•THE FLEA AND THE ACROBAT•

THEY HAD GOTTEN BACK TO THE HOUSE AND IT WAS ALREADY DARK, El was laying on the couch while Twelve was sitting in the fort reading on the floor.

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

"And empty." Lucas continues.

Dustin sighs and says

"Empty and cold. Wait did he say cold?"

"I don't know! The stupid radio kept going in and out!" Lucas says angrily.

"It's like a riddle in the dark."

"Like home, like his house?"

"Or maybe like Hawkins."

"Upside down." El says.

"What'd she say?" Lucas asks

"Upside down."

"What?" Lucas asks Mike again.

"Upside down! 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 Dustin.

"No." He says.

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

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

"But what if he was there? What if we couldn't see him? What if he was on the other side? What if this Hawkins and this is where Will is." Mike says while flipping the board on the front to the back.

"The Upside down."

"Like the Vale Of Shadows." Dustin suggests in awe.

Dustin goes to grab the guide for the board game, he brings it back to the table and began to read it.

"The Vale Of Shadows; a dimension that is a dark reflection or echo of our world."

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

"You cast shadow walk." Dustin says.

"In real life dummy."

"We can shadow walk, but.... maybe she can maybe both of them can." Dustin says looking at Twelve and Eleven.

"Do you know how we get there? To the Upside Down?" Mike asks the two.

They both shake their head no,

"Oh my god!" Lucas says.

•••••••••

The boys had gotten back from the funeral and Eleven was on the couch next to Mike while he was explaining what he had just learned from his teacher Mr.Clark.

Twelve was sitting at the table reading a book called "To Kill a Mockingbird" her vocabulary was already getting better but was still quiet. She began zoning in on what mike was saying.

"It would take a lot of energy to build a gate like this. But that's gotta be what happened, otherwise how did Will get there, right?"

"What we want to know is do you know where the gate is?" Lucas asked.

Twelve knew it wasn't asked towards her but she only seen it once, Eleven and her were escaping and while doing so they passed the infected area. She knew eleven had been there constantly because of papa.

Eleven shook her head not knowing.

"Then how do you know about the Upside down?" Lucas wondered. "Twelve do you know where it is?"

"Seen it once, ca-can't remember where though..." Twelve said.

They all then turned to Dustin as he kept walking around in circles with compass in hand.

"Dustin, what are you doing? Dustin?"

"Dustin!" The two boys shout.

They finally get his attention until he finally says.

"I need to see your compasses."

Everyone looked confused and didn't say a thing, Dustin rolled his eyes and exclaimed again.

"Your compasses, all of your compasses. Right now!"

The two boys get up and collected the compasses and walked back to lay them right on the table so Dustin could see them.

"What's exciting about this?" Mike asked.

"Well they're all facing north, right?"

"Yeah so?" Lucas says flatly.

"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?"

Both boys shrugged still not getting the point of his explanation.

"The sun rises in the east and it sets in the west. Right? Which means that's true north." Dustin explains pointing he direction of true north.

"So what your saying is the compasses are broken." Mike replies but only causing Dustin to exhale angrily knowing that they both still did not get it.

"Do you understand how a compass works? Do you see a battery pack on this?" He asks taking one of the compasses and showing Mike.

"No."

"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 asks.

"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 the presence of a more powerful magnetic field. 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 field." Mike finished.

"Exactly."

"Meaning if we follow the compasses' north...." Lucas says.

"They should lead us to the gate." Dustin says placing the compass down.

"And find will.." Ve says smiling.

The boys were now happy knowing that there was hope into finding Will.

"Yeah Ve, we'll find him and then you two can meet him. He'll like you guys a lot...." Mike and the guys started to talk about Will unknowingly that Eleven was scared of them finding the gate and facing the beast.

She knew it was too dangerous she couldn't let the boys get hurt... especially Twelve.....

•••••••••••

The five of them set out to find the gate once again Dustin, Ve, and Lucas were walking together while Eleven and Mike walked together. Ve was walking along the rail while the two boys looked at their compasses, Lucas sighed and looked ahead.

"How much further?"

"I don't know. These only tell direction, not distance. You really need to learn more about compasses."

Ve fell off the track and walked beside Dustin, and wondered how long it would take for them to get there.

"I'm just saying, how do we know when we get to the gate?"

"Uh I think a portal to another dimension is gonna be pretty obvious." Dustin says mocking Lucas at his ridiculous question.

But Ve knew that portal had to be near Hawkins lab she was fearful but she knew how much their friend meant to them.

"Do you think she's acting weird?" Lucas asked making Ve look up.

"Not you Ve." Lucas says Dustin turns back and says.

"Your asking if the weirdo is being weird?"

"Weirder than normal."

Ve smack them both in the arm and they both groaned in pain.

"Don't call her weird." Ve says.

"Sorry" Lucas grumbled.

"I don't know who cares?"

Even though Lucas was accusing Twelve thought she was acting suspicious being with her all your life you can pick up some things. She chose to ignore this feeling inside her, but she knew El was hiding something.

As they walked along the track Ve started see the trees and as she did she kept thinking and thinking and towards a memory it came rushing to her.....

••••••••••

Ve was in a room, a plant nursery, she was right next to her "papa" and men in white coats with tags on their pockets were behind them with clipboards scribbling.

"Now you see that man over there." Her "papa" said point to the man across the room.

"Kill him." He said almost making it sound easy to her.

Her eyes had a look of fear and doubt, she looked at her papa
"But...."

"You want to see Eleven right?" He asked making her nod.

"Then I suggest you do this, or if afraid to say you'll be in the small room again for 2 days."

She looked back at the man and she closed her eyes tears falling. She created vines with plants around her each with long thorns, she made them slither on the ground like snakes and go over to the man and strokes him in the heart, then wraps around his neck.

She knew the man was dead but she was so wrapped in fear that she kept going. As her papa told her to stop she kept going until he grabbed a needle from his pocket and stabbed it in her neck and makes her fall peacefully asleep. Soon as she comes back to reality she couldn't help feel more fear as they came closer to the gate.

••••••••••

It was almost the afternoon the sun could clearly tell you that, as five continued to walk hey finally realized something was wrong.

"Oh, no." Dustin says looking at his compass and then around.

"Oh, no? What's oh, no?" Lucas asked.

"We're headed back home."

"What?" Mike asked.

"Are you sure?" Lucas asked.

Ve comes over and looks at the compass and then hands it back to Dustin.

"We can't be...." Ve says.

"Yeah I'm sure. Setting sun, right there we looped right back around." Dustin responds.

"And your just realizing that now?"

"Why is this all on me?" Dustin asks the two as they were getting angry.

"Because you're the compass genius!"

"What does your both say?" Dustin asks them.

"North." They both say.

"This makes no damn sense."

"Maybe the gate moved?" Ve wondered.

"No I don't think it's the gate, I think it's something else screwing with the compasses."

Lucas looks confused and angry until he looked at Eleven. He saw her looking down, he saw her being nervous he knew something was off and he finally realized the problem.

"It's not a magnet, she's been acting weirder than normal. If she can slam doors with her mind she can definitely screw up a compass."

"Why would she do that?" Mike asks.

"Because she's trying to sabotage our mission, because she's a traitor!"

Lucas steps foreword Eleven making Ve and Mike nervous.

"Lucas what are you doing?" Mike asks.

Mike walks over to Lucas and El, while Ve stays with Dustin and holds his hand.

"I have a bad feeling...." But is cut off by Dustin.

"It's okay."

"You did it, didn't you? You don't want us to reach the gate, you don't want us to find Will."

"Lucas, come on seriously, just leave her alone."

"Admit it." He says quietly til he burst out "Admit it!" And grabs her arm revealing blood on her sleeve.

"Fresh blood, I knew it."

"Lucas, come on!"

Ve couldn't believe it she looked at El in shock, she didn't want to believe it but she knew she used her powers.

"I saw her wiping her nose on the tracks! She was using her powers." He yelled at Mike.

"Bull! That's old blood. Right El?"

El started to stutter until she finally got out,

"It's not safe."

Mike was shock, but it justified Lucas' case and made him even more angry.

"What did I tell you? They've been playing us from the beginning!"

"That's not true she helped us find will." Mike justified.

"And Ve didn't know about what El was doing." Dustin says defending Ve.

"Find Will? Find Will? Where is he, then? Huh? I don't see him." Lucas said focusing more on Mike.

"Yeah, you know what I mean."

"No I actually don't, think about it, Mike. She could've told us where the Upside Down was right away, but she didn't. She made us run around like headless chickens."

Dustin let go Ve's hand and goes over to the two boys to stop the fight.

"Alright, calm down!" But gets pushed by Dustin.

"No! She used us, all of us! And Her!" Lucas points at Ve.

"She could of told us too, she could of told us where to go and she didn't either. They both know something and didn't care to tell us. They helped enough so they could get what they want, food and a bed. They are like stray dogs."

"Screw you, Lucas!" Mike Shouts.

"No screw you Mike, you're blind... blind because a girl's not grossed out by you. At least Dustin isn't dumb enough to have his feelings get in the way from finding his best friend. But you need to wake up man! Wake the hell up! They know where Will is, and now they are letting him die in the Upside Down."

"Shut up!" Mike yells.

"For all we know, it's their fault. We're looking for some stupid monster, but did you ever stop to think that they are the monsters."

Ve started to cry at the word, she never wanted to be known as that, she knew her capabilities maybe she could go further. But she never wanted this life, she wanted to be like them, she was foolish to believe that Lucas cared for her like a friend. She started to be in fear when Mike and Lucas started to fight, she fell to the ground and again the grass began to turn a brownish green as if it was dying.

El was begging for them to stop, she kept screaming at them as Dustin tried to break them up.

"Stop you idiots! Mike get off!"

As El continued to scream it got to the point where she used her powers on Lucas making him get knocked off of mike and pass out. Ve looked in horror and used her powers to make land safely in flowers so it would lessen the blow. As Ve was crying and using her powers all at once was too much for her and she passed out on the ground her nose bleeding.

The two boys rushed over to Lucas as El was crying and shocked by her actions.

Mike and Dustin tried to wake Lucas up and as they did Mike looked at El and yelled out

"What's wrong with you?!"

She cried as the blood came trickling down her nose and she looked at Ve seeing the state she was in thought she did that. El did what she did the first time she was in fear, she ran. She ran far away from the scene and cried as the tears missed with blood.

Lucas had finally woken up and the boys were relieved as they tried checking up on him, Lucas was angry and pushed her away from him. He got up and walked away angrily, as Mike tried to go after him to apologize, Dustin held him back and told him to let him go. As they stopped focusing on Lucas, Dustin saw Ve on the ground.

"Ve! Oh my god." The boys ran over to her and placed her in his lap.

"Come on Ve wake up!" Dustin Shouts. Ve started to groan, almost waking up.

"Ve yeah come on wake up we need you, Dustin needs you." Mike says.

Soon her eyes fluttered open and she saw the boys,

"I'm sorry..."

"It's okay Ve we know you didn't do anything, it's alright." Dustin says reassuring her.

"Guys where's el?" Mike asks as he looks around and finds no El in sight.