DREAM STATE | STRANGER THINGS

d r e a m s t a t e

DREAM
STATE

by disturbedia

ERIN CARVER ALWAYS KNEW that she was different from the people around her. She never quite could fit in with her peers, her family, or just about anyone inside the small town of Hawkins, Indiana. She wasn't like most kids her age. Although evidently pubescent and more physically mature than the other girls, Erin never cared much about making friends or worrying over which boy was going to ask her to the Snow Ball. She could never find time to ponder such childish things, considering what else the girl had to worry about.

Aside from the lifelong battle of catering her own beliefs to that of her religious family, and living in the shadow of her athletic older brother, Erin always felt that her differences were of much risk to her. The girl never shared many common interests or problems with any other people—at least, no one that she knew of, unless she ever could manage to make a friend.

She didn't like things the other girls her age liked. As a child, Erin really only understood herself as much as the next middle schooler, which didn't mean a whole lot. All she knew was that something else appealed to her, that she'd never even said out loud, before. Something, or someone that her religious family would undoubtedly frown upon, if she ever dared to act on her desires.

But that wasn't all to Erin's peculiar story. Something else made her different, made her struggle and made her stand out. The girl could go places. Places that she should've never been able to enter, or even see. She didn't know why she could, or quite exactly where she was going, but she knew that she, somehow, just began traveling. And she knew that the only time she could roam within the mysterious parameters, was in her sleep.

What was even more strange, was that during these episodes—or whatever she liked to call them—was that she could do some pretty odd things, using only her mind. Erin's unique abilities could've only been described as inexplicable, before she came across the members of her soon-to-be party.

She thought that she was crazy—perhaps some sort of witch. It almost seemed as if she'd gone off the rails, similar to the way that her mother had, once before. According to her older brother, Jason, the woman had lost almost all sense of reality around the time that she became pregnant with Erin, and she'd never been the same, ever since. The young girl didn't know much about her abilities, or even how to control them, but she was certain of one thing; she never wanted to end up like her mother.

And, until Erin Carver could figure out what exactly she was capable of, and gather a grasp on the multiple reasons as to why she was so different from everyone around her, everything foreign about the girl was left confined to nothing but her dream state.

𝑻 𝑯 𝑬 𝑷 𝑨 𝑹 𝑻 𝒀

𝙲𝚑𝚕𝚘𝚎 𝙶𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚎 𝙼𝚘𝚛𝚎𝚝𝚣 𝚊𝚜:
𝐄𝐫𝐢𝐧 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐫 — "𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑊𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑘"