He Who Controls the Flame (001 fanfic)

Chapter One- Daddy Issues

Authors Note:
-!!All Seasons of Stranger Things spoilers ahead!!
-I've watched all seasons of Stranger Things, but it's been a bit lol. I've just watched season 4 though (vol. 1) and this book revolves around that season. (Specifically Peter Ballard) So if I get some facts from previous seasons wrong, I apologize, but just go with it lol.
-Juliette's face claim is Lily Collins but ofc imagine who you'd like or yourself and make it a reader insert because that's totally more fun lol. Anyways, have fun!! Thanks for reading!!

I couldn't wait to leave this fucking lab. I mean, come on, who enjoyed seeing little kids get tortured? Not me, that was for sure.

I knew what my father did for his job, I knew what it entailed and how he paraded as some sort of father figure for these strange, unnatural children, but I just found it easier to ignore than confront. Not that it was super easy to ignore. It wasn't like I could tell people the truth when they asked what my daddy did for a living. "Bring your kid to work day" was a bust, along with "bring your parent to school" day. Whenever somebody asked about my father all I said was "he's an accountant." Nobody really asked any more questions after that.

While my father was busy raising up his buzz-headed children, I was raised by a nanny. Her name was Manuela and she smelt like cinnamon and she made the best arroz con pollo known to man. Or at least, that was what she told me. It held true too, I always left Mexican restaurants unsatisfied. Manuela was my fill-in mother, sure, but she was more of a parent to me than my biological father ever had been. He was always working, Maneula was the one to hold me during thunderstorms, to hold my hair back when I had a sour stomach, to get me ready for my first ever school dance.

She did all that. My father did nothing, so technically, I owed him nothing, but alas...he was paying for my apartment in California, so I felt like I owed him at least this last request before I went off to college.

"Hello Miss Brenner," a guard said, nodding at me. I nodded back, wrapping my arms around myself. It didn't matter if it was nine hundred degrees in the damn lab, I'd always feel cold. Everything was cold there. From the linoleum white tiles to the fluorescent lights shining above. Even the guards were cold, unfeeling beings. When I was younger, I used to poke at them just to see if they had regular body temperatures. Unfortunately, they did, but the suspicion never really went away. I had half the urge to now at the age of eighteen.

"Your father is in the Testing Room, he told us to take you there," the guard said.

"Right," I said, rubbing my arms over the fabric of my sweater just to give my hands something to do. I always felt so tense here, like I was always being watched. My eyes shot up to the blinking red cameras that lined the halls. Ah yes, the source of the feeling.

We started walking down the bright white halls, our footsteps echoing loudly, so loud it was almost jarring.

My eyes scanned the rooms we passed. They didn't have any labels on them, but I could see shadows moving behind the frosted glass. My neck craned as I stared, trying to see what was going on. I didn't really want to know, but my curiosity always got the best of me. Like that time I caught Manuela kissing the delivery man one fine Saturday morning at our front door. But in my defense, I was eagerly awaiting a new edition of a magazine and she was taking a really long time.

My thoughts about Manuela and her UPS hunk shattered when I collided into something. My forehead smacked into something hard and pointy, and I would have fallen over had an arm not wrapped around my waist, the other cradling my neck.

"Careful there," a calm voice said. "Wouldn't want our most prized girl getting hurt." My forehead pounded uncomfortably and I reached up to massage the ache there.