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Language:
English
Series:
Part 2 of Brace for Impact
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Published:
2022-11-01
Updated:
2022-11-16
Words:
4,252
Chapters:
3/?
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1
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27
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The Collapse [HIATUS]

Summary:

Hawkins. Will. Fall.
Can they stop it?

Part 2 of Brace For Impact: please read Light in the Shadows prior.

Chapter 1: Chapter One: Man-Made Mysteries

Summary:

Will has shut almost everybody out. Max has shut out most of the Party out. Jennifer, Owens, and Max are left to pick up the pieces of whatever mystery Will has decided to put upon them. Chrissy has a tough day.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Jennifer sat on the balcony of the lab, overlooking Hawkins. She was wearing a white T-Shirt and orange fox-patterned pajama pants. She was sipping a cup of coffee on the bench. The sun was rising, all was calm for the few moments before the hustle and bustle of everyday life arrived.




Mike was filled to the brim with anticipation. The big finale to the campaign tonight with the club and Eddie had pumped them all up! The flight tomorrow filled Mike with anxiety. He’d been on good terms with Eleven, but Will on the other hand… 


Will just disappeared. Again. He stopped sending letters to all of them, or at least that was what Mike heard. Not even a letter to his supposed girlfriend, Max. Eleven barely ever wrote about him, they were all too scared to ask her about him. He never called. Jonathan never spoke about him on the phone with Nancy. Joyce did have a job as a telemarketer, which made calling much more of a difficult task. 


Will was in his room painting. He stopped writing letters to most of the Party after Mikhail, Dmitri, and Yuri came ‘round. He loved talking to them, he really did, but he didn’t want to send too many letters about Russians who most definitely had gotten out of their country and entered this one illegally and who knew a little too much about supernatural forces. He sent 3 people letters in Hawkins. 

 

  1. Owens.
  2. Max.
  3. Jennifer.

 

He’d made one thing abundantly clear to his entire family. Tell the Party nothing about him or why he stopped sending letters. Don’t talk about him. Will doesn’t exist . Of course, the Byers were skeptical about his reasoning behind the choice. Will claimed he wanted Lenora to be about new experiences and leaving Hawkins behind. He wasn’t sure how, but it worked. 

It was a half-truth, he did want new experiences and to leave Hawkins behind, but in reality, he didn’t want to face the Party again. Being with the Party gave him anxiety as if they could just see his secret. Or at least that was what he hoped his looming anxiety about Hawkins was.


Max hopped off the bus. She put her walkman over her ears, listening to Kate Bush. It was strange how freeing music could be. She couldn’t help the feeling of someone watching over her, though. Will’s letters were a nice surprise, despite the odd secrecy that came with them. She’d only known of two other people who got them, Owens and Jennifer. The letters were weird and cryptic in a way. The way Will wrote was in a sort of code. So, every other day, she went to the lab with Jennifer and Owens to try and decipher what hidden message he was trying to tell just the three of them. So far they had the following:

 

  1. Snowflake is a male, probably about Will’s age.
  2. Helicopter seems to be an older man
  3. Lock also seems to be a man
  4. Snowman is an enemy
  5. Snowflake, Helicopter, and Lock all escaped Snowman.

 

The final piece they figured out unsettled all of them.

 

6. They’ve all encountered a form of Snowman.

 

Form of Snowman. Snowman came in more than one form? Where did Will find these men?

 

They came up with many theories.

 

    1. Will has been captured by the men
    2. Snowman is from Hawkins and followed them to Lenora
    3. Snowman is Lonnie
    4. Something happened in the snow

 

             5. Upside-Down

 

 

The last theory scared them. Will never directly answered when they asked about the theories.


Dear Owens, Max, and Jennifer,           3/18/86

 

Snowflakes and Locks are quite nice. They make a good team, related in more ways than one. No two snowflakes are identical, but there may be two that look so similar but will never replace each other. On the contrary, Helicopters are so annoying. They are loud and make a lot of noise. 

 

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you flip a snowman upside down? Has dust ever invaded your lungs? Dust looks a lot like a shadow, doesn’t it? Imagine seeing Upside Down Snowmen. Ugly, right? Such tall and pale beings. They have many relatives. Snow dogs, imagine a dog made of snow, must be an ugly creature. 

 

Have you ever seen an intercontinental snowman? They exist. What’s the biggest country you know of? Here’s a hint: it’s very snowy. You’ll find Helicopters, Snowflakes, and Locks are from there.

 

See you soon,

Love,

Will Byers


After School: March 21st, 1986

“Woah, Woah, that’s a lot to unpack,” Jennifer expresses.

“Biggest country we know of…?” Max said absently.

“Russia,” Owens answered.

“Helicopter, Lock, and Snowflake are from Russia!” Jennifer exclaimed.

“Locks and Snowflakes are related in more than one way… Lock and Snowflake are family!” Max figured out.

“Flip a snowman upside down… Snowmen are from the upside down. The shadow monster or Mind Flayer was made of dust. Dust looks like shadows. Has dust invaded your lungs? Shadow invaded them?” Owens thought out loud.

“Well… has it invaded snowman or Helicopter, Lock, Snowflake, and Will?” Jennifer asked, puzzled.

“I say we write Eleven a letter,” Max concludes.


Dear Eleven,

 

We need to ask you some questions. Do you know who Helicopter, Lock, Snowflake, and Snowman are? Is Will okay? Is the Mind Flayer back? Please write back right away.

 

Love,

Dr. Samuel Owens, Jennifer, and Max.


Earlier that day…

 

Chrissy Cunningham had been seeing things. Terrible things. She heard a clock, she saw something in the bathroom. It impersonated her mother. It was trying to scare her. Maybe she was just crazy. Crazy enough to buy drugs from Eddie Munson? Yes. Yes, she was. 

 

Long story short, Eddie’s actually a really nice dude, and Chrissy’s met him before, quite the shock. A nice reunion, maybe even a budding romance. She just has to make it through the basketball game. Then, she’ll be all ready to get drugs from Eddie and be freed of whatever nightmare she’s suspended in, right?


Mrs. Kelly had been seeing Max. Keeper of the Clock, that’s what Mrs. Kelly was. She was a clock expert. She managed the school clocks and bells, that’s all. Mrs. Kelly could not grasp the magnitude of Max’s trauma and no matter what she said, it wasn’t helping Max.


Max’s nose began to bleed, which in turn resulted in a headache. Nothing suspicious. Springtime allergies, right?


Will was packing a bag. Mike was coming tomorrow. Will was not about to sit through a whole week of whatever half-love-fest they had going on. Their relationship could not be more of a mystery to anyone. Were they together again? Were they just friends?

 

Will was going to bike to the other side of the country. The only flaw in his plan: it’ll take absolutely forever. Will has never been much of a criminal, but he’s got an idea. He’ll casually take a couple of bucks from Jonathan, Hopper, Argyle, and his Mom. Sell some stuff. Maybe steal some of Argyle’s Purple Palm Tree Delight and sell it? Who knows, whatever happens, happens. It’s gotta happen quickly, though.


Lucas won his championship game, scoring the winning basket. Erica filled in for him in the campaign. They both won. Chrissy went to Eddie’s place and…

Everything melted into her home. After some running, a tentacle-ly creature caught up to her and brutally snapped her bones. That was the end of Chrissy Cunningham. Don’t do drugs. 

Eddie on the other hand was faced with quite the sight. By destiny or fate, Max witnessed some flicker lights and the fleeing of Eddie Munson. Tomorrow was going to be rough. 

Notes:

I wasn't sure how to go about writing the scenes with Chrissy, since I wanted them to be almost identical to the actual show and didn't want to bore anyone by reading my explanation of what happened. The next chapter will focus more on Mike, Joyce, Hopper, Lucas, Dustin, and Murray. Maybe the HNL trio will figure out Will's code! Maybe Will might realize that his goal of biking across America is a bit unrealistic.