Raising Hel | a Stranger Things fanfiction

Chapiter 6

Timeline check: set just before ST4 episode 3, in the early hours of Sunday 23rd of March 1986

Hellen spreads the map of Hawkins on the passenger seat and tapes her compass to the dashboard. She probably should wait for daylight to do this, but she has been shifting in her bed for too long, she knows she won't get any more sleep. At least she can be back at the hotel by the time Mr. Munson finishes his shift, in case he calls her.

She looks one more time at the itinerary to what used to be Starcourt mall and starts the car. It's the first time she goes on an expedition alone. There's something exhilarating about it, but very scary. She smiles to herself, thinking she'll use that for her next story. Her smile fades at the thought that Eddie's the only person to read those...

She ups the volume of the radio and sings over it to keep her mind away from her missing friend. The streets are empty and she gets there in no time. But to her disappointment, the place is surrounded by a huge construction fence. For the next hour, she walks the perimeter with a battery-powered magnetometer, only to come back to her car, frustrated. Her readings are perfectly normal, not the slightest disturbance, when Fergusson's were completely out of the chart less than a year ago!

She trusts her friend at Purdue not to have faked this, so this leaves her with two options: Either the source was destroyed by the fire last summer, or she's too far to detect it. She's pretty sure Fergusson said he was inside the mall when he got his measurements.

She wanted to pay him a visit – Purdue is only two hours away – but since he never responded to her calls or letters... Driving all the way there for nothing would be a waste of gas money! Besides, she hates the idea of showing up invited.

She opens her trunk and squeezes the magnetometer between two larger pieces of equipment she borrowed from her science club. The lead student made it clear he was doing her a favor, so she tucked everything with an old blanket and even some of her clothes to make sure she wouldn't break anything by hitting a pothole. To think she might have brought all this for nothing...

She climbs back in her car and, since the clock states 5:17, resigns to go back to the hotel for a few hours. If it's too early for breakfast, a shower won't hurt.

*

Eddie's eyes snap open as yet another nightmare awakes him. When he doesn't see himself dying the same way Chrissy did, it's her who haunts him. She crawls toward him, holds out a twisted arm. Her eyeless face still manages to stare at him as she asks why he left her.

He sits up in the boat that has become his bed and rubs his hands over his own face until the image washes off his mind. He needs to find something else to think about or he'll go insane!

From the opening that enables the boat to sail out to the lake, he can see the sun as a pale circle behind the morning mist. Just like it was on that morning of may 81 when he watched it rise with Hellen.

He just turned 15 and the members of what wasn't called Hellfire club yet decided to celebrate around a campfire. They spent the evening and most of the night telling each other scary stories and eating snacks. The night was colder than expected but they drank a few beers and half a bottle of whiskey to keep warm. Someone even lite a reefer. Hellen, who was still on her first beer, stated Eddie was too young and too smart to take that shit – although she didn't use the word shit – , and dragged him away from the fire. They waited for dawn lying on the floor, wrapped in the same blanket, staring at the sky. Once she started, Hel could talk about space for ever...

Eddie sniffs and brings his knees to his chest. Would he ever be allowed to be young and dumb again?

A crack breaks the charm. Eddie jumps to his feet, searches for his glass shard and peaks at the window. Nothing moves outside but he keeps looking for another 20 minutes. Cursing to himself, he decides to wait for Dustin and the others – who promised to get him food – under the tarp. Back in the darkness, he tries to return to the campfire memory, but his brain can't seem to be able to focus on anything other than listening for signs of human presence around the shed...