gabe's story

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

My dearest Alina—

I know it has been many years—too many! And I'd like to apologize for that. I know I have made no attempt to contact you before this, but I was in Indianapolis for a holiday last week, and I happened to meet one of your father's friends from the lab (that horrible place. I'm glad I stopped the experiments before anything happened to you!) who told me the news of his passing last year. Now, I don't have any feelings for him anymore, but I immediately thought of you, even though I haven't for a while. I wondered about how you were coping with this new loss—plus the loss of me however many years ago it was.

And then I was thinking about how hard it must be for you to live without both parents, so I am making an offer for you to come to Chicago to live with me. I know it's quite a shock, given that we haven't really gotten along in the past, but my darling Alina, you know how much I love you, and I would love to have you back in my life.

If you want to know how I've been doing and what you'll come back to, here it is: I have a new daughter now. Her name's Nicole, and she's a year old. I'm living with a man I met called George, who used to have a son your age (but good riddance to him. He was nothing but a miserable brat) before he ran away. He's officially disowned now. He was quite the annoyance, and, if I'm being honest, I think there was something... funny about him. In the head. If you know what I mean.

Anyway, I think you might like it here. It'd be better than the shithole you must be living in now (the Byers, right? That William boy also seemed like a little problem to me). So, what do you say? Will you come to Chicago and let me reenter your life, and have a brand-new little sister? It would be interesting to see what kind of girl you've grown into (I hope you've left that awful tomboy phase behind you, though. You really did give me headaches) and hopefully, we could grow closer.

I wish you well.

Sincerely,

Linda Margaret Burton

That was it. That was the entire, vile, awful letter in its entirety, and as soon as Alina read it, all of her old fire (apparently she still had some inside of her—it wasn't all Mind Flayer) came flooding back. Her eyes begun to fill with tears, not of sadness, but of fury, and Will, Jonathan and Joyce watched carefully, searching her face. Joyce was the first to notice the new feelings that had grown there.

"Sweetie," she asked gently, "are you okay? What's wrong?" Her voice was a polar opposite to the rotten thorns Linda's voice had pierced Alina with for years, and Alina found herself curling her fists under the paper-thin sheets. Then, as a response to Joyce's question, she ripped the letter in two.

It made a satisfying noise as Linda's words were torn in half, but it wasn't enough for her. Suddenly, she was tearing and tearing, gnashing her teeth as bits of the letter fluttered to the foot of the bed like snowflakes—or clumps of Upside Down ash. Every one of her mother's words turned to garbage as she tore them again and again and again, until all that remained was a pile of white.

Alina looked up to find everyone staring at her, and Will took her arm. "Are you okay?" he asked gently, ever the sweet one. His big brown eyes were filled with concern, and they were finally Will's again. "What happened? What did the letter say?"

"It was from my piece of shit mother," Alina spat, her lip curling. "The one who left me, abandoned me when I nearly died. The one who told me every day how worthless I was." It felt good to get these words out, and Alina realized now she was doing something she hadn't been able to do for four years. She was letting go of Linda Fairgrieves (now Burton) once and for all. "Scarred me, threw me to the ground, ruined my perception of life—that was all her. And now, she hears about my dad's death, and she wants me back?" she chuckled darkly. "Fat chance."

As Joyce, Jonathan and Will watched, Alina brought her palms together, willing the itch to come to life. Her eyes were wild, and frenzied, but she wanted to get rid of the pile of paper on her bed. "I'm going to burn these words until I bleach them out of my brain," she announced, but when she tried to call her abilities forward, she found only blankness. Couldn't even form a spark on her hands.

"Alina, stop," Joyce said gently, putting a hand on your shoulder. "You're going through a burnout. The Mind Flayer took a lot out of you—physically and mentally. It was using your abilities to feed the rest of its army. They've come back, but you probably won't be able to use them for a few days."

Alina closed her eyes, but what Joyce said was true. She couldn't use her abilities. So, she did the next best thing. She asked for a lighter.

Watching Linda's letter burn like her hand had so many days ago was what Alina needed to truly complete herself. Her eyes filled with tears, but once the smoke had dwindled down (it hadn't been much, otherwise the fire alarm would've gone off), the words were nothing but ash. Linda was gone now. And she would never come back into Alina's life.

As Joyce helped Alina cleaned up the mess, she seemed like she was about to ask her something. She didn't have any time to, however, as just then, the hospital door burst open. All Alina managed to see in the point-five seconds was a flash of colorful clothing, and then there were several people on her, their arms around her, their voices raised to excited chitters.

"All right, all right," Joyce laughed, and it was like déjà vu for everyone involved. Max, Dustin, Mike, Gabe, and Lucas all backed up sheepishly, and Alina's heart swelled.

"Holy shit!" was the first thing she said, and then they were all laughing, gathering around her bed and chattering excitedly. Apparently, like Joyce, they hadn't expected her to wake up.

"Oh, my God, Al," Max said, her eyes shining. "We missed you so much. We were..."

"We were so worried," Dustin finished. "In the tunnels... we thought..."

Nobody had to complete that sentence. They all felt that guilt squirming inside of them from when they'd left Alina in the hub, too much in a hurry to get away from the smoke and the oncoming Demodogs that they hadn't realized they'd left her behind, surrounded by flames and possessed. They'd thought they'd killed her, left her to choke on smoke or be mauled to death, and when she'd finally stumbled out after them, the horror show wasn't over, because that was when she started to scream.

"It's okay," said Alina. Her memories of the tunnels were fuzzy recollections now, and that's what they always would be. She didn't mind that in the slightest.

Everyone looked relieved, and Alina looked at her new friends. To Mike, who seemed comfortable around the new members now. To Max, who tossed her red hair over her shoulder and smiled a little wider. To Dustin, with adjusted his hat, a bag slung over his shoulder. To Will, sitting by the bed, talking quietly to Lucas, who was smiling the brightest of them all. His eyes were slightly red from crying, but as he grinned, the old feelings came back. The butterflies migrating in her stomach.

Alina had thought those butterflies would be left behind after everything that had happened, but apparently not. Throughout thick and thin, her feelings for Lucas had stayed rooted firmly in the pit of her belly, and she wouldn't have it any other way.

He was wearing the shirt he'd worn the day he'd come to talk to her, the day Alina had found Eleven in the lab a year ago. Dark blue with a yellow collar. It was getting a little small for him, the sleeves at the middle of his forearms, but he still looked incredibly handsome. Beautiful. Lucas Sinclair was her beautiful boy.

After a minute, she finally managed to move her gaze to Gabe, who was back to his button-up shirts. He smiled at her, and she smiled back, and then she finally remembered what was so off about the letter she'd gotten. Burton. That was Gabe's last name. And Chicago, Linda had mentioned (the words of the letter refused to leave her mind). That was where Gabe lived. It would be one hell of a coincidence, but...

"Hey, Gabe?" Alina swallowed as the boy turned to look at her. "I know this is a long shot, but... did you know anyone named Linda? Back in Chicago?"

Gabe's mouth dropped open, and his eyes closed, his hands curling into fists. Will, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, softened, moving closer to him. "Are you okay?" he asked gently, as Gabe finally opened his eyes.

"Yeah," Gabe said to Will, before turning to Alina. "Yeah, I did know someone named Linda. She was... she was my dad's fiancé. Why?"

Alina's own mouth dropped open. Well this was unexpected. Her eyes found Gabe's and she spilled out the truth, and that was when Gabe finally spilled his own. "Because Linda was my mother."

Gabriel Burton had officially made the decision to run away when his half-sister, Nicole, was five months old. Before then, Linda had to put up with him, because he was George's kid, and she didn't have any other children. She did appreciate the way he dressed, but when she looked at him, her lip always seemed to curl. Her eyes narrowed. He felt like she was waiting for something, and eventually, she seemed to reach that point.

Nicole was old enough to be the perfect, doll-like child both George and Linda wanted, and Gabe was the bastard kid that fished newspapers out of trashcans and had a mouth like a motor. Both of them began to realize that there was no point in keeping Gabe in the house unless he did something valuable, and that was how the cycle began anew.

The switch. Linda had kept it when she'd run away from her old home, and she began to use it on him. His back, his stomach, the backs of his legs, all of them were striped with the marks of her dissatisfaction. Again and again, she'd hit him, scream at him, until one day Gabe couldn't take it anymore. And that day came after a conversation he'd heard the night before.

He shared a room with Nicole now, and the baby spent most of her nights in tears. Gabe would wake up several times a night from her screams, and he'd tense up as Linda padded into the room, shushing the small girl and clutching her against her chest. It was strange what kind of horrors one small woman could evoke, but here he was. And when Linda headed back to her room, the whispered conversation she had with George made him even more terrified.

"You've got to do something about your kid, George," she'd hissed, unaware that Gabe was wide awake in the room next door. "He never does anything I tell him to do. And what will people think when they find out it isn't mine?"

"Gabriel isn't a big problem," George whispered back. "The poor kid is not the brightest, but he does help around here."

"He's not right in the head, George! Don't you see the way he goes dumpster diving all the time? Just for old newspapers? Seriously, something needs to be done."

Here's a fun fact: Linda Burton hated Gabe more than she hated Alina Fairgrieves.

And as they decided what to do, Gabe found himself slipping out of bed, his heart in his throat. And in the darkness only permeated by the light shining through his window, he began to make a plan. Because he realized now he couldn't have his life like this. With the fear in his bones and the hatred coursing through his veins. He had to create his own life. One that he could enjoy, instead of the constant pain he was going through.

It was a simple plan—he'd go to school one day, before hopping on a bus to Indiana, where he'd make his way to Hawkins—but he couldn't stop going over it in his head in the months that followed. He'd never done anything like this before. And when he'd finally ended up getting on the bus to Indiana, he rested his head on the cool glass and deliberated going back home.

The bus rumbled away from his home, where he'd lived and ached all of his life, and Gabe found himself saying goodbye to all of the memories from the past. He hoped he'd make better ones in the future, but he wasn't even sure that his grandparents would end up taking him in. But he had to try.

Gabe had that inkling of bravery in him even then, and, even though he was terrified, that day the bravery won. So, after spending months in preparation, to Hawkins he finally went. 

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

a/n: here we are!! the full, near-complete backstory of gabriel burton!! so, yeah, he was disowned by his family, because i didn't want to make him and alina stepsiblings (because of something that happens the next chapter, which i'll explain there lol), but still!! they share a half-sister!! so they're connected anyway :)

anyway, you'll find out the end of linda's story during the next book, which, i'm happy to say, doesn't end well for her. finally, she's getting the punishment she deserves :)

'till next time!