"Barb, you wanna try?" Nancy's voice echoed in Anna's head as her gaze darted through the people around her, a haunted expression crossing her features as she found the small pocket knife extended in Barb's direction.

"No," Anna sighed, a helpless feeling of dread settling in the pit of her stomach as she prepared to see the scene play out before her again. "No Nancy, please don't make her try."

"What?" Barb deadpanned, looking more and more uncomfortable by the second, "No,"

"Come on," Nancy urged, grabbing another can from the cooler, and the more Anna struggled to get out of her pool chair, the more she felt as if she were trapped, held down by some unseen invisible force keeping her from Barbara Holland.

"No, I don't want to, thanks," Barb insisted.

"Come on," Nancy said.

"Come on, yeah," Steve repeated.

"Shut up, Steve," Anna hissed, but the boy didn't seem to hear her. "She doesn't want to, just let her go."

"Nance, I don't want to," Barb insisted again, and Anna looked over at Becca, the same look of incredulity on the blonde's face that she knew had mirrored Anna's own that fateful night, the girl that didn't understand the repercussions their actions would have on all of them.

"It's fun, just give it a shot," Nancy encouraged, placing the beer can and the knife in Barb's hands, and Anna felt something within herself snap, a streak of burning anger coursing through her body.

"Why are you all just standing around?" Anna began to scream, watching the way Steve and Nancy encouraged Barb, the way Tommy and Carol laughed at the scene before them, and the way Becca and Anna had been too naive to do a thing about it. "Let her go home already before something terrible happens! Just leave her al-"

Anna's breath caught in her throat as the knife slipped against the metallic edge of the can, slicing open Barb's thumb as the first drops of blood instantly began to splatter against the pavement. With each drop that hit the concrete, a wave of nausea washed over Anna as she knew all too well what would happen next, but she was too frozen in place to stop it.

"Gnarly," Tommy began to chuckle, the sound feeling as if nails were scraping against a chalkboard as Anna watched the scene before her.

She watched helplessly as Barb disappeared into the house with Becca in search of bandages, the last time Anna had seen her former classmate alive. Her blood turned to ice as Tommy pushed Carol in the pool before jumping in himself, and one by one, those who should have instead been guarding Barb had gone into the water after them.

As Anna still looked on from her chair, she watched herself walk towards the pool, the small, naive girl she'd been nine months ago who didn't believe monsters were anything more than words on a page. How she screamed at that girl now to leave, to go find help before it was too late, falling on deaf ears as they splashed around in the pool for minutes that began to stretch into hours.

Anna watched as they finally emerged from the pool, soaking wet as droplets of water began to drip from their clothes, splashing onto the concrete as they ran through the chilly night air into the house. She saw her old self disappear into the house in search of towels, the only worry deep in her mind that Will still had yet to come home from two nights before.

Although, to Anna's surprise and sheer horror, it hadn't stopped there. She watched Barb re-emerge from the house, a defeated and frustrated expression on the girl's face as she held a rag tightly against her bleeding thumb.

"Barb," Anna said, finally able to rise from her chair as she moved towards the redhead, but the girl still seemed not to hear Anna, her words falling on deaf ears. "Barb, listen to me. You need to go, it's not safe."

Barb kicked off her shoes, taking a seat on the Harringtons' diving board and letting her feet rest in the cool water. Even after the argument she'd heard about from Nancy in the weeks following that night at the party, Barb had still chosen to wait for her, and to still give her a ride home as soon as Nancy was ready, even if that time never came.

The eerie quiet was soon shattered by the sound of the electricity beginning to flicker, Anna's heart leaping into her throat as the outside light hanging over the pool turned on and off. It was quiet again for a moment as a growl sounded from behind Barb, and as the lights flickered back on, it was now the Demogorgon that stood behind her, rows of teeth bared as it began to shriek.

The lights flickered once more, and Barb was gone, leaving Anna alone with the pool.

Anna's eyes flew open as a cold rush poured over her, and the sudden feeling that she was sinking as she splashed through the water, though in the dark she couldn't tell which way was up and which was down. She quickly shut her eyes, beginning to sting with chlorine, her lungs burning as they filled with water, rather than the air she so desperately needed.

She felt a sudden motion behind her as another body joined her inside the pool, a pair of arms wrapping around her midsection as she was hoisted up and out of the water. As her head broke the surface, she inhaled deeply into the night air before beginning to cough violently, her lungs attempting to get rid of all of the water inside.

"Anna?" a voice called out from behind her, though she couldn't quite make out who it was as the figure helped push her up onto the concrete. "What the hell happened?"

As soon as she reached the solid ground, she crawled forward, beginning to retch as the water made its way out of her system. A hand rubbed her back through her soaking wet t-shirt as she continued to cough, soft murmurs behind her encouraging her to let it out.

When Anna finally caught her breath, she looked up, her blood turning to ice in her veins as she now faced the same view from her dream, the empty diving board that Barb had occupied not a moment before inside her head. A hoarse scream erupted from her throat as the realization clicked into place, and she jumped back out of instinct, colliding with the body behind her.

"It's okay!" Steve's voice rang out as he held onto her. "Hey hey hey hey hey, it's okay, it's okay!" Anna's breathing slowed as she continued to stare at the diving board, Steve holding onto her in his attempts to calm her down. "It's okay, see? There's nothing there. You're safe, I promise."

"S-Steve?" Anna whimpered as her eyes glassed over with tears, and she sniffled as she began to cry.

"You're okay, you're okay," Steve assured her.

Anna looked around, noticing the lights off in the Harrington house, all except for a single lamp on in the living room. "W-where's Becca?" she asked.

"She stayed the night at Landon's," Steve explained. "Anna, what the hell happened?"

Anna wracked her brain, trying to remember her whereabouts from earlier that evening, before the memories of last fall kicked into her dreams. "I-I didn't want to fall asleep," she admitted. "I've been so scared but I was just so tired." her voice caught in her throat. "I must've finally fallen asleep, but then I started dreaming of that night, and I saw Barb out on the diving board after we all went back inside. She was alone, and the monster got her. We could have saved her, Steve. Why didn't we save her?"

Steve was silent for a moment as Anna looked up at him. "That night I found you on Cornwallis." he said finally. "You weren't just wandering on the road, you were coming here. You walked all the way here to find Barb at the pool."

The two fell into a silence as Anna continued to cry, and Steve continued to hold onto her as they began to shiver in the chilly night air. "Can you stand?" Steve asked finally, and Anna nodded after a moment as he rose to his feet, pulling her up along with him. "There we go, Henderson. Come on, I'll go grab us some towels and we can get changed."

Steve led Anna back into the house, where a movie played faintly on the television next to an empty bowl of what she assumed had been popcorn, where he'd no doubt spent a sleepless evening of his own. She followed him up the stairs to the bathroom he and Becca shared, and he turned on the light, rummaging through the cabinet until he pulled out two fluffy gray towels. He passed one to Anna, who immediately wrapped it around her shoulders, relishing in the small bit of warmth it brought her.

"I'll go grab you some of Becca's clothes, something dry you can wear." Steve offered, moving past Anna out of the room as he disappeared down the hallway. He reappeared a moment later, a pair of Becca's sweatpants and a black t-shirt in his hands as he passed them over to her.

"Thanks," Anna said.

Steve nodded. "Don't mention it. I'll, uh, give you some privacy. I'll be in my room, if you need me."

Steve stepped out into the hallway, closing the door behind him, and Anna turned to look in the mirror, taking in her appearance. She looked pale, as if she hadn't slept in weeks, and her soaking wet hair was beginning to stick up straight in a few places. She quickly stripped out of her wet clothes, hanging them up on the shower rod to dry before pulling on Becca's pajamas and running the towel through her hair in an attempt to dry it and smooth it down.

Anna stepped out of the bathroom, pausing outside of Steve's closed bedroom door as she knocked lightly. A moment later he opened the door, now clad in a pair of plaid pajama pants and a Journey t-shirt, the towel hanging around his neck.

"Better?" Steve asked, and Anna nodded.

"Better," she agreed. "Thanks."

"Yeah, no problem." Steve assured her. "Do you want me to give you a ride home?"

Anna shook her head. "I really don't want to be alone right now." she admitted, her gaze falling on the window that led out to the backyard, and the pool below them outside.

Steve nodded in understanding. "You're welcome to stay here, if you'd like," he offered. "Then I'll know if you try and sleepwalk again."

"Could I?" she asked, and he nodded.

"Of course," he said, opening the bedroom door wider and gesturing for her to follow him inside.

Anna had only been inside Steve's room a handful of times since moving to Hawkins, the majority of which she'd merely stood in the doorway while waiting for the boy to leave, and as she stepped inside, her gaze fell on the alarm clock on his desk, not unlike the one in Becca's room, reading that it was almost three in the morning. Steve shut the door behind them, and nodded in Anna's direction as he gestured to the queen sized bed against the wall.

"You can take the bed," he offered. "I can sleep on the floor just fine."

"What?" she asked. "No way. I'm not kicking you out of your bed."

"Well I'm not making you sleep on the floor." he countered. "If you were on the floor and got up to sleepwalk, how would I know to go catch you, anyways?"

Anna sighed for a moment. "Fine," she agreed. "But you're still not sleeping on the floor."

"Okay," he agreed, and she slowly climbed into bed as he shut the light off, encasing the two of them in darkness.

Anna rolled onto her side, her back facing Steve as she felt the bed dip behind her, and the covers rustling as Steve pulled them up, trying to find a comfortable position. However, she knew there was a very little chance that, after pulling her out of the pool, either of them would be able to find it in themselves to be able to sleep that night.

"You okay?" he whispered, finally, breaking the silence that had settled between them.

"Yeah," she said, though she knew that they both knew it couldn't be further than the truth. "Goodnight, Steve."

"Goodnight, Anna."