The One Before

They said he ran away.

She knew better.

Eight years ago, Daniel Mercer disappeared without a trace. No body. No answers. Just a story the town accepted and a truth his sister never could.

Now, another boy is missing.

Same woods. Same silence. Same impossible feeling that something isn't right.

While Hawkins searches for Will Byers, Adeline "Addie" Mercer starts seeing the patterns no one else wants to acknowledge. The kind that don't point to a runaway.

The kind that point to something else.

Something buried beneath the town.

Something watching.

Something that didn't just take one.

As the lines between rumor and reality begin to blur, Addie finds herself pulled into a mystery far bigger than her brother's disappearance-and dangerously close to people who are just starting to realize how wrong everything really is.

Because some disappearances aren't accidents.

And some people...

were taken first.