Chapter One:
The Blackout

DATE: NOVEMBER 6th, 1983
LOCATION: HAWKINS, INDIANA

The November chill sunk into her bones as she stepped out onto the back porch to try and call Mews in.

"Mews!" Alicia called, wrapping her arms around her torso to conserve warmth, "Mews, are you out there?"

A soft meow followed by a blur of orange fur sped into the house, zooming around the living room for a good minute until the clang of metal against the tile floor grabbed the animal's attention.

It let out an affectionate purr and rubbed against Alicia's legs, the honorary member of the Henderson family always willing to bestow extra love on anyone who fed her. Usually most of the love was saved for Alicia and Dustin's mom, but occasionally Mews would give the two kids the time of day.

Alicia scratched the top of the cat's head and moved toward the couch, wrapping herself back up in the thick red throw blanket she'd grabbed from the endless pile of them near Mews's carrier.

Finally settling down for the night, she relished in the little time she had alone since getting back from Crawford Creek. Her mom was out running errands and Dustin was over at the Wheeler's playing DnD and no doubt trying to charm Nancy.

Alicia shook her head and popped open a bag of potato chips, unpausing the newest movie she rented from the video store.

Jonathan had been the one to initially tell her about it and once she heard Nancy talk about how hot the main actor was, Alicia knew she had to watch it.

Any movie that would make Nancy Wheeler pay attention to it while babysitting her little brother was a movie Alicia needed to see.

So far it was a pretty interesting movie, the main guy almost starting World War III with the Soviet Union just because he decided to play a few games with a computer.

She knew Dustin would kill her for watching something this nerdy without him, but Alicia didn't really care. Besides, she had to admit that Nancy was right on this count.

The main guy was very attractive.

Mews settled down on the rocking chair with a pleased meow and Alicia smiled as she popped another chip in her mouth.

Matthew Broderick was finally being introduced to the United States government when the house flickered.

The living room lights burned brighter and dimmer and brighter and dimmer, accompanying the static from the tv.

White noise filled her ears and she let out a frustrated sigh, setting aside her late night snack and blanket.

Her bare feet slid across the floor and she slammed her palm into the side of the TV, trying to get the stupid thing to work.

It always did this just when they got to the most interesting parts of the movies.

A few seconds later and everything returned back to normal, including the tape rewinding to show the parts she missed.

"Hah!" She let out a yell of victory that only Mews seemed to hear, "I am the god of television and faulty wiring."

I mean, the only thing she did was hit it but she had to have some kind of magic powers to make it rewind without touching the remote.

The lights flickered again and this time the tv shut off completely.

"Dammit."

Mews let out a hiss and Alicia rolled her eyes. Darkness settled around her and she let out another frustrated sigh as she moved toward the door leading to the garage.

The breaker box sat untouched, the grey metal door open from the last time Alicia or Dustin had to reset the breakers to fix yet another electrical problem with this house.

Guess it was cheap for a reason, Alicia reasoned.

She reset it with a quick flip of a switch and moved back inside, trying to ignore the slow way the chill seemed to be settling into her skin. Ignoring the way Mews clung to her legs with each step, ignoring the hairs standing up on the back of her neck.

She flicked the light switch.

Nothing happened.

Okay, so it was a blackout. That was common in areas like Hawkins, especially since they had the lab so close by. It required a lot of energy output, it wasn't uncommon.

It meant she needed to get out the thick blankets and quilts and the copious amounts of candles her mom was always teasing her for buying.

Alicia dug through the linen closet and pulled out the ugly patchwork quilts their grandma always made for Christmas along with the scratchy pink and blue ribbon hemmed blankets.

"One for each of your lovely kids," The clerk had announced when their mom had picked them up at a yard sale a few years back.

Blackouts were the only time they ever used them.

Rushing down the hallway toward the first room on the right, she quickly picked up as many candles as she could find. Which pretty much meant the ones she could see.

Soon the entire house smelled like caramel, vanilla, and toffee as the flames flickered back and forth.

"Well, there goes my night," She spoke to no one in particular. Although considering Mews had jumped up on the dining table, maybe the cat was a more attentive listener than she thought.

She supposed it wasn't all bad. I mean, she couldn't call Jonathan to tell him about the blackout or even ring Nancy to ask how her first official date with King Steve went–she still couldn't believe she was even interested in that douchebag–Alicia supposed she could actually finish the new edition of The Hobbit she'd picked up from the library the other day.

Which Dustin was still mad at her for not finishing.

God forbid reading all three Lord of the Rings books in a week did anything to help her nerd credibility.

Nope, wasn't enough, had to read both the Hobbit and the Silmarillion.

She really hated her brother sometimes.

Letting out another frustrated sigh–a common occurrence around the Henderson household–she rushed down the hallway to her bedroom again and picked up the paperback, settling into the rocking chair just as the door opened up.

Her little brother stood there in all his annoyed glory, curls peeking out of his baseball cap as he slammed the door behind him.

Alicia didn't even look up.

"You watched War Games without me?"

Now that she looked up for. Not at her fuming brother, but at the TV which had been static a few moments earlier. She exhaled deeply, "Who snitched?"

"Does it matter?" He stormed over to her position and slammed the book shut, "You watched WAR GAMES without ME!"

Sky blue eyes stared into moss green and Alicia arched her brow in a reluctant challenge before opening up her book again, "You should've thought about that before you decided to go to Mike's."

"It was campaign night, you know I can't miss that–"

"And yet, here I am, halfway through the movie and having to listen to you complain about missing it–"

"You know how much I would love that movie–"

"Actually I didn't, you never mentioned it–"

"I told you tons of times–"

Alicia slammed the book shut with another sigh and stared down her brother, lips screwing themselves into a deep frown, "If you're gonna continue yelling at me, I'll just head to my room then–"

Dustin let out a groan and flopped down on the couch, starfish style, the brim of his cap falling over his face. "You're impossible."

A beat passed between the pair of siblings.

It wasn't anything new, especially with the endless nights the two of them shared this exact position, Dustin sulking about something with the party and Alicia sulking about her mom and bored out of her mind.

But this time she couldn't ignore the overexaggerated sighs coming from her brother's tiny body, or the fact that they were getting louder and louder.

Alicia looked up from her book again, "What's the matter?"

Dustin peeked out from underneath the brim of his hat and scooched himself further up on the couch, "Mom's out again, isn't she?"

Answering her question with a question, how effective.

But she wasn't going to deign his non-answer with one of her own.

Alicia simply nodded and flipped the page of her book again, even though her mind was too far away to process any of the information.

It was with Jonathan in the auto shop and with her mom wherever she disappeared to on some nights.

That was all the two siblings really needed to settle back into silence.

Dustin flipped through his DnD rule book and pulled out yet another empty character sheet to craft for the fun of it–liked to have characters in reserve, he always said–and Alicia continued to flip through Tolkien's much slower prequel novel.

Or first novel, depending on who you asked.

So far the most interesting thing that had happened was Bilbo's stand off with Gollum for the ring, because right now she was in a very boring part of the book where they were wandering someplace called Mirkwood.

But again, nothing that interesting was happening.

Her mindless skimming was cut short by another interruption.

"Do you wanna make one?" A blank character sheet dangled from her little brother's finger tips and it was almost enough to melt the levels of stress that had begun to build up again.

She remembered making one ages ago when Dustin was first getting into the game.

He didn't know how to properly make characters so he'd asked his older sister for some help.

She was sure she still had the sheet somewhere buried in a box in her closet, but instead of callously reminding her brother about the last time they tried to create a DnD character for her, she simply shut her book and joined her brother on the floor on the opposite side of the coffee table. The tv stood just behind her in front of their fireplace, and she made a mental note to move it later so they could actually use the fireplace on days like this.

"Sure, why not?"

She could humor her brother for a bit, especially if it took her mind off the blackout and what looked like an oncoming storm. And maybe a reset of her brain was what she needed to enjoy Tolkien's novel again.

Alicia crossed her legs as Dustin pulled out the rule book, "Okay, so the first thing you need to do is pick your character race and class," He stared up to meet her gaze again, "I assume human?"

"Considering this is just for fun, sure."

Alicia knew she would never play an actual game or an actual campaign with them, so she didn't mind if her character sucked.

Dustin handed her the book and let her flip through it, "These are your classes, feel free to look around a bit–"

"Found it," She exclaimed, handing it back with her finger pointing at the Ranger.

Dustin scoffed and she arched her brow.

"Okay, Ranger it is then," He brought out his pencil and put in what seemed to be pre-existing stats before pulling out the many dice he always carried with him, "Now comes the fun part.

Her brother's face burst into a large smile and Alicia couldn't help the chuckle that exploded out of her.

"Wait!" She stopped him before he could roll the dice, her lips curling upward into a smirk, "I need to decide on a name, and a background, and all that fun stuff."

Dustin groaned and flopped back against the couch, "But that shit's gonna take forever!"

"Language!" Alicia chastised with a mischievous look in her eyes, "And I'm gonna take as long as I want, this is supposed to be super important after all."

She began to rattle off a bunch of different names, archetypes, and other parts of her backstory that didn't even make sense in the world of Dungeons and Dragons just to mess with her little brother.

And it was one hundred percent to mess with him while she still could and because she loved to see the slow way Dustin's face turned bright red like the tomatoes her mother kept in the garden.

"She's been on her own for a while, surviving, living, doing her best to keep the beasts at bay so she's a bit traumatized," Alicia continued to spout off, trying to resist the urge to smile. A laugh was stuck in the back of her throat, suppressed by the words she was rattling off at lightning speed, "Definitely not a survivor when she left home, but she encountered something that rattled her and changed her, ooh! Like she had to survive on her own!"

Dustin pressed his face into his hands, "I would rather be eaten by the demogorgon than have to listen to this–"

"Hey!" Alicia cut him off with a snap of her fingers and a wide smile, her laugh escaping her, "You should be writing this down, I am a creative genius."

"You know what?" Dustin stands up and snatches the character sheet from the table, stuffing it into his bag, "This was a mistake, say goodbye to Lady…" he glanced at the name sheet, "Solo? Really?"

Alicia sat back on her hands and tilted her head victoriously, like she'd gone to battle and won. Knowing how her brother felt about Dungeons and Dragons, she thought the simile was apt, "The name's still pending obviously."

"Nope, not doing this anymore," Dustin shook his head and slung his backpack over his shoulder, "I'm going up to my room to talk to some civilized people."

Alicia had to fight the urge to laugh again and instead nodded her head back and forth, "Oh yes, cause Mike, Lucas, and Will are so civilized."

Well, maybe that wasn't quite true. Will was definitely the most mature of them all.

Although that could also be because he was the quietest of them all.

But that still didn't mean they were better company than her.

Dustin threw her the middle finger as he disappeared down the hall and Alicia continued to laugh.

She didn't know why she got such a kick of riling up her little brother. Maybe it was because there was nothing else to do in this town and with Jonathan on a late night shift at the garage, she didn't have anyone to tease or poke fun at.

No one to laugh with anymore.

At least not tonight.

And Sundays were always the worst days. Their mom always used it as an excuse to spend the whole day out of the house and Dustin made sure his hangouts with his friends were always that day, which meant that Alicia was alone, at home, with Mews for the entire day unless she wanted to hang out with perpetual goody-goody Nancy Wheeler and her douchebag boyfriend Steve Harrington.

They'd all been friends once upon a time but then Steve went off to high school and started to hang out with Tommy and Carol and Nicole more than he used to, effectively ditching her once he had no use for her.

They weren't in any classes together except Mrs. Click's, so he couldn't cheat off her, and Alicia definitely wasn't cool enough to eat lunch with him, so she settled for saying hi in the halls.

Except wait, he didn't do that either anymore.

So no, Alicia had no desire to spend time with anyone except Jonathan at this point, and maybe Eddie Munson who continued to still say hi to her whenever she ate lunch alone.

But now Jonathan was working late to pick up some extra money to afford a real camera and pay some of the bills his mom had been putting off, and Eddie had been suspended for the rest of the year due to pulling a Carrie White on the principal at a pep rally.

Wow, her life was pathetic, wasn't it?

Mews meowed softly from the comfort of her bed, and Alicia went back to reading her book.

It was going to be a long night.

wow it only took me like six years but I finally wrote a Stranger Things fic! Mostly cause I love Dustin, I love Steve, and I love eighties music. I know the Henderson sister plotline is a bit overdone but I'll try my best to make it unique, I promise!

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