𝐦𝐢𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐞~𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬

𝐀𝐂𝐓 𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐒𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍

𝒈𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒐𝒔 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌
𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏
𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒅𝒚𝒔 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌
𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒂 𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅
𝒐𝒌 𝒊𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒑𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒊 𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒔. 𝒂𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒍𝒖𝒄𝒊𝒇𝒆𝒓. 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒔 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒖𝒍𝒂𝒓. 𝒊𝒎 𝒈𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒂 𝒔𝒉𝒖𝒕 𝒖𝒑 𝒏𝒐𝒘 *𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒆𝒆𝒅𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒃𝒍𝒖𝒆𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔*
𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼𝓼

𝐌𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐑, 𝐈𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐀 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐁𝐋𝐄𝐌?
ʟᴏᴏᴋ ᴀᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴋɪᴅs, ʏᴏᴜ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ʏᴏᴜ'ʀᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴏᴏʟᴇsᴛ, ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴏʀʟᴅ ɪs ʏᴏᴜʀs ᴀɴᴅ ʏᴏᴜ ᴄᴀɴ'ᴛ ʀᴇғᴜsᴇ ɪᴛ

𝑨𝒔𝒉𝒍𝒆𝒚'𝒔 𝒑𝒐𝒗
It was not a good night. Mike's bed was comfy, and she'd never had a quilt before, so this felt like a luxury. For once, she felt safe. But her safety wasn't the problem. Because of her mind reading abilities, she was usually a lucid dreamer and could do anything she wanted in her dreams, but that night, it was like her whole body had been paralysed...
Will was being dragged through the darkness, kicking and screaming. He was wearing the same clothes that he'd had on earlier in the day, but they were damp and dirty. His hair was a mess and fear was prominent in his eyes. He stopped moving and Ashley heard a low growl. From what, she didn't know, but she knew she recognised the sound.
Ashley couldn't see anything, just Will shaking with fear at the unseen creature. She felt something whoosh past her and tried to scream for Will to run, but no sound came out. She fell to the ground, and began to sob silently, knowing that Will was going to die and she was helpless to stop it.
Noticing that everything had gone quiet, she looked up to see that Will was running off somewhere. She sprinted after him and the darkness opened up to a forest. She was so shocked at the scene change that she didn't realise Will disappearing from view.
"Will?" She whispered, which surprised her, because before she hadn't been able to talk. She raised her voice and began to walk around.
"Will? Will!"
Her voice grew desperate
"WILL" she shouted, over and over again until her voice grew sore. She leaned against a tree and lowered herself to the ground.
"Will..." she sobbed. She heard something call her name
"Ashley? Ash, it's me, Mike. You're having a nightmare. Can you wake up for me please?"
Her eyes opened with a start and she looked around. She looked to her right, seeing Mike looking down at her with concern. She felt her cheeks, which were wet with tears. Her hand moved to her upper lip, which was covered in blood from her nose.
"Hey, it's okay now. Here." Mike handed her a tissue to dry her face with while he used another to clean her nose. She took a deep breath, calming herself down before looking Mike in the eyes.
"Will is in danger" she exhaled.
Mike's face immediately dropped.
"What do you mean?"
She opened her mouth to answer when Mrs Wheeler walked in.
"Mike, come on, you need to get ready for school. Breakfast will be ready in 10 minutes."
"Yeah Mom, okay" Mike sighed, leaving the room. Mrs Wheeler smiled and handed Ashley her clothes, now clean. She got changed and went into the bathroom to brush her teeth with a spare toothbrush. She splashed her face with water to wake herself up before frowning at her hair. It was all messed up, she guessed she had been tossing and turning a lot through the night.
She walked back into Mike's bedroom and cleared her throat. Mike turned around and she pointed at her hair, indicating that she needed it fixed, but she didn't know how. Usually Papa would do her hair but he wasn't here now. Mike seemed to get the message
"I don't know how to do anything with long hair but i can find a brush and brush it for you if you want?" She nodded. Ashley didn't like tying her hair up, it hurt her head. Mike came back as quickly as he left. She sat herself on the edge of the bed so Mike could reach her hair more easily. He brushed her hair gently, more carefully that Papa had ever done, before smoothing it down with his fingers and pointing to a mirror so Ashley could see herself.
"Pretty" she mumbled
"Yeah. Pretty." Mike repeated, smiling at her. They went downstairs and had breakfast, which consisted of Eggo waffles and syrup (𝒔𝒆𝒆? 𝒊 𝒈𝒐𝒕𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖). They were delicious. Ashley decided to shove a few into her pockets for when she was back on the streets.
They walked to the garage, where Mike kept his bike. He hopped on and told Ashley to sit on the back. She did so, wrapping her arms around his waist for grip before Mike biked off, heading towards the school.
"So..." Mike spoke, breaking the silence "Will's mom called my mom this morning, asking where he was, she said that he didn't come home. What happened in your dream to make you think Will is in danger?" Ashley felt her heart begin to race. Her dream was right. She thought for a second before replying.
"Darkness. Monster. Hiding. Bad." Mike was silent before speaking again
"So Will is hiding from a bad monster in the dark?" Wow. Mike was smart.
"Yep" she stated, popping the 'p'.
"What else happened?"
"Don't know. Will ran" she replied truthfully.
"Hmm. Maybe it was just a bad dream. Well, we'll see soon enough." Mike was right. Ashley looked up to see that they had arrived at school.
She hopped off the back of Mike's bike and greeted Dustin and Lucas with a smile. Mike explained how Ashley had stayed the night, earning a suspicious glare from the boys before he told them that she didn't have a home to go to.
Ashley walked over to the other bikes and looked around the playground. She walked over to Mike and tugged at the end of his sleeve. He turned to her and she spoke softly, her voice barely (𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒕 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒊 𝒘𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒆𝒚) audible
"Where is Will?"
Mike looked around, his lips curling into a frown. He turned to Dustin and Lucas
"Yeah. Where is Will?"
Dustin shrugged.
"Gone to class early?" Lucas guessed, but Ashley knew with absolute certainty he was wrong.
𝑻𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒔𝒌𝒊𝒑 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒄𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒔
Ashley bit her lip and called over to Mike
"Gone" she whispered. Mike nodded and tried to get Lucas' attention, but the teacher noticed first.
"Mike Wheeler, is there a problem?" Mr Clarke called him out. Mike glanced over to Ashley, who gave him a 'knock it off' glare, before saying
"Nothing, sorry sir" Mr Clarke sighed and continued with the lesson. Ashley zoned out, letting her mind drift to the conversation Will and Mike had last night before he rode off on his bike.
"It was a seven"
Seven. Less than thirteen.
"Huh?"
"The roll, it was a seven" Mike furrowed his eyebrows at this.
"The demogorgon,"
That's when it hit her like a truck at high speed.
Will explained "It got me."
Demogorgon. The monster she had seen back when she was in the lab. That's why she recognised it.
Then again in her dream, when she heard the growl. She was too scared to think back then but now she realised why the growl sounded so similar.
She had faced that creature herself, nearly losing her life in the process. If it could get her in a false reality, it could definitely get Will if he was where she thought he was.
And if it got him, who knew how long it would be before it got the rest of Hawkins too?
But Ashley couldn't think about that yet. She had to solve one problem at a time. The first task on her list?
Find Will
★︎☆︎★︎☆︎★︎☆︎★︎☆︎★︎☆︎★︎☆︎★︎☆︎★︎☆︎★︎☆︎★︎
𝚆𝚘𝚛𝚍 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝: 1232 𓆏︎ 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒂 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒈 *𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒑𝒖𝒍𝒍 𝒂 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒚 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆*
*𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒔 𝒃𝒍𝒖𝒆𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔* 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒘𝒆'𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈. 𝒊'𝒎  𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒈𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌. 𝒊𝒕 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒐𝒐𝒌 6 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔. 𝒊 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒚 𝒃𝒆, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒊 𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒕 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒅, 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒂 𝒇𝒖𝒏. 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊'𝒎 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒊𝒏 𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒌𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒏, 𝒔𝒐 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒊'𝒎 𝒈𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆

𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒐, 𝒎𝒚 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒔
𝒙𝒐𝒙𝒐
𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒇𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔