DESOLATION [ 1 ] ↠ STRANGER THINGS

8. NO FUN IN FUNERAL

DESOLATION
CHAPTER EIGHT

➝  NO FUN IN FUNERAL

AFTER COLLEEN LEFT THE BYERS' HOUSE, SHE RAN TO WHERE JOYCE HAD TOLD HER THAT JONATHAN HAD GONE. She quickly pulled the door open to the funeral home where she could see Jonathan standing with an older man, being shown caskets for his brother's funeral that was taking place the following day. His eyes glanced over to the door as the bell rang through the building, and when he saw her— he quickly excused himself to walk over to Colleen.

"Hey, what's wrong?" He asked, concern immediately surfacing. She pulled him off to the side of the room where a bench was located and they both sat down on it. Before muttering a word to the confused boy, she began to dig in her purse for something. Jonathan cleared his throat, "What is it, Col? You're starting to freak me out a little."

She pulled out the taped version of the torn up pieces of the picture and handed it over to him, so he could finally see what she'd encountered. Tapping her finger at the tall figure that was residing in the corner. She looked up at him with wide eyes, "See! What does this look like to you?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "I mean, I don't know. It looks like it could have been some kind of perspective distortion, but I wasn't using a wide angle. I don't know, it's weird."

Colleen nodded her head along with him before sucking in a deep breath and turning her head back around to look at him again. She bit her bottom lip before continuing, "Can I be honest with you? And you can call me crazy, but I just need... to tell someone. I need someone to believe me."

"Of course."

She stuffed her hands into the pockets of her jacket and let out a sigh, "I went back to Steve's house yesterday with Nancy. And while we were out there looking for Barb, I thought I saw," She shook her head and laughed lightly to herself, "It looked like there was a man out there, like he was watching me. And at first, I thought that it must have been a mask. But then, when I heard your mom talking to Hopper the other night— I thought back to it, and— and it looked like it didn't have a face."

He swallowed hard as he looked down at the picture closely, "You believe my mom? What she saw at the house the other night. You think," He pointed at the figure, "This is it?"

Colleen nodded her head and swallowed hard, "I just— I have a really bad feeling about what's been going on around here, Jonathan. Since the night my dad went missing... things just," She exhaled lightly, "They haven't been adding up."

They both stood up from the bench that they were sitting on, but Jonathan only stared back at her blankly. She looked over to find him lost for words, so Colleen blew out an embarrassed breath. She chuckled under her breath, now realizing how crazy all of this must have sounded. She quickly grabbed all of her things and turned around to leave, but then she felt Jonathan latch his hand around her arm. And he pulled her back around to face him, "Hey, wait! Wait, I believe you. I believe you."