Transported// a stranger things fanfic

The Upside Down

Oakley is spread out on the floor, with Eleven laying on the couch, Mike at her feet, the other boys sitting next to Oakley. "What was Will saying? Like home.. home, but dark? And empty." Oakley sits up, Dustin facing her. "You guys do realize I told you everything that Will just said right? Except I only saw the Byers house, maybe home meant like just his house?" Lucas perks up, going off of what Oakley said, "Or maybe like Hawkins."

"Upside down." Oakley turns to El, she still looks dead but with some energy. "What did she say?" Lucas asks, clearly confused. "Upside down."

"What?"

"Upside down." Mike realizing something and walking over to the DND board. "When El showed us where Will was, she flipped the board over, remember?" The others come closer to the table, all taking seats. "Upside down." Oakley now mostly catching on. "Dark. Empty. Cold." Lucas looks over at Dustin, "Do you understand what he's talking about?" Dustin thinks about it before responding, "Uh... No."

"Guys, come on, think about it. When El took us to find Will, she took us to his house, right?"

"Yea, and he wasn't there."

"But what if he was there. What if we just couldn't see him? What if he was on the other side? What if..." Mike flips the board right side up, "This is Hawkins and..." he flips the board back over "this is where Will is? The upside down." Finally Dustin starts to catch on, "Like the vale of shadows." They all share a look, then look back at Dustin.

Dustin sits back down at the table, and he has his DND book, pamphlet, guide, thing whatever it is. Dustin flips to a page and starts reading, "The vale of shadows, is a dimension 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." They all look at Dustin scared, but not Oakley, Oakley was hoping he would go on.

"An alternate dimension." Mike whispers, but not quiet enough. "But.. how.. how do we get there?" Lucas sitters with his words, nervous. "You cast shadow walk." Dustin says, the games way. "In real life dummy." Suddenly Lucas's nervousness is gone. "We can't shadow walk, but...." He looks between El and Oakley, "maybe one of them can." Oakley looks taken back, like why her. "Why me? I can't do that stuff." Lucas looks at her, "Oakley, you literally mostly did it before, twice, you made connection to the 'Upside down' or whatever." Oakley looks at the other boys, knowing that Lucas was right.

"Now we need an actual way there though." They all turn again to look at El, who is still mostly dead on the couch. "Do you know how to get there? To the Upside down?" She shakes her head no, barely moving. "Ughh, oh my god," Lucas complains.

                        *********

The next morning Oakley is in her room, dressing up for Wills funeral. She has to go, and she has to pretend to cry. He isn't even dead, this is so stupid. She's in front of her mirror, she's in a black tight dress, it goes down to her ankles and it has ruffle sleeves. Her mom picked it out for her and she doesn't like it at all, but she's gotta wear something. She's wearing brown sandals with black pieces that criss-cross over her foot. Her hair is in a braid then pined around the crown of her head, so it looks like she is wearing, well, a crown.

She walks out of her room and sees her father fixing the tie that Mike has on. Oakley gives a quick chuckle then heads down the stairs, to the kitchen. She half expected her mom to be down there but she is helping Nancy.

About two hours later they are at a closed casket funeral, Oakley didn't want to see the fake body anyway. But she also kinda did, she wanted to see how realistic the body looked, she wanted to see what the body was. Though the preacher talked, not a lot of people listened, sure some where real tears but all the important people knew that he wasn't dead, except Jonathan, and their dad. But I don't think his dad cares, he's just here for the money.