⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀   ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
.*･｡..*･｡..*･｡.
——
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀   ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
.*･｡. A DEAL WITH GOD! .*･｡.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

"𝘪'𝘮 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘦
𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘰𝘯."

"𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘺
𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘰𝘯 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘴 𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨?"

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

━━━━━━━☆☆━━━━━━━

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀   ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
[ running up that road,
running up that hill. ]

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀   ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

—————

Ashley Miller cut herself a deal with god.

Rookie move.

            But she was only a kid, at the time.

            You would probably cut a deal with god too if he came to you in your dreams, when you were a vulnerable ten year old; just a small child who had lost her mother far too young, and who was slowly losing her father to alcohol.

            If your world had suddenly turned upside down.

            It was a bit of a blur. Ashley couldn't remember most of it but she remembered his voice. Ashley. Ashley. Ashley.

            Even a long seven years later, she could still remember his voice and the ticking of a clock. Ashley. Ashley. Ashley. She could still hear him now if she squeezed her eyes tight enough. Ashley. Ashley. Ashley. He seldom spoke to her these days but she could still hear it like it was only yesterday.

          Ashley.

                    Ashley.

                               Ashley.

            God had offered her a lot, that night.

            He couldn't offer her reincarnation for her mother— god couldn't bring back the dead, but he could cut her a deal. Her soul in exchange for something precious. Something that could fix all the misery in her life. Something that could save her father, before she lost him too.

            A special ability.

            And all she had to do was give him her soul.

            So, Ashley had agreed.

            The only thing she could really remember was waking up the next morning and finding nothing different, nothing had even changed. Nothing at all.

            Ten year old Ashley had cursed god as she walked into her kitchen, only to find her father nursing another bottle of beer at as early an hour as usual. He hadn't changed anything for her. He had lied. But then, something strange happened. As Ashley watched her drunken father sitting at the kitchen table, her eyes watery and lip trembling, she felt the world shift. It turned beneath her feet and it tipped her upside down, spiralling the girl like a Ferris Wheel. But when the world slowed down, and her head had finally stopped in its summersaulting, Ashley Miller found herself in a place she had never thought to be possible.

            Ashley was in her father's head.

            Time was cruel, and Ashley couldn't remember much of what had happened that first time in her father's head.

            She could remember looking down at her hands, finding a half empty bottle of beer tight in her fist, and she could remember staring at her— the body of herself, stuck without a mind, her eyes rolled back and frozen in space and time, but that was it. The next thing Ashley remembered was waking up in her father's hold, eyes bleary and burning, limbs stiff, and the bitter taste of scarlet metal as blood pooled at her upper lip.

            It happened several times, after that. Once a month, then once a week, then every other day. Over the course of a year, she found herself in her father's head at least two hundred times. And with each journey into his mind, his pain eased. For every trip into his subconscious, his grief lessened. She traded each nosebleed for one less bottle and with every less bottle, her father was a different man. The man he used to be. The man Ashley loved. The man who had been missing since her mother's unsightly death. He started to come back; fractures and cracks, small beams of light, ruptures on china pots. The man was still there, somewhere deep inside, and if Ashley had any chance of getting him out, she would have to keep going back in there.

             She found a way to semi-control it, at some point in time. It wasn't always voluntary but if she tried hard enough, she could find her way into his head when she willed it.

             So, Ashley did.

            She wormed her way into his mind; traded places.

            She felt his pain, dreamt his nightmares, lived his grief, all in return for his healing. So he could return to work at the station, so he could stop drinking himself to death, so he could wake up in the mornings feeling significantly less broken. Ashley had swapped places with her father more times than she could count, by the age of twelve.

             It was tiring, and painful, but she did it. Ashley had made a deal with god and swapped her soul in her father's favour, just so he would be her father again.

And it worked.

In exchange for her soul, Ashley got her father back.

She stole his sleepless nights, his endless mourning, and in return she got him back— the father that loved her, the father that held her. She got him back and she only had the man in the sky to thank for all of it.

            Ashley didn't use her ability much after that. She couldn't see a reason to. She didn't have one. Her father returned to his job at Hawkins PD, he kissed her forehead before dropping her at her school every morning, and he hadn't touched a bottle since Ashley had been thirteen. She didn't need to venture into his mind. Ashley didn't need to swap places with him and tackle his pain, because it didn't seem like there was much left.

            But then came the vanishing of Will Byers.

            Ashley didn't know him too well. She shouldn't have known his older brother, Jonathan, either.

             She was head cheerleader and Jonathan Byers was a quiet weirdo with a camera; they were only friends because they shared a part time job at the local convenience store.

             Admittedly, Ashley didn't do a lot to find Will Byers. She joined a few search parties but her father was pretty adamant she stayed out of it — he didn't want her to go missing too, so she was basically put on house arrest for a week. Even when the poor boy was found dead, and then strangely found alive, Ashley didn't get herself involved.

             Not until October, 1984.

             Not until Ashley Miller heard a clock.

            Ashley.

                     Ashley.

                               Ashley.

            Not until Ashley Miller woke up in Will Byers' head.

            Between seeing things that aren't there, fighting monsters, babysitting asshole kids for free, sneaking about behind her father's back, and discovering Hawkins' darkest secrets from the mind of a child, Ashley Miller finds her world once again turning upside down.

            All because Steve 'the hair' Harrington is the only person in the entire school to care when she freezes in the gymnasium; eyes rolled to the back of her head and blood pouring from her nose. He's the only person to check that she's okay.

            And because of Steve Harrington, Ashley Miller learns all that she thought she knew about Hawkins was a lie. She learns all of the dark secrets it liked to keep hidden beneath the surface. She learns what actually happened to Will Byers, what happened to her old lab partner Barbara Holland, and what could happen to rest of the town if not for a small girl with a wrist tattoo. And somewhere along the way, Ashley Miller starts to wonder whether ten year old her had cut herself a deal with god, after all.

            Or, if maybe...

            ...just maybe...

            ...she had danced with the devil.

            Or something worse.

—————

—in which ashley miller ( the girl who
cut herself a deal with god! ) is thrown into a
life of stranger things.

or

—seeing things that aren't there, fighting monsters, babysitting asshole kids for free, sneaking about behind her father's back, and discovering hawkins' darkest secrets from the mind of a child?
holy shit, how did ashley end up here?

——

—dedications
-FolkLorde -luvmikaelson aepalicya -spxtter grangerbbydanger
starryeyedturtle mmxiinarry CELESTIELS chemtraiIs starlithearts w0nderwriter h0neydw mindcrypt deviIsdust
sweetteainthesummer
you guys are awesome :)

━━━━━━━☆☆━━━━━━━

i don't own any of the stranger things characters, other than my own. the plot line is not mine, but i do take credit for adjustments, dynamics, and interactions between characters that i fabricated myself. my characters are not based upon anything other than my own imagination — any similarities between this book and other work of fiction is merely coincidental.

TRIGGER WARNING
death, abuse, blood, graphic imagery,
depression, toxic relationships, alcohol, smoking,
foul language, trauma.
MENTION OF SEXUAL THEMES

——

.*･｡..*･｡..*･｡.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀   ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀   ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀