March of 86'

Judith Moore's life was not all sunshine and rainbows like she liked to pretend. Bubbling deep inside under layers of hurt and betrayal lived the imperfectness of it all.

When anyone asked her she would always say that her life was perfect: The fancy clothes her aunt always supplied, the newest gadgets she always brought to school, her supportive friends. It was in that sense, but there was this emptiness that she had which was truly because of her past.

Her old life was like a hurricane, violent, fast and cruel. This began from the time she was born, the very day she took her first breath. Her mother had an affair on her previous husband, her high school sweetheart, with a rich Jackass which resulted in her.

She always thought somebody might have cursed her right then because of her mothers actions.

That same rich asshole stole her mother away with his fancy car and huge house on the outskirts of Hawkins. They were completely and utterly in love with each other then, that was until another child came and a little piece of her mother who had untreated postpartum finally felt guilty for leaving her previous husband, but then came two more children and she was too far down the rabbit hole to stop being with him.

Her mother saw how horrible her father was, really he was a piece of garbage. He did unspeakable things. He treated the kids horribly in more ways than one, the neighbors, his coworkers, and her horrible. He truly made everything worse, and he refused to let her divorce him, even threatened to kill her, so she decided to take it into her own hands. When she thought that all of her kids were out of the house she made a plan and lured him in. She didn't think sweet Judith was in the next room over.

Judith remembers both of her parents screams. She remembers walking into the other room seeing her fathers dead body and her mother starting to light the room on fire, and her mother screaming when she saw her, telling her to get out and to go next door where she was supposed to be with her siblings.

From that day on the image engraved in her mind, when she ran next door and told the neighbors that there was a fire her parents were gone, the fire was spreading rapidly. She was 11 and people only pitied her, her rich daddy and mommy were dead leaving their 4 children behind, no one knew what really happened like she and the police did.

    She lived with that secret, even when she was forced to live with her aunt and her younger siblings, even after 7 years she hadn't told a single soul. She didn't want to ruin her family's image and she didn't want her aunt to know what her mother had done.

She had nightmares every once in a while about the whole occurrence and although it happened years before they were always very vivid. This marked almost a week of frequent nightmares.

Judith wasn't the only person in Hawkins having old nightmares. Kathryn was awaken for the first time in months screaming.

The nightmare was simple, but nether the less terrifying. A familiar figure appeared, the mind flayer, this time it caught up to her friends. This time she was the one to die. Billy was with them, he wasn't flayed in her dream. She could feel it, feel the life draining from her when she tried to save them.

That's when she let out a blood curdling scream, causing her mother to rush in.

"Are you alright Kathy?" Her mother hadn't expected to hear her screams again. She Thought the nightmares were gone permanently.

"I'm fine it was just a bad nightmare." She was sorta embarrassed that these nightmares were coming back. She thought maybe she was overreacting, but she wasn't.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Her mother sat down on the edge of her bed.

"It was just the same. Always that monster chasing me." Kathryn hadn't lied to her mother about the monsters in her dream. She knew that her mother would think that it's because of the horror movies she's always watched.

"Alright, try to get some sleep if you can. You went to bed really early and it's only 12 am." Kat just nodded. Her mother kissed her forehead and turned off the light that she had switched on when she entered the room, right before she finally exited.

Kathryn didn't go to sleep. She took hold of her favorite book and waited till she heard nothing downstairs before sneaking out of her window.

She knew one person would be awake right now.

Kathryn was quick to get in her car. If the car wasn't back before her dad had to leave for work she would be busted since his car was in the shop and he was using hers.

      She made her way to the trailer park, the one she had been to a few times before.

    Knocking on his window she automatically regretted it.

'I told him I didn't want to be with him. What will he think of me now?'

When he opened the window the thoughts of regret disappeared.

"Hi." Kathryn waved.

"What are you doing out here?" He questioned.

"You know. Just taking an evening scroll in the trailer park that's a fifteen minute drive from my house, saw your trailer and decided to knock on your window." She says in a very obvious sarcastic tone.

He stares at her knowing she'll tell him why she's actually there.

"Alright, I couldn't sleep. Just some nightmares. You're the only person I could think of that wouldn't mind to see me this late."

"Come on." He waved for her to climb through the window.

"Can you open the door?" She frowned not wanting to have to squeeze through.

"Alright meet me in the front." He walked away and she jogged towards the door.

"Welcome to my humble abode." Eddie opened the door.

She took a step in. He had to show her the way to his room, since she'd only been in the trailer 2 times, usually they hung out at her house.

On the way into his room she tripped on a pot that she recognized as the pot Eddie made in the experimental pottery class at Hawkins middle school.

"Hey careful that's a designer flower pot." He joked.

"Sorry, sorry." She stuck her hands in the air.

He just sat went over to his dresser where he kept his radio.

"Music?" He asked even though he was already putting in a mixtape.

"Sure." She took a seat on his bed.

He turned the music on and plopped right next to her.

The song playing was 'Iron Man' by Black Sabbath. He knew Kathryn wouldn't mind this song she liked the drums in it.

"New mixtape?" She asked.

"Old one." Since Valentine's Day she hadn't received another mixtape, but she knew it was because she hurt him, even though he didn't act like she did.

"What songs are on it?" She layed down.

"A few Black Sabbath, Judas Priest , and Metallica, also added some Some Joan Jett on there for you." He was thinking.

"That's sweet Eddie."

He nodded. He was in love with her, just like she was in love with him. But until she admitted that she was he wasn't going to continue with the mixtapes or presents. He was just stubborn.

"Look. I know I was an ass on Valentine's Day and we've just been ignoring it. I wanted to say I was sorry and that I really miss us." She confessed, her head aching.

    "Us?" He wondered. They were never officially together.

     "I know we never clarified what we were, but whatever we were I miss it."

    "Let's not talk about it right now." He brushed it off laying down facing the opposite direction of her.

    "Okay we don't have to." They both went quiet letting the loud music spill out.

      A few minutes of silence led to an hour of them dozing off and an hour led to three, before Kathryn was jolted awake by the noice of Eddie's landline.

   "Eddie wake up. Shit." She shook him.

     "God damn it we fell asleep." He got up to answer the phone in the living room . He was on it for a while.

     "Kat. It's your dad." He shouted out.

    She took the phone from his hand.

   "Get your ass back home. It's nearly 5:30 and you're at the Munson boys house." Her dad yelled through the phone. She could already envision smoke steaming from his head in anger.

      "I'm coming dad. Sorry I fell asleep nothing happened."  She replied.

    "Bullshit. You sneak out and head to the fucking trailer park, how can I trust you Kathryn?" She winced. She knew how things were going to be now. That bond they had would probably disappear.

     "Bye I'm coming home now." She hung up.

     "I got to go Eddie, i'm sorry about everything."  He waved bye to her.

     When she got home she got the talking to of her life. If her dad didn't already have to use her car for work he would have grounded her from being able to drive it.

     She wasn't able to go back to sleep due to having school so she decided to get ready a little earlier.

     She took a quick shower and didn't notice that her nose was bleeding till she saw the water running red.

    "Shit." She hurried and finished her routine then getting out and grabbing tissues for her nose.

     Stopping the bleeding she continued getting ready. Nosebleeds weren't abnormal for her.

    Now ready She had to wait for Steve to pick her up.

   When he did pick her up the conversation in the car was practically the every day conversation between Steve, Kat, and Robin up until Steve tried to convince them that he thought he had found the girl.

    "Listen guys I think this girl is the one." Steve says driving.

     "I disagree." Kathryn states.

    "She's perfect I mean-." Steve gets interrupted.

   "She isn't Elaine though." Robin reminded him.

    Elaine, the girl Steve had been off and on with since he was in his sophomore year was the one he had been in love with for forever. Now she was in her sophomore year of college and he decided to distract himself by trying to find the 'perfect' girl.

     "We don't have to talk about her. We both agreed it's better if we aren't together. She's off at college in a completely different state. I haven't seen her since school started." Steve tried defending himself.

     "Steve you should just call her, or maybe go out there and just ask her on a date. It's not like you have much else to do." Kat tried to convince him.

"Oh wow thanks for the advice. Kathryn you are truly a life saver I mean seriously have you ever thought about being a shrink?"  Steve was being sarcastic. In his eyes it wasn't as simple as that. Elaine was a complicated girl.

      "Stop being an ass Steve you know you want to." Robin told him.

       "I really think you two are just teaming up on me."

    "We are." Robin and Kat say in sync laughing afterwards.

     "Yea yea, we're here. Finally." Steve sighed pulling up to the highschool parking lot.

     "See you after school Steve." Kat waved at him as Robin and her were getting out of the car.

        She tried catching up with her friends, she knew where they would be. Right before school started every morning the four of them would make their way to Mrs. Monroe's class; Their favorite teacher who wasn't afraid to speak her mind. For them that was unheard of and they all gravitated towards her meeting in there before and after school.

Opening the door she saw the three girls, along with an extra guest. Lori was sitting next to a crying Judith and Cady was with her boyfriend Chris.

    "Morning everyone." Mrs. Monroe spoke when she notice all of the usual morning students were there. She tried to ignore the crying coming from Judith in front of everyone, but she would send her to the guidance counselor's office later on.

     They all said good morning and ate their breakfast together. Mrs. Monroe frequently made breakfast muffins that she would share with them before she made them head to class.

      Several classes later Once making their way through the halls Kat noticed that it was just her and Judith heading to theatre class. Kat took it for the easy A, Judith took it for the joys of set designing, makeup and costumes.

    "Hey are you okay?" Kat asked Judith noticing that she didn't seem like her usual self, her eyes were still red from crying even more.

   "I'm fine, I've just been feeling a little off lately. It's been this whole week so far. I keep hearing shit." Judith's head was pounding she was only awake due to coffee and pain killers.

      "Maybe it's just stress. Governments getting to be a harder class." Kathryn wanted to brush everything off even if she had a bad feeling about it. She would find herself regretting that later.

     "Yea you're right. Let's just finish this day off. That way I can actually go to sleep, I'm exhausted." She set her bag down at her desk when they made it to the theatre classroom.

    They did just that, finished the day off.

     Leaving with Steve and Robin Kat didn't think much more about Judith, or anyone else. She was just living in the moment ready to go to sleep even if she couldn't.

                                       ***

     "Hey call me when you get home, I'm worried about you." Lori told Judith who's car window was open.

      "I will, you shouldn't be so worried about me, you're going through worse." Judith wanted to kiss her, or atleast give her a hug. She felt like it would ease everything, but many other people from their school were still there and she couldn't risk anything.

     "I'll see you tomorrow." Lori held her hand from out the window.

      "I'll see you." Judith just put on a smile. She didn't know that that was going to be the last time she would see the girl she loved.

      Driving on the road she started hearing the clock noise that she had been hearing for the last few days. It caught her so off guard that her car slid. Luckily she was on an empty road. All she did was park. She took a breather and got out of the car. She was trying to take note of her surroundings.

     The redhead noticed a familiar house: Her childhood home. Instead of ashes the house was firm, gorgeous like it once was. She walked up to the door and took a look through one of the windows, but as she was glancing through the door creaked open. Just Standing there she saw a man, his back facing towards her.

    When she made her way over he turned. His chest was bloody and his eyes were white. It was her father.

    "Why didn't you save me?" He said in a creaking voice.

      She ran teary eyed.

     "Sweety where are you?!" She heard her mothers voice. A Sweet angelic tone that she had missed dearly.

    "Mom!? Mom?" Judith shout in a midst of tears.

    "Sweety?" She now saw her mother holding a bloody knife her wearing a white dress drenched in blood.

     She was backed up in a hall way when a terrifying dark scarred figure with long grotesque fingers appeared, coming in from the side of the room.

       "Join me Judith." The creature like thing said in it's terrifying voice.

     "Stay away." She shout.

    "Don't you want to be with your dear old mother again?" She did, of course she did, but not like this. She knew that he was lying.

      He took a few steps closer.

     "Don't get any closer." She cried out.

    "Judith." He screeched.

    He was getting closer and she was backed in the corner, no where to run.

     When he finally made it up to her face he said something to her one last time.

    "It's time for all of your suffering to come to an end."

     Her bones cracked one by one turning upwards, her eyes rolled white sending blood dripping down. And then she fell. Her lifeless body fell.

   When her aunt noticed that she wasn't home to help with her sibling she figured she was just with her friends, but the next day when she hadn't heard anything from her she panicked and called Hawkins police station.

     They didn't find her till that night.

    Her car was parked on the side of the road. They had to walk farther into the woods to find her body . They believed she was murdered out there and left. There were no leads.

    Upon finding her officer Philip and chief Powell gasped, the sight of her body was horrifying, neither of the two men knew who would do such a sick thing.

       Philip Callahan had recognized the girl from the nights he came over to dinner at his parents and her and the others would still be there so he broke any type of rules and told his sister that her best friend was murdered.

      When she heard those words, or when he told her that they found Judith Moore she felt relived, until he told her what had happened.

    "We don't know who killed her but she was murdered, they found her in the woods." He let out the news.

    Kathryn immediately broke down in tears. One of her first friends back in Hawkins, the silly, independent, sweet girl was dead and they didn't know who did it. It wasn't just her death that made her sad, but the thought of her siblings, her aunt, Lori and Cady finding out that tore her apart.

    She shut herself in her room that night. And in the next morning when it was time for school she unconsciously got ready. The day passed in a blur, she practically ignored Cady and Lori that day. She talked to them at the beginning of school all three of them crying, but other than that she didn't.

She didn't know that Lori had written a letter to put at her grave. Lori wasn't handling it well at all. In fact besides Judith's family members she was taking it the worse. Not only had she just lost her grandmother but now she had lost her best friend and the girl she loved all at the same time.

She felt so alone, so lost. But she spilt her heart out in the letter.

'Dear Judith,
   I never got to tell you how much I love you, so I'm telling you in this letter. I'm sorry that because of this cruel world we never got to display our love for each other freely. I wish in another life that we got to be together, it isn't fair. How could anyone hurt you? I hope that they regret it for the rest of their lives. I've never felt like this, felt so lost. Even now the tears haven't stopped pouring out. If I could have one wish it would be to bring you back. It's been a day and it still doesn't feel real. I'm going to find out what happened to you.
        With all the love in my heart, Lori.

     She was going to wait till the grave was set, before she took the letter there.

      The town of Hawkin's found out quickly about her death, but no one knew that Judith was only the first of many to be killed.

AN: so here's this chapter unedited. Let me just say sorry. Writing this chapter made me so sad.