Alice the Amazing ⇒ STRANGER THINGS

[Part 4 Epilogue] Hope is the Thing With Feathers

A/N Thank you for reading along on the crazy, wild ride that has been this book so far, and especially the craziness of season 4. I did a lot of canon-bending and had fun with it, and am sad (but also a little relieved lol) to see this part end. 

The title is from one of my favorite Emily Dickinson poems. Remember that hope is always there, singing loudly for you, even if you can't hear the melody. 

This chapter has a TW for drinking and intrusive thoughts about death/dying/wishing to be dead. I'm sorry, I know, that's so morbid. Not to get too real on an author's note, but I've been struggling with intrusive thoughts my whole life, and lately they've been ramped to the max. Writing about someone struggling with them too has been super cathartic for me. If only I had a Steve to help me through it!

{The Piggyback, Part VI}

Of all the self-destructive activities Alice could partake in, drinking alone in a condemned shopping mall wasn't the worst, by far.

She staggered through the food court, thankful that the skylight had been boarded up so she couldn't see the storm or ash. She was far enough away from the main doors that the sounds of the outside world were muffled. If she deluded herself enough, she could pretend the rolling thunder was actually waves crashing on a shore.

She took another swig of the stolen Curaçao. It burned her throat. It stung, but not worse than her stitches.

She stumbled into the boat-shaped booth in what used to be Scoops Ahoy, remembering the last time she sat here, she and her brother were telling Steve about the Russian transmission. She swallowed another shot of the drink, wondering if she drank enough, she could forget the Russian torture of last summer too.

Dear, sweet old Clive popped into existence next to her. Due to her severely weakened powers, he appeared translucent, like a ghost.

"Oi!" Clive said. He sat on his hind legs. "What the bloody hell are you doing?!"

"Drinking," Alice shot back, slurring only slightly.

"I can see that. And what good will that do, eh?"

Alice shrugged and took another swig.

"Might help me forget," she mumbled. "Forget the battle. Forget Vecna. Forget all the shit that's happened to me."

"So you're going to give yourself alcohol poisoning?" Clive thumped his foot impatiently. "And then live in denial forever?"

"Sounds like the perfect plan," Alice said, giving Clive a sarcastic smile. Her lips were now the color of a Jolly Rancher.

The walkie-talkie in her backpack buzzed.

"Code Red!" Dustin said. "This is Dustin, does anybody copy? Robin, Steve, and I are at the school and the storm is getting way worse. Over."

Alice grumbled at the reminder of the storm, shoving the radio deeper in her bag and pulling out her Walkman. She pulled the headphones on her head and turned it up as loud as it could go, hoping to drown out the panicked whispers of her brother and her friends regarding the state of Hawkins.

"Your friends might need help!" Clive said, tugging on Alice's sweatshirt sleeve to get her attention. He pointed a paw at the active radio. "Shouldn't you listen to them?"

"What else do they expect me to do for them?!" Alice snapped. "I already died fighting Vecna, remember?!"

Alice clumsily stood from the booth and started dancing along to the New Order track on her mixtape. The more she danced, the better she felt, despite nagging panic in the back of her mind threatening to overwhelm her any second.