Basic Instinct [stranger things]

101. Fears

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND ONE
FEARS

Later that night, Kimmy was sat with Aaron on the couch in the Harrington household living room. Both too scared to go to sleep and both too scared to admit it.

Kimmy didn't know how long the two had sat in silence as they pretended to watch the show blaring in front of them, but she knew it had been quite some time.

The brunette hadn't even turned to look at the blond in what she presumed had been at least two hours.

Still, she hadn't looked to him once. Despite the fact she could feel his gaze burning into her face every now and then or how she could hear the way he'd shift slightly when he turned to look at her. She hadn't returned the gesture.

The issue was that she didn't even know why herself.

Yes, she was quite shaken after what she'd witnessed that afternoon, but so was everyone else. Kimmy wasn't the only person who had been there, she wasn't even the person who had been victim to the attack. Yet, somehow she'd felt like she'd been struck deeply for some bizarre reason.

Kimmy had done nothing but mentally scold herself for the past two hours. Max had been the one who'd suffered, not Kimmy.

However Kimmy had a habit of overthinking things that shouldn't be overthought.

The brunette was absolutely horrified for Max and utterly terrified for her.

The car ride after the cemetery had been a quiet one, with the sound of the redheads sniffles being the only detectable noise.

Kimmy was sure she had been crying too, only she couldn't remember. She couldn't form a full sentence or thought. The only thing she had been focused on was her tight hold on the redheads hand.

At times, Kimmy felt like she could drown in empathy. Like she felt more for others than she did herself.

She was completely torn up for her friend, to the point she'd been on the verge of tears the entire night.

It was now evidently clear that she may not have a whole lot of time left with her friend, and that thought terrified her.

In fact, it made Kimmy feel guilty in a way. As if she'd rather she would suffer over her friend.

She didn't even know why she felt such a heavy feeling of guilt, there wasn't anything she could have done to have prevented what had happened to her friend. So why did she feel like shit?

The longer Kimmy thought about it, the more she realised that maybe it wasn't guilt she was feeling. Yes, she had an overbearing sense of nausea that usually followed her when she had managed to drown herself in guilt.

However, a realisation struck her, and once it did it only made her feel ten times worse. Kimmy soon realised it was a feeling of fear. A feeling so severe that she couldn't shake it, and that she failed to focus on anything else.

Kimmy often felt scared, but she hadn't had a feeling of fear wash over her so intense in months.

However it wasn't a feeling that often occurred, perhaps that was why she was struggling to recognise it.

She hadn't felt so scared and out of control since her incidents back home. Those were the only times she could ever recall such fear striking her.

Not even when she'd feared maybe she could fall victim to Vecna when she'd snuck into the school, or when the demodogs had attempted to attack the group nearly two years prior. There was absolutely nothing.