Chapter Text
Chapter 1: The Vanishing of Will Byers
The night Will Byers disappeared, Blair Henderson was awake.
She lay on her bed with the lights off, staring at the faint glow of the streetlamp bleeding through her curtains. Hawkins was quiet in that unsettling way small towns sometimes were, as if holding its breath. Somewhere downstairs, Dustin’s laughter echoed briefly—excited, loud, alive—before the sound of the book page sliding.
Blair smiled to herself.
Reading night. Again.
She rolled onto her side, pulling the blanket tighter around her shoulders. Nights like this used to mean something different once. Late drives. Music too loud. Steve's hand was firmly on her thigh, and the other on the steering wheel, confident, carefree, belonging to a world she never fully entered.
She hadn’t thought about that in a while.
That was obviously a lie.
A door opened downstairs. Closed again. Footsteps moved through the house, hurried this time. Blair frowned but didn’t get up. Dustin was probably grabbing snacks, or sneaking a soda he wasn’t supposed to have.
Normal things.
She fell asleep believing that.
The next morning arrived grey and restless.
Blair drove Dustin to school, the radio low, the silence between them comfortable. Dustin talked—about his campaign, about Lucas complaining, about Mike always wanting to be the leader. Blair nodded at the right moments, her mind elsewhere, drifting the way it always did when she let it.
They turned into the school parking lot.
And then she saw him.
Steve Harrington stood near his car, talking to Tommy H. and Carol. He looked the same at first glance—effortlessly confident, careless posture, jacket hanging open like the world owed him something. But Blair noticed the details most people missed. The way his smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. The way his shoulders were tense, like he was carrying a weight he hadn’t learned how to set down yet.
Dustin followed her gaze and groaned. “You have got to be kidding me.”
“Dustin,” she warned.
He grabbed his backpack. “I don’t like him.”
“I know.”
“You shouldn’t like him either,” Dustin muttered, already opening the door.
Blair didn’t correct him.
Dustin was halfway across the parking lot when Steve looked up.
Their eyes met.
For a moment, everything slowed—the chatter, the engines, the scrape of shoes against concrete. Steve straightened, his expression shifting into something quieter, something just for her. Carol punched Tommy while looking in her direction.
He walked over before Blair could decide whether she wanted him to.
“Hey,” he said.
Not the confident grin he gave everyone else. Just a soft word, like he was testing it.
“Hey,” Blair replied.
Up close, the space between them felt charged. Familiar. Like muscle memory.
“How’ve you been?” Steve asked.
“Good.” She paused. “You?”
He huffed a small laugh. “Yeah. Same.”
Another lie. They were both bad at those when it mattered.
Dustin shot Steve a glare as he passed them. “Bye, Blair.”
“Bye,” she said, eyes never leaving Steve’s.
Steve waited until Dustin was gone. “He still hates me.”
“He’s protective,” Blair said. “And you didn’t exactly give him reasons not to be.”
Steve winced. “Fair.”
They stood there, neither quite ready to leave.
“I heard you’re…,” Blair began, then stopped.
Steve followed her gaze instinctively—to Nancy Wheeler across the lot, laughing softly with Barb. Something unreadable crossed his face.
“Yeah,” he said after a moment. “I guess.”
Blair nodded slowly. “She’s… good.”
“She is,” he agreed, but his voice lacked certainty.
Silence stretched between them, heavy with things they hadn’t said back then. Apologies. Regrets. Versions of themselves that no longer fit.
“I’m glad we’re okay,” Steve said quietly.
Blair met his eyes. “We were always okay.”
He searched her face, like he wanted to believe that.
“I should go,” he said.
“Yeah.”
He hesitated. “See you around, Blair.”
“See you, Steve.”
She watched him walk away, heart aching with the weight of something unresolved. They hadn’t been a mistake. They’d just happened too early.
By lunchtime, Hawkins High still pretended everything was normal.
Classes went on as usual. Bells rang. Teachers talked. Students complained about homework and tests as if the world hadn’t quietly shifted the night before. Blair moved from one classroom to another with her books pressed to her chest, answering when spoken to, smiling when expected. From the outside, nothing about her looked out of place.
Inside, she felt restless.
She was closing her locker when she spotted Nancy Wheeler a few lockers down, leaning close to Barb. Nancy’s cheeks were flushed, her voice low but animated, hands moving as she spoke.
Blair hesitated—then walked over.
“Nancy,” she said softly.
Nancy looked up, surprise flashing across her face before she smiled. “Hey, Blair.”
Barb gave her a small, polite wave.
“We were just—,” Nancy began, then stopped, clearly unsure how much Blair already knew.
“It’s okay,” Blair said quickly, gently. “You don’t have to stop.”
Nancy glanced at Barb, then took a breath. “I just… I like Steve. I really like him. And we’ve—” She swallowed. “We’ve hooked up a couple of times.”
Blair felt it then.
That sharp, unexpected pain right in the center of her chest.
She already knew. Of course she did. She’d seen the way Steve looked at Nancy, the way he lingered. But hearing it out loud made it real in a way she hadn’t been prepared for.
“That’s… that’s great,” Blair said, forcing a smile. “I’m happy for you.”
Nancy searched her face, guilt flickering in her eyes. “Are you sure?”
Blair nodded. “Yeah. Really.”
It was a lie she told well.
Nancy turned back to her locker and pulled it open. A folded piece of paper slipped out and fluttered to the floor.
Nancy frowned and picked it up. “Huh.”
She unfolded it, eyes scanning quickly. A small smile tugged at her lips.
“What is it?” Barb asked.
“It’s from Steve,” Nancy said, lowering her voice again. “He wants me to meet him in the bathroom. Between classes.”
Blair’s breath caught.
Her fingers curled slightly around the strap of her bag as that familiar ache settled deeper. Steve’s handwriting. Steve asking someone else to meet him somewhere private. Steve choosing someone who fits into his world without having to try.
She forced her smile wider. “Sounds… very Steve.”
Nancy laughed softly. “Yeah.”
“Well,” Blair said, stepping back, “I should get to class. See you later?”
“Yeah,” Nancy replied. “See you.”
As Blair walked away, she let the smile fall the moment she was out of sight. She exhaled slowly, grounding herself.
Be happy for her.
Be a good friend.
She repeated it like a mantra.
She found Dustin near the lockers by the science wing, his face pale beneath his cap. Mike and Lucas stood with him, voices low, shoulders tense.
“There you are,” Dustin said the moment he saw her.
“What’s going on?” Blair asked, dread creeping in.
Mike hesitated. “Will didn’t come to school today.”
Blair frowned. “Maybe he’s sick.”
Lucas shook his head. “His mom says he never came home last night.”
The words landed heavy.
Dustin swallowed. “He’s missing.”
Blair’s heart dropped.
The laughter from the night before—the dice, the shouting, the normality of it all—echoed painfully in her mind. Will had been there. Alive. Safe.
And now he wasn’t.
Blair reached out, resting a hand on Dustin’s shoulder, protective instinct flaring instantly. “We’ll find him,” she said, more firmly than she felt. “Okay?”
Dustin nodded, eyes shining.
As the bell rang, loud and indifferent, Blair looked down the hallway—past lockers, past students, past Steve Harrington walking toward the bathrooms with a note written for someone else.
And for the first time, fear outweighed heartbreak.
Something was wrong in Hawkins.
And nothing was going to stay the same.