Take My Breath Away (Mileven AU) [On Hold]

Chapter 2

By the time Mike had his second encounter with fairies, he had almost forgotten about his first one. Well at least his conscious mind had. He had never told anyone how he had really found his way back that day. He'd just told them he'd been roaming around for hours and eventually found his way out.

His mother had hugged him hard and reprimanded him for going into the woods, even his sister Nancy, who he thought didn't like him very much because she always pulled his hair and tried to be mom's favourite, had cried with relief when he came back.

But Mike was ten now. And ten year old boys didn't believe in fairy tales. So if it had been up to his conscious mind, he would have gladly forgotten about the encounter in the woods. But every night his dreams would very vividly show him the glowing ball of light and the tinkling laugh echoing through the woods.

He would toss and turn until he would wake up with a sudden urge to head back into the wood and to find.......whatever the hell that was.

Every time he would go near the woods with his friends he would feel as though someone was watching him. But whenever he turned around to look, no one would be there. Mike had told this to his friends Will, Lucas and Dustin more than a few times. At first they had helped him look, but now all they said was "Not again Mike!"

Lucas had shifted into the house next to Mike's when Will and he were in the second grade. He had soon fallen into a great camaraderie with both of them and spent his weekends in Mike's basement playing games and reading comics with them. Dustin was a newer addition. He had shifted to Hawkins in grade 4 with a single mother and lots of gaps between his teeth.

In the years leading up to this encounter, Mike had spent a lot of time in the library reading about mythical creatures, fae and about how in the earlier days people had thought that Hawkins was a portal into a different dimension. He did all this to find an answer to his dreams. Because he didn't remember that his dream wasn't actually a dream, it was a memory.

The local folklore said that Hawkins had been part of the land of faeries. The humans had fought the faeries, destroyed their homes and chased them into a different dimension. Some had been sympathetic to their cause though and tried to protect them, others had consorted with them over the centuries and so a lot of families in Hawkins had magic in their blood but most had no idea about it.

On the day of the encounter, it had snowed really hard. Mike, Will and Lucas had had a sleepover at Will's place the night before. And so when they woke up to see the ground covered in thick snow, their immediate plan was a snowball fight!

They wrapped themselves up in layers of jackets, sweaters and scarfs and set out. Their mitten covered hands were soon rolling the snow into soft balls, building up ammunition to use against each other. They ambushed each other and played in the snow for hours till they tired themselves out. Then Will and Lucas set to build a snowman in the front yard and Mike was sent to bring stuff from the shed at the back of the house so they could finish their work quickly.

But when Mike went out to the back of the house, he saw the strangest thing at the edge of the woods. A girl almost as old as him, with a head full of wild curls and a flower crown nestled onto them stood there looking at the snow as though it was the most astonishing thing on the planet. Her feet were bare and she seemed to be wearing a dress woven from gold.

And because Mike was Mike, and he couldn't hold his curiosity back, he did the most logical thing that his mind told him to and approached her.

"Hello"

Startled, she look up, eyes wide.

"Who are you? Are you lost? Can't find your way back?"

With every word he spoke, she seemed to take a step back into the woods. So he rushed to explain "It's okay, I'm not gonna hurt you. I can help you. My name's Mike, short for Michael. What's yours?"