The Upside Down~Stranger Things

Eleven

November 9th, 1983, Hawkins, Indiana

Eleven~

"What was Will saying?" Mike asked from by my feet as I laid across the couch, my cheek rested against the arm of the couch as I stared at the floor, where Twelve laid. She had woken up a few hours ago, and was now laying flat against the carpet, her eyes glued to the ceiling. "like home..like home..but dark?"

"And empty," Lucas added, sighing as Mike stood from his spot, joining both of his friends which sat near the stair case.

"Empty and cold," Dustin spoke out, before turning his head to Lucas, "wait, did he say cold?"

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

"Like riddles in the dark.."

"Like home..like his house?" Mike asked, spinning around to face his friends after pacing around the room.

"Or maybe like Hawkins!"Lucas exclaimed, raising his finger in the air. I sighed out, resting my head up against my hands.

"Upside Down.."

"What she say?" Lucas questioned, exchanging glances of puzzlement between his friends.

"She said 'Upside Down'," Twelve repeated, slowly sitting up from her spot, eyeing the boys with a straight face. Mike stared at her for a moment, then quickly made his way over to the flipped over board game.

"Yes, the Upside Down! When Levy flipped the board over, remember? Upside Down. Dark. Empty," Mike explained, facing his friends who circled around him at the table, blocking my view from seeing what they were doing.

"What are you talking about, Mike?" Lucas groaned out, placing his palms against the table.

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

"Yeah, and he wasn't there."

"But what if he was there?" Mike pestered, "what if we just couldn't see him? What if he was on the other side? What if.." I could slightly see him flip the board over, before continuing, "this is Hawkins, and.." he then flipped the board back over again to the black side, "this is where Will is? The Upside Down."

"Like the vale of shadows," Dustin spoke out in fear, making Lucas sigh out, before turning his head over to me and Twelve. What had he been thinking about now?

~~~~

I flinched as Mike pushed the pencil through the paper, nearly stabbing me in the face as he stared at me. "It would take a lot of energy to build a gate like this. But that's gotta be what happened. Otherwise, how'd Will get there, right?"

"Right," I spoke out, staring at him with a blank expression. My sister sat next to me, furrowing her eyes at me with confusion. She knew I didn't understand what he was talking about, but she never said anything.

"What we want to know is, do you guys know where the gate is?" Lucas asked, placing out his hand for motion as he shared glances between me and Twelve. I simply shook my head, making him groan in annoyance, "then how do you know about the Upside Down?" I quickly looked down at my hands, spotting Twelve out of the corner of my eye copying my actions. I then turned my head, narrowing my eyebrows in worry as Dustin paced back and forth across the room, a circular object in the palm of his hand as he stared down at it.

"Dustin, what are you doing?" Mike asked, the same facial expression that I had on his face. When he didn't answer, he continued to call his name, "Dustin. Dustin!" He finally spun around, staring at his with a look of sudden shock.

"I-I need to see your compasses!"

"What?" Mike questioned, his face scrunched up.

"Your compasses. All of your compasses, right now!"

The boys quickly gathered them up, before dumping them out on the game board table. Dustin instantly started to mess around with them, earning looks of confusion from everyone as we were all cirlced around the table.

"What's so exciting about this?" Mike inquired, watching his every move in confusion.

"Well, they're all facing North, right?" The boys nodded, waiting for him to continue, "well that's not true North."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean exactly what I said. That's not true North. Are you both seriously this dense?" Lucas simply shrugged, making Dustin groan, "the sun rises in the east, and sets in the west, right? Which means, that's true North!" He pointed out in the oppisite direction.

"So what you're saying is that the compasses are broken."

"Do you even understand how a compass works, Mike? Do you see a battery pack on this?" Dustin said in annoyance, shaking around the compass, earning a 'no' from Mike, "No, you don't. Because it doesn't need one. The needle's naturally drawn to the Earth's magnetic North Pole."

"So what's wrong with them?" Lucas asked, lifting his shoulders quickly.

"Well, that's what I couldn't figure out, but then I remembered..you can change the direction of a compass with a magnet. If there's a presence of a more powerful magnetic feild, the needle deflects to that power. And then I remembered what Mr. Clarke said..'the gate would have so much power-"

"It could disrupt the electromagnetic feild," Mike finished, moving his gaze from his shoes back up to Dustin. 

"Exactly."

"Meaning, if we follow the compasses' North.." Lucas trailed off.

"They should lead us to the gate." I frowned in fear, turning my head to Twelve, who had already been staring at me. Going to the gate would be too dangerous. How can I stop them? There has to be a way..