November 4, 2017

Kinsley did not like school, but today was an exception.

Her senior class had begun a string of their "Old Hawkins" tour, required to graduate.  She scoffed at the memory of the principal telling the school how important this was.

"Getting to know your town's history is vital, not only as a citizen of Hawkins, but as a Hoosier!" he exclaimed, thrusting one finger in the air, "Our town has a lot of history to offer and it is important you kiddos are educated on it."

She chuckled to herself and leaned her head against the cold bus window, watching the dreary town of Hawkins, Indiana pass by.  Today was the first part of the history tour.  The old Hawkins National Laboratory had been shut down years ago, in the mid-eighties.  Tours were now offered for the old, abandoned building by the locals.  

It had quite a story to offer, or so the town had always been told.  

Kinsley sighed as the bus came to an abrupt stop int he lab parking lot, earning groans from all the students not expecting the stop.  The bus driver apologized as he opened the door, rolling his eyes.  Kinsley turned to wave at her friend at the back of the bus, she had arrived late at school and got stuck at the back.  

"I hate you, I had to ride with someone I didn't know."

"Wow, imagine that, you had to make a new friend!" Anna replied with a huge grin.

Kinsley rolled her eyes, "You're my only friend and you know that."

"Yeah, yeah, it's kinda sad honestly."

"I mean, I don't  have to be friends with you."

Anna latched onto her arm as they walked closer to the building's door, "Kins, you're stuck with me for life!"

They were hushed by a nearby teacher, glaring at them.  The girls looked away with stifled giggles as the tour guide began to talk.  Apparently, his father had worked at the lab all those years ago and had been giving tours since it's closing.

"We all know the story about little Will Byers, right?  November fourth, nineteen eighty-three, a day that will forever remain a part of Hawkins history."

Everyone nodded their heads, silence filling the crowd of students.  Will Byers had always been a somewhat sensitive subject around Hawkins.  The boy was only twelve years old when he vanished one night.  He was later found in one of the lakes farther out in the woods, it was dried up now.  After that, the town seemed to succumb to the sadness of Will Byers and no one ever hardly talked about it.  His older brother, Jonathan, moved away soon after graduating high school and poor Mrs. Byers ended up in a nursing home ten years later.

"Did any of you know that Hawkins National Laboratory was under suspicion for his disappearance?"

Kinsley and Anna exchanged confused glances at each other, "This guy's gotta be on something, I've never heard that." Anna whispered.

The man nodded his head with wide eyes, "At the time, lots of tests to better our ecosystem were being conducted here, some of the chemicals leaked into the streams and lots of people thought it had something to do with his death, especially because he was found in the lake."

The man paused and looked around to all the students, grinning mischievously.

"Or was something else going on here?  On this tour, my assistant guides will be showing you some rather suspicious clues as to what else was going on inside the lab at the time of Will Byers' disappearance!" the man exclaimed with wild eyes and hand gestures.  

The students laughed, was this man serious?  Everyone knew Will Byers drowned in the lake.  

Kinsley and Anna found themselves rather bored during the tour, only half-listening to his explanations.  Some of the students were extremely intrigued, surprised that such secrets could be kept in such a small town.  Kinsley found herself peering into a small room with children's toys on the floor, it looked as if she had stepped into a horror movie.

Quickly she turned and caught up with the group, not being able to shake the jitters from her body.

The tour lasted until noon and the class was dismissed to go home.  Hawkins was still a small town, it seemed to be stuck in the past Kinsley's whole life.

She and Anna walked down the cracked sidewalks and chatted about the lab, poking fun at the tour guide and his wild theories.

"I highly doubt they experimented on children, I mean did you see the rooms?  They looked pretty safe and full of toys, hardly a torture chamber." Anna said, "Although the rotting portion of the basement was weird as hell."

"I wasn't even paying attention then," Kinsley said as she scrolled through her text messages.  She shivered at the cold gust of wind that hit her then, barely registering her friend's scream as she tumbled to the ground.  They were just passing under the split, twisted trunk of a tree overgrown onto the sidewalk when all went silent.

Kinsley groaned, wiping her scraped hands on her shirt.  She slowly, ever so slowly, picked up her phone that lay facedown on the concrete.  

"Shit!  Motherfucker, my fucking phone screen shattered!" she cried out, running a fingernail over the cracked glass.  When she heard no response from Anna and jumped slightly.

Anna was gone, and she wasn't in Hawkins anymore.

- - -

Hey all, thanks for giving this story a chance!  Updates may be slow, but I have some awesome ideas for this story!  Obviously I changed up Hawkins past a little bit, for the time-travelling story plot's sake.  I hope you all enjoy!

Also, Hoosier is an Indiana citizen (a proud Hoosier myself!)