002 - Stranger Things

Chapter Seven: The Creel Massacre

Life in the upside-down was far different to the life you'd expect in the normal world. Every day was like running hurdles, running from your deepest fears and trying all you could to find salvation but there never was any safe heaven. The place was full of creatures that some had never heard of, some that many wouldn't even dream of ever existing. Life in the upside-down was like a constant never-ending nightmare and all she hoped for one day was escape.

It was lonely down there, without 001, without everyone else. She even missed 007 and he was the worst of the bunch, always having disrespectful things to say about her and the other children but Henry always sorted him out. Henry didn't stand for anything said, whether it was about him or Nellie and she missed that but that was all gone now and she feared she'd never had anything like that again.

She even missed the lab and the rainbow room. The tasks she could do to amaze everyone so that she got rewarded but even that was gone and she hated to say it but she'd rather of been there than where she was now. It wasn't like she ever felt safe at Hawkins lab but it was home. Her home and she missed it more than anything... well almost more than anything.

—

Hawkins Town, 1986

Steve Harrington paced around the room with a newspaper in his hands, reading through an article about some man called Victor Kreel who had once walked the earth until he went to prison and who had now apparently come back years later to hunt people down and kill them. He furrowed his brows at the thought and then turned to the others who sat on the small couch in front of him, reading the same article with all blank faces, apart from Dustin who was trying hard not to laugh at his friend who looked very puzzled by the new information he'd found out.

He shook his head and grumbled, "okay be honest, uh do you guys understand any of this?" he asked the rest of them, Lucas just shaking his head.

"Pretty straightforward," Dustin said with a genuine serious look on his face.

Steve turned to him, "pretty straightforward really?"

Dustin rolled his eyes, "what's confusing to you?" he asked but then started to explain anyway without giving him any time to respond. "So far everyone Vecna cursed has died apart from this old Victor Creel dude Nancy found as well as the old diary entries of Nellie Brown which by the way Nancy also found. They're the only known survivors from this time. If anyone knows how to beat this curse it's them."

Steve furrowed his brows, "that's assuming they were cursed, which we don't even know. How can Vecna or this Nellie have existed back then? It makes no sense."

Dustin thought for a moment, "well as far as we know, Eleven didn't create the upside-down. She opened a gate to it. The upside-down has probably been around for thousands of years, Millions." He explained his theory. "I wouldn't be surprised if it predates the dinosaurs!"

Steve looked annoyed if anything by what Dustin was saying and got even more fed up when he'd started going on about something totally irrelevant. "Woah what now? Dinosaurs? What are we-"

"Okay Okay," Lucas interjected and continued the conversion. "But if a gate didn't exist many years ago, how did Vecna get through? And why now?"

Steve nodded in agreement, "And why then? Just pops out many years ago, kills one family and he's like 'eh I'm good and poof just disappears. Just.. gone? Only to appear years later and start killing some random teens? No, I don't buy it."

"Straight forward my ass." He muttered and then turned back to Dustin. "You know what honestly, Henderson, a little humility every now and then, it wouldn't hurt you."

"Sorry." He apologised but then looked over to Max. "Any idea what she's writing?"

Max sat at one of the desks in the far corner, writing something that neither one of the others knew about. They'd been very worried about he recently after Vecna's curse had started to affect her by the symptoms which included headaches, vomiting, bloody noses and visions of some sort which were for some reason linked to clocks...