Jonathan and I took turns trying to shoot the gun he had brought with him to the clearing in the woods. Neither of us were particularly good: all I had managed to hit was one of the tree stumps the cans were sitting on, and Jonathan hadn't managed to hit any shots at all by the time Nancy joined us. She, however, hit a can on the first try.

Despite her dating Steve, on whom I might have had a tiny crush although I would never actually admit it, I really liked her. She was smart, friendly, and had gone out of her way a few times since everything had gone down to support Jonathan and I.

"Impressive, Wheeler," I smiled widely, earning a smile back from the brunette. Jonathan and Nancy had decided to switch weapons. She had brought a baseball bat with her, but since she was the only one who could properly shoot the gun, it was best if she handled it. I had brought a large kitchen knife with me, which I had wrapped in a hand towel for safety until we set out for the woods.

We split up, at least that was the idea, but when I looked behind me I saw Jonathan and Nancy still walk together. It looked as if they had been getting closer lately, and I smiled to myself. It was nice seeing Jonathan make friends. The smile faded from my face as it made me think of my own friends. At least, whom I had assumed were my friends. The cheerleading squad wasn't exactly a warm bath, but they were mostly fun to hang around and definitely threw good parties. None of that shit mattered though, not really. Not when something bad happened, like your brother going missing, and not one of them had bothered to come by or even call. So much for friends.

I walked and walked, my fingers tightly gripping the handle of the knife, until it was well past sundown. I came to a halt when I noticed something was off. I looked around and slowly realized it was quiet in this part of the woods. A nobody-else-there kind of quiet. I had lost Jonathan and Nancy somewhere along the way, straying too far away from them, and I had been too deep in thought to notice.

"Shit," I mumbled under my breath as I fished into the pocket of my jacket and pulled out a flashlight. I turned it on and shine it around, seeking any hint of movement from one of the others.

"Jonathan! Nancy!" I called out and I awaited their reply for a few seconds, but nothing came.

"Great," I sighed as I slowly continued to walk. There was no point in turning back now—I hadn't found anything on the way here and if I went back, I would only lose time to cover more ground. Taking my chances to continue by myself, I kept walking, careful not to step into any pits in the ground.

I stopped walking when an all too familiar feeling washed over me, making my skin break out in goosebumps. The static feeling was back, but it was different somehow. Whenever I had felt it, when Will was close by, it was exactly the same kind of sensation: a tingling sensation in my skin. Now, however, it was like the static was coming from an outside source, something directly in front of me. I couldn't see anything in the darkness, not even with the flashlight I was holding, but I knew something was ahead that was connected to Will somehow. I slowly stepped forward, the feeling growing slightly stronger.

Every part of my body yearned for me to turn back, clearly sensing danger and not wanting to be anywhere near it. Which was exactly why I kept pushing onwards, letting my senses guide the way as I felt like my body was slowly being charged with the strange energy. This must be it, this had to be what was going on with Will.

I came to a halt in front of a big tree, my skin practically buzzing with electricity at this point. There was a hole in the trunk at the bottom, big enough to crawl through, with clumps and strips of goo and slime dangling from the edges.

'Like the wall in the living room,' I thought to myself, recalling the moment mom and I had finally been able to see Will, sort of. This had to be it, how to get to him. With the knife in one hand and the torch in the other, I dropped to my knees and started crawling, the wet matter caressing my cheek and raking through my hair as I crawled through what seemed to be a tunnel going through the tree. Logically and physically it didn't make any sense, but logic and physics had stopped mattering to me by now.

On the other side of the tunnel, it was still dark. I got to my feet and found myself back in the forest, except it was different somehow. The air was thicker, fouler, and dust swirled around me, dancing in the beam of the flashlight. The light started flickering and I lightly tapped it against my arm.

"Shit," I whispered as I watched the torch slowly die, before it completely went out. "Great," I sighed before stuffing it back into the pocket of my jacket. At least I had one of my hands free now. I started walking again, knife raised just in case whatever had been after Will the other day decided to make an appearance. The static feeling that had grown stronger and stronger earlier had somehow changed when I entered this…alternate reality. It was still present, but it was like I was bathing in it now, less intense and more of a dormant state.

Despite the darkness, I somewhat recognized the woods around me. I had wandered around them for so long in the past couple of days, I could probably find my way home through the dark.

"Home…" I mumbled softly, turning my head in the direction of which my house should be. Will had been at home when mom and I saw him. He had even said that where he was, was like home. The phone calls, the lights. It was the best place to start looking for him.

I started walking, hyper aware of my surroundings. There was a big chance that whatever Will had been hiding from, whatever had scared him so badly the other day, was going to be close by, and the closer I got to home, the bigger the chance I would run into it. All I had to go on was mom's and Nancy's descriptions, as well as the blurry picture Jonathan had taken. Tall, long arms and legs, no face. It sounded terrifying, like something straight from a horror movie. At least it would be easy to spot, right?

I had to force myself not to cough as I walked through the woods and got closer to my house. I suspected the dust in the air was making it harder to breathe, whatever it was. I tried not to think too much about what kinds of toxic fumes I was inhaling with each breath. It would be something I'd have to deal with whenever I found Will and brought him back home.

The house was dark and abandoned, at least by the looks of it. It already wasn't exactly a beautiful grand mansion, but here it looked like an absolute shithole, covered in weird plants and more of that slime. I slowly stepped onto the porch, trying to make as little sound as possible. There was a chance that something was hiding inside the house, and I had to be prepared just in case. I tightened my grip on the knife and pushed open the front door, which had been left slightly ajar. The house looked familiar when I stepped inside, for obvious reasons, but it felt the exact opposite. Everything about it was wrong, and every inch of my body was screaming at me to turn around and leave. It felt cursed, somehow.

I looked around, trying to find any signs of life. I didn't know what I would do if I didn't find Will here. The first place I searched was his bedroom, but it was abandoned. I even checked in the closet and under his bed, but there was not even a trace of my brother. I checked Jonathan's room, mom's room and my room as well, just to be safe. Standing in this dark version of my own room felt like some sort of a fever dream, and I couldn't stand to be in there for longer than necessary, to rule out Will's presence.

I ended up back in the living room and I took a deep breath, feeling my stomach tighten with dread. If he wasn't here, it didn't have to mean he had been taken by that thing. He could still be hiding somewhere else. Maybe he was in Castle Byers, like that time I had gone out there and heard his voice. He must have been there at that time, right? Maybe he had gone back.

Not ready to leave the house just yet, I looked around the living room once more. There was a gnawing feeling inside me that prevented me from leaving, no matter how much I wanted to get out of this cursed place. I swallowed in an attempt to comfort my dry throat, before speaking softly.

"Will?" I said in a hushed tone. The chance of attracting anything malicious was big, too big for comfort, but I had to make sure Will wasn't hiding anywhere I couldn't find him. "Will, are you h-"

Something moved behind me and I quickly whirled around, lifting the knife instinctively, ready to fight whatever monster was going to reveal itself. But there was no monster. The cabinet that was set against one of the walls—the very same cabinet my mom had told me she first made contact in with Will—slowly creaked open, and my eyes fell upon that bright red body warmer first, then Will's big, piercing eyes.

"L-Lori?" Will's soft voice sounded as he emerged from the cabinet. The knife I had been holding clattered on the ground. I closed the distance between us in just a few big strides and I dropped to my knees in front of my brother, wrapping my arms around him so tight that I could hear his soft voice squeak a little.

"Oh my god, Will," I whispered, tears welling up in my eyes and I felt Will tremble as he hugged me back just as tight.

"H-How did you find me? How did you get here?" Will asked, his voice trembling but audibly relieved.

"It doesn't matter, I'm here now," I said, pulling back and putting my hands on his cheeks, looking his face over carefully. He looked gaunt and weak. He most likely hadn't eaten or drunk anything in days and it was honestly surprising he was still able to stand upright. "Are you hurt anywhere?" I asked as I continued to look him over. He shook his head, frazzled, but he still managed to smile at me.

"Do you know how to get home?" he asked, clear from his voice that he wanted to go back to our mom, to Jonathan, to our real house more than anything else. I smiled back at him and nodded as I ran my hand over his cheek. He was real, he was relatively in good condition, and most important, he was with me now, which meant I could bring him home and put an end to all of this.

"There was some kind of doorway or…portal in the woods. I think I know how to find it again, come on," I said as I got to my feet and picked up the knife again. I couldn't get out of this place fast enough. Despite having found will and the utter relief surging through my body, we still weren't out of harm's way yet.

"W-Wait," Will hesitated before stepping outside of the house. "Did you see it? The monster? Is it nearby?" he asked, and I turned to look at him from the porch steps.

"I don't know where it is, but it isn't here right now, right? So let's get out of here before it gets back," I said with an encouraging smile and I held my hand out to him. "Come on, let's go home."

I wanted to talk to Will, to ask about his time here, to make sure he was actually doing okay mentally as well, but we walked in silence as we tried to find our way through the woods. The only thing I could hear was the sound of our footsteps and labored breathing. It was too dangerous to risk attracting the monster, so my first priority was to find that tree and crawl through that hole so that we could go back home.

"W-Wait," Will whispered, and both of us stopped walking, leaving the woods around us in utter silence. I held my breath, looking around me before looking down at Will. He was looking at something behind me, frozen in place, taking shallow breaths. I heard it then, a soft clicking noise, slowly getting closer with each passing second. I slowly turned around, trying to find the source of the sound, but I couldn't see anything.

"It's coming," Will whispered, grabbing onto the back of my jacket and clutching it in his fist.

"Stay behind me," I whispered back, moving my arm back to shield him protectively, holding up the knife in front of me in my other hand. That's when I saw it: tall and otherworldly, it's skin gray and sickeningly inhuman, limbs much too long to be a human's. It slowly came into view as it approached us with steady, careful steps. It was then that I realized it wasn't just walking towards us. It was hunting.

"Will…run," I whispered so softly that I hoped only Will would hear it. The next second, we were running through the woods, back into the direction of our house. I made sure Will was in front of me at all times, not risking that beast to have a clear path towards him. I could hear the monster following us in pursuit, and I wasn't sure if it was truly struggling to keep up or if it was simply toying around with us. I feared the latter, because the further we ran, the gradually closer it got. My heart jumped a little when I spotted our house coming into view in the distance. It wasn't going to be a completely safe spot, but it would give us the opportunity to hide and maybe get an advantage point over the monster.

"Get inside!" I yelled, whispering completely useless at this point. Will ran up the porch and dashed inside, and I followed a few paces behind him. I was about to jump up onto the porch when something grabbed my shoulder and yanked me back. I yelled in pain, almost certain that my shoulder had been dislocated. Something bit my arm and I cried out, dropping the knife onto the floor. My arm was released again and I instinctively grabbed my hurt arm with the other, whirling around to see the monster towering over me.

"Lori!" I heard will yell behind me, but before I could answer him, the monster lunged forward, its head opening up in what I could only describe as a huge flesh eating flower, with rows of teeth and a putrid smell coming from its core. It knocked me back, teeth sinking into my legs, but before I could scream or fight back, my head collided with the steps of the porch, and everything around me went black.

Crying. I heard crying. My head felt like it was split in two. My arm burned, a worse kind of pain than I had ever felt before.

"What about Lori, is she-"

"She is breathing Joyce, she will be okay. I got her, you take Will."

I tried to open my eyes but my body wouldn't listen to me. I was being lifted off the ground, one arm under my legs and the other supporting my back.

"Mom," I whispered, barely able to make any noise at all, but I heard my mom's voice whimper in reply. I wanted to speak again, ask whether Will was okay, but I felt myself slipping into unconsciousness again.

"I got you, kid," I heard someone—the person who was holding me—say, and I realized it was Hopper. Was I dreaming? Was I dead? There was no way my mom and Hopper were here, how would they even know where to find us in the first place, and how—

Silence. Emptiness. Black.

I hated the smell of hospitals. I'm sure everyone did, but there was a distinct smell that came with being in hospital, as a patient. Maybe it was something in the IV drip. Thankfully, I was getting out today. Five excruciatingly long weeks, I had been in that hospital room. I couldn't wait to be back home again.

"You ready to go, baby?" mom asked me as she took my coat off the coat rack by the entrance of the room. I got up from the hospital bed, a little shaky but steady enough.

"Yeah, I'm ready," I smiled.

"Good," she smiled in return. "Come on, Jonathan and Will are getting the car out front," she said as she walked over to me and put her hand on my back, ushering me out of the room that I hopefully would never had to return back to. My arm was still bandaged, albeit much less heavily than it had at first. My headaches had become less painful, but they weren't completely gone yet. Despite the monster having grabbed my legs, they had gotten surprisingly few bite marks on them.

"Come on, guys," Will grinned at mom and me when we exited the double doors of the hospital entrance. He was standing by the car, hanging on the opened door and clearly excited to be going home. "I'm hungry, and I want to check out the presents!"

"No presents until Christmas Day, Will, we have talked about this," mom said as she walked me to the car, but I could hear in her voice that we would definitely be opening our presents after our dinner tonight. Just like every year, we would most likely be getting our way in opening them on Christmas Eve.

"Are you okay?" Will asked me as we drove home, the both of us in the back seat. I looked over at him and smiled. He was already looking so much better than when I had found him in the Upside Down—both of us did. His cheeks were rosy again and life had returned to his eyes.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I'm happy to be going home again," I said as I reached over and held my hand out. He took it and I gave a soft squeeze, the smile on his face widening a little bit. I couldn't explain it, but somehow the experience in the Upside Down had brought us closer together. Something about being stuck down there, captured by the Demogorgon, inhaling the air in that environment—it was something that couldn't be explained or understood without having gone through it yourself. And thankfully, neither of us would have to go through the aftermath alone. We had each other, after all.

Dinner at home was the best meal I had had since waking up. Yes, the mashed potatoes were runny, and the chicken was absolutely over cooked, but the sound of my brothers' and mom's voices, their laughter, was enough to sweeten the entire evening. I had made mom buy presents for Will and Jonathan on my behalf—a wall mounted cassette rack for Jonathan for in his room and the latest volume of X-Men for Will, as well as a binder with plastic sleeves in which he could keep the comics he wanted to bring out to Castle Byers. In turn, I had made Jonathan buy my gift for mom—a new pair of white sneakers, since the ones she always wore to work were so run down by now that the soles pretty much came off. I wouldn't say it was a Christmas like any other, but it was as good as. Maybe, in a way, a little bit better. I felt more connected and closer to my family than I ever had, to each of them in a different way.

"Are you okay, sweetie?" mom asked me, and I realized I had been staring off into space. Will and Jonathan were both fussing over Will's new Atari, and mom had just finished cleaning up the kitchen when she had come to sit next to me.

"Huh? Oh, yeah," I quickly smiled at her. "Yeah, I'm okay."

And I meant it. Things would, finally, be going back to normal now.

A/N — Aaand that wraps up season one! Like I mentioned in a previous author's note, from here on out, things will get a little slower paced since we will be getting to the real nitty gritty of this fic.

Thank you to the people who reviewed, I really appreciate it! Someone mentioned that they would have preferred the story to be in third person, and I understand that everyone has their own preferences! I decided to write this in the first person and I hope you'll still be able to enjoy this story all the same :). For now, thank you for reading, and please look out for the new chapter!