A new era, new generation. Hawkins was improving itself, day by day. Fixing things that they ignored before. But, under all of that sunshine and daisies bullshit, lay a dark history. When the world collided with Hawkins, that wasn't the town anyone would know.. red and twisted. Upside Down. That's the world no one dared utter a name of.
When the ground cracked and the sky grew red, when the monsters with grotesque figures rose from the Upside Down, and the only thing to stop it was a bunch of teens.
But that was a time to forget, something to be buried under the soil. Until.. now.
Your house was empty, the only sound being a crackling radio and the buzz from the light above you. Homework strewn across your desk, chin perched in your hand as if staring at it would make you understand physics. Your free hand held your pencil, the nib touching the gridded paper for so long it made a lead dent in the page. Wind tousled your curtains, letting them flow at the bottom. Being without parents and your older siblings should be fun, not boring. But you knew you had to finish this, or else it was game over for you.
A sigh escaped your lips, mind foggy with the need for sleep and pure frustration. Frustration to where your mind grows cloudy and blocks everything out. You dropped the pencil onto the carpet beneath the stool you sat upon, landing on the cold, kitchen tile. You buried your face into your hands, letting out a silent scream. Nonetheless, you leaned down to pluck it between two fingers, slowly rising to meet the counter and the inevitable door, of homework.
But the radio had stopped..
It left the house too quiet. Quiet enough to where your ears feel weird when they try to strain for a comforting sound. Not even the buzz of the light above you. Another huff. This was getting in your nerves now. You looked up, the dangling kitchen light perfectly fine. Until it wasn't.
Flicker.
It's just the electricity.
Flicker.
Don't think too much about it.
Flicker. Crack.
Your head snapped outside, a twig breaking so loudly from the forest that you could hear it from the glass sliding door to the back. Through the broken planks your dad had attempted to fix, you could see the woods. The ones your older siblings told you to stay away from.
Crack.
Another twig. Louder this time.
"Fuck this.." you muttered under your breath, hurriedly shoving on shoes as the sound grew more hurried, the lights flickering frantically like — like it knew you were trying to leave. You didn't bother to leave a note, not with this. You ran out the door, hopping on your bike and riding fast down the dark road. The streetlights provided comfort as the sounds grew fainter and smaller. Maybe it was nothing. But you had a feeling it wasn't.
Soon, you found yourself in front of the Byers household, your bike dropping on the grass of their front garden. You stepped onto the pavement, then to the wood of their porch. Your older brother had told you ahout them, how their son went missing in the Upside Down and they searched through slimy tentscles to get him back, how they harboured a girl called Eleven. Or Jane as she goes by now. Your memory fogged, the only thing flashing through your mind was those lights and that sound. Something about Jane having powers, about another world of Hawkins, about creatures with heads that stretched out and teeth that shone in the moonlight. That there were other teens who were there with them. The Mayfields, the Wheelers, The Sinclairs, and The Hendersons. You called bullshit. Not anymore.
You knocked on their door, an older woman with brunette bangs and long hair answered the door. Joyce. "Can I help you sweetheart?" She asked, kind eyes shining into yours.
Crack. It echoed in your mind.
Flicker.
Flicker.
Crack.
The Upside Down didn't fall. It never did. It bided and waited.
It only chose a new victim.
You.