You take the man out of the city, not the city out the man

chapter five

We take El to Mike's house and we go in his basement.

"Oh my God, that was Will. He's alive. Will's alive." I say as I put my hands on my head.

This isn't making sense. They pulled his body out of the water. He's dead, but that was his voice.

"Wait, what was Will saying? Like home but dark?" Mike says as he thinks about what Will was saying.

"And empty." Lucas adds.
"Empty and cold. Wait, did he say cold?" Dustin asks.
"I don't know, I could barely hear it because the stupid radio kept going in and out. All I know is that Will's alive." I say.

"Like home, like his house?" Mike asks.
"Or maybe like Hawkins." Lucas says.

"Maybe, it is like an "upside down". You know how I was talking about that before? I mean, hear me out. El put the board upside down and Will's saying where he's at is just like home but dark. Upside down."

"Do you guys understand what she's talking about?" Lucas asks Mike and Dustin.

"No, Barber's onto something. That makes sense. When El took us to find Will, she took us to his house, right?" Mike says.

"Yeah, and he wasn't there." Lucas says.

"But what if he was there? But he's in the "upside down". What if we couldn't see him in our world but he's there on the other side. The darker side. Look. What if, this is Hawkins, and this is the Upside Down. Where Will is." I explain as I flip the board back and forth.

"Like the Vale of Shadows." Dustin says and I look at him.

"I guess, but that makes sense, right?" I ask them.
"I mean, sorta, but that can't be possible, right?" Lucas asks and we shrug our shoulders.
"It can be possible." I say as Dustin takes out a big stack of paper and starts flipping through them.

"The Vale of Shadows is a dimension that is a dark reflection or echo of our world." Dustin reads as we all look at each other.

"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 continues reading.

"An alternate dimension." Mike says.
"But how do we find Will? How do we get there?" I ask. I get that Will's alive, but going to another dimension?

"You cast a Shadow Walk." Dustin says.
"A what? I'm talking about real life."
"We can't shadow walk, but, maybe she can." Dustin says as he looks at El.

"Do you know how we get there? To the Upside Down?" Mike asks El as she shakes her head no.

"Oh my God!" Lucas says with a sigh.
"So, El can't shadow walk and we don't know how to get to this alternate dimension. There has to be like, some type of portal or something because how did Will get there?" I ask, all of this confusing me.

"I don't know, but we're gonna find out. Will's still alive and we're gonna find him." Mike says as we all agree.

— the next day

"Addy, get up honey, we have to get ready for the funeral." My mom says as she shakes me from my bed.

I groan as I get out of bed. I go to my closet and choose a black dress in my closet and put on black heels.

I go to the bathroom and look in the mirror. My blonde hair making my outfit not even look sad because of how bright it is.

I look at my black eye, that has now turned blue-ish purple since yesterday. I sigh as I go downstairs to meet my parents.