a/n: spooky scary stranger things au!!!

if this seems rushed its because i wrote this at two am last night xp

enjoy <333

every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. fairytales, childrens books, fiction novels.

but this isn't a story, or at least not one of a traditional sense.

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beginning.

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lights start flickering at marcus' house.

normal, if not for the fact that they all start flickering at once. its like they're synced, like they're conveying a message with morse code. marcus stares at his geography homework as harsh shadows are cast over it, stares when just as quickly the shadows dissapear.

he can hear his older sister, laura, yelling downstairs. "something's wrong with the fuse box," she's yelling, "marcus, go fix it!"

marcus sighs and stands up from his desk chair. he figured it would be him; their parents are staying late at work and laura has trouble understanding which wire does what.

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mickey taps the side of her lamp and sighs.

another blown bulb, she thinks, unscrewing it and dropping it in the trashcan beside her bed. she knows that they don't have any more extras. money is tight; she'll have to go without for a while.

she exits her room and walks down the hall. her dad is sprawled on the couch in the living room, three-quarter empty bottle in hand, asleep. a typical thursday night.

mickey turns off the tv and covers him in the blanket that rests at his feet. its late, she should probably get some sleep. but for whatever reason mickey doesn't feel tired.

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the headlight on skye's bike goes out.

strange, she muses, she and her dad had changed the batteries just the other day. it had been a whole process, getting the right size and such seeing it wasn't your standard issue double a batteries the thing took. but they can get some more if they need to. skye will get her dad to check it out.

she continues peddling. its a school night, she really shouldn't be out this late. but her and rachel had been hanging out by the lake, and it had gotten dark quicker than they had expected. rachel said she was going to walk to her dad's office, that skye should go on ahead without her.

she passes a streetlamp and the whole road goes dark.

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middle.

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marcus fiddles with the fuse box.

he tries to get something, anything, to work, using all of his mechanical knowledge in the process, but with no advail. the lights don't come back on, even when all the wires and their connected connections have been double and triple checked and every switche has been flicked.

laura breathes down the back of his neck. she's holding a torch and leaning over his shoulder, watching him work. "well?" she asks, "do you knows whats wrong?"

marcus shakes his head. "no clue." he says, "must just be a power outage. lets wait for mom and dad come home; they'll know what to do."

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its dark but mickey is not scared.

she never was scared of the dark, even as a kid. mickey had been more scared of loud noises and the one-eyed cat next door.

mickey's not scared of the dark, but this doesn't feel like normal dark. it feels... heavy, like it's rain on her clothes and in her hair, weighing her down and making her tired.

there are goosebumps on her arms and mickey shivers despite the warm summer air.

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skye keeps peddling and tell herself it's nothing.

everything is fine, somebody must've backed into a telephone pole or something. a scheduled power outage, perhaps. it's nothing to be worried about.

she rounds a corner thats just as dark but doesn't slow down. if anything she speeds up, eager to get home and out of these unusual circumstances. maybe her dad can figure out whats going on with her headlight.

the moonlight casts a shadow agaisnt the house to skye's left but she doesn't get to focus on it before its gone.

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end.

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marcus sees the outline of a monster on the kitchen wall, but when he blinks it's not there anymore.

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mickey's dad whispers the name of a girl in his sleep, 'rachel jewell.'

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skye is launched off her bike, head over heels, having ridden over something that isn't there.

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scientists scramble as they find a cage door opened.

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a boy wakes from a ten year coma.

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the lake ripples from an unseen force.

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and rachel dissapears.

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a/n: if you didn't realise:
rachel as will byers
billy as eleven
marcus, mickey, skye as mike, lucas and dustin