red burns

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

As a peace offering, her father made pizza that night. They ate in the living room, and, as promised, Brandon put on Star Wars. Skywalker sat on her lap, watching the movie with his big cat eyes, occasionally meowing at a scene on the TV screen. Alina pet him as she ate the pizza, which was delicious and made just the way she liked it; with extra cheese and bacon instead of pepperoni. She drank Pepsi and leaned back, trying to get her ever-present curiosity about the girl out of her mind. This was one of her favourite movies, after all.

But it wasn't working. She kept seeing the girl again and again, her wide brown eyes, her shaved head, the blood crusted on her nose. Sometimes she'd see her and get that same tug in her stomach, telling her to find her. But Alina stayed firmly on the couch, eating too much pizza and downing Pepsi like it was water, a plan slowly forming in her mind. It wouldn't be tonight that she enacted it. That was too hasty, and there was no way she'd be undetected. But tomorrow, when her father was at work, Alina would slip away, vanishing into the trees and finally getting some answers.

Skywalker purred, and Alina kissed his soft, fuzzy head. Brandon smiled at her tenderness with him and put an arm around her. "You really love that cat, don't you?" he asked, stroking Skywalker as well. Skywalker slowly blinked his eyes at him, which Alina had read meant that he loved him.

"He was the best Christmas gift ever," Alina agreed, giving Skywalker a couple more kisses. She still remembered the day vividly. It had been the first Christmas without Linda, the first Christmas without Alina opening her gifts and finding gifts like laundry detergent or dryer sheets or dresses, the first Christmas without Brandon taking her aside and giving her all of the presents from him in secret, instructing her to keep them in her dresser until Linda went to work the next day. The first Christmas without a screaming match at dinner, Linda getting mad at Brandon for "letting Alina walk around dressed like a boy" or Brandon getting mad at Linda for "treating my daughter like your plaything". The first Christmas where Alina had felt peace.

She'd woken up on December 25th with excitement coursing through her, had gone downstairs to find a pile of presents, including new comics and new bike (Brandon's job paid well), and, the best present of all, a white cat curled up under the tree with a blue bow attached to his neck. It had been an instant bond between the two, and Alina had loved him ever since.

Alina stood up now, extracting herself from her dad's embrace, Skywalker leaping off her lap. "I'm going to go fill his bowl," she said. She headed into the kitchen, Skywalker following, knowing it was feeding time, and filled his bowl, giving him a little milk and sprinkling a couple of treats on the floor. He lapped them up eagerly.

As Skywalker ate, Alina looked out of the window, the girl on her mind again. I'm going to find you, she vowed to the trees outside. And I'm going to help you. That is a promise.

It was a promise she probably couldn't keep, but Alina would try, anyway.

Just as she was considering heading back into the living room to continue the movie, Alina heard something crack from outside her window. The noise startled her, and she jumped, but not before she saw a tall figure rushing through the trees. It was too dark to see any details, but she did see that the figure was clutching a clipboard.

A shiver ran down her spine, and she quickly closed the curtains. She bent down to Skywalker, who was still eating. "Did you see that?" she whispered to him, unnerved. "I swear, it was like they were watching the house. But why would they do that?"

Skywalker only licked his paw in response, and Alina realized how ridiculous she sounded, telling all of this to a cat. Heat bloomed on her cheeks and she stood up, giving Skywalker another treat, and headed back to the living room. She finished her pizza, and her and her father cleaned up the dishes, Alina keeping away from the window. She knew she was being irrational, and it was probably just some dumb kid or even just shadows in the trees, but she stayed away nonetheless.

As Brandon, Alina, and Skywalker were heading back to the living room to finish their movie, Brandon licked his lips. "Hey, honey?" he asked, as they sat down on the couch. "I'm going to be working a little late tomorrow night, is that okay?"

"Yeah, dad, it's okay," said Alina.

"You can hang out at the treehouse if you want," said Brandon, and Alina nodded.

The treehouse had been built in the woods, right next to the Lab. Brandon had built it for Alina years ago, when she was young enough to cry hysterically when her dad left her for work. It was small, but filled with comics, blankets, and snacks, and Alina would read comics by flashlight up there, waiting until her father would come to collect her after his shift finally ended. Sometimes he'd find her asleep, bundled in blankets, and carry her to the car.

As the years went by, Alina began to go up to the treehouse more and more. She'd gone up there before whenever Linda had hit her, and now went up whenever she had a bad day at school, when Troy had insulted her, when someone had called her racist names in the hallway. Alina had brought Skywalker one time, and lay up there, crying into his soft fur. That was the day one of her classmate's moms had told her that she was disgusting, that she should go back to where she came from. Brandon had found her up there with her cat, and after, Alina heard he'd nearly got into a physical fight with that mom.

It was peaceful in the treehouse. Alina could wrap herself in blankets and sit on the perch outside, legs dangling out into open air, and listen to the crickets chirping, study the stars dotting the night sky. She loved it there.

And it was also a helpful spying spot.

"What are you doing at the Lab tomorrow, Dad?" Alina asked.

Brandon smiled then, and he got that dreamy look he sometimes had when work was pleasing him. "Oh, it's a big day, Alina," he said. "We're going to make history. We are going to contact it."

Alina wondered what, exactly, it was, but she knew she wouldn't get a straight answer from her father when he was like this. Instead, Alina just nodded again and squeezed her father's hand. She made a big show of stretching her arms and yawning, standing up.

"I'm going to bed," she said. "Goodnight, Dad."

"Night, Ally," said Brandon absent-mindedly. Alina ran upstairs, but not to go to sleep. Instead, she took out the flashlight she stored under her bed and pulled on some clean socks and sneakers. Holding the flashlight in her mouth, Alina pulled on her jacket over her pajamas and waited, anxiety jolting through her.

Sure enough, a couple of minutes later Alina heard snoring coming from downstairs. Her father always fell asleep fast, a stark contrast to his daughter, who would stay awake for hours, thoughts spiralling through her mind without pause. Alina headed back downstairs, making sure to tread closer to the wall, where the stairs didn't creak as much, and slowly unlocked the back door, heading outside.

It was a cold night, and Alina shivered, pulling her jacket closer to her. Her shoes crunched on fallen leaves and she shone her flashlight through the trees, trying to get a glimpse of the figure she thought she'd seen. At first, she wasn't going to investigate it, but then again, what if it was somehow the girl from the lab? What if she had the same tugging Alina did, and had somehow found her way over here?

As her flashlight beamed through the trees, Alina didn't catch a glimpse of any figure, and she figured that they'd be gone now. She was just about to head inside when she saw the holes and the burnt edges.

Alina was aware that the trees had been burnt somehow, she'd seen it before. But she'd never really gotten close enough to see exactly what had happened.

There were around five trees in total that were affected, and each of them had small holes speckled into their trunks, blackened on the inside. But on the outside, there was something peculiar, something Alina knew didn't usually occur when something was burned.

The outside of the holes were red, and not a dull red, but a bright red, almost glowing in the dark night. Alina stepped closer, and the red seemed to pulse at her, calling her closer. She reached out a hand, touching the trunk.

A feeling shot through Alina, a feeling of adrenaline, and Alina stumbled back, surprised. When she looked back at the tree, she noticed the red had gone, and the tree was simply burned now.

She touched all of the other trees, the same peculiar thing happening to each of them, the adrenaline going through her with every brush of her skin against it. Any previous tiredness Alina had had before coming out here had vanished, and suddenly she felt more awake than ever.

With a rush of motivation, Alina sprinted into the trees, shining her flashlight everywhere, straining her ears to try and hear footsteps or the snap of twigs.

But if there had been someone here, they were long gone, and eventually, after being outside for what seemed like hours, Alina decided to head back inside.

She didn't fall asleep until hours later, mind whirling with theories.

Alina was on the swings at the park near her house the next day, building up anticipation. Beside her was a stack of comics, a bag of pretzels, a bottle of water and a pair of binoculars, all packed into her backpack. Her bike leaned against the swing set poles. Everything was packed, and yet Alina was feeling a little anxious about the whole plan. Although she wanted desperately to know about the girl, what if she was found out? She could be arrested, her father fired.

She was chewing her lip anxiously when Lucas Sinclair went biking past her. He slowed down when he noticed her, and, after a couple of seconds of deliberation, dismounted his bike, jogging over to her. Lucas smiled at her. He was wearing a dark blue shirt with a yellow collar, and he straightened out the wrinkles self-consciously before speaking.

"Uh, hey."

"Hi," said Alina hesitantly. "Did you finally get the courage to say hello?"

Lucas raised an eyebrow at her. "Do you always hang out by yourself?" his eyes flickered over her backpack, the comics slightly spilling out of it, over her bike, which was silver and fixed with a light on the front, Alina's name written in green paint, and finally back to her.

Alina looked down at her own clothes. She was wearing the first thing she could find, which ended up being a gray sweater and jeans, so at least she didn't look hideous.

She swallowed, her cheeks warm. "Well, that's what you do when you don't have any friends."

Lucas shrugged his shoulders. "Well, uh—" he seemed lost for words, looking down at his feet before checking his watch. "Oh, well, look at that. I've got to go. Campaign. At Mike's. D&D. I don't know if you know—"

"Of course I know what D&D is," said Alina with a snort. "I used to play it all the time with my parents." On days Linda was happy with her, she'd consent to play D&D. Alina, Linda, and Brandon would make lunch, and sit outside in their backyard and play. Alina was always the Druid, and her dad was the Dungeon Master, weaving complex stories as Linda and Alina faced foes together.

They probably weren't playing with the right rules, but it was one of the only times Alina had fun with her mother, even though most of the games ended early due to Brandon and Linda's arguing.

"Oh," said Lucas. "That's... cool." He hopped onto his bike. "Uh, nice talking to you, Alina. Bye!"

Lucas Sinclair sped off on his bike, leaving Alina baffled as to why he'd even come talk to her in the first place, if he was just going to leave so quickly. With a sigh, Alina picked up her bag, got onto her bike, and headed into the woods near Hawkins Lab.

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

a/n: lucas is so underrated and i don't??? know why??? like he's the loml tbh. i know that he was kind of mean to eleven in season one but he was just sticking up for his friends! and he's done so dirty in a lot of the fics i've read, he honestly deserves SO much better.

well, that's a wrap on chapter two! i'm literally almost finished writing this fic, and alina changes so much through it, so its funny reading back and remembering what she was like in the beginning. also seeing her first real conversation with lucas is so funny considering where they're at now. but no spoilers though ;)

 'till next time!