far too young to die ✰ m.w.

CHAPTER ONE

HAWKINS, INDIANA, USA

OCTOBER 29, 1984

For almost a year now, the Byers twins had been inseparable. Since Will had been rescued from an alternate dimension they called the Upside Down, Emily was always hesitant to let him out of her sight, and since he had been alone when he was taken, he was grateful for his sister's constant company, because the event was unlikely to repeat itself if he wasn't alone. It was unlikely to happen again anyway, since the Demogorgon, the monster that had abducted Will, had been killed, but the paranoia got the best of the two, who would often sleep in the same room nowadays even though they both had their own bedrooms. They weren't the only ones taking precautions either; the two weren't allowed to ride their bikes as a mode of transportation anymore. Instead, they would be driven by their older brother, Jonathan, or their mother, Joyce, and they would usually only ever go to school or to the Wheelers' house. They also always had to be home by 9 o'clock unless they were spending the night somewhere, which was a rarity.

The girl that was responsible for the demise of the Demogorgon, Eleven, had still not been seen since the night the event occurred; 351 days, to be exact. This had a profound effect on the mood of both Emily and her closest friend and crush, Mike, who had spent the most time with Eleven and had gotten to know her the best. In their free time, the two would use their supercomms (Emily had to share one with Will) to try to contact her, but as of yet, they had had no success. She had left no clues as to what had happened to her; she had simply vanished along with the Demogorgon. A terrifying thought that occurred to Emily, Mike, and everyone else that knew Eleven, was that she had died, but the two refused to accept that, and hoped that she was managing to survive by herself somewhere and she was just afraid to come back to them and possibly put them in danger again.

Two days before Halloween, Will and Emily had plans to go to the arcade with their friends. Currently, they were both searching their house desperately for money so that they had enough to play plenty of games.

"I found another quarter under my dresser," Emily said, entering Will's bedroom and holding up the coin.

"Make that $1.25. Over," Will said into their supercomm.

"Who are you talking to?" Emily asked him curiously.

"Dustin," Will told her.

"Fantastic. See you soon. Over and out," Dustin said through the supercomm.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

With Joyce driving them, the twins arrived to the arcade not long after that conversation. Lucas, Mike, and Dustin seemed to have gotten there at the same time, as they were just putting their bikes in the bike rack outside when Joyce parked the car. Emily and Will waved at them, Emily from the backseat and Will from the passengers' seat.

"Okay. So, I'm gonna pick you guys up in two hours," Joyce told the two. "That's 9:00 on the dot, okay?"

"Okay," they both told her impatiently, wanting to hurry up and join their friends.

"If anything happens, if you need to come home, just ask them to use their phone and call home. Okay?"

"We'll be fine, Mom," Emily assured her.

"And don't-"

"Don't walk or bike home. We know," Will cut Joyce off, knowing what she was going to say because she said the same thing every time she dropped them off somewhere.