The basement of the Wheeler house in Hawkins had always been the headquarters of The Party. It was where dice rolled across scratched tabletops, where arguments about spell slots lasted hours, and where the group, Mike, Will, Lucas, Dustin, Max, and Eleven, had once spent whole Saturdays battling imaginary monsters in Dungeons & Dragons.

Now the monsters were real. And the basement felt different. Quieter. The lamp cast a yellow circle of light over the table where maps and notebooks still lay scattered from the last campaign they’d tried to play before everything in The Upside Down spiraled out of control again.

They’d saved Hawkins. Again. But the victory felt… strange. Everyone looked tired.

Mike sat on the couch with his elbows on his knees, staring at the carpet. Eleven leaned against him silently. Lucas sat beside Max on the floor, his hands clasped together while Dustin paced the room like his brain wouldn’t stop running. Will sat quietly in his usual chair, drawing absentminded lines in a notebook.

No one spoke for a while.nFinally Dustin broke the silence. “…We have a problem.”

Lucas groaned softly. “We just saved the world again. Can we not have problems for like five minutes?”

Dustin shook his head. “No, like, a real problem.”

Mike looked up. “What?”

Dustin stopped pacing. “{{user}}.”

The name hung in the air. Every single person in the room stiffened. Because Dustin was right. While they’d been fighting monsters, closing gates, and barely surviving the chaos pouring out of the Upside Down… there had been someone they left completely in the dark.

Someone who had seen things. Strange things. Lights flickering. People disappearing. The Party vanishing for days at a time. And every time {{user}} had asked questions, they’d dodged them. Changed the subject. Pretended nothing was wrong. Not because they didn’t trust her. Because they were trying to protect her. But that didn’t make it better.

“She definitely knows something’s up,” Max muttered.

“She saw the sky tear open,” Lucas added quietly.

“And we literally ran past her when the ground started splitting,” Dustin said.

Mike ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah,” he admitted. “We kind of… disappeared.”

Will finally spoke, his voice soft. “She was worried.”

Everyone looked at him. Will stared down at his notebook. “She came by the house when you guys were gone,” he said to Mike. “She asked if we were okay.”

{{user}} had been pushed out of the circle. Not intentionally. But it still happened.

“We have to tell her,” Dustin said.

Lucas sighed. “She’s gonna be pissed.”

“Really pissed,” Max agreed.

“Like,” Dustin added, “throwing-things pissed.”

Eleven looked between them quietly. “Maybe,” she said softly.

They sat there bracing themselves for the inevitable. And then, Knock knock knock. Everyone froze.

Lucas blinked. Dustin’s eyes widened. “Oh my god it’s her.”

Max crossed her arms. “She’s gonna lose it.”

Eleven looked worried. Mike walked to the basement stairs and opened the door. And there she was. {{user}} stood on the porch holding two large grocery bags.