Fear was a common emotion that most people felt when they became unnerved. Or when they felt a odd chill go down their spine, which only caused another emotion to stir. Nervousness is next and the person begins to feel shaky and trip over their words, maybe get sweaty palms if their lucky.

But Vee was familiar with the two emotions all too well.

He bit his nails as he tapped his foot on the ground, in a rhythmic motion, and watched as Mike started to explain something called: the flee and the acrobat. Which Vee didn't understand until he started to talk about gates and such. It seemed in this case . . . him and El were the flees, the critters that lingered in the hairs of animals, sometimes humans, like microscopic pests. They could get around anywhere and anytime they wanted which applied to the two lab rats too. And the monster that lurked in Hawkins woods.

Mike poked the pen through the paper he demonstrated on which made El and Vee jump a bit. "It would take a lot of energy to build a gate like this. But that's got to be what happened," he said, his tone very soft when he talked to El. "Otherwise, how'd Will get there, right?"

El gulped with a nod, "Right."

"What we want to know is, do you know where the gate is?" Lucas questioned but El shook her head immediately as he said it and once he gave Vee his attention as the eye contact made the bald boy look away, giving a slow shake of his head.

Lucas scoffed, "Then how do you know about the Upside Down?"

Vee found himself playing with the fabric of his pants instead of replying to the boy's great question. He'd rather not say why he knew about the upside down, it'd only cause problems and upset people. He could already feel the tension in this room just because of the boys desperation to find this gate. But that would only get them put in danger and killed.

They didn't know what lied behind that gate . . . neither did El or Vee. But the boy could sense that whatever was inside there, other than the monster, wasn't good. Nor would it feel threatened by a group of kids who were in way over their heads.

El looked at Dustin to try and take the attention off of them, which worked cause both of the boys immediately looked in the direction of their pacing friend. Who for some reason had a compass. "Dustin, what are you doing? Dustin?" Mike asked, but the Henderson boy didn't pay him any attention. He just spun around in circles with his compass.

"Dustin!"

"Dustin!"

Dustin finally looked towards his friends and started to stammer over his words. "I . . . I need to see your compasses."

"What?"

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

Immediately the two boys searched around the basement for as many compasses they could find and once they did find them, they slammed them all on the table. Dustin adjusted them all in the same direction just to see if his suspicions were right. "What's so exciting about this?" Mike asked, still confused about what was happening with the boy.

"Well, they're all facing north, right?" Dustin asked which made Mike nod.

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, that's not true north." Dustin stated to them both.

"What do you mean?" Mike inquired with a raised brow.

"I mean, exactly what I said. That's not true north," Dustin pointed out to the boys who still just held faces of confusion.

"Are you both seriously this dense?" The Henderson asked his friends and only Lucas gave him a wide eyed shrug. "The sun rises in the east, and it sets in the west, right?"

Mike and Lucas nodded. "Which means, that's true north." Dustin pointed to the opposite direction of the compasses.

Mike sighed, "So what you're saying is the compasses are broken?"

It was Dustin's turn to sigh much deeper, "Do you even understand how a compass works? Do you see a battery pack on this thing?"

"No."

"No, you don't. Because it doesn't need one," Dustin informed. "The needle's naturally drawn to the earth's magnetic North Pole."

"So, what's wrong with them?" Lucas asked carefully not to upset his friend again. They hadn't noticed that Vee had glanced at his sister with nervousness and stared at her wide eyed. They know. He exclaimed in her mind and she nodded with the same amount of fear. You distract. I change direction. The girl quickly responded to her brother and once he nodded exiting her mind, a hard migraine hit him.

Black spots traveled around his vision and he became much dizzier. His breath hitched a bit but he remembered to breathe and try to control himself from falling out. He'd been using his gifts nonstop these past days and, while he was mostly used to it, it wasn't anything like at the laboratory. He had much to lose if he didn't use them right or correctly. And it took lots of strength to enter minds like he did or feel the emotion of others. It wasn't something he mastered or did all the time which meant he gained terrible nosebleeds or migraines.

His nose bleed but he quickly wiped it with his overall sleeve not noticing the boys conversation coming to an end. "They should lead us to the gate," Dustin figured out and Vee felt his throat clog a bit.

He grasped El's hand and realized that they had to protect the boys from what they were trying to do much faster than anticipated.

Vee just hoped everything would turn out fine.

𓄇

Seething pain was felt throughout the tiny body of Vee. His face was covered in blood and dried blood stains that were either on his cheeks or under his nose, maybe his ears. Whatever was happening in the moment he could feel that whoever he was, was trying to get inside the mind of something. The mind was small and had a giant border protecting it but soon it was broken rather quickly as the user powered through it with willpower and strength.

It didn't take long for Vee to realize this was himself. Hand in hand with El who had blood under her nostrils and ears with scary red eyes. He hadn't noticed that his own eyes had the tint of green and he could feel every emotion in the room as he heard a voice.

"Twelve! No!"

Vee felt a hand touch his shoulder and he gasped awake from his trance like state before seeing his vision come back to him. Lucas stood in front of him with worry across his face and a little frown on his face. "Vee? Are you okay? Vee!"

Vee finally came back to reality with a little shake from Lucas and he found himself getting dizzy again, since the prediction drained him. Completely like the bath did and felt his knees become weak. Wobbly even but he tried to stay standing and gave the Sinclair a weak nod.

Lucas didn't look so convinced and Vee could feel the raging thoughts of worry he had. The emotion the boy was emitting and tried to block out everything before he passed out from everything overwhelming him, like he'd done before.

"You sure? Do you need me to, um, carry you? Or something, I don't know," Lucas trailed off and rambled in mumbles but Vee gave a nod again, trying to convince him he was fine. But he absolutely wasn't.

Everyone else looked at Vee a bit worried about the boy and he gave them nods before they started to walk again. El knew what had happened but kept her mouth shut, she knew that he seen things. Things that no one else could see but she was still a bit worried too.

A long silence held the group that walked through the thick woods. They followed these abandoned train tracks that seemed to go in the small direction as the gate was and Lucas felt Vee grab his hand again. He let him, without a doubt. And didn't even flinch when he noticed that the boy had done it. Butterflies started to multiply in his stomach and Vee felt himself get a warm feeling from Lucas, much like El did with Mike. Just . . . warmer. And safer.

"How much further?" Lucas asked after a while of silence in the group as he and Dustin led the way.

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

Lucas sighed tiredly, "I'm just saying. How do we know when he get to the gate?"

"Uh, I think a portal to another dimension is gonna be pretty obvious," Dustin mocked Lucas and earned a little chuckle from Vee who placed a hand over his mouth in a attempt to hide it. Dustin gave the boy a smile which only made him laugh some more.

Lucas scoffed and noticed the looks they gave each other before trying to hide the boy from Dustin's eyesight. A burning sensation filled his chest and Vee could feel it and wonder why he was feeling this way? He was just okay, why did he get so hateful all of a sudden? Or angry?

Lucas looked back at El and sighed. "You think she's acting weird? Like weirder than usual?" The boy asked Dustin as if Vee wasn't right there listening. Immediately, Vee let go of his hand and gave the boy a semi-glare.

"She's fine," Vee defended his sister. "You are being weird."

Vee then turned away from Lucas as his nose started to bleed slowly again and wiped it before he could notice. He attempted to move their thoughts to elsewhere but El, it seemed to work as their eyes turned white for a moment and they blinked it away.

Somehow, Lucas noticed the suddenness of that the nosebleed but didn't question it and couldn't as the boy walked faster to avoid his gaze.

I did it. I am distracting. Vee told his sister in her mind and she responded with a nod he couldn't see. But he somehow knew she nodded at the same time. His legs started to get wobbly again and a migraine formed slowly . . . but surely.

Vee sighed and rubbed his head, the migraine now coming in full form. All he wanted was a break.

𓄇

The group, after hours of walking, made it to a junkyard. Vee nor El had never seen this yard full of junk or trash a day in their lives but it was obvious that the boys had. At least, Dustin had. "Oh, no," he exclaimed as he looked up from his compass and stop walking.

"Oh, no? What's, oh, no?" Lucas asked with a huff sand Dustin turned around to face him.

"We're headed back home."

Lucas scoffed in disbelief, "What?! Are you sure?"

Dustin nodded, "Yeah, I'm sure." He pointed to the setting sun. "Setting sun, right there. We looped back around."

"And you're just realizing this now?!" Lucas raised his voice a bit. He was beginning to get fed up by all this walking back and forth.

Dustin scoffed and looked between his friends. "Why is this all on me?"

"Because you're the compass genius!"

"W-What do yours say?" Dustin evaded the question and the two boys looked at their tiny compasses.

"North,"

Lucas sighed at their words. "Makes no damn sense." Dustin exclaimed in confusion about why the compasses were acting like this.

Mike sighed, "Maybe the gate moved?"

"No, I don't think it's the gate. I think it's something screwing with the compasses." Dustin guesser as he looked around the junkyard for anything that could be strong enough to do that. Lucas started to look around as well and Vee noticed that they were on to the two. He gripped El's hand ready for them to turn around and point fingers.

"Maybe it's something here?" Mike asked but Dustin shook his head.

"Nah, it has to be like a super magnet,"

Lucas pointed his finger at El and Vee. "It's not magnet." Immediately the pit in his stomach went deeper and his breath hitched for a moment. He tried to keep his composure but . . . the emotions from everyone else weren't helping. All they were doing were making him worse.

"She's been acting weirder than normal! They both have!" Lucas claimed. "If she can slam doors with her mind and he can control people with his, they can definitely screw us over!"

"Why would she do that?" Mike jumped in. He was confused where this sudden hostility came from.

"Because they're trying to sabotage our mission! Because they're traitors!" His voice cracked a bit when he yelled and Vee flinched at the yelling. He looked down guilty, he didn't know why he couldn't say anything. Why his mouth just wouldn't move. He usually could immediately snap back but right now . . . it seemed he was unable to.

Lucas made his way towards the two, despite the protest of Mike, and stopped a couple inches on front of Vee. "You did it? Didn't you?"

Vee shook his head and sniffled, "N-No, n-no. I-I didn't-"

"Why are you lying?" Lucas asked once again and Vee could feel the sadness in his tone. He could feel every emotion in the boy but specifically the sadness in that sentence hurt him. "You don't want us to reach the gate,"

"You don't want us to find Will."

Vee shook his head again feeling the guilt consume him, "No. We want. I-"

"Admit it." Lucas gritted his teeth looking between them both.

"No." El muttered but Lucas hadn't believed her either and began to get angrier.

"Admit it!" He grabbed El's arm and looked at her wrist to find fresh blood stains on the jacket sleeve. Vee separated their arms but Lucas had already seen and eventually he did the same thing to Vee who struggled a bit more but the Sinclair boy still saw the blood on his overalls.

Lucas scoffed, "Fresh blood. I knew it," he dropped Vee's wrist and looked at him in disgust.

"Lucas, come on!"

"I saw her wiping her nose on the tracks! They both were! They were using their powers!" Lucas shouted at Mike. "They tag teamed us! Made us run around like headless chickens-"

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

El didn't respond, she only looked at Mike guilty.

"Right, El?"

"It's . . . not . . . safe." El cried to the boys but Lucas didn't get the memo.

"The otherworld. You . . . can't go." Vee felt his lip tremble as he plead to Lucas but the boy just scoffed and shoved his friend.

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

"That's not true! They helped us find Will!"

Lucas scoffed, "Find Will?" The boy looked around the junkyard sarcastically. "Find Will?"

"Where is he then? Huh?! I don't see him."

Mike sighed, "Yeah, you know what I mean."

Lucas shook his head, "No, I don't actually!"

"Just think about it, Mike. They could've just told us where the upside down was right away, but they didn't. They just made us run around like headless chickens!"

Dustin tried to stop them, "All right, calm down!"

Lucas shoved him away, "No! They used us, all of us!"

"They helped just enough so he could get what they want! Food and a bed! They're like stray dogs-"

"We're not dogs," Vee finally found his words. He couldn't get away from the seething anger that Lucas was producing so naturally it seeped into him. "Do not call us that!"

"Yeah! Screw you, Lucas!" Mike agreed as he yelled.

"No! Screw you, Mike! You're blind . . . blind because you like a girl that's not grossed out by you. But wake up, man! Wake the hell up!"

Mike stammered over his words, "Y-You like Vee! You let him stay over your house!"

"No! N-No I never liked that f-f-freak! He used me! I like girls! He just used me! That's what they do, they use people! They're freaks of nature, man!" Lucas shouted back and that left Mike speechless.

Vee felt his heart shatter at the claim. He felt the tears about to spring out his eyes and he almost felt as if he couldn't control his breathing in the moment. So many, so many people had called him a freak of nature. Because he was . . . different than others. Because he of the way he acted-because of lots of things. And he felt the flashbacks hit him like a train that didn't have breaks. No, no, no, no. I'm not . . . I'm normal. No, no-please. Stop.

"They know where Will is! And now they're letting him die in the upside down!" Lucas shouted in Mike's face.

"Shut up!"

"For all we know, it's their fault!"

"Shut up."

"We're looking for some stupid monster . . . but did you ever stop to think that maybe they're the monsters." Lucas pointed directly at the two crying subjects who both felt as if the world was about to cave in at that statement.

"We're not monsters! Stop it!" Vee yelled at the boy but Lucas just turned to scoff. With a quick moment Vee shoved him, and before Lucas could react, Mike bounced off of that.

Was he the monster? Where him and El the monsters? He only cried. He cried, god, he cried the hardest he'd done in a long time.

"I said shut up!"

The two boys began to fight and tussle all in the dirt and mud. "Stop!" El screamed at the two but they didn't listen to the girl's commands.

"Knock it off you idiots!"

"Stop it!" She screamed again with much more power in her voice. But they still hadn't listened.

Vee felt the anger that was deep inside him. It threatened to spill out but he tried, he tried to keep it inside, but obviously. It was too late for that.

"Stop it!"

"Stop!" El released a ear piercing scream at the boys as Lucas got on top of Mike about to hit him. At the same time, Vee let out a scream of rage from all of the incoming anger entering him-everything bending in awkward ways and the glass that was left breaking. A piece of glass flew and cut Mike, who let out of groan of pain, falling right over. He looked up at the test subject in fear, a fear that Vee knew so well.

"You're a monster, Twelve. That's all you'll ever be."

He rushed to his friend without question.

Eventually, Vee fell to his knees and everyone started to sound so faint and echoey. His head started to pound and a migraine formed near his forehead.

He couldn't hear anything that was happening but he could hear the sobs from El. Faintly he heard them and saw that Mike had yelling at them both: but he couldn't understand what he was saying.

He only noticed Lucas on the ground none responsive and that made he cry harder. Why would he do that? Did he kill him? He was a monster! He and El were monsters! Why he did hurt Mike! The boy sobbed as the sounds in his ears started to come to but he felt El lift him up and immediately they ran away into the woods.

As they ran, he wiped his ears and nose from blood and eyes from tears.

He'd never be forgiven after what he did to them.

notes: lucas was justified for being angry 100%!