Imagines [Book Four]

Stranger Things/Lost Boys [Eddie Munson] pt. 2

It's no surprise that the five men drive like lunatics, the motorcycles bouncing down the boardwalk stairs before hitting the beach. They gun their engines after, spraying beach sand as they go. You pass up multiple bonfires, grunting as Billy joins the others in jumping sand dunes, and then drive towards a pathway in a deserted part of the beach.

Everyone's face is alive with excitement and the thrill of the ride, and you can't help the laughter that escapes you as they race through the woods towards this cave you heard David mention earlier.

Soon enough the uneven path that the boys had been driving turns into a flat surface and through the low lying clouds you can see a lighthouse. The boys pick up speed, you grasp tighter around Billy's abdomen, and then all too soon he's screeching to halt at the edge of a cliff.

Glancing over the side and peering down into the crashing waves, you roll your eyes before glancing back at everyone. "Consider me terrified," you deadpan. "Now can we get on with it?"

Billy chuckles. "You're a lot bitchier than I remember."

"And you're a lot more mellow than I remember."

"California, sweetheart. It calms me."

"Mhm. I'm sure that's it."

"Enough chit chattin', you two, and let's go," David says.

You and Billy share a look, both grinning at David's impatience, before you follow his lead.

You're led down a rickety wooden staircase on the side of the cliff which Paul delightfully informs you is called Hudsons Bluff. Down by the crashing waves you can see the mouth of a cave- a chain link fence having been placed around the entrance with signs reading Condemned, Unsafe and Unlawful to Go Past This Point.

You snort at their lack of caution and enter the cave, surprising the others when you don't trip down the tunnel leading to their hangout. Eventually there's a steep drop the others hop down from, but you slide down it to the best of your ability.

Dwayne and Paul light up some torches and go around lighting up barrels of trash to give the room some light. You look around in surprise to be inside a room- a room that looks suspiciously like an old hotel lobby. You can see a front desk, a mural, a wrought-iron elevator, a fountain, and numerous pieces of furniture. Nearly everything in the room is broken with vines and roots hanging from the ceiling, and shafts of moonlight shooting down from cracks in the ceiling.

"This was the hottest resort in Santa Carla back about eighty years ago," David says while taking a seat in a dusty wheelchair. "Too bad they built it right on top of the San Andreas fault." He pauses and you take another moment to look around, huffing a laugh at Marko sitting on the fountain and cooing at a pigeon in his hands. "In 1906, when the big one hit San Francisco, the ground opened up and this place took a header into the crack."

"Bummer," you utter.

Paul chuckles. "Man, you wouldn't believe the cool stuff we've found in here."

"Beats my place," you say, grinning at Paul.

"And where exactly is this place you're staying if our hotel is the better option?" Billy asks.

You shrug. "Some abandoned warehouse on the other side of town. It has four walls and a roof, so I'm good."

A beat of silence passes and then, "What the hell happened, YLN?" Billy then asks. "You're not.. you."

You turn towards him, grinning. "Finally picked up on that, did you?"

"Spill. Now."

Sighing, you walk over to an overturned milk crate and take a seat. Then glancing around at the other men, you ask, "What did Billy tell of Hawkins? Of the Upside Down?"