Chapter Two: One Year Later

~~~ONE YEAR LATER~~~

The shrill ring of my alarm clock sounded, but it wasn't difficult for me to reach over and turn it off. I was already awake. I'd woken up two hours earlier, at 5:00 in the morning, just like I had every other day for the past year for one very simple reason.

I'd been having nightmares ever since I escaped from the alternate dimension, or whatever you want to call it, and even a year later, they were still happening every night.  Every time I closed my eyes I was reliving the worst most terrifying year of my life, which meant that every time I thought I was making progress, and returning back to a somewhat normal life, I was reminded of the terrible things that I had endured.

But today was different. Yes, the nightmares were the same, but today when I woke up, the hair on the back of my neck stood up and I was met with an overwhelming feeling that something was wrong...that the monster was back.

Regardless of this feeling though, I got up and began to get ready for school, desperately hoping it was just me being paranoid.

I tied my long blonde hair up into a ponytail, as I did every day, and got dressed, settling on a pair of overalls, a red, white, and blue stripped t-shirt, and my Adidas Continental sneakers. I thew a grey flannel on over the top of it, making my way into the main part of the house to figure out breakfast. As I walked into the living room however, my nose scrunched up in disgust at the sheer pigsty our house had become. I stay over at Nancy's house one day, and the next thing I know, our house looks like a tornado ran through it.

Dad was shirtless and passed out on the couch,still wearing his jeans and surrounded by empty beer cans. I rolled my eyes, stalking into the kitchen and grabbing a trashbag, throwing the cans away and making as much noise as possible while the news blared from the TV after being left on all night.

"And that's it for News Center this morning. Thanks for joining us. Let's hand off now to Liz at the News Desk."

"Alright, thank you Donna. Turning now to local news, we're getting reports of surges and power outages all across the county. Last night, hundreds of homes in East Hawkins were affected, leaving many residents in the dark. The cause of the outage is still unknown. We reached out to Roane County Water and Electric, and a spokesperson says they are confident power will be restored to all remaining homes-"

I stopped listening, lightly pushing Dad's hand with my foot as I cleared the cans off of the coffee table. He stirred, looking around drowsily. I grabbed his hand, holding it up and putting his watch in front of his face, tapping it before continuing to clean.

"I'm up, I'm up." I put my hands on my hips, shooting him a pointed look. "What?" I gestured to the house, holding up the trash bag in my hand. "I was gonna clean up last night...guess I fell asleep." I shook my head, rolling my eyes and continuing to shove trash into the bag. "How was your sleepover? Did you have fun?"

I nodded, not looking up from the task at hand.

"That's the best you got? You can't...you can't even describe a sleepover to me?" I shot him a look. "Look Riles, I'm not trying to rush you or anything but...its been a year, and you haven't said a word since you've been back. I still don't even know what happened to you, and you keep promising you're gonna tell me, but you haven't. Sooner or later, you gotta talk, you gotta say something, anything at all." I just stared at him and he sighed. "I know...don't put a time table on your healing process."

I nodded in agreement, pointing to the bathroom and making a rain gesture with my fingers, telling him to go take a shower. He sighed, but stood up and made his way to the bathroom. Once he left, I sighed too.

I know he's curious, and he wants to know what happened, but its too crazy and too elaborate for me to write down, and I'm still way too scared to talk. I've tried, even just to myself in the mirror, and last time I tried that I nearly passed out I was so terrified.

Dad came out of the bathroom thirty minutes later, now in his uniform.

"You want a ride to school or are you driving the death trap again." I shot him a look, grabbing my notepad and writing out a response, showing it to him.

She's not a death trap. You just have to have the right touch.

"That crappy old junk yard ornament is a she?" He asked. I rolled my eyes, kissing him on the cheek before rushing out the door to the 'Junk Yard ornament' in question. She was a 1970, baby blue Ford Pick-up truck that I had found and fixed up all on my own. She wasn't pretty, and she didn't run all that great unless you knew how to finesse her, but she was my project and I loved her to death.

I climbed in, tossing my messenger bag into the passenger seat and sticking the key in the ignition. In order to get it to start, you had to twist the key three times, twice only half way to build a little momentum and then a third time all the way as hard as you possibly can, otherwise it doesn't stay turned and it will turn itself off. I backed out of the driveway and onto the street, making my way towards town and more specifically: Hawkins High School.

It wasn't anything special really, Hawkins High. You had your band nerds, your regular nerds, football stars, and rich kids. You were either popular, tolerated, or harassed, and due to my disappearance and lack of speech, I frequently teetered between the last two categories.

I pulled into a parking space, turning the truck off and gathering my things before making my way inside. Before I even got to the door however, Nancy Wheeler, one of my only friends, regardless of the fact that she's a year younger than me, fell into step beside me. I waved and she waved back as we walked inside, only to have friend number three, Barb Holland step up beside us as well.

"So? Did he call?" She asked. I smiled, rolling my eyes and shaking my head.

"Keep your voice down!" Nancy exclaimed. I nudged her arm, raising my eyebrows in a silent question.

"I told you, both of you, its not like that." Barb and I exchanged skeptical looks. "Ok, I mean yes, he likes me, but not like that." We stopped at Nancy's locker, and I opened mine a couple of doors down while Barb leaned on the lockers between us. "We just...made out a couple times."

"We just...made out a couple times." Barb mocked, causing me to smile. My smile was cut off however by a shoulder slamming into my back, causing my face to collide full force with my locker door, splitting my lip on the edge of it.  I turned around to see a bunch of the football players laughing, their arms wrapped lazily around their girlfriends. Among them was David King, the team's Quarterback, locked in an embrace with his cheerleader girlfriend Amber Sweetwater, who looked vaguely horrified at what had just happened.

"Oh no, look, she's got a cut on her mouth!" One of them laughed.

"That's ok. Its not like she's using it anyway,  freak." They laughed, shoving each other as they walked away, and I wiped the blood away with my tongue.

"Are you ok?" Nancy asked. I nodded, writing down a response.

Nothing I'm not used to. Nothing I can't handle. Back on subject though, when can we expect your Homecoming Queen nomination?

"Shut up." She said, smiling at me.

"She's right. You're gonna be so cool now, its ridiculous."

"No, I'm not."

"You better still hang out with us. That's all I'm saying. If you become friends with Tommy H. or Carol-"

"Oh, that's gross." She said, pulling her locker open. "Ok, I'm telling you, it was a one time-" We both raised our eyebrows at her, "Two-time thing."

Her defense was interrupted by the sight of a note folded up in her locker. She picked it up, unfolding it to see a message written in blue marker.

Meet me. Bathroom. -Steve

"You were saying?" Barb asked. I reached into my pocket, fishing out an Altoids tin and holding it open, presenting it to her dramatically. She shot me a look, shutting her locker and walking towards the bathroom, leaving Barb and I alone. She laughed and I smiled, popping an Altoid in my mouth. "Hey, I've been meaning to ask you something."

I raised my eyebrows in response.

"Are you doing ok?" I furrowed my eyebrows.

Why do you ask? I wrote. 

"Well...its been a year since you got back and you still haven't said anything about...where you went or...anything at all actually."

Ugh. You sound like my dad.

"But its not just that." She said, falling into step beside me as we walked towards class. "You have dark circles under your eyes, Riles. You look exhausted."

I'm a teenager, of course I'm exhausted! We're all exhausted all of the time!

"Riley, I'm serious." She said. "I'm worried about you." I shook my head.

Don't be. I'm fine, I promise, and the second I'm not, I will let you know.

"You promise?" She clarified. I nodded, drawing an X over my heart with one finger. "On a different note...doesn't all of this stuff with Nancy and Steve make you want a boyfriend?"

There are more important things in life than boyfriends.

"Yeah, well you would think that. You haven't shown the slightest interest in anything the slightest bit girly since you were born." I smiled, shrugging.

Priorities, Barb. Priorities.

"You're telling me, honestly, if you were in Nancy's shoes and Steve 'The Hair' Harrington was interested in you, you wouldn't go for him?"

You're kidding right? I mean him and Nancy are one thing but Steve Harrington? He's a walking cliche, 'the King of Hawkins High'. High school ends, and then none of that crap is going to matter.

"Yeah, I guess. But what's wrong with enjoying the high school crap while we have the chance?"

Nothing's wrong with it. I just choose to remain realistic, that's all. She shrugged.

"Whatever you say."

~~~

"As you can see by the diagram on page four, the make-up of a cell is divided into-" Mr. Dwyer's monotone voice and my journey into the land of bored unconsciousness was interrupted by the classroom door opening and Principal Newheart standing on the other side of it. "Can I help you, Mr. Newheart?"

"Yes, um..." He trailed off, his eyes scanning the room until they came to stop on me, "I just need to borrow Riley Hopper for a moment, if you don't mind." He gestured to me and I stood up, walking out into the hallway. I was about to write down a question as to what this was about, when I came face to face with my Dad, who had a grave look on his face. I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Hal, can you give us a minute?" He asked. Mr. Newheart nodded, turning and walking down the hallway away from us, and I furrowed my eyebrows at my Dad, silently asking what was going on. "Look I just needed to tell you something, and I felt it would be better to tell you in person. I'm gonna need you to go straight home after school, ok? Don't linger around, go home, lock the door, and keep that pistol I bought you on hand, ok?" I flipped to a clean page in my notepad.

Why? What's going on?

"I'm not entirely sure yet." He said, taking his hat off and raking a hand through his hair. I furrowed my eyebrows.

Well what DO you know? He sighed, causing anxiety to spike inside of me.

"You know Will Byers?" I nodded, having encountered his older brother Jonathan on several occasions. "Well um...he didn't come home last night. He's gone missing."