In 1980s Indiana, Judy Hopper and her group of young friends witness supernatural forces and secret government exploits. As they search for answers, they unravel a series of extraordinary mysteries. In the midst, love and friendship are put to the u...
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Three nights of torment was all it took before she could lay her father to rest. The nights of torturous sleep, waking up to the fake hope that she was back in the cabin and he would be sipping his hot cup of coffee in the kitchen, playing 'Don't Mess Around With Jim' on the record player. Three nights that led to dark mornings of empty numbness.
Three nights sleeping on the floor of the Byers home while the county put together a proper veterans funeral. Three nights preceded by days spent staring aimlessly into the air.
No eating, barely even blinking, and no speaking.
Judy kept it simple. There wasn't much fight left in her after her father was declared dead by the U.S. military. She wasn't even sure if that's what she really heard. She wasn't really hearing anything anymore. Not even as Joyce talked to DCS and Social Services.
She'd always been on top of things like that, the important things. But she just couldn't do it.
Steve would call and El would answer every time, telling him that Judy was still stuck in her spot on the living room couch, void of all emotion. Stuck in time.
Everyone was concerned for the two girls, but El seemed to be taking it a little better. At least that's what I looked like. She went over to the Wheeler's house everyday to hang out with Mike. The gang would be there as well, except for Max.
It took he stepfather one day to decide he would divorce Max's mother. But he was still going to bury his son in a town he'd no longer live in.
Billy and Hopper never made it out of the mall. Their bodies were lost to police evidence and conspiracy. The police said that Hopper's body was never found, that he probably disintegrated in the blast from the machine. And the government would never be able to explain what ripped Billy apart to the world. So they set it all on fire.
Judy could see, from the Byers living room window, the smoke from the fire they set to the mall, Billy and her father still trapped inside.
A gas leak. Sheriff Hopper and Billy Hargrove lost their lives trying to get people out from the burning mall.
That's what the papers said and that's what everyone believed. Except for those who knew. Those who stood in the front row at Hoppers funeral.
Judy watched with dry eyes as soldiers folded an American flag and placed it in her hands, like it was enough to replace him. Guns sounded off in salute but Judy didn't flinch. Nothing scared her anymore.
She'd already felt the greatest pain she'd ever felt.
The whole town seemed to show up for him, even though Judy knew that half of them didn't much care for his brute attitude. People he'd never even come into contact with cried.
The people of Hawkins stared at Judy and El, who had just been introduced to them as Jane, the cousin from New York who was staying with Hopper for a while.
