Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
WELCOME TO HAWKINS
<୨♡୧>
"THIS SCHOOL YEAR WILL BE DIFFERENT, MANDY."
Mandy's mother faced the back seat of the car craning her head to catch a view of her only daughter. Mandy silently nodded and looked out the window, avoiding her brother's eye contact from right beside her.
She watched as the streetlights passed beaming in the night. It had quickly become dusk, daylight savings long gone.
They had left for Hawkins 5 hours ago, driving an incredibly long time to get to her mother's childhood home or to get away from the mess they had left in Lodem.
"I wonder what Suzy has done to the place..." Her mother carried on a conversation with her husband, Mandy's father, Bruce.
"It's been quite a while since we visited my side of the family." Bonnie, her mother, stared at the side of Bruce's face watching as he clinched and unclinched his jaw, "Yes, it has, and for a good reason."
Mandy rolled her eyes as she tuned out the rest of their conversation, annoyed by her father's words.
She bent down as best as she could to grab her travel bag, feeling her brother gaze into her side. Once she got a hold of it, she rummaged through the bag, quickly finding her walkman. She grabbed the closest tape and forced it into the device, rewinding it and playing it from the beginning.
She conveniently picked up her Blondie Greatest Hits tape, confirming that as she slid her headphones on, hearing the faint hum of Heart of Glass starting to play.
'I ONCE HAD A LOVE, AND IT WAS DIVINE,
SOON FOUND OUT I WAS LOSING MY MIND...'
—
Mandy slowly opened her eyes, the bright rays of the sun in the morning sky trickling through the car's windows too bright for her eyes to handle. She batted her eyelashes, getting used to this light, and quickly sat up.
Opening her eyes, she noticed she wasn't in the car with her family. She was instead in a black void with nothing but herself in it.
She widened her eyes, springing her hand over her mouth. She gasped, but nothing came out, no noise. No nothing.
It was just a black, empty void.
She lowered her hand, darting her head around, trying to get an idea of the area she was in, but there was absolutely nothing.
"SOMETHING IS COMING, SOMETHING HUNGRY FOR BLOOD..."
A voice spoke; this particular voice sounded young, boyish, even.
Mandy furrowed her brows, confused.
She voiced the word hello, but once again, nothing came out.
A figure began to appear, and it was fading in from a distance, looking almost as if it was a ghost,
"A SHADOW GROWS ON THE WALL BEHIND YOU, SWALLOWING YOU IN DARKNESS."
The words echoed, causing Mandy to cover her ears as they started ringing.
As she lowered her hands, hearing now that the sound was gone, she stood up, walking closer to the picture that was appearing. It was a group of boys, four of them, to be exact.
The one that was talking had all of a sudden muted. They were just like Mandy, talking but nothing coming out.
She watched as the other boys joined in on the conversation, but still, absolutely nothing.
For some reason, she couldn't move her eyes away from this one boy.
She could tell he was different from the rest. He had a bowl cut and a bright smile on his face.
No matter how much she wanted to look away, she couldn't. Almost as if he had some message specifically for her...
The picture started to fade away, and her eyes widened. The one comfort of this void was slowly dissipating.
She quickly slammed her eyes shut and started wishing to wake up. This had to be a dream, right?
—
She woke up with a gasp, feeling something trickling down her lip.
"Oh, honey, you're just waking up in time. We're almost-"
Her mother glanced back from the passenger's side, stopping in the middle of her sentence at her daughter's appearance.
Mandy tried to catch her breath as she breathed slowly in and out. Getting herself caught back up in the current reality.
Troy stared at her with furrowed brows.
"Are you alright?" Her mother finally voiced after Mandy's breath had slowed, "Um- yeah." Mandy breathed back.
Bonnie opened up the glove box, grabbing a tissue box, and reached back to hand it to her. Mandy grabbed it, pulled out a tissue, and blotted her nose till the dripping stopped. She pulled the tissue from her nose, seeing a stain of red. She quickly disposed of the tissue disregarding the bleeding.
Her father cleared his throat, catching Mandy's attention,
"We're almost to Hawkins." He uttered, keeping his gaze towards the road.
Mandy saluted her father and looked out the window to see them passing the 'Welcome to Hawkins!' sign.
—
looks like we're starting to get to the juicy stuff... i totally have no idea what happens :)
