Chapter One

Escape

When Will Byers went missing the town of Hawkins was once again set into a dark silence. Waiting and praying for a child to come home safely to their family. Any time someone saw Joyce or Jonathan Byers throughout town they couldn't help but feel sympathy mixed with pity for them. But this wasn't the first time that Hawkins went through this. Twelve years earlier a similar thing happened. Veronica "Ronnie" Gray. A five year old girl taken from her home without a trace, except for her teddy bear left on the floor. Her mother and father sleeping in the other room not knowing their little girl was being taken from them. The town formed search parties, just like with Will Byers, and searched every where.

But what the town didn't know was that Will and Ronnie were connected in another way. Hawkins Lab. A secret that was well kept from the town and left as a mystery. People passed by the ominous building and created their own stories of what was happening behind the large brick walls. But no one ever came close to guessing what was truly happening. For twelve years Ronnie stayed hidden down beneath Hawkins Lab. Becoming one of the many children experimented on.

~x~

Ronnie stared up towards the wall, her eyes scanning over the many pictures that were taped to the wall, one's she'd drawn over the years. Her fingers rubbing over the surface of the scar that ran along the back of her hand. Angry and raised against her cold skin. Ronnie couldn't remember the last time she felt the sun along her skin. It has been a while Papa allowed her to. Her once tanned complexion now holding a pale, almost gray, tone. Her black hair fanned out around her head like a halo along the floor.

She laid there for a while before the lights began the flicker and then cast the entire room into darkness. She could hear the alarm sounding right outside her room door, along with the heavy vibration against the floor as people ran through the hallway. Confused – Ronnie moved up off the floor and slowly walked towards the doorway to look out the small glass window in the middle. The hall way just as dark as her room, except every once and a while there would be a bright red light flashing. Ronnie reached her hand down and slowly tuned the knob. Deep down she knew that something was wrong. She'd been here for so long that any time that something went out of the routine – she became worried.

Her fingers gripped tightly to the knob tightly, counted for a moment to make sure no one else would pass her room, before opening it. A sense of relief flooded her body as she stepped out into the hallway. Ronnie looked left, then right, then left again. No one was there. She took a few more steps before her feet quickly began to lead her down the other end of the hallway. Ronnie pressed up on her toes and looked up through the window and could see her small form laying on the cot. She raised her small hand up and tapped lightly on the glass, causing the girl on the other side of the door to jump up. Ronnie waved once before smiling gently. El moved off the cot and hesitantly walked towards the door, before opening it, and looking up towards Ronnie confused.

"How?" El spoke softly, her voice barely a whisper.

"I don't know, lights went out." Ronnie spoke before looking over her shoulder to make sure no one was in the hall. "We leave. Now."

"Leave?"

"Yes. Leave, away from Papa." Ronnie spoke and reached down to grab El's hand, pulling her out of the room and into the hallway.

~x~

"Papa please." Ronnie cried as she huddled her knees to her chest and cried, her frame shaking from the volt of electricity that still felt like they were going through her body. "Papa...please..."

"We're almost done, child. You know what you have to do."

"P-please." She sobbed and gripped tighter to her legs. Her brown eyes clouded with tears as she looked up towards him.

The man before her stood tall and loomed over the child before him. His slender frame dressed in a all black suit making his hair seem whiter than it actually was. Also made him seem scarier towards the ten year old Ronnie that was quivering in the corner of the stark white room. He took the few short steps towards her and grabbed her tightly by her biceps, causing her to whimper loudly, and carrying her back towards the chair in the center of the room. She fell limp in his arms, her strength completely gone, making her limbs move almost like a rag doll. Once she was placed down into the chair her body fell back against the chair.

Dr. Brenner, also known as Papa to the children of the facility, moved the other chair up right. He waved towards someone else on the other side of the two way mirror. It was a signal for them to bring another in. Ronnie cried harder as the buzz of the door lock sounded through the small room. Two men carried another child into the room, a bag placed over their head, before throwing them into the chair across from Ronnie. The child thrashed in the arms of the two technicians before being strapped down to the cold metal chair. The moment Dr. Brenner placed a hand down on the shoulder of the child, they stopped moving and yelling, almost like they knew who was touching them.

"Now, Seven...you know what to do." Dr. Brenner spoke in a eerily calm voice, before grabbing the top of the bag and removing it form the child's head. Seven, the name he always called her. She didn't understand since she knew that wasn't her name. When she was taken, Ronnie was old enough to know her name wasn't Seven.

She froze as she stared at the one before her, their eyes holding the same fear that were in her eyes. She whimpered and slowly began to shake her head back and forth, tears cascading down her freckled cheeks. Ronnie moved her eyes up towards Papa, her lower lip quivering, and her eyes pleading.

"You know what to do Seven." He spoke sternly, no emotion in his tone of voice.

He watched for a moment, staring deep into her gaze before sighing heavily and looking up towards the tech standing in the corner. He nodded his head once, signaling for them to flip the switch that was on the wall. Almost instantly, to the moment the switch was flipped, Ronnie felt the electricity coursing through her veins. She let out a scream, her back bending away from the back of the chair, her knuckles turning white from the grip on the arms of the chair. It only last for a few seconds, but to Ronnie it felt much longer than that. Her chest heaved rapid as she tried to catch her breath, her fingers twitching slightly, a side effect of the electrical shock.

"Seven?" He spoke, her eyes snapping towards him, but her body felt frozen. "Do as I asked, or else this will keep happening. You don't want that now do you?"

She shook her head feverishly. It took a few moment but her hands loosened their grip on the arms of the chair. Her breathe was still hard and shallow before she sat up straighter. Dr. Brenner took a few steps back away from the children before crossing his arms at his chest. The flights began to flicker as Ronnie stared forward and began to concentrate. Her brown eyes stayed forward, never leaving the eyes of the boy in front of her, as she felt the surge of power seem to move up her body. It felt like it was starting at her toes and moving up her legs before settling in her chest.

The boy before her began to twitch and whimper. Instead of a surge of power, he felt a sensation of burning. Like his body was starting a flame within his chest and moving outward through his limbs. His whimpers quickly turned into cries then into screams. Even though he was strapped down to the chair he fought against the restraints.

"No! No! Please!" The boy cried as he trashed harder and harder against the restraints.

Ronnie's eyes watered as she watched the child in front of her fight, fight for his life, a single tear falling down her cheeks. Soon the cries stopped. Soon it was just a eerie silence – not a single person dared to move. Not even Dr. Brenner. The child laid limb within the chair, blood falling down it's cheeks from their eyes and nose. Ronnie closed her eyes tightly and turned her head away from the dead boy in front of her.

"Good job, Seven. Good job." Dr. Brenner spoke, a small sense of pride in his tone.

Ronnie sat there shaking and her eye shut tightly. She heard the sound of a door opening, some shuffling around, locks unlocking, before the sound of a door closing was heard. Once the door closed again Ronnie opened her eyes and good see that the chair in front of her empty. The only trace of a child in front of her being the small trace of blood on the seat of the chair.

~x~

Ronnie gasped loudly as she was shocked out of her sleep. A fear bubbling within her chest as she searched around trying to figure out exactly where she is at. The sound of birds chirping caught her attention to look upwards and she was welcomed by a canopy of trees. Then it all slowly came back to her of what happened last night. She remembers running down the hallways with her hand tightly grasped within hers. She remembers finally leaving the hell she had been within for the last twelve years. Her feet beating down against the forest floor, feeling needles and pine cones dig into the skin at the bottom of her feet. But she didn't care. She was gone. She was away.

"Eleven?" Ronnie spoke softly and looked around and saw that Eleven was no where near her. "Eleven!?"

Her tone was filled with panic and fear as she looked around for the younger girl that, as of last night, was sleeping down beside her. Ronnie stood from the ground and frantically looked around. But no matter what way she turned, she wasn't able to see Eleven any where. She was gone.