A NEW AND IMPROVED VERSION
Ryan Fordman has lived next door to Steve Harrington her entire life. Her entire life, he'd always been a window away, occasionally shouting across the space between their houses. They were inseparable... at least, they we...
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The next morning, Ryan woke up with Steve's arm slung over her body. She wasn't sure when she had actually fallen asleep, just that the sun was barely rising when she did. All night long, she was plagued with images of the Upside Down, reliving her ten minutes of hell every time she closed her eyes.
Slowly sitting up, Ryan slipped out from underneath's Steve's arm, walking over to her bag by the window. Luckily, she had dropped it outside the tree she had crawled into the night before so nothing was ruined, just a little dirty. She pulled out her mother's journal,
She sat back down in her bed, glancing over at Steve who was still asleep. He had stayed with her all night, trying to help her through the nightmares, the fear she just couldn't shake. He stayed, just like he said he would. She watched as he slept just for a minute. He looked so... peaceful. Something tugged in her heart, but just as quickly as the feeling came, she shrugged it off, opening the journal to a random entry.
Ryan came home holding hands with Steve today, it was the cutest thing in the world. With everything happening in town, I'm glad she has him. I know they are only twelve, but they would do anything to protect each other. Other kids aren't as lucky. It's hard to think about. When Steve carried Ryan on his back to the living room to watch a movie with Aaron, all I could think about was The Lab. I should be enjoying time with my family, laughing while Aaron makes jokes about the day that Ryan and Steve might get married while they dramatically pretend to throw up, I should be focused on how despite all their groans of disgust, Ryan blushes bright red, but not as red as Steve, but no. All I can think about is The Lab and their experiments that play god, what it means for the future of my family, for everyone. They're dangerous. They have to be stopped.
Ryan quickly shut the journal, her mind whirling with a million different thoughts. What was the Lab? What experiments? How did her mom find it? She was twelve in the entry her mother wrote, almost thirteen based on the date in the corner above. This was written just a few months before her parents had died. This journal was her mother's last written words.
Steve stirred next to her, slowly waking up. For a second, he forgot where he was. The flowered sheets where definitely not his. Then he remembered. Ryan. He had stayed with Ryan so she wasn't alone, because she was scared, terrified of being alone. He sat up straight in bed, seeing that the redhead was already awake, her head in her hands.
"Hey, did you get any sleep last night?" He asked, his voice lower than usual from just waking up. Ryan shook her head, eyes on a journal in front of her. Steve leaned forward to grab it, studying the cover, "What's this?"
"It's one of my mom's journals." Ryan sighed, glancing over at him. She was still trying to figure out what her mother wrote those few months before her death. "I found it in my dad's safe yesterday."
