title : the horrors of ghost therapy
oc / pairing : stuart johnston
trigger warning : mentions of death

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HE'S EIGHT YEARS OLD WHEN HE DISCOVERS the so - called "gift." He's in the park, staring at an older man wearing a leather jacket and boots. He looked like he was in a motorcycle gang. But ... It couldn't be possible. He read in the newspaper that a guy died in a motorcycle accident. It was this guy, and eight year old Stuart Johnston couldn't stop staring at the bench in front of him.

"They're earthbound," His father Jonah explains to him, "They're either here because they have unfinished business with the living, or they have come to grieve their own deaths."

"Do some of them get peace?"

"Some do, some don't. It depends on how angry they are."

"Why are they angry?" The child asks.

"You would have to get through to them to find out," his father answers.

── ♡ ──

STUART IS TWELVE WHEN HE HELPS HIS FIRST ghostly patient. A boy his age who died in a car accident a year prior. He wasn't so bad, but Stuart was oddly curious. Because when he first met the boy, she didn't know he was dead. But he was so happy that someone could finally see him. But Stuart has to break the young boy's heart. He has to tell him the truth.

"Why won't they listen to me? Why can't they see me, Stuart?"

This young boy was no younger than seven. He lived a short life. It was wasted. Stuart was angry, not because of the boy, but because of the man upstairs. If he were real, why would he let someone so young die? Why didn't he save them?

"It's because you're dead," Stuart answered. He doesn't know how to say it in another way.

"Dead?" The boy asked.

"You don't know what that means?"

The boy shook his head, which only makes Stuart frown. "Your body is in the ground. You got hit by a car," He explained, "What you need now is to cross over."

"But ... But I don't wanna crossover! I wanna be with mommy and daddy!" The boy cried.

── ♡ ──

STUART IS SEVENTEEN WHEN A GHOST
POSSESSED HIM. It's also the first time a ghost has saved his life. He's about to go on a rollercoaster with his sister and girlfriend. They're locked in their seats until ...

"Get off the coaster," a voice says, "you're going to die."

Stuart squinted his eyes in confusion. He looks to his right to see the ghost standing right beside the roller coaster. It scared the shit out of him, but he didn't react, for his girlfriend and sister's sake.

"Look above you," the ghost tells him.

Stuart looked up at the roller coaster. The loop didn't have the hydraulics screwed on tight. He looks back down, mortified. He looks at Angelina, his girlfriend, who immediately knew something was wrong.

"We have to get off this ride," He told her.

Before Angelina could say anything back, there was a cold breeze. A chill sets up body, his bones cold. Stuart looks to see the roller coaster person is about to push the button to start.

"Hey! Don't─ Don't push the button, man! Don't!" Stuart yelled, "Let me out! Let us out of here!"

"Hey! Hey, Stu, it's okay!" Angelina said, trying to calm him down.

"No! No it's not! No─" Stuart cries out, "The hydraulics are loose, we're gonna die on the coaster!"

A confused look rose on Angelina's face. "What? Stuart, who told you that?"

Stuart's sister, Annette, shook her head. "Don't ask."

"Let me off, man! Let me out!" Stuart screamed.

The person in charge looked at the worker that was in front of the buttons for the roller coaster. "Alright, cut 'em loose."

When the employee pressed the button to lift the seat guards up, Stuart immediately got off of the roller coaster, Annette and Angelina following behind him.

"What's going on?" The manager asks.

By that time, the ghost leaves swiftly from Stuart's body. He was a bit more calm now that he had been about thirty seconds before. He took a deep breath.

"That coaster man. Those hydraulics aren't safe," Stuart explained, choking back his tears.

Annette took over. "He's a little weary about roller coasters. Last minute scare," she told the manager, "We're gonna go home."

The manager doesn't say anything back. He walks away from the trio. Stuart, Angelina, and Annette begin to walk back to the car. Thirty seconds later, they heard the screams of all the people of the roller coaster. It makes them turn around.

It's the first time Stuart witnessed death.

── ♡ ──

DURING HIS EARLY TWENTIES , STUART HAD TO HEAR the screams of angry ghosts every night, demanding to know if he was the one that loosened the hydraulics onto the roller coaster. By the time Stuart had turned nineteen, that case was dismissed. But those two years definitely tarnished what people thought of him. Everyone but his family.

He laid in bed at night, tossing and turning because he couldn't sleep. They're still screaming, even though they're not visible. He's tried everything. Listening to music, covering his ears with anything imaginable. He still can't get through the night, not even with Angelina right beside him.

"They're screaming at me again, Angel."

"Oh, honey," Angelina cooed, "It'll pass."

"It's been years," Stuart whispered, "It'll never go away."

"It has to go away sometime," his wife says sweetly, running her fingers through his curly hair, "They'll get tired, and they'll stop picking on you."

"I tried to warn them."

"And they didn't listen. It's not your fault. You didn't mess with the manufacturing like they said you did," Angelina told him, "You're innocent, Stu."

You're innocent.

── ♡ ──

HE IS TWENTY - SIX WHEN HE DISCOVERED HIS daughter has the same gift. No, curse, that he has. He watched as his nine year old little girl talked to her so-called imaginary friend named Charlie. He doesn't know how to reveal this to her. She's only a child. She's so young. But he doesn't want her life to become his.

"She's going to know eventually," Angelina told him, "You might as well tell her now. Jonah told you when you were eight, yeah?"

"He did," Stuart answered, "But JJ ... She doesn't need the burden of it."

"Maybe it won't be a burden to her as it is for you," Angelina said.

"It'll make her miserable."

"Are you talking about Charlie?"

Both parents turn to see their daughter looking at them. She stands in the doorway but only her head peeks out. Stuart walks over to the younger girl.

"Honey, I ..." Stuart began, "Charlie ... Charlie isn't exactly imaginary."

"I know, daddy."

Stuart is taken aback by this. "You know?"

"Yeah. She told me she was a ghost. She died of pneumonia. That's why she stays far away from me so she won't get me sick. She crossed over today," JJ explained, "I already miss her."

JJ looked up at Stuart. "You saw Charlie, too, didn't you daddy?"

"Yes, sweetie. I did," he answered.

"What about mommy?"

"Mommy can't see them like we can," Stuart explained, "But we do. We have that superpower."

"Superpower? Like Wonder Woman?" JJ asked happily.

"Yeah, like Wonder Woman," he replied.

── ♡ ──

STUART IS THIRTY - FOUR WHEN HE LOSES SOMEONE that he loves. He moved out of the state of New York to his original hometown of Hawkins, desperate for a new beginning. But the memory of his best friend and wife still remains. It's like she's still with them.

She is in a literal sense. Stuart is haunted by seeing her ghost. The last time she appears is when he uses monster entrapment guns to help get rid of the mind flayer in the mall. The mall had been completely burnt down by then, and he sits in the parking lot.

"JJ told you about the guns before she went missing."

He looks next to him to see the spirit of his wife. His eyes immediately turned glossy behind his glasses when he saw her. She looked just as beautiful as she did when she was alive.

"She did," he answered, "You ... You knew? About Hawkins?"

"Unlike you, I actually listened to your father," Angelina told him, "He knew there were monsters."

Stuart fell silent. He feels guilty for a lot of things. Firstly, pulling JJ back to his scary little hometown. If she wasn't here, she wouldn't be hiding trying to save her life right now.

"Don't blame yourself," Angelina said softly, "You didn't know this was going to happen. Me, the situation with JJ ..."

"I could've prevented that," Stuart told her.

"I was going to die anyways, sweetheart, you couldn't have prevented that. Neither the situation with JJ and Mary Jane ... That's unpredictable."

Tears started to flow down the man's face. "I wish you were here ..."

"I know, honey," Angelina cooed, "But everybody's gotta die sometime."

Angelina wiped the tears away from his face. He definitely missed that. It was airy now, but he could still feel her hand as if she were alive.

She turned, she could see a light. She knew from Stuart that it was her time to cross over. That her business on earth was finished.

"You see it, don't you?" Stuart asked.

"Yeah, sweetheart," Angelina said softly, "I have to go."

The tears started running down his face once again. "What's it look like?"

Angelina gives a smile. "Absolutely beautiful."

Before he could say something back, a voice shouts for him. Stuart looks forward. Clarence stands in the distance. The other ran over to him, and Stuart attempted to wipe his tears away.

"Are you okay?" Clarence asks.

Before he could even answer that question, he felt Clarence's arms wrap around him. Stuart slowly does the same, pulling him closer.

Stuart looked over Clarence's shoulder. He sees Angelina in the distance, waving at him.

"We'll meet again," she says to him, "And by the way ... He's cute. You should give him a chance."

Stuart's eyes widen at this. It's the last thing Angelina said before she disappeared again. Probably for good.

"I was so worried about you," Clarence told him.

"Well, I'm right here," Stuart says, "No need to worry."

Stuart Johnston is Thirty-Four when he makes peace with the dead.