Shutter [Jonathan Byers] Stranger Things I

Prologue

shut·ter

noun

a device that opens and closes to expose the film in a camera.

December 16, 1981

Tall, dark and naked trees stood tall on either side of the car. Towering taller than any man or woman, they overlooked the small town of Hawkins without a worry in the world. Emilia looked up with envy at those trees, their slender trunks sturdier than she would ever be and yet the tops swayed in the wind. Surviving every storm, anything mother nature could throw at them, they were braver than her. She averted her eyes back down to the poorly painted white line on the side of the road. It disappeared and reappeared, like a strobe light, giving way to rocks and dirt on the side of the road. Her breath fogged the window, it crept up from where she breathed out, and then slowly closed back in on itself, and then she would exhale again. The process was repeated over and over again.

"Sweetheart," Emilia's mother, Arlene, started; they hadn't said a word to each other in what felt like hours, but was only half an hour. Time moved slow when there was discomfort, sadness, and anger. But her mother knew that these things didn't last long. "You know this doesn't need to change our relationship."

"How can it not?" Emilia muttered, her voice as dull and empty as a fifteen year old girl could manage. "You're leaving."

"I don't expect you to understand right now," she sighed, "I know how much it hurts."

"Then don't do it."

There was a forlorn sigh, and then a silence that was only disturbed by the consistent sound of the car engine. A whir of machinery all around them; Emilia imagined the sound of the wind in the trees outside. The snow that was falling silenced most of the world, although there was a notable crunch underneath the tires of the car. Emilia leaned against the window, a rush of cold running through her veins like ice water. She shut her blue eyes and pretended that she wasn't really there, that her mother hadn't just told her that she was leaving her father. She imagined a world where her parents didn't fight all the time; even in that thought alone she knew it was right that her mother leave her father, but the thought scared her. She couldn't think of any one of her friends with divorced parents, it would be so embarrassing. And so she resented her mother, for now.

Her mother's voice wavered when she said, "I love you, Emilia."

Emilia didn't say it back.

The impact of the truck that hit them sent their car sliding off the road; the ice along the sides of the road created a spin. The small car spun twice before sliding further into the ditch where a tree stopped them; the force at which they hit the tree sent Emilia's mother forward and her skull contacted the steering wheel. Emilia felt her seatbelt freeze and she felt her sternum slam hard against it, fracturing the bone. Even through the throbbing in her head, the busted radiator wheezing, and Emilia's terrified moans of pain, she heard her mother's skull come into contact with the hard steering wheel. Her body lay slumped against the horn, which was blaring; the headlights were twisted into distorted positions and lighted up the tops of the trees, which were still swaying in the wind.

In a flash as quick as a camera shutter, Emilia's life was turned upside down.

Thanks for reading, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Dedicated to Mouse230 for supporting me! The cover of this story was created by LarissaChesser, she makes wonderful covers!

LINK: https://www.wattpad.com/261912158-wattpad-cover-creator-introduction