Holly Wheeler is never leaving Hawkins. She’s fine with that— hell, she likes that. Why would she ever want to leave? She’s got her best friend living the next street over, an amazing dad, a basement she can disappear into and play music for however long she needs. Now she’s even got two new, badass friends to start a band with, and a sick new hangout in the woods.
Who cares that everyone says Hawkins Lab is haunted?
Hawkins, Indiana
2023
Holly Wheeler hasn’t been in Hawkins in twenty-seven years. She’s fine with that. She’s got a nice place of her own, a steady job that she likes, friends… if you count your seventy-three year old boss as a friend. But then she gets a text from one of her old friends, saying they all need to come back to Hawkins. It’s important, she says. Holly doesn’t know why, but she believes her. It’s like there’s this… thing, calling her back.
Maybe people are right when they say that Hawkins is cursed.
tag list is open! lemme know if you wanna be tagged!
Holly Wheeler is never leaving Hawkins. She’s fine with that— hell, she likes that. Why would she ever want to leave? She’s got her best friend living the next street over, an amazing dad, a basement she can disappear into and play music for however long she needs. Now she’s even got two new, badass friends to start a band with, and a sick new hangout in the woods.
Who cares that everyone says Hawkins Lab is haunted?
Hawkins, Indiana
2023
Holly Wheeler hasn’t been in Hawkins in twenty-seven years. She’s fine with that. She’s got a nice place of her own, a steady job that she likes, friends… if you count your seventy-three year old boss as a friend. But then she gets a text from one of her old bandmates, saying they all need to come back to Hawkins. It’s important, she says. Holly doesn’t know why, but she believes her. It’s like there’s this… thing, calling her back.
Maybe people are right when they say that Hawkins is cursed.
you are the patron saint of empty spaces, cavernous rooms, moments that last for days. for some people, the emptiness is horrible, something that they need to fill: you, its patron, try to search within it for peace. there is nothing there. there is never anything there. even the emptiness is not a presence of its own. the only thing there is you.
Amber Wells — patron saint of heartbreak
not of comfort. not of condolences. there is a heart and there is a fissure, a fracture, something that starts to splinter and break open. you're the patron saint of the way a heart is rent open. the way it tears itself apart. patron saint of the rift. patron saint of the gash. when they say to "open your heart" to somebody, you are the patron saint of bleeding out.
Ren Briggs — patron saint of bones
patron saint of frameworks. of structures. of solidity. patron saint of things that break. patron saint of things that are left behind. the bones survive long after the body, the building: what is there left for them, when the rest has gone? what do bones do, with nothing to hold around them? who holds the bones?
Gina Archer — patron saint of creation
patron saint of explosions. patron saint of More. patron saint of something new entirely, something unfamiliar, something you can't recognize. was frankenstein's monster an abomination or had his like just never been seen before? you're the patron saint of all those new, beautiful things. you're the patron saint of the monsters, too.
wanted to post this on wednesday but I couldn’t finish it in time, but here’s the first snippet of a fic idea that’s been brewing in my brain for a bit. It’s about Holly Wheeler and her friends, with the story split between 1996 and 2023. It’s heavily inspired by Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, Oxenfree, and Yellowjackets.
“I heard that it’s haunted.”
“No.” Gina covers her mouth as she faux-gasps, before turning to shine the flashlight at Amber. “The creepy, abandoned government building is haunted? Shocking.”
“I heard that they did experiments on people here. Like, some real MKUltra shit.” Ren grins toothily, shaking the chain link fence with her hand.
“MK-what?” Holly stares up at the imposing building, frowning at the strange gnawing feeling in her stomach.
“Y’know, mind control, spying on the Russians, that kinda crap.” She chuckles lowly, turning back to them. “Wonder if they got any, like, mutated bodies down there?” She slings an arm around Amber’s shoulder, starting to loudly hum the X-Files theme.
Amber squirms out from under her arm, gagging. “Your breath smells like you’ve smoked a hundred cigarettes.”
Gina rolls her eyes. “Wouldn’t be surprised if she did.”
“I heard that they experimented on kids,” Holly says with a shrug. “Like, there was this lady who was part of the experiments that got pregnant, and they took the baby and kept it.”
Gina raises a skeptical eyebrow. “That’s super illegal. They wouldn’t have been able to get away with it!”
“Uh, Genie?” Ren half-shrugs, smiling still. “It’s the government.”
“So?”
“The government can get away with literally anything,” Holly supplies, not looking back at her friends.
“I read about this place. There was some sort of chemical spill, back in 83, that killed a teenager. Barb…” Amber frowns, face scrunching up as she thinks. “Hol…oway? No, that’s the girl who died in 85…”
“You just memorized all the people who died in this town?” Gina crosses her arms, shooting a slightly freaked-out look to Ren.
“Yeah!” Amber grins excitedly, starting to gesture around animatedly with her hands. “It’s all actually very interesting once you start getting into it. The most intriguing thing, to me at least, happened in 83 too! There was this kid who went missing for a whole week, they had a funeral and everything, and then poof! He just shows up out of the blue, alive and healthy!” She throws her arms out, startling Gina, who takes a few steps backwards, the flashlight in her hands now pointing towards…
A gap in the fence. Holly smiles, forcing the gnawing feeling deep, deep down.
“Ugh, of course you’re a crazy conspiracy theorist,” Gina groans, letting her head drop backwards. “There’s no way any of that shit is true.”
“Only one way to find out,” Holly says, putting a hand on her shoulder, turning her towards the gap. Ren and Amber follow suite.
Ren gasps. “Holy shit, yes! Let’s do it!”
Gina bites her lip, shifting her weight on her feet. “You wanna go too, Amber?” she asks, and the girl in question visibly brightens, nodding her head rapidly.
Sighing loudly and in a way Holly can easily tell is for show, Gina starts heading towards the gap, ducking underneath before standing up straight on the other side. She holds the flashlight under her face, covering it in dramatic shadows.
She starts speaking in her deepened voice she usually saves for band practice, grinning wickedly. “‘Before me there were no created things. But those that last forever— as do I. Abandon all hope, ye who enter here’.”
Then, like flipping a switch, she turns the flashlight back to them, smiling sweetly. “From Dante’s Inferno. Which you all would know if you actually read it, like we were supposed to weeks ago.”
Ren snorts, ducking under the fence, lightly punching Gina’s shoulder as she passes. “You’re such a dork; it’s adorable.”
Gina scoffs, trailing after her. “I am not adorable!”
“You’re the sweetest thing Hawkins’ ever seen, darlin’!” Holly can clearly imagine the shit-eating grin on Ren's face as she teases Gina, speaking in the squeakiest southern accent she’s ever heard. Ren cackles, the sound quickly replaced by a light smack, and she laughs even harder.
Amber keeps her eyes on the building as she crawls under the fence, mouth dropping open in a silent ‘wow’ once she’s standing upright. Holly chuckles fondly. “You excited?” she asks her, nudging their shoulders together.
She nods. “And nervous. And shaky. Sorta nauseous? Kinda like there’s something eating the inside of my stomach, and I know that sounds super painful but it’s mostly just uncomfortable.” She turns her head to look at Holly, brows furrowed. “Is that normal?”
Holly looks back up at Hawkins Lab, biting her lip. There’s something… weird about this place. She can’t tell if it’s a good kind of weird or a bad kind of weird.
Shrugging, she glances back at Amber, saying, “Who the hell knows?” before grabbing her best friend’s hand, running to catch up with Gina and Ren.
tagging: @intermittentspeaking and @ghostie-cola (in case yall are interested in being tagged once it’s posted!)
I’ve been working on a wip for Holly Wheeler that’s been in the back of my mind since the st5 behind the scenes teaser that came out back in july. it’s sorta an amalgam of a 90s au, a coming of age story, and (cause it’s stranger things) just the tiniest bit of horror. so here’s a lil snippet for that!
“I heard that they did experiments on people here. Like, some real MKUltra shit.” Ren grins toothily, shaking the chain link fence with her hand.
“MK-what?” Holly stares up at the imposing building, frowning at the strange gnawing feeling in her stomach.
“Y’know, mind control, spying on the Russians, that kinda crap.” She chuckles lowly, turning back to them. “Wonder if they got any, like, mutated bodies down there?” She slings an arm around Amber’s shoulder, starting to loudly hum the X-Files theme.
☔️ -> is there a fic concept you have that you’d like to just explain and share because you’re not sure you’ll ever write it? if so, what is it?
I kinda got the smallest idea for a ‘what if Kali was there from the start’ fic a few days ago, but the most I’ve pictured is a few scenes of Hopper lending his cabin to the Kali Crew once they’ve found El. I think it’d be interesting to explore what El would’ve been like if she’d been with the gang instead of Hopper.
my main headcannon for that is that El would swear a lot more 😂 one day she randomly says ‘f*ck’ and Kali sends them all a dirty look before asking her which one of them was the one she heard say it
(it was Kali. she’s one of those people who swears constantly but doesn’t realize it. Dottie and Axel refuse to let her forget this incident)
