Ashes Falling Upwards (stranger things, Will x OC/reader)

Connecting dots

All this had started a year before. It was supposed to be a normal night. Just a normal bike ride to Erin's house, and a night full of fun. Then she saw that humanoid figure on the road next to her and everything changed.
Most of the four days in that place were a blur of hiding, running, and eating and drinking things she hoped wouldn't kill her. The doctors told her that she'd made her way to a portal in the forest, and somehow been found by a man who worked for the lab. But the only thing she could remember was waking up with her mother crying next her, and her mind changed about the supernatural forever.

Luckily for the lab, since her mother had waited three days to put in a missing report, they only had one day to cover up. So Ash had taken a train out to a lake somewhere and gotten off on the wrong stop, but after a day she'd successfully made her way back. That was what the lab told everyone, and that was what Ash was to tell everyone as well. And no one ever had to be the wiser.

Ash sighed, the sound echoing around the quiet, dark hallway. As the darkness behind her got longer and longer, she quickened her steps towards the doors in the front, the glow from outside almost blinding in contrast.

"Ashley," her mother called as she exited the building, waving from the side of their gray blue car, her chocolate brown hair rippling gently in the breeze, and her hazel eyes sparkling warmly in the bright midday sun.

Helen Park was forty years old, a single mother and the best person in the world in Ash's opinion. After her husband skipped town, the mother and daughter were stuck being the other person the other had. Helen's family had problems while she was growing up, she'd told Ash, the kind of problems she couldn't bear her new family to have, and that was why she tried so hard for a normal happy family. Even if things go wrong, as long as you pretend it's fine it's sure to be so. That was what she always said.

"Mom!" Ash called, feeling the knot she hadn't realized was tied inside of her loosen. It was always like this with her mother. She felt like the two of them were the closest any two people could be. Screw the people who said she didn't support her daughter. Screw the people who said she wasn't mentally stable. She was beautiful and amazing and she loved Ash. She was certain she did.

"How'd it go?" Helen asked.

"It went good." Ash put on her best "everything is fine and great" smile as she reached her.

"It went well," her mother corrected, returning the smile in full force.

A moment of silence almost bordering on awkward passed, then Helen opened the driver's door and said, "I got stuff to make that pasta tonight. Maybe we can play a board game!"

"Sure!" Ash knew that they wouldn't be talking about that place for two weeks, until she had to go in again. But that was fine. Until that time they could just live a normal life, pretending that nothing was wrong. And her mother wouldn't be stressed or angry.

"Hey buddy," a deep voice murmured from behind her. For a second Ash thought they were talking to her and started to answer, but when another, younger voice answered, "hey," she stopped.

It was a couple, a police officer and a stressed looking mom with a young boy around Ash's age, maybe twelve or thirteen. He looked nervous, which was understandable since he was heading into the same hellhole she had just come out from.

Although, something seemed strange. The longer she looked at him the more familiar he seemed. Not just his looks, it was like his very aura was familiar to her... but from where? The feeling in her gut made it clear that wherever she knew it from was a very bad place. That bad place? It couldn't be, but...

"Hey, mom?" She called.

Helen pulled herself out of the car again and asked, "what is it, sweetie?"

"Does that boy look familiar?" She pointed to the group, who by this point almost all the way to the doors.

"Oh, isn't that the boy from your school who went missing last year?" Helen answered. "William...Byers, I think it was."

"Will Byers," Ash murmured, trying the name out. "Didn't he go missing around the time that I—"

"He got lost in the woods." Helen interrupted sharply. "It had nothing to do with... with..."

"Of course not!" Ash yelped, immediately feeling the guilt from her mother's scared face pile on. "I was just... no, it doesn't matter. I'm sure there's absolutely no correlation."

Helen swallowed nervously but nodded. "Shall we go?"

"Right."

As she clambered into the car Ash couldn't help her thoughts from straying back to Will. She had a vague memory of hearing about him, but at the time she had been dealing with so many of her own problems that she hadn't thought about it much.

Why hadn't she worried about it? Was it because the doctors had told her that no one else had made it out? Or because Will had seemed fine when she saw him at school?

Got lost in the woods? Since it was around the time that thing was out and he's going into the lab, that's obviously a load of bull. I mean, there's a small chance all of that is true, but if not, then he might be just like me.

Will Buyers, huh?