Human [Jonathan Byers]

Chapter 8:

I followed Nancy into the casket place and to the showroom door. Jonathan was about to walk by when we saw us. He stopped and looked at us for a moment. I gave him a small smile.

"Can you just give me a second?" He asked looking at the man he was with.

"Of course." The man nodded.

Jonathan walked over to us. "Hey."

"Hey." Nancy said.

She stopped talking for a second and looked at me before looking back at him.

"Your mom, she said you'd be here." She explained.

I looked at Jonathan and he looked like he was about to cry. That made my heart break even more.

"I just." Nancy took a deep breath. "Can we talk for a second?"

He agreed and we walked until we found a bench. I sat down on the other side of Jonathan who sat in the middle of us. Nancy handed him the picture and he examined it. We sat in silence while he looked at it.

"It looks like it could be some kind of perspective distortion but I wasn't using a wide angle." He turned and handed Nancy the picture again. "I don't know. It's weird."

I looked at Nancy and she was looking at me.

"And you're sure you didn't see anyone else out there?" Nancy questioned.

"No. She was there one second and then gone. I think she bolted." He shrugged and shook his head.

"The cops think that she ran away. But they don't know Barb. When I went back to Steve's and I thought I saw something. Some weird man or... I don't know what it was." She looked down at the ground at she explained.

Jonathan stared at Barb and I looked in confusion at the taped up picture.

"I'm sorry. We....we shouldn't have come here." She quickly grabbed her things and stood up.

"I'm so sorry." She looked back at him.

I followed and went to walk away but Jonathan grabbed my arm. Turning, he was looking up at me.

"Nance." I said turning to look at my friend who was walkih away.

She turned back to look at us confused.

"What'd he look like?" Jonathan finally spoke, his eyes still on me.

"What?" Nancy asked.

"This man you saw in the woods. What'd he look like?" Jonathan looked at Nancy this time.

"I don't know. It was almost like he.. he didn't have..." Nancy started

"He didn't have a face?" Jonathan finished.

"How did you know that?" She asked stepping closer to us.

I looked back at Jonathan to see his reaction and realized he was still holding my arm. But this time the grip was a little tighter.

----------------

Nancy and I stood on the opposite sides of Jonathan as he started messing with a machine. He slid a plate into a slot and flipped a switch.

"You're....?" Nancy asked looking at him.

"Brightening and enlarging." He continued to mess with stuff.

I watch in awe as he did this. It always fascinated me when he did this stuff for some reason. I've always wanted to get into photography.

"Does your mom say anything else? Like where it might've gone to or.." Nancy asked bringing me out of my thoughts.