Ashes Falling Upwards (stranger things, Will x OC/reader)

Ride home

"Ashie, where should we go tomorrow?" Erin yelled, her voice shaken by the rocks under their wheels.

The two girls lived close enough to each other that most of their bike rides home were on the same path. Most days Erin's mother picked them up, but on this particular day they were stuck on two wheels each. Erin had finally gotten enough of her mysterious liquid off her hands that she felt safe touching her bike, so they could ride home safely.

"Trick or Treating?" Ash asked. To be honest, with everything that had happened in the past few days she'd almost forgotten it was almost Halloween.

"Yeah, no shit. I hear Loch Nora's a good place to hit up, you know, because of all the rich people."

"Yeah, sure."

Erin pedaled faster, her breath speeding up as she set a pace to stay at Ash's side. She gave her a worried look, asking, "okay, what is it?"

"What is what?" Erin raised an eyebrow. "What is what?" Ash repeated. "What is nothing. I'm fine."

"That's five."

Ash sped up slightly as they turned onto her street, eager to get out of this conversation.

"Five?"

Erin matched her speed again. "That's five times you've said "I'm fine" this week. Ashie, I don't know what it is, but I'm starting to think maybe you're not that fine."

Krkrkrkrrrrgaaa

Ash's feet faltered on the pedals and she scrambled for the brake to keep from flying off.

"Ash!" Erin yelped as she skidded to a stop, braking as well. She hopped off and ran over to her yelling "what was that? Are you okay?"

"Tell me you heard that!" Ash begged as Erin helped steady her.

"That? That was just a weird dog or something, Ashie. You have to calm down!"

So I'm not going insane. That thought brought on a whole new wave of emotions, mostly of horror. That meant those creatures really were here, not only in her world, but in her town, near her house.

I need to talk to Will as soon as possible.

"You're right. I'm fine."

"Six."

Ash sighed, flipping one leg over her bike and pulling herself on again.

"Actually, have you talked to your mom about this?" Erin asked, doing the same.

"No way. She'd freak."

Erin didn't say anything as they started off again, just gave her a pitying look before turning her attention back to the road. Ash pretended not to notice.