That morning seemed pleasantly boring, nothing strange or out of the usual. Molly Lonsdale was the first to rise, always awake before the sun shined. She was in the kitchen, cooking eggs and humming to some tune under her breath. Aunt Beatrice had wandered down to the corner store and brought the town's daily newspaper, bringing home some sunflowers also. She was sitting at the dining table, flicking through the paper idly. Daisy Lonsdale had crawled out of bed late, her eye red from staying up late to draw. Nobody thought it was odd when Marigold Lonsdale did not come down for breakfast. Nobody thought anything different that day in 1982, until breakfast was finished, the dishes cleaned and Daisy finally mustering up the strength to knock on her bedroom door.

"Mari, are you up yet?" Daisy tapped on the wooden door, her fingertips gliding over the stickers and the old photographs pinned to the door. She waited for a reply, knowing her sister was most likely still upset about the argument with their mother last night. "Come on, you can't stay mad all day. I'm heading out with Dottie, we're thinking of spending the day down by the quarry with Micky, wanna' come?"

No reply came once again, Daisy growing irritated. Marigold sometimes had terrible moods, always too temperamental when something did not go her way. Sometimes, she would lock herself in her room for days on end, Daisy always the person to climb up the drainpipe and slip snacks through her window so she didn't go hungry. So, it was not odd when Daisy was retreating from the locked door, leaving the house without a second thought.

Down by the quarry, Dottie had spread out a ratty picnic blanket and had baked fresh scones with jam and cream for lunch. It was an unspoken rule in town to stay away from the quarry, old town myths about monsters hiding in the dark waters being chanted by the older generations, but the girls didn't care because they didn't believe in monsters. Micky, the youngest Fields child, only ten years old was wading in the water, his dark skin dotted with water droplets.

"—she's absolutely pissed," Daisy was explaining, the sleeves of her shirt rolled up and her head thrown back to soak up the sun's warm rays. "Mum's furious too, it was actually scary."

Dottie was licking some jam from her fingertips, "So, Marigold would rather spend the entire day locked in her room, instead of hanging out with us? All because your mother said she couldn't go to some concert. That's...exactly like her, what am I even saying?"

"She's probably cooped up at her desk, writing crappy dramatic diary entries about how much she hates Hawkins." Daisy was laughing quietly, watching Micky splash around in the water. "Dear diary, this town blows and my mother is the biggest witch in town..."

Dottie joined in,"Dear diary, mum won't let me drive down to Texas with my friends. Only because she's such a stick in the mud! This is so unfair..." The girls laughed into their homemade lemonades, Micky fishing himself out of the water and joining them on the picnic blanket, soaking wet. He grabbed a scone and shoved it into his mouth in one gulp. Dottie scrunched up her nose. "Micky, don't be so gross."

"Lucas is gonna' stay over tonight, mum said we get the television," Micky was started, his mouth practically full, ignoring her comment. Daisy smiled at the boy, actually thankful she didn't have to deal with annoying little brothers. "So, you don't get to watch Happy Days."

Dottie rolled her eyes. "Of course."

The Fields house was tiny and mostly rundown, their garden over packed with weeds and a few broken windows from where hooligans had thrown rocks at the house while riding by late at night. The family tried their best though, always holding their heads high and never letting things like that tear them down. Dottie's mother worked at the local supermarket in town, Bradley's Big Buy. While their father worked a few towns over, not always making it home at a reasonable hour. Despite the money being tight, their father had pooled enough from his Christmas bonus last year to buy a dingy television set, Micky's favourite thing in the world.

While Micky ran off again, only needing something to eat before jumping back into the water, Dottie turned to face her friend, looking a little glum. "Be thankful you don't have a brother." she noted quietly.

"Only a self absorbed sister." Daisy grinned, letting her head rest backwards again and closing her eyes, listening to the splashes of water and the birds chipping around them and wishing summertime could last forever.

***

When Daisy finally arrived home late that afternoon, that's when she found out something was most definitely wrong. Usually, at half-past six in the evening, her mother would be back in the kitchen, while her aunt would be watching television. Her sister could be found in her bedroom with her record player on or maybe downstairs chatting away on the landline. But today, the house was deadly quiet. Daisy wandered through the unlocked front door, her gaze sweeping over the living room which was empty, the television screen switched off. When she found herself in the kitchen, she noticed the note pinned to the fridge. Her stomach was dropping with the words scribbled down by her darling mother, informing her that they were at the police station because Marigold was gone.

Dropping her bag to the linoleum flooring in the kitchen, she was balling up the note in her fist and hurrying upstairs. The door had been jimmied open, a few photographs lying on the carpeted hallway floor. Daisy paused in the threshold, staring at her sister's empty bedroom, nothing out of place. The window was wedged open though, the curtains moving in the light breeze. Her sister had snuck out of the house before, but she had never been gone longer than a few hours, but weirdly, this time felt different. Very different.

Daisy's heavy gaze dropped to the floor, removing her tennis shoe from one lone photograph that she had stepped on only seconds before hand. Quietly, she was reaching for the smiling photograph of her sister, her cheeks wide and her smile bright. "Where are you, Marigold?"

- author's ramblings -

I promise there won't be heaps of flash black chapters set around the time Marigold went missing, only a few to help setup the story, and to get a stronger sense of how Marigold was and how Daisy's changed because of it. The whole Lonsdale family dynamic is super interesting, which will come into light shortly, a few things needing to be flushed out. I'm not dragging the pre-season one thing too long, only a few chapters to setup the tone and whatnot, so soon we'll be starting the initial plot, don't worry. Thanks for the support so far guys, it means loads!

- tinkertaydust