Ashes & Embers (Stranger Things)

Chapter Three: The Bench

The town was covered in a thick black smoke, red lightning illuminated the sky revealing a beast so monstrous it did not have a face. She stood in the field looking, watching as its screeching roar boomed through the town. She looked to her left and saw her father lying in the field spitting up blood. She knelt down in what felt like slow motion, taking him into her arms. "Dad!" She called to him but her voice was gone.

He looked up at her touching her cheek softly, "You look so much like your mother..." a tear fell from his eyes and he tried to smile but only coughed up more blood.

She tried to find his injuries but she could not see any, she felt cold again and looked up at the monster only this time, she saw Dustin Henderson, Steve Harrington, Chief Hopper, and Jonathan Byers standing before her. Their eyes were hollow, their mouths broken; they lifted their arms pointing down the hill. There stood Will Byers, his eyes were a ghostly white, black veins protruded from his skin as if he had been infected. A demonic shadow stood behind him, it's grotesque scarred hand on Will's shoulder as he rose his right hand.

It was then that Madi noticed the girl at his feet. Her hair had been shaved, and blood was spewing from her nose, ears, and eyes.

"The time has come for it all to end..." the voice came from Will Byers' mouth but Madi knew it wasn't him.

A clock struck its chime and a sharp ringing began in her ears, she could feel the blood seeping out of her ear canals as her vision began to blur and the earth began to shake. The monster screeched and that's when the batlike creatures came swirling down towards her.

She awoke in a cold sweat panting from her nightmare, she looked over at the clock and saw that it was nearly 7:30am. She rushed out of bed changing her clothes before rushing into the bathroom washing her face and brushing her teeth, battling with the morning bedhead.

She rinsed her mouth spitting into the sink before grabbing her bag and rushing down the stairs into the kitchen. Her dad sat reading the newspaper while her drank his coffee, she let out a sigh of relief to see he hadn't left without her. "Cutting it real close kiddo." He chuckled.

"Yeah sorry, my alarm didn't go off." She walked over to the pantry grabbing some bread and sliding it into the toaster. She went to pour herself a cup of apple juice while grabbing the peanut butter from the top shelf.

A few days had gone by, and the ash finally stopped but Hawkins was cold. Although the people in the town tried to go back to normal it was nearly close to impossible. Madi hadn't seen a glimpse of Eddie since that day he walked her home, her father hadn't mentioned anything about finding him, so she knew he was still somewhere out there.

She felt her head reeling back to the dream, flashes of the monster in the sky, Hawkin burning, it felt like a sharp stabbing pain at the temples of her head. She gripped the side of the counter to steady herself turning as she tried to focus on making her toast. She suddenly felt sick as the lights began to irritate her vision. "Dad?" Madi began, "can I ask you something?"

"Hmm." He said not removing his eyes from the paper.

"What'll happen to Eddie if you all find him?" She asked and he looked up from the newspaper.

"Well, it's better that we find him instead of Jason Carver's crusade of witch hunters." He said grabbing his mug and heading over to the sink to dump the rest of his coffee out.

"I had another dream last night..." She continued to spread peanut butter on her toast, as the pain in her head began to subside. She didn't dare look up at her father, she was afraid of the look she knew he was giving her. "There was a dark cloud covering Hawkins, and people were screaming, dying." she shuddered at the thought of her father dying in her arms.