Late at night in Hawkins, Starcourt Mall feels unnervingly empty and wrong. You’re there after hours at Dustin’s request, already uneasy, when the silence is broken by a wet, dragging sound from a nearby hallway. Whatever is lurking in the darkness is close—and aware of you.
As fall settles over Hawkins, Y/N senses that the town’s uneasy calm is only an illusion. While biking home at dusk, strange disturbances lead Y/N to the old quarry, where a frantic message from Max warns that something has been found—and that it’s targeting Y/N. As the environment turns hostile and the ground itself begins to裂 with red light, Y/N realizes the Upside Down is no longer confined to the shadows; it’s actively reaching out, and Y/N is at the center of its attention.
Every night at 9:17 PM, a minute disappears from time itself—and Y/N is the only one who notices. When they stay awake to witness it, the world around them freezes, reality distorts, and something inhuman reveals itself during the missing minute. A warning from Dustin comes too late, and when time resumes, Y/N is left with a terrifying message carved into the wall. The lost minute doesn’t belong to Hawkins—it belongs to something watching, waiting, and now aware of Y/N.