Chapter Nineteen: A Funeral, A Plan And Questions

(The Flea And The Acrobat, Pt. 3)

***

Alistair was gently shaken awake. Mumbling, he looked up and saw his aunt.

"Five more minutes..." he mumbled.

"Sorry, kid, as much as I would love to, you can't."

"Why?" he whined, burrowing further into his sheets, pressing his face into his pillow. He heard someone laugh, recognised it as his sister.

"And here I thought I was the unreasonable one to get out of bed."

Though he couldn't see it, Alistair knew his aunt had given Rowan a look, before she turned to him.

"Come on, kid, you need to get out of bed."

"Why?" he repeated, finally looking up, squinting blearily.

"To go to Will's funeral."

At that, Alistair was wide awake.

"Oh."

Aunt Aco gave him a sympathetic look.

"I know you don't do well at cemeteries, kid, but..."

"I know," Alistair murmured, gripping his sheets.

Aunt Aco looked at him, squeezing his shoulder.

"If you don't want to come, I don't blame you. I know it's hard, and if you want to stay at home..."

"No, no, I can do this, Aunty," Alistair  muttered. "I can do it. For Will."

Aunt Aco looked at Rowan, who gave her little brother a comforting squeeze on the shoulder.

Patting his back, his aunt said, 'Well, get up and get ready, Al. We need to be there at ten."

Alistair nodded. "I will."

She walked out of his room and Rowan followed, pausing to look back at her brother.

"You sure you can do this, Al?"

Alistair nodded. "Positive."

Rowan bit her lip, but left.

Alistair sighed and leaned back in bed, rubbing his eyes.

He hated the cemetery. All the death, all the ghosts... it was too much. He didn't even walk by it, and if he had to, he walked as quickly as possible. The only time he'd been there was for his parents' funeral, and that was years ago.

But this was Will's funeral. 

Even if his friend wasn't dead, was instead trapped in another dimension... it was still his funeral. 

He would do this, bear through all the death and ghosts, for Will.

He'd do anything for Will.

And that meant he had to get ready.

***

Rowan waited by the car, dressed in her best funerary clothes; a plain white shirt, her only pair of non-ripped black jeans, black Converse sneakers, and a black jacket, her hair up in a messy ponytail. Her aunt was wearing a black dress and black pumps, wearing sombre makeup. They were waiting for Alistair, and then they would go.

Rowan hoped he would be okay. With his powers, the cemetery was the worst place for him to be at, along with hospitals. It hurt, to see him be so uncomfortable, and Rowan wanted to do more than anything to make him not feel that way, but she couldn't. She could only provide as much support as she could, to be there for her brother as he was haunted by the spectres of the dead and dying.

Finally, he walked out.

Her brother was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt, a black button-up jacket, jeans and sneakers. It wasn't exactly formal, but they didn't have money for a proper suit, and Alistair's only one was way too small to fit him.

It would do.

Rowan gave him another look, and he looked away, heading to the car.

Before she got inside, Rowan heard curtains rustling.

She looked and saw Eddie staring at her from his trailer, mouthing, "I'm with you in spirit."

Rowan smiled, understanding what Eddie meant, and got in.

And then, her aunt was driving away, heading to Roane County Cemetery.

Heading to Will's "funeral."

***

It was a nice day for a funeral.

People dressed in black were gathered around the small coffin lying six feet down in the ditch, a headstone marking it. A pastor stood beside it, reciting solemnly from the Bible as people stood silently, some crying. Most were Will's family—including, for some reason, his asshole dad—his friends and others.

Alistair looked around, standing between Mike and Dustin as he stared at the coffin holding the fake body, his sister and aunt standing behind him. He felt eyes on him, on his family, eyeing their outfits, but it was something bearable.

No, what was unbearable was the weight of the dead pressing in on him.

He could feel them, drifting around the cemetery, lurking around their graves or wandering across the headstone-marked land, walking without a purpose, aimless spirits tied to this world for one reason or another. And Alistair knew they could feel him, could feel that unlike the rest of Hawkins, he could see them, could hear them. Heads turning to him, walking away from their graves, drifting closer and closer to him, mouths opened to begin begging, pleading, yelling, screaming for his attention. 

But more than anything, more than the ghosts, he could feel the death, heavy and cloying, a cold weight on the nape of his neck.

Alistair shivered, grimacing.

He felt a warm touch on his shoulder, and glanced to see his aunt looking at him, to see Rowan smiling in support.

Alistair felt relief wash through him, and looked back forward, able to bear the cold weight with his family and friends by his side.

With the knowledge Will was alive.

"Just wait until we tell Will that Jennifer Hayes was crying at his funeral," Dustin muttered with a grin, leading Alistair to look and see that Jennifer Hayes was indeed crying.

Mrs. Wheeler shushed them, and Alistair looked forward, as the funeral came to a close.

They tossed roses onto the coffin before dirt was thrown onto it, burying the coffin. People gave their condolences to Will's parents, and while the asshole talked to them, his mom stared out into space, as if numbed. Alistair couldn't blame her.

He felt an elbow nudge him, and looked to see Mike staring at him.

"I saw Mr. Clarke," he murmured. 

Alistair's eyes widened. "Do you think he..."

"That's what we're gonna ask," Dustin said, looking determined.

Alistair looked at where people were heading to where the reception was being held, saw Mr. Clarke among them.

They would ask him questions, and hopefully, he would provide answers.

Hopefully, they would be one step closer to rescuing Will.

As Alistair's attention was focused on Mr. Clarke, he didn't notice when his sister slipped away to join Nancy and Jonathan, after the other girl gestured to her to join them.

To talk about the monster.

***

The church bell tolled, heavy and sombre. Rowan blew out a breath as she shivered, the air cold and bitter for autumn.

She looked at Nancy and Jonathan, who were hunched over a map of Hawkins, with three X's on it. X's that Rowan presumed was where the monster had attacked.

"This is where we know for sure it's been, right?" Jonathan asked.

"So that's..." Nancy murmured, pointing to one X, and Jonathan nodded.

"Steve's house. And that's the woods where they found Will's bike and that's my house."

Rowan looked at the X that was Steve's house, her eyebrows raised.

"I had no idea the trailer park was close to the rich part of Hawkins," she muttered, Nancy nodding in agreement.

"It's all so close."

"Yeah, exactly," Jonathan affirmed. "I mean, it's all within a mile or something." 

Rowan bit her lip. "Yeah, it is."

If that thing wandered closer to the trailer park on any of those nights... could have Alistair been next? Could her aunt?

She couldn't even begin to imagine the thought of her little brother or her aunt in that rotting world with that creature.

"Whatever that things is... it's not travelling far," Jonathan finished off.

Rowan nodded. "It seems to have a hunting ground now. And I don't think predators usually like to move away from their hunting grounds."

"We don't know if it's a predator," Jonathan told Rowan.

"We don't know if it isn't," Rowan returned, gripping her jacket sleeves, fingers bunching the fabric.

Jonathan frowned and looked away, holding the map tightly. Rowan looked at Nancy, who's lips were pursed, and the dark-haired girl knew that Nancy was thinking the exact same thing.

No creature would take people if it didn't want to hunt them down and devour them when caught.

But Rowan knew Jonathan didn't  want to think that way, and she couldn't blame him.

She didn't want to think that Will and Barb were alone in that place with a predator either, but she had to be realistic. And that was the realistic thinking.

A silence stretched between them, before Nancy looked at Jonathan and Rowan and asked, "You want to go out there?"

Jonathan was silent, and Rowan bit her lip, fiddling with the hem of her shirt. Nancy had seen right through the both of them.

"We might not find anything," Jonathan eventually said.

"I found something," Nancy reminded, before she asked, "And if we do see it... then what?"

"Those are very good questions," Rowan agreed. "Between you and me, Nance, I don't think it would sit down and comply to an interrogation."

Jonathan looked at them, a steely look in his eyes, and said without hesitation, "We kill it."

Rowan, whose mouth had been open for an argument, closed. Instead, she gave a small smile, completely agreeing with what Jonathan had just said. "Damn right we do."

She ripped a flower out of the ground nearby. 

"We find Will and Barb, and we kill this monster dead."

She snapped the flower in half, and stood up.

"Where are you going, Ro?" Nancy asked.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm gonna go and find the bastard and kill it."

As she made to walk away, Jonathan grabbed her arm.

Rowan whirled around. "Hey!"

Jonathan looked at her. "You're not seriously gonna find it without weapons?"

Rowan laughed. How wrong he was in thinking she was weaponless. "Yeah, I know. I'm not stupid."

She levelled him and Nancy a look. "Do you guys have weapons?"

Jonathan gave Nancy a look, then Rowan, and smiled grimly.

***

"What are you doing?"

Nancy's question voiced Rowan's thoughts as the girls watched Jonathan climb into the car that Rowan knew belonged to his asshole of a dad and jiggled the lock of the glovebox with a screwdriver.

"Just give me a second," Jonathan said distractedly, focused on the task at hand.

Rowan sighed and leaned on the window sill. "Hey, Byers, move over. I can pick that lock faster than you can."

"You can pick locks?" Nancy inquired.

"Uh, yeah. Who do you think my aunt is? I've been picking locks as long as Jonathan's been taking photos."

Nancy arched a brow and murmured, "Right. That's... not surprising."

When the glovebox finally opened, Jonathan reached in and pulled out a gun.

"Are you serious?" Nancy asked as Jonathan rummaged for bullets.

"What? You want to find this thing and take another photo? Yell at it?" Jonathan asked sarcastically. "Like Rowan said, we can't interrogate it, so we have to kill it. And we can't do that without weapons."

"He has a point, Nance," Rowan admitted, swiping back some flyaway hair.

"This is a terrible idea," Nancy muttered, looking skyward.

"Yeah, well, it's the best we've got," Jonathan huffed as he got out of the car and slammed the door closed, Rowan nodding.

"What else can we do?" Rowan murmured.

"You can tell someone, Nance, but they're not gonna believe you. You know that," Jonathan pointed out.

"Your mom would," Nancy reminded.

"She's been through enough," Jonathan said, his eyes shadowed. Rowan bit her lip; while she could tell her aunt and brother, and they would believe her, she couldn't put it on them. They'd all been through enough without worrying about a monster taking people.

"She deserves to know," Nancy softly said.

"Yeah, and I'll tell her," Jonathan replied, face grim. "When this thing is dead."

"And Will and Barb are home," Rowan added, Jonathan nodding in agreement.

Nancy's brows furrowed, before she sighed. "Okay, fine."

"Great! Glad we are all in agreement!" Rowan exclaimed, grinning with too much cheer, hands in her pockets. "What do we do now?"

"You and I will get some weapons of our own, and then we meet in the woods, and begin searching for it," Nancy said, and looked at Jonathan, who nodded.

Rowan nodded as well, saluting them. "Okay, cool. See you at your place, Nance, and in the woods, Byers."

The other teens said goodbye as they parted ways, to get what they needed.

Rowan knew she couldn't go to her aunt, so she walked deeper into the cemetery, to a private part of the cemetery.

Looking around, checking and re-checking that she was alone, Rowan took in a breath, braced herself, focused on the whirring...

And jumped.

***

Rowan landed in the woods with a Thump, groaning as pain rocketed up her tailbone.

Rubbing it, she walked out of the woods and across Kerley to where her trailer was, carefully sneaking up behind it, grateful she had teleported so close without actually landing in her trailer. Seeing Alistair's window, she creaked it open and crawled in.

She would like to say it was done with grace, but Rowan was never one to delude herself. And the truth was she fell in an ungraceful heap, landing on the floor with a hollow Thud.

"Ow," she muttered.

Getting up, she walked out of her brother's room and made a beeline to the chest.

Opening it, she grabbed her gun, the hunting knife, switchblade, brass knuckles and her aunt's pistol and the bullets for both guns.

Saying a silent apology to her aunt, Rowan closed the chest and took everything in her room, where she quickly stripped out of her funeral clothes and into clothes more practical for chasing monsters—a Rolling Stones band shirt, her blue fleece jacket, her makeshift fingerless gloves, her faded blue ripped jeans, and her Docs.

Retying her hair again, Rowan strapped the gun holsters on her hips and the knife holster on her thigh and slid the weapons in, placed the switchblade in her jacket pocket and the boxes of ammo in the other jacket pocket, and slipped the brass knuckles on her right hand.

Judging herself ready, Rowan left the same way she entered. Once she was back in the woods, Rowan braced herself.

I'll find Will, Al. I promise. And Aunt Aco, I'm sorry for taking the weapons and using my powers. It's for a good cause.

She jumped again.

***

Alistair stood beside his friends as they waited for Mr. Clarke to notice them. Their science teacher was helping himself to some of the food, oblivious to the four boys lurking behind him. Alistair wondered if this is how ghosts feel, lurking behind their loved ones, desperate for them to see and hear them, to let them know they're still here but unable to because they were invisible.

If it is, then maybe Alistair can't blame them for screaming at him, for wanting the attention of someone who could see them.

But he's still a kid, only twelve years old, and if that is their purpose, he wished they'd give him a break and let him sleep peacefully for once since his "gift" awakened.

A flapping noise sounded, close to his ears, pulling Alistair out of his thoughts, the boy squinting for the source. He eventually saw a bird, a raven, on the sill of a window, feathers ruffled, staring at him, head tilted slightly.

Enough to let him see the gaping hole where its left eye had been.

Pity and slight confusion stirred in Alistair's gut, but he was dragged out of his thoughts when Mike asked, "Mr. Clarke?"

That had finally caught the teacher's attention. He turned to look at them, surprise at seeing them standing behind him replaced by sympathy.

"Oh, hey, there," he said, a smile on his face. He looked at them sympathetically and added, "How are you boys holding up?"

They looked at each other sans Dustin, who was preoccupied with eating some of the food on the table. Lucas turned back to the teacher and said, "We're... in mourning."

Alistair nodded. "Deep, deep mourning."

"Man, these aren't real 'Nilla Wafers," Dustin grumbled, a look of betrayal in his eyes. Alistair nudged his friend, giving him a look that screamed, Stay focused!

Dustin glared at Alistair that also screamed, I am! as he wiped the extra crumbs off on his pants, making the other boy give a disbelieving eye-roll.

He looked to Mike, the dark-haired boy evidently refocusing back on why they'd hunted down Mr. Clarke after the funeral as he said, "We were wondering if you had the time to talk?"

Mr. Clarke frowned as Lucas jumped in, "We have some questions."

"A lot of questions," Mike bolstered on, Alistair nodding and tacking on, "A very large amount of questions."

Mr. Clarke was still frowning, but he nodded and said. "Sure. Ask away."

***

And that was how Alistair found himself sitting at one of the circular tables with his friends and science teacher, about to ask said teacher questions about accessing alternate dimensions. The ghost raven had followed, now hovering on one of the beams above Alistair. The boy paid it no mind; he had other problems to focus on.

"So, you know how in Cosmos, Carl Sagan talks about other dimensions?" Mike began, setting off the "hypothetical" questions. "Like, beyond our world?"

"Yeah, sure. Theoretically," Mr. Clarke replied, reminding them all that to him, their questions would be purely theoretical and not regarding ways to open up a doorway into an actual, other dimension.

"Right, theoretically," Mike agreed, before going on to ask, "So, theoretically, how do we travel there?"

"You guys have been thinking about Hugh Everett's Many-Worlds Interpretation, haven't you?" Mr. Clarke said, guessing incorrectly the source of their questioning.

The boys all shared a look, and Alistair nodded with a tight grin. "Yes?"

If Mr. Clarke noticed how that sounded more like a question than a statement, he didn't make mention of it, instead focusing on answering.

"Well, basically, there are parallel universes. Just like our world, but just... infinite versions of it," Mr. Clarke began, interlacing his fingers as he finished, "Which means there's a world out there where none of this tragic stuff ever happened."

"Yeah, yeah, that's not what we're talking about," Lucas said, stopping in its tracks Mr. Clarke's comments of a world where everything was still happy and good, where Will had never disappeared and there was supposedly never a funeral for him, where this Friday ended in them heading to Mike's to do a campaign instead, a nice thought that Alistair wanted to indulge in, but he couldn't. Not when Will was missing in a world that was not happy and good, not when Alistair had the sinking feeling that if they didn't get him out soon, this fake funeral could be real.

"Oh," Mr. Clarke said, and Dustin jumped in.

"We were thinking of more of an evil dimension, like the Vale of Shadows. You know the Vale of Shadows?"

 Mr. Clarke nodded and said, "An echo of the Material Plane, where necrotic and shadow magic—"

"Yeah, yeah, exactly," Mike butted in, cutting their teacher off again. He paused, and asked, "If that did exist, a place like the Vale of Shadows... how would we travel there?"

"And how could we achieve that... safely?" Alistair questioned, nervousness colouring his words as he fidgeted in his seat; that had been the biggest issue on his mind since talk of opening a way into the Upside Down had been realised—could they do it safely?

"Theoretically," Lucas finished off.

Mr. Clarke was quiet, but he picked up a paper plate and took out a pen from his jacket saying, "Well. Picture... an acrobat."

He drew said acrobat on the plate and upon a tightrope, continuing, "Standing on a tightrope. Now, the tightrope is our dimension. And our dimension has rules. You can move forwards, or backwards."

He gestured as such, and went on, drawing as he talked, "But what if, right next to our acrobat, there is a flea? Now, the flea can also travel back and forth, just like the acrobat. Right?"

"Right," came the affirmance from Mike, but he and the others were slightly confused; how did this lead to travelling between worlds?

"Here's where things get really interesting," Mr. Clarke said with a grin, pointing to the flea. "The flea can also travel this way, along the side of the rope. He can even go... underneath the rope."

"Upside down," the boys spoke in unison, now understanding what their teacher was saying.

Mr. Clarke nodded. "Exactly."

"But, we're not the flea. We're the acrobat," Mike pointed out.

"In this metaphor, yes. We're the acrobat," Mr. Clarke affirmed.

"So we can't go upside down?" Lucas asked, and with that question, Alistair felt the kernel of hope that had been steadily burning ever since they got affirmation Will was alive start to flicker out.

"No."

"Well, is there any way for the acrobat to get to the Upside Down?" Dustin persisted.

"Well, you'd have to create a massive amount of energy. More than humans are currently capable of creating, mind you," Mr. Clarke answered. He began folding the plate up, saying, "To open up some kind of tear in time and space, and then..."

He punctured the plate with his pen, startling the boys who stared, wide-eyed.

"You create a doorway."

"Like a gate?" Dustin asked.

"Sure, like a gate," Mr. Clarke acquiesced. "But again, this is all..."

"Theoretical," Lucas affirmed.

Mike was frowning and asked, "But... but what if this gate already existed?"

"And how would we find it? And if we couldn't and had to open one up, how would we close it?" Alistair questioned.

"Well, if we did, I think we'd know, which answers your first question, Alistair," Mr. Clarke replied. "It would disrupt gravity, the magnetic field, our environment. Heck, it might even swallow us whole."

He looked at the Party and added, "Science is neat. But I'm afraid it's not very forgiving."

Looking now at Alistair, Mr. Clarke said, "As for your other questions... I don't really think there is a way to create this gate safely, especially if it is toward a theoretical evil dimension. And that once it opened up... I'm afraid to say it would be very hard to close. Perhaps impossible."

"Right. Okay. Thanks, Mr. Clarke," Alistair mumbled, worrying his lip.

The other boys also said their thanks and walked away, giving each other looks. Looks of disappointment, but also determination, now that they had some answers for how to get into the Upside Down, of how to possibly bring Will home.

Alistair, however, felt more trepidation than determination, face in a grimace as he thought about what Mr. Clarke had said.

The fact that, if they opened a portal, that they couldn't close it right after... that didn't sit well with Alistair, that if they did this and couldn't close it, they could doom the rest of their town to the same creatures that took Will.

Alistair knew he'd do anything for Will, but was risking his friends' lives, his family's lives, the entire town of Hawkins, worth it?

He didn't know, and that scared him more than any ghost.

Speaking of ghosts...

Alistair looked up, saw the raven still staring at him with its remaining eye. He frowned, staring back at it.

Why was it looking at him like that? Sure, ghosts always looked at him, but the way the raven was staring at him felt... different. 

Why? What do you want?

"Who are you talking to, Al?"

Alistair's eyes widened, realising he had said that aloud. Cursing himself and glaring at the raven—who only ruffled its wings and gave a cawrk, as if it found Alistair's slip-up amusing—the brunette turned to his friends, who were staring at him in confusion; Lucas had been the one to ask.

"N-No one. Just... thinking aloud," Alistair semi-lied, a grin on his face.

His friends didn't look convinced, a new suspicion in their eyes. A suspicion borne from how alternate dimensions and a girl with superpowers very much existed outside of comics and movies and D&D. He needed to be more careful; he couldn't slip up.

"Hey, I think I see my aunt! I think we might be leaving now," Alistair said, hoping that one sounded convincing.

Mike frowned, but nodded. "Uh, yeah, okay. But tell her to drive to my place so we can talk about the gate with El?"

Alistair nodded. "For sure! Will do! Later!"

He gave them finger guns and practically sprinted to his aunt, who was offering condolences to Joyce, ignoring the flap of wings following him. His aunt looked at him in surprise when he practically barrelled into her.

"Al, what are you doing?" Aunt Aco asked.

"Hey, Aunt Aco, can we... can we leave? I want to head to Mike's," Alistair asked.

Aco's face softened. "Of course."

She added right after, "We'll leave as soon as I find Rowan, okay?"

Alistair nodded. "Okay."

He waited as his aunt went to find Rowan. He gave a look to Joyce, and whispered, "I'm sorry, Mrs. Byers."

Joyce looked at him. "Oh no, no, you don't have anything to be sorry for."

"I do. If I'd asked Will to come with me and my aunt, we would have driven him home, and he... he wouldn't be..." Alistair tried to say, his voice breaking, and then Joyce was hugging him.

"Oh, sweetie, don't blame yourself. You don't have to blame yourself. It was all an accident. A horrible accident," Joyce soothed, her own voice trembling.

Alistair sniffled, and pulled away from Joyce, rubbing his nose. 

"Still, I'm sorry," he mumbled.

It was then that his aunt arrived, a frown on her face.

"I can't find Rowan," she said.

"Oh, I saw her with Nancy and Jonathan earlier," Joyce replied. "She must have left with them."

His aunt frowned, then looked at Alistair, obviously thinking that Rowan would be safe with Nancy and Jonathan.

"Okay, kid, let's go to your friend's."

***

AHHH THIS CHAPTER TOOK SO LONG!!!

Yeah, Alistair REALLY doesn't like cemeteries due to his powers—not only can he see the ghosts haunting it, but he feels the overwhelming aura of death there. Same with hospitals or any place that are areas of mass death. But, even though he knows it's for a fake, he's willing to endure it for Will.

Also, because the Graveswoods are poor, they can't really afford to buy or hire some fancy suits and dresses, so they made do with what they had (also, Rowan isn't one for dresses. She doesn't mind them, but she prefers pants)

And Rowan, Nancy and Jonathan are starting on their monster-hunt! And yeah, Rowan, while impulsive, is definitely the common sense here, since she knows it is all probably real given her family and past (even if she's still in a tiny bit of denial)

AND ROWAN USED HER POWERS PURPOSEFULLY! She's telling herself it's all because of current circumstances, and she's still terrified that using them will bring the Man to her and her brother, but she'll quickly learn that when it comes to the Upside Down, as much as she wants to use the weapons she took, her powers would be more effective. That, and I'm loving my girl's progress of reluctantly using her powers purposefully instead of suppressing them.

And the flea and acrobat scene! Again, a scene that I love a lot. I love Mr. Clarke and how he fairly gave an explanation of what the Upside Down would be and getting to it without really knowing what it was (though I can imagine, if he finds out the truth in S5, realising that THAT'S what his students had asked him about years ago XD)

And keep an eye on that ghost raven 😉

Next chapter will be out soon! Please read, comment and vote!

GhostWriterGirl out!