PARANORMAL | ❝Nothing is stranger than believing.❞
Cath knows a thing or two about Will Byers. Daphne, on the other hand, knows virtually nothing about Tonya McCarthy. Still, none of that changes the fact that both of them have up and vanished with...
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FRIDAY 11th NOVEMBER, 1983
WILL doesn't know how long he has been running. He never does anymore. All he knows is that if he stops altogether, he might not make it. The young boy's feet pound against the dead earth, his tired heart hammering in a frenzy with every step he puts into his sprint.
He was so close.
Between the towering trees that caged him, all looking exactly the same when shrouded in the inky darkness, there had been a light. The first light he had seen in... days? Will didn't know how long he had been here anymore. He stopped counting when he realised the sun never rose in this hell. But this light had ignited a newfound hope in his weak-limbed body — for the first time, he could see the end. Then there had been all of these voices. The first one was Tonya, he knew that. He had crossed paths with her a couple of times. In fact, he had been surprised she was still hanging on by the time he spotted her crouched at the tree. And then there were two other voices that soon joined — two girls around the same age. One of them he soon figured out was Nancy, and his blood had run cold; had the demogorgon taken her too? And the other one... he wasn't sure at first.
But then he heard Jonathan's voice. In that moment, with the familiar rasp of his brother's call from outside of this place, Will had known he was coming home.
All three of them had talked in hushed whispers, with fearful glances over their shoulders. He had watched from afar, ducked behind a small log and safely obscured by it thanks to his small stature. The demogorgon had loomed ever nearer, and Will had observed in despair as they edged further and further away from his spot, completely unaware he was still there. How do I get their attention?, he'd thought desperately. Will observed with the deepest concentration as Nancy wriggled through the small opening in a tree trunk, dissolving into what might as well have been the abyss. She was through. He took that chance to edge nearer,
Tonya had slipped. The demogorgon flinched. He watched the creature creep from behind, the unsaid warning — "LOOK OUT!" — burning on the tip of his tongue and dying on his lips as her blood-curdling scream rang out through the dead forest. However, when her dead weight had slumped to the ground, Will found it wasn't Tonya who had screamed; it was the third voice.
Daphne.
Something had clicked into place within him then... a strange calm. He couldn't let Cath's sister die. Not her. Tonya was gone, and Daphne would have been its next kill if he didn't act fast. If it came to it, he would rather have spent more endless days running for his life in here, than escaping to remember the eternal guilt of leaving Daphne behind. Will stooped to pick up a sizeable rock from the ground where he was crouched, and wasted no time in lobbing it in the demogorgon's direction. Thunk! It had hit the tree trunk next to it — not where he was aiming, but now it was distracted. Good. On his second throw he managed to hit the monster in the flesh, detonating its agitation. It bought Daphne enough time to crawl into the shrinking tree portal...
