November 10th, 1983

Byers Residence

The walk back home from the Wheelers was more unnerving than usual. With the thought of a monster on the loose from another dimension hanging over my head, I couldn't help but look over my shoulder at every small sound from inside the woods. When I finally made it to the front porch of my house, it was hard to ignore the very obvious hole in the wall. One that I could only assume had been put there by my mother.

Ignoring the destroyed wood that now looked into our even more destroyed living room, I pushed open the door to the house to find the Christmas lights still hung from the walls and ceiling and to see that Mom was once again seated on the couch. Though now she was covered in blankets but somehow still shook in her place, with a look that looked like both worry and terror edged on her features.

"Mama? Mom, what happened?" My tone shook with worry as I quickly made my way to the couch, dropping onto the floor in front of her and bringing her cold hands into my own. Her mouth fell open though nothing came from it as she looked away from the hole in the wall and down to me, eyes practically pleading for me to leave it alone.

Taking in a deep breath, I looked around the living room, quickly spotting the axe from this morning laying on the floor, as well as a few opened cans of beer. She hasn't even drank beer since... "Mom, is someone else here?" I asked, as her gaze too fell on the abandoned cans on the coffee table.

Offering a curt nod, she looked between the hole in the wall and me. "Y- Your father... He's just stopped by for the funeral--" She mumbled, her voice stuttering while her eyes never seemed to reach mine. "Where is he?" My tone was one of indifference but the anger that bubbled inside me was hard to miss. "In your brothers' room..." She droned off, watching as I stood from my place on the floor.

Nodding, I chewed anxiously on my bottom lip before hurrying down the hall and towards Jonathan's room, "Jonathan wanted to talk to him alone, Nellie." Mom called out from behind me but she knew that would do little to stop me. Pushing open the door of Jonathan's room, my eyes landed on the back of our father as he spoke down to Jonathan.

"No, you need to listen to me, okay?" He spoke lowly as he took another step closer to Jonathan who glared up at him. "Your mother is sick, really sick--" Lonnie jabbed a finger into Jonathan's chest, causing my anger to boil over. "Well, you being here, isn't going to help. Is it?" I questioned, pushing his hand away from Jonathan's chest before taking a step between them. "This is a father and son chat, Nellie." Lonnie stated and glared down at me.

"Don't talk to her like that. Okay, you being here only makes things worse." Jonathan stated, standing by my side and allowing Lonnie to shift his glare onto Jonathan. "Worse? Are you kidding? She took that wall down with an axe. She said that Will's inside it, that he's talking to her." Lonnie argued against us with a slight grin, as if we didn't realize what was happening around us.

"Yeah, well what if he is?" I argued back while Jonathan nodded quickly in agreement, "Yeah, maybe he was." He mumbled with a shrug.

Chuckling slightly at the two of us, Lonnie shifted his gaze between us. Shaking his head, he ran a tired hand over his face. "Look, kids... This isn't some kind of joke. Your Mom was half frozen to death when I got here. Trembling, scared out of her mind--" "Well aren't you a hero? Showing up at such a convenient time." I tried cutting him off, only for him to stop me with a stern snap of his fingers. "And if you two come in here and start feeding into her hallucinations, or whatever the hell you wanna call it, you're going to push her over the edge."

Glaring up at the man that I called my father, I crossed my arms over my chest and remained silent "Do you guys understand? Look, I'm on your side... I'm here to make things better for all of us." He offered with a false grin and that same glint in his eye that he could never hide when he was planning on leaving us for God knows how long.

"Thank God you're here." Jonathan mumbled with a fake smile, one that always seemed to get under Lonnie's skin. "Do me a favor. At the funeral, tomorrow, behave. If not for me, for your mother." He stated with a slight frown on his face, eyes shifting away from Jonathan and onto me.

Scoffing, I uncrossed my arms and took another step toward him. "And what about Will? Isn't tomorrow his day? You couldn't even bother to come into town until now so how about you don't make tomorrow all about yourself?" I glared up at him, but he simply patted me on the shoulder and pinched my cheek as if I was still a child. "Watch who you're talking to..." He mumbled lowly. "And, you... Take that down, it's inappropriate." He stated and moved his hand off of my shoulder to point at Jonathan's 'Evil Dead' poster.

Watching Lonnie's figure disappear down the hall, I took a moment to breathe before rushing towards the door and slamming it shut behind him. "Who does he think he is? I mean, to talk to us like that? What even are we to him anymore?" I complained, my glare burning holes in the closed door.

"Ignore him, he'll be gone and heading back to the city sooner than later." Jonathan mumbled under his breath before taking a seat on his bed and running a tired hand through his hair. "Not soon enough..." I mumbled, placing a stressed hand on my forehead before turning to face Jonathan as he grabbed his bag from under his bed.

"He didn't see the picture, did he? Well, were you guys able to fix it?" I rambled to quickly change the subject before taking a seat next to him on the bed. Nodding, he pulled the enhanced image from his bag, passing it off to me.

Releasing a deep breath, I nodded as I looked down at the shadowy figure. "Definitely not human... What are we going to do?" I whispered as I carefully placed the photo between us on the bed, the Jonathan was quick to dig through his bag again. This time pulling out an old map of the town. "After the funeral, we go to the woods, off Kerley, and see if we can find this thing. We find it and we kill it."

"And how do you expect a group of teenagers to kill a monster?" I chuckled the question out nervously, watching Jonathan stand from his place and awkwardly pace around the room, something he only did when he need to concentrate. "Dad has a gun... And- And I mean you have a baseball bat, and that hunting knife Dad gave you." Rolling my eyes at the reminder, I slowly nodded. "You think an old baseball bat and small hunting knife can take this thing down?" I asked, looking back down at the monster in the photo.

"It's the best we got... Besides, if we don't try something who knows how many more kids like Will could go missing." That tightening feeling in my chest returned as the words fell from his mouth and I could tell he regretted it by the look on my face. "Nellie, I just meant--" "It's fine... Let's do it. But if this gets out of hand, we bail. Immediately. I- I can't lose you too." I stated. "Promise." He said with a grin and held his pinky out.

~~~

I walked around my home, but something was off. The walls of the house were covered in what looked like decaying vines and the air with thick, with debris visibly floating in the air.

Walking down the hall towards the living room, the lights above me looked cold and colorless like the rest of the world around me.

"Nellie?"

A voice called from somewhere in the room, but I couldn't see where they were.

"Nellie?"

It called again, this time louder. The voice sounded exactly like Wills.

"Will? Where are you?" I called and walked around the room confused.

"I'm right here! Nellie, help me!"

The voice screamed so loud that it hurt my eardrums.

Running around the room, I opened multiple cabinets and looked under the coffee table and couch for Will.

"Nellie!"

~~~

"Time to wake up, sleepyhead."

I jumped up from my spot on the bed to find Mom standing at the edge of my bed. Grasping a hand over my chest, I looked around my room in a panic before glancing back up at her. "What?" I mumbled, out of breath. "It's time to get up..." She gave me a worried look as I remained frozen in my place, still trying to catch my breath from the nightmare.

"Right... Right, I'm sorry." I whispered and ran my hands through my hair to calm myself down. "Are you okay, Nell?" She whispered to me and quickly sat down on the side of my bed before placing her hand on my forehead. "Trying to be... It was just a really bad dream." I mumbled, trying to offer her a small reassuring smile as she pulled her hand back.

"I know... I'm sorry I wasn't there enough for you guys as kids, but I want you to know that... That you can talk to me. You know you can talk to me, right?" She grabbed my hand, tightly squeezing my palm before shooting me a quick smile only she couldn't hide the sadness it held behind it. "I know, you did all you could for us. You're an amazing Mom."

She nodded, taking in a deep breath and squeezing my hand one last time before quickly getting up and patting down her black dress. "I pulled out an extra one of my dresses... Lonnie and I thought it'd be better than your jeans." She nodded towards the black dress that now hung from my closet. "Thanks..." I mumbled as I looked from the dress and back towards her.

We awkwardly stared at each other in silence for another few moments before she slowly made her way out of my room, closing the door gently behind her.

Taking my time, I dragged myself out of bed and walked towards my closet, pulling the black dress off its hanger. I rubbed the soft material between my fingers before pulling off my tank top and shorts to replace them with the dress. Glaring at the figure I saw in the mirror, I brushed my hair to the side, before starting to messily braid it.

My eyes flickered over to the calendar that rested beside my cluttered desk, surrounded by the colorful drawings Will had made me over the years. My eyes rested on today's date, November 11, 11 - 11. I read somewhere once that it's an angel number, meaning a gateway has opened. A new reality, with new opportunities. Any time before now I would have just viewed it as a lucky number. But as I get ready for my baby brothers funeral, it just feels like some kind of sick joke.

A knock sounded from the other side of the door as I tied the braid off. "Come in." I called out, peeling my eyes off of the date, and turning towards my door to find Jonathan with the collar of his shirt up and holding his black tie out in his right hand. "I couldn't figure it out." He mumbled as he nodded down towards the tie.

Rolling my eyes, I pulled the tie out of his hands and pulled down the collar of his shirt. "You're not a tie type of guy." I said with a small smile, smoothing down the sides of his jacket. "Ready?"

~~~

"Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

Staring down at my hands, I listened to the words of Pastor Charles as he read from the Bible, in front of Will's casket. "It's times like these that our faith is challenged." He continued, on one side of me was my mother, Jonathan, and Lonnie, while the other side of me was occupied by the party, who continued to whisper between one another about Jennifer Hayes.

"How, if he is truly benevolent could God take from us someone so young, so innocent? It would be easy to turn away from God. But we must remember that nothing, not even tragedy, can separate us from His love."

"Just wait till we tell Will that Jennifer Hayes was crying at his funeral." Dustin whispered to the group with a grin on his face, only to earn a nudge from Lucas.

After Pastor Charles was done, roses were passed out to be thrown onto Will's coffin as it was lowered into the ground. "What are these for?" Mike whispered to me as he stared down at his yellow rose. "You throw it into the grave, it's supposed to be a form of closure." I whispered down to him as I stared down at my white rose.

Once the ceremony was finished, I felt someone pull my arm back slightly. I turned around to quickly spot both Jonathan and Nancy. "We gotta get started..." Jonathan stated in a hushed tone and with that, the three of us quickly separated ourselves from the rest of the guests and towards the edge of the cemetery.

"So, this is where we know for sure it's been, right?" Jonathan asked both Nancy and me as he pointed at three X's on the map. "Where are these?" Nancy asked as she pointed down at the page. "This is Steve's house, and then the woods where they found Wills bike, and then our house." He pointed towards the three separate locations.

"They're all so close..." I mumbled as I stared down at the map. "Exactly. These are all almost a mile away from each other. Whatever this thing is, it's not traveling far." He stated as he looked between Nancy and me.

"You want to go out there?" She asked, her voice coming out shaky and slightly fearful. "We might not find anything." He responded, in some form of reassurance to stop her from worrying too much. "But I found something." She added and looked back down towards the map. "And if we do see it, then what?" She asked, the fear slowly began to rise again in her eyes.

"Then we fight it." I mumbled from beside them, "We kill it." Jonathan agreed before he quickly stood up and walked towards Lonnie's car. "What are you doing?" Nancy asked as Jonathan opened the passenger-side door and began looking for a key to open the glove compartment. "Just give me a second..." He mumbled before finally unlocking it, pulling out our father's revolver.

"A-Are you serious?" She scoffed as he put the gun and a few boxes of ammo into his jacket pocket. "What? You want to find this thing and take another photo?" He asked jokingly before stepping out of the car.

"No offense Nance, but yelling at it isn't going to do anything." I stated as she looked around us to see if anyone had seen Jonathan. "This is a terrible idea." She stated and crossed her arms. "Yeah, well, it's the best we've got." Jonathan stated as he looked around as well. "We could tell someone, but they're not going to believe us." I told her as she looked down at the floor.

"Your guys' Mom would." She responded but Jonathan just shook his head. "She's been through enough."

"She deserves to know." Nancy complained back, "Yeah and we'll tell her when this thing's dead." Jonathan finished before walking away from us and back towards the rest of the guests. "Do you really think this is a good idea?" Nance asked me as we watched him walk away. "I think it's the only idea we've got..." I mumbled before slowly turning back to face her. "I could show you how to use a bat? Unless you want the gun?"