Alexithymia | STRANGER THINGS [DISCONTINUED]

AUTHOR'S NOTE

So, because Netflix decided it wanted to be stupid and have people pay to not have ads, I've decided not to publish anymore chapters of this fic, which is unfortunate because I really enjoyed writing Matthew's character and his growth in it.

So, because of their dumbass decision with the ads, I'm just going to both tell you the idea I had for Matthew in the final three episodes of season 4 and show you what I had written so far in one of the chapters before my hiatus last year:

THIRTY ONE | THE MASSACRE AT HAWKINS LAB

While Matthew only stared directly at the chief of police with his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes narrowed, Chief Powell asked the five of them, "And what exactly were you all doing at the lake?"

As he glanced between Lucas and Max, Dustin said, "Uh... It's com—"

Then Max told Chief Powell, "We were... We were just going for a walk."

In turn, Officer Callahan asked them, "A walk? At 9:00 p.m.?"

With a quick raise of his head, Dustin said, "To the lake. We were gonna take a little swim. Little night swim."

While Matthew only rolled his eyes in response to just how high-pitched Dustin's voice was at that exact moment, Claudia Henderson said, "Dusty. Someone was just murdered there."

Dustin replied, "Yeah, we... we didn't realize that until we got there."

Then Lucas told them, "That's why we didn't swim."

Then Karen asked them, "And Nancy, was she with you at this night swim?"

With a shake of her head, Max said, "No."

Then Dustin said, "Yes. Uh..."

Then Lucas said, "We're not sure."

With a sigh, Karen asked, "Matthew, when was the last time that you even saw your sister?"

With a shrug of his shoulders, Matthew said, "Haven't seen her since the day of the pep assembly."

While Karen had simply let out a sigh in response to her eldest son's words, Dustin told them, "She was there. Then she left. It's all a little confusing."

With her eyebrows furrowed, Karen said, "Matthew, I thought you said that you haven't seen your sister since the day of the pep assembly?"

Matthew replied, "I haven't. I only found Henderson, Val's little sister and Sinclair after I'm guessing Nance left to do whatever she wanted to do." After seeing the look that Karen had on her face, Matthew told her, "I'm not my sister's keeper. How the hell am I supposed to know that she was even there or what she wanted to even do there to begin with?"

While Karen had only let out yet another sigh, Lucas told the two cops, "That's when you guys came."

Then Max said, "Right. Then they dared me to say what I said."

As he let out a forced chuckle, Lucas said, "Oh, yeah."

After the three of them had laughed to themselves, Ted told them, "You're lucky you didn't get shot."

With a nod of his head, Chief Powell asked them, "Aside from Mr. Wheeler over there, have you had any contact with Eddie?"

In turn, Dustin asked him, "That psycho... freak killer? God, no."

Then Lucas said, "Nope. Absolutely not."

With a shake of her head, Max said, "No. We haven't heard from him."

With his eyebrows furrowed, Lucas said, "We barely know the guy."

With a shake of his own head, Dustin said, "Who?"