Chapter Text
Matt has always known that the world is not a kind place. He knows that his previous parents were attacked by some monsters when he was a baby and that they did not survive. He knows that these same monsters are still around the world, but each time they are less and less, until the last one is defeated.
But Matt is not afraid, because he also knows that the ones that has made possible for the monsters to be defeated are his family.
It's not like he knows everything, he's 7 years old after all, and a lot of things are hidden from him. But he was given the basic explanation, there was a bad guy and after he was defeated with a lot of help and time, the world will become little by little what it was before again. It will take years, they say, but he doesn't really care, after all the actual world is all that he has know.
He doesn't know how it was to go outside without fearing the monsters and the cracks on the floor —which can make take you to a place where you never will be found—or without wearing a facemask to protect himself from the polluted air. Even his own face, with a fading scar he got when he was a child and was attacked by a monster, is a reminder of how this world is. And, until recently, he hadn't even had a real house for more than a few months!
Still, all of this was fine because it was just his life and what he was used to, the real problem was his big growing curiosity. He wanted to know, how was the previous world? And the people? And his family? And the place where they grow up?
Most of the time, they could easily satisfy his curiosity by telling him stories. He was the only child in his family after all, as the world wasn't a safe place to have kids, and everyone was always happy to sit him down and relate an old story. And he always love it, though no one was as good as it as his dad was, Matt knows that if the world were still the way it used to be, his dad would be the best storyteller in the world.
But they could never really ease his curiosity completely, they were always telling too little, of some of the stories. They probably had a reason and wanted to protect him from things of this world, but this was also why it happened what it happened.
A few years have happened since the world was going back to normal, and Matt has been living some blissful months with part of his family living together in a normal house. They could be almost all the time together, and he was happy to spent the days just painting with his papa, listening to his dad stories or learning how to cook from his grandma.
Then the mission arrived, his dads had to leave the house! Matt didn't know why, and he was scared, the world wasn't still safe and bad things could happen to them. They try to convince him, but he refused to accept it under any circumstances, locking himself in his room and refusing to speak to anyone.
After a few hours he gave in, going out of the room ready to apologize and to say goodbye to his dads, but when as he went downstairs he heard voices in the kitchen and decided to listen. He knew that overs-dropping was bad, but he needed to know what was going on, maybe they had decide to not go? But as soon as he listen a few words it was sure that it wasn't that.
"Are you two really ready for this?" Uncle Jonathan said, he sounded worried. "None of us has been back in years."
That words caught his attention, where were they talking about?
"They have promise that it's safe, and we won't go in very far either, we'll mostly stay on the outskirts," his dad answered back, just like if he had repeated that a lot of times.
"Honey, are you really sure that you want to do this?" His grandma asked. "You know that you can refuse to go, after all that we, and mostly you, have done to help them they won't say no."
"Mom, I know that I can say no, but I want to go back at least one time," his papa said, his voice sounded exhausted. "Just to see, at least once, that it's true there aren't any monsters left in Hawkins. That it's just a memory from the past now, and it can't hurt me."
After those words, the others shut up, and for a few seconds there aren't more voices. And then, his dad started again.
"We should probably be going now, the sooner, the better," he sighed. "Should we go upstairs to say goodbye to Matt?"
"Yeah, I don't want to leave without seeing him, just in case," his papa agreed with him.
Realizing what that meant, Matt turned as fast and quiet as he could and went upstairs, entering his room and closing the door. His parents where going back to their hometown, to Hawkins. He has listened to lot of stories about that town, but he has never seen it because it was for a few years the main place where monsters came from, but there weren't monsters there anymore? It sounded almost impossible.
Before he could think more about it, steps got closer to the door and he entered his bed, ready to fake that the has been there all the time. Then, the knocked on his door.
"Come in," he said, and they opened the door, entering with apologizing smiles. The two of them stood at the door, unsure whether to go in.
"Matt, we're leaving know," his dad said, waiting for his reaction.
He nodded, deciding in a few seconds what he was going to do. His dads were going to go back to Hawkins where there aren't monsters anymore? He was going to go too with them. Of course, they would never let him, so he'd have to act normal now and later sneak in.
"Okay," he murmured, covering himself with the blankets and rolling over in bed to look at the wall, doing his best to look angry.
"We'll be back as soon as we can, we promise," his papa added, he sounded so sad that he almost gave in again. "We love you so much, you know that, nothing can make us not be back here with you."
He remained in silence, until he could heard them sigh and leave the room, closing the door behind them. As soon as they do that, Matt almost jumped from the bed to start putting on his shoes and his mask, he can't leave before he managed to enter the car in some way.
Luckily, he caught them in time, they were saying goodbye to the others members of his family outside, next to the car. Carefully, Matt approached it from behind, it was a two-seater pickup truck with an open bed in the back, and he was small enough to slide between some of the boxes there and hide himself.
He waited there until his dads got in the car, and then, he waited even more because the trip was long and felt like hours. He was used to travel long distances in a repetitive way, because it was normal for them to move a lot, but it was different to go in the car that to go hidden outside and in a uncomfortable position. Still, he waited until the car finally stopped.
Slowly, he sat up and looked around, they have stopped in a forest, next to a sign where it's written 'Welcome to Hawkins'. But he has to hid again when he heard the car's doors opening and his dads getting out.
He expected them to enter more into the forest, and then he will follow them trying to not make noise, in this way if he's caught they might decide to just continue because they are already there. But instead of this, suddenly his dad peeks into the open bed, like ready to grab something, but stop instantly.
His face passes quickly from surprise to worry, then to anger.
"Matt!" He exclaimed, resting his hands on his hips. "What are you doing here?"
These words of course make his papa show up too, it seems he can't believe what he's seeing either.
"Hi?" Matt muttered, trying to pretend to be normal, even when he definitely shouldn't be there.
"Get out of there right now, young man. What do you think you were doing?" His dad asked, pointing outside, and Matt obeyed instantly.
"I wanted to learn about the place where you lived when you were my age!" He tried to explain, leaving where he was and finally being able to stretch out.
"We can tell you all the stories that you want, Matt," his papa tried to convince him, kneeling down next to him. "But following us in a mission is dangerous, and you know that."
"You said that there weren't monsters here anymore," he muttered, if it wasn't dangerous for them, why it was for him?
"That what we've been told, but we're still ready to fight if one shows up, and—," he then stopped. "Wait a moment, how do you knew that we were coming here?"
He remained silent, and looked down, not wanting to tell them about his listening their conversation. But his dads weren't dumb.
"Did you listen to us talking in the kitchen?" His dad asked, and Matt nodded slowly.
"For heaven's sake, Matt..." he murmured, shaking his head.
His papa stood up, and then they looked at each other, clearly not knowing what to do. It has taken them hours to arrive there, but they couldn't just continue with their mission with him there, it was too dangerous.
But this was also his time to look around, it was mostly trees and and trees growing in the distance, most places looked like this due to significant growth in the cracks that occurred after the cracks formed. Though between some of them, if he followed the sign direction, he could see some buildings. The town was there.
It was a sudden though, something that was very much like him and yet not, but he wanted to know about this place. It was a need, seeing the same streets where his dads and family used to walk, the same buildings where they lived their lives. The image of them, younger and probably happier and freer.
And right at that moment, taking advantage of his dads being distracted, he started running toward it, as if on autopilot.
He could heard how they also reacted as soon as he ran, following him and calling his name. But what made him stop wasn't their voices, nor arriving to the town or a monster, but the ground suddenly starting to shake violently. In front of him, a crack shows up, opening up at an unbelievable speed toward where he is, its interior was not made of earth, but of a bright red color that almost seemed alive.
He stood there, paralyzed, until his dads shows up behind him. He could feel their arms grabbing him to put him far away from the cracks, but he couldn't move, eyes fixed on it.
"Matt, we have to go!" His papa, exclaimed. His eyes were fixed on the ground in terror, but he forced his son to lift his face and look him in the eyes.
Snapping out of his daze, he quickly nods, but no matter how hard his dad pulls on both of them, it's impossible, they were too close. The crack arrives first at their feet and then further until there is no ground under them and they are falling in the dark. The only think that he could do before losing consciousness was grabbing his dads and hope that everything will be okay.