𝐦𝐢𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐞~𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬

𝐀𝐂𝐓 𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐒𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐄 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘~𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓

𝒂/𝒏 𝒊 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒎𝒂𝒚 𝒃𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒐𝒏/𝒂𝒄𝒕, 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒊𝒔 𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒍 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒔 𝒖𝒑 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒏𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒚 (𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒆). 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒏𝒔 𝒊 𝒎𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒃𝒆 𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒖𝒑𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒌𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒔, 𝒅𝒆𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒏 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒃𝒖𝒔𝒚 𝒊 𝒂𝒎. 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒈𝒖𝒚𝒔!
𝓌𝓂𝓌𝓂𝓌𝓂𝓌𝓂𝓌𝓂𝓌𝓂𝓌𝓂𝓌𝓂𝓌𝓂𝓌𝓂𝓌𝓂𝓌𝓂𝓌𝓂

𝑫𝒆𝒄𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 21st, 1983
𝑨𝒔𝒉𝒍𝒆𝒚'𝒔 𝒑𝒐𝒗
She hid behind the tree with her sister, Eleven, as they watched the man put their favourite waffles into the little wooden box. After a few moments, he got up, turning away from box, and they began to make their way down the slope when Ashley slipped, tumbling down and landing by the box. The man whipped his head around at the sound and, when he saw the girls, his jaw dropped. Eleven stood frozen, like a deer in headlights while Ashley rose slowly, making her way towards the man.
"H-Hopper?" her voice broke and he wrapped his arms around her in a bear hug as she sobbed into his coat, a wave of relief washing over her. He pulled back, cupping her cheeks in her hands. He wiped the tears from her cheeks, but it was pointless, because more took their place in a few seconds.
Eleven came up beside her, watching the scene warily.
"Sister?" she poked Ashley in the arm, and Ashley took her hands.
"Hopper. Chief of police, remember?"
Eleven nodded, turning to face him
"Safe?"
"Yeah, kid. I can look after you girls. I know a place where you'll be safe. Come on" he turned to leave, Eleven hot on his heels, but Ashley stayed rooted in her place.
"How do i know?" she crossed her arms, a sudden sense of worry washing over her. He was the chief of police, why wouldn't he take them back to the lab?
"How do you know what, kid?" he sighed, walking back over to her
"You don't lie?" she spat, her eyes brimming with hot tears, again. He rolled his eyes
"We'll make a deal, okay? You come back with me, i'll show you the place- wait a minute. Will said you could mind read. Surely you would know if i were lying?"
Her heart fell with the mention of Will's name as she remembered the broken look in his eyes in the store.
"I-i guess"
"Listen kid, i get it, you have serious trust issues, and i don't blame you, but you have to believe me here." he paused "I'm friends with Joyce, Will's mom, isn't that enough for you? He kept talking about you, and nobody would believe him. But, guess what? I did. I believed him. So can you just believe in me?" He knelt down, not caring about the cold snow.
"Okay. I believe you. But i don't have to like you" she smirked, and Hopper smiled at her
"Stubborn as Mike Wheeler, you are. You know that?"
"Yep" she popped the 'p', skipping towards Hopper's van.

______________

Once they had parked up, Hopper got the girls out of the back, leading them through the woods. Although Ashley and Eleven had wandered through the woods countless times over the past few months, they didn't recognise this area. They came to a small clearing where a little house was, maybe one or two bedrooms. Hooper got to the front door and let himself in, kicking his shoes against the doorframe, getting any excess snow off. The girls did the same as they followed him into the house, removing their coats.
"It isn't much," Hopper began, taking their coats and throwing them onto a nearby box "But it'll do for now. You girls don't mind sharing a room for now, do you?"
He pushed a door open, revealing a relatively small bedroom with a single bed
"Well, sharing a bed, but-"
He was cut off at the sight of both girls throwing themselves onto the bed, smiling at the comfort and bounciness of the mattress beneath them. After a minute or two, Ashley sat up
"Perfect"
Hopper grinned at the girls, and one thought in a deep voice popped up in Ashley's head
We could be a new family. These kids, they would need a parent of some form. Wait, what am i thinking? They hardly know me.
Ashley watched as his face fell a little, but he perked up quickly
"I'm going to get some supplies so we can refurbish this place, make it look, uh..."
"Pretty" the girls called in unison, jumping up from the bed and moving things around, 'cleaning'.
"Okay, pretty, i guess" he scratched the back of his neck slightly awkwardly, pushing himself off of the doorframe. He was about to leave when he turned around quickly
"Stay here, okay? Don't even think about leaving, or there will be serious consequences. Boxes that say 'Sara', 'Diane', 'Photos', 'Not important' or anything like that can go through this trapdoor" he lifted a few panels from the wooden floor, revealing an empty area beneath
"Okay. Don't leave, boxes here" Ashley started
"Got it" Eleven finished. Hopper ruffled her curly mop of hair as he moved past her, locking the door behind him. As soon as the sound of his footsteps had faded, Ashley turned to her sister
"So...where to start?"
El shrugged "Boxes? Then...bedroom?"
Ashley nodded, picking up a box and lugging it across the room. She stopped when two boxes floated past her, straight into the hole in the floor. She huffed, carelessly dropping the box labelled 'Terry Ives' into the hole. She dusted her hands off, glaring at her sister, who stood before her with a smug smirk on her face, her nose beginning to pour with blood.
"Fine then. You do boxes, i can do bedroom" she huffed, but she couldn't keep a straight face for long. Soon enough, they were both red from laughing so much at their little bickering, knowing that they would never fight for real.
Ashley pushed open the bedroom door, taking in the sight of the room. There was a small bedside table, a chest of drawers, a set of shelves as well as a single bed. The bed was diagonally across the room, and the other pieces of furniture were either strewn in random places or turned over, but Ashley decided she would have to make do with what she had. She started with the bed, pushing it towards the wall, only managing a couple of feet before collapsing to the floor. It was heavy, and she could do with help from her sister, but she was doing the boxes, and Ashley refused to ask for help most of the time anyways.
"Stupid" she stood up, kicking the side of the bed, but she hit the wooden bit and hurt her foot. She rolled her eyes
"Even more stupid. Stop hurting, stupid foot" she growled at her own foot, and it stopped hurting immediately. She smiled triumphantly, wiping the blood from her nose. Humming Should i stay or should i go which, she only really knew the chorus to, she began pushing the bed back into its place, revealing a few boxes underneath. The one that caught her eye the most was labelled 'Harley Colt'