Dustin's POV

We heard into the church afterwards. We grabbed some snacks.I grabbed some vanilla wafers. They didn't taste the same. Mike went over to Mr.Clarke. "Mr.Clarke?" "Oh, hey, there. How are you guys holding up?" "We're... in... mourning." Lucas responded. "Man, these aren't real Nilla Wafers." I said. Lucas looked at me and rolled my eyes. Y/N laughed. It's been a while since I've seen her laugh or smile. "We were wondering if you had time to talk?" Mike asked him. "We have some questions." Lucas added. "A lot of questions."

We went and sat down. "So, you know how in Cosmos, Carl Sagan talks about other dimensions? Like, beyond our world?" Mike asked. I kept eating the off brand wafers. "Yeah, sure. Theoretically." "Right, theoretically." "So, theoretically, how do we travel there?" Lucas asked. "You guys have been thinking about Hugh Everett's Many-Worlds Interpretation, haven't you?" What? I looked at Mike, Lucas, and Y/N they were confused as well. "Well, basically, there are parallel universes. Just like our world, but just infinite variations of it. Which means there's a world out there where none of this tragic stuff ever happened."

Uh were talking about the opposite of that but I guess you could think positively like that. "Yeah, that's not what were walking about." Lucas said. "Oh." "We were thinking of more of an evil dimension, like the Vale of Shadows. You know the Vale of Shadows?" I asked. "An echo of the Material Plane, where necrotic and shadow magic-" "Yeah, exactly. If that did exist, a place like the Vale of Shadows, how would we travel there?" Mike questioned him. "Theoretically." "Well..." Mr. Clarke grabbed a plate and drew something on it. "Picture... an acrobat... standing on a tightrope. Now, the tightrope is our dimension. And our dimension has rules. You can move forwards, or backwards. But, what if... right next to our acrobat, there is a flea?"

He drew a flea next to the acrobat. "Now, the flea can also travel back and fourth, just like the acrobat. Right?" "Right." Mike nodded. "Here's where things get really interesting." He pointed. "The flea can also travel this way... along the side of the rope. He can even go... underneath the rope." It was starting to connect. "Upside down." All of us said. "Exactly." "But we're not the flea, we're the acrobat." Mike said. "In this metaphor, yes, we're the acrobat." "So we can't go upside down?" Lucas asked. "No."

"Well, is there any way for the acrobat to get to the Upside Down?" I asked him. "Well... you'd have to create a massive amount of energy. More than humans are currently capable of creating, mind you, to open up some kind of tear in time and space, and then..." He folded the paper plate and jammed the pencil in it to make a hole. "... you create a doorway." "Like a gate?" I asked. "Sure, like a gate. But again, this is all-" "Theoretically." Lucas blurted. "But... but what if this gate already existed?" Mike added. He had a point. "Well, if it did, I... I think we'd know. It would disrupt gravity, the magnetic field, our environment. Heck, it might even shallow us up whole." Oh no. "Science is neat. But I'm afraid it's not very forgiving."

Y/N POV

After the long talk with Mr.Clarke, we left and went to Mike's house in his basement. Mike explained to El about the flea and the acrobat metaphor. "It would take a lot of energy to build up a gate like this. But that's got to be what happened. Otherwise, how'd Will get there, right?" "Right." El responded. She looked scared. "What we want to know is, do you know where the gate is?" Lucas asked her. I looked over to Dustin and he was fooling around with a compass. I turned back to the others. El shook her head. "Then how do you know about the Upside Down?" Lucas had a point that was a bit suspicious. We looked at her. She said nothing. We all turned toward Dustin. "Dustin, what are you doing? Dustin?" He continued circled around. "Dustin!" We all called out.

He turned and looked at us. "-I... I need to see your compasses." "What?" I was confused. "Your compasses. All your compasses, right now!" He demanded. We took our compasses out and layer them on the table. "What's exciting about this?" Mike asked. "Well, they're all facing north, right?" What was his point. "Yeah, so?" Lucas was confused as well. "Well, that's not true north." "What do you mean?" Mike asked. "I mean exactly what I just said. That's not true north. Are you both seriously this dense?" Lucas shrugged. "The sun rises in the east, and sets in the west. Right?" Which means that's true north." He pointed past Mike. "So what you're saying is the compasses are broken?" Mike said. "Do you even understand how a compass works? Do you see a battery pack on this?" We shook our heads.

"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?" "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 I remembered what Mr.Clarke said. The gate would have so much power-" Mike interrupted him. "It could disrupt the electromagnetic field." "Exactly." "Meaning, if we follow the compass' north..." Lucas said. "They should lead us to the gate." It made sense now. "Oh my gosh Dustin! That's brilliant!" I said. "Thanks." He smiled.