Briar Rose

~ 3 ~

"SON OF A BITCH!" rang through the Henderson home as the curly-headed teen scavenged his home for spare change.

It was arcade night after all and no one was stupid enough to show up with little or no money. Dustin Henderson learned this the hard way after one night in February of that year when he lost the money his Aunt Linda gave him when she came to visit and ended up spending the entire night penniless and sulking.

His ever kind friend Will Byers offered him some of his share of coins but Dustin knew better than to accept. The Byers weren't rich by any means and any money Will earned and got to keep for himself was sacred.

From that day on Dustin swore never to forget his own money for the Arcade.

"Mom, can I please check under your couch cushions?" Dustin asked in a panic, time was cutting close and he needed to leave soon if he wanted first shot on Dragon's Lair. After a back and forth with Claudia Henderson, who sat watching that evenings viewing of Family Ties with her beloved ginger tabby cat Mews, (and a quick debate with Lucas over who should radio their fellow friend Mike ) Dustin was on his bike and raced to the Palace Arcade.

While the arcade was a source of fun for the entire party, it couldn't be denied that the games were often infuriating. "No! No! No! No! I hate this overpriced bullshit! Son of a bitch! Piece of shit!" Dustin yelled out in anger, the machine receiving a swift kick and the Henderson boy receiving taunting from Lucas.

Their bickering was to be expected.

Dusting took a deep breath and glared at Lucas "Whatever. I'm still top on Centipede and Dig Dug." It was a voice behind the party that spoke this time. "You sure about that?" Keith, the obnoxious Palace Arcade employee mumbled through his Cheeto stuffed mouth, his hand already reaching into the bag for more. "No, no, no. Move! Move! No, no, no, no, no. Hey, no! No! No!" Dustin slammed into the Dig Dug console only to see that his high score had in fact been obliterated and he now sat second on the leaderboard, under an unusual name none of the boys had seen in the arcade before,

"M A D M A X"

Outraged, Dustin immediately turned to the teenager now licking the Cheeto dust from his finger. "Who is MADMAX?". Keith scoffed before answering, "Better than you." Bickering broke out between the party and The employee, childish insults being thrown about.

No one noticing that Will Byers had slipped out of the building into the parking lot outside the arcade, seeing a horrifying version of our world play out before his eyes. These visions were common for the Byers boy nowadays. After his disappearance almost a year earlier Will began to experience things that could not be easily explained, but then again, none of what he, his family and the party went through last November was easy to explain.

Everything from the strange dimension the government was trying to hide or the monsters that lurked in the shadows, to the friend that the party lost in exchange for Will's safety, no one would believe any of it. Mike found him standing frozen staring into the night air, obviously troubled by whatever he could see that Mike couldn't. All Mike could see was the stars in the sky on a Thursday night. Will was shaken awake by his best friend and brought back inside.

Dustin looked out the arcade window just in time to see a fresh patch of white lilies sprout from the ground seemingly out of thin air. He is snapped out of his stare by Lucas dying on Dig Dug and the party's laughter at the game.

He had Never seen anything like it.

Briar hated road trips, sitting in a car for extended periods of time without any space to stretch her legs. She especially hated road trips with Mr. Campbell, a social worker from the upper west side, In other words, a total stranger.  When Briar learned that she would be staying with her estranged father she freaked. Having never met the man this was understandable.  According to her mother, he was a scientist or something that she met when he was working at the hospital in Rochester. Apparently, they hit it off really well as within a month of knowing him, Carly was pregnant with his child and he had to leave to go back to Hawkins, Indiana.