╭ ╮
━━━━  " 📂 "

𝙋 𝘼 𝙍 𝘼 𝘿 𝙄 𝙎 𝙀

╰ ╯

"SADIE! SADIE, GET UP!" Before her alarm clock could ring, the poor Henderson girl was waking up to hear her brother leaning over her, already dressed despite how early it was and hissing loudly in her ear.

"Dustin?" She mumbled, digging her hands into her mattress and sitting up. "Good - I wanted to ask you where the hell you went last night."

Sadie held up her hand to stop Dustin before he got a reply out, yawning into her palm and reaching for the glasses that sat mostly gathering dust on her bed side table, rarely used unless in situations like this, when her eyes were a little blurry upon waking up.

It only lasted for about an hour, and Sadie theorised it was due to how late she stayed up and what she was doing in that time - Dustin had moved the book that lay on her mattress already - but quite obviously this conversation was something to concentrate on.

"Okay, Dusty, let me just wake up a moment." Dustin looked moderately relieved for a short snap of a second as Sadie took a deep breath, before launching into her speech. "What the hell were you thinking? Did you not hear Chief Hopper telling you not to go looking for Will - because I know that's where you were!"

"Sadie - shush." He looked panicked, a hand held up to her lips. "You'll wake Mom up, so just shhh for a moment and listen to me."

"Dustin, Mom would freak and you know it. Like I said to all three of you, nobody knows where Will is, and why he is gone. He might have gotten lost, or there might be someone out there whose hurt him. That's always the possibility in these cases, he might be lost, he might be kidnapped or he could be Lonnie in Indianapolis for all we know. It's dangerous to go looking for him - especially with the weather last night!" Sadie did care for her brother immensely, and it was only that emotion kicking in at the idea of him putting himself in danger after being told not to do something.

"I was telling them to go back." Dustin tilted his head. "But Sadie - that's not what I'm here to tell you about."

"Okay, what is it? Find something on Mirkwood? Something Chief Hopper missed?" Sadie looked skeptical. "I know he goes into work drunk sometimes and I was in the aisle where the Palaeolithic Era books are kept and Marissa was telling someone about how she saw all these painkiller bottles."

"What?" Dustin blinked. "No - it's nothing about that.. I'm going to pretend I didn't hear anything."

"Good, I was supposed to keep it to myself." Sadie nodded. "He's a good officer nonetheless, so you shouldn't worry about that affecting his work. He won't give up trying to find Will." She made sure to reassure both her brother and herself as she spoke, in case those seeds of doubt has planted. "But what is it you want to tell me."

"Right, so Mike, Lucas and I were in the woods and it was storming and the rain was coming down quickly when we heard rustles in the trees." Dustin told the tale, Sadie listening intently. "And I swear to you - on one of Mews' nine lives - that when we turned around we just found a girl."

Sadie stared.

"She had buzzed hair and she was wearing a hospital gown - me and Lucas think she broke out of the nuthouse in Kerley County." Dustin looked almost enthusiastic as he told his sister everything, despite promising Mike he wouldn't dare say anything.

"You mean Pennhurst?" Sadie filled in, getting a nod back.

"Yeah, Pennhurst. But anyway, we got her on Mike's bike because she was soaked and freezing and we took her back to his house and got her some food and clothes and... I don't know what's happening with her. But she almost stripped right in front of us." Dustin's eyes widened. "She tried to get naked.. what if she slept naked?"

"I'm sure she didn't." The older girl was in a state of shock, unsure whether to believe anything he was saying or not. "So, let me get this straight. You, Mike and Lucas found an escaped patient from Pennhurst out in the woods near Mirkwood and she's now in Mike's basement? This isn't part of an experimental campaign is it? Because you know I love to get involved and I did buy the ingredients to make you all more of those cookies you like and-"

"No. She's real." Dustin confirmed, and he looked so serious that Sadie was inclined to believe him. "Do you think you might be able to help us at all? Bring her food.. maybe some clothes? Mike and Lucas don't know I'm asking, but now what Nancy's dating Steve Harrington we can't ask her and she'd probably tell her mom."

"You mean after school right? Because yeah I can do." Sadie didn't know if she thought he was telling the truth yet - how often was it that a group of twelve year olds found a random girl in the woods outside of Hawkins just a day after their best friend was reported missing - but if they were in fact being truthful and Mike Wheeler had a girl in his basement, of course she would help out.

"Oh thank God." Dustin let out a sigh, giving her a quick hug before getting up. "You need to bring clothes and maybe some food if you can find any. Come pick me up again!"

And with that, he tore out of her room, leaving her shouting after him as she asked whether or not she was driving him to school.

✧

She slammed the door to her car as she climbed out of the driver's seat, pulling up the waist of her jeans just a touch and tugging down the hem of her sweater as she eyed the bag carefully packed with a few of her old clothes, some snacks and a couple body products she picked out from her collection.

It was actually quite a difficult choice to make. An escapee certainly wouldn't be fussy, but Sadie didn't want to suddenly bombard them with a strong smelling shampoo or body wash, and eventually settled on a soft scent that - if described in any way other than it's actually components - reminded her of blush pink, gentle and pretty. Hopefully it wouldn't be too overwhelming, but it had been a little too much like roses for her.

Sadie was beginning to believe Dustin just that bit more, and hoped she wasn't being messed with as she walked towards the school, pushing open the double doors.

Her eyes landed on a familiar sight stood in front of one of the communal noticeboards. "Jonathan." She said, the boy turning towards her, holding a pile of posters in his hands. "I'm so sorry."

Sadie hugged him, quickly and without creasing any of the posters. "How are you feeling? Have there been any updates?" She asked.

"No.. nothing yet." Jonathan took one of his posters and reached for the pin stuck in the corner. "I.. heard you got interviewed by the Chief."

"Yeah, just asking whether or not I might know anything. I'm considered Will's friend, and I considering myself the same." Sadie, whilst also friends with Jonathan, was nowhere near as good at reading his expressions as she wished to be, and deciding against going down the pitying route, she tried to be as positive as possible. "But I don't think anything came out of it that Dustin, Mike or Lucas hadn't told him already."

"Will did really like you. Sometimes I thought he preferred you to me." Jonathan glanced down, shaking his head.

"He does really like me. Because he's still out there." Sadie reassured him. "They're going to find him Jonathan, I know they will. I've got a good feeling about it."

"I know.. it's just hard to not be so negative about it. We're not exactly the most popular.. it's like nobody cares at all." Jonathan balanced the pile of posters in the crook of his elbow and used his hands to pin up one of them.

"Let me take them." Sadie reached for the stack, getting quick words of thanks as she did so. "Besides, without his bike it's almost certain he hasn't gone far."

"Hopper thinks he might have tried to go to Indianapolis." Sadie nodded slowly as Jonathan told her. She had already theorised that herself as a form of hope. Except Will didn't want to be around Lonnie. "I'm going today, wouldn't want to come with me, would you? It's an hour and a half drive and I'm just going to pin these up around school, then skip after second period."

Sadie paused, considering what Dustin had said to her after waking her up. "I need to be back before the end of the school day. Not planning on staying at Lonnie's long, are you?"

"Mom rung him. He has a younger girlfriend. I don't think I'll be there longer than half an hour." Jonathan replied.

"I'll come. And we can get food, my treat." Sadie smiled, her gaze drifting down to the stack of posters in her hand. "I'll take some of these, okay? Meet you outside afterwards?"

"Thanks Sadie, really." The Henderson girl smiled as she watched Jonathan walk off towards his first class of the day with half the stack of posters, and Sadie tucked her own half beside her notebook that she most certainly wouldn't be needing, taking a step forward before being greeted with the sight of Nancy and Barb, stood with none other than Steve, Carol and Tommy H.

"Sadie, hi." Nancy smiled, waving her over. "I was about to go talk to him, how is he?"

"His brother's missing." Sadie shrugged, her eyes wandering suspiciously over to the three who would usually never be caught dead around her. "How good can he be?"

"You hugged him." Carol pointed out. "Are you sure you don't have some disease?"

"Shut up Carol." Steve frowned. "Sadie, right? Would you be happier coming if she came as well?" He turned to Nancy, who looked over to Sadie.

"Go where, exactly?" She questioned.

"I'm having a party at my house tonight. My parents are out of town and well.. what else would I do?" Steve shook his head as if it was far more obvious than expected. "It'll be fun."

Sadie's eyebrows raised as she turned to look towards Nancy, who was trying to convince her to come wordlessly.

"Look, if she doesn't want to come then we shouldn't force her." Tommy spoke up first, almost sneering in her direction as he acknowledged her. "We don't need the little brainiac there anyway... she'll probably just whine about how bad a couple cans of beer are for you."

"I'll think about it." Sadie cut Tommy off with a roll of her eyes. She was going to be busy that day, it seemed, and it was more than likely she was going to blow off the invitation anyway, so she might as well just give them that peace of mind.

"It's just some fun, a change to loosen up a bit." Steve was almost encouraging her, being nicer to her then than he had in all their time of knowing each other - which was since middle school.

"Sure, whatever." Sadie turned towards Nancy and Barb. "I've got to go pin these up.. and don't worry about looking for me during lunch or anything, I'm going to Indianapolis to see if Lonnie Byers kidnapped the poor kid or some shit."

She offered a rather reassuring smile to Nancy and Barb as she walked away from them, as as she praised by another noticeboard to put up another poster, Carol's voice floated over.

"She's sitting in a car with that creep for an hour? Steve are you sure we should invite her?" Came the whine. "He probably killed his brother and she helped him for all we know."

"Shut up Carol." It was a surprise to hear the ringleader of the group defending her. "She's Nancy's friend, so she's coming if she wants to."

Sadie didn't even know if she would; a trip to Indianapolis was going to take up most of the day, and the rest of it was going to be spent in Mike Wheeler's basement.

But for now, she needed to pin up the posters and attend her first class of the day - Geography - which she would spend doing the work quickly in silence, and when it was finished she would spend the rest of the period forging a doctor's note so that she didn't have to worry about her mom finding out she had gone missing from school.

That would just send everyone into a frenzy, and she'd be in Indianapolis with no way of contacting her when she found out.

✧

The pair sat in a comfortable silence as they drove, Sadie having got out of school with her forged doctors note with ease, finding Jonathan waiting in the parking lot already.

Neither particularly felt like talking, eyes on the road as they continued towards the city. Sadie used to go all the time for the state competitions, but now any that she does enter, the finals were held on other states - they were bigger and better than the old ones.

Should I Stay or Should I Go? had begun to play and Sadie's eyes glazed over the view of the rolling fields. She could remember when she babysat Will a couple months previous, and when she arrived at the house she could hear the song playing from the outside. It was his new favourite, and she had never questioned where he first heard it; The Clash wasn't typical music for someone his age.

But now she knew it was quite obviously Jonathan, and her gaze slid over to him, watching as his fingers drummed the beat against the steering wheel.

Eventually the song came to an end and she felt like she should say something, her mind grazing over topics until she landed on one.

"I thought the phone lines were bugged last night." Sadie said, watching out of the corner of her eye as he rose his eyebrows, obviously confused. "Obviously I'm just being paranoid but-"

"Why do you think they were bugged?" Jonathan asked, almost as if he didn't think she was just as crazy as everyone else thought she was; nobody was that smart and knew that much stuff that they could be considered sane.

"I thought I would call the Hawkins Post and see if there were any reports of strange things happening at the Lab." Sadie admitted, and now that she was saying aloud to someone else, she knew it was stupid. "Mirkwood is near it and well... I've read too many mystery books."

"But why did you think it was...?" Jonathan repeated, and it was then that Sadie realised she hadn't actually answered his question.

"Oh, when I called the newspaper I heard weird static on the background. It was probably just the storm, but I was really freaked out for a moment." Sadie shook her head. "I'm just being paranoid, it was just the storm."

"Huh." Jonathan's eyes didn't leave the road. "You probably are.. I keep thinking I see things, Mom swears that when the phone rang last night she heard Will breathing.. then it fried the wiring and she's gone to get a new one today."

They fell into silence again, but Sadie's mind stayed on the topic as they made their way through the outskirts of Indianapolis, taking in the sights that Jonathan knew so well after a couple of visits there.

"Is this it?" Sadie asked, as they pulled up on a rather dull looking street. The weather didn't help in creating a blue-ish tint to the impression of it all, but despite Hawkins being a lot sunnier, Sadie didn't mind it too much. She would rather be there and helping in Will's case then sat in a classroom. She couldn't miss anything tomorrow though; Kaminsky had his test then.

"Yup." Jonathan brought his car to a stop outside of one particular house, peering out of his window at the rundown place. The engine was powered off as they got out, rain quickly dampening my hair. "That's his house. And you don't need me to tell you my dad's a dick."

"I'm already prepared for it." Sadie nodded, following him up the steps to a front door. She had a lot of experience with Jonathan's dad, and it was fair to say that was a pretty good judgement of him.

Jonathan peered through the small, diamond-shaped window set into the front door. Music could be heard from within, drowning out the boy's knocking on the door.

Eventually, a woman who could be no older than twenty-five opened the door. "Can I help you?" She asked, chewing her gum obnoxiously. Her eyes slid from Jonathan to Sadie behind him, then Jonathan again.

"Yeah, is Lonnie around?" The eldest Byers son asked.

"Yeah, he's out back. What do you want?"

"To look around." Jonathan was already going inside, pushing past the woman and going into the house.

"Hey - what do you think you're doing?" Cynthia - the younger woman that Lonnie was seeing - turned to watch Jonathan make her way through the living room.

"Sorry about that." Sadie carefully stepped through the door, easily slipping past the woman and ignoring her shouts as she followed Jonathan through, looking around the kitchen and into the small bathroom, her search coming to a stop when she heard a thud outside.

She emerged to see that Lonnie had Jonathan pinned up against a wall, the younger boy pushing him off.

"Will someone please explain what the hell is going on and why there are two strange kids in my house?" Cynthia asked, hands on hips.

"Two?" Lonnie turned to see Sadie stood in the doorway. "You brought some whore with you?"

"Dad-" Jonathan's eyes widened, as did Cynthia's.

"Lonnie - um - Mr Byers. It's Sadie Henderson." She wasn't offended by it at all. "I'm not dating Jonathan."

"No.. we're just friends." The oldest Byers boy confirmed. "She's here to look for Will with me."

"And why would she be doing that?"

"Because I'm Will's friend. I've babysat him for years." Sadie inputted. "I'm - I'm Jonathan's friend, and my brother Dustin is Will's best friend. I'm doing this for myself and my brother and for Jonathan and Will. I just want to find him."

"Now why the hell would Will be here?" Lonnie retorted. "Will wouldn't come up to the city on his own. He won't have gone far. Kid's probably got himself lost in the woods. I'm not hiding him."

"We'll see about that." Jonathan pushed past Lonnie and out of the open door into the backyard. Mr Byers followed instantly, but Cynthia stopped Sadie from joining them.

"Let them have their moment. Jonathan's Lonnie's eldest son, right?" Cynthia asked, instead leading Sadie back into the kitchen. "You like coffee?"

"Er... yeah."

"Take a seat." Cynthia turned back towards her as she gestured at the kitchen table with a couple of rusting metal chairs around it. She paused, looking the girl up and down. "Ever got a perm?"

"Nope?"

"You should. It would suit you." Sadie knew that it wouldn't. "And maybe some brighter colours. It'd make your hair and eyes pop."

Sadie couldn't wait to be back in Hawkins, so she could see whether or not Dustin was telling the truth about this girl.