Chapter Text
Thalia 'Two' Munson played by Zoey Deutch
Steve 'The Hair' Harrington played by Joe Keery
Nancy Wheeler played by Natalia Dyer
Eddie Munson played by Joseph Quinn
All other characters are cast as usual. If there is a new character without a face claim already, I will have a separate note to introduce them.
Word Count: 2,832 words.
Warnings: None.
I was being dragged. Their hands locked around my arms as they pulled my body away. My head faced those in which I was leaving, and my feet hit the ground harshly as I thrashed against them.
"No!" I could feel myself screaming. I could feel my throat move as the sound rippled, but I couldn't hear it. There was no noise. Only silence.
His distinct figure stood at the end of the hall, watching as they threw me into the cell. If the force at which I was tossed into the dark wasn't enough to kill me, then the solitary that followed surely would.
I hadn't done it; whatever it was that had me locked up in that room. I hadn't done it. It had been someone else. They had told me what to do; manipulated me into believing I could trust them.
The figure came into view as they began to close the door, but his face was never clear to me. The boy that stood behind him, however; that older boy whose face invaded my dreams... he was clear. He was always crystal clear, and he always smiled.
I woke with a shout, bolting upwards. Panting, I turned from left to right, the darkness surrounding me before I could even protest. They had taken me back; pulled me from my home and shoved me into that cell.
"Lia?" Eddie's voice rang out as the light in the room turned on. My brother stood in the doorway, squinting.
My breathing calmed slightly as I pressed a hand against the space of my chest underneath my neck. I was drenched in sweat. It was a dream. Just a dream. As it always was.
"I had the nightmare again," I told him, eyes meeting his.
Within seconds, he was sat down, wrapping his arms around me. He held my head gently against his chest, stroking my hair in a calming gesture.
"You're not there," he muttered. "You're here with me. You're safe."
The panic had worn off and now the fear was settling in the pit of my stomach as I let out a sob. "Why do I never know who I'm scared of?"
I could feel Eddie shake his head against mine. "You don't need to remember. You don't need to be scared, because whatever asshole it was... he isn't going to get you. Not on my watch."
I laughed through the tears as he pulled away, gently placing his hands against my cheeks and turning me to look him in the eye. "Do you hear me?"
I sniffled. "Yeah," I replied half-heartedly. He noticed my tone.
"You're my little sister –"
"Adopted," I tried. "And barely. I'm only younger by a couple of months."
He reaffirmed his hold on my head. "You're my little sister," he repeated, stronger. "You're Thalia fucking Munson and I'm never going to let anything hurt you. Got it?"
"Yeah," I told him, voice firmer. "Yeah, I got it."
Eddie kissed my head gently, before wrapping his arms around me again in another hug. "I love you."
I smiled. "I love you too."
My nerves calmed, the fear that had encompassed the room gone and I was suddenly completely free of anything I had been holding. My brother was the only person that had ever made me feel safe; who had ever woken me from the nightmares. I wasn't quite sure what I would do without him.
The lights above us flickered harshly and my attention turned from my brother and to the room around us. "Fuck," I cursed, pulling away from him and sliding my shoes on. "I'll check the generator."
Eddie yawned, falling on his side as he settled comfortably on my bed. "I'll wait here for you," he managed.
Laughing lightly, I shook my head and left the small bedroom. The perk of living in a trailer was that there was a short distance from everywhere to the front door. The kitchen was a mere five steps from the entrance to my bedroom and it was even closer to Eddie's. Although, he did get the smaller room.
The only downfall of the small home was that it was that; small. Our uncle Wayne had his own trailer just across from ours. This was only a recent development. Before two months ago, we didn't have enough money to buy a new one and the three of us were squashed into one. He had gotten a promotion at work and came up with enough money to buy a second home. He lived in that trailer while Eddie and I shared the old one. That also meant that the generator went out... a lot.
I took a blanket from the top of the couch. It had holes in it and no longer held any sort of comfort or cosiness but it would still fair well against the cold night.
Opening the door, it made a loud squeaking noise, causing me to cringe slightly. I had been telling myself every day for the past week that I needed to get some oil for it; I was yet to stumble across some that didn't cost more than food. The need to eat was stronger than the want for comfort.
Flicking the switch beside the door, I waited for the porch lights to turn on. They didn't. "Fuck," I cursed, taking a step onto the ground and searching the grass. I was almost certain that I had left a flashlight out here the other night; when the power went out for the first time.
My foot hit something solid and I reached down to pick up the cylindrical item. Pushing the switch, the bulb flickered, threatening to come to life. It didn't. I hit the side of it harshly, the bulb being knocked back into place.
It was dark; extremely dark. I mean, it was the middle of the night, but it never got this dark. Taking a quick glance around the trailer park, I noticed that ours wasn't the only generator out. The entire plot was covered in darkness. The power had gone.
Instinctively, I turned to look at Hawkins Labs. You could see the top of the building just over the trees if you looked hard enough. It stood there, imposing and dangerous. I had never heard anything bad about the labs, but there was something in the smoke that came out of the back chimney and the block layout made of inescapable solid stone and concrete that forced fear to settle in my stomach.
My attention was pulled back as rustling sounded at the time of night where nothing should stir. I turned the light towards the treeline. The bushes at the entrance moved as though having been pushed by someone else. There was no wind in the air and instead a suffocating weight surrounded me. It couldn't have been just the wind.
"Hello?" I called out. "Is someone there?"
Taking a step forward, I could feel my heartbeat quicken. I should have gone back inside. The moment I realised that it was a power outage, I should have gone back into the trailer. I should go back. I should stop walking, and yet I felt as though I couldn't. I felt as though I had to keep going.
"Hello?"
The air around me had become dull, heavy to the point of suffocation, but now it had stopped completely. There was no noise, no rustling, only a high-pitched ringing in my ears. My limbs were frozen; dead to the spot. The thought of moving or running never even occurred to me as a figure stepped out from behind the trees. He smiled.
"Hello Two," he whispered, the voice sounding not from the man that I saw but from beside me; as though he had whispered it right in my ear, as though he was standing there in the dark with me.
With a sudden jolt, I dropped the flashlight, turning around and running towards my trailer. The door creaked loudly when I opened it but I didn't care, shutting it as hard as I could.
The ringing stopped, but the silence didn't. The only thing I could hear was my panting breathes as I watched the frame of the door, waiting for him to follow.
I looked down to find that my hand shook with fear. No, not with fear. Swallowing, I tried to take a deep breath as I rushed for the cabinet above the sink. The bottle of pills stood out against the rest of its contents and I quickly opened it, throwing two tablets into my mouth and swallowing them dry.
"He's in your head," I told myself, placing the bottle down and leaning against the counter. "He's just in your fucking head. He's not real. He's not real."
I closed my eyes, shaking my head from side to side. Tears threatened to fall as I turned my face to the ceiling. I had been seeing him since I was ten. The first memory I had was of watching him outside a window; the rain battering the car I was in as I drove away. His face haunted me like a ghost.
Turning around to lean my back against the counter, I could see the door of my room open. There was little light, but the moon gave me what I needed to see Eddie fast asleep against my mattress.
I smiled lightly. My big brother by two months. He knew that I wasn't actually his sister and yet that never mattered to him. We had gone through everything together: the nightmares that I couldn't remember, the ones that rattled me and had me screaming and gulping for air, the seeing things that weren't there, the shitty bullies in school... Mom dying, Al leaving.
I should go back to bed. That's what I should do; lie down beside my brother and get some sleep... but looking at the frame of the door, and imagining that figment of my imagination making it into my home, I decided that I didn't need to sleep that night. I stared at the door until the sun rose into the sky.
"Turning now to local news," the radio rang out, "we're getting reports of surges and power outages all across the country."
I stood beside it, a large cup of coffee in my hand as I listened in. The generator had started up again on some time during the night and the light that I had turned to switch on outside the trailer blared to life. I had thought about going out to turn it off – it was wasting electricity – but then I kept seeing his shadow against the window.
"There's coffee in the pot," I told Eddie, spotting my brother stumbling groggily out of my bedroom. Hair messy and clothes tossed, he yawned largely, pouring himself a small cup.
"You're up early. Dressed and all," he commented.
I had thrown something on between watching the door and the sun rise. It was simple. A pair of blue jeans and a long-sleeved white t-shirt that I had tucked into it. I'd throw my leather jacket on over it when I got into school. I always dressed the same; simple. Couldn't afford much else. My hair was usually down, reaching past my shoulders in loose curls. If it wasn't, I pulled it back into a low bun.
"Got a test first class. I can't be late, so hurry your butt up," I replied. I didn't have a test. Well, at least I didn't think I did, but it was the best lie I could come up with on the spot that Eddie would believe.
"Last night, hundreds of homes in East Hawkins were affected," the radio continued, "leaving many residents in the dark."
"Yeah no shit," Eddie muttered, taking a large gulp of his coffee.
Laughing lightly, I smiled before turning my attention back to the news on the radio. "The cause of the outage is still unknown. We reached out to Roane County Water and Electric, and a spokesperson says that they are confident power will be restored to all remaining homes within the next several hours."
Taking a deep breath, I drained what was left of my coffee, placing the empty cup in the sink and moving around to get my bag from my room.
"Did we get our power back?" my brother asked.
Rolling my eyes, I picked up my bag, placing it on the bed to check that I had everything I needed. "Obviously."
"How's it obvious?" he replied and I could hear the confusion that was surely shown on his face.
"How do you think I made the coffee?" I retaliated. There was no response from him on that.
Resting the strap of the bag on my shoulder, I entered the kitchen to find him yawning again. He watched me with a careful expression.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
Nodding, I opened the press, taking out a slice of bread before grabbing the cheese from the fridge. It was the last slice. I would need to go to the supermarket soon.
"Yeah, peachy. Why do you ask?" I knew why he asked. It was the only reason he asked.
"After your nightmare last night, I thought maybe you wouldn't want to go to school," he tried.
Slicing the sandwich I had made, I picked up one half of it, handing it to Eddie. He took it gratefully, taking a large bite. I took a smaller one.
"The last thing I want is to be stuck at home with my own thoughts," I explained. "You've got ten minutes and then I'm driving off, so hurry up."
Tilting his head from side to side, he downed his coffee and took another large bite of the sandwich. "Alright bossy."
I smacked his shoulder lightly as he walked by towards his own room. He recoiled, overexaggerating the pain as he rubbed his arm.
"I am not bossy," I urged.
"Bossy like mom," he compared.
Gasping, I smiled. "That woman was a whole different level of bossy."
"Yeah, your level." He vanished behind his bedroom door.
I scoffed, moving to leave the trailer. "Five minutes Munson!"
Shutting the door harshly behind me, I turned my eyes up to the light that was on. The one that I didn't have the nerve to turn off. Taking a deep breath, I hit the switch beside me and hurried towards my car.
Throwing my bag in the backseat, I placed my keys in the ignition and waited impatiently for my brother. Hands tapping against the wheel nervously, I turned my head from side to side, looking at the other homes in the site.
Eddie and I had only been living with our uncle for a year, but I was already wishing for that old, crumbling house back. It was falling apart at its seams, but it was better than this.
I couldn't fault Wayne. He took us in when he didn't have to. I didn't have anything against him. It was our father that I hated. I mean, he never liked me, not from the moment I first met him after Mary brought me home. We never warmed up to each other, but him and Eddie were close. Extremely close.
There were people that had been living in these trailers their whole lives. It was a commitment, that was certain, but whether it was commitment to your home or to barely having enough money to pay the bills, I never wished to find out. I was going to get out of here and out of broken homes. Nothing would be broken in my house.
The sound of Eddie opening the passenger door startled me slightly, but I covered my shock with words. "Took you long enough."
He turned to me. "This hair takes time, you know. You rushed me."
"Yeah, yeah," I breathed, taking a look at my side mirror before beginning to reverse. "Whatever you say."
Pulling up at the school, I stopped the engine and pulled out the car keys. Only then did I feel myself begin to yawn and do everything to stifle it.
"Isn't that Steve Harrington with Nancy?" Eddie asked.
I followed his line of sight to see exactly what he was explaining. My best friend, Nancy Wheeler, was talking to Steve Harrington. Rather, I think she was flirting.
"Yeah. I think they're dating now," I replied.
"Yuck," Eddie cringed.
"I agree. Yuck."
"Don't expect me to pick you up from parties because they're upstairs doing the nasty," Eddie commented.
I slapped his arm. "Eddie!" I groaned in disgust.
"I'm just saying." He was laughing.
"It's not like you could anyway. You haven't even gotten your license yet," I explained, eyes on the pair.
"I'm getting there," he retaliated.
"You were still getting there two years ago."
"Whatever. Love you." I listened as he stepped out of the car, shutting it behind him.
"Love you too," I replied, taking notice of his absence, but my eyes were still fixed on Nancy and Steve.
I was happy for her; truly. Nancy had been crushing on Harrington for months, and to see that he actually seemed to slightly care for her was nice. I only feared that he'd rip her heart out.
I knew Steve 'The Hair' Harrington. I knew how he played girls, put on his charm, but I also knew that he could be kind. Sometimes, he didn't necessarily like hurting people, and yet he did. I didn't care what kind of Steve he was with her. If he broke her heart, I'd break him.