𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐖𝐈𝐍; steve harrington

ᵗ ʰ ⁱ ʳ ᵗ ʸ

June 28th, 1985

TO AVEN'S SURPRISE, THEY HADN'T done enough. 

It had been around six months since the unforgettable fight between the human race and the mind flayer came to an end - or what was thought to be the end. They had defeated all the interdimensional creatures, either by slaughtering them or watching them shrivel up to their dark bones and die, and successfully closed the only gate to the upside-down world. Ever since, nothing much had changed, except for the sanity of those involved. Some were more damaged than others.

Everyone tried to forget it; move on with their lives as if nothing involving deathly creatures and additional dimensions ever happened in the small, Indiana town. Some people tried hard, some didn't try at all, and others didn't try hard enough. One of those few people was Aven.

Although nothing in her environment seemed to change, and everyone acted just as they had done beforehand, she couldn't seem to ignore the obvious pointers back to the world flourishing beneath them. Ranging from flashbacks to nightmares, or even subtle things like the sound of the wind - Aven somehow found a way to link it all back to the Upside Down.

She mentioned it briefly to Steve, but he immediately shut it down. He didn't think the mind flayer could really be back, it was impossible. So she believed him, no matter how many times she would walk past a Demogorgon in a window or see a streak of red lightning in a storm. She never told anyone about it again.

As for the rest of the world, everything was going great. Hawkins was striving, with a huge surge of tourists swarming towards the town after the infamous Starcourt Mall was installed in the town's centre. Nothing drastic had changed within Aven's messed-up family, with her dad being the same asshole as he was the year prior, whilst treating Susan like a queen. Billy, however, was getting there.

Aven had noticed over the past month or two that he'd had a change of heart. Yes, he was still an idiot, a bully, and an overall disgusting person - but he was her brother, and nothing would ever change that. He'd started taking time out of his day to greet her in the mornings, or on the off day, even offer to drive her to work. Of course it was nothing life-changing, but to Aven, it meant the world. It showed her that the real Billy, that her Billy, was still somewhere in there.

Over the six months without any trouble, the girl had also gotten closer to Max and her friends, some closer than others. Ever since that night at the Byer's, Mike had taken a liking to the blue-eyed girl, and vice-versa. She'd comforted him when no one else had, which he admired, so he stuck by her. He hated to say it, but he looked up to her more than he did to his actual sister, because she treated him more like a person than Nancy ever did. Maybe it was her nature, he didn't know, but he loved her for it all the same.

The Hargrove daughter had also landed herself a part-time position down the mall at Camelot Music. It was a small store a few doors down from Scoop's Ahoy, which Steve Harrington worked at, that sold a variety of different records and vinyls. It was the only store like it in Hawkins, Indiana, which was proven by the amount of customers the two girls - Aven and Atlanta - got on their daily shifts.