Love Is A Battlefield (A Stranger Things/Steve Harrington Fanfiction)

Chapter Eighty-Nine: Upside Down Riley

~~~FIVE YEARS AGO~~~

My chest was burning, screaming for air as I ran through the forest, tree branches jutting out and cutting my face and clothes as I did. I had been trapped in this place for about a week, as far as I could tell. Days and Nights weren't so visually different, so I was counting the hours on my watch in order to keep track. 

My first night here, I spent the night in a ditch. I covered myself in dirt and leaves and fell asleep clutching a rusty pocket knife to my chest that I had found in said ditch. I didn't get much sleep, but I knew that I'd need at least some kind of rest if I was going to survive whatever hellscape I was trapped in. The second night, I found my way back to my house, which was pretty separated from the main part off town. Even with that distance though, I quickly discovered that it was far to dangerous to stay in a house for too long. The creatures that swarmed this parallel universe were well aware of the houses existence, and were just as likely to attack you there as they were outside. 

It wasn't until day number three that I concluded that the woods were your best bet. Sure, the trees were bare and void of leaves, but it still provided you more shelter from the sky, as well as ambiguity. You could be anywhere in the forest...houses were just landmarks for the monsters if anything else. I slept under a tree, using more natural camouflage to keep myself from being discovered. 

Days four and five were spent back in town, gathering as many supplies as I could carry. This, strangely enough, mostly consisted of fishing wire and empty cans. Once my watch told me that night was falling, I would go back to my tree and tie my can strings on the trees that surrounded me, making a square. They acted as noise makers, so if anything came close, I would hear it and know that it was time to run. 

In fact, it was those very noise makers that alerted me to the presence of a monster now, resulting in my hurried trek through the barren forest. I heard a low, menacing screech that I had heard a few times before. I turned to look over my shoulder, trying to spot the creature taht was chasing me. When I didn't I turned my head forward again, just in time to see a sharp, broken plank of wood sticking straight out towards me. I barely managed to skid to a stop, pausing with only one or two centimeters protecting my eyes from being gouged out.

I took a step back, looking up to see that the structure that the plank was attached to was an old decrepit shed that was, for some reason, built around the base of a tree. The trunk was inside of it, with the branches billowing up through the roof and into the air, providing a natural barrier that hid the shed from view of the sky. The combination of the way it was built, as well as the color and texture of the wood made it nearly impossible to see; meaning that if I hadn't almost been impaled by one of its broken planks, I might not have even known that it was a building at all.

I heard the screech echo from behind me again, so I ripped the door of the shed open, dove inside, and pulled it closed behind me. It was a relatively decent size, with the truck of the tree residing in the middle of the structure, with ample space between the tree and each of the walls. Inside of the door was a small, rectangular window that was covered in a sort of camouflaged mesh material, which is what brought me to the conclusion that in the real world, this must have been someone's homemade hunting blind, design to keep them hidden so that they could shoot animals without being detected by them first. There was also a small hole, just big enough for the barrel of a hunting rifle.

I sucked in a breath, holding it as I peered out the secret window, keeping an eye out for the creature who had been pursing me. Its loud, attacking screech had faded to a sort of low chittering noise, and I had to physically put my hand over my mouth to stop myself from screaming as its long, fleshy limbs became visible.