"Mewsy!" Anna could hear her mother calling on the other side of the yard, looking around desperately for any sign of their missing cat while Anna herself patrolled the backyard, scoping out all of her usual spots. "Mews!"

Anna sighed, shaking the cat toy that was in her hand again as the bell faintly jingled from the end. "Mews!" Anna called out. "Mews, where are you?"

The sound of tires moving against the pavement of the driveway on the other side of the house caught Anna's attention, along with the sight of the tail end of a familiar looking blue car, and Anna walked back inside to see her mother coming in the front door, an all too familiar face following behind her of a woman nearly twenty-five years Anna's senior, with matching dark hair and eyes.

"Anna!" Eleanora Hoffman exclaimed, setting down a duffel bag next to the couch and moving forward to give her niece a tight hug.

"Aunt Nora?" Anna asked, hugging the woman back as her eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. "I thought you weren't coming up until Thanksgiving."

"Well, your mom called me all in a tizzy, and said that Mews had gone missing." Nora explained. "I had the weekend off, so I decided to take the trip up and come help look."

"Aunt Nora?" Dustin's voice added into the mix, and Anna looked over to see her brother watching with wide eyes as he quickly shut the bedroom door behind him, which caused Anna's eyebrows to pinch together a little further, though she decided not to press him in front of the two older women. At her expression, though, Dustin painted an excited smile on his face instead, moving to hug their aunt. "Aunt Nora!"

"Hi, Dusty," Nora said, ruffling the boy's hair as he began to giggle.

"Is Uncle Phil with you?" Dustin asked, looking back at the doorway for any sign of the man, but Nora simply shook her head, a small smile gracing her face.

"He had to work," she said simply, "I guess you're stuck with me. So," she said, looking back at Claudia. "How can I help?"

"You can give Annie a hand in the backyard, I'm sure that would help." Claudia suggested. "We've just been looking all over the place, I'm scared to think of where that poor baby might be."

"Yeah, Anna's probably too busy thinking about her new boyfriend, she's probably not looking very hard." Dustin joked, causing Anna to roll her eyes as Nora looked back at her with a surprised expression.

"Dusty," Anna scolded, rolling her eyes. "We'll find her, Mom." she assured Claudia, reaching down for another cat toy and passing it to Nora. "She likes these, so we were thinking maybe it'd help her find her way back if she heard them."

"Got it," Nora said, jerking her head back in the direction of the back door. "Let's go find her."

Anna followed Nora back out into the backyard, shutting the door behind them, and Anna shook the cat toy once more with a frustrated sigh, heading back towards the edge of the Hendersons' property to get a better look.

"Mews!" Anna called out again.

"So, new boyfriend, huh?" Nora asked with an amused chuckle, causing Anna to sigh slightly as she shook her head.

"We went on one date last night." Anna explained. "He's not my boyfriend. Well, yet, anyways. Jury's still out on that one."

"Well, tell me about him." Nora said. "Give me all the deets."

"Deets?" Anna asked, smirking as she looked back over at her aunt. "Uhm, well, his name's Jason. He's a junior, like me. He's on the basketball team."

"Ooh, an athlete?" Nora teased, though there was something in her eyes that Anna couldn't quite discern. "Where'd he take you?"

"We went for burgers at a diner the next town over." Anna explained. "Gil's, over in Cartersville."

"Gils!" Nora said excitedly, placing a nostalgic hand against her heart. "I remember that place from back in the day. Did you have a good time?"

"Yeah, it was fun." she assured her. "We just talked for a while, really."

"And do you wish he was your boyfriend?" Nora asked, causing Anna to stop for a moment and think.

"I think so." Anna admitted. "I mean, it was just one date, and he said he had a good time, too, so maybe we'll go on another one, maybe not."

"Well, when the time is right, you'll know." Nora assured her, and Anna nodded, the two moving into a comfortable silence as they continued to look for Mews.

The two split up around the backyard, their shouts for Mews piercing the air along with the dull jinging of the bells, although their search came up short, as there was no sign of the missing cat anywhere. When they finally decided to go back inside for a break, they found Dustin on the phone, with Claudia looking excited as she watched on from near the front door.

"Uh huh," Dustin was saying into the phone, causing Anna and Nora to exchange a curious glance before looking back at him. "Thank you so much, Mr. McCorkle, thank you so much. You are a true lifesaver. Alright, this was great. Thank you, alright, have a good one. Bye bye now, alright, you too." he hung up the phone, looking back at them excitedly. "Alright, great news!" he announced.

"They found her?" Claudia asked hopefully.

"No," Dustin explained. "But they saw her wandering around Loch Nora."

"Loch Nora?" Anna asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow at the idea that Mews had somehow wandered all the way across town, but Dustin ignored her.

"How did the poor baby get all the way out there?" Claudia asked, tears pooling at the corners of her eyes.

"I don't know," Dustin said. "Lost, I guess. But they're gonna look for her. And Anna and I can stay here, just in case they call again. And you and Aunt Nora can go help look, yeah? Yeah?" Claudia nodded, pulling Dustin into a tight hug. "Here, give me a hug. Give me a hug, go get her. You're gonna find her."

"Alright then," Nora said, clapping her hands together as Claudia grabbed her purse. "Aunt Nora's going to Loch Nora. Let's go get your girl, Clauds."

"Okay," Claudia said. "We can find her."

"We can find her." Dustin echoed, Anna's gaze darting around between the three of them. "I love you," he said, blowing her a kiss.

"I love you." she repeated before looking at Anna. "Love you, Annie."

"Love you, Mom." Anna said. "Bye." As the front door shut behind the two women, Anna crossed her arms over her chest, looking down at Dustin expectantly. "Alright, spill."

"Spill what?" he asked innocently, looking back up at his sister. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Dustin, you've been acting weird for days." Anna accused. "And now Mews just happens to pop up on the other side of town? How did she even get over that far?"

"She..." he trailed off, looking for an answer. "Went for a... hike?"

"Dusty, spill, or I tell Mom." she threatened. "Remember, we don't have any secrets anymore."

"Okay, but you can not tell Mom." Dustin insisted. "I'm serious, Anna, this is important."

"I won't tell Mom, just tell me." she assured him. "What's going on?"

"You might want to sit down for this." Dustin suggested, and Anna obliged, hesitantly taking a seat on the couch and looking back up at him expectantly. "Okay, so the night before Halloween, I heard a sound outside. I thought it was Mews, so I called for her, but she was inside with you and Becca."

"I remember that." Anna agreed.

"I figured it was just a squirrel or something, so I went inside." he continued on. "Only, the next night, when I got back from trick-or-treating, I heard it again, from inside our garbage can. You were still at that party, so I looked inside, and I found some sort of lizard creature. I didn't know what he was, but he was cute, so I brought him inside and put him in Yurtle's tank. He liked nougat, so I split my Three Musketeers with him and named him D'Artagnan."

"How is this important?" Anna questioned.

"Patience, please." Dustin requested. "I've been keeping Dart as a pet, even brought him to school, but my friends didn't like him, and then he got out. I found him but didn't tell anyone about it. I didn't want them to hurt him, he became my friend. Only, he kept growing. Like, really fast."

"Dustin," Anna warned. "Where is Dart now?"

"Just..." Dustin trailed off uneasily. "I need your help."

Anna rose from the couch, following Dustin as he slowly opened the door to his bedroom. Inside, everything almost looked normal, except for a gaping hole shattered in the middle of the tortoise enclosure, with a slimy, almost reptilian-looking shedded skin draped over the broken glass. Amidst the shards of shattered glass lie a trail of blood, leading to a disfigured animal carcass, nearly unrecognizable to Anna except for a familiar patch of fur.

"Dustin," Anna warned again, nausea building in the pit of her stomach as she studied the scene before her, already knowing the answer to her next question. "What is that?"

Dustin's face was blank as he looked back at her. "Mews."

Anna shut her eyes tightly, a new wave of nausea passing over her as tears pricked at the corners of her eyes, the realization that their family pet, the one they jokingly referred to as their mother's favorite child and the happiest part of her life, was now lying before her in a massacred heap on Dustin's bedroom floor.

"Dustin..." she trailed off, looking away from the scene before her. "Where is Dart now?"

As if to answer her question, a sharp thud echoed against the door leading to Dustin's closet, causing Anna to jump back in alarm. Dustin did the same, jumping closer to his sister as he attempted to hide behind her.

"I didn't know he was a baby Demogorgon, okay?" Dustin shouted in a panicked tone, the blood in Anna's veins turning to ice as the word left his mouth.

Suddenly, she was no longer the seventeen-year-old that had spent months moving on from the horrors they'd faced the year before, the one that had convinced herself everything was over even if her sleepwalking subconscious hadn't believed it. She was now the meek sophomore standing in the Byers' living room, watching helplessly as the monster attacked her and her friends. Her subconscious had won, it was right: her worst fears were far from over.

"I need your help." Dustin pleaded. "I have a plan to lure him down to the storm cellar, and then we can gather the party for help."

"What's your plan?" Anna asked.

"Mom just got a bunch of bologna from the supermarket," he explained. "We can make a trail for him to follow, and then trap him down there until we find everyone else and figure out what to do. But first we need to protect ourselves, in case this goes wrong. Is your old catcher equipment still out in the garage? And my goalie stuff?"

"Probably." Anna said, sparing a glance down at the cat. "You go grab that, I'll get rid of Mews. And Dustin?"

"Yeah?"

Anna scowled down at her little brother. "You owe me way more than just one week of chores for this."

Dustin nodded, running out of his room in his haste to reach the garage, and Anna went to the kitchen, where she grabbed a bag from under the sink along with a pair of gloves. "Sorry, Mews." Anna murmured, making quick work of the job before returning to meet Dustin in his room.

Inside, Dustin was already dressed in hockey goalie gear, with Anna's old softball catcher's equipment laid out on the bed. She pulled on the chest guard and the helmet before he passed her a packet full of lunch meat, and together, they lined a trail from Dustin's bedroom down the hall and outside to the storm cellar.

"Are we sure this is going to work?" Anna asked as Dustin grabbed his hockey stick, holding it protectively in front of him.

"Honestly?" he asked. "No."

"Good talk." she said, grabbing the stick from Dustin as she walked back into the house, stepping closer and closer to the closet door.

She reached for the knob with her free hand, trembling slightly as she twisted it open. The instant she heard the lock click out of place, she dropped the doorknob, running back as fast as she could to reach Dustin in the shed before the monster could find her. Anna nearly dove back into the shed, closing the door just enough to where they could still keep an eye on the bologna trail outside.

Anna's heart leapt into her throat at the first sight of the creature following the trail down the porch steps. Whatever small lizard Dustin had found in the garbage, it was growing fast, and now was about the height of a medium sized dog. Although this one moved on four legs, and was much smaller than the monster in the Wheelers' living room the year before, it was undoubtedly a younger Demogorgon, its skin a greenish yellow as opposed to the gray she'd encountered before, but nevertheless the same mouth opening up across its entire face to devour the slices of lunch meat.

"Yes," Dustin muttered as Dart continued to follow the trail. "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes."

"Dusty," Anna scolded under her breath.

With a low growl, Dart's gaze quickly shifted to the shed, seemingly looking right where the two siblings were hiding, and they moved back against the wall out of sight, trying hard to keep their breathing even amidst the panic.

"Shit," Dustin whispered.

"Look what you did now," Anna muttered.

The two waited with bated breath as the chittering sound coming from Dart's throat moved closer and closer, along with the crunch of the fallen leaves littered all throughout their yard. Without another word, Dustin grabbed the hockey stick from Anna's hands, throwing the shed door open with a yell as he advanced towards the small creature.

"Dustin!" Anna yelled as Dart reared back, startled by the young boy's attack, and began to run back in the opposite direction.

Dustin reared back the hockey stick, swinging and hitting Dart square in the side. The creature emitted an ear-piercing shriek, flying from the impact into the open doors of the storm cellar and down the stairs. Dustin dove on top of the doors to close them while Anna grabbed the metal padlock and chain from the shed, running after him as Dart continued to shriek, throwing its body against the doors in an attempt to escape.

"I'm sorry," Dustin groaned, putting his body weight on the cellar door to keep it shut while Anna made quick work of the padlock, securing it into place so the door wouldn't budge. "You ate our cat."

"What now?" Anna asked, lying back in the grass to catch her breath.

"Now we clean up and call for help." Dustin said. "I'll see if anyone's in range on the walkies, and you call your friends."

The two siblings walked back inside the house, Dustin making a beeline for a brush and carpet cleaner while Anna grabbed the vacuum to clean up the broken glass that littered the floor. As soon as she was finished, she grabbed the telephone from the receiver against the wall, first punching in the number for the Harringtons.

She waited impatiently as the phone rang, Dustin's voice echoing from his bedroom as he tried to reach his friends over their walkie talkies, but it was to no avail as the Harrington phone went to voicemail. After trying the number one more time, she moved onto the Roberts' line in an attempt to get a hold of Landon, though she knew both he and his mom were likely at work as that line also wound up a dead end.

After another missed call at the Byers' house, Anna finally moved onto the Wheelers. "C'mon, c'mon," Anna murmured as she held the phone up to her ear, though instead of the dial tone she's grown used to over the past few minutes, she was instead met with a busy signal, alerting her the line was already in use.

"Any luck?" Dustin asked when Anna finally returned to his room, the mess nearly cleaned up as his room slowly returned to normal, except for the gaping hole in the center of Yurtle's enclosure.

"Nothing," she sighed with a shake of her head. "Nobody's home anywhere except Wheelers, and their line's been busy every time I've tried it."

"Shit," he swore under his breath. "Same here. I managed to get through to Lucas's house, but Erica was on the other line and she turned it off. What do we do now?"

Anna shrugged. "Go see if Mike and Nancy are home?" she suggested.

"Yeah," Dustin nodded. "Yeah, that's not a bad idea."

Dustin and Anna grabbed their jackets while Anna reached for her car keys, the two Henderson siblings pouring out of their house and jumping into the car. Anna hurriedly turned the key in the ignition and the car roared to life, and she backed out of the driveway for the short drive down to the Wheelers' house.

Dustin barely waited for Anna to park her car before he leapt out of the front seat, running for the front door of the house and knocking. Anna had just reached him as the door swung open to reveal Mr. Wheeler on the other side, looking down at them expectantly.

"Your line has been busy for over two hours, Mr. Wheeler." Dustin said exasperatedly. "Do you realize this?"

"Oh, I do realize." Mr. Wheeler assured him.

"Is Mike home?" he asked.

"No,"

"No?" Dustin asked. "Well, where the hell is he?"

Mr. Wheeler turned back to look inside the house. "Karen, where's our son?" he called.

"Will's!" Anna could hear Mrs. Wheeler's voice call from inside.

"Will's," Mr. Wheeler echoed.

Dustin sighed. "No one's picking up there. Nancy, what about Nancy?"

"Karen, where's Nancy?" Mr. Wheeler called again.

"Ally's!" she yelled back.

"Ally's." he deadpanned. "Our children don't live here anymore. You didn't know that?"

"Seriously?" Dustin asked.

"Am I done here?" Mr. Wheeler asked.

"Son of a bitch," Dustin scoffed. "You're really no help at all, you know that?"

"Hey!" Mr. Wheeler scolded as Dustin turned around, heading back down the front steps. "Language!"

"Sorry, Mr. Wheeler," Anna quickly apologized before hurrying after Dustin.

"I guess we're on our own," Dustin said before stopping suddenly and looking up at where a familiar looking BMW pulled up on the curb and Steve climbed out, a bouquet of roses clenched tightly in one hand as he seemed to be talking to himself. "Or maybe not,"

"Dustin," Anna warned, not overly in the mood to talk to Steve as her brother approached the older boy, who was nervously running a hand through his hair as he made a beeline for the Wheelers' front door.

"Hey Steve," Dustin called, glancing down at the roses in his hand. "Are those for Mr. or Mrs. Wheeler?"

Steve glanced down at the roses for a moment, confused. "No,"

"Good," Dustin said, snatching them from his hands as he began to walk back in the direction of Steve's car.

"Hey, what the hell?" Steve asked, following after Dustin. "Hey! Anna, can you control your little brother, please?" he asked, looking back up at her.

"If I could, I would've by now, trust me." she said.

"Nancy isn't home." Dustin explained without looking back at the teenagers.

"Where is she?" he asked.

"Doesn't matter." Dustin deadpanned. "We have bigger problems than your love life. Do you still have that bat?"

"Bat?" Steve asked, furrowing his eyebrows together. "What bat?"

"The one with the nails?" Dustin specified, rolling his eyes as if it were obvious.

"Why?"

"I'll explain on the way." Dustin said. "Anna, I'll go with Steve to get the bat and catch him up, and we'll meet you back at the house." he suggested. "Keep an eye on things, make sure Dart doesn't get out."

Anna nodded as she climbed back into her car, Steve still not quite looking at her as he and Dustin followed suit, the two groups splitting up as Anna drove back to her house. Already, the sun was setting in the distance, and she knew her mom and Nora would probably be back soon from looking for Mews on Dustin's wild goose chase.

Anna hesitantly walked around to the side of the house, although to her relief, the padlock on the cellar door looked untouched. She still picked up the hockey stick from where it lay in the grass, holding it close as she stood guard, waiting for Dustin and Steve to return. By the time the boys had returned to the house, the sun had long sunk below the horizon, the air nearly pitch black except for the streetlamp casting a golden glow onto the pavement.

"Look what else we found," Dustin said by way of greeting, handing Anna a familiar looking hatchet, the same one she'd held in the Byers' living room that night. "Did he move at all?"

"Nothing," Anna said, shaking her head as she let the hockey stick hit the ground, now holding the hatchet close to defend from any potential attack from Dart.

Behind Dustin stood Steve, the same nail-ridden baseball bat held over his shoulder with a flashlight in his other hand as he watched the Hendersons with a skeptical look. He approached the storm cellar door, eyeing it suspiciously. "I don't hear shit," he said.

"He's in there," Dustin insisted.

Steve stepped closer, reaching out with the bat and banging on the door in an attempt to get Dart's attention, but the other side remained silent. Finally, Steve sighed, turning the flashlight beam until it was aimed in Dustin's eyes.

"Alright, listen, kid." Steve warned. "I swear, if this is some sort of Halloween prank, some way to get back at me for being an ass to your sister the other night, you're dead."

"It's not," Dustin insisted.

"Alright?" Steve warned again.

"It's not a prank." Anna insisted.

"Get it out of my face," Dustin said, squinting at the light for a moment before his eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. "Wait, you were an ass to my sister?"

"It's not important," Anna interjected. "Focus."

"You got a key for this thing?" Steve asked, looking back at the padlock on the cellar door, and Anna nodded, fishing it out of the pocket of her jeans and reaching down to unlock the chain.

As soon as the padlock was off the door handles, Steve handed the flashlight to Dustin before quickly pulling the door open, the three of them bracing themselves for what lay on the other side. Although, to their shock, it was quiet, just a pitch black cellar.

"Let me see that," Steve said, taking the flashlight back from Dustin and angling the beam down the stairs to try and catch a glimpse of the monster they'd trapped inside.

"He must be further down there." Dustin suggested. "I'll stay up here in case he tries to escape."

Steve looked up at Dustin incredulously with a sigh before turning back to Anna. "Alright, Henderson, I guess that's our cue." he said, rising to his feet and beginning to walk down the stairs.

Anna followed a few steps behind Steve, the hatchet gripped tightly in her hand as she looked around warily for any sign of the baby Demogorgon. She braced herself as they reached the bottom of the steps, but there was no sign that the monster was around. When she finally reached the light in the center of the room, she reached up and pulled on the chain, bathing the room in light as she could finally see more than what the dim flashlight beam allowed.

Anna looked around the room, still trying to catch a glimpse of Dart, but instead Steve nudged her with his elbow, causing her to look over in his direction, seeing his eyes now glued to the floor. She followed his gaze to see a shed skin not unlike the one stuck in the broken glass of Yurtle's enclosure, lying in a small puddle of a substance she couldn't quite discern.

Steve reached down with the bat, picking up the skin and bringing it up as they studied it. Anna felt her heart drop into the pit of her stomach at the realization that, whatever size Dart had been when they'd locked him in the cellar, he'd grown tremendously in the few hours since.

"Anna," Steve said in a quiet voice, looking up from the skin to the corner of the room, and she followed his gaze once more to see a hole broken into the brick wall, just big enough to give the creature an escape.

"Oh shit," she murmured.

"Guys?" Dustin called from up the stairs. "Guys, what's going on down there?"

Steve turned around, angling the flashlight back up in Dustin's direction. "Get down here," he ordered.

Dustin looked back with a wary glance before walking down the stairs to meet them, his gaze falling first on the shed skin still held up by Steve's bat.

"Oh, shit," Dustin cursed, before his eyes found the hole broken into the wall. "Oh, shit!"

The three of them slowly walked over to the hole in the wall, crouching down in front of it as Steve aimed the flashlight into the darkness. It was hard to see how deep Dart's tunnel went, but Anna could faintly make out a corner at the very end, alerting her that, however far he'd made it, he was likely miles away by now, out loose in Hawkins.

"No way," Dustin mused, before looking back at the two teenagers. "Houston, we have a problem."