November 10th, 1983

Hawkins Funeral Home

"...It's made of softwood with a crepe interior. Now I don't know what you're kids' budget is, but over here... We have one composed of copper and bronze." The seller walked us past multiple coffins of different woods, "Can we afford this? I mean... any of this? I'm pretty sure that last coffin was like $2,000." I whispered to Jonathan as the man's droning voice carried on.

"He deserves the best we can get." He muttered back with no emotion evident in his voice or behind his eyes. I knew this would be a hard process, for all parties involved. I mean, how could it not be? But it still made me feel sick to think that Will would be buried in a casket that we had chosen for him while Mom wasn't even present for the selection.

Beginning to feel my stomach churn from the thought, I pulled my eyes away from the dark wood coffin in front of us and onto the front of the shop that had been decorated with cheap flowers, only to spot a strange visitor stepping into the shop. Only they stayed frozen in their place in front of the door.

It was Nancy. She stood awkwardly by the entrance, staring at us from across the shop, tightly clutching onto her school bag, obviously debating if this was the right time to talk. Clearly, it wasn't. Clearing my throat, I jabbed Jonathan with my elbow to pull his attention away from the variety of coffins and onto Nancy.

"If you'll excuse us... We'll be right back." Jonathan stopped the man from continuing on about the light brown coffin in front of us before we made our way toward Nancy. "Hey?" Jonathan spoke to Nancy first but seemed to have trouble making eye contact with her. "Hey..." Her response was quiet, almost as if she was regretting coming here. It wasn't hard to miss the slight guilt that glossed over her eyes as she looked between the two of us.

"You're guys Mom said you'd be here, sorry to barge?" She looked between the two of us apologetically but continued. "Can we talk for a second?" She nodded her head towards an empty hall. Making our way out of the center of the funeral home, Nancy sat between Jonathan and me on a bench before pulling out a taped-together picture. "I just wanted to know if you know what this is in the corner? Or if you can recreate the photo?" She passed the photo to Jonathan allowing him to scan his eyes over the photo.

"There's this too..." She mumbled to me and handed me another tapped photo. It was the picture of Steve placing his jacket on me. "Nancy, this was nothing. I-" She placed a hand on my shoulder and offered a small smile. "I know, Steve told me." I furrowed my brow and looked back down at the photo. "Told you..." I asked, my voice wavering as I anticipated her answer. Nodding, she offered me a small smile. "That you guys are old friends."

Biting my tongue, I awkwardly nodded before looking back up at Nancy as Jonathan spoke up. "It looks like it could be some kind of perspective distortion, but I wasn't using a wide-angle." He rambled too quickly with terminology that Nancy obviously wasn't familiar with. "What's that mean?" Nancy asked me as Jonathan handed her back the photo. "He doesn't know what it is." I mumbled and looked down at the strange figure in the corner of the photo.

"And you're sure you didn't see anything else out there that night? Either of you?" She asked and looked between the two of us. "No." Jonathan stated, bored and tired of the conversation that was currently a waste of time that we didn't have. "I didn't see anything... But I heard something... Like a growl? Or something... I don't know." I mumbled and played with the ends of my fingers as I thought back to the night of the party.

"What? Where? Why didn't you tell me?" Nancy turned to face me but all I could offer her was a shrug. "I mean it was by Steve's place, I just thought it was my imagination and the beers." I shrugged, my answer quickly earning me a glare from Jonathan. "Beers?" He repeated with a squint of his eyes. "I won't tell Mom if you won't" I scoffed lightly as I waved the picture he had taken in his face.

"Is there anything else you remember Jonathan? Either of you?" Nancy interrupted before our bickering could go any further, and Jonathan actually had an answer. "I mean Barb was there one second and then just gone... I figured she had bolted."

Growing silent for a moment, Nancy stared blankly at the wall in front of us. Shaking her head at my brother's words. "The cops think that she ran away." Her words caused me to shake my head, "They obviously haven't looked into the type of person she is. I mean she would never do that... That's not Barb."

"That's what I told them, and I went back to Steve's and I thought I saw something. Like a weird man... Or I don't know what." Nancy shook her head and looked down at her lap. She was giving up, maybe it was a dead end after all. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have come here today. I'm gonna go." She quickly stood from her seat and threw her bag over her shoulder, hurrying down the hall.

Taking a moment to think over everything Nancy had said and brought to our attention, Jonathan abruptly stood from his seat. "What'd he look like?" He called out to her, stopping her in her tracks in the middle of the hall. "What?" She mumbled, her brow furrowing at the question.

"This man you saw in the woods... What did he look like?" He elaborated for her, only to earn a sigh from the girl as she tried to think of a way to explain what she had seen outside Steve's house. "I don't know. It was almost like... Like he didn't have a--" "Didn't have a face?" He quickly cut Nancy off and she nodded in disbelief.

Turning to me with wide eyes, Jonathan pinched his nose bridge at the rush of information. "I thought Mom was losing it..." He began to mumble before placing a hand on my shoulder, "But if she was right about this, then she might be right about everything else." He finished with a worried grin. "I'll take those odds." I agreed with a small grin.

"We gotta go to school, I can develop a new photo there." Jonathan spoke quickly as the three of us hurried toward the door. But Nancy quickly came to a halt, raising an annoyed hand to her temple. "Shoot, Eleanor... I forgot, Mike said that he needed you back at home." I furrowed my brow at Nancy's words but nodded my head anyways. "Did he tell you why?" I questioned as we continued on our way outside. "Something to do with Mirkwood? Is that D&D?"

~~~

Jumping out of Jonathan's car, I quickly made my way up the Wheeler's driveway and slammed my fist against the door rapidly.

When the door was finally pulled open and I was greeted by the faces of Mike, Dustin, and Lucas. "Took you long enough." Dustin groaned as the three boys quickly pulled me into the house and rushed me down to the basement.

Down the stairs, El laid on the couch in a dazed state, dressed in a pink dress with knee-high socks and wearing a blonde wig. "What did you guys do to her?" I asked in a hushed tone, worried about what could have happened I rushed to check on the tired girl. "We made her look like a girl?" Mike stated, obviously confused by what I meant before taking a seat next to El on the couch. "Pretty..." El mumbled to me and gave me a small smile though she still looked completely drained.

"She already looks like a girl. You're already a very pretty girl, El... And I meant the fact that she looks like she's gonna pass out." I started, looking between the group with narrowed eyes, though they seemed to ignore my comment and stare entirely. "Anyone gonna explain what's going on here?" I raised a brow as the boys stayed silent in their places around the basement.

"Eleven has powers like Professor X and we had her use them to contact Will on the Heathkit!" Dustin exclaimed quickly before seeming to hold his breath like he had made a mistake in telling me the truth, as far-fetched as it sounded. "I'm sorry, what?" I questioned and stared down at the boy with a quirked brow. "Which part?" He asked with a scared smile. "All of it? How did she talk to him? Like on a Ouija board?" I took a seat on the floor as Dustin shook his head.

"Like she found him through the radio frequencies." He said but that didn't exactly help much. "Is this some kind of joke? Cause that's seriously cruel." I looked at the other two quiet boys. "This isn't a joke, she really has powers, and Will really spoke to us. Well... not really to us but we know he isn't dead." Mike tried to explain but stumbled on his words.

Nodding, I took in a deep breath as I tried to piece together everything that they had thrown at me. "Okay... so let me see if I'm understanding this. El has telepathic powers and Will isn't dead... but is instead stuck in a radio?" I asked causing the boys to groan in response.

"Not in the radio, she just found him through its frequency." Lucas stated, using his hands to demonstrate how she had done it. Nodding I looked down at my lap. "Well, then... What happened? Is he okay? What did he say?" I asked, not really buying into what they were telling me but they continued to stay silent.

"He said it was like home." Mike was the first to start but stared off into the distance as he thought over what he had heard. "Like home? What does that mean?" I questioned. How could this place be like home but not home? Where was he?

"Like home, but dark?" Mike started again, "And empty." Lucas finished. "Empty and cold." Dustin added, nodding along with the boys but they still never answered my question. "What's that supposed to mean?" I tried again to make some sense of the words but they didn't have any answers. "We don't know the stupid radio kept cutting out." Lucas groaned and placed his head in his hands. "It's like riddles in the dark." Dustin agreed though Mike continued to walk around the basement in thought.

"Like home? Like he was at his house?" Mike asked the two other boys who nodded, "Or like Hawkins, but not?"

"That doesn't make any sense. How can Will be in town but not, all at the same time?" I asked and stood from my spot on the floor. "Upside down..." El whispered from her spot on the couch causing us all to face her. "Upside down?" Mike asked but slowly he began to piece together something that we couldn't begin to understand. "Upside down." He stated again and made his way towards the game table in the center of the room. "When El showed us where Will was, she flipped over the board, remember?"

The boys nodded, understanding what Mike was getting at but I was still confused. How long have they been working on this? And what exactly are they getting at?

"Upside down. Dark, empty." Mike continued and the four of us sat around the table as he flipped the game board over itself. "Do understand what he means?" Lucas whispered to Dustin who quickly shook his head, while I slowly nodded with confusion written all over my face.

Groaning at the three of us, Mike continued with a frown. "Guys, think about it. When we went out to find Will, she took us to his house right?" He asked, with Lucas quickly stating, "Yeah, and he wasn't there." But Mike was just as quick to correct him, "But what if he was there? We just couldn't see him, what if he was on the other side."

The three of us looked between one another as Mike flipped the board over again. "What if this is Hawkins and this is where Will is." Gesturing between the front and back of the game board. "The Upside Down..." I whispered, suddenly understanding what he meant as I stared down at the backside of the board. "Like the Vale of Shadows?" Dustin questioned with a curious glint in his eyes.

"The what?" Lucas scoffed lightly and Dustin rolled his eyes at the boy, "You need to read more into D&D." He groaned before running to retrieve his bookbag and pulling out the Dungeons and Dragons lore book. "Here, the Vale of Shadows is a dimension that is a dark reflection or echo of our world. 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 finished with a grim look on his face.

"An alternate dimension?" Mike asked with a frown on his face. "How... How do we get there?" I asked and Dustin quickly flipped through the pages, "We cast Shadow Walk." He stated.

"In real life, dummy." Lucas rolled his eyes at his friend's comment. "We can't Shadow Walk, but maybe she can." Dustin looked past us and towards the tired girl who still laid on the couch.

Standing from his place on the floor, Mike approached the girl who stared at us with wide, worried eyes. "Do you know how we get there? To the Upside Down?" Mike asked but she quickly shook her head at the question, though her eyes revealed that she was hiding something.

The boys groaned out in frustration before a knock came from the top of the staircase. "Boys! Time to go home, it's getting late!" Karen called from the other side of the door. "We should all get going," I mumbled to the boys, not wanting to pressure the girl anymore, and stood from my place at the table. "I'll see you guys tomorrow." I mumbled, moving towards the staircase. "If Will's not dead, why have a funeral?" Mike asked, still confused by the idea of having a funeral for his friend.

Releasing a soft sigh, I nodded slowly and understandingly to his question. "Will was found in the quarry, and until we get him back it's what has to be done." The boys nodded and I made my way up the stairs and out of the basement.

Making my way down the hall and past the kitchen, Karen stopped me in my tracks. "Eleanor? When did you get here? Nancy isn't home yet." She asked with a sad smile and pulled me into a tight hug. "A few hours ago, the boys just wanted to set up a remembrance campaign for Will." I stated and returned the smile.

"I'm so sorry for your loss honey, I can't imagine how you must feel. Do you wanna stay for dinner? Or if you need to talk I'm free to listen." She gave me a hopeful smile but I quickly shook my head. "I should be getting home before Mom starts to worry... Thank you though."