The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and a new era of peace had been ushered into Hawkins as school bells rang for the final time, releasing their students for summer vacation. Early morning coffee runs before school were traded for walks to Melvald's to buy popsicles from the freezer, and time studying for tests in the Hawkins Public Library were swapped for afternoons at the Hawkins Community Pool, bothering Steve during his lifeguard shifts. No matter what sort of chaos Anna and her friends managed to get up to this summer, one rule remained.

Be normal teenagers.

The more Anna finally allowed herself to believe that everything was okay, the more she tried to push the thoughts of Barb and the Demogorgon out of her head, locking them away until they were nothing but a distant memory. She finally allowed herself to have fun, agreeing to the late nights out again and believing that they were once again free to be normal, as if everything with the Upside Down was in the past, and could no longer reach them.

Anna almost hadn't registered where she was until it was too late. She knew she was back at the Harrington family's pool, with Nancy, Becca, Tommy H, and Carol. She could hear her own voice asking Nancy about their chemistry test in Kaminsky's class earlier that day, before they were interrupted by Tommy pretending to throw Carol into the pool. When Anna had looked back at Nancy to register who sat in the chair behind her, looking as if she'd rather be anywhere in the world that night, Anna felt her heart drop into her stomach.

"Barb," Anna muttered, rising from her chair and attempting to run towards the girl, but no matter how fast she seemed to run, she wasn't able to get any closer to Barbara Holland. "Barb, you shouldn't be here."

Steve appeared in the doorway, strutting out to the pool with the damned pocket knife between his teeth, setting up the stereo before reaching for the closest can of beer in the cooler and instantly beginning to carve a hole in the can with the knife. Anna shook her head, knowing all too well where the scene before her was headed.

"No," Anna muttered, trying to get Steve's attention, but nobody seemed to hear her. "Steve, quit it. Can't we do anything else? Guys, come on!"

"Idiot," Becca mumbled in Anna's direction, watching as Steve tried pathetically to impress Nancy by shotgunning the beer.

When Nancy finally took the pocket knife from Steve, Anna watched helplessly as she began to chug her own beer, the others joining in to cheer her on. As Nancy triumphantly dropped the can at her feet, her blood turned to ice in her veins as she offered it out to Barb.

"Barb, you wanna try?" Nancy offered.

"No, she doesn't!" Anna began to shout, but her yells fell on deaf ears as all eyes turned to where Barb still sat in her chair, the uncomfortable expression on her face telling everyone that there were several other places she would've rather been that evening. "She wants to go home, just let her go home!"

Anna tried to run towards Nancy, put herself between the two girls and get the pocket knife far, far away from Barb unknowingly putting herself in danger, she still found herself stuck in place, a growling sound beginning to reach them from the woods in the backyard. She looked back at the trees, at the source of the noise, as the monster slowly stepped forward from the woods. She watched in horror as its mouth slowly opened into the five points, lined with rows and rows of razor sharp teeth as the growling turned into a higher pitch screech.

The monster snapped out of view with the others as a pair of bright, flashing lights entered Anna's vision, blinding her as she was suddenly hit by the cool chill of the June night, looking around desperately for any hint of her new surroundings. She was no longer at the Harrington's pool, but instead in front of what looked to be a pair of headlights, the sounds of a car door opening and shutting replacing the lingering screeching in her head.

"Anna?" a familiar voice asked as a figure rushed over to her, Steve's face coming into view as her vision finally cleared enough to make out his features. "What are you doing out here?"

"Steve?" Anna asked, her eyebrows furrowing together in confusion as she looked around at their surroundings.

Rather than the concrete surrounding Steve and Becca's pool, grass was now under the bottoms of Anna's bare feet as she stood on the side of the road. All around them, trees lined each side of the street, the only other source of light aside from Steve's headlights being that of the moon shining above them.

"W-where am I?" Anna stammered, crossing her arms over her chest nervously.

"Where are you?" Steve repeated, looking back at her with a confused expression. "You're on Cornwallis. Why are you out here so late?"

"I don't know," she said as she began to shiver slightly, adorned simply in the shorts and t-shirt she'd remembered changing into before going to bed that evening, and Steve quickly shoved off the zip-up hoodie he wore, placing it over her shoulders.

"Here, put this on." he offered, ushering her back towards his car. "Come on, I'll give you a ride, you must be freezing."

Anna nodded, climbing into the passenger seat of Steve's car and shutting the door behind her, inspecting herself for any sort of injury, anything out of place, but she couldn't seem to find anything. All she remembered was that she needed to get back to Barbara before it was too late, but the more Anna woke up, the more she remembered that, no matter what she tried, it was already much too late to save her.

"What do you remember?" Steve asked, watching her with a concerned expression.

"I don't know," she admitted. "I remember going to The Hawk with you guys last night, and then when I got home, Dustin and I played a game of Go Fish before we went to bed. I remember having some dream, and the next thing I knew, you found me on the road."

"You..." Steve trailed off, studying Anna as he glanced back out the window, at the very spot he'd found her. "You're telling me you sleepwalked two miles to get here?"

"Sleepwalking," Anna murmured, nodding slowly. "I-I think so,"

"What did you dream about?" Steve asked. "Was it about... Barb?"

Anna nodded. "We were back at your party. I was watching everything unfold, knowing what was going to happen at the end of the night, but the more I tried to stop it from happening, the less control I had over anything. I couldn't move, nobody could hear me, it was awful." she said, her voice cracking as her eyes filled with tears, and she instantly reached up to wipe a stray tear that had fallen. "The monster came out of the woods, and that's when I woke up here."

"That day at school, back when you last said you had a dream and didn't know why you woke up on the couch." Steve suggested. "Do you think it's the same dream you had that night?"

Anna stared back at Steve as the pieces began to fit together, the puzzle beginning to form the greater picture hiding beneath. She hadn't gone out to the living room for fresh air at all that night, but instead she'd been sleepwalking, chasing after a dream she'd tried her hardest to put in the past where it belonged.

"I think so." Anna agreed. "Hold on, what are you doing out here at..?" Anna trailed off, looking down at the digital clock on the car's radio. "Three in the morning?"

"Oh," Steve said sheepishly, shrugging as he finally put the car back into drive, pulling back onto the road. "I, uh, was just going for a late night drive."

"Is this something you do a lot?" Anna asked, furrowing her eyebrows together as she watched him with a suspicious expression. In all of the times she'd stayed with the Harringtons over the years, she'd never once caught Steve sneaking out in the middle of the night for any reason other than sneaking over to see the odd girl or two.

"Lately," he replied, running a hand through his hair. "I uh, I don't sleep much anymore, since everything happened. On nights that it's especially hard to fall asleep, or I just feel restless, I go out for a drive, clear my head a bit."

"Oh," Anna said. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know."

"It's okay," Steve assured her, shrugging. "How would you know? It's been a shitty few months for all of us, that's for damn sure."

"You could say that again," Anna said, leaning her head against the window. "Hey, Steve?"

"Yeah?"

"Would you mind some company on that late night drive?" she asked. "I don't know if I'm ready to go home and try to sleep again."

"Yeah," Steve agreed. "Yeah, of course,"

Steve reached for the dial on the radio, turning it up as Dancing in the Dark by Bruce Springsteen began to float through the speakers. Buildings finally came into view as Steve drove further down Cornwallis, the downtown stores now surrounding them, long closed up for the night. However, Steve turned on Oak past the library, in the opposite direction from Anna's house as he made a beeline towards the end of town, beginning to drive aimlessly the further they grew from her house.

"How's your summer been going?" Steve finally asked as they passed Bradley's Big Buy, the sign still illuminating the dark streets even in the middle of the night.

"Good," Anna confirmed, nodding as she looked out the window. "How's lifeguarding? It must be thrilling, having to yell at Troy Walsh not to run five times a day."

"God, that kid is such a little shit." Steve sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and shaking his head as Anna began to smirk. "I swear, one of these days he's finally getting kicked out of the pool. Thank God Eleven knocked him down a peg when she made him piss his pants at that assembly at the middle school."

"Broke his arm, too." Anna added. "Served him right. He was trying to hurt Dusty. Mike too."

"Little asshole," Steve muttered. "He got what he deserved then. And they're strong kids, your brother and his friends. How are they holding up after all this?"

"Fine, I guess." Anna said. "Dustin seems to be doing well, he has Will back and they're able to all be together again, Lucas too. Will's still getting used to being back, and has his appointments with the new doctor at the lab, but he's been getting better. Mike's the one that still seems down, but after what happened to Eleven I can't blame him."

"Yeah," Steve agreed, nodding. "Are you still running those Dungeons and Dragons games for them? Like you did back at Christmas at the Wheelers'?"

Anna shook her head. "That was just to celebrate Will being back." she explained. "I haven't actually played in years. Back in Kansas, I used to, that's how I got Dusty into it, but that was a long time ago."

A comfortable silence settled between Steve and Anna as he continued to drive, taking the windy path around Lovers' Lake, and Anna watched as the moonlight reflected off the water, the untouched surface bringing a calming sense of peace over her. With the exception of the music still playing on the radio, it was finally quiet, and she felt as if she could finally breathe.

The clock on the radio read that it was shortly after four when Steve pulled back up outside the Henderson house, pulling his car into park in the driveway. Anna's car remained in its usual spot outside the garage, no visible signs of her having left in the middle of the night.

"Thank you," Anna said, turning to Steve as she reached to unbuckle her seatbelt. "I don't know what would've happened if you hadn't found me."

"Don't mention it," Steve said. "Get a good night's sleep, preferably one in your bed this time, okay?"

"Yeah," she said, giving him a small smile as she nodded. "Goodnight, Steve."

"Goodnight, Anna."