Early morning dew dotted the grass of the unkept front yard not far from Hawkins National Laboratory, weeds crawling up from the hard dirt as the cracked paint on the wooden panels of the tiny house looked shabby in the morning light. The Fields' house was humming with life on the inside though, the family rising from their slumber and starting their day like normal. Dottie Fields had yanked on her slightly out of fashion overalls while trying to keep last night's events from her mind. In her dreams she could still hear that awful sound from something in the woods that circled her house and the Byers house. Something unexplainable.
"Dorothy, breakfast is ready!"
Dottie was shoving a headband through her thick hair, blowing some air into her cheeks as she stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Micky was already banging on the door, demanding she was taking far too long in the bathroom. "Coming!" Her hands clenched around the basin for a few seconds longer, promising herself that she was just over tired and surely, whatever had been watching her last night was some rabid animal.
Easing open the shared bathroom door, her little brother barged by her while muttering a few curse words that their mother would frown upon, while their father would wash his mouth out with soap for saying out loud. Today, Dottie didn't even have the strength to argue with him or rat on him for swearing. She wandered down the short hallway numbly, dropping into her usual seat around the dining table. Her father was at the stove, flipping french toast while listening to the radio. "Kiddo, hey, are you okay?" Dottie's head snapped up with her father's question.
"Yeah, I'm okay."
Kurt Fields watched his daughter for a moment longer, switching off the stovetop and moving towards the table where he piled food onto her plate, but strangely, she didn't make an attempt to eat. "Are you sure? You've not touched your breakfast yet. French toast is your favourite." Dottie eyed her plate of food, her stomach turning though.
"Are there wolves or coyotes in Indiana, dad?"
He paused with the question, washing his bite of food down with some stale coffee. It was an odd question, something he didn't expect from his sixteen year old daughter in the early morning of a Wednesday. Slowly, he was shrugging his wide shoulders. "I don't really know...I mean, maybe. Micky thought he saw a wolf down by the oak tree out back when he was five, but that was just his imagination most likely."
Dottie let her gaze wander to the windows that overlooked their front yard. In the distance sat the line of trees that grew outward into the woods, a place that had always frightened her. Sometimes she really did hate not living in modern Hawkins suburbia like Daisy. While her thoughts drifted back to last night, a dry voice echoed from the radio "...in more recent town news, Benny Hammond was found dead."
Across town, the very same piece of news was being read in the town newspaper by Beatrice Lonsdale, who had taken her maiden name back with the death of her husband years ago. The slightly crazy aunt was pointing down at the photograph of a man mostly liked in town. The article claimed he had committed suicide in his diner down on Randolph Lane. Daisy Lonsdale was chomping on some oatmeal when her aunt shoved the newspaper under her nose. "It's the bad men."
Daisy's eyes widened with the statement, almost coughing up her food. Once again, she hadn't slept very well last night, not with her recurring nightmares about something in the woods that had growled at her. Even just thinking about last night near the Byers house was making her skin prickle with fear. "Bad men?" Her eyes skimmed the article, noting the police hadn't given much details about Benny's death. "What are you talking about?"
"They had something to do with my poor Gregory's death," Aunt Beatrice rattled on some more, her words quick while she continued to drum her pointer finger on the table. There was a crazy glare in her eyes that Daisy had seen many times before. "They tried to kill Duncan too."
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THE KIDS AREN'T ALRIGHT 。 STRANGER THINGS
FanfictionTHE KIDS AREN'T ALRIGHT. ❝𝙁𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙩𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙠𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙨 𝙗𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚, 𝙗𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙤𝙮𝙨 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙣'𝙩 𝙘𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚.❞ stranger things [seasons 1 - 2] [ oc x steve harrington, multiple...