When DAPHNE HARGROVE moves to Hawkins, Indiana from sunny California she soon hears about the curse that the Hawkins residents say lies upon the town. All while trying to navigate her new high school and her new life she meets some new people along...
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Ever since Daphne saw her mother at work she made sure to keep that piece of information to herself. It was easy to forget it again. What she looked like, what she smelled like. How her voice sounded.
Laura never even tried to get in touch with Daphne after the incident. She never showed back up at the restaurant either. Something Daphne was finally grateful for.
Neil hadn't changed. He still drank all night, slept most of the day, and woke up when Daphne came back home from school to keep an eye on his daughter. Make sure she wasn't doing something he didn't approve of.
The biggest downside to this was the fact that Neil didn't approve of a lot of things and ever so often he'd come up with a new rule. Daphne continued to pay rent and bills and keep the truck in shape and take on almost all of her father's responsibilities. At this point, she was her own caretaker.
Christmas was around the corner now and the holidays, to say the least, were not celebrated. Not that there was anything to celebrate. The only thing worth noting was that Daphne was just weeks away from being able to afford her ticket out of there as long as nothing went array.
She would be home soon. Hawkins. To Max and Steve. Her calls to her sister had lessened with everything going on. They reverted to letters and Daphne would receive at least one every week.
Daphne could tell, even in writing, that Max was having a difficult time adjusting to everything. Her letters were short for the most part and she mentioned her friends less and less. Daphne didn't want to press, so she would give her small updates on her life as well. But her promise to come back was taking longer to accomplish than she'd once hoped.
She didn't want to give Max another empty promise, but Daphne could tell she had lost hope. She didn't blame her, it felt like she'd failed Max too, even though she was trying her hardest to get back to her.
Not only that but Daphne was trying to get back to Steve. Even though in the past couple of months she hadn't heard a word from him. She wrote to him almost every day, less now, but reached out many times.
He was the light at the end of the tunnel and just the thought of him kept Daphne going, especially through the bad days. However, not hearing a word from her boyfriend was taking its toll. She started to become worried about him. Why would Steve, the love of her life, not answer all the letters she sent him? If she could even call him that anymore.
Daphne missed Steve so much and he didn't even have the courtesy to answer. She didn't believe Steve was her boyfriend anymore, but one way or another she wanted to get to the bottom of the mystery.
Once a week throughout December, Daphne wrote Steve to try and pry some sort of answer out of him. There was no doubt in her mind that the address was correct. She addressed every letter properly too and double and triple-checked it.
