Chapter 2: Lost and Found

The school day was going by just like any other school day. I went to my classes, did my work, and made it through the hours as best as I could, but I couldn't stop thinking about Will the whole time. He had never been one to worry about before. Any time he disappeared, he always resurfaced after a few hours. This time was different. He wasn't at the Byers house this morning, and he never came into school today, and Will never misses a school day. Just thinking about it gave me this strange, eerie feeling. It sent chills down my spine because, as far as anyone knew, he was a missing person. Not even his friends had seen him, and it wasn't like him to just disappear without a word.

Jonathan had been pretty mute since this morning, but I could tell by his finger tapping and obsessive staring at the clock that he was feeling a lot like I was, probably even worse. I was almost just as worried about him as I was Will, but that was obviously a ridiculous thing to admit. We had spent our entire lunch hour sitting in the counselor's office and waiting for Joyce to let us know that she had found something, but the phone call never came. By then, most of the teachers were very aware of what was going on, and they were, for the most part, understanding, so when I asked to be excused for a bathroom break at the beginning of my last class, there were no questions asked.

I felt like I was practically running down the hallway, and I wasn't quite sure why I was hurrying like that. I had felt a little lightheaded, but none of that was anything to rush about. I was mainly just searching for somewhere to hide out and take a second to process what was going on. As I passed through the hallway and finally made it into the closest bathroom, I flung the door open to see the most unexpected sight. Nancy Wheeler, the older sister of Will's best friend, was getting very hot and heavy with the one and only Steve Harrington, also known as Hawkins High's heart throb and definitely not someone I had ever expected Nancy to hook up with.

"Daisy," she gasped as soon as she saw me, pulling away from Steve so fast that I swore she had to have whiplash from it. "What are you doing here?"

"Using the bathroom," I replied, looking the two up and down and trying to make a single bit of sense out of it before disappearing into the closest bathroom stall and wishing it would just swallow me whole so I didn't have to deal with that situation ever again.

The two of them started talking to each other as I sat down, but I couldn't make out exactly what they were saying. My head had started pounding, and it felt like the world was starting to spin. I put one hand on the stall wall and used the other to cradle my lulling head, hoping that would ground me a little bit, but it just got worse. As the headache turned into a migraine, I felt myself grow nauseous. I crawled down onto my knees in front of the toilet in case I started to hurl. My hands shook as they moved to cradle around the toilet seat. Soon, my vision was starting to fade. I could feel the blood rushing to my eardrums, and then I lost consciousness.

Waking up felt like snapping your fingers, quick and all at once. It was as if I had just woken up from a nap. That was until I actually looked around though. Once I saw the same dark atmosphere and black sludge, now sprawled all over the bathroom walls like vines on a brick building, I knew I was in the middle of a dream. Just like in the first nightmare, everything was silent. I looked around for the terrifying monster I had seen last time, but I saw nothing. The world felt so still, or maybe frozen was a better word for it, because there was nothing still and calm about this place.

I inched open the bathroom stall, peering out at the rest of the room and meeting my own eyes in the reflection of the mirrors on the other end of the room. I stared for a second, trying to find something that was out of place, but it was impossible. I looked just like I did in the real world, ten boney fingers and two blue eyes. The only thing different was the world around me, and what a terrifying world it was. The vines felt like they were pulsating, like they were a part of something bigger, but I couldn't explain why. Everything just felt connected somehow.

As I continued inching my way through this terrifying world that my mind had made up, I started to feel a presence from behind me. It wasn't a monster though. The vibrations were much different. I could still feel the panic in the air, but it wasn't mine this time. This time, I felt calm knowing that none of this was real, knowing that I was going to wake up and be completely fine in the end. A hand brushed the back of my shoulder, cold and clammy, and when I turned around, I saw him. Will. He was pale and scared. He opened his mouth to say something, but I couldn't hear him. I shook my head and pointed at my ears, to which he seemed to understand. Instead, he grabbed my hand, pulling me towards the mirrors as I watched him turn and grab a Sharpie from my backpack.

He stared into my eyes as if he were pleading for me to do something, but all I could do was grab his hand again and hope that that was enough. In response, he pulled the lid off the Sharpie and started writing on the mirror. Slowly, I watched him write each letter until I could read the word 'help'. My eyes got wide when I looked back over at him. I had to keep reminding myself that this was just a dream, and my mind just wanted to send me into a panic. Will seemed to notice my doubt, because he turned the mirror and started writing the word 'stuck'. I shook my head. No, I had to be making this up. Will was just hiding out somewhere. He wasn't actually in my nightmares. That stuff's not real. 'Monster' he then wrote underneath the other words, and I started to question whether or not this was actually a dream. I reached out to grab the Sharpie from him, but as soon as my hand brushed his, my body felt hot, and everything turned white in the blink of an eye. The last thing I saw were his eyes, and they were full of so much fear that it made my blood turn cold.

"I think she's waking up," I heard a voice mumble, but my brain was too foggy to match it to anyone. "Daisy?"

"Daisy, are you awake," said another voice.

"Daisy," the voices repeated over and over again. "Daisy, Daisy, Daisy…"

Honestly, it made me want to change my name. My head was pounding, and I needed a second to process what I had just seen, but here were these people chanting my name like it was some spell that would throw me back into consciousness. I mean, technically I was conscious, but I'm about ninety nine percent sure repeating my name over and over wasn't the reason why. I couldn't be irritated though, not when I opened my eyes and saw who was crouching by my side in the nurse's office, my uncle right behind him.

"Jonathan," I tried to say, but my voice came out so weak and dry that even I couldn't understand what I had just said.

"Hey," he replied with a smile, and I was suddenly very aware of his how his fingers were intertwined with mine. "You passed out in the bathroom," he said.

I shook my head. "I know."

"Yeah, you gave us quite the scare, kid," my uncle said, popping his head down so I could see him better. "The nurse called me and said you passed out and hit your head on the toilet. I didn't know what to think."

He grinned at me, and I couldn't help but chuckle at how he had worded it. "Sorry, Uncle Jack."

"You'll be sorry at the doctor's office tomorrow," he replied. "I'm making you an appointment bright and early. You shouldn't be passing out like that out of the blue. We gotta make sure there's nothing going on."

"Thanks, but—"

"No buts," he interrupted. "You're going to see the doctor."

I wanted to argue with him even more. I knew there was nothing wrong with me. Whatever was going on in my head couldn't be fixed with medicine, or if it could, I wasn't sure I wanted it to if it was my only connection to Will. That reminded me. "Can I have a second to talk to Jonathan," I asked my uncle, who hesitated for a second but ended up nodding and leaving the room.

"What's wrong," Jonathan asked once my uncle was out of earshot.

I let out a heavy sigh as I attempted to prop myself up on the hard mattress, but my vision was still a little blurry, causing my hand to slip off the edge and send me falling sideways. Luckily, Jonathan had caught my arm and saved me from the concussion I would've given myself. "I'm fine," I said, a little curter than I was meaning to be.

"You don't seem fine."

"There's a lot bigger things to worry about right now than me," I replied.

"Daisy, that doesn't—"

"I saw something," I said, cutting him off.

He furrowed his brows at me, somehow looking both confused and concerned at the same time. "What do you mean you saw something?"

I grabbed his hand again, hoping it'd assure him I wasn't crazy. "I saw Will," I said.

"What," he asked, flabbergasted. "Where?"

"I don't know how to explain it. I saw him, but he wasn't here. It's like he was in a whole different world. He told me he was stuck, and there were monsters and these weird black tentacle vine things all over the place. I—I had a nightmare last night about one of the monsters. It was like this big, terrifying black thing with sharp nails and it—it didn't have a face or anything. I think Will's trapped there with it."

When I finished talking, he just looked at me and blinked a couple times. I could tell he didn't believe me, and part of me understood why. It was a crazy story, and I realized I sounded insane telling it, but I had never lied to him before. "You think Will is trapped in another world? And there's a monster after him?"

"You don't believe me, do you?"

He hesitated to answer, pondering what he could say without offending me. "I think," he started, "that you should get some rest."

I groaned and snatched my hand away from his. "Jonathan, I have never lied to you before. Why do you think I'd lie about this?"

"I don't think you're lying. I think you passed out for whatever reason, and you hit your head, and you saw things that weren't there."

"You are so—" I started to let out my anger but was interrupted by two loud knocks at the door.

The school nurse came in with a big smile on her face, completely oblivious to the tension in the room. "Knock, knock," she sang out. "I just wanted to see how you were feeling. Your uncle seems pretty eager to get out of here."

I looked away from Jonathan and put on my best, yet completely fake, smile. "I'm feeling a lot better."

"Wonderful," she beamed. "Are you okay to stand up?"

I nodded, wobbling a little as I pushed myself up from the cot I was on. My head was still a little bit woozy, but I was able to make it up onto my feet. My body felt as light as a feather, but I'm sure that's normal after fainting in the middle of your high school bathroom. When I reached for the wall to steady myself, I felt Jonathan grab my arm, to which I quickly pulled away from as soon as I was able to see straight. The nurse kept smiling at the two of us, gushing as he helped me out the door with his hand hovering behind my lower back.

Uncle Jack was waiting for us with a twinkle in his eye as he looked between the two of us. "Ready to go, kid," he asked me, slinging my backpack over his shoulder before I could even say anything. "The car's all warmed up for you."

When I went to follow him out the door, I was stopped by a certain someone grabbing my wrist before I could. "Wait," Jonathan said. "Do you want to come over later? My mom and I are working on some posters, and it'd really help to have a third person."

My heart skipped a beat, but it wasn't because of any butterflies in my stomach. Something about what he had asked me had just made the reality of everything crash down around me. His little brother was missing, and whether I was right about where he was or not, that didn't change anything. I looked down at how gently he has holding my wrist, realizing that I was quite literally his only friend and the only person he had to be there for him through this. I looked back up and nodded. "Yeah," was all I said, and he let me go, holding on to that promise for the rest of the day.

The last three hours of my life that weren't spent sleeping were spent thinking about Will and what I had seen when I fainted. I kept thinking about how real everything had felt and how I swore I had even felt Will's hand brushing against mine. The fear he had had in his eyes stayed with me, and I was so sure that I was seeing something in that moment, but after thinking about what Jonathan had said to me, maybe I was wrong. Maybe I was hallucinating the whole thing. I mean, that wasn't too farfetched of an idea. Ever since I was a kid, I had struggled with incredibly lucid dreams, nightmares, hallucinations, whatever you want to call them. It was like two parts of my mind were fighting against each other. One side was screaming at me to just open my eyes and start figuring out what was going on, and the other knew that this was the real world. There were big, scary monsters chasing anyone, and no tentacles ready to wrap themselves around my throat.

I also couldn't help but feel incredibly selfish. Will was missing, and I was spending my time thinking about some dream I had had about him instead of going out and helping search for him. That's not to even mention how awful I felt about snubbing Jonathan earlier when all he was doing was looking after me. We were currently sorting through the thousands of pictures he had taken of Will through the years. He had always been a talented photographer, but seeing it all spread out in front of me just made me even more proud of him. On the other hand, seeing Will's smiling face in each photo also brought about an emotional aura not only from me, but from Joyce and Jonathan too. The fact that the three of us were having to compile these photos and sift through them was devastating. Memories were some of the best things to look back on, but not when they're on a missing person poster.

The three of us were interrupted by the sound of the kitchen phone ringing. Naturally, Joyce sprung up the second it made a noise, leaving Jonathan and I to ourselves for a moment. I looked over at him and saw that he had been staring at an old photograph that he had taken just a few years ago, one showing Will in the Halloween costume that Joyce had made for him and was so proud of that he wore for weeks. I put my hand on his knee to comfort him as best as I could. "We're going to find him," I said as courageously as I could.

"I just," he started to say, but trailed off for a second to fight the tears that were starting to come from his eyes, "I should've been there for him."

"Jonathan, this isn't your fault," I reassured him, and I had meant every word of it. In no way was Will's disappearance his fault at all. "I told you we're going to find him, and I meant it, even if—"

"Who is this," Joyce suddenly shouted from the kitchen, breaking the two of us out of our conversation. Jonathan stood up, now focusing completely on his mom, who was now starting to cry. "Will," she exclaimed. "Will?!" Now I was standing, grabbing the back of Jonathan's shirt as if that was going to squeeze the answers out of her. Joyce's demeaner suddenly changed though, and she started to panic. The tone of her voice shifted, and she was now screaming. "What have you done with my baby," she shouted into the phone. "What have you done?!" She was then cut off by a shriek so loud that I swore I could've heard it from outside. In that same moment, the phone line made a pop noise, and Joyce dropped it from her hand, but Jonathan was already running to the phone.

"Who is this," he repeated, his voice shaking. "Who is this?!" But the phone line had already died.

Joyce fell to the floor, already sobbing as I stayed standing in the living room, frozen in the same spot. My mind was racing at a million miles an hour, but grasping a single thought in that moment seemed impossible. I had absolutely no idea what was going on, but there's no way it was good.