Cosmic joke

caught in the middle / just like the way you've always been

What you need to know about Gareth Emerson is that he's having a weird fucking year.

During the spring break of 1986, his best friend Eddie Munson falls off the face of the earth just as a string of brutal murders starts rocking their small town. One minute, Eddie is the dungeon master of their club, leading it with an iron fist like it's his personal religion. The next, he's gone missing, and gone missing with him is Chrissy Cunningham, the captain of the cheer squad with the saddest eyes that Gareth has ever seen.

Then comes Jason Carver, Chrissy's boyfriend and the town's golden boy with a silver spoon so far up his ass it practically shines in the dark. He and his team of douchebags whip the entire town into a satanic panic frenzy, launching a witch hunt that tries to somehow pin the grotesque murders on Eddie—and maybe, by extension, the rest of the Hellfire Club. It's like a B-rated horror movie: the small town, the satanic panic, whispers of devil worship and curses and cults.

And though Chrissy Cunningham is far from dead, Jason seems convinced that Eddie has cursed her—or put a spell on her? A ritual? Gareth is fuzzy on the exact details of Carver's deranged logic—and that's why the queen of Hawkins High has abandoned her longtime boyfriend for the so-called freak that everyone is convinced is some satanic cult leader. And somehow, apparently, all of this is supposed to be connected to the murders that plague the town, leaving even the most seasoned cops ashen with their pure violence.

Yeah. Jason Carver is a lot of things but logical sure as shit does not seem to be one of them.

Gareth knows Eddie is an asshole, he knows that he's erratic, but he's not a fucking murderer. The guy gets queasy at the sight of blood, for fuck's sake! And after the murders, the witch hunt, and the collective panic that seems to have taken over the entire town, the thing that shocks Gareth the most is the fact that Eddie fucking Munson returns to school as the boyfriend of Chrissy fucking Cunningham.

It all sounds like a shitty infomercial, because wait! There's fucking more.

During the rest of the spring, after all the weirdness finally dies down a little, and the presence of Chrissy Cunningham at band practices and Hellfire Club meetings no longer feels that weird, Gareth is sort of blindsided by the fact that Eddie actually graduates.

Sure, Munson has always talked big game about 1986 being his year to leave Hawkins behind, and Gareth takes it with a grain of salt each time. But then the dipshit actually does it, leaving in his wake Gareth and Jeff to handle the mess that is Hellfire Club and the wreckage of his unexpected departure. And so, Gareth is to start his senior year as the leader of the club that the entire school—no, the entire fucking town—has branded a satanic cult.

Though, in the spirit of honesty, Gareth hasn't exactly made an effort to shed the cloak of satanic stigma that's clung to him ever since he joined the club two years ago. He's not one to shy away from a good fight, whether it's a physical brawl or a rude word thrown across the hallowed halls of Hawkins High. Maybe he even revels in his shitty reputation a little, enjoying how people—most importantly, girls—seem to both despise him and yet be oddly drawn to him and the chaos he stirs up in his wake.

And after the summer, when Eddie's name gets cleared from satanic murders and Jason Carver probably gets a psychiatric evaluation, Gareth figures things couldn't possibly get any weirder. But alas, no such fucking luck.

The first day of Gareth's senior year, enter stage left: Will Byers and Jane Hopper—two new faces who seem to share a heavy history and a sibling-like bond despite not really being related. Will is a quiet kid who sort of blends into his surroundings or clings like a shadow to the side of his best friend Mike, but Jane is a whole different fucking ballgame. She's the daughter of the chief of police, but not really, and everyone calls her Eleven or El despite her name being Jane, and no one, not a single person, is telling Gareth what the fuck is going on.