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Chapter Text

Ted Wheeler was oblivious to many of the going ons inside his house. He never noticed when his eldest started treating curfew as a guideline rather than a rule. He missed when his little son and friends snuck PG-13 horror movies when his wife wasn’t home, much to their immediate regret. Part of this was because the man simply did not care enough. For the children’s biggest secret however, it was because of the careful effort that his wife and children put into keeping him, or anyone else, from ever finding out.

Karen Wheeler wasn’t a perfect mother, but she did care what her children got up to. She liked to think she knew about the most important things in their lives. When they were little, she really did know their biggest secrets, including the fact that her two oldest children were no longer completely human. 

Back when Nancy and Mike were little they came crying for their mother when they got hurt, like many children. So when the two got bitten by a big scary wolf, her children came running and told her everything. Out of her eldest’s mouth came spilling the fact that they had broken the rules by sneaking into the woods to explore past their bedtime. According to her, a wolf appeared out of nowhere, and tried to eat them. When it had gone after her little brother, 10 yr old Nancy had wacked the creature right over the head with a tree branch.  Karen could only thank whatever powers that be that her children escaped with only minor injuries, as she had no idea how they had been so lucky that that had worked. 

Her son didn’t stop crying as she bandaged him up.

“I know. I know it hurts sweetie, it’s almost over.” She kissed next to the bite on his leg. “You’re such a brave boy.”

Her daughter was the complete opposite of Mike. She was silent from the moment she finished her explanation. Rather than cry about her own pain and fear, her attention rested solely on the boy. Karen couldn’t help the tears that escaped at the sight of her sweet attempts to comfort the 6 yr old through cuddles. 

Despite the traumatic event, very little changed within her family. The kids still acted like themselves, and only their attentive mother noticed the increased craving for meat they both exhibited. Mike still loved waffles above all other foods, and Nancy still thought she was sneaky enough that her mother didn’t know she snuck extra bowls of ice cream sometimes. So, Karen was content to feed them more meat and leave things be, that is, until the true extent of the change revealed itself.

During the days preceding the full moon, her children started complaining about aches and pains. They clung to her for comfort more than they ever had. Karen did everything she could to help her tired kids, but there were limits to what she could do. The night of the most painful day thus far, she gave them ibuprofen and started a family favorite movie, soothing them through cuddles.

They started screaming simultaneously. It was the most horrific sound Karen had ever heard in her life.

 She watched helplessly as her children started shaking and changing before her eyes. They grew large, and sprouted fur and sharp teeth, but the Wheeler mother stayed right by their sides, unwilling to abandon them in their moment of need. Despite the insanity of the situation, Karen was not a stupid woman. She could put two and two together to figure out what must be happening. Her beloved kids had been bitten by a werewolf. Since when were werewolves real?? And why did it have to be her Nancy and Mike?

Nancy and Mike stopped seizing. Tears streaming down her face, Karen froze, unsure what was about to happen. Her children dragged themselves to their paws, and locked gazes with her. In that moment that felt like it extended to eternity, Karen got her first look at transformed werewolves. They looked like large regular wolves. Nancy’s fur had a brown tint that her brother’s dark coat lacked. They looked almost beautiful. The moment snapped when her kids abruptly turned away and broke through the door to outside.

Her children did not return for two full days. Ted didn’t even notice, and Karen fell apart with panic alone. 

Adjustment to the new reality was difficult for all of them, but these were her children. Karen Wheeler would do anything for her kids. She learned quickly how to handle tools, first to fix the broken door, then to fix or build everything else her kids needed throughout the years. News spread through the town of a potential bear on the loose when a mauled deer was found a day later. Hunters around town picked up guns, and everyone was warned to be careful. 

Karen built a safe room in the basement. Through much trial and error on her part it became one hidden and secure enough to hold two intelligent and dangerous creatures. She made Nancy and Mike lock themselves in every month, unwilling to bear the thought of a mistaken hunter shooting her kids. The wolves hated it. It left the humans agitated and hyper for days following a change. However, their mother could handle the attitudes and chaos if it kept them safe. 

They learned a lot those first couple of years. Karen bought every werewolf book she could get her hands on, but learned quickly that it would be impossible to parse out the truth from the fiction. They did have minor allergic reactions to silver, but one transformation proved quite eventful when she attempted to turn them back by submerging them in freshwater. Needless to say, it did not work and the wolves did not like it. 

Luckily Nancy and Mike proved unwilling to seriously hurt their mother when transformed, but also had little control over the animal instincts. The memory they retained fluctuated from month to month. The transformation started the night before the full moon and ended the night after. This was all they really knew with certainty, as Karen stood fast to the rule against testing anything wolfsbane related.

She felt helpless, but she did all she could. She gave them all the backrubs they needed the days before the transformation, in an attempt to ease the pain. Raw meat helped with hunger when they transformed, so it became a staple of every full moon. She got them out of school month after month. 

Their experiences drew them closer together than their mother had ever seen before. Little Nancy had always been kind to and played with the boys, but after the incident they were all attached at the hip. She did everything with Mike and his friends. She had always struggled making friends her own age, and this exacerbated the issue. It was just her and ‘The Party’, as the boys liked to call themselves. 

Karen became more concerned for her daughter’s lack of other friends. She needed someone her own age to connect with. Yet, at the same time, Nancy and the boys seemed to love each other so much. They enjoyed each other’s company, even if the girl frequently got annoyed at their antics. They were best friends. 

A few years passed before things started to change again. When Nancy was 14 she made a new friend, Barbara Holland. She became attached extremely quickly. In an instant, the dynamic between Karen’s oldest kids changed. Her daughter wanted to spend more and more time with her new best friend, and Mike threw a fit. She had to reprimand her son multiple times for literally growling whenever it was revealed that Barbara was coming over. She knew it was jealousy surrounding his best friend, his older sister. He liked the Party the way it was, and Nancy was doing many things separate from them suddenly.

Nancy seemed to have little desire to fully pull away from the group initially. She tried to get the boys to become friends with Barb as well, but it just led to a fight between her and Mike. Karen put a stop to that as soon as she could, as that was something she had come to learn had changed after their transformation. When the two got especially agitated the animalistic instincts got stronger. This could lead to wrestling or even the occasional biting during a fight.

Mike wouldn’t allow the new girl to join the group, and so Nancy had to prioritize and split her time. Time brought her closer and closer to Barb, and therefore further and further away from the boys. By the time they turned 15 years old, the two girls were practically inseparable. Karen felt her concerns rising once again. She loved that her daughter had a good friend that was a girl her own age, but something about their level of dependence on each other felt almost unnatural.  

Karen had no desire to harm the friendship between the two, or the support it provided her daughter. However, she eventually determined that something needed to change. She decided to talk to Nancy with the hope of bringing up her concerns without pushing too hard. 

She knocked softly on the open door to her daughter’s bedroom. “Sweetie? Can we talk?”

Nancy looked up from her homework, “Sure? What’s up?”

Karen breathed deep, trying to slow her heart rate, and sat on the edge of the bed. “You know I love Barb right? I think she’s a great friend to you, and you to her.”

Nancy shifted to be sitting fully upright in the bed beside her. “Why are we talking about Barb?”

“I’m just concerned. You two spend all your time together, and you don’t ever even talk to other kids.” Nancy’s confused gaze hardened. Karen rushed forward, hoping to make her point make sense, “I think you should branch out more, make a few friends. It’s not healthy to be so dependent on one person, Nance. When’s the last time you did anything separate from her?”

“Are you trying to tell me to stop hanging out with Barb so much?” A soft growl followed her words. This didn’t phase her mother, as she had gotten used to her children's eccentricities long before. 

“Sweetheart, Barb doesn’t have anyone else either. You’re very possessive of your friendship with her, and she needs more room to grow. You’re stopping her from having a bigger support system.”

Nancy’s words caught on a whine, “But she’s Mine. ” 

The girl’s reply only reinforced her worry. “She doesn’t have to stop being your best friend, but don’t you want what’s best for her?”

That stopped Nancy short, just as she knew it would. Her daughter would do absolutely anything for Barbara Holland. If only her mother could get her to do it for herself too. The rest of the conversation was much more emotional than angry, and afterwards she comforted a crying Nancy until she fell asleep.

A few months after that conversation, Mike Wheeler mentioned Steve Harrington at the dinner table. No matter what she said, Karen was secretly relieved.

Chapter Text

A few months after the conversation with her mother, Nancy tenderly wiped some sweat off her little sister’s face. The small girl had been feverish for hours now, and Nancy was concerned. What if the sickness got worse? Why couldn’t she do anything to fix this?
Her mom came into the room, bearing a tray of soup and saltines. Pausing at the end of the bed, she smiled tenderly. “I swear, you're acting like more of a mother bear than I am.”

“I’ve never seen her this sick before! And what if something happens tonight while Mike and I are… occupied. I don’t want to have to be locked up tonight,” Nancy pleaded, “You know that we would never hurt Holly! Please Mom.”

Mom sighed and sat down next to her, carefully placing the tray to the side. “Sweetheart, you know that you can’t guarantee that you won’t try to leave the house. You’ve never exhibited much control as a wolf. You’re still struggling against your instincts as a human. I had to tear you and Mike apart yesterday so that you wouldn’t maim each other.”

“That was friendly-fighting! It relieves stress! We weren’t going to seriously hurt each other!”

“Sweetheart, both your tail and your teeth were shifted. You were trying to bite him. ” 

“So?” Nancy whined petulantly, “He would have been fine. We do that all the time.”

“People don’t do that, Nancy. I’ve told you before, Mike and you both need to learn how to curb that instinct. Someday someone’s going to notice something if you keep accidentally shifting and trying to bite each other to resolve conflicts.”

Her mother turned to start feeding Holly some soup, and Nancy quickly moved to help shift her sister into a more upright position. Holly whimpered in discomfort, and curled into her sister’s side. 

“Dolly-dish, this is going to help you feel better and then you’ll be right as rain within a couple days.”

Her mother had to pull Nancy away when the time to shift came. 

Mike was already in the safe room when they got there. “You’re cutting it awfully close today,” he teased.

Nancy stuck her tongue out at him. 

I have to watch Holly tonight, so you two stay safe. No funny business, got it?”

“Yes, Mom.” they chorused.

The constant aches and pains she had lived with for the last few days soon started intensifying after the door closed behind their mother. Shockwaves soared through every inch of Nancy’s body, sending her to her knees. They’d learned that fighting the transformation made it longer and more painful, so she let the magic wash over her. It soon passed, and she found herself sprawled across the floor. Smells and sounds washed over her, overwhelming her senses. It took a minute to get her bearings, like always.

Mike was the first one up tonight, and he pounced on his favorite chew toy, a large deer bone that Mom had somehow procured. They didn’t lose themselves to the wolf or anything like that. There was no separate entity living in their heads. Mike was still Mike, and Nancy still Nancy. Transforming just made human preconceptions feel a little fuzzier, and instinctual things more predominant. 

Today, Nancy’s instincts were screaming at her. She needed to keep watch over her little sister. Fully human Nancy may have given in to her mother’s wishes, but right now she couldn’t quite comprehend why. Holly needed her. Therefore, she must do everything possible to be there for her. 

She rushed to the door, scratching and pushing with all her might. She howled and whined, trying everything she could think of to get her mother to open the door. Mike watched on in confusion. Eventually he caught her eye, and she could read the question in his tilted head. What’s wrong with you?

Nancy turned fully to him, pleading in her body language, Sister needs me. Please help.

He didn’t move.

She hated having to do this, but she lowered herself to the ground, ears fully back, and whined. Please.

He huffed, rolling his eyes, but he did get up. He rubbed his face beside hers, seeking to comfort her. Mom’s watching over her. She’ll be fine. 

She pulled away, shaking her head. No. I need to go. 

Fine. 

Nancy jumped up, running in circles around him excitedly, her tail wagging furiously. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

He barked to get her attention again. She forced herself to stop running, but her tail kept wagging as she looked at him. 

The sarcasm was evident in his expression, How exactly do you expect me to help?

It was a good question. The door wasn’t usually locked, because wolves couldn’t turn round doorknobs and their mother was also usually present to watch them. There had to be a way with two of them. 

She went up to the door, put a paw to one side of the knob and pushed up. It slipped. Wait. She had an idea. She barked excitedly, and moved her head. Mike, get over here! I have an idea.

He complied, watching her in question. She put her paw against the side of the knob again. She barked and repeated the gesture. Then she moved to the other side of the knob, and put a paw there. 

He tilted his head in question. 

She moved her paw again. Put your paw there!

He finally got the idea and copied her. Actually getting the right timing and pressure angle to open the door took a few tries. One time they managed to turn the handle, but didn’t get the door to open at all, leading to another failure. Eventually they swung the door open. 

Nancy couldn’t believe it, that actually worked!  

As soon as Mike realized he was actually free, his ears perked up and he booked it for the outside door. That handle only required a paw and an understanding of how door handles worked, so he wasted little time getting himself outside on a full moon for the first time since their mother had completed the safe room. 

Nancy was so tempted to follow him. To actually be able to run, for once, sounded so amazing. She made it a step before the idea of her sick sister pulled her back to the original goal. No, Holly needs me. So instead she trotted up the stairs, barely remembering in time that she needed to be quiet because Mom would be mad if she let Dad see her. 

 She snuck through the house right up to where she could hear Holly’s raspy breathing. Their mother was asleep in the master bedroom, resting while she had the chance. Nancy thought that was perfect, as no one could stop her from climbing onto Holly’s bed and curling her body right up next to her. She fell asleep, content with the knowledge that she would be there if her little sister needed anything.  

“NANCY RENAE WHEELER! What do you think you’re doing!?” 

She jerked to her feet, startled straight from sleep. She looked around for danger, careful not to step on Holly. When she didn’t see anything, she stared at her mother in confusion for a few seconds before she realized she wasn’t supposed to be here. 

Oh no.

Her tail went between her hind legs, and her ears and head fell in guilt. 

Before her mother could say anything else, Holly started crying, having been woken by the chaos. Nancy immediately lay back down and booped Holly with her nose. She licked the tears from her face as Holly’s cries turned to laughter. 

“Doggy!”

If Nancy were currently capable of smiling, she would have. Instead, her tail once again started moving in a happy dance for her sister. Holly sounded much better than she had the day before. 

Mom groaned, “How did you even get out? And where’s Mike?”

As if called by magic, a muddied and happily panting Mike appeared in the doorway. He trotted up to their sister’s bed and sniffed her, checking to see how she was doing. 

“You went outside.. Of course you did. At least your sister had the sense to stay inside,” she groaned. “Well, as you both can see, Holly is doing much better. She will be fine. You two are going straight back to the bunker. Don’t think you’re getting away with this scot-free.”

When they didn’t move right away, she waved at them, “Go!”

Satisfied that she had helped her sister, Nancy obeyed and playfully snapped at Mike’s ear to get him moving as well. 

Their mother found them playing tug-o-war when she came downstairs to lock them both back in. 

Chapter Text

The first few days after a transformation were always a toss up. Some months, Nancy just found herself wound into a ball of hyperactive energy that needed an escape, on others she found herself dragging herself out of bed, with exhaustion and pain smothering the bright ball of pressurized energy. This month seemed to be better than usual, and unusually painless. After being locked back in, Mike and her had spent the rest of the transformation expending excess energy through play. 

She still found herself bouncing on her feet and squishing her after-the-full-moon stress ball as she waited for Barb at her locker the following morning. Her relationship with Barb had changed over the last few months as she tried to take her mother’s words to heart. Nancy’s priority was always going to be to protect Barb. She never wanted to be the cause of her pain, yet that seemed unavoidable, no matter what she did. 

She started to grin as she caught sight of her best friend down the hall, only to find it faltering as she also saw who Barb was walking with. Band Girl. Despite all her efforts advocating for the two’s rekindled friendship, Nancy had gone to great lengths to ignore Band Girl’s existence. She was unwilling to even learn the other girl’s name. She didn’t do this out of malice, rather as a coping mechanism against her intense jealousy. The same jealousy that her mother had warned her was bad for her best friend. 

Nancy hadn’t even realized how much she had been pushing potential friends away from Barb until after her conversation with her mother. She was trying to be better, and not so possessive, but it required her to create distance between her and her best friend. Nancy had to stay away in situations that might allow Barb to make other friends. This meant giving her friend some of her free time in the afternoons and during school back. 

In the morning before classes started was the only time during the school day that Nancy allowed herself to claim Barb all to herself. Yet, here came Band Girl, taking that away from her. Band Girl, with her stupid fluffy-looking hair, and apparently great sense of humor, if Barb’s laugh was anything to go by.  A soft growl escaped past her lips before she could regain control. 

The blood drained from her face. See that wasn’t normal. That was the kind of behavior she was working to stop. She glanced away from the two, trying to catch sight of Steve. He had been talking to her a lot recently and she needed something to distract herself from Barb and the other girl. However, she couldn’t see him anywhere. 

Instead, Barb caught sight of her, and waved excitedly. Her face lit up in a smile against her will and she waved back. Nancy watched as her friend said goodbye to the other girl, and quickly came over to her. She couldn’t help herself from pulling her friend into a hug and taking a deep breath of her scent. The feeling of her best friend next to her calmed her, and eased that strange ache in her chest that grew when they were apart for too long. Her brows drew together as she contemplated that concept. It was likely wolf related, most unusual things in her life were, but she couldn’t fathom how. 

Barb pulled back and greeted her, “Good Morning!” Nancy saw her hand twitch, as if she wanted to do something with it, “Are you alright? You seem a little off for some reason.”

She plastered a smile back on her face. “Just peachy!”

The other girl started fidgeting, “Are you going to be able to sit with me at lunch today?”

Everything within her seemed to be compelling her to say yes, but Nancy committed to stay true to her goals. “Sorry, Mom asked me to give Mike his homework he forgot this morning. I was going to drop it off to him at lunch.”

The girl’s face dropped. Both of them knew it was a lie, but Nancy didn’t know what else to do. As much as it seemed to almost physically hurt her to disappoint Barb, the idea of permanently harming her through her possessive nature hurt even more. Her mother had speculated that it was something from a wolf’s territorial instinct that was enhancing that part of her nature. Nancy would be inclined to agree if that feeling wasn’t so much more with Barb, compared to everyone else she found herself feeling as ‘hers’. 

This was not the first time Barb had tried to convince her to go back to how they were before, and it wouldn’t be the last. Nancy did her best to make sure her friend didn’t think it was her fault, or because she didn’t want to be friends anymore, but nothing seemed to fully soothe her worries. 

Nancy wished she could just tell Barb about her transformations, but she had kept it from her for so long. Her mom was so adamant that they keep this a secret from everyone, impressing the importance of protecting each other and the dangers of experimentation. Nancy had grown to want to trust the other girl with everything in her life though. Now, she just worried about breaking her friend's trust. 

The tension subsided as they chatted about their days, and fell into the comfort of each other’s presence. Their time in the mornings was short, but it did a lot to boost their moods for the day. 

Nancy hid outside during lunch to maintain the lie she had told that morning. In doing so she ran into Steve and his friends. Tommy H was smoking while they all chatted. Steve looked excited to see her there. The others just rolled their eyes at him. 

“Nancy! What brings you to these neck of the woods today?”

“Um, just needed some air.” She replied quietly. 

“Do you want to join us? Tommy here was just trying to convert us into Cujo fans.”

Nancy held back her reactionary no, and considered the benefits of accepting his advances. She didn’t know how to feel about the boy. She wasn’t blind to his interest in her, and he was attractive. He hung out with Carol and Tommy H, two people she considered bullies. He had a reputation as a playboy, which also didn’t help his case. However, he was always very nice to her, and she’d never seen him be the one to shoot people down like the other two were prone to do. 

Maybe a boyfriend would be just what she needed. He would be a good distraction from the ache in her chest and the strange tugs she felt whenever she was away from Barb. He’d also provide a good reason to split her time. Maybe she didn’t just need to allow Barb to have other friends, but also try to make some herself. 

Decision made, Nancy stepped closer. “Sure, sounds interesting.”

Nancy experienced her first kiss a few days later. Barb acted very excited for her, which should have been a good thing; best friends gushing about a crush. Instead it felt somewhat forced, and it hurt for some reason to see Barb so unaffected by it. Which was dumb, because of course Barb was happy for her. She wasn’t the possessive one harming their friendship. 

At least, that had been what she thought, until some of the hurt and jealousy started to slip through the cracks of her friend’s facade. She played the part of a happy best friend, but sometimes Nancy thought she could see the same hurt she felt in her soul reflected back in Barb’s eyes. Her friend started working harder than ever before to pull her back into her orbit.

Nancy wanted to cry.

Why couldn’t she understand that this was all for her?  All this pain was so that she could blossom into the beautiful person she was and grow beyond the restrictions that Nancy had imposed upon her. She had been hurting her favorite person by taking all her time and attention. 

The goal had been to allow Barb more friends, and she had succeeded. She was happy. It hurt so much, when would this end.

Chapter Text

The boys' game in the basement had been going on for hours, and Nancy was exhausted. It was a sunday night and she had just wanted to go to bed early. However, a werewolf's ears were rather sensitive, and, surprise, boys were loud even from the basement . She wanted to cheer in excitement the moment she heard her mother force them all to leave. Finally a bit of peace and quiet in the house! Finding sleep after that was easy, and she was out within minutes.

It wasn’t to last, as a short time later pure panic shot through her system. She shot up out of sleep. Something was wrong. She was needed somewhere. Now. She found herself stumbling out of bed and out of the room without another thought. Half awake, she had no idea what she was doing, or where she was going. She tried to calm herself, it was probably only a nightmare, but her heart wouldn’t slow down.

The second she stepped outside her doorway, another body rammed into her.  

Her mind a mess, she stared at her brother uncomprehendingly. “What?” she blurted after a pause, “Are you ok?”

He shook visibly, his face ashen white. “Something’s wrong. Nance, something’s wrong.” 

Nancy dimly noticed her own hands shaking as she reached out to comfort him. She pulled him into a gentle hug. “It was probably just a nightmare, or a loud sound outside. Everything’s ok,” she babbled, confused and scared, but not wanting her little brother to be. 

She held him for a moment, torn between the insistent tug on her chest urging her to go, and the need to help Mike calm down.

Something ripped through them. The strange terror and panic cut off abruptly, dropping both of them to their knees. There was no comfort in the loss of feeling, instead there was just what felt like a gaping hole in her soul. That compulsive tugging disappeared, leaving her feeling listless and lost. They both sat there, unmoving, for a while, just trying to breathe. 

“What… was that?” Mike eventually managed to gasp out. 

“Nothing, “ she denied, “It was probably nothing Mike. Whatever it is is gone now anyway.” 

“I’ve never felt anything like that before in my entire life.”

Nancy had gotten extremely good at ignoring pain in her soul over the last few months. Although nothing had ever been close to that intense, she utilized the same strategies of denial and pushing everything down. “Yeah, well, I have. It’s probably just because of how exhausted you are. You know how agitated you can get when you haven’t gotten enough sleep. It’s just your mind playing tricks on you.”

Mike acquiesced quietly, allowing her to pull him back to his room, where she dropped him off with a quick kiss on the forehead goodnight. 

“If it happens again, just come wake me up ok? You can spend the rest of the night in my room. Everything’s going to be alright.” 

She shuffled back to her bed, and lay down. Closing her eyes had never been so difficult. It was nothing. Just a stupid nightmare. A determination to not acknowledge something could only get one so far, and she struggled to let go. 

Nancy was dead on her feet the next morning. Mike only looked marginally better. The empty pit-like feeling hadn’t gone away, but she’d grown more used to it. She was looking forward to school, if only because it was better than spending another minute stuck inside her head. 

Then she caught the topic of her mother’s conversation on the phone. Mrs. Byers didn’t know where Will was. Her heart wanted to drop right out of her. One of h̶̛̹e̵̖͠ř̴  boys was missing. No he wasn’t, he just went to school earlier than normal. It had nothing to do with the… whatever… of the night before. She had to get to school.

The second she saw Barb, she couldn’t stop herself from clinging to her in a rush of relief. The feeling was fleeting, giving way to the cold seeping back in as soon as she let go. The day ended up being pretty miserable, but Nancy had mastered the art of pretending. 

Mike was acting strange on Tuesday morning. Subconsciously, she had been expecting him to act as dull and lifeless as she was feeling. Instead he was fidgety and nervous. There were bags under his eyes that must have matched her own, but they were the only sign that he felt any level of exhaustion.

There was a strange scent in the house, but the strong smell of bacon and syrupy waffles made it hard to hold onto. Whatever it was, Mike was definitely the cause. Eyeing him suspiciously for a moment, she decided she didn’t have the energy to care. She did grimace at the way he was snarfing the Eggos down though. Rather than comment on his behavior, she turned away silently.

A while later, her mother paced back and forth in agitation. “What is taking that boy so long? You’re both going to be late for school.”

Nancy was sitting at the kitchen table, staring at her chemistry flashcards in a daze. She shrugged when she registered her mother’s question. He was a teenage boy, they were always late.

Adrenaline shot through her like ice water over her head. Mike was scared . She shot to her feet, and her foot was already a step towards the basement before she could stop it. The sensation was easily pushed back. He was just getting ready for school. It was all in her head. She shook it off, and pulled her focus back to studying. The upcoming test had really been stressing her out. It was messing with her head.

—

“Oh God, that’s depressing.” Steve stated, with little empathy, as he stared at Will’s older brother. 

Nancy had known the boy for years, but truthfully had spent little time talking to him. Will seemed to really look up to him, and the thought made her regret never giving Johnathan much thought before she pulled away from the Party. Will was a good judge of character. 

“Should we say something?” she questioned, pretending it would be for Johnathan’s benefit, and not her own. No one, not even Mike, seemed to have seen through her indifferent front. To all the world, it looked as if Will was just some boy she vaguely knew because of her brother. Internal denial went a long way sometimes. 

“I don’t think he speaks.” 

“How much you wanna bet he killed him?” Tommy snarked.

A flash of rage. That was Will’s family he was talking about. She ground her teeth together, hiding the accidental sharpening of her canines. She wanted to bite the boy. Hard. 

Holding back her wolfish traits in public had never been so difficult in her life.

It already felt as if she were on a hair trigger this week. A tension in her body constantly, no relief to be found. Her chest felt tight, but empty at the same time. She knew what was missing, Will, but at the same time couldn’t make sense of it. She hadn’t realized how desperately she’d cared for the boy until he was already gone. If this was how she felt, she couldn’t imagine the pain his brother must be feeling. This sense of empathy for the teenaged boy was the only thing that allowed her to let Hagan’s comment go and just walk away from the group without injuring somebody like an out of control pup. 

The conversation with Johnathan was awkward and did little to soothe either of their aching hearts. Her thoughts were completely derailed during her first class, stuck on the one thing she’d been avoiding for the last couple days. The more she allowed thoughts of Will to come, the more painful her entire being felt. And she had thought avoiding Barb had been bad. She needed out of her own head. 

Steve’s party. And he’d even invited Barb. 

It sounded like a perfect two-for-one distraction. She just needed to get Barb on board.

Somehow.

Chapter Text

Nancy stiffened as soon as she walked through the doorway after school. “Mom? Did you have anyone new over today?”

“No sweetie, why?”

A muffled, “Oh, SHOOT” could be heard from Mike’s bedroom.

That smell from that morning was now permeating the house. A stranger had touched everything. Mike did something. “No reason, I just thought you had mentioned it, sorry!”

She headed straight for his room. As she got closer, the chaos and quiet argument happening behind the door became clearer.

“How did she even know??” Dustin whisper-yelled. 

“What do we do? It’s not like she can turn invisible… Can she?”

“Guy’s Shut Up!” Mike exclaimed. “She’s gonna hear you!”

“We’re whispering and the door’s closed, how could she possibly hear us?”

Nancy rolled her eyes at their antics. She knocked quietly, careful to avoid her mother’s attention. “Mike? What’s going on? Can you let me in?”

If there was a stranger hanging around her little brother and his friends, she needed to know who. 

Just loud enough to be understood by Mike, she said, “Look, I promise not to tell Mom anything if you convince me you all aren’t about to do something stupid. Why are you hiding a girl in your room?” 

The door flew open, and he quickly tugged her into his room. He slammed the door shut, turning to her with an urgency she didn't understand. “You can’t tell Mom anything!”

Blinking in surprise, she took in the room. Dustin and Lucas were freaking out at Mike’s sudden decision, and a small girl with a shaved head stared silently at her. She looked scared and lost. 

“What do you mean? Who is that? What is going on, Mike?”

Mike glances nervously towards his friends for direction, obviously trying to come up with some sort of explanation. “She’s a runaway! Uh… she’s a friend from school, and her parents were starving her. Mom will just call them and then El-”

“-eanor,” Dustin interjects quickly.

“Right, Eleanor, will be stuck in that place again if Mom knows. So you can’t tell her!”

“You don’t have any girl friends,” Nancy deadpanned. She knows he’s lying, she just can’t figure out why. 

Lucas starts trying to pick up the slack, “She’s new! Um we just became friends, but we still really want to help her?” He sounded like he was asking her if that was right. 

Mike squirmed under the weight of her gaze. Eleanor(?) remained silent throughout the whole thing. Nancy saw the moment he gave in. His shoulders slumped, and she saw a glimpse of just how tired he really was.

“Okay,” he sighed. 

He took her by surprise when he grabbed her arm and tugged her out of the room. Pulling her all the way down the hall into her own room, he glanced around and made sure no one was within hearing distance. 

“Look, she’s like us” He gestured between the two of them. “I think. I-” Nancy cut him off.

“What?!” she yelped, “She’s a werewolf too?”

“No! Well not exactly, I don’t think. She has these powers, and I think she’s being chased by some bad men because of it. She’s terrified of an adult finding out, and doesn't want Mom to know. She doesn’t know anything about us, but I couldn’t just leave her to fend for herself, Nancy! We can protect her.” He defended his stance with fervor and Nancy couldn’t help but relent. 

She pinched the bridge of her nose.

He was right.

Neither of them would ever willingly let another person get hurt, let alone the first similarly atypical person they’d ever met. She hadn’t realized there were more than just werewolves, but it made some sort of sense. If one mythical creature existed, why couldn’t others? Her brain and chest hurt. There was too much happening at once. She now wanted to go to Steve’s party and forget everything more than ever. 

“Fine. Just, be careful ok? Don’t do anything stupid, and come to me if you need help. I am going to go lay down and process this for a while. We will talk about everything tonight after I get back, alright? Where have you been hiding her?”

“The basement. Where are you going tonight?”

“None of your business! Go… check on your friends and Eleanor or whatever. They’re probably freaking out. I promise I won't tell Mom for now. ”

 He nodded, and booked it back to his room. 

Nancy collapsed on her bed with a groan. 

It took forever to convince Barb that going to Steve’s party wasn’t going to be a horrible decision. Even after cajoling her into agreeing, her friend made her reservations known. Nancy wasn’t going to deal with the night without her favorite person however. She was going to be selfish, just this once, and get the best of both worlds. Everything else in her life was falling apart, why couldn’t she have just this one night? One night without the relentless tugging on top of the chilling ache Will left behind. 

If she could let everything go and be free for a few hours, she’d be better prepared and able to handle whatever was going to happen with Eleanor. She just wanted a few hours to be a normal teenage girl for once. No shifting, no unexplainable feelings, and no danger or fear.

Barb did not want to go to the party, and Nancy knew it. She knew it, and yet she ignored it. She did not want to spend the night in misery, thinking about how Will could be dead or hurt. That would be what happened whether she went to the assembly or stayed home. 

Barb cutting her thumb frightened her, but her friend pushed her away and wouldn’t let her help. She hated it. But she knew she deserved it for how she’d been hurting her lately. 

Nothing at the stupid party was helping, so when Steve made some suggestions, she followed him upstairs. She told Barb to go home because being there only seemed to be hurting everyone. Barb wanted to leave, and Nancy couldn’t drag her down with her. 

Kissing Steve was nice at first. He was much more experienced than her, but she was steadily getting better. He was gently pushing her towards the bed when her world fell out from under her. A shock of pure terror before-

Pain

Pain like she had never known before. Someone must have punched a hand through her chest and ripped out her heart. Who.. what.. Why would Steve do that? 

Distantly she realized she was laying down on something soft. There were loud sounds being shouted in her ear. Something was shaking her. 

Barb. 

Where’d Barb go?

She tried to ask, but all that came out was a garbled groan. 

Barb was gone. Barb was missing. Barb is too far away. Why was Barb gone? She didn’t understand. She didn’t even know what that meant, that Barb was gone, other than somehow it made her chest feel empty and so so cold. 

Did she still have fingers? She couldn’t feel them. 

A voice filtered through, “can’t call 911…. tell my parents… get in so much trouble…”

She suddenly realized that she was gasping for air. 

“Nancy, breathe! Please answer me, please tell me your alright.”

Her breathing slowed. Steve was right in her face. Why was Steve in her face? Did he know where Barb was?

“See Steve, she's fine.  The perfect princess was probably just having a panic attack about getting to third base.”

Third base, were they playing baseball? Her brain tried to process what was happening, but everything felt hazy and sluggish. Her body felt cold and distant. Her fingers were still missing. Did she still have hands? 

Did Barb?

She hoped so. She really liked Barb’s hands. 

Steve's eyes weren’t as pretty as Barbs. Why were they moving back and forth in front of her?

“I’m going to drive her home. She still looks kinda gray. But she seems to be more with it, she’s keeping eye contact.”

“Yeah man, she’s probably just tired. It looked like a lot.”

…

“Nancy, how are you doing? You feeling better yet?”

She nodded instinctively. 

She was in a car. When did she get in a car? 

Steve sounded relieved, “Thank goodness. We’re at your place, are you good enough to get inside by yourself?”

She took stock, and found she could at least feel her limbs again. She nodded. 

“Alright. Get some rest. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

She nodded. 

It took a couple tries to get the door handle open. Her hands were shaking, she distantly noted. Everything wobbled a bit as she took her first few steps, but she made it to the front door somehow. 

“Pushing the line, young lady. It’s almost 10:30.” That was her mothers voice.

She stared blankly at the other woman. Curfew. She nodded. She headed for the stairs.

“Nancy.”

She turned.

Her mother sighed. “You look beat. Fine, but this can’t happen again. When we agree on 10, I expect you back by 10 on the dot alright?”

She nodded.

She made it to her bed somehow and stared at the roof in soul-deep exhaustion. Something within her was searching, but everything was cold and numb. She couldn’t find any warm strings to pull on. 

S̸̫̬͎̎͛h̶̺̐͒̿͐͂̌̚ẻ̴̜̦̜̼̰͙͕̇̓̊̈ ̶̗̜̺̬̯̇͂̊̽̐̓̿c̸̞̺̟̎͗͛̕͝͝͠o̷̙̝̱͓̭͇͐͌̈́̐͑͆u̴̹͍̅̄̅̈́̇̓͝l̸̞̟͔̰̓͒̃́̆d̴̙̗̖̉̿̍͝n̸͓͚̹͎͖͛͗̂̏͊͆͝'̸̛̖̼̱̪̈́͌͛͘͜t̸͚̯̝̼̱̙̿͜ ̴̝͊ͅf̵̱̱͎̃̑́̑̈̆̕e̸̩͔͊͐͋̿̿̑͜ȩ̸̞̦̖̳̏͂̃͆͒̓͑l̷̥̹̜̦͌̿͒́̚͠ ̶̪̲̠͍̓̓̈́̂̈̚̚ä̷͔͇̠̼͙́̔̊n̸̡̛͖̑͊͆͘ȳ̸̯̠̓̿̕ ̷̫͈̟̰̯͋̈́̆o̶̡̻͊̄͑̉f̶̢̛̦͖̺͈̽̊̃̃͘̚ ̶̨̮͓̱̰͗̐̌͊̾̕h̷̢̹̺̖̱̝͒͜e̸̢̯͇͙̤͍̎͌̓̑r̶̨͍͙̬̽͠ ̶̭̰̜̳̲͔͐͠p̵̛͇͖̿a̷̤̩̲̪̤͓̿c̶̤̥̻͉̫͗̂̀̒k̴͎͇͛̚

She didn’t know what she was trying to find, but whatever it was, it was hidden from her. Overrun by the loss of her person. Her everything. 

Her door opened quietly, and padded footsteps came into her room. A small body crawled into the bed and wrapped their arms around her. Mike said nothing, but his presence calmed some portion of her mind. Despite the help, he fell asleep long before she did. 

Chapter Text

Mike nudged her from a half-awake daze. “Nancy, it’s time to get up. We have school.”

The world was dull and washed of any color. School felt millenia away and useless. A bone-deep tiredness had settled over her, and she wasn't sure if she was capable of moving.

“Not today,” she mumbled.

Mike hesitated as he considered his next words. He started gently as he asked, “What happened last night? That awful feeling happened again, and don’t try to tell me it was in my head. Last time Will disappeared!” He ended the statement defensively, thinking she would fight him. 

She didn’t have the energy. Any words she thought to say got stuck in her throat. How could she act like everything was ok, when it felt like her world had fallen apart?

He answered his own question. “Barb’s missing too, isn’t she.”

She expected to feel a well of grief at the reminder, but nothing came, just numb and cold. She rolled over and stared at the wall. It was all she could do to whisper, “I don’t know.”

“Look, I’ll convince Mom you’re sick and need to be left alone to get some rest. We’ll talk sometime after school.” He paused on his way out, “We’ll find them. I promise.” He’d never sounded so mature. 

Nancy fell in and out of sleep over the next few hours, until the sound of her bedroom door opening startled her into alertness. Eleanor froze in fright at the unexpected sight of the older girl. She stared with wide eyes.

It took a moment for Nancy to catch up to the situation, but as soon as she did, she felt a wash of sympathy for the girl. It was the first spark of life that Nancy had felt all day. The poor girl seemed so easily frightened and scared, and she obviously was in need of their help. She just didn’t know what they could really do.

“Hey… You’re Eleanor right?”

The tiniest shake of the head. She rolled up a sleeve and stuck her arm in Nancy’s direction. She didn’t come any closer, so Nancy had to get out of bed and shakily walk over to see what was being shown to her.

011. Eleven. She didn’t even have a name.

Anger seemed to feed the spark of life fluttering weakly in her chest. Its warmth brought more energy to her limbs. Whoever had done this to a little girl was going to pay. 

“You are not just a number. Is it ok if I call you El instead?”

El smiled, shy and small. Her answer was so soft, a human might have entirely missed it, “Yes.”

Nancy crouched to be on the girl’s level. “Mike said you’re on the run from some bad men. Did they hurt you?”

Wide eyes stare back at her. It’s neither a confirmation nor a denial. 

“Did they hurt others?”

She glances away; a small nod. Her shoulders were curved, as if she was trying to make herself even smaller. 

Will… and potentially Barb, were missing and  likely in a lot of danger. This girl was hiding from horrible humans and needed their protection.

She wasn’t going to waste any more time wallowing. This was her fault. She should have listened to the warnings. She still didn’t know why her and Mike could feel those things, but they were obviously real. Mike’s promise seared its way across her heart. We’ll find them. It was a promise. Neither of them would rest until they did. 

Adrenaline rushed through her system, her spark burning bright again

She opens her arms invitingly. “May I hug you?”

The girl just looked at her confused, so Nancy slowly wrapped her arms around her, ready to pull away at the slightest sign of discomfort. After a moment, little arms tentatively returned the gesture, and a head was buried into her neck.

“We will protect you, I promise. You have us from now on.” 

Her shoulder dampened. El was crying silently. She stepped away from Nancy, wiping her tears away with the sleeve of her shirt. The small girl caught her eye, and said firmly, “You and Mike are Good.”

Nancy’s chest warmed at what that said of the impression Mike had made on this troubled child. She was so proud of him. She was still concerned where he had met her though. He and the boys had probably done something stupid already, and who knew what they were planning to do in the future. 

Nancy bounced on her heels in new anxious energy. She needed to start her search. After giving El one last side hug, she dashed around the room grabbing what she needed to get ready for the day. “I’m sorry I can’t help you around the house more right now, but I have to go see if I can try to find my missing friend, Barb. She might be in danger, so I can’t waste any more time. Mike will probably be back right after school.” She glanced at the clock. “Which is in a half hour. Oh shoot, I need to hurry.”

After throwing some clothes on, she rushed down the stairs, and shouted a quick, “Bye! Stay safe!”

She made it to the high school just a few minutes after the last bell. She arrived just in time to catch sight of some sort of confrontation between Steve’s group and Jonathan.

“What’s going on?” she asked as she walked up.

“Here’s the starring lady,” Tommy commented, increasing her confusion. 

“Nancy, you’re here!” Steve interjected with relief, “I was worried after last night.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. What did he mean?”

“This creep was spying on us last night,” Carol explained.

She handed her a photograph that showed Nancy through Steve’s window. Confusion pervaded her mind. Why would Johnathan do that?  Especially while Will was missing?

The entire confrontation was difficult to watch. Nancy understood why Steve and co were mad, Jonathan had invaded their privacy, but breaking his camera was a step too far. The Byers didn’t exactly have any spare money to buy a new one. Nancy couldn’t help but scan the ripped up photographs as they fell to the ground. There . Her heart jumped to her throat. There was a picture of Barb, sitting by the pool after she’d last spoken to her. Barb had waited for her . Whatever had happened was her fault. She wobbled on her feet, before she bundled up her determination again. It didn’t matter yet. She could save the self-pity for after she found her best friend. She snatched all the surrounding prints and stuffed them in her bag. 

Steve put an arm around her shoulder and dragged her away. “Missed you at school today.”

“Was Barb here?”

“What?” he asked, befuddled. He took a moment to think. “No? I didn’t see her at least.”

She needed to go back to Steve’s and figure out where she’d gone from there.

“You here for the game?”

She shook her head. “No, I, uh, just needed to pick up the homework I missed and now I need to go… do something with my Mom. Sorry” She ducked away from his arm and waved. “I’ll see you later, bye!”

“Bye?”

Barb’s car hadn’t moved from its spot close to Steve’s. She hadn’t even made it off the property. Nancy was pretty sure her friend hadn’t even reached the car, but she still took a moment to search around it. There weren’t any particularly strange smells nearby, only the remnants of their walk towards the party. 

As she got closer to the backyard, she caught the faintest whiff of something rotting. There didn’t seem to be a particular source, just the aura throughout the whole area. Starting from where Jonathan had last pictured Barb didn’t help. The chlorine of the pool overpowered her nose. 

She expanded her search to the edge of the woods. She picked up a faint trail that must have been Jonathan's, but dismissed it. He may have acted a bit creepy the night before, but he didn’t take Barb. 

Rot.

Nancy couldn’t help but grab her nose. It was so strong. The smell of rot suddenly seemed to permeate the forest. This wasn’t the aftertaste of before. Whatever it was coming from was very close. Snap. She whipped around, and saw a faceless monster dart through the trees. 

She ran for her life. 

She fled straight home, to safety and a protective mom. Her mother instantly recognized something was wrong, and she couldn’t hold back the tears. What was she supposed to do? The truth just spilled out, everything except Eleanor and seeing the monster. If she even hinted at another supernatural creature being involved, she and Mike would be in lockdown till they graduated. Any chance of finding Barb would fly out the window. 

Her mother handled what to tell the Hollands, and invited them over to discuss the situation. All Nancy could do was sit there and wait. Mike and El were gone, and she had no idea where they could have disappeared to. It couldn’t have been a coincidence that two new supernatural beings appeared out of nowhere at the same time. She needed to figure out what the girl knew. 

As it got darker outside, the more nervous she became. Where were they? 

When the Hollands arrived, Nancy answered questions on autopilot. She couldn’t tell them a faceless monster took her, so she let her mother take control of the conversation. Nancy couldn’t bear to look at her best friend’s parents’ faces as the partial truth unfurled. They were so worried. 

Mike burst through the door. It became immediately obvious that he was agitated by something. Her mom rushed to check on him, Nancy right behind her. 

Tears were dripping down his face as he kept muttering, “It’s not him. It’s not him.”

 Her mom hugged him tight, as she asked, concerned, “Sweetie, what happened?”

“They found a body in the quarry. They think it’s Will. It’s not! I’d be able to tell!”

The Hollands excused themselves, and left to contact the police. None of the Wheelers entirely reacted to their words, too caught up in comforting each other. 

Eventually their mother sent them off to bed, knowing they both must be exhausted from the emotional rollercoasters of their days. Both of them waited until they knew their mother was down for the day, and snuck downstairs. Mike went first, and Nancy followed. 

It was finally time to talk.

Chapter Text

The two kids were sitting on opposite ends of the room when she came down the stairs. Mike sat slouched on the couch, his arms folded. El was staring at him with wide, teary eyes. Nancy paused, taking in the tense atmosphere. 

“What’s really going on? And why are you mad at her, Mike?” she asked, choosing to join her little brother on the couch.

“El told us she knew where Will was! But then all she did was lead us back to the Byers house. Will isn’t home! That’s the issue!”

She sat back. “How could El know where Will is?” The girl didn’t even know who Will was as far as Nancy was aware. 

The girl in question fiddled with Mike’s walkie in silence, only sparing her a brief glance.

“She can, like, sense things. I don’t know. She told us that Will was hiding from a monster, and then led us to Will’s house.” He pointed at the table, where a miniature demogorgon and wizard lay.

Nancy walked over to take a closer look. “What am I supposed to be looking at?” She recognized Will’s character, but didn’t understand how it related to El. 

“She flipped the board over, grabbed his mini and placed it next to the demogorgon. She knew who he was, and pointed him out in a picture upstairs,” Mike explained.

Nancy turned to study the nervous kid, careful to not seem too aggressive. “Why flip it upside down?”

“Bad place,” El whispered.

She scanned the puzzle pieces again. El had a reason for all this. Nancy picked up the monster figurine. “The monster doesn’t look anything like a demogorgon, unless there’s different kinds? It’s more humanoid, except faceless and wrong.” 

Mike’s eyes widened. “You’ve seen it!?”

“Yeah.” She contemplated the situation. Upside Down… bad place… Will’s house. How are they all related? “It seemed to appear out of nowhere, there one minute and gone the next.” 

The two kids watched her with differing expressions, but both with a level of curiosity. Nancy crouched down beside El. El paused her fiddling. 

“Did you really sense Will near his house?”

She nodded.

“Did the monster take Will, to somewhere upside down or dark? Somewhere we can’t see right now?”

“Yes,” she spoke confidently for the first time.

“He’s still alive?”

The girl nodded again, her attention and focus centered on the walkie in her hand. It crackled to life, a voice coming through. It sounded like Will, singing that one weird song he liked, 'Should I Stay or Should I Go'.

Mike lunged towards them and grabbed the walkie right from her hands. “Will! Will, are you there?”

They all listened with bated breath.

Silence. The singing had disappeared.

“Will? Answer me! Are you ok?”

Once again there was nothing. The two siblings locked eyes, they had heard him. Somehow, El had managed to tune into his frequency. 

“He really is alive,” Nancy breathed. Tears filled her eyes, and she collapsed fully to the floor. She gasped for air. “What about Barb? Can you sense her too? Is she ok?”

El shook her head, almost stopping Nancy’s heart on the spot before she said, “I don’t know.”

That wasn’t a no. She could be out there too. Even if they both were alive, they were trapped who knows where, with a monster. They needed to save them immediately, but they needed a plan first. Nancy couldn’t let anyone else get hurt, especially not her brother or his friends. 

Jonathan.

Jonathan deserved to know that his brother was still alive. The body that had been found couldn’t be him. He had also been there when Barb… he had been there that night. Maybe he’d seen something. Anything, even just an extra set of hands could be useful for taking this creature down. Mike, however, wasn’t going to step within a mile of it if she had any say.

“Mike, no running around on your own right now. I know you want to find Will, but we don’t know how dangerous that creature is. If you smell rot, run away as fast as you can. It can come from who knows where, but it stinks once it’s here.”

He protested, but she would not budge on that issue. He seemed to give in eventually, and all she could do was hope he would really listen. She then changed the conversation to how they had met and what had been happening. They explained about running into each other in the woods. They explained how dangerous the bad men after El were, how willing they would be to shoot them in the head. El wasn’t willing to talk about her past, but she did admit to having always had her powers. She seemed very confused when Nancy tried to ask what she was, so Nancy just let it be. It was likely that no one had even told her.

Time flew by quickly, until it was far too late for a school night. They were all yawning frequently, so Nancy sent them to sleep. The two siblings trudged up the stairs, falling into their beds without a single goodnight between them. Both of them had had emotionally taxing days. Sleep found her quickly, but brought little rest. She tossed and turned all night, caught up in nightmares of loved ones being attacked and eaten by the creature. 

The bags under her eyes had darkened once again the next morning. She couldn’t even bring herself to spend any energy trying to hide them. Her mom said nothing, but Nancy caught a number of concerned looks. Mike lied to stay home. Hopefully her little brother wasn’t going to do anything idiotic. He probably was, but Nancy needed to talk to Jonathan, so she went to school. 

In retrospect, it made sense that Jonathan wouldn’t be at school that day, of all days. The fact that it took her a few minutes of searching to realize this, she blamed on the perpetual stress and exhaustion. She dragged a hand over her face in exasperation. Looking up, she saw Steve making a beeline for her. She braced for impact. 

A hand shot out of nowhere and dragged her to the side. Band Girl looked serious. “Look,I know you don’t like me for some reason, but this is important. Do you know where Barb is? She hasn’t returned any of my calls, and I haven’t seen her for a couple days.”

Her stomach dropped. What do I tell her? She wrapped her arms around herself. “She’s gone missing.”

The girl fell back a step with a gasp.

“But I’m going to find her and Will and bring them home safe,” she said, momentarily forgetting Will was thought to be dead.

Band Girl’s cerulean eyes seemed to bore into her soul, filled with baffled concern. “What? Wheeler, Will Byers is dead. Everyone is talking about how they found his body last night. Didn’t you know?” She scratched at her arms in agitation. “And what do you mean Barb’s missing?”

Nancy’s gaze shifted to the floor. “She never made it home from a party at Steve’s. We lied about where we were going, so her parents only called the police late last night.”

Band Girl fell back against the wall behind her, face drained of all color. Her hands flew up to almost claw at her chest and throat. She was hyperventilating. Nancy stepped forward, her hands uselessly hovering around the panicking girl. She dug into the recesses of her memory. She did know the girl’s name. She’d been unwilling to think of it before, but she knew it. 

R-something Buckley.

“Buckley, hey, I’m going to fix this.” Her own heart rate spiked at the thought of the cumulative worry and insanity of the previous few days. “Please. Whatever happened to her, I will find her. I promise you.”

Robin weakly scoffed. Robin! That’s her name. “You? Steve the Hair’s new fling? What on earth do you possibly think you could do?”

A growl built low in her chest. This girl knew nothing about her. She may be scared for Barb, but that didn’t give her the right. Here she was, trying to comfort the girl, and all she responded with was doubt and insults?

“You have no idea what I’m capable of.” The rumble in her voice hopefully went unnoticed by the human. “Whatever you may think, I’m not going to waste any more time crying. She’s in danger, and I’m sure as hell not going to leave her there!”

The bell rang, and before Robin could get another word in, Nancy turned on her heel and left.

The police came and questioned her at the end of the school day. It was a waste of time. They were doing absolutely nothing to help Barb. They weren’t even listening! Even if Nancy may have been holding back the full scope of the danger, they should take a missing girl, days after another boy died, seriously. Barb didn’t run away. 

Even her own mother wasn’t hearing her. She was too caught up on Nancy lying to the police to remember that she was the very person to teach her to lie in the first place. For this exact reason! She didn’t even know what Nancy was lying about. Her mother thought something had happened with Steve, but Nancy had collapsed before that. She wasn't even lying about that. Nothing had happened. 

No one was paying attention to what actually mattered and it made her furious. She dragged a clawed hand across the wall in frustration as she stormed up to her room. Mom’s going to freak when she sees that. She couldn’t muster up even an inkling of care.

She dumped out all of the scraps of Jonathan’s photos that were still in her bag. Those were the last images of Barb, the last pictures before she was taken by that thing . Barb looked so dejected, so hurt by their conversation. A spike of pain shot through her heart. She gently touched the image, only to find her attention caught by something at the edge of the photo. It could be the same shape as the monster. That conclusion seemed almost certain after she taped all the pieces back together. 

This was something she could show Jonathan to convince him that a monster could be real, without revealing anything about El or her own family. Hopefully he saw something that night. They still had no idea about its travel methods, and how it came and went. She grabbed the completed picture and stuffed it back into her bag as she darted back out of the house. Running to the Byers would take a while. She needed to hurry. 

She slowed down as the house came into view. The Byers’ house was quite the sight. There was a hole chopped into the front wall. A faint hint of that Rot was present, but the source was long gone. The hairs on her arm stood on end. Her entire body went into high alert as she approached. She hoped that Jonathan and Joyce were alright.

She knocked on the door. “Mrs. Byers? Jonathan? Anyone home?”

Chester barked a warning from inside. One advantage of being part canine was interpreting dog body language, but her nature also came with every pet in her vicinity instinctively fearing her.  Chester sounded frightened, but nothing like he usually was around her, or Mike. He had been absolutely terrified out of his mind by something else. 

“Hello? Is everything ok?” she called again, getting more worried by the second.

The door opened.

She looks terrible.

Joyce Byers’ hair was a mess, and she was trembling. The woman put on a brave face. “Nancy! What are you doing here? Mike’s not here.”

“Oh, I was actually looking for Jonathan. But, are you alright? What happened?”

Joyce ran a hand through her hair, trying to look more composed. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about that sweetheart, just an incident.” She waved off the wall, as if it was a broken cup and not the evidence of an axe through the wall. “Jonathan. Uh, Jonathan is preparing for the funeral, so he’s in town. He likely won’t be back for a while.”

Nancy studied the woman shifting nervously in front of her. Something had definitely happened, but one photo of a blurry shape wouldn’t explain her knowledge of the situation. She had no idea what the woman had seen, and the woman didn’t seem to want to tell her. 

Nancy backed off. She smiled kindly. “Thank you Mrs. Byers. I’ll go find him in town. Please call if you ever need anything.” She paused, remembering that Joyce likely didn’t know about Will. “I’m so sorry for your loss.” 

She headed back to town with worry gnawing at her intensely. She couldn’t tell either of the Byers the full truth, but she would try working with Jonathan first. Hopefully she’d be able to convince him with minimum information. If not, she would return to Joyce. It was obvious that she had had some sort of confrontation. She was banking on him believing her though, even if she acted like El didn’t exist and that she’d never heard of the supernatural before that week.

He did.