In the beginning, God created woman / And woman defied God. / Calloused heels rooted in rich soil, palms sticky with morning dew / Naked skin and brittle bone plucked forbidden fruit from the serpent's scales. / Eden is lost, and humanity will burn.

EDEN (2022)
Written by Elle

Steve
I miss you so much it fucking hurts.

Eden
(But I do not exist yet.)

Steve
I know, that's the problem.

⠀⠀ TRAGEDY LEFT HAWKINS, INDIANA FOR DEAD.

⠀⠀ Evil sprouted from cracks in the red earth; monsters, demons, like something out of a King novel. A boy trapped in the nether world. A superhero and her small-town sidekicks. A police chief and a maddened mother. An earthquake that ripped through bark, through cement, through flesh.

⠀⠀ Forty years later and these stories are carved into the heart of Hawkins. They stain the walls of the town center, scribble the margins of history books and stick to the roofs of citizens' mouths like bitter sap. In truth, they were only ever meant to stay that way; stories, history. A tattered page in an old middle school textbook or a hushed tale told alongside firewood and smoked marshmallow.

⠀⠀ So why is it that Eden Lovelock still feels the evil breathing down her spine?

⠀⠀ She spends her days in restless ache for a home not yet choked with ruin. She spends her nights tiptoeing the fraying thread between past and present... Until it snaps.

⠀⠀ March 17th, 2022: She sleeps under highrise stars in a Hawkins with copper-lined lungs.

⠀⠀ March 18th, 1986: She bleeds into scribbled margins and firewood.

⠀⠀ Well, shit.

⠀⠀ Eden does not know much. She does not know how she came to be in the Other Hawkins. She does not know whether it is by fate or sheer dumb luck to have stumbled into Family Video. She does not know why the boy behind the counter feels like home.

⠀⠀ But she does know there are strange things lurking beneath the town. She knows there will be four ticks of a grandfather clock, four victims, four portals. She knows there will be young heroes draped in leather and denim. She knows they will try, and she knows they will fail.

⠀⠀ Eden Lovelock knows that Hawkins will burn.

OR...

It's not Eden Lovelock's fault she ripped a
hole through the spacetime continuum!

Kathryn Newton,    Eden Lovelock
20 / Pisces / INFP-T

Joe Keery,    Steve Harrington
20 / Taurus / ESFP-A

Cameron Diaz... Dianna Lovelock
Toni Collette... Rue Lovelock ♰
Maya Hawke... Robin Buckley
Natalia Dyer... Nancy Wheeler
Joseph Quinn... Eddie Munson
Jamie Campbell Bower...  Henry Creel

And all other Stranger Things cast members
as their respective characters.

i. DISCLAIMER

All rights for Stranger Things and its original characters belong to Matt and Ross Duffer.

This work departs from the original telling of Stranger Things. There will be slight changes made to the storyline, as well as the addition of non-canonical lore and dialogue. I do not mean to take away from the brilliant storytelling of Stranger Things' creators; each work is to be taken and appreciated in its own respect.

ii. WARNINGS

This work will contain themes consistent with the original telling of Stranger Things (swearing, violence, gore, death etc). Themes of abandonment, generational trauma and long-term domestic abuse will additionally be explored as a backbone to the storyline.

Relevant warnings will be published alongside each chapter. If you are uncomfortable with any of the aforementioned subjects, I recommend you refrain from further reading.

iii. DEDICATIONS

februarygirls
westernwoods
iovebyers
daidriem
heIIcats
filmcoeur
savioursrot
bvrntbcck

iv. NOTES

Started,    11th July 2022
Published,    8th August 2022
Completed,    N/A

⠀⠀📎   #STEDEN are my favourite ever 🫶🏽 They are brain-rottingly cute and you guys are gonna love them... Right person not enough time excellence!

⠀⠀ 📎   The amount of fluff in this book will make you throw up. Sorry in advance.

⠀⠀ 📎   But I'm also gonna make these kids go through hell. The angst will be angst-ing like never before! Sorry for that too.

⠀⠀ 📎   Steve spends the rest of his life missing someone who isn't even technically alive yet *Sobs*

⠀⠀ 📎   Eden plays 21st century love songs to Steve on his acoustic because they don't exist yet 🥹 He takes a liking to them and commits the chords to memory so he can still listen to them when she's not around anymore 🥹 This is canon IDC.

⠀⠀ 📎   I'll shut up now... In short, this plot is my baby and I hope you guys come to fall in love with it as much as I do!

RETROGRADE (2022)
© villainera