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― season one, episode one;
THE BEGINNING

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4418 words

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*.✧ 𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐋𝐄𝐘 ✧.*

"What the hell!?" I could barely breathe in between laughs as I watched my best friend jump around and dance in my living room. Hannah jumped up onto my couch and started shaking a red solo cup at me, the liquid inside sloshing onto the carpet a bit.

"I'm a slap happy drunk, you know that." She slurred and then giggled, taking another long sip of whatever the cheap alcohol was that we had stolen from my mother's bedroom.

I had some to drink as well and my head was starting to hurt, so I knew it was time to be done.

I grabbed the cup out of her hand and tossed it into the kitchen. "Yeah, well, I think you've had enough." I told her, taking her other hand and guiding her off the couch and back onto the floor. She fumbled on shaky legs as she groaned. "C'mon Ash, why do you have to be so damn mature."

I smiled softly to myself, leading Hannah into my bedroom and laying her down on my bed. "Because you are so damn immature." I replied, looking around for her bag. I spotted it and grabbed it, starting to shove Hannah's belongings that she had brought for our sleepover the previous night into it.

Hannah scoffed at me, sitting up and grabbing a pillow and hugging it in her lap. I zipped up her bag, fairly certain that I had grabbed everything, and I set it next to her on the bed.

I then sat myself down next to her. "I'm gonna walk you home okay?"

Hannah didn't look at me, keeping her gaze on the ground. She pouted. "Why can't I just stay the night again?"

"I think you know why," I said, standing up and hovering over her. She groaned and fell on the bed onto her back and stared at the ceiling.

"Why, why, why, why, why?" She repeated in a sing song voice.

"C'mon, let's go." I ignored her, instead grabbing her hands and pulling her up.

Hannah muttered something under her breath but all I caught was something about me being 'too responsible'. I sighed as I waited for her to gain her balence before the two of us walked out the front door.

The November night air was chilly and the wind was crisp against my bare arms and legs. It felt like it might storm, and it looked like it too, from the way that the clouds loomed ominously overhead.

I shivered, pressing myself closer to Hannah for some warmth. "God, it's cold." I muttered. Hannah simply nodded in response.

We didn't say another word or make another noise for the rest of the ten minute walk. We arrived at her house, which was just a street over from mine. We stepped onto her porch and I rang the doorbell.

Hannah's older sister, Dianne, opened the door staring down at us with an angry stare.

"You guys are so lucky that I'm not a little snitch." Dianne snapped. "Need I remind you that you two are fifteen years old and have school tomorrow. I should get you arrested."

I rolled my eyes and leaned over to Hannah. "Goodnight." I whispered. She nodded and then stepped inside next to her sister. Diane slammed the door in my face, making me wince. "Have a nice night, Dianne!" I called to her through the door.

"Screw you Byers!"

I sighed and started to make my way back to my house. It was peaceful and quiet until I heard a branch snap, making me freeze.

"What the hell?" I muttered, looking into the woods for what could've made that sound. I didn't see anything, so I just kept walking, my mind starting to wander.

Ever since my parents got divorced, which was long overdue, by the way, and my dad moved away, things have been hard. I mean, things were hard before, with the constant fights between Mom and Dad, and the fact that Dad wasn't the nicest to his own children when he had been drinking. I guess you could say that it was better with him gone, but that didn't mean it wasn't still hard.

My mom had gotten a job, the only available job in Hawkins at the time. The convenience store didn't pay very well, but dealt with all the bills that had been piling up. Then my older brother Jonathan got a job, to pay for anything else we might need. We fixed the heater and the leaky roof with his money, so it was nice.

But it got a bit lonely. Don't get me wrong it was nice to have the house to yourself sometimes. I had fun with Hannah tonight, and since nobody's home we can pretty much do whatever, hence why we were drinking. Honestly though, if Mom had caught us she might not even care, because she has too much on her mind to worry about teenagers being stupid teenagers.

Of course it's fun sometimes. But when you're alone every night of the week, it can get a bit sad if you think about it for too long. Not to mention my brother gets to hang out with his group of friends that he's known practically his entire life while I sit around at home by myself during the nights, it makes even me, Ashley Byers, the most antisocial person in all of Hawkins, Indiana, feel a bit lonely.

Eventually my house came into view and that's when my heart stopped.

The front door was wide open.

Immediately my heart started racing a mile a minute, and my mind was swirling with possible explanations, none of them good.

I could've sworn that Hannah and I shut the door behind us. Then again, I am a bit drunk so maybe we just forgot. I got closer, moving carefully, then I heard my dog, Chester, barking.

I finished walking to the house and slowly peeked inside. The house appeared to look normal, just the way I left it. My heart rate started to slow. Hannah and I must've not shut the door all the way, and the wind from the storm blew it open. That's happened many times before.

I stepped inside, reaching for the light switch on the wall and upon flipping it, the lights didn't turn on. I frantically flipped the switch up and down a bunch of times, but of course, the light still didn't work.

I followed Chester's barks, leading me through the house and out to the backyard. Chester was standing at the bottom on the back porch steps, barking at the shed.

My heart stopped once again. I felt goosebumps cover my arms as I stared into the dark shed. That's where Dad used to do his stupid little handyman tasks, and I can still hear him cussing out the inanimate objects. That shed held some dark, bad energy.

I stepped out onto the porch and Chester turned to look at me, whining.

"Get inside buddy. Come on, you're scaring me." I said, going down the stairs and grabbing Chester by the collar and trying to drag him inside. He was stiff as a board as he resumed his barking, and he was trembling.

Finally I got him inside, and he immediately ran into Will's room, whimpering. I rolled my eyes at him. He probably saw another squirrel and was upset that he couldn't catch it.

Yeah, that must be it.

I found myself staring out the back window at the shed, a bad feeling settling in my chest. I could hear my heart in my ears before I snapped myself out of it and quickly locked the door.

I turned away from the window, shaking my head at myself. Hannah and I had just been watching horror movies earlier, they must be infiltrating my subconscious or something because I was scaring myself over nothing. It was just a stupid storm and the shed that had been in my yard my whole life. Nothing out of the ordinary.

I turned to go down the hallway and then that's when I saw that the phone was dangling by the cord, ever so slightly swinging against the wall. Like somebody had just dropped it and left.

I approached it slowly, and then I reached out my shaky hand. Just as my fingertips brushed the surface of it, a loud clap of thunder echoed through the sky, causing the house to tremble a bit. I gasped and fell back onto the floor at the sound, clutching at my chest as my heart beat uncontrollably. I took deep breath before I started laughing out loud at myself.

This is so ridiculous. I must have drank way more than I had thought, and my mind was making up all these scary things that could be causing all these things. But this isn't a horror movie.

This is Hawkins, for god's sake.

What must've happened was; in our drunken haze, Hannah and I had left the door not closed all the way and the wind from the storm had opened it. Chester had been barking at a squirrel or a rabbit that ran off into the woods before he could catch it. And there was a power outage from the storm. It all has a reasonable explanation.

I really need to get some sleep.

I got up off the floor and began to walk around the house, doing my rounds, making sure that there was no sign of underage drinking or anything that could get me in trouble.

Then I got some food and sat on the couch, letting my mind start to race once again. Every time I started to doubt my story, I just reminded myself that I was drunk. I could reevaluate in the morning.

I finished my dinner and got up to put my plate away. I ended up doing the whole sink full of dishes, which I'm sure Mom will appreciate.

I put the last plate on the drying rack and looked up at the wall clock, reading 9:58. I really wanted to be going to bed soon, since there was school in the morning, but Will still wasn't home and I was instructed, multiple times, to make sure he was safe.

I went over to the window and peered through the blinds, looking out at the front yard. It was dark and I could hear the wind howling. The window pane was starting to be pelted with tiny droplets of rain.

I'm sure that Will just stayed over at his friend's house, not wanting to bike in the storm.

Reasonable explanation.

I closed the curtains and stepped into my bedroom, falling onto my mattress and breathing a sigh of relief. I slipped into a restless sleep, not being able to drop the feeling that something was missing.

*.✧ 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐓 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 ✧.*

I opened my eyes, squinting into the sunlight that was glaring into my bedroom. I groaned as a headache started to set in. I sat up in bed and stretched, rubbing my temples afterwards. I heard clatter coming from the kitchen, and I smelled food being cooked. I pushed myself out of bed and I walked out into the hallway, my mom coming out of her room at the same time.

She was already dressed in her work clothes and she was pacing around the house, seemingly looking for something.

"Where the hell are they?" She muttered, darting into the bathroom and then back out. She exited the hallway and entered the kitchen. I followed her and sat down at the kitchen table. Jonathan was hunched over the stove, making breakfast.

"What are you looking for Mom?" I asked, yawning.

"My keys. Have you seen my keys?" She replied, not looking over at me, just continuing her search.

"Nope." I replied.

"Check the couch." Jonathan offered, plating up the food.

"I did!" Mom groaned. I watched as she dug around in the coach for a moment before gasping and pulling out her car keys from behind a pillow.

She held them up, wiggling them in the air. "Found them!" She said, coming back into the kitchen.

I giggled at her as Jonathan set down a plate of scrambled eggs in front of me. I thanked him then picked up my fork. He smiled at me before setting down a second plate in the spot next to me. My heart sunk as realization set in.

Where's Will?

Mom rounded the table and grabbed her bag from the floor in front of the refrigerator.

"Okay, I'll see you tonight, sweetie." She planted a kiss on my head. I gave her a half hearted smile as last night's events flashed across my mind.

Mom gave Jonathan a shoulder pat before turning back towards the table.

"Wait, where's Will?" She asked.

I just shrugged and Jonathan turned back to the counter, starting to clean up. "I didn't get him up yet so he's probably still sleeping." He said.

Mom gave him a disappointed sigh and I felt some of the guilt lift from my chest. I pushed my chair back and stood up. "I'll get him Mom, you can go to work."

Mom gave me a grateful smile. "Thank you Ash."

I nodded before practically running to Will's door and pushing it open. I had one of my hands behind my back and my fingers crossed, hoping that he'd be in his bed. I didn't want to face Mom when she found out that I just went to bed without making sure her baby was safe and home first.

But he wasn't in his bed.

His bed was empty, aside from Chester, who was still in the same spot as last night, right on Will's pillow.

I took a slow step back. "Will isn't in his room!" I called out.

I heard my Mom let go of the front door handle and peek her head down the hall.

"What?" She asked me.

I gulped. I'm in deep shit. "He's not in his bed."

Mom gave me a confused look. She walked towards me and pushed past to go into Will's room. She started patting the bed, but just like I had observed he wasn't in there.

"Did he come home last night?" Mom turned to me.

"I don't know." I muttered under my breath.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Mom pushed past me again and walked into the kitchen, me on her heels.

"I fell asleep before he got home, Mom, I'm sorry, I didn't see him." I explained.

"Jonathan, did you see Will come home?"

"He's not in his room?" Jonathan looked concerned.

"Did either of you see him come home?" Mom looked between Jonathan and I. We both stood there like puppies being scolded as we shook our heads.

"I was working." Jonathan said.

"You were working?" Mom exclaimed.

"Eric asked if I could cover for him and I said yeah. I thought we could use the extra cash."

Mom groaned loudly. "Are you serious? Ashley, you should've waited up for him but Jonathan, really? Just leave your fifteen year old sister to stay up all night and wait for Will to come home? I can't believe this."

"Mom, I'm sure he just stayed at Mike's." Jonathan tried to calm her down.

The front door being wide open flashed across my mind and suddenly my appetite was all gone. What if something bad happened to Will? And what if it was all my fault because I was drinking again?

"Yeah, he probably didn't want to bike home in the storm." I said, but I think I was mostly trying to convince myself.

Mom stomped over to the phone. "I can't believe you guys." She started dialing. "Sometimes." She added, bringing the phone to her ear.

Jonathan sat down next to me with his own plate, shrugging at me jokingly before starting to eat. I forced a 'mom worries too much' smile, but I had a bad feeling about this. I mean, what if somebody took Will? Like a kidnapper or something? What if he got home while I was walking with Hannah and then somebody just took him because the door was open?

I tried to eat my eggs but I could barely choke them down. I tried to listen in on Mom's conversation on the phone with Mrs. Wheeler.

"Will didn't spend the night?"

I dropped my fork at her words and Jonathan looked up at me. I chewed on my lip as I pushed my plate away, my knee starting to bounce unconsciously. Jonathan put his hand on my knee to try to calm me down but it wasn't working.

Mom hung up the phone and slowly turned to face us. She ran her hands through her hair and I could tell by Jonathan's face that it was starting to sink in for him now too.

We all just stared at each other for a moment, not really knowing what to say, or what to do. I dug my nails into my palms, trying to stop my leg from shaking but it just wouldn't.

This is not good. Not good at all.

"I'm gonna go to the police station, you guys stay here okay?" Mom fumbled with her keys as she walked towards the door.

Jonathan stood up, rushing over to her. "Mom, wait, please just relax. What if he went to another one of his friend's houses?"

"Jonathan." Mom said in a stern tone. "I am going to the police." With this, she slipped out the front door, shutting it behind her, leaving Jonathan and I alone.

*.✧ 𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐄 ✧.*

I hummed to myself as I applied some lipstick. Suddenly my bedroom door was flung open, causing my hand to slip and a dark red streak to smear across my cheek.

Enraged, I flung the lipstick tube down onto the desk and faced whoever had just broken my concentration.

"Do you see what you've done?" I snapped at my sister, Barbara, who was standing in the doorway, glaring at me.

"Belle come on, we have to go! I have to pick up Nancy in five minutes and she lives seven away!" Barb left and I heard her going down the stairs.

"I'm sure that somehow, the world will keep on spinning." I muttered to myself as I wiped the lipstick on my face with my finger. Satisfied with the cleanup, I stood up from my vanity. I admired my outfit in the mirror for a moment. A purple and blue patterned button up tucked into some black jean shorts. With my signature black combat boots of course.

I sighed before grabbing my backpack off my bed, slinging it over my shoulder. I shut my bedroom door behind me and went down the stairs.

Barb was standing in front of the door and I walked right past her to go into the kitchen. I heard Barb groan at this and that made me smile.

Dad was plating up some bacon and I gasped. "Bacon? Hell yeah!" I reached for some but Dad smacked my hand away.

"Oh no you don't. Not with that language." He scolded, turning back to the stove where he had pancakes going.

I rolled my eyes at him before snatched up some bacon while he wasn't looking and walking out of the kitchen, approaching Barb.

I shoveled my last piece of bacon into my mouth and Barb scoffed. "Thanks for bringing me some."

"You're welcome." I smiled at her sarcastically. "Besides, I thought that you were in too much of a hurry for bacon."

Barb didn't reply, she just opened the front door and walked out, towards her car that was parked on the driveway. I followed her, climbing into the backseat.

We drove over to Nancy's house and picked her up. Nancy Wheeler was Barb's best friend since middle school. They were practically inseparable and, if I do say so myself, insufferable.

All they cared about was grades, studying, and how many cardigans they could wear in one week. It was ridiculous.

On the drive to school, Barb and Nancy talked about, you guessed it, a really hard test that they had to study for later. I just stared out the window, really wishing that I had brought my headphones. I don't even know why they worry about studying so much because they always got an A. Some of us, namely me, can study all night long and still get a D, a C if I get lucky.

So, I find their stress to be slightly insulting, although maybe if I hadn't altogether given up on studying in the seventh grade, then maybe I wouldn't have a C in every class. But despite it all, they were still annoying.

We arrived at Hawkins High and Barb parked and the three of us walked inside together, with me trailing behind them as they gossiped about their latest boy crush who I didn't even need to know anything about to know that he was definitely out of their league. They stopped at their lockers and I continued walking to mine, which was a bit down the hall.

"Belle!"

I froze in my tracks.

Oh no. That was the grating voice of Avery Wentworth, one of the most popular girls in the freshman class. Inevitably, her minions, Shellie Green and Lena McDonald, were standing right behind her like some sort of cliche highschool movie. Unfortunately, this was real life and what was even more unfortunate was the fact that these girls had decided to befriend me this year.

I think that I was one of their little projects. Like they would take in the weird, "emo", introverted girl to seem like they aren't so stuck up, even though they are. I can't believe that people like that actually exist but they are.

Now of course, when they asked me to sit with them at lunch on the first day, of course I said yes, I mean, why wouldn't I want to be friends with the popular girls? Sure, they can be annoying, stuck up and really snotty, but at least when I started to hang out with them I wasn't being bullied anymore, and that's all I really cared about.

I slowly spun around, giving them a big but forced smile. "Good morning girls!" I gushed. "How are we this morning?"

"We are doing great, but you are not, however." Avery informed me.

"And why's that?"

"Because you didn't come to our sleepover last night. We had it planned for days now."

"Oh my god, I totally forgot, I am so sorry, Aves!" I grabbed the blond's hand, lying through my teeth.

Yeah, I 'forgot'. I definitely didn't not go on purpose, instead opting to stay at home and sneak some of my dad's cigarettes while listening to loud music that these girls would absolutely hate.

"That's okay. But you do have to make it up to us." Avery said.

I resumed my walk to my locker, the trio right on my heels. I opened it up and started to collect the books I would need.

"What am I doing for you ladies?" I asked, shutting my locker back up, turning back to face them.

"You are going to get Gabe to invite you over to his house and then you are going to have sex with him."

I nearly choked on my own spit at this. Gabe Shultz was the trio's boy crush of the week, and they were all desperate to get in his pants. I however, had been pretending to have a crush on Gabe to deflect from the fact that I am in no way into Gabe or what his has going on in his pants, if you catch my drift.

"Why am I having sex with Gabe?" I asked.

"Number one, you're a big fat virgin and it's time you just went for it, Belle. We're freshmen, we aren't kids anymore." Avery explained. "And two, you can tell us what he's like in the sack." The last line made the three girls giggle together.

"I don't know if I'm ready." I wasn't in such a joking, sarcastic mood anymore. My heart was in my stomach and I really wanted to melt into the floor because I have a feeling I'm not going to get out of this.

"Oh come on Belle! Nobody's actually ready to lose their virginity! You just have to go for it." Avery tried convincing me.

I stared at the floor for a moment, praying that God might strike me down right there. But of course, He never listens to me, so there I still stood. I took a deep breath before plastering a fake smile on my face and looking back up at them.

"Yeah, sure. I'll do it. I'll give you a little review. Rate him out of ten." I joked, my smile not reaching my eyes. But the girls didn't notice, and even if they did I'm pretty sure that they wouldn't care. They just grabbed each other and squealed as I used all my energy to keep the fake ass smile on my face.

"Thank you Belle! You're a lifesaver." Avery patted my arm before the trio just brushed past me and walked down the hall, then rounded the corner, leaving me alone in the hallway.

I stood there for a moment, my mind racing. But then the bell rang and I marched off to class, desperately trying to figure out a way to get out of this.

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ೃ༄ catie speaks!

hiii! i just wanted to say, if you got this far, thank you so much!

what are your thoughts so far?

who's your favorite pov so far? ashley or belle?

right now i'd have to say belle for me, because she's so snarky and it's really fun to write.

i can't believe that belle's friends are so surface level and gross! she needs new friends...perhaps...a friendship with ashley??? idk maybe ;)

also ashley was being irresponsible and then will went missing 😬 i wonder how much that guilt will eat her alive?

anyways thanks for reading!! i would love if you would vote for this chapter and follow me to be notified when i update.

ily,
cat ♡