Last Night On Earth

A/N: So this idea came to me one night like a week ago, I hope you guys enjoy and feedback is appreciated.

Tuesday

November 8th, 1983

Checking his wristwatch for the time which displayed 7:45pm. 15 minutes till showtime. Looking at himself in the mirror, he sprayed a little bit more Farrah Fawcett hairspray in his long dirty-blonde hair which fell halfway down his back as he was trying to make a bit more poufy like Vince Neil's hair from Mötley Crüe. His eyes, as blue and as deep as the ocean with the emotion they could convey how he's feeling without him saying anything. Tonight though they looked more dilated thanks to the pot brownies, Eddie had made this morning before school at 4am. It taken them a year to get booked here at The Hideout, mainly because they're all under the age of 18. However with a few of the local bands deciding to try to make a name out on the Sunset Strip in California they left Hawkins. The owner of the bar allowed them to start gigging there under the condition that they all be marked at the door with an x on their hands to let the bartender know they're under age and that each of their parents or legal guardian knows where they are and with their permission.

Rubbing his eyes for a second, he stared intensely into the mirror at himself when the lights in the small dressing room flickered for a moment which was odd as the weather this morning showed no signs of storms or strong winds. In the second the lights flickered he swore he saw the dressing room all overgrown with vines and looking dilapidated. Chalking it up to faulty wiring and the brownies he had after school had let out earlier in the day he backed away from the mirror and turned to face the band.

Eddie was sitting in a chair going over a few licks on the guitar. While their drummer Gareth sat looking over the piece of paper containing their setlist. As for Chris he was running over his bass solo. Their setlist contained mostly Mötley Crüe and Metallica songs with one or two songs the band had wrote themselves as a way to try and find their own sound and see how their own creation would do with the audience.

As the band before them wrapped up their set, they waited for a knock on the door to head out and get ready to start the show. Being that they were the last show of the night, the stage itself wouldn't be crowded with amps and the floor would be able to be walked around without getting wrapped up in an abundance of cables sprawled all over.

Zoning out to the sounds of his bandmates and the crowd out by the stage, he didn't feel anyone nudging his shoulder or calling his name. Looking to his left he saw Eddie trying to get his attention and shaking his shoulder which snapped him out of his stupor.

"Hop, Hopper man are you alright?" Eddie asked his rhythm guitar player and lead singer of his band.

"Whoa man yeah, I think those brownies hit harder than I thought man."

A smile flashed across Eddie's face as he patted his back "Alex take a deep breath and just soak in everything."

Letting out a nervous chuckle Alex nodded "I'm trying Eddie, I really am." Alex said a he tried to focus on not hyperventilating. "Hey man 1984, next year is gonna be our year I can feel it!"

Eddie grabbed hold of Alex's cheeks "First we conquer Hawkins, then the world!" Eddie shouted as he extended his arms outright to encompass the world, which in this case was the dressing room.

Turning back to the mirror, Alex looked at it again. Not at himself but trying to see through himself, through the mirror and if he could see what he saw again when the lights flickered. He knew his dad would kill him if he saw him like this. Stoned out of his mind and now he thinks he's starting to see things. Sure having the chief of police as your dad has it's benefits, spray painting or taking bats to neighbors mailboxes and only getting a slap on the wrist and avoiding jail time in return for having to spend the summer cutting yards of those who's property he defaced or damaged. Alex and his dad never see eye to eye, so much so that he doesn't even call him his dad he calls him by his first name, Jim.

"Okay so the setlist let's run through it one more time." Eddie announced as he picked up the paper "As follows we'll open the show with On With The Show, followed by Merry-Go-Round, Too Young To Fall In Love, Public Enemy #1, Looks That Kill, and last but not least Shout At The Devil. That wraps up the first leg. On the latter halve we have Whiplash, Jump in the Fire, (Anesthesia) pulling-teeth, The Four Horsemen, Seek & Destroy, Phantom Lord, Hit The Lights & Motorbreath. For our last two songs of the night I figured we'd try out our own that we've been working on with Hawkins: Hell On Earth and Heart of A Lion." He looked around at his bandmates "You guys cool with this?". Alex and the rest of his bandmates nodded in agreement. If anything they were all just excited to get out on stage to perform and feel and feed off the audiences excitement and adrenaline. Sure it might only be 5 or 25 people but an audience is an audience. The next few minutes they spent pumping themselves up to get ready to go out and perform.

A knock came from outside the dressing room door as a loud voice called out "Alright boys, time to head out and give the crowd a show." Grabbing his 1954 black Gibson Les Paul, Alex pulled it over himself, letting it rest against his back while holding onto the bottom of the guitar with his left hand keep it from moving. Earlier in the day he had decided to give the audience a spectacle by taping a zippo lighter to the front of the headstock on his guitar and a cheap can of hairspray on the back the headstock to shoot fire through the air. As his bandmates grabbed their instruments and drumsticks, Alex was the last to leave the dressing room. As he was about to exit the dressing room he glanced back at it and just as he did the lights flickered once more and this time he saw it no in the mirror but with his own eyes just for a second the same thing he had saw the first time. A dark, overgrown, dressing room with what looked like spores floating through the air. He blinked and the dressing room was still the same well lit, slightly too small changing area. He rubbed his eyes once more before shaking his head and shutting the door behind him to head down the narrow hallway, through the curtains and onto the stage. If anything, he'd swear he's seeing things and that the marijuana Eddie used was laced with something more than just weed.

Everything felt slow and surreal to Alex as surprisingly it was a packed house tonight and what surprised not only him but the band as well, the crowd seemed to be into it. Some people were thrashing all over on the second leg of their set Alex laid down on the stage during the song Whiplash right before Eddie began to solo and flipped the zippo lighter open with his foot and somehow managed to ignite it with his shoe before pressing down on the hairspray with the bottom of his shoe as flames shot up in the air just as Eddie began to solo. The crowd gasped and cheered on at the sight of fire before the owner of the bar shined a light in Alex's eyes causing him to look over at him and Alex saw the owners disapproving look and took his foot of the hairspray can and closed the zippo lighter.

Feeling that he probably just got Corroded Coffin banned from playing at The Hideout for life. He was mentally kicking himself for it. The show ended without a hitch, nobody got hurt and the crowd loved it. It seemed like it was just a blink of the eye as Alex now found himself in the dressing room with his bandmates getting chastised by Gary Lockhart, the owner of the bar. He was a rather chubby guy with a Navy tattoo on his forearm and a black greying mustache with a almost completely bald head, he took no shit from nobody and nobody messed with him. Stories about him were legendary with one in particular about fighting off a biker gang with a baseball bat who happened to ride into town one day in the fall of 1978.

"What in the fuck was that kid?!" Gary shouted at Alex "YOU COULD'VE INJURED SOMEBODY OR WORSE, NOT TO MENTION THIS BAR HAS ALCOHOL IN IT, GOD FORBID THOSE FLAMES REACHED ANY FURTHER THAN THEY DID!"

Alex was stunned as he hated being yelled out or talked down to, some people he wouldn't let it get to him but he always thought Gary to be a pretty cool guy since they managed to convince him on Halloween to let them start gigging here and in a way it hurt him a bit to hear it. "I-I know." Alex began but Eddie cut him off and Alex was grateful he did because he didn't know what to say to Gary.

"Mr. Lockhart we are really sorry and on myself and on behalf the band we promise we'll never do that again." Looking at his bandmates "Right guys?" Eddie mouthed for them to all agree.

"We're sorry." They all said in unison.

"You should be, this bar could've caught fire and I would've lost everything. I should ban you from ever playing here again but since this is the first time you did anything like this and since your all just a bunch of kids I'm gonna give you a warning not to do it again." Gary said as he sighed in frustration. He took a deep breath before exhaling.

The expression on Gary's face changed from anger to that of sorrow "I'm sorry I yelled at you son." He looked at Alex and patted him on the shoulder "I shouldn't have lost my temper and take it out on you. One of our cooks just quit with no notice or anything and it gets hot working in that kitchen and I saw a bright light that wasn't in the kitchen and when I looked and saw you spraying fire and all I saw was red, so I'm sorry for yelling at you Alex" Gary apologized before looking at the group of kids "You boys hungry?" He asked "I can cook up a few burgers and fries for you guys." Alex was starving and was the first to nod followed by Eddie and then the other two.

Gary checked his watch for the time "Christ it's a quarter to 10pm, I'll get to work on making you dinner. Phone is down the hall, last door on the left in my office. You boys know what to do, call your folks and let them know you'll be a little late getting home. Who's picking up who tonight?" He asked with a hint of concern for the safety of the teenagers.

Eddie raised his hand "My uncle and his van. I drove us here but my uncle took it to go grocery shopping and he said he'll just give them rides home."

Seeming satisfied with the answer Gary stroked his mustache "Good, well when you all are done calling your folks and are done changing and packing things up, come around to the front and sit at the bar, I'll get to work making dinner."

Gary turned and disappeared out of the dressing room and headed down the hall turning right and into the kitchen. Alex began changing back into his street clothes which consisted of a faded blue denim jacket, a black Led Zeppelin shirt, jeans and a pair of white Nike sneakers. Each member of the band had similar outfits which they wore onstage, the main color on all of their outfits being black. Alex wore black leather pants with black boots and a red shiny jacket with the sleeves rolled up which he left the buttons undone to show off the fact that he works out and takes care of his appearance. In that aspect he was very conceited about how he looked, he didn't mind rocking rugged old beat up jeans and t-shirt as long as his hair looked good and his lean, somewhat muscular figure could show off as he tried to model himself after David Lee Roth.

It took Alex no more than 5 minutes to change outfits and another 2 to put his clothes in his duffel bag. The amps they used were stored at Eddie's place as that's where they'd rehearse when his uncle was working and having not thought to bring his guitar case with him, Alex would be lugging it around with him as he was afraid that if he left somewhere out in the open unattended that someone would take it. Buttoning up his denim jacket, Alex slung his guitar over his back and headed down the hallway and into Gary's office as he picked up the phone handset and pressed it to his ear and dialed his home phone number. This conversation would be short probably all of 10 seconds.

As he waited for his dad to pickup, he looked around the office at the pictures on the wooden walls. Gary had served in the Navy during Vietnam and by the looks of it he traveled all over the world at some point in his life before settling here in a small town in middle America. The answering machine answered him and Alex waited for the beep so he could leave a message.

At hearing the beep, Alex spoke into the handset "Hey Jim it's me, I'm still at The Hideout. Gary's making us dinner, I'll be home sometime tonight, bye." Setting the handset back in it's place he rolled his eyes and sighed as he walked out of the office as Gareth walked past him into it.

"Not home?" Gareth called out from the office.

"As usual." Alex replied as he made his way down the hallway. Glancing into the dressing room as he passed it, Eddie and Chris were still changing and packing up. Heading around to the front of the bar, he took a seat at the bar and looked around. The bar was empty except for the janitor mopping up a mess by one of the tables. It typically was empty by this time on weeknights as everyone had to get up the next day and work but on Friday nights it wouldn't close until around 2am.

Gary looked from the Kitchen through the serving window "Alex what do you want to drink?"

"A Coors light." Alex replied.

"Alex." Gary said in a rather serious tone

"Dr. Pepper is fine." He answered.

Alex watched Gary through the serving window as he made dinner. While still being high and somewhat out of it, it was rather quite interesting to him to watch Gary make dinner as it gave Alex something to look at and zone out. Resting his head on his hands he watched intensely as Gary grilled the hamburgers. Gary was always a multitasker and pitched in wherever he was needed whether it was at the door checking people for I.D.'s or cleaning up and cooking the kitchen on top of his other responsibilities as a bar owner.

A few more minutes passed and Gary placed hamburger with French fries in front of Alex with a glass of Dr. Pepper and two five-dollar bills. "Gary why are you giving me money?" Alex asked as he picked a fry and bit into it.

"You boys drew a crowd and the crowd was into it and in turn they spent more money. So I added up the money from the register and skimmed forty bucks off the top and considering you guys want to split everything equally, each of you gets ten dollars."

Alex smiled "Thank you Gary for not only the dinner but the money as well."

"Don't worry about it." Gary said as he disappeared back into the kitchen to continue cooking.

Alex pocketed the money before taking a sip of his drink and biting into the thick juicy burger, Gary had cooked for him. Tonight had been a goodnight in his mind.

"Right here." Alex said as Eddie's uncle steered to the side of the rode and the van came to a stop, there were no houses around them except for that of Steve Harrington's and a few other of the more wealthy people in Hawkins but the house were spaced out a bit far and the number of them was only a handful. Alex looked to his left and noticed one streetlight that flickered. Eddie's uncle looked in the backseat at him with a confused look on his face.

"Alex your home isn't for another mile."

Alex waved him away "I know, I need to clear my head anyways. I'm feeling pretty spaced out and besides I'll take a shortcut through the woods." He said as he grabbed his guitar "Eddie I'll just leave my stage clothes with you."

"Yea that's fine." Eddie commented.

Opening the sliding doors, Alex hopped out the van and into the chilly November night "Thanks for the ride Mr. Munson. Goodnight you guys."

"Be safe out there kid, goodnight." Mr. Munson said as Alex shut the van door and knocked on it twice. He watched as the van disappeared into the night. He was at least a mile out from the lakeside trailer even though he'd cut through the woods. Besides the fact, this trailer is what he and his dad called home. However he'd need this time alone to himself to reflect on tonight. Alex liked having time for himself at the end of each day to unwind and reflect on the day. For some reason he couldn't get the thought of what he saw when the lights flickered in the dressing room. Hopping over the ditch, Alex began trekking into the woods. The only sound he could here now were the crickets and his footsteps.

He was hoping his dad would be asleep or not home. Most of the time he came home, his dad had already gone to bed. Adjusting the position of his guitar, Alex held onto it with one hand as he began passing trees, making sure to not trip and fall on any dead limbs or branches. Harrington's house was to the right and he could faintly see the illuminated pool area, like a blue signal in the dark. Definitely too cold to go swimming unless they had a heated pool, he didn't know as he and Steve weren't particularly friends. They were close as kids but being that Harrington was almost a year older than him, once they got to middle school they slowly drifted apart and haven't really spoken since then.

As he passed more trees he thought he heard footsteps from another area, sounding closer to Steve's house. However with everything he saw tonight, the only thing Alex wanted to do was to get home and forget about it all. Minutes passed as the lake got closer and closer into view. Having almost gotten out of the woods, he heard what sounded like a scream echo through the trees which caused him to stop dead in his tracks and listen. Nothing, the air was as dead as the night until he heard what sounded like a tree falling apart, Alex looked in front of him in the direction of the sound and noticed the tree bark moving out of the way as if it was opening something, what looked like to be a hole was forming in the tree. He stared dumbfounded at the tree for a moment and watched as the hole got bigger and bigger until it looked big enough that he could fit through it.

"What the fuck." He said out loud to nobody but himself. Pinching himself, he had to make sure he wasn't dreaming this up. In all honesty this sounded like the start to one of Eddie's D&D campaigns. A person is in the woods hears a scream and a tree begins opening up a hole in front of them, Alex shook his head. In his mind there was no way this was real and happening.

Still his curiosity got the better of him and he found himself getting down on the ground and starting to crawl into the hole in the tree. Maybe he'd find out where and how the elves make their delicious cookies. Chuckling at the thought of it as he army crawled through the hole he felt a sticky gooey liquid began to get on him, his clothes and guitar. 'Maybe I should've just left my guitar with Eddie.' Alex thought as he continued crawling through the hole. He was worried this stuff would seep into his pickups and fuckup the sound and possibly make the guitar useless.

Reaching what he thought was the other side, he climbed to his feet and wiped himself off and wondered what exactly did he crawl through. It was the woods, well at least it looked like the woods except it was different. He could see what looked like spores floating through the air and a fog had covered the woods as while it was dark there was a strange blueish glow as if the moon was shining through the fog. He could see somewhat, but only just.

'Were there this many overgrown roots and vines in the woods?' He thought as he surveyed his surroundings, there was no way they had vines he would've saw them but then again maybe it's the fact that he's cut through the woods so often that he fails to notice them? And what happened to the crickets?. There was not a sound to be heard except for his quiet breathing. Looking in the direction towards Steve's house, since that's where he heard the scream. He figured something or someone had to be there. Maybe whomever or whatever was there could explain this. Yet something in him told him to grab hold of his guitar and potentially use it to defend himself. He had a funny feeling in his gut. Taking his guitar from around his back he held it by the neck and held it up like a baseball bat. He hoped he didn't have to use it as a weapon and end up breaking it or fucking it up but he most certainly didn't wanna die and he could always get a cheap junk guitar from the pawn shop. This place didn't feel right, everything looked familiar and yet completely devoid of life at the same time. Thinking back to the vines, it clicked for him. The dressing room he saw, it had the same spores and vines that he sees now. Either the pot brownies have completely fried his brain or somehow he slipped into a alternate dimension.

Looking down at the ground just a few feet in front of him he made sure to avoid anything that'd cause a loud sound. His next stop is simple, Steve's house.

A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed, this idea just came to me one night. Feedback is appreciated. Next chapter will be out hopefully soon once I feel satisfied with it.