Different Point of View

8. Camera Man

8th November 1983, 9:06 am

SEVEN'S POV

Warm breezes were surrounding me, brushing up against my skin. My eyes flutter open, trying to adjust to the light. "W-Will?" I ask with a soft voice. No reply. Will?" I ask again, now opening my eyes fully and looking around. No Will to be seen... and that's when it hit me.

No vines? No slime? No eery darkness? I'm back to... well... the real world. I stand up quite fast and make my way over to the house where I had... um, encountered the monster the previous night. It was probably Will's home seeing as he knew it so well and there was a missing poster of him there.

I still didn't know what was happening, switching between these two dimensions. It was like it could happen at any moment, you could be enjoying the sun one second, and the next you're standing on slimy vines. However, I did have a hunch. A hunch that someone could only be in one world at once, hence why there were missing posters for Will.

Maybe they didn't know he was in the other dimension.

Maybe... maybe Will can't tell anyone he's here because there's nobody for him to tell.

An idea struck me like lightning, forcing a smile onto my tired face. Maybe I could tell people where Will was... Maybe I can save him. It didn't seem like he had... teleported back to the real world with me.

It seemed as if, out of the two of us, I was the only capable one of switching dimensions... for the time being. All I had to do was tell someone where he was without showing myself; easy peasy, right?

Time Skip - 8th November, 9:58 pm

It had been over 12 hours since I had woken up. During the day, I had wandered into the house where I had fought the monster and eaten two apples and some crackers that I had found lying on the coffee table. It wasn't much but seeing as I was used to being famished, it was enough to fill me up.

Then, I had ventured into one of the bedrooms. It was bigger than what I was used to so I got quite excited... and may or may not have taken a few things from a basket lying on the floor. My whole life I had never worn anything apart from hospital gowns and the clothes El and found lying over the porch railing so as you can imagine, seeing a basket full of clothes made me happy.

I had grabbed a light brown coat, some black jeans, a black Clash t-shirt, and some thick socks. I didn't care what I looked like, I just wanted to be warm and these seemed good enough. On my way out, I saw a pair of light brown snow boots, which I knew would be perfect for my travels.

And that's pretty much all I've done today. It's not like I wasn't trying to find El, but I wanted to also make sure Will was safe; so instead of running around, trying to find El, I just stayed near Castle Byers hoping that I would switch dimensions.

Well, now I'm actually walking through the woods to the left of the house that I had stolen from. I wasn't going far enough to lose my way, but far enough to possibly see things I couldn't see from the house.

Before long, I heard someone scream. Immediately my mind went to El, so I ran through the woods, faster than ever towards the screaming. I started to slow my running when I saw something ahead of me.

A house... a quite a fancy one at that. Then I saw what the screams were coming from. Just some drunk teenagers hanging around a pool. I sighed half with relief and half with disappointment that it wasn't El. If it was El, I would have found her. But no, it's pitch black outside and... wait, who is that?

I crouched down, inching further and further towards the edge of the trees when I heard a camera shutter click. I hide behind a tree whilst peering my head out only a little, just enough to see what I could hear.

I saw a boy around 5'9, probably in his teens. He had brown hair and was wearing a denim jacket. He was crouched down, taking photos of the teenagers hanging around the pool. Was he meant to be doing that? I couldn't help but wonder if maybe he was spying on them or something. I decided I really had no business hanging around, but I decided it wouldn't hurt watching as I had nothing else to do.

I watched him for a few minutes, taking snapshots of the people by the pool, and now and then looking down at his camera to fixing something. I started to get bored, seeing as now there was only one girl wrapping her hand in a bandage by the side of the pool. I could tell the cameraman as I called him, was also getting bored.

He got up and turned around. It was so unexpected that he almost saw me duck behind a tree, out of his sight.

"Was that-... never mind" I heard him mutter as he walked off into the distance. He was walking straight for the house that I had stolen from. Maybe he lives there... based on his clothing and the quality of the house I'd say that was pretty believable.

I watched as he walked away into the distance, walking into the house from earlier. I really need a name for that house. Maybe the Byers' house? I mean... it's just a thought seeing as the hut was called Castle Byers.

Before I could think anymore, a low-pitched growl filled the air. I looked around and noticed a shadowy figure looming over some bushes about 20 meters away. "Will? El?" I asked as I slowly made my way over to the figure, thinking it was just the darkness playing with my mind.

I paused for a second, taking a moment to analyze the figure now moving out of the shadows. Oh god... way too tall for El or Will. Yep... I know what this is.

Before I could take in anything happening around me, I was pushed up pinned to a nearby tree by the monster, its face opening up and roaring at me. What the hell is this thing's obsession with me? I try to focus all my energy on my palms, heating them until a small flame appeared in my hands. I now stared the monster directly in the... mouth and watched as it slowly crawled off of my stiffened body and back into the shadows.

Maybe I've figured out its weakness. hea- my thoughts were cut off by a piercing screech in the distance. My head flashed in the direction of the sound and I instinctively walked towards the sounds, knowing very well that it could be the monster. As I neared the sounds, everything around me flashed dark a few times. I was startled for a moment before realizing I was in the other dimension.

I immediately ran towards the screams, fearing it was Will, or worse, El. As I reach the edge of the trees, I peered out into a backyard to see the girl with a bandaged hand from earlier being dragged into a pool, screaming. These were screams of fear. I stood there aghast, not knowing what to do.

I froze up for a few moments before the screaming stopped abruptly. I straightened my back and tilted my head upwards to get a better look. My jaw dropped at the sight. There was the girl... lying motionless on the bottom of a pool with the monster hunched over her. It wasn't necessarily eating her, but it had definitely attacked her. I turned my head and ran knowing there was nothing I could do to save her.

I ran all the way back to Castle Byers, hiding beneath the covers. Will's not here... I wonder where he went. I couldn't get the image of the motionless girl lying on the bottom of the pool out of my head. Now that I knew what that thing was capable of, I did not want to mess with it, even if I did know its weakness.

I eventually drifted off to sleep, thinking about the events of the past few days and hoping that I might wake up out of this dark world in the morning.