The basement felt smaller than it had an hour ago.
The air was stale, heavy, like it had already been breathed too many times.Lucas came back hard.
The basement door slammed open, rattling the light overhead. He stood there, chest heaving, eyes wild, like he'd run the whole way back.
"They said it," he snapped. "They said they found Will's body."
Mike froze.
Dustin slowly stood. "Lucas—"
"On the TV," Lucas cut in. "Mike your father was watching it. Police. Reporters. Quarry." He laughed once, sharp and ugly. "They don't fake that."
His eyes locked onto Thomas.
"You lied," Lucas said. "All that stuff about another world—"
Thomas didn't move.
"about Will being alive," Lucas continued, voice cracking now. "You just didn't want to admit he's dead."
Mike stepped between them. "Lucas, stop"
"No," Lucas said. "I left because I needed air, and now I come back and everyone's pretending this is still a game."
"That's not Will…."Thomas leaned against the workbench, watching the way the words settled into them. He had heard announcements like that before calm voices, official certainty lies wrapped in procedure."Sometimes," he said quietly, "people are given something final so they'll stop asking questions."Lucas turned on him. "You don't know that."Before Thomas could answer, Eleven stepped forward suddenly.
"No," she said.
Lucas barely looked at her. "El, not now."
The walkie-talkie on the table crackled.Eleven closed her eyes. Her breathing slowed, shoulders trembling with effort.The lights overhead flickered once then again the radio whined, the sound warping unnaturally, stretching thin like it was being pulled through something narrow and cold.Then
"Mon"
Dustin sucked in a sharp breath. "Did you hear that?"Mike rushed forward. "Will?"The static sharpened."—Mon—"Mike's face crumpled. "That's him. That's Will."Lucas stumbled back down the steps, all thoughts of air forgotten. "That's not possible," he said, but his voice cracked.
Eleven opened her eyes, swaying slightly. "he alive."
He'd heard voices like that before faint, strained, echoing through places where sound didn't belong. Places that felt wrong in the same quiet way this basement did now."He's not here," Thomas said. "But he's close."Lucas spun toward him. "How would you know?"Thomas hesitated before that he had stayed quiet, observed, survived.This was the moment where that stopped being enough."I've been there," he said.
The room went completely still.Dustin whispered, "Where?""The Upside Down," Thomas said. "Or whatever you want to call it."
Mike stared at him. "You've… you've been in it?"
Thomas nodded once. "Long enough to know it's real."Eleven looked at him, eyes wide. "Cold place."
"Yes," Thomas said quietly.Dustin swallowed. "So the radio works because""Because sound leaks," Thomas said. "Through electricity through weak places."Lucas dragged a hand down his face. "So Will's alive… just not alive here."Thomas's gaze drifted to the table the Dungeons & Dragons books, the dice, the half-finished campaign they'd abandoned weeks ago."We're asking the wrong question," he said ike looked up. "Then ask the right one."Thomas picked up a blank sheet of paper and laid it over the Hawkins map."You know how in Dungeons & Dragons," he said, "there's the main world. The campaign map."Dustin nodded slowly."And then there are other planes," Thomas continued. "Shadow realms. Places that exist alongside it."
Dustin's eyes widened. "Like the Vale of Shadows.""Exactly," Thomas said. "Hawkins is this map."He tapped the paper."And the Upside Down is another map on top of it. Same shape. Same streets. Same houses."Mike leaned forward. "But wrong."
"Corrupted," Thomas agreed. "Like a dungeon that's been overrun."Lucas frowned. "So Will didn't disappear.""He fell," Thomas said. "Into another layer of the same world."Eleven nodded. "Other side."
Dustin's voice trembled. "And the monster?""In D&D," Thomas said carefully, "some creatures don't belong to one plane. They move between them."Dustin swallowed hard. "A Demogorgon."No one laughed.
Thomas felt the truth settle deep in his chest if the world had another side then the body they found didn't matter will Byers wasn't dead.
He was trapped and once the board revealed its other side, there was no going back to pretending it didn't exist.