"They simply ran out into summer and were gone: some on bikes, some skipping, some riding invisible horses."

It ~ Stephen King.

JUNE 1985

HAWKINS MIDDLE SCHOOL

Doors flung open as the final bell of the day signalled the start of summer vacation. Rowdy 6th, 7th and 8th graders spilled out into the halls, all pushing and shoving to get outside. The corridors had all rapidly been taken over by the middle school kids, books being tossed and papers strewn everywhere as lockers were emptied and old notes and assignments were crushed under foot. Summer had officially commenced and everyone was pouring out of every available exit. Mike Wheeler was shoved roughly into the wall as a couple kids brushed past him. His friend, Will, reached out to grab him. From behind them two boys burst out of a classroom, whooping and hollering. The smaller one launched himself at Mike's shoulders, almost succeeding in knocking him flat on his face. "Ger-off!" He growled, spinning around to face the beaming curly-haired boy. "Seriously Dustin, I could've face-planted and knocked out all my teeth!"

"Teeth are overrated anyway." Was Dustin's reply, smiling widely to show off empty gums. Mike bumped his shoulder playfully. The other boy, a darker skinned guy called Lucas, threw his arm around Will's shoulders and sauntered easily through the crowd. He and Mike were almost a head taller than everybody else and so it was easier for them to navigate through the busy corridors. Will and Dustin often used them to get through places quicker, usually holding onto the backs of their shirts whilst everyone else got out of their way. Today was no different except for the gang of high school boys loitering in the main entrance. "Oh shit." Dustin muttered, accidentally catching Troy's eye. He smirked and tipped an imaginary hat to him. Dustin audibly swallowed. "You think he'll sign my year book? Dear Dustin, sorry for dumping cat shit in your backpack, have a nice summer." He delivered it sarcastically with fake enthusiasm and the boys all laughed. Not even Billy and his gang could dampen their jubilant spirit brought with the end of school. A pug-like girl shoulder slammed Will as the boys burst out into the sun. It was a well known fact that the boys were losers.

The girl stormed through the school to the nearest girl's bathroom. To any outsider it looked like she was burning with a righteous fury but as she entered the toilets and met up with her girl gang it became obvious that there was nothing righteous about it. She kicked the only locked door viciously, taking delight in the scuffed shoes disappearing out of sight. Inside the cubicle Max Mayfield sat smoking. Outside, Greta and her posse surrounded it. One of the hockey players was filling the trash can with water. "Ugh are you in there on your own Maxi-pads? Or d'you have half the guys in school there with you, huh slut?" She pounded the door with her fist and Max flinched, a force of habit rather than a genuine reaction to Greta's words. She stubbed her cigarette out on the side of the stall, her face blank and unbothered. "I know you're in there, you little shit, I can smell you." Max watched Greta's shoes bounce impatiently on the linoleum. Max didn't usually get shit from many people, being the sister of Billy Hargrove and all that but unfortunately Greta was Troy's on again-off again girlfriend and knew that Billy didn't give a single fuck about her. Greta stood on the other side of the door and rattled the lock. "No wonder you don't have any friends." She taunted.

"Which is it Greta? Am I slut, or a little shit? Make up your mind." Her voice echoed weirdly due to the acoustics of the room and Greta scowled. Max knew she shouldn't antagonise her, just as she shouldn't antagonise her brother but it was just one of those things she couldn't help but do anyway. The girl filling the trash can turned off the tap. Greta glanced at her.

"You're trash, we just wanted to remind you." She stepped back away from the door and smirked smugly as the girl clambered into the stall next to Max's and lifted up the can.

Knowing what was going to happen before it did, Max crouched up on the back of the toilet and snatched her bag up from where it was slumped on the floor, holding it protectively above her head like some sort of shield. Disgusting trash water and tissues rained down from above, the muddy brown water sloshing over the toilet seat and onto the floor carrying used tampons and bloody pads with it. Small flecks of gunk splattered Max's shoes but she'd managed to avoid the worst of it. She'd had practise for nearly 3 years. "Ugh, gross. At least now you'll smell better. Have a nice summer Mayfield." The girls all left, laughing and throwing insults at Max casually over their shoulders. "What a loser." Max slumped when they were gone, closing her eyes tiredly for a moment before pulling herself back together and exiting the grimy bathroom.

Meanwhile, outside in the warmth the four boys were upending their school bags and dumping the contents into the trash, purging themselves of the school year. Everything from old homework, school projects, battered notebooks and broken pencils were shaken out into the dumpster. "Best feeling ever." Mike said.

"Yeah? Try tickling your pickle for the first time." Dustin replied. The boys ignored him, used to the inappropriate comments.

"Hey, what do you guys wanna do tomorrow?" Will asked.

"Start my training." Dustin said, adjusting his hat on top of his head. It was a geeky baseball cap with some lame science pun on it.

"What training?"

"Dig Dug. I've been usurped from my rightful position at the top."

"Is that really how you want to spend your summer, inside an arcade?" Lucas asked.

"Beats spending it inside your mother." He raised his hand for a high five but Mike shoved it down.

"Dude." Lucas shook his head.

"What if we go to the quarry?" Will suggested. Mike frowned.

"I thought we were going to the Barrens." The other three exchanged guilty looks, like they'd forgotten.

"Look, it's Barbara Holland's mom." A small lady with prominent bags under her eyes stood by the police booth. There was a sign that said Remember the curfew 7pm. Right next to it was a picture of Barb. Her mom stood scanning the crowd of departing kids. She looked haggard, her frame suggesting that she'd once been beautiful but had lost too much weight too quickly. "Is she really expecting to see her here?" Dustin asked.

"Like, Barb's just been hiding in Home Ec for the last three weeks."

"You think they'll find her?" Mike asked, underneath the disappearance of his little sister still fresh in his mind.

"Sure." Lucas replied. "In a ditch all decomposed and stuff with maggots coming out of her, smelling worse than Dustin's mom's underwear." Dustin flipped him the bird.

"She's not dead Lucas, she's just missing." Mike parroted the same sentence he'd been saying for the last couple of months to his parents. The other three all shifted uncomfortably, the atmosphere dropping.

"Right, sorry Mike. She's missing."

"Y'know the Barrens are all right, who doesn't like splashing around in shitty water?" Dustin tried to alleviate the situation but was cut off by someone snagging his backpack. He stumbled backwards as Troy hooked a finger through the strap and yanked him hard, sending him sprawling to the ground.

"Sorry Toothless, didn't see you there." James laughed as he tripped up Will.

"Watch it faggot." Mike and Lucas surged forward protectively but found themselves restrained. Troy locked Mike's arms whilst Tommy H has a firm hold on the back of Lucas's shirt. The leader himself, Billy Hargrove, sauntered towards them. They're a gang of four bullies, Billy, Troy, James and Tommy H; one's a lunkhead oaf, another a perpetually giggly fire-starting sociopath, and the last one's a mean scrap and scab junkyard dog type. Billy's in a league of his own, mean and cruel with an uncontrollable rage. Every single one of them took great joy in picking on the party.

Will had landed hard on his knees, the concrete had scraped his skin and loose bits of stone were stuck in the graze. "What do you want Hargrove!" Mike spat. Lucas tried to nudge him whilst Will helped Dustin up.

"Say something Frogface? You got a free ride this year because of your little sister." Mike deflated at the mention of Holly and Billy smirked. "Ride's over now, this summer's gonna be a hurt train for you and your fag friends. Your ass is grass, same goes for you too Toothless and Fairyboy. As for you," he looked over at Lucas with pure loathing. "Do us all a favour and go kill yourself." Lucas scowled furiously and struggled against Tommy H.

"Is there a problem here?" Chief Hopper stood with his arms crossed surveying them. Billy jerked his head at his goons and they dropped the boys.

"Just here to pick up my sister." The chief nodded his head towards his thugs.

"You'd best be on your way then." Billy glared as the gang slunk off towards his blue Camaro. The party righted themselves and thanked the chief. He just waved them off, returning to his truck whilst he lit a cigarette.

"Wish he'd go missing." Mike muttered.

"He's probably the one doing it." Dustin replied darkly.

On the other side of the school Max had opted to take the longer route, postponing the inevitable meeting of her brother and his friends. Her stepfather insisted that Billy take her to and from school, an arrangement neither enjoyed. She'd just exited from the east wing hallway but found her path down the stairs blocked by a pretty brunette. Max halted, afraid it was one of Greta's posse. But no, this girl Max didn't recognise. She was pretty with long curly brown hair and wide, open eyes. A large, oversized flannel hung off of her and her jeans had been rolled up at least three times to become shorts that ended on the knee. "You gonna let me go by or is there a secret password or something?" The girl whipped around, ripping her headphones off startled. She was staring at Max like a deer caught in headlights.

"Sorry I-" Flustered she dropped her Walkman, bending down to catch it before it smashed on the ground.

"Sorry's not a password..." Max trailed off as the girl very nearly tripped over her own feet and smashed her head in, clutching onto the railings to catch herself. Max cocked a brow. "Billy and his goons are over by the west entrance so you should be fine." The girl righted herself, flushing as she gazed up at Max. Max gestured to the Walkman, "What're you listening to?" She took the girl's headphones before she could react and snapped them on over her ears. Almost immediately she scrunched her nose up and made a face. "New Kids on the Block? Seriously?" She took the headphones off again. The girl was bright red. "You've got a shite taste in music, no offence. You wanna listen to bands like AC/DC, that's real music."

"They're cool." The girl muttered, flushing even redder when Max laughed.

"I don't know you do I? Are you new?" The girl shook her head and Max frowned. "Well I don't recognise you. Here, let me sign your yearbook." It was only then that Max noticed the lack of school bag.

"I'm home schooled." It was quiet and low, spoken haltingly in an accent Max couldn't quite place. Max found it was nice to listen to.

"Oh. Well I'm Max, but here I'll sign this for you." She set down her own bag and pulled out her own yearbook, ripping out one of the numerous blank pages. She snagged a pen from the bottom of her bag and signed MAX in scrawly block writing. The girl took the offered page and folded it up small, tucking it reverently into her breast pocket.

"El." She smiled widely, a big beautiful smile that lit up her face and put small dimples in her cheek. Max felt a smile of her own growing.

"Stay cool El." She brushed past the shy girl and waved over her shoulder.

"You too Max." Max found it adorable.

"Hang tough home school." She called before disappearing around the corner.

The party had finally agreed on plans tomorrow to go to the Barrens and were getting ready to bike off. Mike caught the eye of a pretty brunette girl climbing into the chief's truck. He waved at her and smiled when she shyly waved back. From the same direction a red haired girl emerged and stared at him weirdly. He flushed and sort of awkwardly gestured to the girl but she'd already moved on, heading towards Billy and his crew. Mike carried on watching the chief's daughter even when Lucas nudged him snickering. Apparently the red head (Max?) had almost shut Billy's fingers in the door. Mike rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I've got to go, see you guys tomorrow at Dustin's house?" The guys nodded and waved him off.

WHEELER'S RESIDENCE

Mike rolled his bike down the familiar street, the wheels bouncing over the loose pebbles. He was muttering the lyrics to some pop song under his breath. It was one of those cheesy ones that everyone pretended not to like but secretly listened to anyway. It used to be routine for Mike to sing horribly off-key to Holly on the walk home from school, she would giggle and shove him pretending she was embarrassed by him. Ever since her disappearance Mike hadn't been able to stop, although now instead of it being fun it only spiralled him into an emotional mess. He raised his voice to spit out the last couple of lines, his distress seeping into the words as he reached his house on the end of the cul-de-sac.

The garage door was open and as Mike parked his bike the sound of machinery whirring inside came to a sudden stop. "Mike? That you?" His dad's voice called out from his workbench. Mike ducked into the shade to see him. He was whittling a leg for a table, the other three already leaning against the wall. Behind him lay a complex mess of hamster tubes and plastic trays.

"Need any help?" Mike offered, studiously ignoring the frustration on his dad's face. He was sat on his stool with his arms balanced on his legs. He fixed Mike with his best disapproving look.

"I thought we agreed." He pointed to the elaborate labyrinth of yellow plastic. Mike shot it a desperate glance. The walls above it were plastered with maps, both new and old of the Hawkins sewers. The largest, most recent one had bright red marker circling the storm drain Holly was last seen next to. Thick lines were starting from that point and spread out into several different routes. All of them led to the various sewer pipes that opened up around the town but only one was left without a big red cross slashed through it. Mr Wheeler scratched his brow tiredly whilst he watch Mike sputter nervously.

"Before you say anything-"

"Mike."

"Just let me show you something first!" He plucked up the G.I Joe action figure sitting idly on the side and shoved him into one of the tubes. Mr Wheeler shook his head, physically pained by his son's hope. Mike dragged the hose over and shoved it in after the plastic model, switching it on. A powerful stream of water surged through the tunnels and flushed the action figure through a complicated path before spitting it out into one of the plastic trays labelled The Barrens. Mike switched off the hose and turned eagerly to his dad. "The Barrens, it's the only place."

"She's gone Mike." It was weary and resigned but Mike clenched his fists. They'd been having this same argument every day since his parents stopped searching after Christmas.

"But if the storm swept Holly into the drain-"

"She gone Mike! She's dead. What's done is done. Now please, take this down before your mother sees it." Mike deflated, all of the fight draining out of him.

"Nancy'd believe me." He grumbled defiantly. Ted Wheeler frowned, rubbing his temples as he felt the beginnings of a migraine forming.

"Nancy's in college. Oh, and next time you want to use my maps, ask me first." He unpinned the one with all the red marker on it and rolled it up, tucking it under his arm as he left the garage.

Mike was left on his own. He cast a sort of hopeless look at the hamster in its cage. "Guess you get your tunnels back." He told it. It just squeaked and turned away, burying in the sawdust. Mike sighed before moving to disassemble his creation, bogged down with misery. Absentmindedly he started humming the song from earlier again, enunciating each word with its own bitter undertone. The hose spluttered to life, releasing a splatter of water that pooled together too close to Mike's trainers. He scowled and moved around the model. When he turned away though a face rippled in the water like a glassy reflection, a familiar greasy white, ruddy nose face that smiled ominously up at the ceiling before fading away as Mike returned with a cloth to clean it.

© ELIXB | 2020