November 7th, 1983

Hawkins High School

Sitting awkwardly in the Principals office wasn't a first for me, though I am a good student with a clean record, it doesn't stop other students from pointing fingers in my direction when something wrong happens. Though this is the first time that I've let my nerves get the best of me.

Once I had walked into the office of Principal Hawthorne, I was greeted with a tight-lipped smile and the back of the Chief of Police, Jim Hopper.

"Ms. Byers sorry to pull you out of class so early in the morning but there seems to be an issue involving your brother." Mr. Hawthorne said while Hopper turned and lent me his hand to shake.

Slowly I grasped his hand and tried my best to return a smile. "Are we talking about Will or Jonathan?" I asked as I sat down in front of Hopper.

"Will. I'm afraid, he didn't make it home last night. Your mother said that he was with you last night." Hopper spoke flatly with little emotion evident in his voice.

Nodding, I toyed with the ring on my finger, a move that didn't go unnoticed by the Chief. "He and I were at the Wheeler's house last night. But he went home at around 8 and I stayed the night with my friend Nancy."

"So you were the last person to see your brother?" Hopper asked pulling out a notepad and pencil. "Not exactly, he said he was going to ride home with his friend Dustin. Plus Mike was the last to talk to him from what I saw, maybe he told him he was going to stay at Dustin's." I spoke quickly trying to stay calm and keep my cool.

"Why didn't you go home with him?" Hopper asked, staring me down as if trying to get me to confess some hidden secret.

"He didn't want me to, he doesn't like being babied." I said with a smile, slowly starting to become calm. "Don't you think it would have been safer though?" Hopper mumbled, writing in his pad, throwing me back into my guilt.

"Who are Mike and Dustin?" He asked finally not looking back up at me. "Mike Wheeler and Dustin Henderson. His two friends at the middle school, just down the road." I said quietly, slowly feeling tears start to well up in my eyes.

"Is this my fault?" I asked quietly, trying to keep my voice from breaking but failing in the process. Hopper looked up at me, his eyes softening slightly.

He shook his head, "Don't put this on yourself, he's probably fine. Cases like these rarely ever end badly. If we don't get any leads, we'll set up some search parties. Find him in no time." I nodded and quickly rubbed the tears away from my eyes.

"In the meantime, your Mom and Jonathan are outside to get you. I want you to try looking for him in places he might be familiar with or somewhere he might go to." I nodded again, standing from my seat and grabbing my bag. "Thanks, Chief." I mumbled and quickly made my way out of the office.

Rapidly blinking the remaining tears away from my eyes, I ran into a figure that was hurriedly heading in the opposite direction. "Hey, watch it- Byers?"

I looked down at the pristine white shoes of the person in front of me and wiped my eyes, "Sorry, Harrington. I wasn't paying attention." I mumbled, keeping my head down before moving to walk around him.

"Hey, hey, hey..." He moved in front of me, blocking my way out. I glanced up at him, hoping my eyes weren't puffy. "What's up? Or what's wrong?" He asked as he looked over my shoulder and down the hall past me.

"Tommy H. and Carol are in the gym right now, so don't worry, no need to act like you care." I stated, rolling my eyes at his behavior before trying to make my way past him, only to be blocked once again. "No, no... I'm sorry. Seriously, though. What's wrong?" Shaking my head, I felt the tears beginning to build again as I struggled to form the words before quickly looking down at the polished floor.

"My little brother, Will, he- uh... He never made it home last night. They can't find him. And I'm pretty sure it's my fault so..." I started the sentence off strong, fighting to keep my cool but I slowly felt myself grow weak again at my own words.

"No, no... Nellie. Hey, look at me." Steve whispered, putting his fingers under my chin to make me look him in the eyes. For a second we just stood there, staring into each other eyes until he finally spoke again. "We both know you would never let anything bad happen to him, don't blame yourself. Just breathe, okay? It's gonna be okay." He spoke softly.

I nodded, slowly feeling myself become calm again. "I- I gotta go..." I whispered after a few seconds of silence. Harrington nodded, looking past me once again with a sigh. "Take care of yourself, Byers." He muttered before making his way down the hall.

~~~

Making my way through the forest just behind the house, I spotted the infamous 'Castle Byers' causing a small grin slowly form on my face as I quietly approached the fortress. Placing my finger on the nonworking doorbell, "Ring-a-Ding-Ding." I said loudly in a sing-song voice.

"What's the password?" Will asked from behind the curtain that blew in the light breeze.

"Hmm... Radagast?" I asked with a grin on my face.

Will pulled back the curtain and gave me a small but fake smile before resting back in his place, thumbing away at the pages of his X-Men comic with a tired expression. "Hey, no- None of that mister." I stated, falling next to him on the pile of pillows he had hidden in the fort.

Lightly poking him in the side, I continued the action until he began to loosen up and giggle in his place before swatting my hand away. "So, I think I got something that'll cheer you up..." I whispered to him before reaching into my pocket.

"What?" He asked with a smile, raising his brows. "But, you gotta pinky promise me though that you won't tell Mom, or Jonathan even." I stated with a small smirk before leaning forward and holding out my pinky.

He nodded quickly linking my pinky with his, "What is it, come on!" He asked excitedly.

Quickly I pulled two movie tickets out of my pocket. "Poltergeist. Best seats in the house too." I said with a smile handing the tickets to him.

He stared in disbelief with his smile slowly growing wider. "But Mom said.."

"Are you going to get scared?" I asked, raising my eyebrow.

"I don't get scared like that anymore." He said holding his head high and puffing out his chest to look tough.

"Then like we promised, it's just our little secret."

~~~

Standing behind Mom, she quickly ripped open the curtain to Castle Byers only to be greeted by an empty fort, the pillows and comics left the same way as the last time Will had last been there.

Groaning Mom made her way out of the fort and looked around the woods. A few feet away Jonathan walked around aimlessly through the woods, yelling Will's name repeatedly.

Now having nowhere else to look, the same went for Mom and me. The three of us walked around the woods, calling out Wills's name in hopes that he would be out there, or at least listening for us.

~~~

Sometime later, we all decided that it would be better to spend our time calling anyone that would know where Will was or could at least keep an eye out for him. So while Mom called around the town, Jonathan and I sat at the table creating different types of missing posters.

"Hi, is Lonnie there?" Mom asked, pacing back and forth with the phone resting on her shoulder and a lit cigarette dangling from between her fingers. I glanced up at Jonathan just as he went to glance at me as we both awkwardly listened to Mom argue with Dad's new girlfriend.

I sighed, staring back down at the poster I was writing. "It's gonna be okay, Nell." Jonathan whispered, trying to sound confident. I nodded, giving Jonathan a reassuring smile. "I know. He's a strong kid." I whispered back.

Jonathan's gaze slowly shifted to stare past me, causing me to turn around and look out the window. "Mom?" We both asked at the same time. "What?" She called out, sounding frustrated as she rubbed her temples with her fingers. "The cops..." Jonathan said, pointing towards the window.

Quickly we all made our way out of the house and to the cop car, where Chief Hopper pulled a bike out of his trunk.

Wills bike.

Walking up to Hopper, I slowly took the bike from him as they began to make their way into the house, Hopper looking like he was on a mission to find something. "Where did you find it?" Jonathan questioned Hopper as they made their way back inside the house but I found myself stuck in my place in the front yard, staring down at Will's bike before walking around the house and towards the little shed in the backyard. Carefully I leaned Wills bike against the wall and stared down at it in confusion.

It was in perfect condition, with barely a scratch on it. "Where did you go?" I whispered to myself and noticed the headlight on the bike slowly flickered on, its light only lasting for a second before going out again.

I stared at it confused and looked around the yard behind me before Hopper exited the house with Mom following close behind him. "There's nothing here, Hop." Mom complained as the Chief made his way towards the shed.

"Did you find something?" I asked Hopper as he scanned his eyes over the backyard while Mom groaned in frustration before walking back inside the house. "What's in here?" Hopper asked, gesturing to the shed. "Bunch of trash. Dad's stuff primarily." I stated with a shrug as Hopper opened the door to the shed before the two of us moved inside.

Flicking the light on, Hopper slowly looked around the room before his gaze stopped on the small wooden crafts table we kept in the corner.

Stopping in front of the table, Hopper picked up an open box of shotgun ammo before looking at the empty hook where we usually kept the gun. "You kids ever mess with Lonnie's gun?" Hopper asked, looking over at me with a raised brow.

"I mean we know how to use it but it's off-limits." I answered before a light buzzing sound could be heard through the room before the lightbulb above us shut off. "Shit, sorry. This place is kind of falling apart." I muttered as I turned to flick the switch on and off again, though the light stayed off.

Grabbing one of the flashlights off of the toolkit, Hopper moved the light onto the corner of the shed. "That's new..." I mumbled softly as I made my way behind him to look down at the pieces of broken wood. There had been a struggle in here.

A quiet squelching sound could be heard from inside the wall before the buzzing of the light turning back on caused me to jump in my place and quickly grab onto Hopper, who glared down at me in the process. "Sorry..." I mumbled, quickly backing away from the man.

"Hey!" One of the cops that had come to the house with Hopper called out to the two of us, causing me to jump again. "Jesus!" Hopper groaned, now shifting the glare onto the officer. "What are you, deaf? I've been calling you?"

Ignoring the officer, Hopper pushed the light into my chest before making his way out of the shed. "Listen, I want you to call Flo and get a search party together. All the volunteers she can muster."

~~~

Later that night, Jonathan and Mom left the house to join the search party, both believing that I should stay home, in the hopes of keeping calm and in the unlikely chance that Will found his way back home. But that didn't happen and the guilt that rested in my gut grew.

"Nell? Over."

Getting out of my bed, I made my way around my room towards my desk to the walkie Mike had given me.

"Nell, this is urgent. Over."

Mike repeated again over the walkie before I finally picked it up, "This is she, over." I quietly spoke into the speaker.

"The party is going to go search for Will off Mirkwood, you in? Over."

I contemplated my answer for a moment before responding. "I'll meet you at your place, Over." I quickly said before clipping the walkie to my belt and grabbing my bookbag.

"Copy that, Over and out."

Giggling at the boy, I quickly made my way out the backside of the house and noticed Will's bike. The light flickered on and off again causing me to shake my head before grabbing it and riding towards the Wheeler residence.

~~~

Pulling up to the house, I noticed Mike staring at something on the side of the house. Following his gaze, I realized he was staring at someone as they made their way up to Nancy's bedroom window. Only taking notice of the person's pristine white shoes, I looked away from the figure quickly, while Mike rolled his eyes and quickly made his way towards me.

"Why didn't you just want to meet at Mirkwood?" Mike asked as we made our way down the road and quickly we were joined by Lucas. "If I can keep an eye on you kids, I'll take any chance I can get." I stated with a smile.

"Awe... So the Rogue does have a heart." Lucas joked. "I will kick your bike over." I mumbled as we met up with Dustin.

Slowly we made our way down the road that the party had named Mirkwood. "Uh, do you guys feel that?" Dustin asked touching his forehead and then holding his hand out to look for rain.

"I think we should go back." Dustin continued only to be cut off by Mike. "No. We're not going back." He said looking at us all.

"Nell, you're the closest to an adult we have. What do you say?" Dustin asked with a frown. "Let's just stick together, okay?" I asked, laying the bike against the railing. "Dustin, if you want to stay here, alone. Then just stay on channel six and don't do anything stupid." Mike stated as we made our way into the woods.

"No way, guys wait up!" Dustin called out, quickly following behind us just as thunder started to break through the sky, rain following not long after. "Let's try to cover as much ground as we can." I stated as we began our trek into the woods.

"Will!"

"I have you're X-Men #134!"

"Guys I think we should turn back." Dustin stated slowly, starting to slow his pace. "No. We gotta keep going, he could be out here." Mike shot him down quickly.

"Guys it's raining, this seriously isn't safe." Dustin continued, "Dustin, please." I said turning towards him. "Please, I need to find him." I whispered as the rain began to come down harder. "You guys can go back."

"Not without you." Mike stated, the boys nodding in agreement. Going to walk further into the woods, the sound of branches rustling and footsteps could be heard through the storm. "Will?" I called out and turned around, though our flashlights instead landed on a little girl with a buzz cut.

"Get the light out of her face." I told the boys, the young girl looked frightened by us. She stared up at us, making no sound or sudden movement as her wide eyes darted from between us. Her figure was practically cowering as the cold rain pierced her skin, the only thing protecting her was an oversized t-shirt from Benny's restaurant that reached her knees.

Quickly, I took off my jacket, placing it around the girl's shoulder and pulling the hood up to protect her from the rain. "We can't just leave her out here." I stated, turning towards the party as they all just stared at her.

"I can take her to my place, the basement? Mom and Dad never go down there." Mike said as we all quickly made our way back towards our bikes on Mirkwood. Wrapping my arm around the girl to lead her through the woods and to calm her shaking.

How long has she been in these woods?

"Mike, can you take her? Boys stay with each other, I have to get back home before Mom and Jonathan freak." I stated as we got back to the bike and helped the mysterious girl on the back of Mike's bike. "I'll radio you when I get her home." He stated before we all split down different paths.