FIVE: NO.

IT WAS POURING RAIN. It was one of the nights where Daniel spent the evening cuddled up with his sister watching Doctor Who reruns. Except, something was different, their mother was home.

"You kids want more popcorn?" her mother asked from the kitchen.

Heather was about to respond when Daniel shouted back, "No, thanks! I think I'm just gonna head upstairs. The whole thing with Will is messing with me."

His mother scoffed, coming into the living room, "Aw, sweetie, I know. I can't believe those cops talked to you boys without the other parents and me there! The school will be getting a strongly worded letter from your mama, you hear me?"

Daniel laughed, "I hear ya. Goodnight mama, goodnight Heather!"

He quickly ran up the stairs. After a few moments of making it sound like he went to sleep, he sighed. Stuffing pillows under his sheets to make it look like he was sleeping, he slid open his window.

"Come on!" Mike whisper-yelled, waiting with Dustin and Lucas with a flashlight in hand.

The young boy gripped onto the shaky trellis that laid against the wall of his home. Thankfully, he didn't weigh much, so it wasn't as scary, but it shook him nonetheless. His house had low ceilings, so the drop wasn't even that high. He dropped onto the ground, sticking the landing somewhat and regaining his composure. He was a little nervous about the rain, but he was going to find his best friend, weather be damned.

They made it to the woods by Will's house when Mike started shouting, "Will! Will!"

"Byers!" Lucas shouted.

"Will! Where are you?" Daniel shouted as well, his flashlight weak against the dark atmosphere and the rain.

"I've got your X-Men 134!" Was Dustin's contribution, "Guys, I really think we should turn back."

Despite wanting to find Will, Daniel was beginning to feel the same way. The rain had soaked through to his skin and he could practically feel the hypothermia coming on.

"Seriously, Dustin?" Lucas chastised, "You wanna be a baby, then go home already!"

"I'm just being realistic, Lucas!"

"Guys, please stop arguing!" Daniel pleaded, having to yell over the sound of the rain.

"Stay out of it, Daniel!" Lucas shouted, "No, Dustin, you're just being a big sissy!"

Dustin sounded a little scared as he spoke, "Did you ever think Will went missing because he ran into something bad? And we're going to the exact same spot where he was last seen? And we have no weapons or anything?"

Daniel could definitely see the logic there and part of him was begging to turn around and go home. He should be safe and asleep in his warm bed. Instead, he was stuck in the middle of a storm on a hopeless search listening to his best friends argue.

"Dustin, shut up!" Mike finally said, although there was no malice or anger behind it.

"I'm just saying," Dustin continued, "does that seem smart to you?"

"Shut up, shut up." Something rustled that wasn't the four boys. It was clearly heard over the rain, meaning whatever made the noise had to be more than a mouse. "Did you guys hear that?"

"What the fuck?" Daniel asked, immediately freaked out by the noise. "I'm kinda starting to agree with Dustin here, guys."

"Thank you!" Dustin said before he was shushed by Mike. There was another rustle, behind them this time. All of the boys turned around, their flashlights on the spot where the noise came from, but there was nothing. Another rustle. They turned again and this time, their flashlights found something. It was a person, looking to be about their age, with a shaved head and soaking wet in a long yellow t-shirt.

The person didn't say anything and neither did the boys, all stunned into silence.

BACK AT MIKE'S HOUSE, Daniel was freaking out. They had a girl in Mike's basement. And not just any girl, one they found in the middle of the night, with a shaved head, right where Will was last seen alive.

"Is there a number we can call for your parents?" Mike asked. The girl was sitting on the couch with a coat wrapped around her shoulders. She had yet to say anything, just sitting there and breathing heavily.

"Where's your hair?" Dustin asked with an odd wonder, "Do you have cancer?"

"Dude!" Daniel hit him softly on the side, "You can't just ask her that!"

"Whatever."

"Did you run away?" Was Lucas's question. Daniel felt a little bad for the girl, she must be beyond overwhelmed right now.

Daniel was the only one not asking her a ton of questions, but no one let up on them, either.

"Are you in some kind of trouble?" Mike asked, sounding concerned.

"Is that blood?" Lucas whispered although the girl could probably still hear him. However, Lucas was right to ask, since there was an ominous blotch of something a rusted red color on the yellow t-shirt.

Lucas went to point to it when Mike slapped his arm down. "Stop it! You're freaking her out!"

"Thank you!" Daniel muttered under his breath. He loved his friends, but them throwing these questions at the girl wasn't going to help them.

"She's freaking me out!" Lucas exclaimed. He had a good point. At least, to Daniel he did. There was something off about a random bald girl in the middle of the woods and he was glad to know it wasn't just him that was thinking that.

"I bet she's deaf!" was Dustin's genius contribution. Although the girl had reacted to sounds and she could probably hear them since her head would turn in the direction of whoever was speaking.

Daniel scoffed, "That's stupid."

"Well, do you have any bright ideas?"

"Maybe she's mute!"

Dustin just rolled his eyes and clapped, watching the girl jump back.

"See?" Daniel asked tauntingly, "Not deaf! I'm telling you, she's mute!"

Mike was clearly about to get everyone settled down and under control as he spoke, "All right, that's enough, all right? She's just scared and cold." Mike turned and reached into his laundry basket, pulling out some sweats. Funnily enough, those were the sweats that Daniel had borrowed the night before when he stayed over.

Daniel noticed how the girl jumped at every rumble of thunder. He used to be scared of storms, but after years of Heather consoling him, he could finally fall asleep to the sound of thunder and flashes of lightning without any hesitation.

"Here," Mike came back with the sweats, "there are clean, okay?"

The girl stood up, shrugging off the coat. She reached the bottom of her shirt and began to pull it off. All of the boys scrambled to run around, Mike pushing her arms back down. Daniel did not need to see anything under that t-shirt if he could help it. God, who was this chick? Where could she possibly be from where this was normal? All of the boys were talking over each other pretty just saying "Oh my god" over and over.

Mike, however, was calm. "See over there? That's the bathroom. Privacy. Get it?" It was like talking to a toddler, but Daniel thought it was sweet how he wasn't getting angry with her. The girl took the sweats and walked into the bathroom nervously. Mike went to close the door, but the girl stopped him.

"You don't want it closed?" Dustin and Daniel shared a look of mutual confusion as Mike asked this. This girl was weird. How was Mike being so patient with her?

"No," the girl said. It was the first word she had uttered that entire night. Her voice was soft, careful. Daniel didn't even think she knew English. Granted, "No" was a fairly universal word.

"Oh, so you can speak. Okay, well. . . Um, how about we just keep the door. . ." he closed it so there was only a sliver of open space, "Just like this? Is that better?"

"Yes." Oh, so she knew two words.

Mike nodded and walked back to where the boys were standing.

"What the hell?" Daniel asked, but there was no answer to that question.

"This is mental," said Dustin, his voice riddled with the same disbelief as Daniel's.

Mike shrugged, "At least she can talk!"

"She said "no" and "yes." Your three-year-old sister says more," Lucas observed. Daniel totally agreed with him, he and Lucas always seemed to be on the logical side of things. If it were up to Daniel, that girl would already be dropped off at the police station.

"She tried to get naked!" was Dustin's contribution to the argument, which Daniel also agreed with. That was beyond weird.

Lucas sighed, "There's something seriously wrong with her. Like, wrong in the head."

"She just went like. . ." Dustin began to mimic what she had done, but Daniel stopped him.

"Dude," he started, "just stop talking about that, please."

"I bet she escaped from Pennhurst!" Lucas suggested, which Daniel thought sounded likely. That place was filled to the brim with nutjobs.

"From where?"

"The nuthouse in Kerley County."

"You got a lot of family there?" Dustin joked with a coy smile. Daniel, whose aunt was a patient there for reason's he didn't like to discuss, didn't think that was very funny.

Lucas scoffed, "Bite me. Seriously, though, think about it. That would explain her shaved hair and why she's so crazy."

"It's possible," Daniel shrugged.

"Why she went like—"

"Dustin, seriously," the blond cut in again.

Lucas sighed, not bothering to even look at Dustin, "She's an escapee is the point. She's probably a psycho."

"Do you think she can kill us?" Daniel asked with wide eyes.

"Probably!" the dark-skinned boy exclaimed. "We should've never brought her here!"

"So you just wanted to leave her out in the storm?" Mike reasoned.

"Preferably," Daniel mumbled, earning a dirty look from Mike.

"Yes!" Lucas agreed, "We went out to find Will, not another problem."

"I think we should tell your mom."

"I second that."

"Me too," Daniel cut in, his arms crossed. He didn't like this situation one bit.

Mike shouted as if the idea was utterly ridiculous, "Who's crazy now?"

"How is that crazy?"

"'Cause, we weren't supposed to be out tonight, remember?" Daniel remembered his mom and sister, sitting on the couch watching a movie. They probably thought he was sound asleep in his bed. He wished he was if he was being honest. Not that he minded the extra time with Mike, but he wouldn't admit that.

"So?" Lucas asked with a shrug.

Mike sighed, "So if I tell my mom and she tells your mom and your mom and your mom. . ."

"Oh man," Dustin said.

"God no," Daniel's eyes widened.

"Our houses become Alcatraz," Lucas muttered, all of the boys coming to the same realization.

"Exactly," Mike said matter of factly, "We'll never find Will. All right, here's the plan. She sleeps here tonight."

"You're letting a girl —" Dustin began, but Mike cut him off.

"Just listen," which Daniel was, "In the morning, she sneaks around my house, goes to the front door and rings my doorbell. My mom will answer and know exactly what to do. She'll send her back to Pennhurst or wherever she comes from. We'll be totally in the clear! And tomorrow night, we go back out. And this time, we find Will."

Daniel shrugged, "I mean, I guess."

The boys agreed. Dustin, Daniel, and Lucas walked up the stairs, watching as Mike got the girl settled down in the fort, the same place where Daniel and Mike had slept last night.

"You really think she's a psycho?" Dustin asked the two boys.

Daniel shrugged, "It's totally possible."

"Wouldn't want her in my house," Lucas spoke coldly before they proceeded up the stairs. God, what a weird night. Daniel was looking forward to sleeping in his nice, warm bed.

Of course, when he very carefully climbed back into his bedroom, the light switched on. Heather was standing in front of the closed door with her arms crossed.

"What. The. Hell?" Heather asked, looking incredibly displeased. "Where were you?"

Daniel's eyes were glued to the carpeted floor, "W-we were looking for Will. Please don't tell mom!"

Heather sighed, "I won't tell mom if you don't tell her where I'm going tomorrow."

Daniel raised his eyebrows, "Which is?"

She hesitated, "Steve Harrington's party. Tell her I'm off studying with Veronica or I swear to god I will make sure she puts bars on your window!"

"Okay, okay, got it!"

She opened up the door, but stopped in the doorway for a second, "And I hate to break it to you, Daniel, but Will, he's probably dead already."

( note! )

this was a long ass chapter wow

EDIT: STOP HATING ON HEATHER. SHE IS REALISTIC AS WHEN MOST PEOPLE GO MISSING, THEY END UP DEAD (like, this literally just happened in my town) SORRY SHE DOESNT BELIEVE IN FAIRY TALES AND THINK WILL IS COMING HOME AT THIS POINT, IF YOU WANNA HATE ON HER, KEEP IT TO YOURSELF