"Some people say the world will end in fire. Others say it'll end in ice," the man smiled at the little girl as he tucked her into bed.

The little looked up at him, green eyes shining brightly under messy blonde hair. He smoothed it out of the way, tucking it behind her ears.

"Why fire and ice?" she asked.

"It's a poem," he said.

"Tell me?" she said.

"Okay. Some people say the world will end in fire, some say in ice. From what I've tasted of desire, I hold with those who favour fire. But if I had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate to say that, for destruction, ice is also great and would suffice," he said.

She stared at him for a few seconds.

"I don't understand. Fire hurts. Ice would not," she said.

"Ice would hurt in a different way. But it's not about whether you'd rather die in ice or fire. It's a metaphor," he said.

"A metaphor?" she repeated.

"You know," he chuckled, standing up and tucking the blankets around her, "It's too far past your bedtime for me to explain the english language to you tonight," he said.

She grinned up at him, showing two missing teeth on her top row. He grinned back down, ruffling her choppy hair.

"Getting long, now," he said.

"To my shoulders!" she said, touching the blonde locks against her shoulders. The man leaned forward and kissed her forehead, then tucked her in again.

"Goodnight, T," he said.

"Goodnight," she said.

He turned her bedside table lamp off and turned to leave. He stopped, however, eyes resting on the window.

"What is it?" she asked, sitting up in the bed.

"Get my phone and call 911, ask them for the fire service. Tell them we live at 590 Almond Drive and that our house is on fire," he said, motioning to the phone on the bedside table.

"But we're not on fire," she said.

"We're about to be," he muttered.

She grabbed the phone and pressed 911, waiting for the call to connect.

"911, what's your emergency?"

"Our house is on fire," she said, kneeling on the bed to look out of the window.

"Where do you live?"

"590 Almond Drive."

"Okay, and are you out of the house?"

"No."

"Hang up," the man muttered.

The little girl ended the call, putting his phone on the bedside table. She stood up and looked out of the window, jaw dropping when she saw what was happening outside.

Papa was stood there, a grin on his face as he stared at the man. The man looked at the little girl.

"Stay in here. I'll be back," he said.

"What about-"

"Stay here," he hissed.

She sat back down on the bed, chewing her fingernails as he left the room. She heard his footsteps thudding on the stairs, then the bang of the kitchen door being opened. She heard liquid moving around inside of something, then liquid being poured on the floor.

He ran upstairs, lighter in hand. He looked at her, eyes terrified yet face stone cold and void of emotion.

He opened the lighter and dropped it over the side of the stairs. There was a small clatter of it hitting the floor followed by a whoosh of fire. She flinched back as the fire immediately started clinging to the wooden stairs, moving up towards him and her.

He hurried into her bedroom and closed the door over, pushing the bedside table in front of it. He hurried to the window and looked out, seeing the little girl's papa was still stood outside. Only, this time, he looked furious.

They heard the familiar siren of the fire engine and the people outside quickly climbed into their vans and drove away. He looked at the door, almost completely enveloped by fire, then at the little girl.

"Hey, I need you to listen to me right now, okay?" he said, grabbing her cheeks. She nodded. "I'm going to get you out of this. And you need to remember our rules; you do not use your tricks and you never, never, tell anyone where you came from, or papa will find you and papa will try and hurt you again," he said.

"What about you?" she whispered, tears streaming down her cheeks.

He closed his eyes, kissing her forehead.

"You'll find me, someday. We'll meet again. I promise you," he whispered.

She nodded.

"Okay, grab your bag out of the closet, alright?" he said.

She stood up off the bed, but she didn't have a chance to grab the bag. He hit her around the back of her head.

She hit the floor unconscious. He grabbed her quickly and crossed to the window, breaking it with his elbow. Firefighters were underneath the window waiting.

He looked back at the door, seeing the fire had spread from the door and had enveloped the bed, coming too near them for both of them to make it out. He looked down at the little girl and kissed her forehead before throwing her out of the window to the firefighters, letting the fire consume his body and life to save hers.

Camden Harrington shot up in bed, gasping for breath as her hand smacked around for the switch for her bedside lamp. She turned it on and put her head in her hands, forcing air into her lungs through her hyperventilating.

"Cam? Honey, did it happen again?" Marissa Harrington stepped into the room in her yoga clothes, turning the overhead light off as she made her way to Camden's bed.

"Yes," Camden whispered, looking up at her mother.

Marissa sat at the side of the bed, smoothing Camden's blonde hair out of her face. She put the back of her hand against Camden's forehead, then her cheek.

"You're running a bit of a fever," Marissa said, looking at her watch. "It's five fifty. I'm gonna call in sick for you today, okay? You try and get some more sleep and I'll check in on you before I have to head into the office," she said.

"No school?" Camden said.

"No school. Get some more rest. I'll leave breakfast in the microwave for you in case you get hungry," Marissa said.

"Will you tell Steve I don't need a ride?" Camden asked, turning her lamp off and shuffling back down under the blankets.

"Of course. I'll check in on you before I leave in an hour," Marissa said, kissing Camden's forehead before leaving the room and turning the overhead light off.

Camden sighed as she rolled onto her side to face the window, staring at the sunrise coming through the open curtains. She closed her eyes, the orange hues of the sky burning against her eyelids like the fire in her dream had done minutes prior.

Camden was eating ice cream in her bedroom as she did her homework when someone threw a rock through her balcony doors. She looked up from the work Troy had dropped off for her, considering he lived three doors down and they were in the same classes.

She climbed off her bed and walked out onto her balcony, looking down curiously at Michael Wheeler, Dustin Henderson and Lucas Sinclair stood outside of her house.

"Uh, hi?" Camden said.

She wasn't exactly friends with the boys. She was friends with Michael because her older brother was dating his older sister, but she was closest to Will out of all of them, and he was the only one not there.

They were friends because they usually sat together in most of their classes when they were younger when their teachers insisted on it being boy girl ordered. She was the only girl in school who had never once said anything bad about Will, so he knew she wouldn't mind sitting with him, and they'd built a solid friendship over the years.

That didn't mean that they were close, though. Camden was one of the popular girls in school, while Will and his friends were some of the nerdy kids. Camden never stood by if she saw her friends being mean to the boys, but she wasn't their friend, either. Not really.

"Hi," Lucas said. "Sorry for dropping by like this," he added.

"What do you guys want?" Camden said.

"We want to know if you've seen Will. We know you two see each other sometimes," Mike called up.

"Why would I have seen him? I've been off school today. You would've seen him," Camden said.

"You haven't heard?" Mike said.

"Heard what?" Camden asked.

"Will never made it home last night. He's missing," Lucas said sadly.

Camden's jaw dropped open and she stared at them.

"What? He's missing? But... What... I haven't seen him since school on Friday," Camden said slowly.

"Okay. Well, thanks," Lucas rubbed the back of his neck.

"We're gonna go looking for him later," Dustin said.

"Dustin!" Mike hissed.

"You could come, if you wanted?" he offered.

"My mom wouldn't be happy if she came home and I wasn't here after I stayed off school. But wait there. I have something for you," Camden said.

She walked back into her room and over to her bedside table, grabbing one of the three penknives her father had given her over the years. She walked back over to the balcony and peered over.

"Heads up," she said.

They held their hands out and Camden dropped the knife down, Lucas catching it.

"Don't get yourselves killed, hey? And let me know if you find him," Camden said.

"Thanks, Camden," Mike said.

"Sure," Camden said.

She walked back into her room and sat on her bed, taking a sip of her apple juice off the side with a frown before returning to her homework.

Camden was off school again the next day after another night filled with nightmares of the fire. Marissa had insisted she stay off because she still had a fever, even if Camden felt completely fine otherwise. Sure, she was a bit tired and felt drained, but she was fine.

Still, she wasn't fighting with her mother on having a day off school, not when she knew she could catch up and stay at the top of the class with Will and his friends.

She was watching television in her bedroom when her pink phone rang.

"Hello?" she said.

"Is Mike with you?" Lucas said.

"What?" she said.

"Is Mike with you?" Lucas repeated.

"Why would he be with me? He's at school, isn't he?" she said.

"No, he's stayed off. We figured he might've come to your place or something happened with-" Lucas cut himself off. "Never mind," he said.

"Something happened with what? Will?" she asked.

"No, no. It's fine. Thanks, Camden," Lucas hung up.

Camden slammed the phone down and turned back to the television with a huff. Stupid boys.

Camden was making a sandwich for her lunch when her nose started bleeding. Blood dropped onto the slice of bread she was holding and she scoffed, getting a fresh one. She wiped her nose clean but more blood kept coming. She had never had a nosebleed before.

She stopped the bleeding after ten minutes and ate her clean sandwich with a frown. She sighed and walked to the phone. She was going to call Mike and make sure he was okay.

"Hello?" Mike said.

"Hey, uh, it's Camden," she said.

"Uh, hey. Are you okay?" Mike asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I was just wondering if you're okay. Lucas called about an hour ago and said you were off school, asked if I'd seen you. I was just wondering," Camden said.

"Oh, uh, about that, uh. I'm fine. I was just sick. Must've caught whatever you had or something," he lied. Camden raised her eyebrows.

"I mean, I'm not sick in a contagious way, but okay. Uh, I think Steve's having Nancy over tonight. I don't know if you want to bring the boys over or something? We can order a pizza and I can help you with finding Will," Camden said.

"Uh, we're kind of busy tonight. But, I mean, we can rearrange. Definitely rearrange," Mike said.

"What are you hiding from me, Wheels?" she asked.

"Hiding from you? Nothing!" Mike's voice went really high pitched.

"You're a liar, Michael. But whatever. If you didn't want to hang out, you could've just said," Camden hung up the phone with a huff.

"You have to stay in your room tonight," Steve knocked on the living room door when he got home from school that afternoon.

Steve was having a few friends over with Tommy tonight while Marissa and Peter Harrington were out of town for a work meeting until tomorrow.

"Yeah, I know," Camden rolled her eyes.

"And you can't tell mom or dad about anything that happens," he said.

"Then you better pay me for my silence. You know how this works, Stevie boy. You lie, I cover, but it comes with a price," Camden held her hand out. He rolled his eyes and grabbed a bunch of notes from his pocket, dumping them in her hand.

"Thirty bucks. Now leave me alone tonight, stay in your room, get any food or drink you want before they get here and don't tell mom or dad," he said.

"Yeah, yeah, get lost," Camden closed the door on his face with a grin.

Camden went to school the next day, swinging by the store on her skateboard first to get some snacks for her lessons. She still had money left over from the last few times Steve had thrown parties so she was racking up quite a lot of money to spend on food.

She got some sweets for the boys, too, knowing they could probably use a pick-me-up.

She skated to school and headed in to her first lesson. She only had science with the boys now they were in middle school so she'd have to wait to see them in the afternoon.

At recess, she was skating around looking for the boys. She heard Troy and James and followed their voices, finding them laughing as Mike lay on the floor, Lucas and Dustin trying to help him up.

"What are you dickheads doing?" Camden said loudly. Troy and James turned to her, smiling widely.

"Glad you're back, Camden. These dweebs are looking for their missing friend," James said.

"That's not even funny," Camden raised her eyebrows.

"Of course, it is. Will Byers, the queer of the century, has disappeared. This is the best day of my life," Troy laughed.

Camden kicked her skateboard at him, successfully hitting him in the shin. He groaned and clutched his leg.

"Leave them alone, you dicks. If I see you around them again, I'll break your arms," she glared at them. They ran off and Camden turned back to the boys. She held out the sweets. "Here," she said.

"Thanks for that, and for this," Mike took the bags awkwardly.

"Yeah," she said.

"What are you doing tonight?" Mike asked. Dustin and Lucas turned to him with wide eyes.

"Uh, probably listening to Steve whine about Nancy for a few hours? Nothing too important. Why?" she said.

"We're gonna go look for Will, if you want to come," Mike said.

"Oh, sure. Where should I meet you guys?" she asked.

"The bike shed as soon as we finish. We've got to go back to Mike's to get El and then we can go," Dustin said.

"El?" Camden asked.

"We'll explain later," Lucas said.

"Okay. See you later, then," she smiled and skated off to go back inside.