Lost and Found | Stranger Things Reader Insert

Chapter Ten: The Compasses

The response she got was the rushing of water up ahead. The rush grew louder, but she couldn't see a thing other than tiny splashes of water up ahead. As if someone had been running towards her.

Splish. Splash. Splish. Splash.

"Help!"

Doc flinched at the scream right in front of her face.

"Help!"

It moved next to her ear. She jumped back and scooted away from the screaming, covering her ears with her hands. "Stop it!" Doc cried. Even with her hands muffling sound around her, she still could hear venomous growling ahead. Chest heaving, Doc fearfully kicked her feet out to scoot her even farther away. "Stop it! Go away!"

She blinked and was back in her bedroom. She could tell because when she tried standing, the blanket between her legs prevented her from stably doing so. Falling off her bed, she cried out and crawled all around, trying to navigate around her pitch-black room. Her door was closed. She never closed the door. "Mom?! Nancy?! Mike?! Mike! Mike!"

Receiving no answer, Doc laid down and covered her head, shaking uncontrollably on the ground. She was sure she was going to die here. Something was going to come and steal her away, just as she always feared. Until then, she would sob on the ground and try her best to calm her breathing.

The creaking of door hinges and the light pouring into the room had her uncurling from the ball her body molded into. Tilting her head up, she was met with a very disheveled Mike. "Doc? Why's your door closed?" He rasped, falling to his knees beside his sister. Without a word, she crawled over and fell against him, crying into his shoulder. Mike gently kissed her forehead and wrapped his arms around her. "No one's supposed to close your door. Everyone knows that..."

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The compasses' north eventually guided the five to a junkyard, scrapped cars littering the area around them. The longer they walked, the more Doc's headaches subsided, until they were no more. She thought this to be a relief, only to realize that they were no longer in the direction of the gate. "Oh, no." Dustin mumbled, having come to the same thought.

"'Oh, no'?" Lucas frowned. "What's 'Oh, no'?"

"We're headed back home."

"What?" Mike blinked.

"Are you sure?"

Doc pointed past their heads at the setting sun. "The sun's setting right there. We just got turned right back around..."

Lucas stared up at the sky behind him before turning back to his friends. "And you guys are just realizing this now?!"

"Why is this all on us?" Dustin defended.

"Because you're the compass geniuses!"

"What do yours say?"

"North." Lucas, Mike and Doc answered in unison.

Doc groaned and twisted her body around. "This doesn't make sense... Something's screwing with the compasses..."

"Maybe it's something here." Mike suggested, but Dustin shook his head.

"No, it has to be like a super magnet."

Lucas quietly spoke up from where he had been glaring daggers at El. "It's not a magnet. She's been acting weirder than normal. If she can slam doors with her mind, she can definitely screw up a compass."