Fan fiction?

[4] The Kids Aren't Alright

Word Count: 3,007

    In the year 1990, life was good. Will Byers and his friends had trauma that would take at least another decade of therapy to even remotely heal, but life was going smooth enough that the path to healing was wide open.

    Part of the healing process for everyone was properly coming to terms with the fact that paranormal things were very real. Even though everyone had experienced the Upside Down and seen it with their own eyes, it still felt like a distant nightmare at times. Everyone believed them, now, but that didn't change the fact that it still sounded crazy.

    Nancy, now 23 years old and a successful reporter, had caught wind of something interesting. Some kids in a small town in Maine had reported supernatural happenings two years ago, and nobody believed them. People who knew them said they were off, weird, eccentric. Apparently they called themselves the "Losers Club," and were often seen walking the streets covered in dirt, soaked with river water, splashed with mud, riding their bikes too fast, often bleeding, singing, laughing, screaming for reasons nobody else was privy to. Nancy looked into it. All she could find were small town reporters like herself, from Derry, who had interviewed these kids in hopes of getting the next big story.

     "Guys, my mom got a phone call from some chick named Nancy Wheeler who thinks we're cool," Richie said excitedly, bounding up to his friends, "She's from Indiana and says she can drive up here to interview us. She's legit, and she says she believes us! But she says we all have to agree before she makes that drive."

    "Sounds like another stupid ass grown up that wants to make us look crazy," Stan brushed it off easily.

    "Nobody believes us. I'm saying no," Mike shook his head.

    "Well, you don't know that. I saw a lot of papers from Indiana, a town called Hawkins, a few years ago. I know Nancy Wheeler, she wrote a lot of stuff about this supposed place called the Upside Down. She said a bunch of things like Dungeons and Dragons monsters had basically come to life. She said there's a parallel universe to ours that's exactly like our world, but it's infested with monsters or something. A lot of people she interviewed, including a chief of police, vouched for every word she said," Ben weighed in, "I'd love to talk to her."

    "Can you bring us s-so-some of the p-p-p- the n-newspapers, so we can read them for ours-ourselves?" Bill asked, one eyebrow raised.

    "Yeah! I have a box of them somewhere, I'll bring it to the clubhouse later today," Ben agreed.

    "They said yes! All of them! Granted, they're like thirteen, but they know I believe them, and they're willing to talk. Kind of. I'm driving to Maine this weekend. It's gonna take a whole day to get there, but that's worth it, to me. If you and your friends wanna come, I think talking to these kids might help both parties," Nancy said excitedly, running into Mike's room.

    "Yeah, I talked to my friends about it, they said yes already. I'll pack," Mike agreed.

    "Looks like you're already packed," Nancy observed. Mike's room was half packed into moving boxes. He was 19 now, and packing to leave for college in a month.

    "Yeah. Can't wait to go, I outgrew this room forever ago," Mike sighed. He picked up his walkie talkie and extended the antenna.

    "Mike to Will, Lucas, Dustin, and Elle, it's a go. Lucas, are you still willing to drive? Over," Mike said into the microphone.

    "Lucas to Mike, I can go whenever. When are we leaving? Over," Lucas replied.

    "This Saturday, over," Mike replied.