ACT ONE, 000
'science project'
[ season one ]
It was starting to get cold the night of November 6th. Amara and Ashley were sitting in the car waiting for James — Ashley's little brother.
"Should we knock?" asked Amara while looking at the Wheeler's door, her best friend shrugged "he said they would've finished by now" the girl huffed as she rested her head on the steering wheel.
"C'mon Ash, you know how it is. Last year we were doing the same thing" admitted Amara, Ashley laughed it off "yeah but the campaign that they're playing is not even that interesting, Amy!", — 'Amy' joined her best friend, chuckling briefly.
Amara immediately scoffed when she remembered that Eddie Munson kicked them both out of the Hellfire club — they haven't been playing since. "That asshole!," added Ashley, "I can't believe he did that just because we bruised his ego" Amara agreed, "the fact that he waited to become the Dungeon Master just to banish us is hilarious".
"Who banished who from what?". It was James, he snicked into the backseats while the two girls were remembering the good times, the boy poked his head into the front seats, looking at the two people in the front with the look of someone searching for an answer. "So?" he persisted.
Ashley gave him a smack on the head "dude! You scared the shit out of us! What the hell!"
James touched his head lightly on the spot where his step-sister hit him, "sorry" as the boy huffed he rested his back in the seat. Meanwhile, Ashley turned on the car, going on the way home.
"Are you still working on that science project? It's been weeks!" the two teenagers looked at each other, both smirking, knowing in reality that the 'science project' never actually existed.
Around the end of August Amara, went to the graveyard during the afternoon to pay a visit to her father, after that, her mind is still completely blank. She just remembers that she woke up in her bed in a pool of her sweating. Her head hurt like she had drunk a bottle full of vodka and then passed out. But it wasn't just that.
The sun was bothering her sight and — she was hungry, not for pasta or any of that at least. Because after eating half of the things inside the fridge she still had this insatiable hunger. She took the thermometer to check if she had any sign of fever but, Amara wasn't burning up — she was freezing, other than the hunger she was feeling normal, so to calm herself she went for a walk in the woods, but not before taking a pair of glasses and checking herself in the mirror, as she did that she immediately noticed her skin being paler than usual, but the girl just ignored it and went for a walk anyway.
Troubles began when while walking along her way Amara met a deer, she normally just looked at it while thinking how cute it is, yet —everything she could think that moment was the vein of that deer in front of her, sensing the blood moving inside of it. So when she started getting closer, it came out like it was natural for her to change the shape of her teeth and bite the exact point she was looking at a moment before.
Leeching out the vitality of the deer by sucking its blood with her sharp teeth. Amara tried to remain calm, giving the animal a worthy burial, but as soon as she entered her house she started maniacally crying. How was that even possible? I'm a monster. That was all she could think.
She really wanted to call her best friend, but Amara couldn't certainly put Ashley at risk, not now at least, she needed to control herself, if she acted like that in front of an animal the girl wouldn't want to imagine what she would do in front of a person.
Amara decided that she had to disappear for the next few weeks until school started, taking the time to learn what she could do and everything she needed to do to not dictate for any reason anything suspicious.
Amy painfully ignored the only two people who cared about her: Ashley and James Fisher — James one time even went outside of her house to check on her, the poor boy was so worried, panicking she made up that she had the flu and didn't want to worry them. James, of course, knew it was a lie, and so his sister, but they faked believe it for their sake.
When the first day of school arrived, Amara genuinely thought she lost her friendship with Ashley — until lunch break, Ashley pulled Amara out of school to their secret spot, demanding explanations of why she disappeared all of the sudden, the girl tried to remain calm, breathing in and out before answering, "I'm very sorry, but if you'll meet me at my house after school, I'll explain everything. I promise" and after that, she disappeared. It was almost like it was the only thing she was good at back then: disappear.
Ashley remembered well the frustration during that time, Amara had never done this, not with her at least — they were each other's person.
So she was pretty shocked when the second thing her Amy told her when she arrived at her house was "I'm a vampire, at least I think I am", I mean it was weird even to hear it, how was possible? — Ashley must have been dreaming because this sort of thing didn't happen to her, or her best friend, and mostly in Hawkins!
Of course, Ashley frankly didn't know what to say, the only words that came out of her mouth were "are you okay?" — obviously she still thought it was a bad joke for a lot of good reasons, but when she saw Amara starting to cry, she took it way more seriously.
She wrapped her arms around Amara's body — Ashley wasn't afraid of her, how could she? Her best friend since third grade and the best person she has ever met. Amara flinched when she saw Ash getting closer to her, but instantly calmed down when she felt her. They missed each other way too much.
After a while, they both sat on the couch, and Amara started to explain everything she could remember, meanwhile Ashley felt dying on the inside: if Amara was a vampire did that mean that she was dead? How could she not notice that her dearest friend had died?
Since then, they had this 'special evening' at one of their houses where they studied, researched everything about vampires, and then tested them if they were real or not. This was also nominated "science project" a stupid excuse to refill to James Fisher.
So that was what they were doing on November 6th of 1983.
Sitting on Ashley's bed with a mount of books, papers, and notes, reviewing everything.
"What about fast running?" asked Ashley,
Amara thought about it before answering "I run faster than before, but I never tried to run, run. If you know what I mean" Ash looked at her frowning "why?" "I'm always out of breath when I run" the other girl rolled her eyes and then locked them with the other person in front of her "you're dead, you don't need to breathe", Amara's crunched her nose, she forgot "right. We can try tomorrow in the woods then" Ashley gave her a nod and continued with the list of things to review.
"How are you with the blood? Do you need more?" thanks to Ashley, they found out how to let Amara feed without leaving a trace of dead animals behind her — it was still wrong to stole from a hospital, but it was for a good cause, and human blood worked really well, more than the animals.
After letting out a loud yawn, Ashley suggested going to sleep, and Amara agreed, even after the recent events they both had to go to school.
Meanwhile, in the other room next to Ashley's, James, was trying to reach out for Will, as he usually does when he goes back to his house all alone, making himself sure that he had arrived home safely.
"Will, do you copy? Over."
"It's James. Are you okay? Over."
Maybe he's already asleep, he thought.
"Alright, I let you sleep. Goodnight Will,
over and out" but before lowering the antenna, he heard weird noises coming out from the walkie-talkie, so he waited a bit, thinking that it may be Will trying to connect, but not even after a minute the noises stopped, so he just switched it off and went to bed, letting himself falling asleep in the middle of the silence, with a sense of worry that was eating him on the inside. But James knew that when he'll see Will tomorrow, everything will be just fine, like always.
On the other hand, at the Harrington's household, everyone was still awake, all of them saying their goodbyes. Mr. and Mrs. Harrington early in the morning, had to leave to go on a work trip — again.
Melissa was hugging her dad, while Steve was doing the same with his mom. "I almost completely forgot. We hired a babysitter for you, Mel ", like an instinct Melissa and Steve looked at each other, and then at their parents in disbelief, especially Steve. "That's bullshit!"
"Watch your tongue, young man!" his father warned him, and Mrs. Harrington continued what she was saying five minutes earlier. "She'll be here tomorrow after school," she paused to look at her son, "she's not old Steve, i think this girl is your age, but she's only here to work." Steve rolled his eyes. What kind of guy did his mother think he was?.
"As I was saying," Mrs. Harrington moved her eyes to her daughter, "she'll be here tomorrow after school, help you with your homework, and check that everything is in order, I trust you Mel and I believe you're old enough to go to bed alone. Steve can give you a lift and then take you from school," Steve huffed again.
"Why can't I babysit her?! I'm a great babysitter!
Tell them, Mel! " Melissa sent her brother a mean look."The last time we came back from New York, we found her asleep outside the pool," said Mr. Harrington, with an accusing tone.
"She was sleeping in her bed when I checked out on her!"
Mrs. Harrington dismissed the argument with a gesture, "That doesn't change the fact that Melissa will have someone here to help her until we come back, and that's final." Steve huffed, "fine," his mom smiled and pinched his cheek before going upstairs with her husband.
He and Melissa remained downstairs, watching TV, until the doorbell rang. Sister and brother exchanged glances, knowing who was behind the door, and when Steve opened it only confirmed what they already knew. Nicholas Hopper, Steve's best friend since — forever. "Hey, so I was coming back to my home when I saw this weird bear in the street." said 'Nic', his best friend silently screamed, " a bear? How is that even possible?" the other boy just shrugged "I don't know, can I stay here for a while?"
"Yeah, of course, come in"
As Nicholas entered Steve looked back at his sister. Melissa rolled her eyes, "That's my cue to leave..goodnight."
The 11-year-old went upstairs, both of the boys responding to her and then continuing to talk.
That's when she realised that she didn't ask her mum for the name of the babysitter. So before going to her room, she decided to go to her parents' first.
Melissa went to the side of her mom, and tried to wake her up by shaking her shoulder.
"What is it, Melissa?" Mrs. Harrington said, her eyes still closed and her voice sleepy.
"What is the name of the girl?" The woman huffed, rolling to the other side of her bed.
Melissa thought that she had gone to sleep again, so she walked out and when she was about to leave the room—, she heard her mum saying "Amara Collins."
that's it!! i hope this wasn't too boring,
i should have posted this last week but i've been sick, and i was (still am) very anxious to post this because despite checking for any errors a thousand times i still think that there are a lot more. see you in the first chapter!! (i hope).