Don't Fear The Reaper → Stranger Things (Under Construction)

Leaving Lawrence

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An audible thud was a moment of finality for Margaret.

She was leaving Lawrence. She was leaving her mother and father behind, well their tombstones. Both were dead but you wouldn't catch Margaret crying over the latter. The relationship between William Winchester and his daughter Margaret was beyond what the word complicated could describe. And to rub salt into an infected wound, it had ended on a sour note.

A January chill blew over Margaret's skin and she breathed in deeply. Her hands were on the sides of the bed of her truck so she could lean over it and not fall into it. She had a few things to pack earlier in the day and now that they were, she wanted to make sure she had everything. The bed of her old truck was a sea of suitcases and boxes of varying sizes, she hoped Benny had room for it all. This is what she wanted right? She had always wanted to leave and make a life for herself outside of her father, outside of monster hunting.

Hawkins wasn't so bad, not from the summers she remembers staying there. A small town with a tight-knit community and plenty of nice people. A real nuclear town.

"Maggie!" The voice that called out to Margaret was by far her favorite ever. Her young cousin Dean, the two were fourteen years apart but still attached to her hip. Margaret hardly went anywhere that Dean couldn't follow.

Dean's little sneakers beat against the concrete path leading out of his front yard. His goal was Margaret's old orange truck that he had nicknamed "The Orange Monster."

Dean thought that the engine turning over sounded like a roar.

"Hey, Dean-o!" Margaret crouched to scoop up Dean just as he launched himself at her legs. His mother Mary, made her way toward them slowly a hand resting on her large stomach. Soon she would have two sons instead of one. Mary smiled at both of them warmly as Dean settled on Margaret's hip. Margaret looked over and saw Mary making her way over with John following behind, he placed a hand on his wife's back and kissed her temple.

Margaret was glad that they had made up from whatever fight they had the other day. She didn't know the specifics but the whole neighborhood certainly knew now that they were having marital issues. John and Mary had tried to keep it under wraps but that doesn't usually work out when you start arguing at three in the morning and don't stop till five. Whatever the case was, Margaret hoped that she was leaving Dean in a happy home rather than a dysfunctional one.

As her uncle and aunt walked over to them, Margaret smiled and nodded along to Dean's babblings of whatever interested him this week. It seemed to be cars at the moment and Margaret wasn't surprised given the fact that John works at a car shop.