#nancy wheeler is herman coded okay (the dutch girlies will understand)

[unclewaynemunson]

Nancy finds herself in front of a cafe in France when the world stops spinning and she has to gasp for breath. She's sitting in the sun, a coffee and a croissant on the table in front of her, and she's staring at her own name in the newspaper she bought a couple blocks back.

Apparently, her car crashed and burned right around the corner – without her, because she had just sold it. And the woman who bought it from her has been reported dead under the name of Nancy Wheeler.

Only a week ago, in a park in Hawkins, she had been pondering the past years and gotten a huge scare. Out of all the dreams a naive younger version of herself once had about what high school would be like, she had only achieved the one where she'd turn eighteen – and that in itself was something like a miracle, if she really had to be honest with herself.

She had lost dozens of classmates. She had messed up two relationships. She had lost her best friend when she was supposed to keep her close, and repeated that same mistake with lethal consequences only two years later with a boy she had willingly dragged onto a crime scene.

She had stopped caring about grades and appearances and finished those last months of high school feeling like she was looking at her life from the outside, like her life had already been decided for her and there was nothing she could do about it. She had turned eighteen and the day had gone by in a lifeless blur until she was alone with her thoughts in the park.

She had become a woman but she was too broken to feel like one.

So she took a radical decision, right then and there. She desperately needed to breathe again, and she would never be able to do that in Hawkins, not after all that happened there.

Some would call it brave, others would say she was fleeing. It didn't really matter what they'd think anyway, because all she knew was that her life needed to be hers again.

She decided to leave, only one week ago, and here she is, staring at her own name in the paper. It's really there, on page eighteen, with a black frame around it. It's giving her more freedom than she ever bargained for – and she has no clue what do do with it.

She keeps reading the page over and over again, trying to grasp what it means to have your very existence erased. She's nothing. Nobody. Nowhere.

It means she can finally do whatever the hell she wants, she realizes abruptly. It means that she’s been given a second chance at life. She feels like that's more than she deserves, but she's sure as hell not gonna waste it. If this is it, so be it. She's still here. And she'll be alright.

She gets up and pays for her coffee. She takes a deep breath. And she thinks of Barb, like she always does. But, after almost three years of walking around with an aching hole in her heart, it's finally starting to lose its sting. 

It always seems rainy in Nancy's mind. But this time, it's raining sunrays.

(i have a feeling @yournowheregirl will be the only one to get this reference so this one’s for you i guess ;P)