She woke with a blinding headache. She could feel the morning light in the back of her eyes, Billy's snoring was deafening, the taste of her mouth was making her stomach turn. She didn't remember getting home, didn't remember crawling into Billy's bed later. Stumbling into the bathroom she first threw up and then stood over the sink with her head in her hands before finally convincing herself to get ready.

Her mother's hand was soft in her hair and she turned to see she'd brought asprin. Seeing her mom had a wave of tears welling in her eyes that she was quick to blink away, and Veronica held her off before she could hug her because she knew they'd never stop. She found Neil in the kitchen still sipping his coffee having waited for her, and she wanted to appreciate it more but her head still hurt and she hated how small she felt.

"Billy'll drive you to school," Neil told her and Billy as he came out of his room ready to leave.

Veronica sighed the same time Billy shook his head. "I can't drive her to work after, I've," he swallowed glancing at Ronnie's pale face and feeling heat rise in his as his eyes fell, "I have a date."

Neil's jaw ground as his eyes hardened prepared to tell him he had to, but Veronica beat him to it still having to be the mediator. "If I don't do it now I never will," she said hugging him quickly. She grabbed her book bag and her sister and headed out not waiting for either Billy or Neil.

It wasn't much of a drive and for most of it Veronica honestly, heavily, considered asking Max if she wanted to skip. "I didn't get to ask how last night was," Veronica said instead.

"Fine," Max shrugged watching her closely. After Neil left their room last night Max shook Veronica's shoulder to ask what happened, it scared her that she hadn't woken up. "What happened last night?" From the look that crossed Veronica's face Max knew what she was gonna say. "Don't say you'll tell me when I'm older."

Veronica released a heavy breath as she pulled into the school parking lot, and she sat for a moment with the truck off trying to remember how much she knew at thirteen. "Someone tried to hurt me," is what she decided on, and even that she could barely get out. "Billy stopped him, that's all that happened."

There was something strange about her voice, like it was being stretched too thin and would break any second. So Max hugged her feeling the stuttering breath she took. "I'll see you after work," Max told her because she didn't know what else to say.

But Veronica turned to her with a quaint smile. "Go see your stalkers," she teased making Max roll her eyes as a blush crept up the back of her neck. With a wave the girls headed in different directions, and Veronica squared her shoulders ready to pretend everything was fine. She'd pretend so hard she'd make it true.

And she did. By the time she showed up at work she'd gotten the bad taste out of her mouth, her headache was mild, and her hands had stopped shaking. She could be fine. The guy who owned the store left no more than ten minutes after she got there, he had a date of his own though he'd been married to his for twenty years. She didn't mind because she was fine, and the store wasn't busy because it was Wednesday and he told her this was one of his slowest days.

She was finishing her homework behind the register when the bell above the door rang for the first time in the hour she'd been there. With a sigh she looked up from the paragraph she'd been reading ready to plaster on a smile and ask if they needed help. "Thought you had a date," she said as Billy made his way to her.

"I blew it off," he shrugged like it wasn't a big deal.

She nodded not letting that cloud her mind, because sometimes he made her so short sighted she didn't see anything but him. "Like you blew off Max?"

"She was late," he snapped still irritated about that. But he huffed coming around to her side of the register. "I know I screwed up yesterday, I'll make it up to you." He glanced at her expressionless face and sighed harder. "I'll make it up to her too."

She blinked at him a few moments longer before she jerked her chin at the record player. "Find us something to listen to," she told him with a small grin. She watched him flip through the different albums trying to tell herself this feeling wasn't going to last, eventually they'd go home where they couldn't be together and she had to be a sister that couldn't depend on him. But in that moment she didn't think about what she needed, she let herself have what she wanted.

Out of everything he could've stumbled on in the rows of boxes, he somehow found the first song they ever danced to. He made his way to where she sat on a stool behind the register and settled at her back wrapping his arms around her chest. She sighed leaning against him feeling him press a kiss to her shoulder.

The voice crooning out of the gramophone sang sickly sweet words about love, the kind that was supposed to make a person's heart feel full. "This is the worst song," she mumbled with her eyes closed.

"Yeah it really does suck," he agreed before pulling her out of the chair and up into his arms. She laughed as he walked her to the middle of the store and set her down, grabbing her hand and spinning her around to face him. They came together with her arms around his shoulders and his hands around her back, his head bowed to her upturned face as they gently swayed together.

As the music swelled near the end he turned dipping her, a hand cradling the back of her neck as he looked down at her warm eyes. He brought her back up pulling her in for a kiss, not needy or desperate or laced with bitter hatred, in that moment all they were was in love.

The bell above the door rang breaking them out of their reverie as he pulled away, and he watched her return to the register as if she never expected him to stay. It was a group of kids they went to school with in a lower grade. There was movement in her peripheral and she turned seeing Billy at her side.

He bent to kiss her cheek, and he held her there soaking in that soft moment feeling like they could be just two kids in love. "See you at home," he told her, his hand under her chin knocking it lightly. A sly smile curled half his mouth at the way she pressed her lips together to hide her own, he almost kissed her again. But he left, hips swinging feeling her eyes on them, not noticing the parked car several rows down.

A little over an hour and only a handful more customers later, she cut the lights and locked up for the night before heading to her truck. It sputtered loudly without catching and she paused feeling dread settling in her stomach as she turned the key again. "Shit," she muttered throwing the door open and climbing back out.

It was already dark and she didn't have a flashlight, Neil would have to look at it later. Fumbling with her keys she turned back for the store so she could use the phone to call home. "Something wrong?"

Her heart stuttered at that voice and she clenched her keys tighter as she turned around. The whole world fell out from beneath her feet seeing Louis' battered face and dark eyes as he leaned against her truck. And several hundred feet behind him the shadow of something darker waited.

…

Their fractured family sat in heavy silence as everyone snuck glances at Veronica's empty chair. She was never late. "Where the hell is she?" Neil muttered feeling the heat in his blood rising as he looked at his watch. This was about to be her one slip up if she didn't get here soon.

Billy gulped his water but it did little for his dry mouth. She'd been fine when he left her, almost happy even. Hell he'd been planning to sneak her out later to lay under the stars because she liked that sort of thing and it'd end with him being laid. But his stomach was in knots, something in the back of his mind knowing this was wrong.

Susan cleared their plates while Neil pulled on his jacket and grabbed his keys. "Can I go with you?" Max asked with her shoes already on. Her sister was never late for anything, she wanted to tell Veronica about the slimy thing Dustin had found and about how mean Mike was. Now she was worried.

"Not this time," Neil said with a hand on the top of her head. "Go finish your homework."

She watched him leave with a deep frown. "I already did," she mumbled feeling her mother come up beside her trying to assure her Veronica was fine. She just had to stay late, there was a misunderstanding. But this just really wasn't like Veronica.

Her truck sat alone and proud in the dark parking lot in front of the closed store. Neil still got out to try the door. Her truck was unlocked with no sign of her and the store was locked and pitch black. His hands curled into fists not knowing what else to do with them. In turning back to his car he caught the gleam of metal on the ground and the world stopped with him as he understood he was seeing her keys.

It was late when Neil got back home, the neighborhood was dark and asleep except for their house. Susan sat on the couch with a hand pressed to her shivering mouth, Max was pretending to be asleep, and Billy was sitting on the edge of bed waiting. He was on his feet the moment the door opened and he hovered in the hall hearing Max crack her own door open and peek her head out.

"Did they find her, tell me she's okay?" Susan knew from Veronica not being with him and it now being so late that nothing was okay. She was begging.

He got his hands around her arms as a means of comfort, not having the patience to deal with this. "We don't know anything yet," he told her only what he thought she could handle. After finally understanding she hadn't been in this town long enough to run away with anyone the police were left with a missing girl, it didn't bode well. "Go to bed," he told his son sounding harsh and unforgiving.

None of them slept that night, waiting for the door to open and Veronica to come in smiling. Max found her way to the living room where she sat against her mother's side wishing it was her sister. Billy snuck into their room looking for the small box, looking for the grainy pictures she had of them together trying to convince himself she hadn't left him.

It was school as usual when morning finally dragged its way to them, Neil grabbing Billy's arm telling him to look out for Max today. It left him in a bad mood, the kind where his blue eyes shifted dangerously looking for a fight with anyone. With everyone. He hated her that day.

...

It hadn't been a good night, hadn't been a particularly good morning either and the day was getting worse. Hopper stood in the morgue over the cold broken body of a girl too young for what'd been done to her.

He knew the kid heard the call come in last night, she'd locked herself in her room but she had to have heard. And even though he told her not to try to look for the missing teen he had a feeling she did anyways.

"Any identifying marks? I've got a worried father," Hopper explained running calloused angry fingers along the brim of his hat finding it hard to look at her.

The examiner lifted her arm to show him the tattoo over the side of her rib cage.

Neil didn't know Veronica had a tattoo but he knew Billy did, a skull smoking a cigarette. He didn't say anything to Susan only that he'd be a while, and the moment the door closed behind him she collapsed in a fit of tears.

They cleaned her up as best they could, her hair laid strangely over the right side of her skull seeming to fall almost inside of it, a white sheet was pulled up to her shoulder to cover her. But Neil could see the mangled stapled skin where they'd cut into her to do an autopsy. Full lips and high cheekbones, that fairytale face. He remained stoic but the muscles in his jaw bulged and his nostrils flared; silent grief.

Hopper's eyes fell having really hoped it wasn't gonna be his kid. The examiner pulled the sheet over her face and Neil charged from the room to try to catch his breath. He squared his shoulders and turned to the chief ready to get what was needed done.

About an hour into questioning and explaining what would happen from here, Hopper was interrupted by the shaken examiner, who then led Jim back to the morgue where all that was left of Veronica Mayfield was the crumpled sheet that'd been covering her. "What the hell?" Hopper muttered wondering what he was supposed to tell her father.

...

Neil didn't get home until a half hour to dinner. Susan wouldn't have made anything, she probably wouldn't for a while this was gonna break her heart. So it surprised him first to see Veronica's truck in the driveway, then to open the door to the smell of dinner, then to find the table made and Susan humming with a faint smile.

"You can be angry tomorrow," she was relieved enough to tell him as she met him at the door. He stared down at her with confusion shining in his reddened eyes. "She said a friend picked her up because the truck wouldn't start and she ended up spending the night. She knows she messed up, but she's okay. She's home."

"What the hell are you talking about?" A door opening had him looking up to see Veronica coming out of her and Max's room with Max glued to her side. He stepped back reeling, his eyes wide enough they could've fallen out of his skull. That fairytale face.

She smiled gently and walked to him on stiff legs. "I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to worry you."

He was stock still as she hugged him, feeling her body's warmth through his shirt. She'd taken a shower but there was still the faint scent of dirt. "We can discuss this tomorrow," he said in a voice that almost shook. Her eyes flicked to his shell shocked stare, he didn't remember her eyes being so dark. A smile slid across her mouth and all at once he knew this wasn't his daughter. Not that she'd ever really been that to him.

It was a quiet dinner, Billy came later than he was supposed to and heaved a heavy breath at the door seeing Ronnie was there. But Neil didn't yell, he wouldn't take his eyes off her as she picked through her food. No one was mentioning where Veronica had been and why she wasn't in trouble, even Max knew something was wrong.

The two girls washed the dishes together, Susan came by to kiss Veronica's cheek before she sat on the couch not caring to notice the strangeness of it all. Max went to their room afterwards ready to talk, she had so many questions. But Veronica shut herself in the bathroom with the water running.

She threw up everything she'd eaten, mushed up food and chunks of things she wouldn't look at. She'd been throwing up since she got home, but that had all been blood and a little bit of an ear. She crawled back into the shower and sat under the cold spray clutching her knees to her scarred chest as her body wracked with her terrible sobbing. His skin was still under her nails from where she clawed at him, screaming for him to stop. He didn't, he didn't stop until he caved her skull in.

She hugged her legs tighter turning her face into the wall, trying to forget that awful second of air on her brain before she finally died. It'd hurt so much.

But there was shit to do and shit to figure out, and everything was just such shit. Taking a shaky breath deeper than the others, she pulled it all back in and washed her face. Turning off the shower she stood dripping on the tile in front of the mirror, reaching trembling fingers to the stapled skin not understanding what the hell was going on. What was wrong with her?

A knock on the door had her jumping with a hand over her racing heart, she could hear it pounding it was so loud. She wrapped a towel tight around herself and opened it to see Billy waiting with a hand on the frame and suspicion in his eyes. "Later," she told him softly and slid under his arm to go to her room. She kept her back to Max as she got dressed, not knowing there were still bruises littering her body.

"You're not okay," Max whispered as Veronica sat beside her in a long sleeve shirt and pants. Without turning Veronica shook her head and Max leaned against her side wishing she could make it better.

Their mother bid them goodnight, smiling gently at where Veronica sat running a hand through Max's hair as she slept against her side. Neil stood in the hall watching her closely, and in that normal sweet moment he almost thought he'd been mistaken.

Veronica looked down at Max's innocent face hearing her parent's door shut and Neil's quiet voice as he asked Susan what all Veronica said when she came home. She shouldn't be able to hear them, the same way she shouldn't be able to feel each heartbeat or if she was still enough feel her blood swimming through her veins.

When the house had fallen quiet, the kind that grated on her ears, she snuck into Billy's room and laid her head over his chest. He reached a hand to brush her hair back. "You scared the shit out of me," he mumbled against her forehead.

She didn't have an answer for him, at least not one that made any sense. So she picked something she knew with absolute certainty. "I need your help."

"Jesus, what now?" he demanded pulling away. Lately she was always needing something, he didn't know how much left he had to give her.

But her arm curled tight around his waist to the point it almost hurt and he couldn't move. She could break him, that thought came out of nowhere and it scared her. "Getting rid of a body," she answered on a soft breath.

He sat up pulling her with him, his hand a tight fist in her hair pulling her head back to look at her. Her eyes looked black in his dark room, her face the kind of calm he knew meant she was serious.

They climbed out of his window and he got behind the wheel of his car taking it out of park so they could roll it to the street before he started the engine. He drove her to a convenience store thirty minutes out of town to buy two bottles of lighter fluid before they drove back to Hawkins. She made him turn down a long dark road, his yellow headlights the only light that seemed to exist within these trees.

"Here," she told him softly jerking in her seatbelt as he braked hard. She could smell it, could smell her.

It's where an old man walking his dog had found her naked body, it nearly gave him a heart attack. The car's lights cut through the trees illuminating the yellow tape blocking off the surrounding area. Billy glanced at the ground seeing deep lines in the dirt from hands clawing desperately to get away. There was a puddle of blood next to a stained rock, a branch the width of his forearm covered in blood.

"Billy?"

He looked up at her soft voice, understanding shining in his wet eyes. "What did he do to you?" His lips barely moved, his face contorted with pain.

"Hey," she said moving to where he'd stopped and reaching a hand to his cheek. He turned his head away from her but she pulled him back, holding his eye as they stood basked in the car's headlights. "I'm right here."

His breathing was ragged as his forehead rested over hers, his hands light around her back as if she might break. She raised her chin, the tip of her nose brushing his. "Come on," she said letting him go and stepping away.

Something had been behind them. Something Louis swore had been sent straight from the pits of hell, it'd been bigger than his car – blocking him from the damn thing - forcing him to flee deeper into the woods. Away from his only hope of surviving, away from what he'd done. He barely made it a quarter of a mile before that thing, somehow now wearing the face of a dead girl, had been on him.

"Holy shit," Billy cursed reaching a hand to his mouth before running it through his hair. What was left of Louis was strewn across the ground torn to shreds. It didn't even look human anymore.

In the back of his mind his common sense was telling him she'd done this, that this wasn't her, that he needed to be scared. But he looked at her wide eyes full of need and he pulled the top off the lighter fluid pouring it over the blood caked ground.

She stood back watching him with black eyes, like her pupils had blown. He pulled out his lighter and set it ablaze. The flames shot up with a terrible fury and cracked like a stinging whip as it licked at the trees.

He turned feeling her eyes on him, there was something in the weight of her stare - like she was starving. His breathing grew short as he stepped to her, a breath too warm passing between them as the fire grew and she lunged.

His back hit the ground knocking the wind out of him, and before he could sit up she settled on top of him holding him down. He raised a hand brushing her hair behind her ear and for a moment she leaned into him. But the pang of insatiable hunger was devouring and she pulled his pants down over his legs and lowered herself onto him. He reached for her hips but she pulled his hands off her as she moved steadily faster. He was having a hard time catching his breath. Why was she so heavy, when did her eyes get this black?

He tried to sit up but she held her hands flat on his chest pinning him to the ground. She rode him until his eyes rolled back and his body trembled beneath her, and she released a shivering breath as she let go feeling something fluttering in her chest. God she was hungry, he'd be so good.

His eyes snapped open at the loss of her. "Hey," he called climbing to his feet on shaky legs and pulling his pants back up. "What the hell was that, Ronnie?" He charged after her through the trees as she led him back to his car. "What's wrong with you?"

She stopped walking staring at the yellow tape tied to a tree. Caution. "I tried letting you down easy," she said turning to him with something close to irritation on her face. "You're a good lay, Billy, but you're never gonna be enough for me." Hurt flashed on his face too much for him to mask as he gaped at her sudden cruelty. "Did you still think we'd get married after graduating? I mean seriously how many girls have you screwed around with since we've been here? Do you even remember the girl you're supposed to be taking out tomorrow?" She laughed bitterly glaring up at his darkening expression. "No, Billy, it was never gonna be me and you."

"Fuck you," he spit at her, his words laced with poison. If he got his hands on her he didn't know if he could stop himself.

A smirk curled half her mouth as she shook her head. "Yeah," she sighed like she always knew he'd disappoint her.

Without another word she turned on her heel and slipped through the trees disappearing in the shadows, hearing his broken yell as he called her a whore. Her eyes flooded with tears too proud to fall as her legs carried her in a direction she didn't know. A low growl greeted her as she stepped into a backyard seeing an older woman taking her dog out.

"You okay, hun?" the woman asked shushing her dog whose hackles were raised. Such a young thing shouldn't be out so late looking so sad.

The first tear fell and the others were quick to follow. "I'm sorry," Veronica whimpered, her chin quivering. The flutter in her chest turned to writhing as her flesh pulled itself apart opening like a flower in bloom revealing rows of sharp teeth. "I'm so hungry."