Butterfly

006- The Upside Down

At the Wheeler's house Cleo, Lane, and the party sat in the basement recounting to the older teens what had happened at the school. Lane sat there looking concerned at his brother for continuing to help this girl out. Yeah, she had powers, but that meant they were putting themselves in danger with whatever or whoever was after her. Cleo on the other hand was fascinated by everything the boys said. It was like a weird drug hallucination, but this was real, and it was downright interesting.

"What did you say he said?" Lane asked again.

Mike shrugged standing up, "Like home... like home... but dark?"

"And empty," Lucas finished.

"Empty and cold," Dustin looked at Lucas, "Wait. Did he say cold?"

"I don't know. The stupid radio kept going in and out," the boy complained.

"It's like riddles in the dark," Cleo said goofily.

"Like home," Mike paced. "Like his house?"

"Or maybe like Hawkins," Lucas agreed.

"Upside down," Eleven said from the couch.

Everyone looks at her, Cleo the first to respond. "The crazy girl speaks!"

"What'd she say?" Lucas asked.

"Upside down..." Mike repeats.

Lane looks over at the boy, and a dawning realization hits him. "Upside down!"

Mike ran back over to the DND table, "When El showed us where Will was, she flipped the board over, remember? Upside down. Dark. Empty."

"Do you understand what he's talking about?" Lucas asks, looking at the older boy.

Mike interrupted before Lane could explain. "Guys come on think about it. When El took us to find Will she took us to his house, right?"

"Yeah, but he wasn't there, Mikey," Cleo said a little annoyed.

"But what if he was there?" Mike says. "What if we just continued to see him? What if he was on the other side?"

Lane grabs the board from Mike, trying to give a visual to the rest of the group. He flips the board right-side up, "What if this was Hawkins?" he then flips the board over, "And this is where Will is? The Upside Down. Like the Vale of Shadows."

"The what now? Is this some sort of DND thing?" Cleo asked.

The boys all rolled their eyes at her, "Yes. We'll explain later."

Teddy sat in her room, staring at the ceiling after she put on her black dress. It was the same one her mother had worn to Sara's funeral, but she had left it here not wanting to deal with the emotional pain of packing it up. As much as Teddy didn't want to wear it, it was the only black outfit she had, and she wanted to be there for her friends while they kept of the charade of Will being dead. That, and if anything else was discovered, her, Jonathan, and Nancy needed to be close to figure things out. She took another puff from her cigarette before putting it out and making a move to leave her bedroom.

Just as she went to open her door, Hopper opened it pushing her aside and removing all the lights from her room and taking the batteries out of her phone.

"Woah, what the hell!" Teddy yelled, trying to step in front of her dad to stop him.

He grabbed her by the arms, moving her out of the way and going back to taking the lights out of her bathroom, "Quick, double check that I've gotten everything. We need to make sure they haven't-"

"What are you going on about?" Teddy asked. She stared at her father who was running frantically around the house. He was doused in sweat and had a crazed look in his eye. "Are you high?"