Hawkins woke up slower than usual.Thomas noticed it immediately.The streets were quieter, as if the town itself was reluctant to move forward. Cars passed less frequently. Doors opened more cautiously. Even the air felt heavier, pressing down on his shoulders as he walked toward school.Will Byers was missing and everyone knew.At Hawkins Middle School, teachers whispered in the halls. The principal spoke softly into the phone in the office. Students clustered together in small groups, voices hushed, eyes darting.Thomas sat at his desk and stared at the empty chair near the front.Will's chair.
[Sanity -1]
He clenched his jaw.I was too slow.The System stayed quiet. No warnings. No prompts. Just the steady presence at the edge of his vision, waiting.
Mike didn't show up for the first period either did Lucas.Dustin arrived late, eyes red, hair messier than usual. He dropped into his seat without a word.
Thomas didn't ask questions.He already knew the answers by lunch, the truth was impossible to ignore. Police cars were parked outside the school. A counselor waited in a small office near the front, tissues neatly arranged on the desk.Missing posters were already being printed.
Thomas found the others near the bike racks after school.Mike stood rigid, fists clenched at his sides. Lucas paced back and forth, anger radiating off him in sharp waves. Dustin hovered nearby, trying and failing—to keep things light."This is bullshit," Lucas snapped. "He wouldn't just disappear.""I know," Mike said quietly.Thomas stepped closer for a moment, all three of them looked at him not as a transfer student.
not as an outsider as someone who belonged here.
"Can I help?" Thomas asked.Mike studied him, searching for something truth, maybe finally, he nodded."We're going to search for Will ," Mike said.
Thomas node. He didn't say I know where he went.
He just said, "Where do we start?"They will begin the searched Will after sun dipped low.The woods swallowed sound quickly, branches creaking softly as the boys pushed deeper between the trees. Thomas moved carefully, senses stretched outward, every shadow examined.
[Survival Instinct – Passive (Active)]
He noticed things the others didn't.A snapped branch that didn't look like an animal's work a patch of ground where the air felt colder.A faint electrical hum, just at the edge of hearing he didn't point them out not yet.Trust wasn't built on knowing too much.
By evening, exhaustion dragged at them all.Dustin stopped and bent over, hands on his knees. "Guys…Will not he's not just lost, is he?"No one answered.
Thomas felt the pressure build again not a warning a pull.He turned his head slightly and saw her.She stood at the edge of the clearing, half-hidden behind a fallen tree.Small, dirty, wrapped in clothes that didn't fit. Her eyes tracked their movements with sharp intensity, like she was ready to bolt at any second.Eleven.
Dustin gasped. "Holy—!"
She flinched.Mike stepped forward instinctively. "Hey it's okay. We're not—"
Thomas moved before anyone else could scare her off.He raised his hands slowly and stepped into her line of sight, careful not to activate any skills.
"Hey," he said softly. "You're safe"Her eyes flicked to him recognition sparked her head tilted slightly.
She remembers me.
Something brushed against Thomas's thoughts again gentle, curious, familiar.
[ Psychic Proximity – Stable]
"Did you see other people" Dustin whispered.Eleven looked at Thomas, then nodded once."Yes."Mike's breath caught. "You saw Will?"She hesitated. Then nodded again."Will? In… dark," she said haltingly. "Cold."
Thomas swallowed the upside down.Lucas stiffened. "You're saying you know where he is?"Eleven pressed her fingers to her temple. Her nose began to bleed.
Thomas stepped forward instantly"Stop," he said gently. "You don't have to do that."She looked at him in surprise.
"You hurt yourself when you push," he continued. "We can do this slow."For the first time, she smiled small, uncertain, but real.Mike noticed so did Lucas.Trust shifted.
They brought her to the Wheeler basement.
The space felt different now tenser, charged with fear and hope in equal measure. Eleven sat wrapped in a blanket, holding a warm drink Dustin insisted on making.Thomas sat nearby, watching her carefully.
She watched him back."You're… strange," she said suddenly.Dustin blinked. "Hey! Rude!"Thomas smiled faintly. "She's not wrong."She frowned. "Not bad strange."
Mike leaned forward. "Can you help us find Will?" Eleven nodded.Thomas exhaled slowly this was it.
The point of no return was that he looked at the System.For the first time since arriving in this world, he made a conscious decision not to survive, not to hide, but to fight the story itself."I know things," Thomas said quietly.
They all looked at him."About the woods," he continued. "About what's out there and about how dangerous this is going to get."Lucas narrowed his eyes. "How?"Thomas met his gaze."Because I've seen it."Silence fell.The System pulsed softly.
[Main Quest Updated:]
[SURVIVE THE STORY → CHANGE THE OUTCOME]
Thomas felt something shift inside his chest whatever happened next he wasn't backing away.