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The air was thick with the chill of autumn, clinging to the small town of Hawkins, Indiana, like a dark omen. Astrid Wheeler pulled her leather jacket tighter around her shoulders, tucking her hands into her pockets as she walked alone down the street. Streetlights flickered above her, barely cutting through the evening’s gloom. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something strange was coming, a shadow looming just beyond the corners of her mind.
Home was only a few blocks away, but Astrid wasn’t exactly in a hurry to get there. It was just another evening of babysitting Mike and Holly. Not that her parents had asked, but they never did. They assumed, she’d be there to pick up the pieces, keep the house in order, and let them live in their world of suburban denial. Astrid sighed, kicking a stray rock in her path, its dull clink echoing down the empty street. “Another day, another thankless chore,” she muttered.
From down the road, she spotted a familiar figure—Will Byers, riding his bike with that wide-eyed innocence he always seemed to carry. She recognized the boys he usually hung out with: Mike, Lucas, and Dustin. She was used to seeing them in and out of her house, with Mike practically worshiping Will’s every move. The thought made her smile a little. Will was a good kid, one of the few people who never looked at her with that wary, judging gaze.
But tonight felt different. As she watched him pedal past, there was something uneasy in his expression, like he was running from something. Just as quickly as the thought surfaced, Will disappeared into the trees that lined the outskirts of town. Astrid stopped, eyes narrowing at the tree line, but she shook it off and headed home. There were always rumors about the woods, strange noises, and eerie figures lurking. But this was Hawkins, after all—nothing ever really happened here, right?
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Later that night, the Wheeler house was quiet, the kind of heavy silence that settled in only after her siblings were finally asleep. Astrid sprawled on the worn couch, her Walkman blasting a mix of rock and 80s pop, trying to drown out her thoughts. Babysitting meant nothing but endless hours of feeling like a ghost in her own home. To her parents, she was just there to keep things together while they drifted off into their routines, and to her peers at Hawkins High, she barely existed. Astrid was the tough, invisible girl that no one noticed, and, most of the time, she liked it that way.
But something about that night left her restless, like a splinter lodged deep, tugging at her mind. She thought of Will again, his pale, frightened face illuminated briefly in the dim light. The look he’d had reminded her of herself, a little lost and a lot alone. She didn’t know what had scared him, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.
The phone rang sharply, cutting through the quiet, and she jolted upright, ripping off her headphones. Calls at this hour were never good news. She snatched the receiver.
