One

Chapter One: The Vanishing of Will Byers

Seraphina Wheeler sat in her room, running her fingers across her wrist, where a small, black tattoo had rested her entire life. She was thinking, not about anything specific, just any thought that came to her mind. Her mind traveled through multiple things, happy and sad memories, painful and terrifying ones, all of them, of which she could actually remember. One stuck out like a sore thumb, but she kept her thoughts away from it, from the anger and sadness that came with it.
That thing festered in her mind, and she knew that it wouldn't be long before it consumed her. She had locked it away a long time ago, not able to handle that pain, the feeling. She was good at locking away her emotions, but one day, she won't be able to hold back anymore, and she'd break.
A knock sounded at her door, she jumped a little, her mind coming back to the present, "come in."
One of her little brother's friends stood there, Dustin, "Hey Phina, since Nancy just refused the last slice of pizza, do you want it?"
She smiled at him, "sure Dustin, just set it on my desk. You guys done for the night?"
"Yeah, your mom is kicking us out," he said, slightly sad, walking over to the desk and setting the box down, "we didn't even get to finish!"
"Wow that sucks, you guys have been planning this for two weeks," she shouts, a small frown on her lips.
"Yeah," Dustin huffed.
"I'm sorry Dusty," Phina smiles at him, "come on, I'll walk you out."
Dustin nods happily, he'd had a cute little crush on her for the longest time, and she knew that, she thought it was adorable. She had babysat him when he was little and ever since then, he had the cutest little puppy dog crush.
The two walked down the stairs, talking about the campaign. Dustin told her about the Demogorgan and how Will had used fireball.
"He should of used a protection spell," Dustin whined.
"I don't know Dusty, if it were me, I would've used fireball," Phina smirked, knowing a double meaning behind her words.
Dustin shook his head, "and I thought you were the smart Wheeler."
Phina laughed loudly and smacked his shoulder, "I am the smart Wheeler, and that says something about my siblings."
Dustin laughed and opened the door to go into the garage, seeing his friends grab their bikes. He follows suit, turning to Mike.
"There is seriously something wrong with your sister," Dustin said to him.
"Ouch," Phina mockingly says, holding her heart as if she had been hit there, "my ego Dusty.".
"Oh you know I meant Nancy," Dustin laughed, "well, maybe it was just a little bit about you."
"Oh whatever Dustin," Phina playfully scoffed, "you know you love me!"
"What are you talking about," Mike asks.
"Nancy's got a stick up her butt," Dustin answeres, blushing a little because of Phina's comment.
Phina snorts loudly, both at Dustin's blush and because of what he said about her sister.
"Yeah," Lucas agrees then adds, "it's because she's been dating that doucheage, Steve Harrington."
Phina's smile falls and turns into a hard scowl at the mention of Steve Harrington, "damn right it's because of Harrington."
"Yeah, she's turning into a real jerk," Dustin nods.
"She's always been a jerk," Mike scoffs.
"Nuh-uh she used to be cool." Dustin starts to ride away on his bike. "Like that time she dressed up like an elf for our Elder Tree campaign."
"Four years ago," Mike shouts back.
"Just saying," Dustin says.
Phina chuckles at them, earning a small glare from Mike. She raises her hands in surrender, but continues to smile.
"Later," Lucas shouts.
"Be safe boys," Phina yells at them.
Dustin waves his hand in the air dismissively, "yeah yeah, whatever!"
Phina shakes her head and yells, "don't be a sarcastic ass Henderson! That's my job!"
Will stays behind for a second and turns to Mike, "it was a seven."
Mike looks at him, confused, "huh?"
"The roll, it was a seven. The Demogorgan, it got me," Will explains, "see you tomorrow."
As Will turns and rides off, a chill goes down Phina's spine, something felt a little off about what he said. The lights flickered a little and she looks at them a little wide eyed. The feeling did not go away, only pierced deeper into her.
"Be safe Will! Tell Jon and your mom I said hi," she yells after the boy, almost wanting to tell him to come back and just stay the night, but she knew her mother wouldn't let him stay on a school night.
"Okay!"
Phina shakes her head, trying to tell herself that she was just being paranoid.
She puts on a fake smile and turns to Mike, putting her arm around his shoulders, "did you have fun?"
"Yeah, it was one of our best campaigns yet," he says excitedly.
"Well good," Phina smiles at him and pushes him inside, "now go get ready for bed."
"But," Mike begins to protest.
Phina lifts her hand, "ah, don't argue with me Micheal."
He huffs, crossing his arms like a pouty child. Phina chuckles and ruffles his hair. She pushes him towards the stairs and he complies, swatting her hand away, laughing.
Phina smiles at him as he runs up the stairs and turns around. She goes to shut the door, but a cold wind blows into the house, surrounding Phina. She shivers, the creeping feeling in the back of her mind sends a deep chill through her. She shuts the door and shakes her head, staring at the door.
"You ok sweety," her mom asks.
"Yeah, I'm ok." Phina jumps, turning around to give her mom a fake smile. "Just tired, I'm gonna head up to bed."
Karen smiles at her, "ok sweety, goodnight."
"Night."
As soon as she was in the comfort of her room, she locked her door and closed her curtains. Phina did a mental checklist in her mind, making sure she was not going to be seen. Once she had checked off everything at least twice, she sat in the center of her bed, closed her eyes, and concentrated.
In the house next door, a small girl looked out her window, and towards the Wheeler's house, almost every night, the same thing happened. A golden glow emitted from the window, but the girl could not see what it came from.
The girl watched in awe, the light was beautiful, swirling and flickering in the night, almost as if someone was making a shadowy story for the little girl to see. The magical light was the girls favorite part of bed time.
The light went out, and back to the normal light of the room. The girl left her window.

Phina walks down the stairs of her house, dressed in her normal outfit, dark denim jeans, a black long sleeve shirt and a red flannel over it. Her long, blood red curls flowing down her back freely. She sat at the table, where her family had already started eating breakfast.
Mike pours syrup all over his foom which gets a look from Nancy, "that's disgusting."
"You're disgusting," Mike snaps back.
Phina smiles at the two bickering, but the smile vanished when she hears her mother pick up the phone.
"Hello..... oh, Joyce, hi."
Something happens with Phina's siblings and they start yelling. She doesn't spare them and attention. Their bickering was normal, and, unless it escalated, she wanted no part of it.
"Will? No no no, it's just Mike.... no, he left a little bit after eight. Why? He's not home?"
A sickening feeling settles in Phina's stomach, the same one from the night before. Karen hangs up and looks over at Phina, giving the empty plate in front of the girl a look.
"Are you going to eat?" she asks.
"No, I think I'm gonna head to school early, I have to meet up with a project partner," Phina lies, not at all hungry.
"Ok sweety," Karen nods absently, though her tone says she isn't happy about it.
Phina stands from the table and grabs her jacket, bag, and keys, before heading out to her motorcycle. She threw on her black leather jacket and then her backpack. She hopped on her bike, started it up, and drove off quickly towards the school, all the while, the sickening feeling settling deeper into her stomach.
Phina drove into the schools parking lot, people jumping out of her way as she sped past them. She parked in her usual spot, which was relatively close to the door. She noticed a few people standing by a car, watching her. Steve Harrington and his group of asshole friends.
Phina wanted to snap at them, but that would cause more harm than good. She avoided looking at them, but that didn't stop Carol from harassing her like normal.
"Watch out everyone, the freak of Hawkins is coming," Carol said loudly.
Phina didn't even pause, her mouth moving before she had time to even process what she was about to say, "watch out everyone, the slut of Hawkins is out spreading STDs."
The sound of Steve's sharp laugh, and Carol's cry of anger, made Phina smirk. She continued into the school not bothered by Carol screeching and calling her a bitch.
The crowds parted slightly as Phina made her way to her locker. She had a reputation at the school, and that made people very hesitant of her. Her, I dont give a shit attitude and her history of fights certainly kept people away. She kept to herself, only ever talking to her best friend and her younger sister.
Phina got to her locker and opened it, grabbing the things she would need for her first few classes and putting them in her bag. Then she grabbed her sketch book and her pencil case and shut her locker. She turned around and was met by the face of her best friend, Jonathan Byers, who had his hand held out like he was about to touch her shoulder.
"Shit Jon, you scared me." She jumped, then noticed the look on his face, distressed. "Hey, what's wrong?"
"Will, he didn't come home last night. My mom called your mom but he wasn't at your house," Jonathan explained.
The feeling in Phina's stomach began again, almost painfully present, but she kept calm, for Jonathan.
"I'm sure he probably just stayed at Dustin's," she tried to reason with him.
"Yeah, you're probably right," he sighed.
Neither of them believed her.

-1771 words-
IMPORTANT INFORMATION!!
Hello! Thank you very much for reading this story. Now here is a few disclaimers to start off. While this is a Steve Harrington x OC story, I decided to make this a very, very, very slow burn type. Also, each Chapter(episode) is split up into multiple parts, and I put a limit of 2600 words on each part so it won't feel like one part is going on and on and on forever. That's all I've got for now, enjoy the rest of the story!
-Morgan