One fell through the portal and scraped her elbows on rough gravel. She immediately pushed herself to her knees and swiveled her head around to take in her surroundings. She was sitting in the middle of a cul-de-sac in a quiet neighborhood dotted with split-level houses. She couldn't see any other living creatures, but she could hear the tinkling of children's laughter hiding behind the large wooden fences that separated her from whatever world she had landed in.

As she shakily found her feet, One still felt wracked by her discovery that she was the messenger. She had interacted with her past self before but when she was tapping the light bulbs to spell out "coming" it felt different, more surreal...As soon as she had fulfilled her task, she had immediately opened a portal to get out of there, and now she was...here? One had no idea where she was until she turned her head to the right and saw something she never thought she'd see again...

The brown house.

One felt her feet leading her towards the russet-colored building and willingly followed after. Seeing it now with her memories fully restored felt strangely alien, and somehow, she felt more uncomfortable seeing it this way than in its decrepit shape back in the Upside Down. It was like passing the same statue everyday without giving it a second glance and then one day looking upon it to find your face carved into the stone. But despite the anxious beehive swarming in her stomach, her feet kept walking until she came to the wooden fence that lined the yard.

One pressed her bright blue eye to a hole in the fence to peer inside and found nothing but an abandoned play set and dead leaves blowing in the wind. The rusty chains that connected to the swings creaked as they swayed with the breeze and the addition of far-off children's laughter brought to mind an image of ghosts swinging in the crisp autumn air. One took a step back in disappointment with a new frown painted on her face. She had been hoping to see somebody, anybody...some sort of definitive proof that she was finally out of the Upside Down and not just imagining things.

The children's laughter continued even after the breeze blowing through the neighborhood came to a standstill so One decided to follow the heartwarming sound. She didn't have to go far before she stumbled upon a park filled with families enjoying the fresh air and felt the frown on her face grow into a small smile. A flood of relief flushed through One's body upon seeing other human beings, but she was still careful to stick to the edge for fear of trusting what her eyes saw and to avoid colliding with the multitude of children that were racing around the park.

In her ripped-up clothing with bloody stains, One caught the attention of several concerned parents as she wandered by and she quickly zipped up James' leather jacket to try to conceal them. She didn't even know why she still had James' jacket after everything he had done to her, but right now the jacket was not her most pressing issue. She couldn't quite see herself but she had to imagine that she looked pretty similar to that fateful day when she had stumbled through that portal into Hawkins, only older.

One wasn't sure what she was looking for but something in her gut told her she would find it in this park.

"It's troll's favorite food! Princess!"

It was hard to hear over the condensed conversations echoing through the park, but this particular voice caught One's attention like a beacon and her head spun towards its source. She couldn't see the owner through the throng of racing tots, but she had an idea of who it was and why the portal had brought her here.

One took gentle steps in the direction of where the voice had come from, careful not to upset the ground beneath her feet in case it decided to swallow her whole before she could reach the man she was looking for.

"No daddy! No daddy, no!"

A high-pitched squeal piqued One's ears and she suddenly felt her throat go dry. It was like her voice had been taken from her and she was only left with gasps of breath.

"Roasted princess with paprika and gravy!"

The scene before her finally cleared and formed the perfect frame for One to witness a man lifting a little girl to the sky, his rich laughter intertwining with her infectious giggles and floating off into the clouds. It was her dad and her.

One nearly stumbled backwards from the overwhelming sense of déjà vu that wracked her brain and she felt a date thrust forward from the back of her mind: October 12, 1970. One finally understood where, and most importantly when, she was. Her portal had brought her back in time to before Brenner had kidnapped her, back to the day when...

"Whoa, hey! You all right?" her dad asked her younger self as he set her on the ground. She was breathing heavily and her eyes were looking every which way.

One felt herself struggle to keep her eyes open as she watched the scene play out before her, because her memories of this moment only included darkness.

"What's going on?" her mother's voice chimed in.

One knew what was happening. At this moment, her younger self was seeing into the Upside Down.

"Danger. Danger. Danger," Sarah muttered nearly incoherently.

"What's in danger? Are you in danger? Honey, what's wrong?"

"Danger. Danger. Danger."

"She's not snapping out of it, we need to call 9-1-1!" younger Hopper said as he continued to try to shake his daughter out of the spell that had overtaken her. Hopper scooped Sarah up in his arms and together with Diane in tow, the two sped back for the house. What they didn't realize, was that they had another person following after.

One kept her distance as she followed Hopper and Diane back to the brown house, careful to duck behind a bush or a pole whenever they looked behind them. One watched them bring Sarah into the backyard and as soon as the gate had slammed shut, One rushed over to peer through the hole.

Hopper gingerly laid Sarah down in the grass before he ran in through the sliding glass door to dial the phone. One couldn't hear him very well, but she could see him moving about through the open door. Sarah's tiny frame nearly sunk into the grass as it billowed around her unresponsive body and Diane knelt beside her to stroke her long blonde hair out of her eyes.

One found her eye pressing closer to the hole in the fence as she watched the scene play out before her. She didn't remember this part...

A stray wind picked up from out of nowhere and tore through the backyard, creating a cyclone of leaves that sent the swings into a frenzy. It began to spin madly around Sarah's body and sent Diane stumbling back towards the house. It continued to rotate around the younger version of herself, who had awoken and begun to repeat her mantra of "danger" over and over, until it was sucked into a growing circle of light and sparks.

"OH MY GOD!" Hopper's shout was followed by the clatter of the phone ricocheting against the wall as he raced out the sliding glass door.

He skidded to a halt by his terrified wife, who had been pushed away from Sarah by the strong winds, and watched as a swirling vortex of darkness hovered above his daughter like a vulture. Strange, horrific sounds began to escape the mysterious ring and sent shivers down One's spine. She never got used to those sounds.

One watched helplessly as Hopper braced himself and ran full-throttle towards Sarah and the portal. Should she run over and help? Was there a way to turn this all around? It seemed hopeless at this point. Hopper had already made the phone call that Hawkins Laboratory had tapped into. Her presence was already known to them and soon they would have their hands on her. The vicious cycle would repeat, like the swirling circle of light over Sarah's head and the word that kept absentmindedly falling from her mouth.

Hopper fell to his knees beside Sarah and wrapped his arms around her limp body. He tore her from under the looming presence of the portal, which now hosted a full-fledged view of the Upside Down in all its terrible glory. Black fog had begun to seep from the cracks in the air where the portal hummed and poured down onto the grass. The shrieks of the monsters that resided on the other side became louder, almost as if they were screaming in anger that their prey had been taken from them.

As Hopper ran back towards the house with Sarah in his grip, he tripped over a stray root and went tumbling to the ground. Once Sarah's body hit the soft earth with a thud, the portal snapped shut and the evil howls stopped ringing in their ears. Everything returned to a stillness that almost seemed surreal without the stark contrast of the portal.

Hopper crawled over to Sarah and placed his hand on her cheek. He muttered something that One couldn't quite hear, but a few moments later a sputtering sound emitted from Sarah's throat and she sat up straight in a fit of coughs.

One watched with a hand pressed against her fast-beating heart as Hopper and Diane wrapped their arms around Sarah and held her tight. A collective sob of relief emanated from their huddle and One felt the need to pull back from the fence to give them their privacy.

One's own tears began to form on her cheeks as she walked back towards the cul-de-sac she had found herself on and she hastily wiped them away. A strike of nostalgia ripped through her heart at the image of her younger self being wrapped in the loving embrace of her parents and she was suddenly reminded of her own family that she needed to get back to. Hopper, Eleven, Steve, the party.

One turned to focus on the brown house one last time as she opened her own swirling circle of light before her and stepped through. She had made this promise before, but this time she would not break it: she would find them, or she would die trying.

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