So, this OC Insert for Stranger Things was an idea I had for a while now. I at first went against it, but now that I got so many fanfiction ideas for Stranger Things, mainly around Season 4, I feel like I should merge all of these ideas into one fic.

Enjoy.

November 6, 1983

Hawkins, Indiana

In a small house in the suburbs, four best friends were playing Dungeons and Dragons in the basement.

Mike Wheeler, the dungeon master, narrated. "Something's coming. Hungry for blood. A shadow grows in the wall behind you, swallowing you in darkness. It's almost here."

"What is it?" asked Will Byers, the youngest of the group.

"What if it's the demogorgon?" asked Dustin Henderson, the one with the hat. "We're screwed if it's the demogorgon."

"It's not the demogorgon," Lucas, the black boy, assured.

"An army of troglodytes charge into the chamber," Mike narrated as he set down troglodyte figures. "Wait a minute. Do you hear that? That sound. BOOM! That wasn't the troglodytes. That came from something else." Dramatic pause. "The demogorgon!"

"We're in deep shit," Dustin commented.

"Will, your action!" Mike commanded.

Lucas told Will to cast a fireball. Dustin told him to cast a protection spell. This left Will in a panic.

"The demogorgon gets tired of your constant human bickering!" Mike narrated. "It stomps towards you!"

Lucas kept telling Lucas to cast a fireball. Dustin kept shouting for protection. In the end, Will chose fireball, but the dice fell off the table.

As the kids went searching for the dice, Mike's mom, Karen, came in, telling the boys it's time for bed. Mike went up to her and begged for more time to finish the campaign, but Karen reminded him the kids have school the following day.

Back in the basement, Will found the dice, but sadly, it landed on seven.

The boys cleaned up the basement and went upstairs. Dustin went to the bedroom of Mike's older sister, Nancy, to say hi and offer her the last slice of pizza. Nancy just shut the door on him.

Dustin went outside the house and met up with the boys.

"Your sister's got a stick up her ass," Dustin told Mike.

"Yeah," Lucas added. "She's changed ever since she started dating that asshole, Steve. It's like she's a completely different person."

"She's turning into a real jerk," Will remarked.

"She's always been a jerk," Mike defended.

"No, she used to be cool," Dustin retorted. "Remember when she dressed as an elf for our elder tree campaign?"

"That was four years ago," Mike retorted back.

Lucas and Dustin biked home, but Will stayed for a bit.

"The roll was a seven," he told Mike. "The demogorgon got me. See you tomorrow."

Will biked away from Mike's house, and didn't notice the lights around flickering.

Will kept biking, until he was far from Mike's neighborhood and closer to the woods. He noticed his bike light flicker, and when he turned back to the road in front of him, he saw something. It was only a silhouette, but Will could tell it wasn't human.

Whatever Will saw scared him and knocked him off the road. He heard a chime, and looked around. Whatever he saw was still there, and looked like it wanted to attack him.

Will made a run for it. He recognized the pathway, and realized he was getting closer to his house.

Once Will reached his house, he went inside and locked the door. He looked around for his mom and brother, but found no sign of either of them.

He then went to the window and saw the creature getting closer to the house.

Will ran to the phone and tried calling 911. Something disrupted the signal, keeping him from alerting anyone to his situation.

Will looked to the door and saw the creature slash the front door open with its massive claws.

Will quickly ran out of the house through the back door and into the shed. He grabbed a rifle and loaded it with as many bullets as he could. Afterwards, he pointed the rifle towards the door.

"Alright, whatever you are!" he shouted. "Come at me!"

That's when he heard the wall behind him being slashed, and looked behind him.

The creature came into the shed from behind. Will pointed his rifle and pulled the trigger.

The light glowed brighter and brighter, and when it reverted back to normal, Will and the creature were gone.

Stranger Things

Chapter 1

The Vanishing of Will Byers

The next morning, Will's mom, Joyce, was searching for her keys. She spent a while looking for them, but after a while, she found them.

Joyce went to her oldest son, Jonathan, and kissed him goodbye.

"I'll see you tonight," she said, before she noticed the claw marks on a broken front door. A lot of thoughts flooded her mind. The thought of a bear coming into the house. She then realized Will wasn't in the room. "Where's Will?"

"I didn't wake him up yet," Jonathan replied. He was busy cooking breakfast for himself and his brother.

"You have to make sure he's up, Jon," Joyce scolded, as she went to Will's room. "I told you this a thousand times. Will, it's time to get up!"

Joyce went into Will's room to see that he wasn't there. She went back to Jonathan.

"You saw him come home last night, right?" she asked.

"I didn't see him," Jon replied.

"Did he come home or not?" Joyce repeated.

"I don't know," Jon replied. "I came home late. I was working. Eric asked if I could cover for him. I said yes. I thought we could use the extra cash."

"Jon, we talked about this," Joyce scolded. "You can't take shifts while I'm working."

"I'm sure he just stayed over," Jon assured. "He was at the Wheelers all day."

"I can't believe you," said Joyce.

Joyce went to the phone to call Mike's parents.

The phone rang for a bit, but after a while, Karen answered.

"Hi Karen, it's Joyce," said Joyce. She heard a voice in the background. "Was that Will I heard back there?

"No," Karen replied.

"Will didn't spend the night?" asked Joyce.

"No, he left a little bit after 8," Karen replied. "Why? Is he not home?"

"You know what?" said Joyce. "He might've left early for school. Thank you. Bye."

Joyce hung up the phone.

Meanwhile, at Hawkins Middle School, Mike, Dustin, and Lucas biked over to the school. Once they stopped, they noticed something off.

"I don't see him," said Mike, referring to Will.

"I'm telling you," Lucas assured. "He probably went to class early… again."

"He's always scared Ms. Gurskey will give him another pop quiz," Dustin remarked.

"Step right up ladies and gentlemen!" a voice shouted. "Step right up and get your tickets for the freak show!"

The boys turned to see their biggest arch-nemesis. Troy. The boy who always makes fun of them for no good reason. The boys made faces that read, "We don't have time for this".

"Who do you think will make more money in a freak show?" Troy continued. He punched Lucas. "Midnight?" He then punched Mike. "Frogface?" He finally punched Dustin. "Or Toothless?"

"I'd go with toothless," Troy's friend replied.

"For the millionth time," said Dustin. "My teeth are coming in. It's called cleidocranial dysplasia."

"'For the millionth time,'" Troy mocked. "Hey, do the arm thing."

Dustin reluctantly did as requested. He took off his jacket and stretched out his arms, cracking the bones.

As the bullies left, Mike assured Dustin, "That's actually cool. It's like you have superpowers."

"Except I can't fight evil with them," Dustin retorted.

Meanwhile, at Hawkins High, Nancy met up with her childhood bestie, Barbra.

"So, did he call?" Barb asked.

"I told you, it's not like that," Nancy replied, as she went to her locker to get her stuff. "Yes, he likes me, but not like that. We just made out a couple of times."

"'We just made out a couple times'," Barb mocked. "Nance, seriously, you're gonna be so cool now, it's ridiculous. You better still hang out with me, that's all I'm saying. If you become friends with Tommy or Carol,"

"That's gross," Nancy interrupted. "I'm telling you, it's a one-time… two-time thing."

Nancy turned towards her locker and found a note inside it.

Meet me in the bathroom.

Steve.

In the bathroom, Nancy and Steve started making out. Steve held Nancy against the wall as their lips connected. At some point, Steve removed Nancy's shirt and held onto her… sensitive spots.

As they kissed, Nancy tried to tell Steve, "I have to get to class" but Steve urged for the kiss to continue, as if this would be their last moment together.

After a minute, Steve relented. He let go of his girlfriend and allowed her to breathe.

"Can we do something tonight?" he asked.

"I can't," she replied as she put her shirt back on. "I have to study for Kaminsky's test."

"Come on," said Steve. "What's your GPA again? 4?"

"Kaminsky's tests are difficult," Nancy defended.

"Then I'll help," Steve replied.

"You failed chemistry," Nancy retorted.

"It's only a C-minus," Steve defended. "So I'll be at her place around 8:00?"

"My mom would not…" Nancy was about to say.

"I'll climb through the window," Steve interrupted. "Or we could relax in my car. We'll find a nice and quiet place to park and just…"

"Steve!" Nancy yelled, finally shutting her boyfriend up. "I have to study! I'm being serious!"

"Why else would I want to find a place nice and quiet?" asked Steve.

"You're an idiot, Steve," Nancy grinned before leaving the bathroom. Once she stepped out the door, she turned back. "Meet me at Dearborn and Maple at 8:00. To study!"

Meanwhile, at the police station, the town sheriff, Jim Hopper, entered the station to start his shift.

"Morning everybody," he greeted his fellow officers.

"Morning chief," one of them replied.

"You look like hell, chief," the other said.

"I look better than your wife when I left her this morning," Hopper retorted.

"While you were sleeping or smoking or whatever you were doing, Phil Larson called saying kids were stealing his garden gnomes again," the receptionist informed him.

"Oh, garden gnomes again," said Hopper. "I'll get right on that."

"On a pressing matter," the receptionist added. "Joyce Hopper can't find her son this morning."

Hopper just seemed to brush it off as he walked to his office.

"I'm telling you, she's worried sick," the receptionist informed.

"Flo," Hopper interrupted. "Mornings are for coffee and contemplation."

Hopper entered his office to see Joyce sitting on the visitor chair. She stood up and stayed silent.

As Hopper was filling the missing report, Joyce went on a tangent. "I've been waiting for an hour, Hopper! I'm going out of my mind!"

"Look, boys his age go missing all the time," Hopper assured. "He could just be playing hookie or something."

"No, not my Will," said Joyce. "He'd never do that."

"You never know," Hopper replied. "My mom thought I was on the debate team, when I was just..."

"He's not like you," Joyce interrupted. "He's not like me. He's not like… most people. He has a few friends, but most of the kids are mean. They make fun of him, call him names, they laugh at him, his clothes,"

"What's wrong with his clothes?" asked Hopper.

"I don't know," Joyce replied. "Does it even matter? All in all, he's a sensitive kid. Lonnie used to say he was 'queer' called him a fag."

"Is he?" asked Hopper.

"He's missing, that's what," Joyce replied.

"When did you last hear from Lonnie?" asked Hopper.

"Last I heard, he was in Indianapolis," Joyce replied. "But that was a year ago. He has nothing to do with this."

"Why don't you give me his number?" asked Hopper.

"Hopper, he has nothing to do with this!" Joyce yelled.

"Joyce, a lot of the time a kid goes missing, he's with a parent or relative," Hopper assured, keeping his cool.

"But a lot is not all," Joyce retorted. "Something might be happening to him."

"Joyce, this is Hawkins," Hopper assured. "The worst thing that happened was when an owl attacked someone's head because it thought their hair was a nest."

"Fine, I will call Lonnie," said Joyce. "I'll talk to him before he talks to a cop. Just find my son, Hopper. Find him."

Meanwhile, in Hawkins National Laboratory, a few scientists, including head scientist Martin Brenner, went into the east wing of the lab to investigate something.

They saw this giant hole in the wall that almost looked like a slimy portal to another dimension.

"Is this where it came from?" asked one of the scientists.

"Yes," Brenner replied.

"And the kids?" asked the scientist.

"They can't have gone far," Brenner replied.

Meanwhile, two kids, a boy and a girl, were walking through the woods.

The girl wore a white skirt with blue dots on it. She had the numbers "011" inscribed on her right arm.

The boy wore clothes similar in color to the girl, but they were clothes more fit for a boy. He had the numbers "012" inscribed on his right arm.

Once the two left the woods, they saw what looked like a small house. A man walked out to take out the trash.

The duo entered the house to find out it was actually a small diner. They entered the kitchen to see a basket of french fries just sitting there. They've been in the woods for a while and haven't eaten in that time. They grabbed as much fries as they could and started eating them.

That's when the owner saw the two and shouted, "Hey!"

The kids made a run for it, trying to escape with the fries, but the owner caught up to them and grabbed them.

"You think you can steal from me boys?" he asked. The kids turned and the owner saw how awful they looked, implying that they were homeless and hungry. "What the hell?"

Meanwhile, back at Hawkins Middle School, the boys were in science class doing their homework, when the bell rang, signifying it was time for the next period.

Mike, Lucas, and Dustin approached their teacher, Mr. Clark.

"Did it come?" asked Mike.

"Sorry boys," Mr. Clark replied. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but… it came."

Mr. Clark led the boys to a closet where he showed them a device. It seemed to be a high signal thing. "The heathkit ham shack" as Clark calls it.

"I bet you can talk to New York on this thing," said Dustin.

"Think bigger," said Mr. Clark.

"California?" Lucas guessed.

"Bigger," said Mr. Clark.

"Australia?" Mike guessed.

Mr. Clark nodded.

"When Will sees this, he'll blow his shit," said Lucas.

As the boys started to prank-call Australia, the principal came in with the sheriff in tow.

"May I borrow Michael, Lucas, and Dustin for a bit?" the principal asked.

In the principal's office, the kids were talking to the sheriff, but they were talking all at once, making it hard for the adults to understand.

"One at a time, please?" Hopper asked before pointing to Mike. "You. You said he takes what?"

"Mirkwood," Mike replied. "We made up the name. It's where Cornwallis and Kerley meet. We can show it to you, we can help look."

"Thanks for the offer," Hopper replied, as chill as he could. "But no. After school, you're all to go straight home. That means no biking, looking for your friend, no investigating, no nonsense. This isn't some fantasy story."

Everyone in the room narrowed their eyes in a certain direction.

"Do I make myself clear?" Hopper asked the kids. He stood up, causing the boys to shiver in fear. Hopper asked, "Do I make myself clear?" in a bit more stern voice.

The boys nodded.

Flashback

One day, Joyce went to the woods and approached Castle Byers, a fort built by Will and Jonathan.

Joyce pushed the imaginary doorbell and made a ringing sound before saying, "Will, it's your mom. May I come in?"

"What's the password?" Will asked back.

"Radegast," Joyce guessed.

"You may enter," said Will.

Joyce entered and said, "Hey, I got off early."

She then showed Will two movie tickets for "The Poltergeist".

"I thought I was too young for that," said Will.

"I changed my mind," Joyce replied. "So long as you don't have nightmares for a week."

"Mom, I'm not a little kid anymore," Will retorted.

"Not even of my…" Joyce asked in her normal voice, before switching to more of a "wicked witch" voice. "Evil witch? It's time to cook you alive, child."

"Mom, stop it," Will replied, not because he was scared, more because he was annoyed.

End of Flashback

In the present, Joyce and Jonathan have searched Castle Byers for Will, but he wasn't there.

Afterward, they searched the area around, calling out for Will.

Back at the diner, the owner, Benny, cooked some burgers for the two homeless kids to eat.

Once the kids were given their burgers, they started digging through it.

"Did your parents forget to feed you or something?" asked Benny. "Is that why you ran away? They hurt you? You went to a hospital, got scared, and ran off, that's it?"

Neither of the kids answered. They just kept eating their burgers.

Benny took the burgers from them and assured them, "You can have this back. You just need to answer a few questions first. Let's start off. My name's Benny, Benny Hammond."

Benny brought out his hand to shake. The kids didn't know of this motion, so Benny took their hands and shook them, showing them how it's done. "Nice to meet you, and you are…"

The boy showed his right arm, revealing the numbers "012". After a bit, the girl showed her right arm, revealing the numbers "011".

This made Benny curious. "Eleven and twelve. What do those mean?"

The kids sat silently, but Benny can tell by the look on their faces that those numbers meant something traumatizing to them. He put two and two together, and realized what happened to them.

A bit later, Benny called child services. He said through the phone, "All I know is that they're scared to death. I think that they've been abused or kidnapped or something. It'd be great if someone would come by. We're at 4819 Randolph Lane."

As the kids were eating, the boy heard a noise that triggered him. The girl got worried for him and tracked the noise to a nearby fan. As if by magic, she forced the fan to stop with her mind.

Meanwhile, Hopper and a couple cops were searching "Mirkwood" for any sign of Will. After a while of searching, Hopper found something. Not Will, but his bike.

"He must've crashed," one of the cops assumed.

"Do you think he got hurt?" the other one asked.

"No," Hopper replied. "Not so hurt he couldn't walk away. Bike like this is like a Cadillac to these kids. He would've walked it home."

Hopper picked up the bike.

Meanwhile, at Hawkins Lab, some guys were listening in on people's phone calls, because that's definitely not creepy at all.

One of those calls was Joyce trying to call her ex-husband, Lonnie.

"Is this Lonnie?" Joyce asked.

"Lonnie's not here right now," a female voice replied.

"Can you get him on the phone?" Joyce asked.

"Again, he's not here," the voice replied.

"Who is this?" asked Joyce.

"His girlfriend, Cynthia," the voice replied. "Who the hell is this?"

"This is Joyce," Joyce replied. "Lonnie's ex-wife. I really need to speak with him."

"Why don't you call back later?" Cynthia suggested.

Joyce was about to reply, but the line disconnected.

"BITCH!" Joyce shouted as she slammed the phone.

"Mom, stay calm," said Jonathan.

Joyce dialed the number again, and this time, she was sent to voicemail.

"Lonnie, it's Joyce," she said. "Will is missing. I don't know where he is. Just call me back." The line disconnected. Joyce slammed the phone. "DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT!"

That's when Jonathan saw cops pulling up to their house. He and Joyce went outside to see Hopper handing over Will's bike.

Hopper explaining how he found the bike left Joyce with more questions than answers.

"Did it have any blood on it?" she asked.

"No," Hopper replied.

"Then why are you here?" asked Jonathan.

"He had keys to the house, right?" asked Hopper.

"Yeah," Joyce replied.

"Maybe he came home," Hopper theorized.

"You think I didn't check my OWN DAMN HOUSE?" asked Joyce.

"I'm not saying that," Hopper replied.

Hopper finally decided to bring up the claw marks. There weren't just some on the door, which has been reattached by now, but there were also some marks on the wall near the back door. "Were those scratches on the door not there before?"

Joyce didn't notice them until now. "That's odd. How did I not notice that before?"

The sheriff and the mom went out the back door to see the Byers' dog barking at the shed. He looked scared.

Joyce assumed the dog was hungry and took him inside. Hopper thought that maybe the dog was barking about something in the shed. Is it possible that Will has been hiding in the shed this whole time? He went to get a closer look to confirm his suspicions.

Hopper entered the shed and reached to turn on the light, but he noticed there was already plenty of light coming from outside. He looked in front of him to see the back wall had been torn down. He noticed the very same scratch marks coming from the wall's remnants. That's when the light flickered on for a second before turning back off. Hopper continued searching the shed and found a red jacket lying on the ground.

That's when one of the officers called Hopper, scaring him.

"Are you deaf?" asked the officer. "I've been calling you."

The two cops left the shed as Hopper ordered, "Call Flo. I want to get a search party together. Get as many volunteers as you can muster."

That night, at the Wheeler residence, the Wheeler family were having dinner.

"We have to go look for him," Mike begged his family. "Will could be in danger."

"More reason to stay put," Karen retorted.

"Mom!" Mike was about to argue.

"End of discussion," Karen interrupted.

Karen looked around to see if anyone else would back her up, but everyone else stayed silent.

Eventually, Nancy spoke, but it was not on the Will topic. "So, me and Barbra are gonna study at her place tonight. Is that cool?"

"No," Karen replied.

"Why not?" asked Nancy.

"What do you think?" Karen asked. "Am I speaking Chinese here? Until we know Will is okay, no one leaves this house at night."

"That's bullshit!" Nancy shouted.

"Language," the dad, Ted, scolded.

"So we're under house arrest?" asked Nancy. "Just because Mike's friend got lost…"

"So this is Will's fault?" Mike interrupted, offended at the idea.

"Nancy, take that back," Karen ordered.

"No," Nancy replied.

"You're pissed 'cause you wanna hang out with Steve," Mike teased.

"Who's Steve?" asked Ted.

"Her new boyfriend," Mike snitched.

"You are such a dick, Mike!" Nancy yelled.

"Language," Ted scolded.

Nancy had enough and stormed upstairs to her room, ignoring Karen's demands she come back. That's when Karen saw her youngest daughter, Holly, looking as if she's about to cry. Karen went to calm her down.

"You see, this is what happens, Mike," Ted scolded his son.

"You're being so unfair!" Mike shouted. "It's like I'm the only one here that cares about Will!"

"We do care," Ted assured. "About him, and you, and Nancy, and your friends. We can't have any more of you getting hurt."

Mike wasn't having his dad's bullshit and stormed upstairs to his room.

Meanwhile, in the woods, Hopper and a search party were searching all throughout Hawkins for any sign of Will. One person in the search was Mr. Clark.

"Will's a great student," Mr. Clark told the sheriff. "I don't think we met. I'm Scotte Clark. I teach biology at Hawkins Middle."

"I never liked science," Hopper commented. "Sarah, my daughter, always understood that stuff. I always figured there was enough going on down here that I didn't need to look elsewhere. She lives with her mom in the city. Thanks for coming, teach. We appreciate it."

"She died," one of the others told Scotte. "His kid. She died."

Meanwhile, Mike was in the bathroom calling Lucas on his walkie-talkie.

"Lucas, do you copy?" he called.

"This is Lucas," Lucas eventually replied. "I copy, over."

"I'm worried about Will, over," said Mike.

"Me too, over," said Lucas.

Mike heard a knock on the door, and he heard his dad say, "Are you done?"

Mike hurried out of the bathroom so his dad could do his business. Mike moved to the basement to continue his conversation.

"I was thinking," said Mike. "Will could've cast protection last night, but he didn't. He cast fireball. Over."

"What's your point? Over!" asked Lucas.

"My point is, he could've played it safe, but he didn't," Mike replied. "He put himself in danger to protect the party. Over."

"Meet me in ten, over and out," said Lucas.

Mike quickly packed his bags and snuck out of the house. He grabbed his bike and biked off. He noticed Steve trying to climb through Nancy's window. He just rolled his eyes in annoyance and continued biking.

Steve knocked on Nancy's window, catching her attention.

Nancy opened the window and scolded, "What are you doing here? I told you over the phone I'm under house arrest now."

"I figured we'd study here," Steve replied.

"No way," said Nancy.

"I don't want you failing this test," Steve retorted as he climbed through.

Nancy just rolled her eyes in annoyance as she closed the window.

Back at the diner, the homeless kids were eating some ice cream while Benny was cleaning some dishes.

"You like that ice cream, huh?" Benny remarked. The kids smiled. "Those smiles look good on you."

The kids frowned, as if they're unaware of the concept of smiling.

"You know, smiling," said Benny as he smiled. This caused the kids' smiles to return.

That's when they heard a knock on the door. Benny went and answered the door.

A woman was at the door.

"You must be Benny Hammond," she said.

"I am," Benny replied. "But I'm afraid we're closed for the evening."

"Connie Frazier," the woman introduced herself. "Social services."

"Oh, I didn't expect you soon," said Benny. "That's a hell of a drive."

"Not too bad for this time of night," said Connie.

"I haven't told them you were coming yet," Benny warned Connie. "I didn't want them running. They're a tad skittish."

Unbeknownst to either of them, the kids saw them talking from where they were sitting, and heard their conversation.

"Children I work with usually are," Connie assured. "So, where are they?"

"Come on," said Benny. "I'll introduce you to them. You know, your voice is not what I…"

Play "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane

That's when Connie pulled out a gun and shot Benny in the head, killing him on the spot.

The kids saw this and made a run for it. They tried to run out the back, but they were cornered by men with guns.

When Logic and Proportion

Have fallen sloppy dead

The girl quickly jolted her head in one direction, and the neck of the man on the right snapped, instantly killing him. The boy floated an inch off the ground. He grabbed the other man by the collar, lifted him up off the ground, and threw him against the ceiling.

And the White Knight's falling backwards

And the red queen's off with her head

Remember what the dormouse said

Afterwards, the kids ran out. The boy scooped the girl into his arms, and the duo flew away into the night sky.

Feed your head

Feed your head

End "White Rabbit"

Meanwhile, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin reached the area of the woods where Will was last seen. The area has now been closed off.

Dustin felt a drop of water hit his face.

"Guys, I think we should go back," he said.

"No," Mike replied. "We're not going back. Just stay together. Come on. Stay on channel 6. Don't do anything stupid."

Meanwhile, back in Nancy's room, Steve was quizzing Nancy using some flashcards.

After a while, Steve came up with an idea. "How about every time you get an answer right, I take off my clothes, but if you get one wrong, you…"

"No," Nancy interrupted.

"Come on, it'll be fun," Steve assured.

"During fractional distillation, hydrocarbons are separated according to their…" Steve asked.

"Melting point," Nancy answered.

Steve turned the card around. "No. It's boiling point."

"That's what I meant," Nancy retorted.

"That's not what you said," Steve retorted right back. "You know what that means."

"No," Nancy replied.

"No?" said Steve. "Or do you need help?"

Play "Down in Africa" by Toto

Steve leaned towards Nancy.

Nancy relented and the two shared a kiss.

It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you

There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do

I bless the rains down in Africa

It's gonna take some time to do the things we never had

Once they pulled out of the kiss, Nancy showed how upset she was. "Was this your plan all along? To come in here so you could… get another notch on your belt."

The wild dogs cry out in the night

As they grow restless longing for solitary company

"Nancy, no," Steve assured.

"I'm not a slut," said Nancy.

"You're right," Steve replied. "You're not a slut. You're my cutie."

I know what I must do is right

As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the serengeti

Steve grabbed Nancy's teddy bear and imitated it. "Bad, Steve. Don't do that to Miss Nancy."

"You're an idiot, Steve," said Nancy.

I seek to cure what's deep inside

Frightened of the thing that I've become

"You're beautiful, Nancy," said Steve.

The couple continued their study session, no de-clothing challenge involved.

It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you

There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do

I bless the rains down in Africa

It's gonna take some time to do the things we never had

End "Down in Africa"

Back at the Byers', Joyce and Jonathan were scrolling through photos.

"I know I haven't been there for you," Joyce apologized. "I've been… working so hard and I feel so bad. You don't know how much I want to spend time with you. I'm sorry." Joyce noticed Jonathan crying. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing," Jonathan tried to deny, but he couldn't keep it in anymore. "I'm sorry. I should've been there for him."

"No," said Joyce. "Don't do that to yourself. It's not your fault. He's close, I know it. I feel it. You just have to trust me."

That's when the phone rang. Joyce ran to answer it.

"Hello?" she asked. Static. "Hello?" Static. "Lonnie? Hopper? Who is this?" Muffled breathing. "Will?" Scrambled voice. "Who is this? What have you done with my boy? GIVE ME BACK MY SON YOU BITCH!"

That's when Joyce felt the phone overheat and dropped it.

Jonathan picked up the phone and tried to talk on it, but he heard nothing.

Jon then turned to his mom. "Who was it?"

"It was him, it was Will," Joyce cried.

"What did he say?" asked Jon.

"He said nothing, he just breathed," Joyce replied.

Jonathan hugged his mom, comforting her.

Meanwhile, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin were searching the woods for Will.

"I think we should go back," said Dustin.

"If you're gonna be such a baby, then go already," said Lucas.

"I'm being realistic," Dustin retorted.

"No you're not!" Lucas retorted. "You're being a big pussy!"

"We're going to the exact same spot Will disappeared," said Dustin. "We're unarmed. Does that sound smart to you?"

"Shut up," said Mike. "Do you hear that?"

Everyone stopped and heard screaming.

Everyone turned and saw two people fall onto the ground. Thankfully, a convenient pile of leaves saved them from dying. The two got up, and saw the boys. They were both scared, but they did not try to run and hide. They just stood silently.

A.N.

Man this was a fun write.

I'm sorry this chapter took me so long to write. I meant to post this yesterday, but it was late at night and it was a school night. I didn't wanna risk staying up too late and ending up late for school, let alone on the first day of the new semester.

So, not much seemed to change. There were minor changes in dialogue and certain scenes were adapted out, simply because they felt unnecessary.

The main change I had was that the demogorgon slashed the door open instead of using psychic powers to unlock the door. I've seen theories floating around that it was Vecna that captured Will and not a demogorgon, but the spinoff comic immediately disproves that theory. I know retcons exist, but still. There's no way Vecna would walk out in the Human World. I doubt he's strong enough to walk around like that.

I also inserted an OC. Experiment Number 12. As of now, I have no idea what I'm gonna do with him, other than giving him the power of flight and pairing him with Will Byers late in the story.

As I write, I'm gonna rewatch episodes at the same time so I know what needs changing and what doesn't. That's what I did with this episode, and, all in all, I felt like not much needed changing. "The Vanishing of Will Byers" was a great start to the series and is easily one of the best pilots out there.