The Strangest things (male characters x reader)

Chapter five: The Flea and the Acrobat

"What was Will saying? Like home...Like home... but dark?" started Mike

"And empty." finished Lucas

"Empty and cold. Wait, did he say cold?" called Dustin from on the staircase 

I was pacing around the basement of the Wheeler residence and started thinking about Will.

"I don't know. The stupid radio kept going in and out."

"Like home... like his house?"

"Or maybe like Hawkins"

I was about to ask the boys to be quite and let me think when a voice from the sofa interrupted me.

"Upside down."

The girl was tucked neatly on the sofa still looking drained as she looked Mike in the eye.

"What'd she say?"

"Upside down."

As Mike uttered these words he darted towards the D&D board laid out on the table grabbing it with his hand.

"Upside down. When El showed us where Will was, she flipped the board over, remember?"

I walked towards him taking a seat at the campaigning table.

"Upside down. Dark. Empty."

"Do you understand what he's talking about?" asked Lucas cocking an eyebrow in my direction.

"No." I spoke

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

"Yeah. And he wasn't there." snapped the boy on my right.

"But what if he was there?"

I sighed shaking my head as the boy continued.

"What if we just couldn't see him? What if he was on the other side?"

'Like a parallel universe' I thought

"What if this is Hawkins," he flipped the board the right way round "and...this is where Will is?" he flipped it over to the dark side and I shuddered feeling a sense of dread wash over me. 

"The upside down..." I pondered 

"Like the Vale of Shadows."

"it 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."

"An alternate dimension."

"But... how... how do we get there?"

I blocked out the boys conversation staring at the picture of 'The Vale of Shadows'

'A place of decay and... death..."

I raised my fist before allowing it to connect with the glossy wooden door of the Byers home.

Tomorrow was the funeral of Will. 

I promised Joyce I would come round the night previous so she could talk to me.

Since the young boy had been announced dead, I had spoken to non of the family and figured Joyce must be grieving. Jonathan too.