{The Flea and the Acrobat, Part II}

"It would take a lot of energy to build a gate like this."

Mike was explaining the flea and the acrobat metaphor that Mr. Clarke had told them to Eleven, and she seemed to be understanding.

"But that's got to be what happened, otherwise how'd Will get there, right?" Mike asked. "What we want to know is, do you know where the gate is?"

Movement out of the corner of Alice's eye temporarily distracted her. She turned at saw Dustin holding a compass in his hand and spinning in circles.

"Dustin?" she called.

"Dustin!" Lucas asked. "What are you doing?"

Dustin turned to his friends, face deadly serious.

"I need to see your compasses."

"What?"

"All of your compasses, right now!"

The boys jumped into action. Lucas grabbed three compasses from his backpack, and Mike got a few from a science kit nestled on a shelf next to the Dungeons and Dragons box.

"What's exciting about this?" Alice asked, peering at the compasses.

"Well, they're all facing north, right?" Dustin asked, gesturing to the devices.

"Yeah," Lucas asked. "So?"

"Well," Dustin said, "that's not true north."

Mike frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean exactly what I just said. That's not truth north."

Lucas, Mike, and Alice exchanged a look.

"Are you all seriously this dense?" Dustin said, exasperated. "The sun rises in the east, and it sets in the west." He pointed at one side of the basement, and then at another. "Which means," he pointed to one corner of the room, "that's true north."

"So," Alice said slowly, "what you're saying is the compasses are...broken?"

Dustin sighed.

"Wow, Al," he said. "Do you even understand how a compass works?"

"Dude, do you know me?"

Dustin shook his head in disbelief.

"Do you see a battery pack on this?"

"No," Alice said, cheeks turning pink. She hated when her smart brother talked to her like she was 4.

"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?" Mike asked.

"Well, that's what I couldn't figure out," Dustin admitted, "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," Mike began, and Alice, finally understanding, finished for him.

"It could disrupt the electromagnetic field!" Alice said. "See, I can be sciency."

"Exactly," Dustin said, ignoring her use of the word sciency. "Meaning, if we follow the compasses' north..."

"They should lead us to the gate," Lucas said.

"Good work, Dusty!" Alice said, beaming. They high fived and turned to Eleven, who looked a little frightened.

"Alright, El," Mike said. "Ready to go?"

She looked wary, but nodded.

The boys and Alice shouldered their backpacks and Eleven dutifully followed as they headed out the basement door, towards the unknown.

🧭 🧭 🧭 

"Dude, we've been walking for ages," Alice complained as the five of them walked along the railroad tracks. Dustin and Lucas lead the pack, Alice was in the middle, and Mike and Eleven followed last in line.

"It's been, like, thirty minutes!" Lucas said, annoyed.

"Too long for me. How much further?"

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

"Shut up!"

Alice's mind wandered while Dustin and Lucas snarked back and forth and Mike and Eleven whispered to each other. She thought about the ad in the paper, and the phone calls she might be missing. She thought about Barb, and the supposed monster Jonathan and Nancy were hunting. She hoped they were okay.

Someone tapped Alice on the shoulder, allowing her to forget her thoughts for a few minutes and check back into reality. She turned, and saw it was Eleven.

"Mike says you're like me," she said quietly.

Alice nodded and bit her lip.

"Sort of."

"Are you from," Eleven hesitated. "Are you from the bad place? Do you know Papa?"

Alice shook her head.

"I mean, I spent a fair amount of time in some shitty foster homes—"

"Stop teaching her bad words!" Mike called from behind Alice and Eleven.

"Quiet, Mike!—but, sorry kid, I don't know what the bad place is."

Eleven sighed.

"You're lucky," she whispered.

Before Alice could ask her how she got her powers, Eleven turned around and went back to Mike, asking if they could turn back.

"Look, I'm sure we're almost there," Mike said. "Just hold on a little longer, okay?"

A few minutes later, the group made it to the junkyard, and Dustin stopped in his tracks.

"Oh no," he mumbled.

"What 'oh no'?" Lucas asked, narrowing his eyes.

Dustin gulped.

"We're headed back home," he said.

"What?" Lucas said.

"Are you sure?" Alice asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure," Dustin said.

He pointed towards the horizon.

"Setting sun, right there," Dustin said. "We looped right back around."

Lucas glared daggers at Dustin.

"And you're just realizing this now?"

"Why is this all on me?" Dustin snapped.

"Because you're the compass genius!"

"What do yours say?" Alice interrupted, asking Mike and Lucas.

The boys looked at their compasses.

"North," they said together.

"Makes no damn sense," Lucas said with a sigh.

"Maybe, the gate moved?" Mike offered.

Dustin shook his head.

"No, I don't think it's the gate..."

While the boys bickered back and forth, Alice looked back at Eleven. El fiddled with her jacket sleeves, and Alice noticed a bright red stain.

"...she can definitely screw up a compass," Lucas said.

Alice rolled her eyes.

"C'mon Lucas," Alice said, "that's a stretch."

"She's trying to sabotage our mission!" Lucas said, eyes glinting. "She's a traitor!"

Lucas turned to Eleven.

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

"Lucas, come on, leave her alone!" Mike said.

Lucas noticed the blood on Eleven's jacket.

"Fresh blood!" Lucas said. "I knew it."

"Come on, chill," Alice said.

"I saw her wiping her nose on the tracks!" Lucas said. "She was using her powers!"

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

The boys and Alice turned to Eleven.

"Right, El?" Mike repeated.

El shook her head.

"It's not safe," she said, eyes watering.

"She's been playing us from the beginning," Lucas said, throwing his hands in the air.

"That's not true!" Dustin protested. "She helped us find Will."

"Where is he, then?" Lucas said, waving his hands around emphatically. "I don't see him!"

"Everyone just cool it," Alice said, exasperated.

The boys ignored her, shouting back and forth. Mike tackled Lucas to the ground, and they wrestled while Dustin and Alice yelled.

"Knock it off, you idiots!" Dustin shouted.

"Get off him!" Alice said, leaning over to try and wrench Mike off Lucas.

Eleven let out a guttural shriek, and Lucas flew across the junkyard. He hit his head on a piece of metal and got knocked out.

Alice's heart dropped to her feet.

"Lucas!" the kids shouted, running over to him.

"Wake up, Lucas!" Mike said, shaking him.

"Stop it," Alice said. "Get out of my way."

Mike and Dustin sat back and let Alice get through.

"Geez, I hope this works," she muttered.

Alice placed both of her hands on Lucas' chest and closed her eyes. She tried to remember how she healed her burned hand, but her heart was pumping and she couldn't focus.

"Work, dammit!" Alice said, shaking her hands and repositioning them. "What's the point of having weird abilities if I can't use them?"

Before she could try again, Lucas began to stir.

"You did it!" Dustin said, shocked.

"No, I didn't do anything," Alice said, shaking her head.

Lucas opened his eyes and sat up slowly.

"Lucas, are you okay?" Mike said.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" Dustin said, pushing his hand into Lucas' face.

"Let me see your head—" Mike started, but Lucas get him off.

"Get off me!"

Lucas stood shakily and started to walk away.

"Lucas, let me see," Mike added, but Lucas pushed him off.

"Get off me!" Lucas repeated angrily.

"Lucas, we have to make sure you don't have a concussion—" Alice said.

"Let him go," Dustin said, grabbing onto Alice's arm to stop her following him. She watched Lucas storm off, unsure of what to do to make things right.

Mike sighed, shaking his head. He turned to talk to Eleven about what happened, but she was nowhere to be seen.

"El? El!" Mike said. "Eleven!"

"Eleven?" Dustin shouted. "Where is she?"

"She must have run off," Alice said, trying not to panic at this new development. "Probably after what happened to Lucas."

She looked toward the tree line, wondering how the afternoon had taken such a turn for the worse.

{Edited July 7, 2020; Reposted October 13, 2024}

A/N  [from 2019] Question of the Day: Steve, Jonathan, or Billy? Who's your fave and why?