Lily woke to the sound of gasping, her eyes shooting open to see Max sitting up in her bed on the other side of the tiny bedroom, attempting to get her breathing under control. Sunlight streamed in through the curtains covering the window of the mobile home as Lily hurriedly got out of bed, crossing the room to sit next to Max, where she softly rubbed her back.
"Hey," Lily said softly. "It's okay. It was just a bad dream."
"I-I'm fine," Max stammered, a little shakily as she shrugged Lily off, hurrying out of their room and towards the kitchen.
Lily followed Max out of the room to see her sister rummaging through the cabinets above the sink, pulling out a bottle of Tylenol and taking two of the pills. Lily moved over to the pantry, grabbing a box of pancake mix before setting it on the counter.
"Hungry?" she asked, and Max nodded.
"Yeah," Max said, crossing her arms over her chest, "Sure."
Lily knelt down, grabbing a mixing bowl from the cupboard next to the sink as the sound of sirens blared from outside. It wasn't uncommon for emergency vehicles to drive past Forest Hills on the road leading out of town, though the sound grew louder as the cars came closer, into the park, and Lily noticed that, whatever it was, there was more than one vehicle.
Lily pushed open the door to the mobile home, Max hot on her heels, as four police cars sped around the corner, coming to a stop in front of the Munsons' trailer, where Eddie and Nick's uncle Wayne sat on the porch, smoking a cigarette. Behind the Mayfield girls, Susan stepped out onto the porch, pulling her robe tighter around her body as she surveyed the scene in front of them.
"Looks like that Munson boy's up to no good again," she mused, eyes briefly falling over her eldest daughter before moving back to the trailer across the field. Susan had never been too fond of Lily's friendship with the Munson kids, and though she hadn't admitted it to Lily before, the eighteen-year-old knew her mother had been relieved when she'd stopped speaking to them.
Lily watched as Chief Powell stepped out of his car, approaching Wayne with the other officers behind him. The two men conversed briefly for a moment before Powell entered the trailer with another officer behind him, the others staying behind to rope off the scene and talk to Wayne.
"Come on," Max whispered, taking the steps down off the porch and gesturing for Lily to follow her. "Let's see what's going on."
Lily followed Max as the two girls slowly stepped over to the Munsons', craning her neck to try to catch a glimpse over the officers' heads as they grew closer to the trailer. She knew Eddie was no stranger to run-ins with Hawkins PD, though after the death of their former chief Jim Hopper, who usually made visits when Eddie stepped out of line, to her knowledge he'd managed to keep his nose decently clean, with only a couple visits after Lily had moved to Forest Hills. He'd certainly never done anything to warrant four police cars on his lawn, anyways.
Lily's gaze moved past the cop standing closest to the doorway, her eyes finally settling inside the trailer. It was quiet, but as her eyes fell to the body laying on the floor, she could feel her heart drop through to her stomach.
The petite blonde figure lay face down on the brown carpet, still wearing her cheer uniform from the night before, and hair still pulled into her perfect ponytail. Her arms were brutally snapped behind her back, laying at an awkward angle, and Lily couldn't help the horrified, broken gasp that came out as she could suddenly hear Jason's voice in her head at the party, asking if she'd seen Chrissy anywhere.
"Hey!" a voice called out from behind them, startling the two girls as they turned to face the officer who watched them with a stern expression. "You can't be out here, get back inside."
Lily's hand came up to cover her mouth as her gaze moved back to where Chrissy lay in the trailer, tears springing to the corner of her eyes. "W-what happened?" she stammered, turning back to the officer. "Th-that's my friend, she-" her voice faltered, and all she could do was look back in Chrissy's direction.
Chrissy, the girl who had welcomed Lily onto the Tiger Cheer Squad with open arms, who hadn't blinked twice when Lily attempted to sit at the jock table at lunch on the first day of school but had rather scooted over to make room next to her. The girl who would invite Lily over on countless Saturday nights to watch cheesy movies, gossip about school, and paint each other's nails. The girl Lily had run from the night before so she wouldn't learn the truth about where she lived. If she'd just gone to the trailer, asked if they wanted to ride to the party together, maybe Chrissy wouldn't be lying face down in Eddie's trailer that morning.
"You know this girl?" the officer, Officer Daniels, according to his nametag, asked, and Lily nodded. "Do you mind if I ask you a few questions about the deceased?"
Lily nodded slowly, turning back to Max. "Go back home," she said, willing her voice to stay steady, and Max nodded, turning and running back toward the mobile home, putting as much distance between herself and the trailer as possible.
Officer Daniels led Lily over to a picnic table, where he pulled out a pad of paper and a pen. Lily took a seat opposite him, forcing herself to look at the man and not at the trailer, where the door still lay open on the other side of a line of yellow police tape.
"Can you tell me your name, please?" Officer Daniels asked.
"Lily Mayfield."
"And the name of the deceased?"
She took a deep breath before continuing. "Chrissy Cunningham."
"And what is your relationship to the deceased?" Officer Daniels asked. "You said you two were friends?"
Lily nodded. "Chrissy's my friend. We go to school together at Hawkins, and we're both on the cheer team."
"And when's the last time you spoke to Chrissy?"
"At the basketball game last night." she explained. "We hugged when the team won, but then went our separate ways. The team was celebrating last night, but she never showed up."
"And was that out of the ordinary for her to not be present?" Officer Daniels asked, scribbling down her answers on the pad.
Lily nodded. "She's the head cheerleader and her boyfriend's the captain of the basketball team. She was always there, even if it was just for a little while."
"Jason Carver," Officer Daniels stated, and Lily nodded. "Did he seem worried at all that she wasn't there?"
Lily nodded, the image of a tipsy Jason asking about Chrissy's whereabouts last night flashing back in her mind. "He asked me at one point if I'd seen her. He said she told him she was going to change and then she'd be there. After a while, he assumed she stood him up."
"And Miss Mayfield, what can you tell me about Chrissy's relationship to Eddie Munson?"
Lily's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. In all the time she knew Chrissy, she'd never once mentioned Eddie, and she'd certainly never seen them together while she and Eddie had been friends. As far as she knew, Chrissy was just buying drugs from Eddie, even if she knew Eddie wasn't one for home visits for deals unless it was for something big, his much smaller deals taking place in the woods behind the track.
"I don't think they had one." she said finally.
"Nothing to explain why she was in his trailer?" Officer Daniels asked, and she shook her head. "Nothing that would make him angry, or want to get violent against her?"
Her eyes widened slightly as she looked back up from where Officer Daniels was still writing down details onto the notepad, and back at his face. Eddie Munson was a lot of things, but she knew he wasn't a murderer. "No," she said firmly. "You don't understand. Eddie didn't do this. He's innocent."
"We're just trying to get all the facts." he assured her. "When's the last time you saw Eddie?"
She shrugged. "Sometime yesterday. I see him around, but I wouldn't call us friends."
"And no idea where he might've gone?" he asked, and she shook her head.
"None," she said. "I'm sorry."
"Alright, I think we're done here." Officer Daniels said, standing back up from the picnic table and gesturing for her to follow suit. "Thank you for your time, Miss Mayfield."
Lily nodded, her gaze moving back to the now-shut trailer door briefly before turning back to her own home. Her feet unsteadily carried her back, tears streaming down her face as she went back inside, shutting the door behind her. The living room was empty, her mother's bedroom door shut as she no-doubt had gone back to bed, but Max was nowhere to be found, their bedroom door open to reveal the empty room beyond.
"Max?" Lily called out hesitantly, though she didn't receive an answer.
The phone began to ring against the wall, pulling Lily out of her stupor as she quickly moved across the room, pulling it off the stand. "Hello?" she asked.
"Lily, hey, it's me." Max's voice came through the machine.
"Max?" Lily asked. "Where are you?"
"I'm at Dustin's." Max explained. "We think we have a plan to find Eddie, but we're going to need your help. Can you meet us at Family Video?"
"Yeah," she said. "I'll be there as soon as I can."
Lily bid goodbye to Max, hanging up the phone before picking it up again and dialing the familiar number. The cheery voice on the other side answered on the second ring, and Lily sighed in relief.
"Hey, it's me." she said. "Could you give me a ride? I really need your help."