As I pull up to the Byers house I hear Joyce and Jonathan screaming Will's name from out back. I hurry around the house, leaves crunching beneath me as I turn the corner and they both snap their heads towards me.

"Will?" Joyce's face drops seeing it's me instead. "Oh, Toni." She rushes over and pulls me in for a hug.  "Have you?" She asks, pulling away. I shake my head no looking over to Jonathan.

"You're skipping?" He looks at me.

"Wasn't the same without you." I shrug causing him to smile. "The Chief came to the middle school while I was visiting the boys during lunch and told us what was going on. I came here right after." I tell them.

"You should be in school honey." Joyce gives me her concerned mom look.

"I can't knowing Will's out there somewhere." I insist before stepping over to Will's fort Jonathan and I made for him. Most of the flowers I planted around it are dead now. 'Castle Byers' he named it. For a moment I forget he's missing and think about the good times we've in there. I'm the only person he's ever let hang out in here with him.

Flashback

"Ring-a-ding-ding!" Joyce calls out at the 'Castle Byers' entrance. Will has a fake doorbell. Guess she just got home from work. Will and I have been reading comics in here all afternoon. "Anybody home?"

Will and I smirk to each other. "Password?" He asks her.

"Uh, Rada..." She pauses. "Radaga-Radagast?" We giggle at her struggling. It's a Lord of the Rings character. I told Will he had to make his password unique and difficult, that way not just anyone can get in.

"Yeah. You may enter." Will allows.

"Thank you sir, madame." She says, moving the sheet that acts as the door and takes a seat on the blanket's with us. "So, guess what? I got off early and..." She reaches in her pocket and pulls out three tickets. "Ta-da! Poltergeist."

"I... I thought I wasn't allowed  to see it." Will stampers.

"Toni convinced me." Joyce shrugs with a sly smile.

Will looks at me excitedly with wide eyes, he's been begging to go so I offered to go too so Will wouldn't be as scared. I love horror movies. I have nightmares all the time so they don't bother me. I find all the guts, gore, and suspense exciting. But they have to be actual horror movies, not just scary movies, there's a difference. Even as a kid I was never phased by horror movies finding them more interesting and real life far more scarier. They make Dustin shit his pants though and I would get in trouble for letting him watch them. I laugh to myself just thinking about it.

"As long as you don't have nightmares for a week." She adds.

"No, I won't. I don't get scared like that anymore." Will quickly defends.

"Oh, yeah? Not even of clowns?" Joyce humors.

"No."

"Ech, clowns." I shudder.

"Not even my witch.: Joyce makes a voice while waving her finger. I laugh hard.

"No. Mom... I'm not five anymore." Will gets embarrassed.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you." I nudge him playfully, going along with it.

"But Will Byers." Joyce tickles him. "I'm going to cook you up in my-"

"Stop. That's so stupid. Mom!" Will laughs. "Toni! Make her stop." He whines.

"No way, this is too good." I join in.

"Traitor." Will gasps, giggling up a storm.

End of Flashback

"Will!!" Jonathan continues screaming, causing me to jolt as I break out of the memory. My shoulders slump. I frown at the 'Castle Byers' sign. Come on Will, where are you?

❁❁❁

After searching for a bit, we finally come inside. Still no sign of Will. Joyce breaks down and calls her ex-husband Lonnie, which I argued against. He's a piece of shit. There's no way Will would go there, but we've apparently reached desperate.

"Is Lonnie there?" Joyce finally speaks after waiting for several rings.

"This is a bad idea." I whisper to Jonathan as we wait on the couch.

"We have to try everything." He hunches over, worried. I start rubbing his back.

"Can you please put him on-" Joyce continues. "Who is this?" Guess Lonnie didn't pick up. "Cynthia."

Jonathan snaps his head up at the mention of another woman's name. I get up, moving closer to Joyce so I can hear the other person.

"Who the hell is this?" 'Cynthia' asks.

"Cynthia, this is Joyce." She starts off.

"Who?"

"Lonnie's ex-wife. I really need to speak to him-"

"Lonnie's not here." Cynthia doesn't let her finish.

I scoff, going back over to Jonathan. "Here you go." He hands me a blank sheet of paper and a marker so we can start making missing posters. I take it, plopping back down.

Joyce gets irritated with Cynthia as they go back and fourth. "Bitch!" She then yells, slamming the phone up causing me to mess up on my 'a'.

"Mom!" Jonathan emphasizes.

"What?" She yells.

"You have to stay calm." Jonathan speaks softly. I throw the marker down after finishing 'have', my hands shaking too much to write anything else. Joyce chuckles before looking at the note in her hand and grabbing the phone again.

She lets out a small laugh. "Lonnie, some teenager just hung up on me. Will is... is missing. I don't know where he is. I need..." Her voices cracks. I gulp, sinking further into the couch before curling up completely. I shut my eyes, I'm so drained I could honestly fall asleep right now. "I just need you need you to call me back, please, just-" She pauses. "Damn it! Damn it!" She slams the phone over and over against it's base causing my eyes to shoot back open. Jonathan looks over at me and I look at him with wide eyes before our attention turns the sound of a car pulling up to the house.

"Mom?" He gets Joyce as I sit up to see who it is. Oh great.

"What?" She sighs.

Jonathan stands. "Cops." He helps me to my feet and we all three rush out the front door.

Hopper comes around from the back of his Chief vehicle as a cop car pulls up. My heart drops to my stomach when I see he has Will's bike in his hand. I grab Jonny's hand and he squeeze's. The cop from earlier and another one step out of the car.

Hopper makes eye contact with me. Uh oh. "Didn't I tell you-"

"She's with us." Jonathan rushes to defend. Hopper eyes him.

"She's family." Joyce steps in. "Where did you find that?"

He explains that he found the abandoned bike around Mirkwood like Mike told him about before we move inside.

"It was just lying there?" Joyce's voice raises in disbelief.

"Yeah. Cal." Hopper turns to the cop that wasn't at the school and points, then they start to look around.

"Did it have any blood on it, or-"

"No, no, no, no, no...." Hopper cuts her off moving to the kitchen. "Phil?"

"If you found the bike out there, why are you here?" Jonathan questions.

"Yeah, shouldn't you be out there looking for him if we aren't supposed to." I cross my arms.

Hopper glances over his shoulder at me for a moment before answering, "Well, he had a key to the house, right?"

"Yeah." Jonathan replies.

"So... maybe he came home."

"Yo-you think I didn't check my own house?" Joyce shouts.

"I'm not saying that." Hopper tells her, lost in thought. I step around the corner to find him staring at the wall. "Has this always been here?" He points to a gash in the wood.

"What? I don't know. Probably. I mean, I have two boys. Look at this place." She fans her arms around. I snort quietly, they do always mess the place up. But I can't say anything, my room is beyond saving. Dustin can't take it and cleans things up about once a month, which saves me from doing it so no complaints here. Maybe he should come here and clean.

"You're not sure?" Hopper asks while opening the back door, brining me back to the matter at hand.

Joyce sighs and Chester, their dog, starts barking. Hopper steps outside and Joyce follows.

I turn to Jonathan, throwing my hands up. "Useless." He sighs, forehead wrinkling with worry. Joyce comes back in with Chester but no Hopper. What on Earth is he doing out there? After a few minutes the other two join him.

❁❁❁

I let out a heave as I walk into Will's room and plop down on his bed. The police left a while ago to start a search party and mom wanted me home before dark but I convinced her to let me stay here. Thankfully she knew nothing of my school day, so she agreed. I stare at Will's drawings until his radio goes off, scaring the shit out of me. Everyone in The Party has one so we can all talk to each other anytime. Even though Dustin and I live in the same house we still have our own, which is where mine currently is.

"Lucas, do you copy? It's Mike." Mike's voice comes through. "Lucas?"

"Hey, it's Lucas." Lucas responds. No shit.

"I know it's you." Mike retorts. "And say 'over' when you're done talking so I know when you're done. Over." He orders.

"I'm done. Over." Lucas snaps.

I pick up the radio. "Are you two old ladies done yet?"

"Toni?" Mike gasps, surprised to hear me since Dustin and I live the furthest away we don't always get signal.

"I'm at The Byers, I'm on Will's radio." I explain. "Oh yeah- over."

"I'm worried about Will. Over." Mike voices.

Lucas sighs. "Yeah. This is crazy. Over."

"Tell me about. And nothing has gotten done. Over." I say annoyed.

"I was thinking-" Mike starts. "Will could've cast Protection last night, but he didn't. He cast Fireball. Over." I smile proudly.

"What's your point? Over." Lucas isn't following, neither am I.

"My point is... he could've played it safe, but he didn't. He put himself in danger to help The Party. Over." Mike explains.

There's a pause of silence. "Meet me in ten. Over and out." Lucas finishes quickly.

"Toni, meet me at my house, then we'll get Dustin. Over and out." Mike directs. I sigh. Oh great. I just wanted to take a long shower and be done with today. Butttt, I have to go. So at least if they're doing something stupid I'm there with them.

I put Will's radio back and go to turn off the lamp when it flickers. I jerk my hand back, staring at it for a moment until it stops. Weird. I exit his room to go tell Jonathan I'll be back in a bit but find he's in the shower. Andddd Joyce is in her room. I groan, scribble a note, and head out to my moped. This should be fun. Yep, totally.

❁❁❁

I see Mike pedaling to the end of his driveway with his hood up, like he's in stealth mode, as I approach the Wheeler's house.

"Hey." I nod, pulling up. He doesn't respond, too busy looking back at his house. I follow his gaze, instantly regretting it as I find Steve failing to climb up the house to Nancy's window. I scoff. "Let's go." But not before Steve turns around to look at us.

"Yeah." Mike agrees, turning away in annoyance, and moves along. I can't though, feeling stuck as Steve just blinks at me and I stare blankly at him. "Toni, you coming?" Mike interupts.

I grumble several curse words. "Yep. Yeah, coming." I drive away, feeling holes burning in the back of my head.

We quickly meet up with Lucas and my brother and head to Mirkwood.

"Ah, man. This is it." Lucas breaks the silence as we stop in front of red and white tape acting as a barrier between the road and woods.

"Hey, guys. You feel that?" Dustin looks up, then wipes his face. I notice lighting in the distance. "I think maybe we should go back."

"No." Mike cuts in. "We're not going back. Just stay close. Come on." I kill my motor as Mike and Lucas leave their bikes. They take out their flashlights and start stepping under the tape. I turn back to Dustin, who's still in the place.

"Come on, Dustin, we've come all this way. I'm right here with you." I assure him.

"Just stay on channel six. Don't do anything stupid." Mike orders.

"Hey, guys, wait up." Dustin drops his bike and grabs my arm, hurrying to catch up even though they're still right in front of us. "Wait up!"

I fish out my flashlight and they stop for us just as it starts to rain. Lovely. I put my hood up and we keep walking.

"Will! Will!" Mike yells.

"Byers!" Lucas joins.

"I've got your X-Men 134!" Dustin adds. Better be his X-Men 134.

"Come on Will! Will!!!" I yell as loud as I can. My voice is going to be gone tomorrow.

"Guys, I really think we should turn back." Dustin tries again.

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

"I'm just being realistic, Lucas!" Dustin bites back.

"No, you're just being a big sissy!" Lucas sasses. Not this again.

"Can we please not start!" I stop, turning around to face them. "Okay? I've had very long, emotional day, I'm freakin freezing and complete-ly soaked, and I have a pounding headache! I just wanna find Will, so will you both please shut the fuck up!!" My voice gets louder with each word. When I'm finished they all look at me with wide eyes. I take a very deep breath. "Okay."{ I say much cheerier and we continue ahead.

"Did you ever think Will went missing because he ran into something bad?" Dustin asks not even a minute later. "And we're going to the exact same spot where he was last seen?" Huh, I didn't think of that. Guess we know who got the thinking things through gene apparently. "And we have no weapons or anything?"

"Dustin, shut up." Mike tells him.

"I'm just saying, does that seem smart to you?" He continues.

"Shut up. Shut up." Mike repeats, holding out his arm for us to stop.

"He makes a good point," I mumble, coming to a halt.

"Do you guys here that?" Mike rushes out. This time we all here movement and jump to look behind us.

"What the hell was that?" I try to extend my arm out in front of all them. A twig snaps and we turn back around to find a kid, who looks around their age, in a yellow t-shirt. We just all stare as the kid breathes heavily, none of us really knowing what to do.

Well... this isn't Will.

❁❁❁

Author's Note: Hey guys! Omg, I've been binging ST4 this weekend and wow has it been crazy!! Also been trying to figure out Toni's story for it too so that's been challenging but fun, how are y'all liking the new season? Let me know what you think <3

Not it now being half way through the week by the time I'm publishing this lol. I got lazy and busy after finishing this this weekend, so I just now finished editing haha. Finished ST4 on Monday and uh WOW, can't freaking wait til July!!

Updated Author's Note: I just realized the part where Dustin's asking them those questions about walking into the same thing Will did reminds me of the first episode of Teen Wolf when Scott basically says the same thing to Stiles lol

Anyways, I think I have a general plan for S4... and oh boy is it a rough one, hehehe. This is also making me miss S1 vibes sm <3