There were few things that had instilled fear in me since the summer of 1985. After becoming witness to the monsters from my fantasy Dungons and Dragons game come into reality, to seeing the life drain from the eyes of those against us and to be close to the brink of death, my sense of fear was warped.
Even without all the monsters, Russian spies and government agencies, the true horror is coming home to no one.
Despite the previous incidents where I've been out past curfew. Putting my own life in danger, having my parents see me in the back of an ambulance car, or after the shadow monster incident how me and everyone else involved were gone for another two days in quarantine. How I had shown up at home to just my father asleep in the living room, my mother out and about only to come home later and make a fuss about the bags under my eyes, dirt under my nails and cuts and scrapes all over my arms and legs from running in tunnels, disguising the shed, running, endless running. The third occurance, again being gone for days, only to show up at home with a bruised face, busted lip and an unspoken fear of being alone. That for those three months when I was still able to have El near I was back to being with her constantly because we had both come so close to losing each other.
This time around was different. I and others had thought that El worked up the strength to manipulate her powers full time, that when we were just prepubescent little kids she wasn't strong enough to withstand herself. But her powers were dormant this time around and it hit everyone full force that she's still just a girl, one with the fate of the world always on her shoulders.
With her and Will gone, the party has dispersed. We all started high school and tried our best to suppress the summer and try to get back to normal as quickly as possible. Within the first half of the year I was the one set back. Still waiting and hoping that Miss Byers would return with El and Will. But after their third visit down here, El had broken down, confessing that being in Hawkins was too difficult, brought up too many bad memories and the tragedy of Hopper's death.
Hopper's death is still something my mind has refused to accept. Because a guy as brutish and stubborn as him just doesn't go down that easy. He was untouchable in my mind, and when I had confessed that to El she just broke down all over again.
After the first half of that year and El confessing the pain Hawkins gives her, I had taken to visiting her in Illinois whenever possible. Which had turned out to be at least once every other month, and if I was lucky and worked enough odd jobs, I had spent the occasional three day weekend and holiday over there. We still had the coms as a form of communication, Dustin had sent Will off with the instructions of how to build their own radio tower. And Will had actually figured out how to get it onto a much smaller scale due to Joyce's complaints of how much it had stood out upon their new house. But these days it's rare to hear anything emitting from my com.
It's true what they say about high school. It just expands the cliches and theres a place for everyone to fit into. Lucas had become involved in sports, training with his teammates everyday after school, being away a lot at games, he even made varsity basketball his freshmen year. Max had broken up with Lucas in the middle of freshmen year and they weren't able to patch things up as well this time around, they talk but it's not always civil. Max hung around the skaters, also branded as the stoners, it's mostly guys and the occasional girl who just wants to date a bad boy. Dustin came into high school disappointed with how terrible the A/V department was and restarted the club from scratch, he is the one that has changed the least and I am so greatful for his persistence. We all have joined the A/V club for old times sake, but Lucas is most times too busy to show up and Max just blows it off a lot.
I actually talk to Max the most out of all of them because we have three classes together. She takes a different tone with me because her outside exterior is a bitch that can't be crossed. But due to the shared trauma she puts away her act.
