𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐖𝐈𝐍; steve harrington

ᶠ ᵒ ᵘ ʳ ᵗ ʸ ⁻ ᵗ ʷ ᵒ

March 19th, 1986

IT WAS ROUGH. EVEN AFTER eight months had flown by, the close family and friends of the Hargrove twins still visited their graves on a regular basis. They were missed dearly by most of the Hawkins citizens that had gotten the chance to meet them, their smiles and laughs being imprinted into their brains. Some people thought about them more than others. Aven was all Steve ever thought about.

He'd tried to move on with his life, but he could never seem to even think about another girl. All he thought about was her.

He was never the same. Every time Robin would accidently bump into him, he would flinch away. Every time Robin would mention going out, he instantly shut it down. Every time Robin asked him to do something out of the ordinary, he ran away. He was a mess without Aven - everyone could see it.

The younger teens weren't much different. Will found moving away helpful towards the fact of forgetting about the tragic battle, but it still seemed to linger in the back of his mind. Eleven, although having other problems with her life in California, too managed to have the moments where she would think about the beloved Hargrove girl. Lucas and Dustin had to face it and move on all together, because they were still in the cursed town of Hawkins, Indiana - even if it was the last place they wanted to be.

Mike found it extremely hard. With his older sister working, girlfriend and best friend moving out of state, and the girl he looked up to gone, he didn't know what to do. It all happened at once, and he had no one to turn to. Which was how he found himself joining a local school club about his favourite childhood game - Dungeons and Dragons.

Max was much the same. She was devastated as well, the grief being too much for her to handle. It took a massive toll on her mental health, her heart and thoughts spiralling down to an all time low as she fought the death-infested world inside her mind. It made her do things that she couldn't have imagined her doing the year prior, like breaking up with her boyfriend for good. Her and Lucas Sinclair were over.

When her mother informed her of Neil's selfish ploy - how he sold the house without letting them know - she gave Max the honour of cleaning out Aven's room. Susan said she could have anything in there that she wanted.

She couldn't bring herself to take anything. As soon as she walked into the room, she felt cold. The hairs on her arms pricked up and goosebumps raised from their beds as she stepped inside the empty room - the room that was once so lively. Whilst she looked around, reminiscing on all the old times the duo had had inside the room, her emotions got the best of her. She started crying.

With tears on her cheeks, she ducked down to glance under the girl's bed. Sitting there, front and centre, was the gift Aven had told her about only months ago.

She reached under the wooden bedframe and pulled it out, crossing her legs as she looked down at the brown packaging resting on her lap.

Dear Max, it read. Happy birthday !! I can't believe you're fifteen already. I imagine I've already had this conversation with you countless times over since I've given you this very special present, so I won't say much, but I'm proud of you. I love you, little one.

She still had that card tucked away on her bedside table, a piece of paper that she had memorised from the numerous times she'd read it over and over and over. It was one of only two things she had left of her older sister, the other thing being the actual present itself.

When she was sitting on the passed girl's bedroom floor, she ripped the paper packaging open to reveal a small cassette. It was Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill.

Ever since she'd laid her eyes on the early birthday present, she'd played it on repeat. Music became her solution, her escape from the world. That song was just her favourite.

Meanwhile, in Russia, Hopper was blissfully unaware of Aven's death. Atlanta had found a new job at a diner out of town, even though she still lived in the centre of the small city. Neil Hargrove had moved away with the loss of his two children, his only children. However, in reality, unbeknownst to him, he still had a child left.

Aven was stuck in a place she didn't want to be. After she'd disappeared, she'd reappeared back in the middle of Hawkins where Starcourt Mall was supposed to be. She was in the exact same state, town and place as she was only moments before, and yet she wasn't at the same time.

She was where her television had shown her numerous times, surrounded by the same darkness that lurked on the random channel in her lounge room. There were vines like the little tendrils of the Mind Flayer growing on everything it possibly could. The sky was clouded over, a dark, mysterious fog looming over her as she spun in her spot. She wasn't supposed to be there. She was the intruder.

Over the past months, she'd found a place. She was surviving by eating the canned foods in houses, and drinking the water she'd managed to filter herself. It was a lot - a huge change she wasn't prepared for - but she would do anything, as long as she could find a way back home.

Her place wasn't anything unfamiliar. It was Steve's house, because that felt more like home than hers ever did. She marked the days by scraping a stick into the dried wallpaper, although the sun never rose in the Upside Down world. She ate in his kitchen, breathed in what she considered the fresh air from his backyard, and slept in his bed.

They were closer to each other than they ever realised.

1049 words