STRANGER THINGS IMAGINES

Stay With Me | Robin Buckley

How does one deal with sudden information she can't understand? How is one supposed to act without a second thought in a situation that is very much out of her hands? And how is one expected to react after all the terror and danger has faded away and she is just left to be a shattered mess, coming apart at the seams as she watches the world she has always know collapse around her.

When the events of Starcourt Mall happened in the summer of 1985, Robin thought it had just been a bad dream, a trick, a hallucination. She didn't really think any of it was real, even as she sat beside Steve in the back of an ambulance, a paramedic checking over her small scratches and dark bruises.

But there in front of her was a burning building, flames lapping up the walls and glass covering every inch of the ground around the doors and windows. Just hours ago, she'd been in that mall, fighting for her life, just trying to survive as the monster raged above them.

It was true that she was in shock, that she was second guessing herself and wondering if she was actually going crazy or if those drugs the Russian's injected her with had actually worn off. But then she glanced over to Steve, and after seeing his sullen face and his hunched shoulders that seemed to carry all the worry and fear in the world, she knew that everything that had happened in the last forty-eight hours, was not a dream.

She saw your car then, racing towards the crowds of emergency workers and heart broken kids, tires screeching as it stopped near the ambulance Robin and Steve sat in, and for a split second, Robin thought she'd mistaken the old car and that you were not going to be the one stepping out.

But you were, car door opening as you stood there in front of her with your hair a mess and a look of panic and extreme worry etched upon your face. Robin's head lifted off Steve's shoulder where it rested, eyes wide as she gazed at you across the distance that separated the both of you, before Steve was looking to where to girl was and only uttered your name in amazement and absolute confusion.

"Y/N?" He went to say more, but before he knew it, Robin was up and running towards you, sore and tired body screaming out in pain as she sprinted across the mall car park, shoes slapping against the wet tarmac as your bodies collided in a mass of limbs.

You gripped onto her like a vice, arms wrapped around her holding onto her as if she was going to vanish in the next second. She ducked her face into your neck, her own arms cocooning you into her frame, slight sobs escaping from her mouth. She pulled back to look at you, to brush a hand through your hair and send you the weakest smile she had ever given you. It was then you noticed the cuts and bruises that littered her skin, smears of blood over her face and dried sweat and tears that raked rivers down her cheeks. She looked like a mess, like someone who was about to completely fall apart, but she was alive. And you thanked the heavens for that.

The drive back to her house was quiet, her body slumped against the leather of your car seat, still shaking and trying to hold back the sobs that threatened to escape. She rested one of her hands on your knee, palm tight against the denim of your jeans as you drove down the dark road, shadows creeping around the car and the quiet becoming far too tense for either one of you.