In the middle of a sea of black stood three blonde Lonsdale women, each carrying their sorrow close to their hearts. Many familiar faces stood among the crowd that had gathered for Will Byers's funeral, the final moment to say goodbye to a little boy that was gone. Headstones fanned around the graveyard, names inched into the marble of people long gone by now, just a name in the midst of thousands. Daisy hated reading the names of the dead, always wondering too hard what each person was like when they wandered the lands.

Yellow roses were being dropped on the polished coffin, each person bowing their head as the flower touched the wood. Daisy Lonsdale stood behind her mother and aunt, both who had donned black dresses for the occasion. Her eyes kept scanning the faces of friends in the crowd, noticing Will's friends, who didn't look quiet upset about the whole ordeal. Already, her gaze was falling upon Jonathan, silent and trying to be strong. "Daisy, sweetie, we're going to give Joyce our regards." Her mother lightly touched the girl's arm, jolting her attention.

Daisy gave a brief nod of her head and didn't bother watching her family move away and try their best to say something to a woman doused in grief right now. Lonely, she stepped towards the edge of the hole and peered down at the coffin. Unfortunately, her mind kept drawing back to the clues her sister had left her and wondered if little Will Byers had left clues for his own family. With her mind frozen, she didn't notice her best friend weave away from her family and stand closely next to her, a hand falling into her own. Dottie Fields lowered a flower to the coffin and Daisy followed suit. "He was just a kid." Daisy mumbled.

"I don't think he's dead." Dottie whispered.

That statement had Daisy blinking across at her friend in confusion. "I'm staring at his coffin, Dottie. Which we can assume has a body in it." she paused, realising her thumb was bleeding from where a thorn had pricked her. "Honestly, you can't throw around crazy theories at a little boy's funeral. His mother and father, his brother are right over there." Daisy glanced back towards where Jonathan had been sitting, but he was gone.

"Hear me out, okay?" Dottie started, tugging on her friend's wrist and moving away from the dying crowd so they could speak privately without having anybody hear them. They moved by Will's friends, each boy watching them with curious eyes. "Last night that thing was at my house. I was on the back porch waiting for Butterball who was sniffing around the oak tree out back, you know, the one with the rabbit hole? Anyway, Micky came out to find me and suddenly, whatever it is came out of the woods. It was...horrifying. We managed to get back inside and the monster was just gone."

Daisy felt a lump rise in her throat with the words. She had been wandering around Hawkins High with Steve Harrington, trying to find clues to her sister's disappearance while her best friend had faced whatever they had heard near the Byers house alone. "Shit. I should have been there. Are you okay? Is Butterball fine?"

"Yeah, he's fine. I was a little rattled, but that's only natural when you see a giant faceless thing that most likely wants to eat you." Dottie confessed quietly, already shoving down the fear that danced in the back of her mind again when mentioning the monster in the woods. "That's not the weirdest part though. Micky called the thing a Demogorgon and he told me what he's been up to lately with his friends, he really didn't want to, but threatening him worked like a charm. His friends don't think Will is dead."

Already, Daisy's mind was swelling with an overload of information. "They're kids going through grief—"

Dottie inched closer. "They're not lying, Daisy. They found a girl in the woods days ago running from the monster and bad men, her wording not mine, and she's linked to everything. Micky said she can hear Will or something because she's got weird powers and came from that lab not far from my house. Strange, right?"

It sounded more than strange and any sane person would have brushed away Dottie Fields's claims that came from a group of twelve year olds, but two words had Daisy's heart thudding away in her chest. Bad men. It didn't mean anything to Dottie, but it clicked within Daisy's mind, something her aunt had mentioned too many times not to notice. What if everything was connected? "Strange, but maybe not crazy. Look, I didn't tell you because you'd never believe me...but I've found things lately that Marigold left behind for me. Clues, in a way. I found some lyrics in my sketchbook which led to Steve's car, long story don't ask, but we found a novel and a key. We don't know what they mean yet, but Marigold didn't run away. She didn't flee town and with these clues, I might find her."

Dottie crossed her arms over her chest. "You found clues? Why didn't you say something?" Already the girl was redrawing the question. "Right, because I didn't believe she was missing in the first place. Okay, so you've found a lead to finding Mari, but how does that connect to all this weird stuff?"

"I don't really know," Daisy admitted. "But with a few things my aunt and mum have mentioned, how my cousin died and how Beatrice was in this weird experimental thing years ago. How she rambles on about bad men taking her boy. It's all a little blurry still, but it might connect somehow."

Dottie sighed, running a hand through her mattered curls. She had never believed Marigold had gone missing, but maybe something had happened. Maybe all the weird things going on right now; the monster, the girl with powers, the deaths and the missing kids was indeed connected. "Alright. Great. Not only do we have a monster running around town and taking kids, we've got a riddle to solve. That's a classic Marigold move." Dottie glanced over her shoulder, watching her parents fetch Micky. "Looks like my cue to leave, but wait, you said we found clues? Who's we?"

"Steve Harrington." Daisy muttered.

Dottie gapped at her. "Are you serious?"

"Sadly, yes." Daisy replied with a shrug of her shoulders. "Anyway, I've kind of hit a dead end with her clues so far and Steve's no help in finding out more. So, back on the monster thing. You said you saw this Demogagin—"

"Demogorgon." Dottie corrected her.

Daisy sent her a chilling stare. "Fine, whatever. You said it had no face? Well, Nancy saw something similar, right? Those were the rumours in school. If she's seen the same thing, maybe we're not completely crazy." Slowly, Daisy turned away from her friend and spied Nancy and Jonathan sitting together with their heads bent down like they were talking about something serious. "Maybe we should talk to them."

So much had happened in the last few days, so many unexplainable things that had both girls' heads spinning. There was too many questions and not enough answers right now, which had Daisy Lonsdale irritated more than ever. Not only had this monster problem grown real, her search for her sister had stopped because she couldn't possibly understand why she had left a book and a key in Steve's locker. "They look a little busy," Dottie pointed out staring at Nancy and Jonathan again. "Maybe later. I'm going to grill Micky again, okay? You should speak with Chief Hopper about Marigold again. It's his job to find people, you know."

Daisy didn't particularly like the idea of going back to Hopper, not when last year he had no interest in trying to find her sister once the normal procedures had run dry. But without any more connections to the riddle, the man could maybe help. He might not have listened to her last year, but she had something she didn't have back then. She had Steve Harrington and his confession about lying in the first place.

"Okay, sure." Dottie's mother was suddenly calling her name, the family ready to leave and attend the after service, something the Lonsdale clan were not doing. "Whatever you do, stay out of the damn woods, okay?" Daisy gripped her best friend's hand again, driving the point home. If the monster was hanging out in the woods, they would be stupid to even think about stepping anywhere near the wooded trees.

Dottie nodded. "I won't be a hero, don't worry." Sadly, it was not Dottie Fields or Daisy Lonsdale that would enter the woods tonight, but a pair of kids who thought monster hunting was a good idea alone.