Starless Night (A Twilight/Stranger Things Fan Fiction)

Chapter 7: Marion Penitentiary

Alice located a set of keys for a cell block near the center of the Marion Penitentiary, and without seeming to hear any of my protests, carried me to a cell and locked me inside.

When I yelled at her retreating back, she said a few words in that high, fairy-pitched voice of hers: "I'll be back soon with more food and water!"

I spent the next few hours pouting and reading a book on the space-time continuum Alice had picked from the Forks library. When she'd handed it to me, she'd said it was "elementary stuff, honestly" (something only a person with a degree in space travel could say) but that I might need to know some of what it had to say if I was going to understand the more complicated stuff that came next.

I thought Alice was probably just trying to pacify me by making me feel useful and, well, it was working.

I curled my legs under me and sat on the stiff cot that took up a little less than half of the cell (all a monotone gray, and not even a single window interrupted the huge door) and began to read. It was surprisingly interesting, which was a blessing, considering that I would be doing nothing but reading this for at least a day or two until Alice got back from her longer trip. She could drive as fast as she wanted without being pulled over by a cop, but even vampires and their very fast vehicles had their limits.

Alice returned quicker than I thought she would, and this time I was convinced the supplies were a little overkill. She had to take two trips to bring all the water bottles and stack them under my cot. After that, she brought a huge box full of nonperishables, which included plenty of cereal.

She smiled when she saw I went straight for the Puffa Puffa Rice. It really was better than I thought it would be. I was genuinely beginning to wish I'd grown up with 70s cereal.

This time, she hugged me first before she left me. She seemed to sense i needed it.

"I really will be back as soon as I possibly can," she said. "I'll lock up the cell block, but not the cell. You can use the bathroom the on-duty guards used to use."

She gave me instructions so I would know where that was, then left again. This time, when I heard the cell block lock click, I felt it like a blow to the chest. Even though I knew Alice would come back, I felt very alone.

Still, I want back to reading, focusing on that rather than the building pain in my chest.

Alice had found me a number of flashlights that still had battery left (when I say a number, I mean 122 of them), which I used to see the pages of the book, the way to the bathroom, the cell door. I switched off the third one that night (the first two had already died) after I crawled onto my cot. But when I closed my eyes to sleep, it hit me how eerily dark, how silent it was. So totally and completely silent it was like there was no one else alive anywhere in the world.

I turned over onto my side. I couldn't get comfortable. Nothing eased the ache where my heart was supposed to be.

For a while, I thought of flipping the flashlight on again, but I really was tired--so, so tired. Eventually, I fell into a peaceless sleep, and there, finally, I could not escape the pain.

In the dream, I was running, running, from one of those creatures. My legs hurt so bad from sprinting that I thought I would collapse, but I managed to keep going anyway.

And Edward stood not far away, all the time, watching me. Over and over, I called his name, pleaded that he help me--but he just watched me, looking unconcerned.

Because he didn't love me. He didn't care for me. He had finally realized how undeserving I was of him.

I woke what felt like minutes later, feeling less rested than I had before, panting. And then it really hit me.

Edward wasn't coming for me. Because he didn't love me.

No one was around to hear me, so I screamed.