Like the unthinking decision to step out and reveal himself to the group, his rapid labelling of the adults had been an unconscious one. The Lady had jumped pretty hard when he appeared, and her chair thumping back down on the wooden boards was the only sound for an agonising few seconds. The Librarian shot up with an expression that was less surprise and more anger; it didn't suit his face, and Mike had trouble connecting this man to the kindly guy who'd offered them the horror comic just a few hours before.
"What do you think you're doing, son? The Library is closed, but I think you know that." His voice was calm, but that was somehow worse than shouting. When adults got all calm about a kid who'd done something bad, it was a whole other kind of anger.
"I do believe, I do BUH-LIEVE this yankee-doodle's been snoopin'." That was the loudmouth, or the trashmouth, he'd been called. Mike thought the nickname fit.
"C'mon now, out you go. Are your friends here, too? Hiding somewhere?" The Librarian had come around the front of the desk and Mike was sure he was going to charge at him, but he didn't. He headed for the deadbolt on the door, probably meaning to throw them out. Mike was about ready to hurl his guts.
"Wait, Mike." Mike felt a jolt go through him at the gentle, pensive voice of The Writer. He was the only person at the table who had seemingly no reaction to Mike's sudden appearance, and now he'd addressed him by name. Psychic, he thought. Like Eleven, maybe the secret voice inside him suggested. Mike felt his heart speed up and a fine layer of perspiration coat his palms.
"How'd you-"
"Bill, I don't know what crazy thought you're starting to think but I suggest you unthink it right now," The Librarian was looking at Bill and Bill rolled his head slightly to look at him.
"It's okay, Mike. I think… if it's the same as before, like you say, then we're being led. This is part of it." The Librarian huffed, but didn't say anything more and didn't slide open the deadbolt on the door, either. The Writer turned back to Mike who was still standing dumb and bewildered just to the side of the stacks. He could hear the very light, whispering squabbles of his friends. Dustin would want to back him up, Lucas would want to hang back. Will would want to listen a little more, and that was alright.
"What's your name?" The Writer was certainly addressing him now, and Mike realized the Librarian was probably called Mike, too. Not psychic then. Not like Eleven, you stupid baby son of a-
"Mike Wheeler. Uh, sir."
"Mike Wheeler. Hi. I'm Bill. This is Ben. And Beverly, and you may already be acquainted with your Librarian, Mike. Hanlon. And this great asshole to my right is Richie. He does a lot of voices, but he's no good."
"I thought they were pretty good," Mike felt his face flush.
"Dee boy knows dee talent when he see it."
"Shut up, Richie." The Librarian had come around the front of the desks and was looking toward the stacks to Mike's left. "The rest of your gang back there, are they?"
"I-uh," Mike did not want to tell on them, but how could he cover for them with The Librarian only a few steps away. They hadn't been hiding in a very good place.
"Yes, sir." Dustin's lispy voice popped out from behind the stacks, and a half a second later so did the boy himself. A dark brown hand dropped quickly away from his arm, where Lucas had obviously been trying to pin him to the floor.
"Alright then. Cards on the table, we've told you our names, Mike Wheeler, and that is with the assumption your friends heard them too. It's only right for us to know all of yours too, don't you think?" The Librarian was being reasonable, and the calm but deadly edge had gone out of his voice. Probably because The Writer had said it was okay.
"Dustin, sir." Dustin had stepped out from behind the stacks, quite obviously stepping over Lucas in the process. Will stood next.
"Will Byers. Sir."
"Will Byers. You factor into our conversation a little, I recall." Will only nodded, not willing to say anything about the Monster until they'd discussed it properly.
"Down there is Lucas. He's being a real baby." Dustin pointed to the stacks, and Lucas made a huffing sound and stood up.
"Wouldn't have to if Mike could have just kept his ass on the ground like we planned."
"Why'd you plan to spy?" The Lady didn't sound mad, just curious. She was studying each of the boys in turn, and Mike felt his cheeks flush again under her stare. She was pretty, for an older lady.
"We, uh I don't know." Dustin looked toward Mike. They all did. It had been his idea, after all.
"I don't know, lady. We just did, okay? We saw you and the other guys come in and it looked like something big so we just… got down there to wait for a while. We weren't spying." He crossed his arms over his chest defensively.
" You were. But that's alright." The Writer. "I think we all need to get a few more of our cards on the table. I think a lot of this can be cleared up just by playing with a full deck. Are we agreed?" He was addressing his group, who all nodded. Mike felt the ridiculous urge to pose the question to his friends, too, like they were some organized team of grown-ups sitting round a table. He nodded for himself, and was pleased to see the others were, too. Even Lucas.
"Only because you're the Librarian and I like coming in here," Lucas put in. He sounded grumpy, but they could deal with that later.
"No, if you don't want to be here, any of you, you can go. No questions asked. All we'd suggest is that you don't share anything you may have overheard in here with anyone else. Okay? Agreed?"
"Agreed." Mike did speak for them all then. He thought Lucas might go for the door but he didn't. It was beginning to look like Mike's impulse to make contact with these adults may have been the right decision. And after what had happened, any extra information or help they could get would be welcome.
"Right then. Why don't you all come and sit down with us." It wasn't phrased as a question, and the boys seated themselves along the desk running parallel to the adults.
"Have you heard of the Upside Down?" Mike hadn't meant to lay down quite so many of his cards at once, but it was, after all, the deep-down burning question. Said question was met with frowns and confusion.
"They have no idea what you're talking about!" Dustin whined. He scooted his chair back, presumably to leave, when The Writer put a hand on the desk in front of him. Dustin stopped moving.
"We've not heard that term before, but it could be a different word for the same thing. We call our monster It, but it had other names. Many, many other names. And other hiding places too, although we found it most often in the sewers of Derry. We are coming at what may be the same problem from two very different angles, and I think we need to be a little patient with each other." Mike saw the sense in this. They'd named the Upside Down themselves and it probably wasn't what any adult would call it.
"The Upside Down is like, another dimension." Mike began. He heard rustling behind him and Dustin pulled out a sketch of the flea and the acrobat. The adults leaned in close to look at it, but none of them laughed, and that was good. Mike jabbed a finger at the stick man on the paper. "So the acrobat can move back and forwards on this tightrope, okay?" He glanced at them all to make sure they were listening and more importantly that they weren't laughing yet.
"Okay, sure. The acrobat and the flea, I've seen this before." The Writer scanned the picture and pointed towards the dot. "The flea can go back and forth and side to side, because it's smaller. That's the second dimension. Right?" Mike flushed with pleasure at the unsure, questioning tone in The Writer's voice. He was looking to him as the authority on the matter. Mike soldiered on, knowing Dustin would correct him if he got anything wrong.
"Right. But the other dimension, the one the flea can get to, it's like, really small. So the acrobat can't get to it and doesn't even know it's there, unless something rips open a passageway into the first and then I guess the acrobat might be able to see it or move into it. You dig?"
"We dig." A corner of The Writer's mouth quirked up.
"I get it all, Dustin?"
"That's about it. The second dimension is the Upside Down."
"Is it different to this one? I mean, did you know it was different?" The Lady asked.
"It was different." Will spoke quietly, and his eyes were firmly on the worn surface of the desk in front of him.
"Different how?" Trashmouth hadn't picked up on the tone of his voice, or he wouldn't have asked. Mike could see it in their faces, a sudden reluctance to look at Will, like maybe they knew what he had to say would be real bad.
"It looked kinda the same, but like something had happened, an accident or a nuclear war or something. The buildings on Main were the same, but all the windows were dark, and there weren't any other people. Uh, I mean, alive ones."
"Oh God," The Lady moaned, pushing her knuckles against her mouth until they were bleached white with pressure. She believed him.
"And the air was wrong. I could breathe it, but it made me sick. Probably if I'd been stuck in there much longer it would have killed me." Will said this matter-of-factly but Mike heard the quaver in his voice and knew he was still very much haunted.
"How long were you in there for?"
"About a week, but time passed… differently, I think. Or at least it felt that way."
"A week," The Quiet One mused. It was the first time he'd spoken, and Mike couldn't remember his name. Couldn't remember any of their names but Bill in truth, but he'd been under a lot of pressure during the introductions part. He'd ask Lucas later, Lucas was wild about remembering things, especially names and whether Mike owed him a quarter or not.
"But you're alright now?" The lady had pried her hand from her mouth but her knuckles had left red indents around her lips that were somehow gruesome. She reached a pale hand out towards Will and then stopped and withdrew it. Probably not a mother, Mike thought.
"Oh sure. I think I get sick a little more now."
"Boys always got a cold," Dustin added unhelpfully.
"But the important thing is, he's safe now. He's safe, but someone else is still trapped in there somewhere. And she…" Mike had to swallow around a lump that had mysteriously began to form in his throat. "She is not safe at all."
"Mike…" Lucas's voice was tentative, and the hand he placed on Mike's shoulder was soft and light, but Mike shrugged him off.
"She's still in there. Her name is Eleven and she's my friend and she's still in there with the monster. Can you help us?" He was pretty sure he was gonna cry or puke if no one said anything in about a second, but he kept his gaze level and met each of their eyes.
"We'll help if we can, Mike. But I think we need to hear the rest."
