EPILOGUE

Hawkins, Indiana is inconsequential and quaint. A blink and you miss it kind of place. It could be erased off the map and most people wouldn't even notice. 80 miles away from the nearest metropolitan city, it serves no real purpose other than to uphold the ideals of middle America mundanity.

Over a hundred years ago, during the great gold rush out West, some poor idiot probably saw yellowed wheat and corn fields and thought, 'good enough'. Gave up on the riches and decided he would settle here instead to lead a quiet life, kicking off generations of families too poor or stubborn to migrate anywhere else. A population of thirty thousand people whose biggest aspirations were likely owning cooking cutter houses and retiring from mediocre management jobs, with two point five kids to usher in the next generation of middle class suckers.

People always said Hawkins was cursed. That this place suffered more loss than one town could take. Children go missing, die from toxic chemical spills, burn down in a massive mall fire. It makes you wonder why, incident after incident, not many ever chose to leave. The people of this town had an uncanny way of banding together in solidarity in the face of so much loss. That being Hawkins Strong was something to be proud of instead of avoided.

I never really bought into the hometown pride, never had the desire to stay and see what happens next. To me, Hawkins was somewhere you need to escape from, not stay and defend.

That's what I used to think, anyway.

Preoccupied by the woes of teenage sorrows, I was unable to see forest for the trees. Never saw the good in Hawkins because I was so focused on everything that was wrong with this place.

You see, when you focus on the little details, you tend to not see the big picture. You forget that the rain that frizzes your hair, ruining your school pictures, is also what buds the flowers in springtime. You ignore the fact that the pain of a needle prick immunizes you from suffering a worse fate, because really, who wants to die by measles?

Or in my case, the extra credit tutoring that required volunteering my time and missing a trip to the mall, also brought me to the most remarkable person. And that person showed me the kind of love that can make you see all the good in such an unlikely place.

That's what Eddie did for me. He reframed my mind, gave me a different vantage point that allowed me to see Hawkins for what it really was. The home to all of my memories. The birthplace of all my beginnings. Somewhere that could house so much beauty, if only you chose to see it from a different perspective.

But there are two sides to every story, and Hawkins was harboring a deep secret. Behind every horrible accident was an explanation even worse than you could imagine. The people of Hawkin's weren't just unlucky. They were innocent victims in a war so much bigger than themselves. In a battle between good and evil, the townspeople were used as disposable pawns. If there was no one to protect them, they too would fall to its destruction. Hawkins would be blown off the map before they even had a fighting chance to stop it.

It took an unknowable tragedy to recognize the duality that this town balanced between. To unearth the despair that lingered beneath the surface and awaken the true horrors that cursed this place. For all the good that Hawkins housed, there was an evil at work, seeping through the fractured fault lines.

Home above and hell below, forged into one.

Only then did I truly start to understand why defeat shouldn't be accepted so easily. When half the town finally fled to greener pastures, I couldn't be the one to leave this place to ruin. Even in the bleakest of circumstances, I now know Hawkins is a town worth fighting for. Whether my efforts brought back some semblance of restoration to this torn up town, or it corrupted me in the process, I would fight.

When all is fraught and fighting seemed impossible, I would fight.

This story is being continued on AO3 under my same username, chapter 1 of volume 2 is posted there now, titled "When The World Stopped Moving." TBD if I will cross post here because I get much better traction on AO3. Either way, thanks for reading!