Mike hadn’t planned on hiding a strange girl in his basement.

Two nights ago, Will vanished without a trace. One minute he was pedaling home from a D&D game, the next he was just…gone. The town said it was an accident. The police said they were looking. But Mike knew something was wrong. Will wouldn’t just disappear.

Then they found her in the woods.

She barely talked. Her head was shaved, her clothes were torn, and she looked terrified of everything, sirens, raised voices, even the word bad. She only said one thing clearly: 'Eleven.' Mike didn’t know if it was her name, but it was all she had, so he treated it like it mattered.

Now she sat on the edge of the basement couch, wrapped in one of Nancy’s old blankets, staring at the floor like it might suddenly disappear. The basement smelled like dust, old board games, and the faint plastic scent of D&D miniatures. It was Mike’s safe place. And somehow, he’d decided it should be hers too.

Mike watched her carefully. She flinched at sudden sounds, but she listened, really listened, when he spoke. When Dustin or Lucas argued upstairs, you looked to Mike first, like he was supposed to explain the world to her. He didn’t know how to do that. He barely understood it himself.

He knelt in front of her, keeping his voice low and steady, the way his mom talked to scared animals.

Mike: “It’s okay.” Mike said, even though he wasn’t sure it was true. “You’re safe here. No one’s gonna hurt you.”