Chapter Two: Wishes Do Come True

Where the hell am I?

Elizabeth turned in a slow circle as she exited the tree, eyes wide. It looked almost exactly like the woods she had just been in, but at the same time very distinctly different. Everything here was dark and twisted, covered in slime and vines. She took a few careful steps forward. She wanted to call out for whoever had been calling for help, but the words stuck in her throat.

Every hair on her body was stood on its end, her fingers and toes tingling as her head screamed at her to turn around and run back out of here as far and as fast as her legs could carry her. But a smaller, less rational part of her brain still told her that there was a kid somewhere in trouble and that she was the only person who could help them.

Being careful to avoid tripping over any roots or vines Elizabeth made her way through the forest, keeping an eye out for anyone that might be around. The fear of speaking stayed lodged in her throat, but she tried her best to stay alert for whoever had cried for help.

When she finally heard a sound, however, it was most definitely not somebody calling for help. No, it was without a doubt, the most heart-achingly, brain-piercingly, terrifying growl she had ever heard. And it was undeniably not human.

Without another thought, Elizabeth took off in a dead sprint away from the sound. Her converse slapped against the dirt, her arms pumping against her sides, her breath coming out in heavy pants as she ran faster than she had ever run in her life. She didn't even care where she was going, as long as it was away.

There were no sounds behind her to indicate that she was being followed, but she still didn't allow herself to slow down. She risked a glance back over her shoulder as she ran, her thoughts filled with dread. She had to get away from there, she just had to. Her life depended on it, if that thing caught up with her —

Elizabeth was transported back to that morning when she smacked into something, though unlike this morning she ate dirt as she tumbled forward, tumbling against the ground in front of her. Whatever she had run into yelped in response, and was quickly backing away from her. She couldn't blame them, she was doing the same. Until she saw that it wasn't some monster she had tackled, but a kid. Was this who had been screaming for help?

The boy was already standing to run from her, so she sat up and held her hands out to show that she wasn't holding anything. "Hey! It's okay, I'm not gonna hurt you!"

The boy looked at her skeptically, fear still apparent in his eyes as he surveyed the area before looking back to her. "Who are you?"

"My name is Elizabeth," she said, touching her chest briefly before holding her hands back out. "I heard somebody screaming for help. Was that you?" The boy nodded. "How did you get here?"

The boy looked around the trees again, his whole body shaking. "We shouldn't talk here. It might find us."

Elizabeth joined him in searching the trees. She wasn't sure what she was looking for, but she knew whatever it was she was just hoping she didn't find it. "Okay," she agreed, standing slowly. She didn't want to scare the boy away. "Okay, we can go somewhere safe. Do you… do you have any ideas?"

The boy seemed to think for a minute before finally looking back to her. Jesus, he couldn't have been more than 12 or 13 years old. "Yeah. We can go to my castle."

"Your… castle?"

The boy hurried forward to grab her hand, seemingly have decided that she wasn't a threat, and started running again with her in tow. Elizabeth followed willingly, occasionally glancing over her shoulder to see if they were being followed.

It wasn't long before the pair was in front of a small wooden fort amidst the forest, with a sign proudly displayed above the door that read "Castle Byers". The boy released Elizabeth's hand, waving her inside as he pushed his way through the fabric covering the entrance. She hesitated only a second before joining him inside.

The boy settled himself on top of a makeshift bed against the back wall, tucking his knees against his chest. He waited patiently for Elizabeth to finish surveying the small fort and sit across from him before he spoke. "How did you get here?"

Elizabeth sat with her back against the wall, not wanting to be surprised with her back to the entrance in case anything tried to come in. She took a second to answer, almost feeling silly for what she was about to say. "I, uh. I found a hole in a tree. How did you get here?"

The boy frowned, his eyes still wide with fear as he whispered. "I was just riding my bike home, but something jumped in front of me. I swerved off the road and crashed my bike. Something chased me. I tried — I tried to get away, but it got me. And it brought me here."

Elizabeth was surprised the boy was still alive, if it had been the same creature she heard earlier it definitely hadn't sounded friendly. She wondered how he got away, but had something else to ask. "What's your name?"

"Will Byers."

"I'm Elizabeth Parker. But you can call me Lizzie," she offered. "I guess it was you I heard screaming in the woods."

Will nodded sadly, before his eyes went wide once again, but not with fear this time. It was like an idea had struck him. "Wait, you said you came here through a tree?"

"Uh-huh."

"Could you find it again? Maybe we could get out."

Elizabeth chewed the inside of her cheek. Honestly? She had no idea. After running into Will and getting turned around running from the monster, she wasn't sure she could find her way back. Everything was so dark here, and it wasn't as if there were any landmarks in the woods she could follow. Still… she had to try. Right?

Looking back to Will, she settled for a shrug. "I have no idea. I think it's too dark to find our way back right now. Maybe if we wait until morning when it's light outside it would be easier."

Will didn't look happy at the suggestion. Elizabeth wasn't happy with waiting either, but she really did think sunlight would make it easier. And if they were extra lucky, that monster was only out at night. If they could just hide for a few hours, it would probably be much safer to venture back outside.

After sharing these thoughts with Will, he seemed to sigh with acceptance. Silence filled the fort for a few minutes as the two were unsure of what to say to each other. This wasn't exactly a normal situation to be in.

After a while, Will spoke so quietly that Elizabeth was sure she wouldn't have heard him if the forest wasn't so silent. But after she heard what he said, she wished she hadn't.

"I wish my mom was here."

Elizabeth's chest went tight, and the familiar prick of tears irritated her eyes. She matched Will's sitting position, pulling her knees against her chest as she wrapped her arms around her legs. Me too, she thought to herself. "I'm sure she's looking for you," she said instead. "We probably won't even have to wait until morning to leave. I'm sure she noticed you didn't make it home from school and is out looking for you right now. Do you have any siblings?"

Will nodded, a small smile on his face that warmed her heart. He looked cute when he smiled, even if his face was covered in dirt from sprinting through the dark forest. "My brother, Jonathon. He's really cool. He showed me The Clash."

"The Clash, huh? Not bad. You know I Fought The Law?"

"Uh-huh," Will nodded enthusiastically. "But my favorite is Should I Stay or Should I Go."

"Not a bad choice," Elizabeth smiled back at him.

"It's Jonathon's favorite too. Do you know Jonathon? You look like you're the same age."

Elizabeth ran through her memories of kids she knew before turning into a recluse, and vaguely remembered the name. She knew Joyce Byers; she had been friends with her mom before she died and had spent some time at the Byers' house when she was younger. "I think so. Is your mom Joyce?"

Will nodded. "Yeah, she is. Are you and Jonathon friends?"

"Kind of," she settled on, not wanting to crush the kid's spirit. "We don't really talk much. I, um… I don't really have a lot of friends. What about you? Tell me about your friends."

Elizabeth smiled through Will's explanation of his "party", as he called them. About Mike being his best friend his whole life, how inseparable they were. Lucas, who had also grown up with them and was definitely the coolest out of all of them. Dustin, who had moved here later on but fit in just as well as everyone else and always had something funny to say. He talked about playing a board game with them called Dungeons and Dragons, and movie nights, and the arcade.

Elizabeth listened to all of it, glad that Will had seemed to perk up a bit being able to talk about something that wasn't related to being stuck in some weird place with a monster lurking somewhere between the trees and nowhere for them to go. As he listed off his friends and everything they did together, she began to feel that familiar heaviness in her chest.

For the second time that day, Elizabeth considered how truly alone she was. This time however, she was thinking about how it was her fault.

After her mom died, she just couldn't stand to be around people. All anyone ever wanted to talk about was if she was sad, how sorry they were, that things would be better someday. It had made her so angry, eventually she just couldn't stand it anymore. She had pushed everybody away for so long, that after a while they just stopped trying. At the time, that's what she thought she wanted. That if she couldn't have her mom, she didn't want anybody.

It was when Will said that he was sure his entire party was probably already out looking for him that Elizabeth realized there was nobody out there that would look for her. She could be stuck here forever, or die here, and nobody would care.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Elizabeth realized that Will had stopped talking at some point and shook her head to clear her thoughts, not wanting him to worry about her. "Yeah, I'm okay. I'm sure you're right, it sounds like you have a lot of people that will be looking for you. You'll get out of here in no time."

"We both will," he assured her with a small smile. "I… I think it's selfish, but I'm glad I'm not here alone. Thanks for coming to help me, Lizzie."

"Sorry I'm not more help."

Will shrugged. "We just have to wait until the morning, and then we'll get out of here. Together. Then you can meet my friends, and they can be your friends too."

"Sure, kid," Elizabeth laughed. Another silence settled over them, and Elizabeth could tell Will didn't like the silence. She couldn't blame him, she didn't like it either. To keep the conversation going, she asked, "So your brother showed you The Clash. But have you ever heard of Journey?"

Will beamed at her, and she couldn't help but smile back.

"So, are you in?"

Nancy narrowed her eyes in thought, glancing between Steve and his friends. "In for what?"

"No parents?" Carol chimed in. "Big house?"

"A party?"

"Ding, ding, ding!"

"It's Tuesday." Nancy shook her head at Tommy and Carol as they laughed at her, Tommy mocking her by repeating her words in a falsetto voice and smacking Steve on the shoulder.

Steve pushed Tommy back before turning to Nancy. "It'll be low key. It'll just be us. What do you say? Are you in or are you out?"

Nancy hummed, considering the offer. She didn't have a chance to answer before Carol scoffed, a nasty expression contorting her features. "Oh, God. Look."

The five teenagers turned simultaneously to see Jonathon Byers pinning a flyer to the school bulletin board right next to the entrance. "Oh God, that's depressing," Steve mumbled, mostly to himself.

The whole town was aware that Will Byers was "missing", though there were rumors that it was more than that. Nothing ever happened in Hawkins, so when the entire police force was out searching the woods for a kid who hadn't been home in 24 hours, it was practically front page news.

Nancy frowned, feeling bad for Jonathon but not really sure what to do. "Should we say something?"

"I don't think he speaks," Carol scoffed.

"How much you wanna bet he killed him?" Tommy laughed, causing Steve to push his shoulder again with a quiet, "Come on, man."

Nancy pursed her lips before deciding to go say something. The rest of the teens stood back and watched, Barb with a small smile while the other three looked at her in confusion.

Carol turned her back on Nancy, smirking at Tommy. "You think he killed the Parker girl too?"

Steve perked up at that, furrowing his brows as he looked at his friends. "What are you talking about?"

"Oooo, you worried, Harrington?" Tommy chuckled.

"Elizabeth wasn't in chem this morning," Carol explained. "Trust me, it's the first time I've ever been able to talk to Heather without hearing the loser snoring right next to me. I was very aware of her being gone."

"Maybe she drowned in her sleep with all that drool," Tommy offered as a lame explanation, causing his girlfriend to laugh and slap his chest as if it was the funniest thing she'd ever heard.

Steve crossed his arms over his chest, looking back to where Nancy was talking to Jonathon. He didn't know what to do with this new information, or if he was even supposed to do anything. He certainly wasn't friends with Lizzie anymore. She had made it very clear to him a long time ago that she didn't want anything to do with him. Still, if she was missing? What, was he just supposed to pretend that everything was still normal? If people were going missing, it was something to worry about. Even if one of them was someone who had abandoned him.

"Careful, Harrington," Tommy teased, poking Steve in the cheek and bringing him back to reality. "Nancy sees you looking like that thinking about another girl, you'll never get her panties out of that twist."

"Ugh," Barb groaned, rolling her eyes and finally walking away from the group. Her reaction only made Tommy and Carol laugh harder, waving goodbye to her and making kissing noises as she walked away.

Steve waited for Nancy to finish talking to Jonathon and make her way towards class with a small wave in his direction before turning to Tommy and Carol. "I'll see y'all later," he offered quickly before jogging after Jonathon. He heard them protesting behind him, but he ignored them and followed Jonathon all the way out the front doors shouting, "Hey, wait!"

Jonathon turned back to face him, pulling the strap of his bag tighter against his shoulder when he saw who was following him. He didn't say anything, just waited for Steve to catch up to him with a confused look on his face.

Steve stopped a few steps short of Jonathon. "Um, hey."

"… hi?" Jonathon replied, his eyebrows pulled together in confusion.

"You haven't, um. You haven't heard of anyone else going missing, have you?"

Jonathon shook his head. "No. Just my brother. Why?"

"Carol said… Never mind. It doesn't matter."

Jonathon just stared at Steve. He was pretty sure they had never talked before. Maybe in passing as kids, but they weren't even in the same grade so there had never been a friendship. It didn't really help that Steve was kind of an asshole. Not as bad as Tommy and Carol, sure, but still an asshole.

Steve sighed, not a fan of the awkward situation he had created. "Look, just… There's this girl, Elizabeth Parker. Shes not at school today. She's kinda short, maybe 5'4ish? Light brown hair, brown eyes. Wears a denim jacket basically every day. If you see her while you're looking for your brother, could you… could you just let me know if she's okay?"

Jonathon paused for a moment before slowly nodding his head. "Yeah, sure."

Steve returned the nod, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Thanks. I'm, uh. I'm gonna get to class."

Jonathon just watched as Steve turned and jogged back into the school. What the hell was that? He hadn't even thought to cut him off and tell him he knew exactly who Elizabeth was, due to their moms being friends back in the day. Though once Elizabeth's mom had died, he stopped seeing her around as much. He had been too stunned by the fact that Steve was talking to him at all to mention it.

With a shake of his head to clear the distracting thoughts away, Jonathon continued his way to his car. He had more flyers to put up.

After what felt like an entire day waiting for the sun to come up, Elizabeth came to the conclusion that it wasn't going to. The watch on her wrist had stopped ticking at some point, maybe even when she first got here, so she had no real way to tell what time it was, but she was sure it had at least been long enough for it to be daytime.

Will had fallen asleep at some point, but Elizabeth wasn't able to relax enough to even lay down. He had started shivering in his sleep, and the only time she moved her gaze away from the entrance to the fort was to slip the denim jacket off her shoulders and lay it on top of Will like a blanket. She was freezing too, but he was a scrawny kid. He needed the jacket more than she did.

She watched him sleep for a bit before deciding to take a look around outside. Maybe the sun had come up and she just couldn't see the light through the slits in the fortress walls like she assumed she would. It seemed unlikely, but she still felt compelled to check.

With one last look at Will to make sure he would stay asleep, Elizabeth stepped back out into the forest.

Definitely no sun. As impossible as it was, it looked like no time had passed at all. Everything was exactly as dark and dreary and slimy and gross as it had been when she first got here. She thought briefly back to sitting in her car and wishing that she was anywhere that wasn't home and almost laughed at the irony of it now. She would let her dad yell at her for hours if it meant she wasn't here. The grass is always greener. Except there wasn't any grass here at all, and there was definitely no green.

"Lizzie? Lizzie!"

Elizabeth ran back into Castle Byers, rushing to Will's side and slapping a hand over his mouth. "Are you insane?" she hissed. "That thing could hear us!"

Will's eyes immediately started tearing up, and Elizabeth kicked herself for snapping at the boy. He was just scared. "I'm sorry," she apologized immediately, taking her hand away from his mouth and sitting a step away from him. "Just… don't scream, okay? I was just looking outside, I didn't mean to scare you."

Will didn't have a chance to respond before a low growling sound was heard outside of the fort. He immediately started shaking, remembering the feeling of its cold claws wrapped around his legs, dragging him to this place. His breath quickened, and his eyes darted around the walls.

Elizabeth shushed Will before pushing herself to her feet, facing the entrance and angling herself protectively in front of him. She was positive there wasn't anything she could actually do to keep him safe, but her survival instincts were kicking in and she knew she would have to try. Her eyes darted quickly around the fort, searching for anything that could be used as a weapon. She grabbed an oil lamp resting on a small table next to his makeshift bed, gripping the handle so tightly her knuckles turned white.

The growling seemed to circle the fort, but Elizabeth kept her eyes trained on the entrance. If the fabric so much as shifted, she was going out swinging.

What felt like hours passed, but realistically was more like a few seconds. The growling stopped. Elizabeth still didn't move, her body practically vibrating in anticipation. Then, she heard the strangest thing. It sounded like… laughing?

Whatever the sound was, it drew the monster away. She heard it run off in the direction of the sound, and finally released her breath and closed her eyes that stung from not blinking for so long.

"I'm sorry," Will whispered behind her. She turned to face him and set the lamp back on the table, crouching in front of the boy. "I shouldn't have yelled, I'm sorry. It could have come in here because of me, if it wasn't distracted, I — I didn't, I didn't think —"

"Shh, it's okay," Elizabeth whispered back, running a hand over Will's head. "It's okay, it's gone now. Just don't do it again, okay? I'm sorry I scared you, but I'm not going anywhere. I won't leave you here. I promise."

Will nodded, though his tears didn't slow. Elizabeth motioned for him to scoot over and joined him on the bed, his head resting in her lap as she brushed her fingers through his hair.

It was so strange. She didn't even know this kid, but in the day or so they had been here she suddenly felt responsible for him. She knew that her promise was true, she wouldn't leave him. She was done leaving people. She didn't want to be alone anymore, and she certainly wasn't going to leave this kid to fend for himself. She was going to find a way out of this place, and she was going to get him home to his mom.

After taking some time to calm down, Will sat up from Elizabeth's lap. "Is the sun out now?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "I don't think the sun is coming, buddy. But we're gonna get out of here, okay?"

Will didn't look convinced, but didn't argue. Elizabeth sighed and looked around the fort again. Her eyes landed on the lamp she had been planning on using as a weapon. "Does that thing work?"

Will looked at the lamp and shrugged. "I haven't put any oil in it in a long time. I don't know if it has enough."

Elizabeth stood from the bed and started searching the table. There was a small matchbook inside the drawer. She took it out and opened it — 3 matches. Holding her breath and saying a small prayer in her head, she lit a match and held it over the wick inside the lamp. It worked.

"Let's go," Elizabeth said, reaching for Will's hand and tugging him off the bed.

"Wait, what?"

"That thing is distracted," Elizabeth explained. "We don't know for how long. If we're going to find the tree that lets us out of here, we should go now."

Will bit his lip and she knew he didn't want to leave the fort. The walls offered safety that the outside didn't. But Elizabeth knew that they weren't safe here. Whenever the monster found and killed whatever was making noise, she was sure it would come back. If not immediately, eventually. It knew where they were now, and they couldn't stay here.

Elizabeth leaned down to be eye level with the boy. "Listen to me, Will. I am not going to let that thing hurt you, do you hear me? We are going to find that tree, and I am going to take you home. I promise."

Will hesitated another second before slowly nodding his head. Elizabeth nodded back, intertwining her fingers with his before leading him out of the fort.