Chapter One: Alone

"May the Lord bless you and watch over you. May he look kindly upon your soul, and grant you peace."

Elizabeth stared blankly at the coffin as it was slowly lowered into the ground, her arms crossed tightly across her chest and tears in her eyes that hadn't left since the day she heard the news. Her mother was dead, and she would never see her again.

Music began to play as the pastor finished his speech, a choir of untrained voices from the local church singing a rendition of Amazing Grace. She felt a hand touch her shoulder, but she didn't look away from the coffin. She just couldn't.

"Elizabeth," her father said. "It's time to go inside."

Elizabeth didn't move. The coffin had lowered far enough that she couldn't see it anymore, but her feet remained planted in the same spot directly in front of the hole in the ground. She heard her father say her name again, but still she ignored him. He sighed and stepped in front of her, breaking her staring contest with the hole as he kneeled down to be eye level with her. His eyes were red-rimmed and glossy, his jaw tight with sadness and frustration. "I know this is hard for you, Lizzie. It's hard for me too. But we have to go."

"Why?" she asked, her voice quiet and shaky.

"Because everyone is going to pay their respects. We'll talk about your mom and how much everybody loved her, and —"

"Why did Mom die?"

David stopped talking, realizing she was asking for a different explanation than he thought. "I don't… Sometimes bad things just happen, honey. I know it doesn't seem fair, and I know it's sad, but we have to move on anyway. Do you understand?"

Elizabeth stared at her father a moment longer before turning her gaze downward, shaking her head. "Maybe when you're older," he sighed, patting her on the head. "I'm going to move inside. I'll, uh… I'll give you a few minutes."

David stood and walked away, leaving his daughter behind at the grave site. She waited until he was out of sight before letting the tears fall. She never cried in front of her dad, really. Her mom had always been the one to comfort her when she was sad, or hurt. Never her dad. Just because her mom wasn't here didn't mean she wanted that to change.

He had been right about one thing. This wasn't fair. She was only 12, she was supposed to have her mom for a long time. She was supposed to start middle school in a few weeks, and her mom wouldn't be there to see it. She wouldn't be there when she started high school. When she went to homecoming, prom, graduation, college. Her first boyfriend, getting married, having kids of her own. Her mom wouldn't be there for any of it. She would have to do all of it alone.

"Are you okay?"

Elizabeth started wiping her face quickly. She knew nobody cared that she was crying, a lot of people had been, but it still felt wrong to do it without her mom there to comfort her. When she was satisfied no tears were left, she turned to face the voice and sighed with relief when she saw it was just one of her friends, Steve. "I'm okay."

Steve stepped closer, looking at the grave instead of her. He let silence stand between the two of them for a while, fiddling awkwardly with his fingers. He never knew anybody who died before, so he wasn't really sure what to say. "I liked your mom a lot," he settled for.

"Me too," Elizabeth whispered.

"I'm sorry she's gone."

"Not your fault."

Steve bit his lip. Well, he didn't really know what to do now. He didn't like not knowing what to do around Lizzie. They had grown up together and had always been close, so he had never felt this awkward around her. He had never worried about saying or doing the wrong thing with her. He turned to look at her, and saw another tear had slipped down her cheek. Almost on instinct, he reached out and wiped it away. She flinched slightly at his touch, which she had never done before. "Sorry," he mumbled again, taking a small step away from her to give her space.

"Where are your parents?" she asked. She didn't really care, but she could tell she had made Steve feel bad and she wanted to break the awkward silence.

"Inside, I think. We're supposed to be in there too, but I saw you standing here and, well… I just didn't want you to be alone."

Elizabeth looked at Steve and forced a small smile onto her face. "Thanks, Steve."

Steve offered her a half-smile of his own. "Any time, Lizzie."

After another minute or two, Elizabeth took a deep breath before speaking again. "You should go inside. I know you didn't want me to be alone, but that's kind of all I want right now."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'll be okay. I just want to say goodbye by myself. I'll talk to you later."

Steve nodded slowly. He really didn't want to leave her out here by herself, but he also didn't think it was right to argue with her right now. Instead, he moved forward and wrapped his arms around her. He knew hugs always made her feel better before.

In a move that broke his little heart, Elizabeth only stiffened instead of returning the hug. She waited patiently for him to let go before clearing her throat and looking away, back towards her mom's grave.

"I'll go now," Steve muttered, not even sure she was listening anymore. "Talk later?"

Elizabeth said nothing when he turned and walked away, and he felt his shoulders slump in defeat. He had never been unable to cheer her up before. Then again, he had no idea what it felt like to lose somebody you loved as much as Lizzie loved her mom. He just hoped she felt better soon. He wanted everything to go back to normal so they could be friends again.

—

Elizabeth's head shot up from her desk as the bell rang loudly, waking her rather abruptly from her class time nap. Had it really been an hour already? She felt like she had only been asleep for 5 minutes.

The sight of kids laughing and pointing at her as they passed her desk on their way out of the classroom caused her to rub her hand over her cheek, groaning when she felt the dried drool there. She used the neck of her shirt to clear her face as she stood, snatching her backpack from the ground and shuffling out of the room.

The halls were as crowded as always. Elizabeth slipped her way between the gossiping girl and chattering boys, her shoulders tight as she made herself as small as possible to avoid being seen. She had become pretty good at becoming invisible over the last couple years of high school, and that was how she wanted to keep it.

"Hey Parker! You have something on your face."

Well, almost invisible.

Elizabeth ran the back of her hand across her chin again, annoyed when she realized she hadn't gotten all the drool off before making it to the hallway. Tommy laughed as she did, nudging his girlfriend and pointing.

"Maybe close your mouth next time?" Carol suggested sarcastically. "I'm surprised you didn't flood the whole classroom with all your drool."

Elizabeth glared at the pair before rolling her eyes and continuing on her path to the locker. She didn't really take anything they said personally. Tommy and Carol were jerks to everybody. She could hear them pretending to snore behind her and giggling in between the mocking sounds. Assholes.

With her mind distracted by how much she loathed the cackling couple behind her, she didn't realize where she was walking until she bumped straight into a kid walking towards her. "Watch where you're going!"

"Sorry," she mumbled half-heartedly, moving to get out of his way and hoping he would just leave her alone. She looked up from her feet to avoid running into anyone or anything else, and only then did she see who she had run into.

Steve looked down at her for only a second, the annoyance on his face dissolving quickly into remorse. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but one glance at Tommy and Carol staring at him from a few feet away was enough to make him close it.

Elizabeth followed Steve's gaze back over her shoulder, scoffing at the sight of the couple staring at her with disdain. Without another word, she stepped around Steve and continued her trek to her locker. She heard more laughter from behind her, and some off-hand comment from Carol about "Ew, I can't believe she actually touched you." Elizabeth chose to ignore it.

She hadn't spoken to Steve in years. After her mom died, she found it difficult to be friends with anyone. He had tried coming over to her house a few times in the weeks after it happened, but once school started it had all been different. It only took one "Why don't you just leave me alone, Steve?" for him to get the hint and finally move on. Once high school started and he became more and more popular, making more and more friends, it seemed to be easier for him to forget she existed.

Elizabeth tore open her locker, shoving her chemistry textbook inside before slamming it closed. She shouldn't be upset. It was her own fault. She had pulled away from everybody after her mom died, even her dad. She was the one who wanted to be alone. Now she was.

—

Elizabeth sat in her car, letting it idle in front of her house. She was still shaken from her run-in with Steve earlier in the day, and she didn't want to go inside and face her dad just yet. She knew he would be leaving for work soon, so any small amount of time she could sit out here instead of in there was less time she had to interact with him.

Her dad was a bartender at the local pub. Not the most glamorous gig, but it was enough to pay the bills. Most of the time. They had lived off of her moms life insurance for a while, but that money was all but gone these days, meaning David worked pretty much constantly. It worked for Elizabeth; less time they had to sit awkwardly in the same house with nothing to say to each other.

Her dad wasn't a bad guy by any means, but he had reacted to his wife's death in much the same way his daughter had. He came home from his shift drunk most nights, unable to refuse the alcohol when it sat right in front of him, and slept through most of the day. He provided well enough, but their relationship was basically non-existent.

Deciding after a few minutes that she didn't want to ask for extra gas money just for letting her A/C run in the driveway, Elizabeth finally shut the car off and made her way inside the house. She could immediately smell her fathers lit cigarette from the living room, and heard the laugh track from whatever show was playing on the television.

"Lizzie?"

"It's me," she called out, shrugging her jacket off to hang on the hook.

Her dad grunted in response and she took that as the end of the conversation. She made her way to the kitchen, grabbing a cup out of the cabinet and pouring herself some water before moving to her bedroom. She closed the door behind herself and moved immediately to the small record player on her desk, setting the cup down to search through her box of vinyls. If there was one good thing she got from her father, it was his taste in music.

The red and blue cover of her favorite album caught her eye, and she picked it up out of the bunch. Infinity, Journey's 1978 album with arguably their best songs to date. Pulling the record carefully out of its case, Elizabeth placed it on the player before moving the needle over the sixth track and let it play.

Gentle guitar filled her room, and she let herself smile for the first time all day as she listened for the drums to kick in just before the vocals.

"Winter is here again, oh Lord," she sang quietly to herself as she pulled her homework out of her bag and spread it out on her desk. "Haven't been home in a year or more. I hope she holds on a little longer."

Elizabeth was tapping her pencil to the beat against her desk, considering the math equations in front of her when she heard a knock on the door. She turned the volume down as she said, "Come in."

David peeked his head in the doorway, a brief smile flashing across his face at her music choice. "Wheel In The Sky, huh?"

Elizabeth only nodded in answer, leaning back in her chair. "What's up?"

Her dad pushed the door open further, taking another step into her room. "Just wondering if you got started on those college applications yet?"

Elizabeth rolled her eyes with a huff, turning back to her homework. "Dad, we already talked about this."

"And now we're talking about it again."

"There's no point," she insisted, her grip tightening on her pencil. "We both know that even if I could afford to go to college, there would be no point with my shitty grades."

"If you put in a little effort, you could raise your grades significantly by the end of the year. And you have a whole year after this to improve."

Elizabeth shoved her hands pointedly towards the homework in front of her, as if to say that was exactly what she was doing.

"And there are loans we can take out to afford it."

"I don't wanna talk about this" Elizabeth insisted. "My mind is made up."

"It isn't just your decision," her dad insisted. "We have to talk about this, Lizzie."

"No, we don't."

"Elizabeth —"

"Since when are you interested in being a dad anyway?" Elizabeth stood from her chair, her entire body tense as she faced her father. "You never asked me about school until this year. What, are you just that desperate to get rid of me that you're trying to force me off to college? You really wanna take out a loan just to get me out of your house?"

"You know that's not it," he argued, pointing at her. "You're the one who doesn't want to be here. You think I don't know you sit in your car after you come home from school? Or that the reason you offer to do any chores that take you out of the house are just to get away from here? I'm not an idiot, Elizabeth."

"News to me."

"Elizabeth!" he shouted. "I am your father, and you will not talk to me that way."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, finished with this line of questioning. She liked her dad better when he ignored her, like everyone else ignored her.

"Where are you going, young lady?"

"Out!" she yelled over her shoulder, already snatching her jacket back from the hook by the front door.

"I am not done talking to you!"

"Yeah, well I'm done talking to you."

She could hear him still yelling, but she was done listening. The front door slammed behind her as she jumped down the short few steps leading to their driveway, jogging to her car and ripping the door open before dropping into the seat and shoving the keys into the ignition. Her father appeared on the front porch as she threw the car into reverse, speeding away from the house.

She didn't even know where she was going, but she knew she didn't want to be there anymore. Anywhere else was better than here.

At least, that's what she thought at the time.

—

Elizabeth was pretty sure she had circled the same couple streets at least a dozen times before she finally pulled the car off to the side of the road. The sun had gone down maybe twenty minutes ago, and in the dark she finally felt okay enough to just sit and wallow in her car. She rested her head against the steering wheel, staring at her shoes on the floorboard.

Her dad must have gone to work at least an hour ago at this point, meaning he was probably already tipsy. She could go home and not have to deal with him, but she just didn't want to be in that house any more. She closed her eyes, her fingers balling into fists in her lap as she childishly tried to wish herself to be anywhere in the world except Hawkins, Indiana. Maybe if she wished hard enough, some fairy godmother or other magical creature would appear and whisk her away to some foreign land where nobody would ever find her and she could live a brand new life. Please.

A shrill noise made its way to Elizabeth's ears, and for a second she thought it was just her imagination taunting her. But the same sound a second later had her sitting up straight, looking out her windshield. She hadn't made that up. Somebody was screaming in the woods.

Despite her declining grades, Elizabeth was not dumb. Still, curiosity won out over self preservation and she found herself climbing out of her car to look through the trees. "Hello?" she called out to the darkness, taking a few steps closer to the trees and squinting her eyes. "Who's out there?"

"Help me!"

That sounded like a kid. Elizabeth didn't even think, she just took off into the woods. "I'm coming! Where are you?"

The screaming continued for a few seconds before everything went silent. Elizabeth ran for another minute before coming to a stop, turning in a circle and searching for whatever the source of the cries for help had been. "Hello? Where are you?"

Dead silence. There wasn't even the normal sounds of squirrels rustling in the bushes or birds flitting between tree branches. It was eerie.

Elizabeth took a few more steps, the sounds of her feet across the leaves and twigs the only thing audible. "Is anyone there?" she called out again. Still no response.

She looked back over her shoulder. She couldn't even see the headlights from her car anymore, she had run so far. If she didn't head back now, she might lose her way back. She bit her lip in contemplation. Maybe the screaming had been some sort of prank? But that just didn't feel right. Nobody screamed like that unless their life was in danger, and she was so sure it had been a kid. What little kids were running around in the woods in the dark, screaming bloody murder as a prank?

Elizabeth took a few steps deeper into the woods, deciding to call out one more time before giving up. "If this is a joke, it isn't funny," she yelled into the night. "Do you need help?"

Still nothing. Elizabeth sighed, her hands on her hips. Not sure what else to do, she finally turned back to head towards her car. That was when she saw something, glowing red against the base of a tree. Her eyes narrowed as she examined it, stepping closer. It looked like a hole in the tree? She looked down at the ground, and saw what looked like drag marks.

Every nerve in her body was firing at full speed, her brain screaming at her to run. Instead she stepped around to the back of the tree, expecting to see the other side of the hole and more drag marks leading somewhere. Except there was nothing but plain bark and undisturbed dirt. What the hell?

She moved back to the front of the tree and dropped to her knees, leaning forward to gaze through the hole. She saw nothing except the red glow. Slowly, she reached her arm through the hole and found that she passed right through. The air felt colder on the other side.

Taking one last look behind her, Elizabeth thought about how idiotic this was. She had no idea what was happening. Part of her thought she may have fallen asleep in her car and this was all some crazy dream. This was Hawkins, after all. When did anything like this ever happen in Hawkins?

With a deep breath to steel her resolve, Elizabeth crawled through the hole.