stranger things imagines.

lovers motel escape: nancy wheeler.

{tw: slight mentions of homophobia & abuse.}

the echoing house alarm is what wakes nancy wheeler up from her once peaceful slumber.
and as soon as her ears register where it's coming from,
panic blooms inside of her until she can't breathe.
she knows exactly what house that alarm belongs to.
she can't count the number of times she's tripped it trying to sneak in.
nancy doesn't have the time nor care to slip on her shoes as she bolts out of the front door to seek out
y/n's house.
though it is just a few houses down,
the scene makes the blood in nancy's veins freeze.
cops now swarm her house,
alarming the street with their flashing lights of urgency.
the house is taped off with the damned caution tape that could only mean one thing.
if nancy's body hadn't been in overdrive,
she might've fallen to her knees at the mere thought of what laid inside.
nancy pushes through the crowd surrounding this curious commotion,
despite the hour being well past two am,
and ducks beneath the tape to ensure her lover inside is safe.
"ma'am! you can't come past that tape,"
the officer instructs,
placing a preventing hand onto nancy's shoulder.
"i know the l/n's. please you've got to let me in!"
"ma'am, this is crime scene. we can't-"
"nancy! oh, nancy."
nancy looks past the cop to see y/n's mother coming her way with watery eyes.
no.
this can't be happening.
"she's alright, officer,"
her mother says.
and as soon as the cop disappears,
y/n's mother collapses into nancy's arm.
a tidal wave of panic drowns nancy.
"ms l/n...where's y/n?"
her mother pulls back with a grim look in her eye.
"we don't know."
"what? what does that mean?"
y/n's mother wipes her eyes,
inhales deeply so that she might find strength,
and tells nancy the horrid truth,
"her father and i...we'd just gotten in from our overseas trip and found the back door had been broken into. and y/n's nowhere to be found."
nancy sucks in a breath at the idea of y/n being in trouble.
her heart aches now,
so much so that nancy fears a heart attack.
"what's going to happen?"
nancy asks in the smallest of whispers.
"i don't know, nancy...i don't."
surely y/n would have called her if something happened.
like if she'd accidentally broken the door,
or if someone was in the house...
right?
nancy would have given her life for y/n's.
imagining a life without her...
well,
nancy doesn't much see herself living that life.
how daft and dim it would be without her light of a lover.
"you two were best friends, did she tell you something was happening? like-like a crazy boyfriend?"
nancy has to stop herself from laughing in hysteria.
if her mother believed y/n to be in a relationship with a boy,
than the woman was much more ignorant than y/n ever let on.
"no,"
nancy finally answers once her urge to giggle has been suppressed.
"she never told me."
the girl finds y/n's mothers eye and sees something untraceable in them.
if nancy had blinked or kept her attention elsewhere for just another second,
she would have missed this glint in her mothers eye.
because as quickly as it arose,
it's gone.
"i'm sorry, nancy. i wish i had more to tell you."
"you'll call if you find anything out?"
her mother nods.
"you'll be the first i dial."
nancy hugs the woman before she goes,
but something feels wrong with the interaction.
how many times had they hugged before?
and why did it now suddenly feel so awry?
and where the hell is mr l/n?
nancy thinks as she walks back home.
she isn't sure what's happened at all.
but nancy knows one thing:
y/n's parents aren't telling her the truth.
***
nancy has been worried sick.
it's beginning to show in her eyes;
how they hang in despair for her lost love.
nancy has even shed a few pounds in this last week,
since her appetite has shrunk to nothing.
all she can focus on is her anxiety over y/n.
and in part,
the peculiarities in her parents behavior.
the day after y/n's disappearance was announced,
they wasted no time in getting their back door fixed.
had it even been long enough for evidence to be traced?
for something to be found in the mess?
and why hadn't they called since that night?
even if nothing has been found out,
they weren't returning her calls to check in.
it all seemed twisted.
like a major part of this story had been omitted.
nancy doesn't know what to do.
she wonders if she's letting this stress poison her mind into accusing her parents,
who are probably worried sick about their daughter,
but as hard as nancy tries to convince herself otherwise,
she cannot shake the feeling there is something she doesn't know and the l/n's aren't telling.
and at the height of nancy's alarm,
her phone rings at her bedside.
nancy doesn't waste a second in answering.
she hopes and prays it's y/n on the other end,
calling to say it's all one big misunderstanding.
instead,
she's met with the voice of her brother on the other end.
"nancy, what are you doing right now?"
waiting on my girlfriend to appear out of thin air,
she wants to say.
but instead,
settles for,
"nothing. what do you want?"
"we need just one more player for hellfire since lucas-"
nancy hangs up on him mid-sentence.
how could he waste her time with such a ridiculous question when she's stuck feeling useless in the disappearance of her best friend and greatest lover?
then the phone rings again.
"jesus, mike, i'm not-"
"you oughta be kinder to your brother, nance."
the voice makes the words in nancy's throat pile up.
it's y/n.
it's really y/n.
nancy holds the phone a little tighter at this.
"y/n? oh, my god, y/n.
"i've missed your voice,"
y/n says in a soft whisper on the other end.
"where are you? are you okay? are you safe?"
nancy sits up in her bed as she fires these questions that have been weighing heavy on her mind since the night y/n vanished. 
"i know. i'm sorry i kept you worrying, nance. i just...i had to make sure it was safe before i called. i've gotten you involved enough already. but, yes, i'm safe and okay."
"involved? involved in what? where are you? i want to come see you."
"nancy..."
it's rare y/n ever uses the full effect of nancy's name.
and in hearing so,
it makes her heart drop to the lowest point of her body.
"you can't see me right now."
"why? what happened?"
"i had to leave."
none of what y/n is saying makes any sense and it's starting to hurt nancy's head.
she's just glad to hear y/n's voice.
"you ran away?"
"basically."
"okay...where to? i want to come."
she hears y/n sigh.
"you can't, nancy."
"you don't get to tell me what i can and can't do, okay? i said i want to come with you. this-this town is not worth living in without you, y/n. don't..."
nancy has to take a breath before she continues.
and when she speaks again,
her voice is heavy with sorrow.
"please don't do this to me. don't leave me."
y/n knows she's lost this battle.
and maybe a part of her knew she was going to lose the second she called.
"okay. but you have to make sure absolutely nobody knows, nancy. seriously."
"i won't."