DREAM STATE | STRANGER THINGS

f o u r ↣ etched of shadows

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E  R  I  N

ERIN CARVER WAS NEVER very fond of blood, especially when it was her own. She'd woken up that morning due to the gentle trickling of a droplet of the metallic liquid leaking from her nostril. Just like everything else that came from sleeping in the closet that night, the nosebleed was extremely unusual, as she'd never had one before. But that was nowhere near being the girl's biggest concern, after the nightmare she'd just experienced.

The girl knew that she needed to figure out what'd just happened to her. And more importantly, she needed to make sure that nobody else, especially her mother, found out about it. That would be difficult for the girl, considering that her older brother, Jason Carver, was the one to release Erin from the closet, the next morning.

After their mother had gotten up and left for work, he'd noticed that the girl's bedroom door was open, and that her sheets were untouched from the morning before. He was—more often than not—right there to comfort the girl after nights like those. Although Jason had become accustomed to his mother's beliefs, he still felt guilty for the extremes that his little sister would have to go through.

In his mind, the girl just had a harder time cleansing herself of satanic tendencies, and needed more time to give herself to God. He thought that girls, in general, were born as greater sinners. It was completely twisted, but Jason's faux sympathy had become the beacon of light in Erin's gloomy life.

He'd made the girl breakfast, that morning and even told her rumors about Steve Harrington and Nancy Wheeler breaking up at Tina's Halloween party. Of course, Jason wasn't at the party, but had to drive a few of his drunk teammates home from it after he was finished with his lonely basketball practice in the Hawkins High School Gymnasium. By the time Jason got home, the closet had already had its victim, and his mother had not noticed his absence.

Although Jason's motives were skewed, he did manage to cheer Erin up—momentarily allowing the girl to forget about her realistic nightmare—before the two made their drive to school. He almost never drove his sister to school—mostly because he always had morning practice. But that morning he insisted that she came with, wanting to get her out of that house as soon as possible.

Once the two got to school, the girl made walk from her brother's car, straight to the high school darkroom. It was her happy place, after all.

Jason thought nothing of it, as his sister would always be short-spoken after nights like those. But the boy watched as his sister stepped out of his car, walking away without a word, having no idea of the complex circumstances of her silence.