A.N: Hey guys, it's me again. This one's another standard scary story from when I was little. The next chapter contains a horror story from Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction, because Jonathan Frakes is my number one source for cheap horror stories. (Haha. Get it? :D Anyone?)

Anyway, especially since it was Caleb's birthday on Saturday, you're getting some Lumax in that one, too. Caleb's already 17 now, can you believe that? (They're growing up so fast...) :')

Love you all, bye!

The three daughters

„Okay, I'll tell you one, but don't expect it to be amazing, yeah? I'm saving the best ones for Halloween.", Dustin explained, fumbling with his cap.

El nodded, smiling excitedly, and as a wave of heavy wind crashed against the window outside, her heart made a jump in anticipation.

They were sitting on Dustin's couch, a bunch of healthy and not-so-healthy snacks spread over the living room table, and one of Mrs. Henderson's two fluffy cats sleeping in the corner next to the heater. Eleven didn't feel all that weird about cats anymore, but she still liked to keep a bit of a distance between herself and the animal, being vaguely reminded of the lab and all that, even now.

Lucas and Dustin had played video games for most of the afternoon, while El was trying to color the front of her math binder in the prettiest way possible, and while she watched her friends play from time to time. Video games were so exciting, but also hard. For now, she felt more like watching than like playing, and luckily the others found that totally fine.

But now that Lucas, Dustin and her had started talking about Halloween, and about how awesome trick or treating would be this year, the topic of horror stories had come up once more. And, upon hearing how Mike had already told El some, Dustin had agreed to tell her one, too. El was beaming, her pencils and folder cover long forgotten. Who doesn't like to hear a horror story in windy, dark October?

Lucas, who also seemed interested, had grabbed a bunch of smarties from the bowl on the table and was putting his controller away, as their curly-haired friend dimmed down the lights. When Dustin sat back down, El was already eagerly waiting for the scariness to start.

Dustin gave her a toothy smile and then cleared his throat. „Okay, the story is called: The three daughters."

Lucas groaned loudly, and Dustin gave him a half-annoyed look. „What?", he wondered, eyeing Lucas confusedly.

„That's like... the oldest story ever, Dustin.", Lucas complained, shaking his head. „Come on, we're looking for some actual chills here, try a little harder!"

„Well, I remember you being super freaked-out by this one, not too long ago.", the curly-haired boy answered, wiggling his eyebrows and taking a sip from his soda. „Like, I bet in sixth grade you still found this scary."

Lucas scoffed. „As if! You couldn't even scare Erica with that story!"

Dustin crossed his arms in front of his chest. „First of all, I don't think your sister is easier to scare than you, Lucas. Keep dreaming."

El had to laugh at the incredulous face Lucas gave Dustin, who just kept talking. „Second of all, why don't we let El decide later if the story was scary enough, and if she says it wasn't, you can tell her one you like better."

Lucas snorted, but held up his hands in surrender. „Fine, whatever. Just start telling her your story then, already."

„Thank you.", Dustin allowed, grinning again before turning more towards El. Like Mike had done when he'd told her horror stories before, Dustin lowered his voice a little, trying to make it scarier:

„Once upon a time, in a town just like Hawkins, there was a father with three beautiful daughters.", Dustin began, his voice a bit more mysterious than what El was used to from him.

„The daughters were all really into flowers, they always planted some in their little garden, and all three of them were happy whenever their father bought them some in the flower shop close to their house. One day, though, that flower shop closed down, and the three girls were really sad."

El could imagine that. She always got really excited, too, when Hop brought home some Eggos or other special treats. So that was something she'd really miss, if they ever stopped baking Eggos. Not that Eggos were like flowers, exactly, - because nothing could ever compare to them, - but it would make her sad, too, if one of her favourite things or places in the world was gone like that.

„But the Dad wanted to bring flowers to his daughters again, so he looked for another flower shop in their part of town. When he found one, he went inside and asked the shop lady for three beautiful roses for his beautiful daughters."

Lucas clicked his pen up and down a couple times, but stopped when he noticed Dustin's annoyed glance.

„What?", Lucas grumbled, causing Dustin to roll his eyes a little before he kept talking. El smiled. The two of them could be funny.

„So, yeah. The Dad bought three roses that the shop lady had picked for him: A black rose, a white rose, and a red rose. He went home and his three daughters all placed the flowers in their rooms. And then, the night came.

The very next day, one of the daughters met someone really nice, and they went on a date together. The second daughter had had a bad dream, during the last night, and started to feel really scared in her room. The third daughter, the one with the black rose, started to feel very sick, and had to stay in bed the entire day.

As the weeks went on, the father of the three girls kept buying roses for them, and, because he knew how much they'd loved the colors of the roses the first time around, he always gave them roses in the same color again."

„That's kind of stupid, in hindsight.", Lucas murmured, taking a sip from his soda. Dustin raised an eyebrow at him.

„I just mean, it's kind of boring, anyway.", Lucas explained. „Hadn't thought of that before, but why would you surprise someone by giving them the exact same thing all the time? That's boring."

That made El feel curious. „Lucas? Do you ever surprise Max?", she asked, remembering the necklace she had seen her red-haired friend wear, a couple weeks ago... And how Max had blushed and quickly put it under the hem of her t-shirt again, once she'd noticed El's gaze.

Dustin snorted. „Yeah, Lucas? Do you? How come you're suddenly such an expert on gifting women?"

El could see how embarrassed Lucas was, even as he rolled his eyes dismissively. „Oh, shut up you two.", he replied, mostly looking at Dustin.

„Aaanyway.", Dustin grinned, clearing his throat and going back to the story. „The girls kept getting red and white and black roses, all the time. And, after a while, the daughter with the red roses announced that she would get married, soon. It was a surprise for everyone, but her sisters and her father were happy for her when they saw her with her fiancé. It was clear that the two were very much in love, even after such a short time.

But not everything was going well. A few weeks later, the girl who had always gotten the white roses, started to behave super weird. She finally told her family how she'd started to hear strange noises around the house at night, and that she didn't feel safe anymore. In the end, she even believed to see ghosts, and that was really scary for her.

The third daughter, though, the one with the black roses, had an even bigger problem. She was constantly feeling very, very sick, and sometimes, when she woke up, there were bruises and tiny cuts all over her legs and arms. It was like a curse."

El frowned. „Did she walk in her sleep?", she questioned, remembering what Hopper had once told her, when she'd fallen out of her bed during a nightmare.

(„Don't you become some sort of sleepwalker, now, yeah kid?"

When El had looked at Hop strangely, he'd explained: „That's someone who walks around while they sleep. Some people do that. It's really dangerous, they can fall down the strairs or hurt themselves somehow... And with your powers, we really don't want that to happen. Don't want you to accidentally blow up the house, now, do we?")

Dustin seemed to know what El was talking about, but shook his head. „No, she's not sleepwalking. It's a lot worse."

He kept telling the story.

„As the weeks continued, the third daughter got sicker and sicker, and one morning, she didn't wake up any more. The doctors said she had pressure marks on her neck, and that she must have strangled herself somehow, while asleep. The two sisters and the father were completely devastated, and for many days, no one thought about buying flowers anymore. The neighbours and friends of the family kept bringing bouquets around, anyway.

But, one day, the father started buying flowers again. This time, he bought two black roses for his remaining two daughters, in honor of the one who had died and who had always loved dark flowers so much."

El gasped, shaking her head. „No!", she said, knowing that this wasn't a good idea at all.

Dustin smiled. „Yeah, that's what he did. And, soon enough, both of his other daughters were getting very, very sick, too. That's when the father started to become suspicious, for the first time.

One night, he decided to watch his children a bit more closely. So he sat in a chair next to one of his daughters' beds, waiting for something, anything, to happen.

He had almost dozed off, when he noticed something strange. The black flower on the girl's nightstand started to move around in the vase it was in. It twisted, as if someone was holding it. And then, slowly..."

Dustin took a dramatic pause, eyes wandering from El's to Lucas' face and back a couple times, „Then, slowly, fingers were starting to crawl out of the flower. Human fingers. And the father watched and was completely shocked, but the fingers kept moving, it looked, as if an entire hand was now growing out of the flower, as if someone was starting to climb out of it...

And then, when almost an entire arm was reaching out of the black rose, he screamed, and the body pulled back again, starting to disappear in the plant again. But the father was angry, suddenly,- like, really, really angry, and shocked, so he grabbed a book from the night stand and started hitting the flower-arm with it. Again and again, as hard as he could. And then the arm was gone again, and it didn't come back the entire night.

After that, the father never bought flowers in the flower shop again, and soon his two daughters were both well again. But, as he walked down the street where the flower shop stood one more time that month, the father couldn't help but to notice that the woman behind the counter had an arm prothesis, now. Like, a plastic arm. And she's never had one, before.", Dustin said, dramatically, looking at El.

„The end."

Eleven's eyes were wide. „She did that!", El stated, thinking about the woman in the flower shop.

„Exactly.", Dustin nodded. „We don't know for sure though.", he shrugged.

Lucas frowned. „Um, yes, we do! How else did the first daughter die, huh? The flower lady was obviously a witch, or something."

„Do witches really excist?", El asked Lucas, curiously, while sitting back against the cushions. He smiled at her.

„Of course they do, El! I mean, you are technically one, aren't you?"

That was something she hadn't seen coming.

„What?", she mumbled, confused. Dustin shook his head.

„Bullshit, she's not a witch, Lucas!", he laughed. „She's a Jedi, if anything."

„Mike says, I'm a mage.", El quipped in, still unsure about the whole topic.

„Exactly, thanks El!", Lucas nodded. „Witch, mage... That's kind of the same."

„Woah, woah, woah!", Dustin uttered, holding his hands up. „No, it's not! Mages are cool, witches are evil, obviously."

„Not always, I mean, there's probably some stories about cool witches, too.", Lucas argued. „And if there's anyone we know who would want to build an entire house out of candy, it would probably be either you, or El, I bet!"

Dustin smirked. „Okay, that would be pretty awesome, I'll give you that.", he laughed, before looking back at El, his eyes bright and happy. „Hey, how about we do that for real? Like, there's so much candy in the kitchen already, and cookies, too, we could totally build something with that!"

Lucas raised an eyebrow, contemplating this. „You mean, like a gingerbread house? Isn't that more like, a Christmas-thing?"

Dustin shrugged his shoulders, smiling widely. „Who cares? That way, we can find out if El has an actual talent for this witch-stuff, or if we should go back to calling her a superhero instead."

She had to smile at that. If she was being entirely honest, El didn't really care how her friends referred to her, as long as they kept liking her the way they did.

Also, she turned out to be really good at building candy-houses. And if that's what witches do all day, then Lucas could gladly call her one as often as he liked.

(the end)