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your light of a million suns burns through people
─ death wish, gracie abrams 

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EMILY EVERGLOT SAT IN STEVE'S PASSENGER SEAT WITH AN INCREDULOUS LOOK ON HER FACE.

She had sat in that exact seat a thousand times before, for a plethora of reasons. Steve would offer to drive her to school each morning, as he had basketball practice and she had cheer routines to plan out. Or on their way to see the latest cinema release in town, to share buckets of popcorn and pretend their fingers brushing against each other didn't prod at them with shy blushes. If there were any parties important enough for them to grace with their presence, it was often Steve who would be in charge of driving the pair there ( no promises on the way back, as there was no way Steve Harrington was remaining sober at a party, he had a reputation to maintain ).

This time was unlike any other though. According to the curly haired boy named Dustin who sat behind them, they were on their way to check on a supposed monster he had trapped in his cellar. An occurrence that was only new to Emily, because apparently in the past year she had been dead, both boys had dealt with the existence of monsters and a parallel, shadow version of Hawkins they called the 'Upside Down.' 

'Any questions?' Dustin asked once he finished explaining everything that had transpired in the small town, with the occasional quip from Steve to add any details to his narrative. 

'Probably, if I actually managed to understand everything you just said.' Emily rubbed her face tiredly. 'So, let me see if I got everything ─ there's like a parallel version of Hawkins where monsters exist, opened by a girl with superpowers who has now vanished into thin air, and it's where your friend Will disappeared into.'

Steve looked into the rear mirror to share a glance with Dustin. 'Yeah, that's the gist of it, pretty much.'

'Let's say all this is true─' Emily lifted a hand to stop Dustin before he argued back at her. 'What's it got to do with me?'

At this, Dustin hesitated. 'Well, maybe that's where you were this past year. Maybe not dead, but in some sort of coma. Maybe it kept you alive, I don't know. Without your memories, there's not much I can hypothesise. But it seems a weird coincidence you resuscitate at the same time that I find Dart.'

'Are you sure it's one of those monsters? How big was it again?' the hesitation in Steve's tone didn't do much to reassure Emily about the strange happenings that seemed sort of made up to her. Dustin made a gesture with his hands to indicate the size of this thing. 'How do you know it wasn't just a lizard or something.'

Dustin rolled his eyes. 'Because it's face opened up and it ate my cat.'

A shiver crawled up Emily's spine and she pressed her fingers to the nape of her neck, where goosebumps prickled her skin. Monster or not, whatever it was seemed vicious enough to want to rip into anything with flesh. 'Maybe it's some sort of mutation of a lizard. A carnivorous one.'

'So coming back to life is plausible but the existence of a monster isn't?' Dustin retorted, raising an eyebrow when Emily sunk into her seat.

'What sort of children are you friends with, Harrington?'

Steve glanced at her to meet her amused gaze. 'Friends is a stretch of a word. I'm more of a...babysitter.'

'Excuse me ─ I'm too old for a baby sitter.'

'Well then, maybe you'd like to deal with this lizard by yourself then.' 

'Not a lizard.' Dustin muttered irritated, before pointing down to the left. 'Turn here, and park over.'

The car's engine hadn't even been switched off when Dustin jumped out of the back seat, with such a slam of the door that it made Steve wince. Emily caught this from the corner of her sight ─ she had always teased him about his attachment to his car. As if by muscle memory, her fingers reach out to beneath the dashboard, and traces the initials she had once sculpted on there. Steve followed her movement, momentarily stunned by the situation that the blonde that he thought he had lost forever was sat in her seat (because, to be truthful, the passenger seat of his car had always been hers), that her natural apple scent was suffocating him once again. 'My dad grounded me for two weeks when he saw it.'

Emily met his gaze, her plump lips in a soft pout. 'I'm sorry I wasn't there for the fallout. Considering, you know, it was my fault.'

Steve ran a hand through his hair and sighed. He could lie, and say it hadn't been that bad, but Emily would be able to look through it immediately. A sharp knock at his window saved him from saying anything, as he was blinded by Dustin shining his flashlight into his face. 'Hellooo, we have a life-threatening situation on our hands, stop making lovey eyes at each other.'

The implication from Dustin had Emily and Steve avoid each other's gazes with a blush as they exited the car. Steve circled to the back and grabbed his bat and swung it around, making Emily's eyebrows shoot upwards. 'Why the hell is there a million nails sticking out of a bat?'

Steve propped his arm on the trunk of the car before slamming it shut. 'I told you ─ I had to fight one of these bad boys last year.'

When Emily glanced at Dustin for clarity, he shrugged, letting her know there had been no lies spoken. The three approached the doors of the cellar with slow certainty. Steve used the end of his bat to nudge the door, but when no sound came from the other side, he gave the doors a bigger whack. And yet nothing.

'I swear to God, kid, if this is your idea of some sick Halloween prank─' Steve shone the flashlight into Dustin's face. 'You're dead. Hear me? I've got bigger problems to deal with.'

Emily grimaced. 'Like me?'

Steve turned, frown softening. 'I didn't mean it like that─'

'Look, it's not a prank, okay? He's in there.' Dustin reassured, waving his hand for the two to check. 

As Steve crouched down to open the doors and shine the light down, Emily used her hands to rub some warmth into arms, looking over his shoulder into the darkness of the hole. 'I sure hope it's a prank, and we're not just awaiting some monster to pounce on us like bait.'

'We'll stay up here,' Dustin offered some safety for him and Emily as he gulped at the thought of what awaited down there. 'In case it tries to, you know, escape or something.'

The look on Steve's face told him he knew what he was trying to do. Emily opened her mouth to offer to join ─ she didn't even believe in monsters, didn't she? Chances are it was just some malformed animal that had spooked the young boy. And yet something made her hesitate. Something had attacked her in the woods. Something had dragged her into the depths of the lake. And, if she was to believe their story, something had made her disappear from Hawkins for a year. She really wasn't ready to face that something if it was in Dustin Henderson's cellar. So she promptly closed her lips and took a step back. 

Steve, who noticed the flicker of fear that had crossed the blonde's features, didn't bring it up and looked back down the stairs, before heading down them.  As soon as he picked up the sheded skin and peered down the tunnel the demogorgon had dug itself out of, he neared the stairs again and startled a tense, awaiting Dustin. 'Take a look at this.'

'It must have molted again.' Dustin mused as he touched the slimy evidence. 'Last time it did, it tripled in size.'

The facts sat coldly between the two as they realised the enormity of the creature they had come to lose. 'We're going to have to trap it before it harms anyone. Didn't you say you were feeding it? Maybe tomorrow we can set out some food and trap it again somewhere. Kill it.'

Dustin suddenly froze as he spotted something behind Steve. 'Right, all that sounds good...will Emily be joining us?'

'I guess, though we'll have to be careful no one sees her.' Steve shrugged, before frowning. 'Wait, where is she?'

He followed Dustin's gaze and where he pointed to see Emily sprinting down the road. 'Shit.'

Emily's feet slammed against the concrete, the noise thudding across her bones as the wind howled in her ears. She could hear Steve calling out for her behind her, and she tightened her muscles to go faster as she turned right. While he had been parking up the car before, he had recognised the area ─ it's where she used to live. She knew if she asked the boys, they would deny her request to see her parents, that it would be a bad idea. So she waited for a distraction, and off she had gone, blonde curls tousling behind her without giving her decision much thought. She just wanting her mother's comfort, to be held in her arms, to be told everything was fine and easily fixed.

The sight of her house made her falter, slowing her speed. Her lungs hammered for air as she gasped, leaning on her knees as her eyes took in the building ─ or what was left of it. A 'for sale' sign creaked under the soft breeze, the paint chipped from what must have been a year of wear. The navy blue Dodge car was missing from the driveway, and the front yard which her father had paid a gardener to keep trimmed and proper was overgrown with stray weeds that waved at her from where they'd grown. The windows were boarded up, with only darkness peeping through the cracks.

Emily lifted a trembling hand to her lips. It couldn't be. Her parents would never leave Hawkins ─ for some strange reason, they had loved the town. Which could only mean that it was true. 

She, Emily Everglot had died. Or that was what was made to be believed. She had been missing for a year, and here were the remnants. 

She heard Steve catch up to her, heaving in loud breaths as his footsteps quietened as he approached her. Emily turned to him, her eyes glazed over with a thin layer of tears as she shook her head at him. 

'They left soon after you...' he trailed off, not needing to finish the sentence. He opened his mouth, hesitating before adding the last piece of information. 'They moved to Canada.'

This caused Emily to break. She couldn't stop the tears now, the sobs that pulsed through her shoulders and through her lips. In what it felt like a few days, her entire life had been stolen from her. She was, essentially, a walking ghost. Nothing more. 

Her knees buckled, but Steve was there to catch her.