Third Person POV
Mike and Dustin had known something was wrong the second Lucas's voice came through the radio.
He hadn't explained.
He'd just told them there was an emergency and that they needed to come to his house.
Now, less than half an hour later, the three of them were sitting in Lucas's bedroom with the door shut.
Lucas didn't waste time.
He told them everything that had happened that morning.
By the time he'd finished, neither Mike nor Dustin seemed to know what to say.
He'd told them about the letter. About Erica leaving sometime during the night. About what she'd written about Will, Indianapolis and the concert. About Chief Hopper showing up at his house that morning.
Everything.
For several seconds, there was silence.
Dustin looked horrified.
Mike looked like he was still trying to process it.
"She's really gone?" Dustin finally asked.
Lucas clenched his jaw.
"Yeah."
"Jesus."
Dustin dropped his gaze.
First Will.
Now Erica.
Two members of their Party were missing.
Except—
"What the hell was she thinking?"
Lucas looked at Mike.
"What?"
Mike had started pacing.
"She knows Will."
"Yeah. Obviously."
"No, I mean she knows him." Mike turned towards them. "She should know Will wouldn't do any of that."
Dustin frowned.
"Do what?"
"Run away to Indianapolis. Go chasing after some stupid concert." Mike threw up his hands. "Will wouldn't just leave without telling anybody. He wouldn't scare his mom half to death for something as worthless as this. Not to his mom. Not to us."
Lucas's expression hardened.
"You think I don't know that?"
"I'm saying Erica should know that!"
Something about that bothered Mike more than he could explain.
Erica wasn't stupid.
Actually, that was part of the problem.
She was probably one of the smartest people he knew.
So why would she hear that Will was missing and believe something so obviously wrong?
"She should've known better," Mike muttered.
Dustin stared at him.
"She does know better."
Mike looked at him. "Then why would she do this? She knows Will! She knows he wouldn't just run away and leave us!"
"Exactly!" Dustin shot back. "Erica hasn't just been Lucas's little sister for months."
Mike frowned.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"She's part of the Party."
Mike stopped pacing.
"No, she's not."
Dustin blinked.
Mike frowned.
"Are you serious?"
"I like Erica," Mike said quickly. "But that doesn't make her part of the Party."
"She played D&D with us!"
"Only one time. So?"
Dustin stared at him as though he'd just said the stupidest thing he'd ever heard.
"So?"
"Yeah. So?"
"She played D&D with us. At the table. In the campaign."
"I know that."
"That's practically the initiation!"
"We don't have an initiation!"
"Exactly! Which makes D&D the initiation!"
Lucas closed his eyes.
Mike ignored him.
"That doesn't mean she's actually one of us."
Dustin's mouth dropped open.
"How does it not?"
Because it didn't feel like it.
Mike couldn't explain it any better than that.
Erica hung around with them at school.
She protected them from bullies.
She played D&D with them.
He liked her.
But whenever they invited her to do something afterwards, she always seemed to have somewhere else to be.
Busy.
That was always the answer.
And even at school, when she was with them, sometimes she'd get that look.
Distracted.
Disconnected.
Like half of her was somewhere else entirely.
Like there was something more important she needed to be doing and she was just waiting for the chance to leave.
Mike had noticed.
He'd tried not to care.
Now Will was missing, and apparently Erica had gone running across the country looking for him in places anyone who really knew Will should've realised made absolutely no sense.
Something unpleasant twisted in Mike's stomach.
Maybe she hadn't known him at all.
Maybe she'd never really considered any of them her friends.
"She doesn't even hang out with us outside school," Mike said.
Dustin stared at him.
"So?"
"She's always busy."
"People are allowed to be busy, Mike."
"That's not what I mean."
"Then what do you mean?"
"I mean maybe she doesn't actually want to hang out with us!"
The words came out louder than Mike intended.
Dustin went quiet.
Mike immediately wished he hadn't said it.
But now that he'd started, he couldn't stop.
"Maybe we're just people she hangs around with at school. Maybe that's all it ever was."
"That's bullshit."
"Is it?"
"Yes!"
"Then why would she think Will ran away?"
Dustin opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
Mike pointed at him.
"Exactly."
"She went to look for him! That doesn't mean she doesn't care about him!"
"I didn't say she doesn't care!"
"You basically did!"
"No, I didn't!"
"Would you two shut up!"
Both boys turned.
Lucas was glaring at them.
His hands were clenched into fists at his sides.
"My sister is missing."
That killed the argument immediately.
Lucas looked between them.
"Erica is somewhere outside Hawkins. I don't know where. I don't know who she's with. I don't even know what fucking state she's in. Even the police don't have any clues!"
His voice cracked slightly.
"And our best friend is missing too, and you two are standing here arguing about whether Erica is in the fucking Party!"
Neither Mike nor Dustin said anything.
"So can we please stop arguing about whether Erica passed some stupid imaginary Party initiation?"
Silence.
Mike looked away.
Dustin shuffled his feet.
Lucas swallowed.
The worst part was that there was nothing he could do.
If Erica had been somewhere in Hawkins, he could've looked for her.
He could've checked places she liked.
Asked people.
Anything.
But Indianapolis?
Some concert a few states away?
She could be anywhere.
"I can't go after her," Lucas said quietly.
Dustin looked at him.
Lucas stared at the ground.
"I don't even know where to start."
Nobody answered.
Then Mike's expression changed.
He frowned.
Not angry this time.
Thinking.
"We don't need to look for Erica."
Lucas's head snapped up.
"What the hell, man?"
"No, wait—"
"That's my sister!"
"I know!"
"And you're saying we shouldn't even look for her?"
"No. I'm saying we don't need to look for her."
Lucas stepped towards him.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"Lucas."
Dustin sounded different now.
Lucas turned towards him.
Dustin was staring at Mike.
Then slowly, his eyes widened.
"He's right."
Lucas stared at him.
The betrayal hit immediately.
"You too?"
"No! Listen."
Dustin stepped forward.
"We know Will wouldn't run away to some concert, right?"
"Obviously."
"But Erica doesn't."
Lucas frowned.
Dustin continued.
"Erica thinks Will might've gone there. That's why she's going."
"So?"
"So we don't know what concert she's talking about."
"No shit."
"But Will does."
Lucas stopped.
Mike nodded quickly.
"Will's the one who supposedly mentioned it to Erica."
Lucas looked between them.
"So if we find Will…" Mike continued.
"He can tell us what concert he told her about," Dustin finished.
"And then we'll know where Erica went."
Lucas stared at them.
For the first time since he'd woken up that morning, something inside his chest loosened.
Just slightly.
Mike looked at him.
"We find Will."
Dustin's face suddenly lit up.
"And Will tells us where to find Erica."
He slapped his hands together.
"Bang! We kill two birds with one stone."
With that, he dramatically threw his arms wide, celebrating in advance.
Lucas let out a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding.
For the first time since he'd found Erica's room empty, the knot in his chest eased.
They had something.
It wasn't much.
Hell, it might not work at all.
But it was something.
And something was better than sitting at home while his parents watched his every move and waiting for the phone to ring.
His best friend was missing.
His sister was missing.
He couldn't just do nothing.
"So we find Will," Lucas said.
Mike nodded.
"We start where we last saw him."
"Mirkwood," Dustin said.
"The woods around it," Mike corrected. "That's where they're searching."
Dustin shook his head.
"We can't go while the search party's there. Hopper already told us to stay out of it. They'll send us straight home."
"So we go after they leave."
Lucas looked at him.
"When?"
Mike didn't hesitate.
"Tonight."
Dustin considered it.
"Midnight. After the search parties go home."
Lucas grimaced.
"That's gonna be a problem."
"Why?"
"My parents are breathing down my neck. Erica disappeared right under their noses. They're terrified I'm gonna do the same thing."
Dustin winced.
"Our parents are already freaking out because of Will. Imagine what they're gonna be like when they hear about Erica."
Mike grimaced slightly, thinking of his mother's reaction.
"They're not going to let any of us out."
Lucas looked between them.
For once, that didn't scare him.
It just meant they'd have to be smarter.
"Doesn't matter."
Mike raised an eyebrow.
"We'll find a way."
Dustin grinned slightly.
Lucas looked at both of them.
"Midnight. Mirkwood."
Mike nodded.
"Midnight."
"So we're doing this?" Dustin asked.
Lucas thought of Will.
Then Erica.
Wherever the hell she was.
"Yeah," he said.
"We're doing this."