The gas station was too quiet.
Levi sat on the floor of what was supposed to be their living room, his back against the wall, his wounded shoulder throbbing with each heartbeat. The bandages were already soaking through, dark red spreading across white gauze like ink in water.
Ariana sat across from him, her side wrapped tight, one hand pressed against the wound even though Donna had told her not to touch it. Her eyes were fixed on something in the middle distance, not the wall, not the floor, not him. Just... somewhere else. Somewhere that wasn't here, wasn't real, wasn't this nightmare where her parents were dead.
They'd been sitting like this for hours. Or maybe minutes. Time had gone elastic, meaningless.
Levi had tried to say something earlier. Had opened his mouth, searching for words that might help, might comfort, might make any of this bearable. But what came out was: "I should unpack the…"
He'd forgotten what he was going to say. Forgotten why he was holding a bag. Just stood there in the middle of the room, staring at his hands like they belonged to someone else.
Ariana had found him like that, gently taking the bag and setting it down. Then she'd sat. And they'd stayed like that, two broken people in an empty room, while the sun moved across the sky outside.
"I can't feel anything," Ariana said suddenly, her voice flat and distant. "I know I should. I know my parents are dead. I saw it happen. But I can't... I can't feel it yet."
Levi's throat worked. "Shock."
"Yeah." She laughed once, a sound with no humor in it. "Shock. Like that makes it better."
"It doesn't."
"No." Her hand pressed harder against her side, and she winced. "It doesn't."
Silence fell again, heavy and suffocating.
Outside, they could hear the town moving. Voices calling to each other, footsteps on gravel, the sound of digging, graves being prepared. Life continued, because it had to, because stopping meant dying.
But in here, in this space that was supposed to be their home, their future, everything had stopped.
Levi tried to stand. His shoulder screamed in protest, white-hot pain radiating down his arm. He made it halfway up before his legs gave out and he slid back down the wall.
"Don't," Ariana said quietly. "Just... don't."
So he didn't.
They sat in the too-quiet room and waited for something, anything, to make sense again.
The funeral was the next morning.
The town had gathered at the edge of the residential area, where the grass gave way to forest. At least ten graves had been dug: Miguel, Elena, and eight others who hadn't survived Abby's rampage. Two more were critically wounded, might not make it through the week.
Father Khatri stood at the head of the graves, his book open but his eyes on the crowd. People, Levi recognized, Donna, her face hard as stone. Boyd, standing apart from everyone, his eyes hollow. Ellis beside him, jaw clenched, so tight Levi could see the muscles jumping.
And Victor, appearing from the forest like a ghost, stood at the very back where the trees began.
Levi and Ariana were at the front, close enough to the graves that they could see the wrapped bodies being lowered. Miguel's body went first, then Elena's. Someone had found clean sheets to wrap them in. Someone had tried to make this dignified.
It wasn't.
Khatri began to speak, but Levi and Ariana didn't hear a thing. Their eyes were glued to the bodies of her parents. Ariana stood rigid beside Levi, her hand in his, gripping so tight his fingers had gone numb.
She wasn't crying. Hadn't cried since the gas station. Just stared at her parents' graves with eyes that saw too much and nothing at all.
"I didn't get to say goodbye," she choked out between sobs, trying to melt into Levi. "I didn't… they were just going to get our things and then they were- I didn't…"
"I know," Levi whispered, his own tears falling into her hair. "I know. I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry."
Around them, others were crying too. Donna had her hand over her mouth, shoulders shaking. Khatri's voice had gone rough with emotion. Even Ellis had tears streaming down his face, for his own mother.
The bodies were lowered. Dirt was thrown. The finality of it, the sound of earth hitting wrapped bodies, made Ariana's sobs intensify until she couldn't breathe, couldn't stand, could only hold onto Levi like he was the only solid thing in a world that had turned to water.
"Breathe," he murmured. "Just breathe, Ari. I've got you. I'm not letting go."
But his own chest was tight, his own breathing ragged. Because he'd failed them. Miguel, who'd given him advice and accepted him into his family. Elena, who'd called him mijo and made him feel wanted for the first time in years.
They were dead because he hadn't been fast enough, hadn't seen it coming, hadn't protected them.
The graves were filled. Khatri said the final words that Levi didn't hear. People began to disperse, some stopping to pay respects, others just walking away because there was nothing else to do.
Ariana pulled away from Levi, wiping her face with shaking hands. She walked to her parents' graves on unsteady legs, dropped to her knees between them.
"I love you," she whispered, touching each mound of fresh earth. "I love you both so much. I'm sorry I didn't say it more. I'm sorry I didn't—" Her voice broke. "Thank you. For everything. For loving me. For everything. For..." She couldn't finish.
Levi knelt beside her, his shoulder screaming in protest. He placed his hand on Miguel's grave. "I'll take care of her," he said quietly. "I promise. I'll keep her safe. I'll—" His throat closed. "Thank you. For accepting me. For being my family."
They stayed there until the sun had moved and the shadows had grown long. Until Donna gently touched Ariana's shoulder and said they needed to get back, check their wounds, eat something.
"Just a few more minutes," Ariana whispered.
So they stayed.
…
…
The second day after the funeral, Donna gathered everyone in the diner. The atmosphere was tense, expectant. Word had spread about something. Levi had heard whispers but hadn't been paying attention. His world had narrowed to Ariana, to their wounds, to getting through each moment without collapsing.
But Ariana had insisted they come. "We need to know what's happening," she'd said. "We can't just hide from everything."
So they stood at the back of the diner, Levi's arm around Ariana's waist, both of them leaning on each other for support.
Boyd stood at the counter, Donna and Khutri beside him, holding something small. From where Levi stood, it looked like a piece of carved stone or wood, hung on a leather cord.
"Yesterday," Donna began, her voice carrying across the quiet room, "Boyd found something." She held up the object. "It's something like a talisman. And last night, we tested it."
The room erupted in whispers.
"I hung this by the door of the post office." Boyd started. "The rest hid as normal. When the monsters came..." He paused, letting the moment stretch. "They couldn't get in. They knocked on the doors and windows. Whispered through the windows. But they couldn't enter. I stayed in all night, and nothing touched me."
The whispers grew louder, hope creeping into voices that had forgotten what hope sounded like.
Boyd stood, his face still gray with grief, but his voice steady. "I'm going to verify this again tonight. If it works- if it really works- we need talismans in every building."
"Where did it come from?" someone called out.
"Does it matter?" another voice shot back. "If it keeps us safe-"
"Everything matters here," Levi heard himself say. The room quieted, eyes turning to him. "Everything has a cost. The tree on the road, the monsters, this whole place, it all follows rules we don't understand yet. So yeah, where it came from matters."
"You got a better option?" Boyd's voice was hard. "Because from where I'm standing, this is the first real protection we've found."
Levi wanted to argue. Every instinct he had screamed that this was wrong, that nothing in this place gave without taking. But he also saw the desperate hope on people's faces. They needed this. Needed something to believe in after Abby's breakdown had shattered what little safety they'd felt.
"Do whatever you want," he said, Ariana turning alongside him as they still leaned on each other. "But count me out."
"Levi-" Khatri started.
"I've got my own way of staying safe," Levi interrupted. "The holes work. They've always worked. I'm not going to put my faith in some rock that you found in the forest."
The room erupted in arguments, some agreeing with Boyd, some with Levi, most just scared and desperate for any kind of answer. In the chaos, Levi and Ariana slipped out, making their way back to the gas station as the sun began its descent.
That night, the test was repeated. Every house hung a talisman. Every person huddled inside, waiting.
Except Levi and Ariana.
They descended into the hole behind the diner once again. It was larger than the others, with reinforced walls and three separate exits now. A lantern hung from a hook in the center, casting gentle light across the space.
Ariana settled against one wall, her side carefully cushioned with blankets. Levi sat beside her, his shoulder throbbing but healing—faster than it should, like always.
"Do you think it'll work?" Ariana asked quietly.
"Probably." Levi pulled her carefully against his good side. "But that doesn't mean we should use it."
"Why not?"
"Because..." He struggled to put it into words. "Think of it from the monsters' perspective. What's easier, to find holes where people hide or know where they are at all times?" His gentle words froze her.
"You think it's a trap?" She whispered. And Levi nodded. "We're just games to them. Toys that they hunt and kill. It'd be so easy to kill us all. But they don't; instead, they follow their own rules. And the stones? They're just another rule that they likely decided on to make their game a little challenging."
Above them, night fell. They heard the familiar sounds- distant screeches, footsteps on gravel, the nightly hunt beginning. But unlike other nights, the screeches faded quickly. The monsters were heading toward the houses, toward the people hiding behind talismans.
And then... silence.
Not the oppressive, threatening silence that usually meant danger. Just... quiet. Actually, tense and quiet.
Levi and Ariana looked at each other in the lantern light.
"No screeching," she whispered.
"They're at the houses," Levi assumed. "Scaring shit out of people, probably. But they can't get in due to their rules, so they're just... there I think."
They waited, listening. Minutes passed. An hour. Two.
Nothing.
No sounds of hunting. No screams. Just the quiet of the earth around them and their own breathing.
"We could sleep," Ariana said, wonder in her voice. "Actually, sleep. Without being woken up by the screeches."
"Yeah." Levi pulled her closer, careful of both their wounds. "We could."
They lay down together, Ariana's head on his chest, his arm around her waist. The lantern burned low, casting dancing shadows on the dirt walls.
While above them, in the houses protected by talismans, others lay awake and listened to whispers.
The third morning after the funeral, Levi was found working.
He couldn't stop. Couldn't sit still. If he stopped, he thought, he'd fall apart completely, and then he wouldn't be there when Ariana would need him. So he dug, filled buckets with dirt, and threw them at the barn right next door to cover up what he was doing. It was slow and torturous on his shoulder.
Donna and Khutri tried to stop, but he pushed past them as if they didn't exist.
The gray in his hair had spread further, streaks of white threading through the black like frost. But he didn't care. Didn't have time to care.
Ariana was inside the gas station, organizing their supplies. She moved slowly, carefully, her wound still healing at a normal pace, at least from what he could tell. Sometimes Levi would look up from his digging and see her through the door, just standing there, staring at nothing.
She was breaking. Piece by piece. And he didn't know how to stop it.
"You're going to collapse if you keep this up."
Donna looked tired; they all did, but there was concern in her eyes as she attempted once more, but he kept walking towards the barn, a bucket in his good arm. "I'm fine."
"You're not." She walked after him. "You're burying yourself in work so you don't have to feel it. I get it. But Levi, you can't run from grief."
Levi's jaw clenched. "What do you want me to say, Donna? That I'm devastated? That I failed them? That every time I close my eyes, I see Miguel and Elena dying while I did nothing?" His voice rose. "That I killed someone, and I don't even feel guilty because she deserved it?"
"Yes." Donna's voice was gentle. "Say all of that. Feel all of that. Because bottling it up is just going to make it worse."
"I should have seen it coming," he whispered. "The way Abby was acting. Ellis's cries of help that I ignored. All the signs were there, and I just, I was so focused on my own happiness, on being with Ariana, that I didn't pay attention. And now they're dead. And she's- " His voice broke. "She's breaking… I'm breaking, Donna. And I don't know how to fix it."
"You can't fix it." Donna knelt beside him, as he let the bucket down and sat on his knees. "You can only be there while she breaks. Hold each other while both of you fall apart. That's all any of us can do."
Levi looked up at the gas station, at the window where Ariana had been standing. She was gone now, probably lying down, trying to escape into sleep.
"How?" he asked. "How do we keep going after this?"
"One day at a time," Donna said. "One hour. One minute. Whatever you can handle. You survive, and you help her survive, and eventually..." She trailed off, searching for words. "It doesn't get better. But it gets bearable."
She stood, offering him a hand. He took it, letting her pull him up.
"Take a break," she said, taking the bucket instead. "Go be with your wife. The hole will still be here tomorrow."
After she left, Levi walked back and made his way to the gas station. He found Ariana in their bedroom, curled on her side, staring at the wall.
"Hey," he said quietly.
She didn't respond. Didn't even acknowledge he was there.
Levi lay down beside her, careful not to jostle her wound. He wrapped his arm around her waist, pulled her back against his chest, and she responded, getting closer to him on her own.
"I'm here," he whispered. "I'm not going anywhere."
A shuddering breath escaped her. Then another. And then she was sobbing again, turning in his arms to bury her face in his chest while grief poured out of her in waves.
And Levi held her. Just held her. Because it was all he could do. But even he couldn't stop his own tears falling and hurt twisting and tearing apart in his chest at the pain.
The fourth day, Ellis found him.
Levi was walking towards the diner to get food for both of them, since Ariana was finally feeling hungry after four days of not eating anything.
He didn't hear Ellis approach. Didn't realize he wasn't alone until a voice cut through his focus.
"You killed her."
Levi's feet stilled. He turned slowly, eyes unfocused as his body answered before he could register the words.
Ellis stood in front of the pool, a bench behind him, as if he were waiting for Levi to leave Ariana's side, his face a mask of grief and rage. His eyes were bloodshot, ringed with dark circles. He looked like he hadn't slept since the shooting. Hadn't eaten. Hadn't done anything but sit with his anger and let it fester.
"Ellis-" Levi started.
"No." Ellis walked towards him, his movements sharp and aggressive. "You don't get to say anything. You threw that rock. You caved in my mother's skull. She's dead because of you."
"She was killing people," Levi told him, voice lacking any or all emotions, dull, his own exhaustion making him too tired for this confrontation.
"She was sick!" Ellis's voice cracked as the commotion slowly attracted people. "She was losing her mind, and instead of helping her, you murdered her!"
"I saved lives." Levi's voice stayed level, controlled. "Including yours."
"SHUT UP!" Ellis lunged forward, shoving Levi hard enough that he stumbled back against the assault, making him hiss as his bullet wound on his shoulder flared up. "You don't get to act like a hero! You killed my mother!" Something inside him snapped and he wasn't feeling pain anymore.
"Yeah?" He shoved back, harder, anger slowly replacing his monotone voice. "I killed your mother. I threw the rock that split her skull open. And you know what, Ellis?" He got in the man's face, his voice dropping to something dangerous. "You should be grateful I only killed ONE of your parents."
Ellis swung. His fist connected with Levi's jaw, snapping his head to the side. The pain was bright and immediate, his brain trying to register both his injury and the attack, but Levi barely felt it through the rage that had been building since the funeral.
He swung back. His fist caught Ellis in the gut, doubling him over. Then another to the face. And another.
They went down in a tangle of limbs and fury, both of them fighting with the desperation of people who had too much grief and nowhere to put it. Ellis was taller, had reach. But Levi had been breaking all his life and knew how to fight dirty.
He got Ellis pinned, one hand fisted in his shirt, the other drawn back to strike. Blood ran from both their noses, mixed with dirt and sweat.
"Your mother shot my wife," Levi snarled, punctuating each word with an attack. "She murdered Ariana's parents right in front of her. Miguel and Elena are DEAD. And Ariana has to live with that image for the rest of her life. So yeah, I killed Abby. And I'd do it again. Every. Single. Time."
He let Ellis go, shoving him back into the dirt. He stood up, panting, but not getting enough. He wanted more. He wanted to hit more. His shoulder was screaming, warm blood soaking through his shirt where the wound had reopened. He didn't care. Ellis attempted to stand up, but a sharp kick to his thigh had him down again.
Now, Levi was looking down at the taller young man, while Ellis was looking up at him, a rush of something filling him, before Boyd interrupted.
"HEY! WHAT'S GOING-"
"And Ellis?" Levi looked up, saw the older man walking up to them, glancing between his son and Levi. His eyes were filled with anger and protectiveness, but Levi didn't flinch as he glared right back.
"You want to know something? If I see even a HINT that your father is going where your mother went, if he starts acting strange, I won't hesitate. I won't wait. I'll put him down like a rabid dog before he can hurt the only person left to love in this shitty place."
Ellis was trying to get up, blood streaming from his nose, one eye already swelling shut. Levi watched him struggle, felt nothing but emptiness.
"Stay away from me," Levi said. "Stay away from Ariana. Stay away from our home. Because next time, Ellis, I won't stop."
The words hung in the air, brutal and honest. Something in Boyd snapped, marching towards "HEY! LEVI-"
But he didn't care anymore. Didn't care about the town or the monsters or anything else that might happen. Levi simply didn't care as he went numb again. So, he ignored his name being called and instead went to the diner.
And walking back to the gas station with food for Ariana, his shoulder wound fully opened now, blood running down his arm, soaking his shirt in red.
Levi made it to the porch of the gas station before his legs gave out.
He sat on the steps, one hand pressed to his shoulder, blood seeping between his fingers. His jaw throbbed where Ellis had hit him. His knuckles were split and swelling.
And he felt nothing.
No satisfaction from the fight. No guilt. No relief. Just... empty.
Footsteps approached. Ariana appeared, moving carefully, one hand pressed to her side. She'd been watching from the window, he realized. Had seen everything.
She sat beside him without a word, pulled his hand away from his shoulder, and examined the reopened wound with clinical detachment.
"You're bleeding again."
"I know."
"That was stupid."
"I know." He managed a smile, her presence bringing him that peaceful calm.
She pulled supplies from her pocket, bandages she must have grabbed from inside. Started cleaning and wrapping his shoulder with steady hands.
"Did it help?" she asked quietly. "Beating him?"
"No."
"Good." She tied off the bandage tighter than necessary, making him wince. "Because violence doesn't fix anything. It doesn't bring anyone back. Doesn't make the pain stop."
"I know that too."
Ariana said nothing after that. She finished with his shoulder, then took his hand, examining his split knuckles. "I spent yesterday organizing our supplies. Do you know what I realized?"
"What?"
"My mother organized the same way. Canned goods on the left, dried goods on the right, spices in alphabetical order." Her voice cracked. "I was organizing exactly like she taught me, and I couldn't remember when she taught me. Couldn't remember if it was before this place or after. And I just- I stood there and sobbed because I'm already forgetting. It's only been four days and I'm already losing pieces of them."
Levi pulled her close with his good arm, pressing his forehead to hers. "We're a mess."
"Yeah." She laughed, crying at the same time. "We really are."
They sat there on the porch, now being no different than the same people Levi hated becoming during his first week. Walking as if they were zombies, but alive. Rotting but no sign of it since it was from the inside.
The only thing that saved Levi and Ariana from falling even deeper was each other. Holding each other while the sun moved overhead. Two broken people in a broken place, trying to figure out how to keep living when everything that mattered was gone.
"I don't know how to do this," Ariana whispered. "How to keep going without them?"
"One day at a time," Levi echoed Donna's words. "One hour. One minute."
"And what if one minute feels like too much?"
"Then we do one second." He kissed her forehead as she kissed his bloodied knuckles.
That night, as they descended into their hole beneath the gas station, the town above settled into its new normal. Houses protected by talismans. People sleeping behind closed doors. The monsters circling but unable to enter, whispering through walls to those inside.
But Levi and Ariana were below it all. Separate. Isolated.
The silence in their hole was complete. No whispers. No screeches. Just the sound of their breathing, the crackle of the lantern, the quiet that came from being beneath the horror rather than inside it.
The strange thing, Levi noticed, is that the monsters would knock on the door of their place as well, but wouldn't enter. Even when they had no stone hanging by the entrance.
Ariana lay with her head on Levi's chest, listening to his heartbeat. They lay in silence for a while, both of them drifting toward sleep. Then Ariana spoke again, so quietly Levi almost missed it.
"I love you. Even though it hurts. Even though everything hurts. I love you."
"I love you too," he whispered back. "Te amo dos."
She laughed softly. "It's también."
"I know. But 'dos' is ours."
"Yeah." She pressed closer, kissing his chin. "It is."
The days blurred together after that.
Levi worked on their home, fortifying it, making it safe. Ariana slowly came back to herself, helping where she could, organizing their life around the grief that never quite left.
They buried themselves in routine. In each other. In the small acts of survival that filled the hours.
Ellis avoided them. Boyd threw himself into leading the town, coordinating resources, and managing the talismans. The community adapted, changed, and found new ways to survive behind the protection they didn't fully understand.
And Levi and Ariana remained separate. Different. The only ones who still hid in holes while the world above trusted in talismans and whispers and hope.
Weeks passed. And more people who saw the tree appeared.
Then months.
Then another change. A fallout between Boyd and Donna. The town was divided into two. Boyd and Khutri stayed in the town, helping each other, while Donna, Ellis, and her people moved to the mansion on the hill. They called themselves Colony House, and the town's people were Townies.
But Levi and Ariana didn't belong with either. They were called the crazies. The dwellers. And a bunch of other nicknames. But the young couple didn't care; they simply did things on their own. Fortunately, they didn't get cut from food. Whether it be Colony House or the Town, their doors were open for them, no matter how much Ellis complained.
Seasons changed, though in this place the change was nonexistent, wrong, like everything else.
Levi's hair grew grayer. White streaks dominated now, instead of black they once were, giving him an impression of looking years older than his years. But his body remained strong, his wounds healing faster than they should. Same for Ariana, her wound healed faster than naturally.
But it still left a scar on her side that she sometimes traced when she thought Levi wasn't looking. A permanent reminder of the day her world almost ended if Abby had shot a couple of inches higher at her and lower at Levi.
They learned to live with their grief. Not overcome it. Not heal from it. Just... exist alongside it. It became part of their foundation, the bedrock they built their life on.
One year passed and more cars appeared by the side of the roads. Levi talked with Donna, learning everything she had to offer from her hunting days. He learned all the basics of trap setting for animals and humans.
And then put his knowledge to use as traps appeared by the edges of the forest. Ever since then, the people of both Colony House and the town would hear screeches of frustration from the monsters that fell victim to the traps.
It was an annoyance to them at best, but every single night, at least two of the dozens of monsters would either be dangling by a tree or have a branch go through them.
----
AN: A big chapter.
This is about 4k words, closer to 5k words actually. The reason its so long cause I wanted to show the consequence of Abby's rampage in one chapter. At first, I thought of Ellis and Boyd's POV as well regarding the shooting, but it'd be much much longer. Instead, I just showed Ellis taking out his anger at Levi (failed) and placing blame on someone else.
One thing that I noticed is that when I write, I write while filming the scenes in my head. So, during first read through, its fresh and feels really good. Almost as if Im reading a movie. But coming back a couple of days later and then reading it, my writing is really not good compared to where I want it and I'm severly disappointed in myself.
But hopefully, it immerse you guys and you enjoy reading it.
I will get better at writing one day.
PS: For those who don't know, I used to be the biggest Stranger Things author on this site, the title being (Stranger Things: What if). The reason I am telling you this is because...
I am currently rewriting it as we speak. I have a very vague outline for it.
For now, I intent to finish this fanfiction, in about another 30 or so chapters. Maybe even less, like 20, and then I'll be uploading Stranger Things: What if.
For those who were waiting, congrats!