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the end of the world
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. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧
When Alina was twelve and didn't have friends, she often found herself climbing up to the treehouse near the lab when she was upset. She'd grown past the stage of wailing whenever her dad left for work, but the treehouse proved to be efficient for her occasional bouts of sadness. But after she made friends and met El, Alina left the treehouse behind as a relic of the past, something she didn't really need anymore, because instead of sobbing alone in a wooden structure nestled in the branches near the horrible lab, she could cry in her friends' arms.
But today, even though Alina knew she had friends (and a boyfriend!) to go to, she still decided to climb back up into the old wooden structure as the tears began to spill down her cheeks. She was almost too big for this place now, but she found herself snuggling into the corner anyway, wrapping an old blanket around her shoulders and letting the tears fall, her body trembling with every sob. Skywalker, who'd she brought with her, meowed, licking at her ankles, and she reached out a hand to pet him even as her heart felt like it was breaking into two.
When the Mind Flayer had died, everything was supposed to be okay. They were obviously going to be traumatized from everything they'd seen and felt—especially hearing about Hopper's death—but they would recover. Alina would recover from the guilt squirming inside of her for Heather and all of the others she hadn't saved, who were deemed "missing" by government authorities, would recover from the gruesome memories still fresh on the forefront of her mind, recover from her bruised ribs and back and aching knee. And then she'd enter high school with her friends beside her, and they'd face this new challenge together. That was supposed to be what was happening. That was what she'd been picturing for the past few weeks, until this morning came.
Joyce had gathered Alina, Jonathan, Will, and El to the living room, and immediately they'd known something was wrong. Alina's mother had been a mess for the past weeks after Hopper's death, bursting into tears in random places, much like she had in the horrid weeks after Bob's death. And right now, her eyes were rimmed with red, her face guilty as she stared at the three kids. And then she'd told them the news, and Alina thought she might actually keel over and die right there on the spot. It was news she'd never ever expected, because why would it happen? Why would anyone even consider it?
