I'm back again! Here we go with a new series in my list of things written for, Stranger Things!
Crickets chirped loudly outside of a normal household, only to be drowned out by the hum and chirp of a sprinkler as it sprays water too and fro.
"Something is coming. Something hungry for blood."
A dark haired boy peers over the top of a book. "A shadow grows on the wall behind you, swallowing you in darkness. It is almost here." Spoke a young Michael Wheeler as he stared back at his friends in intimidation.
Around a table that held the board game Dungeons and Dragons sat the five friends, four of which turned to each other at their Dungeon Masters words.
"What is it?" Young Will Byers questioned, turning back to Mike for an answer.
"What if it's the Demogorgon? Oh, Jesus, we're so screwed if it's the Demogorgon." A boy wearing a hat atop curly hair by the name of Dustin Henderson lamented as he pressed his hand to his forehead in fear.
The other three playing along with him either rolled their eyes or ignored their friend's reaction to the possibility of a Demogorgon. "It's not the Demogorgon." Lucas Sinclair sat across from Dustin, enunciating his words with his hands as he disagreed with his friend.
"An army of Troglodytes charge into the chamber!" Mike announces as he loudly slams a figurine on the table in front of him and his friends.
Everyone looks relieved by the reveal, except of course Mike and the only other friend not to speak.
"Troglodytes?" Dustin asked, smirking at Mike because of how easy it will be to overcome the weak opponents.
"Told ya!" Lucas bragged before giggling, Dustin and Will joining him as their fears dissipated at not having to face the Demogorgon.
"I wouldn't let your guard down just yet." The last member of the party finally spoke up from where she sat between Will and Dustin, leaning forward with her chin propped on folded tan hands as she stared back at Mike.
Erin Wakeman knew Mike well enough after all these years to know when he sent something weak like Troglodytes in that he was preparing for something even grander. It was a front, which usually would by followed by something far worse.
Mike, on cue, dawned a nervous expression. "Wait a minute." Mike muttered softly as he turned away from them while Erin covered her knowing smile behind her fingertips. "Did you hear that?" Mike asked as he turned his head to look behind him.
"That... that sound... Boom... Boom... Boom!" Mike slammed his open palms against the table with the final boom, the other four jerking at the sudden loud bang of the table.
"That didn't come from the troglodytes. No, that... That came from something else." Mike revealed to the party as he peered over the book at them.
Will, Dustin, Lucas and Erin each exchanged a look of fear and anticipation of what Mike was planning, before with a loud bang Mike slammed another figurine on the table before them.
"The Demogorgon!" Mike announced, the other boys groaning out loud at the monster they now were faced with.
"I told you." Erin reminded as she threw her hands up in the air from how Mike threw them into hot water so willingly.
"We're in deep shit." Dustin groaned as he pressed a hand to his face.
"Will! You're action?" Mike demanded action from their magic user, who immediately panicked from being put on the spot against a Demogorgon.
"I don't know!" Will whined as he leaned into the table more.
"Fireball him!" Lucas demanded, waving a hand towards the Demogorgon on the table in front of them.
"I'd have to roll a thirteen or higher!" Will advised the knight of their party, staring down at the figurine in front of him.
"Too risky. Cast a protection spell." Dustin offered instead, hoping to god that Will makes the right choice.
"Don't be a pussy. Fireball him!" Lucas demanded once more instead, more forceful than the last time.
"Cast protection." Dustin only repeated the right action as he glared down Lucas for such an absurd suggestion.
Mike slammed his hands on the table loudly once again. "The Demogorgon is tired of your silly human bickering! It stomps towards you. Boom!" Mike announced dramatically as the other four panicked around him.
"Fireball him!" Lucas pleaded with Will this time.
"Another stomp, boom!"
"Cast Protection." Dustin reminded, looking to the Elf player between himself and Will for help to sway Will's decision.
"He roars in anger!" Mike yells over them before Lucas and Dustin start yelling across the table at one another.
"Cast protection." Erin advised in the middle of the chaos, but it went on deaf ears as a second later Will made his decision.
"Fireball!" Will announces before rolling the dice onto the table quickly.
….Only for the dice to them go skittering off the table and onto the floor.
"Oh shit!" Will snaps as the five of them leap out of their seats to find the dice quickly.
"Where'd it go?" Lucas questioned aloud as he looked around the basement floor for the dice. "Where is it?" Lucas asked as he and Will scurried to look for the dice.
"I don't know." Will drops to his knees to look around on the floor.
"Is it a thirteen?" Dustin and Erin both asked at the same time, Dustin the last up from the table while Erin was already crawling around on the floor beside Mike in search.
"I don't know!"
"Where is it?"
"Mike!" A shout came from up the stairs.
"Oh, my god! Oh, my god! Oh, my god! Oh, my god!" Dustin paced the floor holding his head in fear of the outcome of the roll while the other four continued searching.
"Mike!" The shout was louder this time.
"Can you find it yet?" Lucas asked as he bumped into Mike in the search.
"I can't find it!" Erin complained while starting to search further away from the table.
"Neither can I!" Will lamented and followed the black haired girls lead of searching farther away.
"Mike!" The door at the top of the stairs opened to reveal Mikes mom, Karen Wheeler, as the kids continued their hunt for the dice.
"Mom, we're in the middle of a campaign!" Mike reminded her from his kneeling position in front of the stairs, arms waved out around him in expression.
"Oh, you mean the end? Fifteen after." Karen reminded her son with a tap on her wrist before turning around and walking away.
"Oh, my god! Freaking idiot!" Lucas snapped in the background as Mike jumped up and ran up the stairs after his Mom.
"Why do we have to go?" Will protested as Mike calling after his mom could be heard from up the stairs.
"How long have we been down here?" Erin asked as she continued searching with Will. Finally, luck decided to shine on them though.
"Oh, I got it!" Will yelled as he snatched up the dice at last. "Does a seven count?" Will asked as he regrouped with Lucas and Dustin, who were getting ready to leave.
"It was a seven?" Lucas asked as Erin scooted around him to grab her things and try to ignore the bad roll. "Did Mike see it?" Will shook his head. "Then it doesn't count." Lucas clarified for Will.
Will joined the other three in getting ready to head home for the night.
With coats on and bags hanging on their backs, Lucas started up the stairs followed by Will and Erin.
"Yo, hey, guys." Dustin drew their attention back as he held up the almost empty box of pizza they had been eating earlier. "Does anyone want this?" Dustin asked as he held the box up towards the three.
"No." Lucas and Will answered at the same time.
"Why not ask Nancy." Erin offered, making kissing noises towards Dustin as Lucas snickered from up the stairs.
"Good idea." Dustin said with a tilt of his head before racing up the stairs after her when she followed after the others.
Erin followed him up towards Nancy's room just to see the reaction that would come from Mike's big sister, Dustin standing in the door and waving towards the teenage girl as Erin stood behind him. "Barb, no, I don't think so." Nancy either didn't notice them due to her phone call or didn't care.
"Hey, Nancy." Dustin called her name, and this time earned her attention. "There's a slice left if you want it. Sausage and pepperoni!" Dustin offered, Nancy rolling her eyes at him before telling Barb to hold on as she stood from her bed.
Walking towards them, Erin stepped beside Dustin with a face splitting grin to match his own toothless one. Right up until Nancy smiled back at them and slammed the door in their faces.
Dustin let the pizza box fall shut as he waved his hand in exasperation to being shut out, Erin snickering at him up until he looked at her with narrowed eyes. With a snort, she turned and ran back down the stairs.
Will and Lucas just got on their bikes when Erin made it outside and hopped on her own beside Will, Dustin arriving not a minute later. "There's something wrong with your sister." Dustin said the moment he walked out, still sour about the encounter.
"What are you talking about?" Mike asked as Dustin walked past him to get on his bike.
"She's got a stick up her butt." Dustin clarified before picking up his bike and hopping on.
"Yeah." Lucas agreed with Dustin as he looked towards Mike. "It's because she's been dating that douche bag, Steve Harrington." Lucas said as Mike rolled his eyes at two of his best friends words.
"Hey, at least you guys aren't babysat by him." Erin reminded, Will snickering beside her as they all turned on the lights on their bikes.
"Yeah, she's turning into a real jerk." Dustin continued on his rant about the girl who spurned his kind gesture.
"She's always been a real jerk." Mike argued instead, turning to Erin for her agreement since she was around Nancy the most of all with how often she was over.
"I have to agree with Mike. You guys just can't see past the pretty face." Erin argued on Mike's side, earning a disgusted look in turn from Mike but Dustin and Lucas looking at her ready to argue. When all she did was make a kissing sound yet again, they turned back around.
"Nuh-uh, she used to be cool. Like that time she dressed up as an elf for our Elder Tree campaign." Dustin said before rolling out of the garage and down the driveway with Lucas right behind him.
"Four years ago!" Mike yelled after Dustin before he could get away.
"Just saying!" Dustin called back to him before he was gone.
"Later!" Lucas bid his farewell before he too was gone.
"Night, Mike!" Erin said with a smile before following after the other two, leaving Will behind with him.
"It was a seven." Erin rolled her eyes as she faintly heard Will reveal what the roll had been to Mike.
Catching back up with the other two was no hard task, peddling up behind Lucas as they weaved around before Will too caught up. Before long, they were at Lucas' stop.
"Good night, ladies." Lucas said with a wave goodbye to his three best friends.
"Kiss your mom 'night for me." Dustin called after him before pulling ahead of Will and Erin as the other two made sounds of disgust at his words.
Seconds later, he turned to the other two with a grin.
"Race back to my place? Winner gets a comic." Dustin offered, Will looking over Dustin's shoulder at Erin before they nodded in agreement to the terms.
"Any comic?" Will asked as they each peddled side by side.
"Yeah." Dustin agreed as he looked to Erin on his other side.
With a nod, Will and Erin started to peddle ahead of Dustin.
"Hey! Hey! I didn't say go!" Dustin shouted after them as they raced off ahead of him.
"Get back here!"
"Make us!"
Will started to pull ahead as they reached a hill.
"I'm gonna kill you!" Dustin shouted after Will, his voice carrying throughout the neighborhood.
"I'll take your X-Men 134!" Will called back as he shot past Dustin's house, Erin slowing her peddle as she neared the Henderson mailbox to give Dustin a chance to catch up.
Huffing and puffing, he came to a stop beside her a second later with a defeated sigh. "Son of a bitch." Dustin moaned as he tried to catch his breath, leaning on his handlebars before looking to the girl beside him.
"Guess you're one comic short now. Night, Dusty." Erin teased, sticking her tongue out at him as she circled her bike around him before going across the street to her own house.
"Yeah, yeah. Kiss your babysitter night, tiny little Hobbit." Dustin waved her off before starting up his driveway.
"I heard that, you rock loving Dwarf!" Dustin snorted at the shout he got back for the comment.
This was a normal night for the five best friends of Hawkins, Indiana. Spending the day in the basement of Mike's home while playing Dungeons and Dragons was one of their favorite past times.
Mike Wheeler, as the Dungeon Master, would lead Will the Wise, Lucas the Knight, Dustin the Dwarf and Erin the Elf on many a grand adventure together.
Hundreds of campaigns and even more so hours spent on their games, they were all the best of friends. Nothing would ever change that.
But no one could have ever predicted that this night in particular would start the beginning of a change, one that no one could have ever seen coming.
This night would make them wish that the old days never ended.
"Do you like Dungeons and Dragons?" A fourth grade Mike Wheeler asked the new kid of his class as his old friends stood around him, or in case of their one girl she stood behind him holding the back of his shirt.
The new kid, who held a unique lack of teeth that the rest of them had long since grown in and most kids were even starting to lose them to permanent teeth, tilted his head at him in response as he tucked a book into his bag. "You know what Dungeons and Dragons is? No one at my old school did!" This new kid went by the name Dustin, his parents having just moved them all to Hawkins, Indiana.
"Of course we know what it is, what are the kids at your old school a bunch of knuckleheads?" Lucas questioned as he raised his nose at how a different school didn't know the wonder of the game.
Mike turned to Lucas, but before he could yell at his best friend for ruining his chance to get a new member in their party Will stepped towards Dustin.
"Hi, I'm Will Byers." Will held a hand out to Dustin with a big, warm smile that could make anyone having a bad day smile.
"My names Dustin Henderson." Dustin introduced, shaking Will's hand before Mike stepped forward to greet him as well.
"My name's Mike Wheeler. This is Lucas-"
"I can say my own name!"
Mike glared at Lucas beside him as Lucas stepped up and shook Dustin's hand.
"Lucas Sinclair, I'm our parties Knight when we play." Lucas introduced himself with a proud smile. "What do you play as?" Lucas asked, not lessening his critical view of the new boy who Mike and Will were trying to introduce into their already perfectly fine friend group.
"I'm a Dwarf." Dustin revealed with a proud smile of his own now, turning to Mike as he heard a snort of amusement come from his way.
"Oh, this is Erin Wakeman." Mike gestured behind his back to where the only girl that didn't call them nerds or mock them was hiding behind him.
Dustin tilted his head to the side to see a small girl with black hair and the brightest blue eyes he's ever seen look back at him. "Hi!" Dustin greeted her with a big smile before remembering that no one here knew about his Cleidocranial Dysplasia. He braced for the oncoming taunts or laughing he was used to from his last school.
Instead, he was greeted by a tilt of her head away from Mike to look back at him. Curiosity filled her once nervous gaze instead.
"She doesn't talk much." Lucas spoke up instead of teasing him, rolling his eyes at how even after her having been here for a while now she still didn't really talk. At least not out in public like this.
"She's shy, Lucas." Mike reminded, always the first to defend their most recent addition to the party. She's been with them since she came to town two years ago. Hopefully, this new kid will be their next addition though.
"That's alright, I get it." Dustin assured, while not shy himself he has known plenty of shy kids from his old school.
"Dwarves are inferior." All four boys turned their heads quickly when the shy girl actually spoke, Mike even stepping to the side to look at her fully.
Lucas began snickering behind a hand to his mouth as Mike and Will just stared at her in shock for the random comment about Dwarves.
"Excuse me?" Dustin asked, just staring back at her for her comment about his D&D race.
"I'm sure she was just kidding." Mike reasoned, looking to Erin to correct herself so they don't risk a potential new friend.
She just stared back at him for a moment before setting her gaze on the new boy instead. "Dwarves are inferior." Erin repeated herself, speaking up this time.
Now Will began giggling along with Lucas as they each took a step back from the scene unfolding.
"Let me guess, are you an Elf?" Dustin asked instead, narrowing his eyes at the girl that was supposedly shy. When she nodded her head, he snorted before rubbing his nose. "Of course you are, you're just jealous of us Dwarves like you've always been." Dustin teased, smirking down at the blue eyed girl that challenged his race in the first place.
"Hey can we not?" Mike interrupted them, because while he was surprised that Erin was being so bold at school for once he really wanted to make a new friend today.
"Jealous?" Erin spoke again instead of taking Mike's hint not to ruin this. "Why would an Eldar be jealous of a Khuzd?" Erin asked, standing up more confidently and speaking more passionately than the other three boys who knew her were used to seeing her do when out in public.
"Oh, here she goes." Lucas sighed and pressed a hand to his forehead.
"Erin please don't." Mike begged, more than willing to let her get her love of Elves and Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit out later when they have a new party member.
"You know the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings?" Dustin was unfazed by her though, instead very excited that there was someone else who read the books that he's loved since first he read them.
"We all do." Will admitted with a small smile, laughing softly when Erin's confidence over her favorite books faded and she once again hid against Mike for safety.
"So...do you want to come over? We were about to start planning for our next campaign." Mike revealed, relieved he wasn't scared away by Erin.
"Sure!" Dustin said excitedly, slinging his backpack over his shoulders.
"I honestly didn't expect this to go so well." Will admitted to Lucas as Mike walked out of the classroom with Dustin, both talking about the now up and coming campaign that would involve their new friend.
"You know Mike. He can make anyone a friend if he really wants to." Lucas said with a shrug as they followed after their leader.
"As long as they like the same stuff we do." Erin piped up from beside Will this time, far safer near them now than near the newcomer.
"You didn't even know what Dungeons and Dragons or Lord of the Rings was before you got here." Lucas reminded Erin with a knowing smirk, as the three of them had to teach her a lot when she first joined them two years previous.
"You learned quick though. You're a true Elf." Will complimented, smiling widely at Erin as she smiled right back at him.
"Better than a Dwarf." Both Lucas and Will snorted in amusement at her very elf like disdain for the Dwarves, before looking back ahead at their Dungeon Master and their parties new Dwarf.
And so began the brightest of friendships in Hawkins. When a party of four became five, it grew not only in size but in friendship and happiness. If you asked any of them, they would say it truly felt complete when their last member arrived.
So began the countless campaigns and endless hours in Mikes basement, and many more hours of running off outside to role play as their characters or explore the area of their town that they unofficially renamed Mirkwood.
In honor of their favorite books that brought them closer together.
Racing off into the summer night to catch fireflies or polliwogs, coming home scraped up and dirty to parents who now were used to it. Hiding out in Mikes basement from the bullies who didn't understand any of them, either playing their favorite game or just hanging out.
Competing in the Science Fair all together at school and winning almost every time. Having their own club all to themselves, well minus Mr. Clarke but he was one of their favorite adults so he was always welcome.
Having many many debates about Dungeons and Dragons or books that they read, that sometimes had to end with shaking hands and just letting it go because they weren't required to share the same opinions just because they were best friends.
Some people would say you can only truly have one Best Friend, there is only room for one. But if you ask the party, one isn't anywhere near enough or okay by them.
They each had four best friends.
Five was the perfect number for them, and they wouldn't have it any other way.
Everything has to change eventually though. The party may not want it, but it's going to happen.
And it just so happens it's going to happen tonight. Even as Mike settles in for bed, or Lucas yells back and forth across his house at his little sister.
Or Dustin wishes his turtle Yurtle goodnight as he settles in bed with a book. Even Erin, who tries everything in her might to get her babysitter Steve to go back to his own house.
Because on the night of November 6th, 1983, a night that started out just like any other night, Will Byers disappeared without a trace.
So sparking the beginning of the change of their lives, and the ultimate test of their friendships.
Wow it has been a while since I've started a new story! I couldn't help myself this time though, it's Stranger Things! Who can honestly resist! Not to mention the common referencing they make of one of my favorite series of all time, as shown by the Eldar and Khuzd.
Now, I always hate the first chapter of any story I write because it's me getting the base in and I'm always dissatisfied with it. I promise though, it'll get better if you didn't much care for this! Please, give it a chance and forgive me as I get myself back into the sway of writing again! It's been a while!
I'm new to writing for this series, but I hope you enjoyed it so far! I'm not going to have a set update schedule for this story just yet as I've done with other stories in the past, I'm very busy during daytime and also in the process of trying to pick new software to write with. But if I can I'll try to update at least once a week.
Thank you so much for reading and thanks even more if you'll be willing to come back for the next chapter. I promise, it'll be better and not as drawn out as this one was. I hope to see you next time!
Oh, before I forget, please feel free to give suggestions for a better title for this story. I've basically just settled with the one I've got because I suck at naming my work, so please give any ideas you have! Who knows, you might even give the new name for this!