Salt To The Wound (A Stranger Things Story)

Season 2-Chapter 15: Demons (Troys POV

Troy had felt many things about his parents death, but not a single one of those things was sadness, it was always guilt, anger, happiness, pain, but never sadness.

Troy couldn't sleep peacefully at night, always having that same dream, that Troy was standing right beside his parents, in hell. Because that's where Troy was bound to be at this point, or at least that's how he felt. But tonight there was another dream, this time he was In a dark place when a mirror image of himself walked up to him. "Hello," the image said to him and he was terrified and couldn't even move. "Oh your scared of yourself," it said to him and his eyes went wide. Truth is, this was just him, and he couldn't even move. He felt terrified at the thought of himself and then he realized, he was no better than his dad.

He woke up from the nightmare In a cold sweat. He looked around the room thinking that'd he'd see himself standing there. And he was absolutely terrified by this thought, he wiped his face off and went downstairs to get some water. Your a monster something said and Troy looked around, he was confused. But it kept saying that same thing and it was getting louder and louder. Troy was going crazy. "Shut up,"he said to this voice, but rhe voice continue to get louder amd began to echo. He tried to cover his ears to block out the voice, but it was seemingly too loud. "You alright dude," Dustin said shaking him and he turned to him rapid and his breath was shaky. "I-i-iii-i," Troy began to say and Dustin looked at him confused. "Just-," Troy said and Dustin hugged him. "It'll be okay man, everything will be ok," Dustin said and Troy started to cry.

"And so the voice, it kept getting louder, it also got deeper, I was so scared, I thought it was coming for me," Troy said crying. "I see, listen Troy, tell me what it sounded like, and what did it say?" She said and Troy looked up at her. "Your a monster," Troy said and she looked stunned. "Troy, do you feel that way?" She said and Troy looked up at her. "Yeah I do. All the people around me die or get hurt because if me. I'm the cause, I'm the monster," he said and she looked at him. "Your only human," she said and Troy looked at her. "Your not the reason, this is just bad people getting the bad things they deserve. But listen to me Troy, your one of the good ones, and I fully believe that," she said and Troy smiled then hugged her. "I needed that, I really did," he said and she smiled.

Troy's therapist asked him to seek a psychiatrist. He gave hum two different types of pills and he had to take both each day after he ate. He felt like he was crazy and should be in a psych ward. "So what movie are we gonna watch," Jake asked but Troy was dazed and so he snapped in his face. "Whats up?" Jake asked and Troy turned. "Am I crazy?" He asked and Jake put on a questionable face, "no, why would you think that?" Jake asked and Troy looked down. "I hear voices in my head, and I've been prescribed with depression, anxiety, and I need to take all those goddamn pills. What the fck is wrong with me?" Troy said and Jake looked at him. "That dosent make you crazy," Jake said and Troy turned. "A lot of people can go through what your going through. That dosent make you crazy or a monster, your just you," Jake said and Troy looked forward. "You really think that?" Troy asked and Jake nodded. Jake held his hand "and if your crazy, let's be crazy together," Jake said and Troy smiled. "I like that," Troy said and then he layed down looking up.

Troy walked back down to the graveyard, this was an every day thing at this point. But talking to hid parents graves, it somewhat soothed him. "Hey mom, dad. I'm back as you can see. I've gone crazy because of you two. I hear voices in my head and saying that just makes me feel even more crazy. It's hard to silence them. There's always just two voices one lighter than the other. Is this your way of punishing me? I know I should've been sad about your deaths but it's hard to. And I'll come to accept how I really feel about you two in the future just, not now." He said looking at both the gravestones. He out down flowers and left the graveyard.

It's been a couple of weeks since the last time he visited and now he knew exactly how he felt about them and he needed to go there to finally get over the stage of guilt. "Okay so I'm here been awhile. My therapist told me that there's 5 stages of grief. And apparently right now I'm in the depression stage. And I need to accept that your gone and it's not my fault, and I can't do anything. I've now realized this, and I've been through this depression stage for a while now, not knowing how to feel. Well now I do, I don't feel bad anymore, it's not my fault, its the process of natural selection. But I do know, I fcking miss you both, as bad as you were. So bye and rest in peace." He said smiling and he left finally being able to accept this.