— ★ NOVEMBER, 1984
—————————
( WILL BYERS . )
Thunder filled my ears, the sound of rapid expansion and contraction causing the lightning to rumble against the sky.
I pushed open the broken doors of the arcade slowly, greeted by a nasty smell of old sludge and wet dog.
The flickering of the sign echoed throughout the city carelessly, it combined with the sound of thunder.
Small bits of dust fell from the sky, overlapping the ground and giving more eerie energy to the area.
Outside of the arcade, it was surrounded in black goo and sludge. The pillars and walls of the outside was dirty, also covered in such black vines and dirty muck.
Slimy concrete and dirty air lacked any sign of life. Everything that was live or showed any kind of connection to oxygen was now cut. The entire town that I saw was now covered in nasty, dead vines and debris,
the buildings looked messy and the street empty, no signs of a vehicle passing by. Dark scratches and pieces of glass littered on the ground. The place being cold. The entire area freezing, feeling colder than the fall we were already in.
I turned around and stared at the inside of the arcade through the glass doors, the inside was just as revolting as the outside. The machines being broke and blue flickering screens giving the only light to the room.
The lack of people gave me an uneasy feeling. I felt alone.
I frowned cowardly. There was nothing I could do in this moment. I was too scared. My mind starting to come up with many thoughts and I felt myself get anxious, anxiety rushing through me.
Subconsciously, I pressed down on my fingers, my - bitten - nails pressing down into my skin.
I took a deep breath and continued walking. I heard many things squish under me, making me cringe.
My eyes locked onto the sky, all I saw was red thunder above, nothing else.
But, as I got closer, I noticed a dark cloud forming in the sky, red lightning bashing next to it.
The cloud was huge, extremely big. It took the appearance of a large circle. It was collecting small pieces shadows that came from other clouds, which made it enlarge by the second.
My breathing started to quicken, every nerve in me went off and it felt like I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move, my entire body was stiff and my lungs moved too fast for them to properly work.
I couldn't move.
My lips quivered, my head feeling light as a feather. I was breathing to hard— hyperventilating. I felt like I was going to fall back and hit the pavement.
This feeling was familiar, I'm having a panic attack.
I knew that much, yet I wasn't able to snap out of it. Instead, I stood there and watched as the shadow in the sky grew bigger and bigger.
I heard noises, rather echoes pierce my ears. It surrounded the entire area, overlapping the thunder and lightning. Bringing my attention to it.
"Will?" I faintly heard, I couldn't make out who it was.
"Will!" They repeated.
Gasping, I turned around and suddenly everything was back to normal. The arcade, the people inside, the clean building, no sludge on the concrete or street.
No thunder and lightning, no black clouds and red sky as well.
I licked my cracked lips and stared at the boy who called out to me.
Mike was walking out of the arcade, the door shutting behind him. He stared at me worriedly. His eyes locking with mines.
I became uncomfortable from the eye contact. I shifted around while he stared.
"Are you okay?" Mike narrowed his eyes slightly, taking steps closer.
I didn't answer. I turned around to make sure what I saw wasn't there. I stared off into the distance, my mind being filled with many thoughts and unnerving feelings.
"Yeah. I just..." I picked my feet up and started to back up, my eyes locked onto the dark sky. "I needed some air."
"-Come on." Mike walked up to me, I felt his arm go around my shoulder. "You're up on Dig dug."
He pulled me along and I walked beside him, my eyes still focused on the sky.
What was I seeing?
Mike smiled. "Let's take that top score back, huh?" He pulled me closer. I took a silent breath and smiled back at him.
I stared at the ground while we walked back inside the arcade.
—
I watched as Lucas and Dustin take turns on Dig dug and mike stood behind them, watching like an observer. I was bored and wanted to play something else, yet I didn't wanna ruin the mood and make them stop playing the game.
So, I set there, silent as I can be and watched them compete against each other.
The irritable sound of faint music and ' click — clack ' of the messy machines ran through the humid, stuffed arcade.
"Son of a bitch!" Dustin exclaimed, not being able to beat ' MADMAX's ' score.
They both were very determined.
Dustin hit the machine of a simple irritation. "How could a random beat my high score, that's impossible." He complained, staring at the scores again.
"Just admit defeat." Lucas smugly smiled and placed his hand on Dustin's shoulder.
The curly headed boy gave an annoyed look and swiftly moved Lucas' hand— as in, he smacked it off of his shoulder.
"Okay- okay. I hope you act like this if that ' MADMAX ' person beats you in dragons lair."
"As if." Lucas replied.
I ignored the bickering, looking down at my hands, they rang with pain.
I pulled my jacket sleeve up a bit and was greeted by the marks that I imprinted on myself, they were pressed in with my skin being slightly red around them.
I took a deep breath and glanced around the arcade, trying to spark the smallest bit of interest, yet I failed.
Boredom roaming my mind. I felt exhausted from not being able to do anything, adding on with the panic attack I had earlier— it tired me out completely. I felt like a zombie right now.
I continued to stare at other machines, the conversations and noises around me began to fade, muffled even.
I began to think about what happened earlier. It not being able to leave my mind, scared but curious about what I saw. I wanted to know what it was.
My tongue rolled around in my mouth while I started to think more, looking down at the ground.
Should I tell the others about what I've seen?
No. . .
They're gonna baby me and treat me like I don't know how to take care of the situation.
- I hate it.
I was aware that I was staring off into the distance, probably looking like a weirdo. But I was too fixated on my thoughts.
I wanted to think more about what I saw.
It was just a cloud though?
It looked like a storm cloud,
Why am I so worried about it?
"Will!" Mike called out again, yanking my arm to snap me out of it.
"Ah- huh?" I stammered out and turned my head. They were all staring at me with confused looks.
"Are you okay?" The tallest boy asked, his eyes narrowed when he stared— examining every feature of my expression.
- I hate it.
"Yeah.. why?"
Dustin furrowed his brows. " 'Why? ' " He mocked. "You zoned out.. again."
"Yeah.. you good?" Lucas jumped in.
- I hate it.
Mike squinted at me. "Are you sure?"
I glanced at all three of them. "Yeah."
He looked unconvinced. He didn't take his grip off my arm, instead he pulled me closer as he did before.
"Let's just find a different game to play, I don't really care about the score anymore." The black haired boy said.
The curly haired boy groaned. "But— my score! I have to win it back, it's the only game that I can actually brag to you guys about."
Lucas smirked and shook his head and walked away. Mike pulled me along, and Dustin frustratedly followed.
So many things happening all at once, it's extremely stressful.
—————————
chapter 01 .