𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐝𝐲 ⟿ s. harrington

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐞𝐧

THE FACELESS MAN !

☀︎

AFTER FINDING JONATHAN, ALEX AND NANCY SAT ON EITHER SIDE OF HIM AS HE LOOKED OVER THE PICTURE THEY HAD BROUGHT HIM. Feeling the pressure of both their eyes on him, he glanced at each of them with a weak smile before trying to focus on where Nancy had pointed. Shifting his eyes off of him, Nancy looked to Alex as she watched Jonathan. This felt like a jealousy that she had never felt between Alex and Steve. Alex never seemed interested in either boy which only made Nancy feel guilty for being frustrated with her in these kind of moments.

Jonathan felt he wasn't much of any help to the girls. "It looks like it could be some kind of perspective distortion, but I wasn't using the wide angle." Sighing, he turned to Nancy, getting her to pull her eyes off Alex to meet his. He extended the picture back to her with regret. "I don't know. It's weird."

Bringing the picture down towards her lap, she looked it over. This was yet again another dead end. "And you're sure you didn't see anyone else out there?"

"No. Uh, just Alex," he confirmed. "And Barb was there one second and then, um... gone. I figure she bolted."

"The cops think that she ran away."

"Yeah, but that's bullshit," Alex whispered. "I mean, that's Callahan talking. He doesn't know a lot, right?"

Jonathan, for once today, found himself managing a laugh. Nancy only felt more empty inside. "Right. They don't know Barb. And I went back to Steve's and I thought I..." Nancy scrunched up her brows as she prepared for the truth. Her voice had gone shaky as if it was attempting to prevent her from admitting something even she found ridiculous. "I thought I saw something," she finished. "Some weird man or... I don't know what it was."

There was a brief moment of silence as Alex and Jonathan were hanging onto every word that came from her mouth. Each had waited, wanting more detail, not to mention more to the story. Instead, realization had hit Nancy. "I'm sorry. I... I shouldn't have come here today." Quickly snatching up her bag from the ground, she stood up from the bench with Alex following along. "I'm-I'm so sorry."

Nancy had held onto Alex's arm to head out, but Jonathan wasn't sure he was prepared to have them leave. "What'd he look like?" The girls had stopped as they turned back to him. "This man you saw in the woods. What'd he look like?"

"I don't know," Nancy stammered. She was almost uncertain of how to describe what she had seen out there. It gave her chills just thinking of the man. "It was almost like he- he didn't have..."

"Didn't have a face?" He finished for her.

"How did you know that?" Nancy whispered, dropping her hand down from Alex. Standing back, Alex had hung her head, considering all the information that had come flooding her way in just this short amount of time. Someone like Steve Harrington had no idea what was truly going on in Hawkins while Alex Henderson had found herself in the middle of everyone else's stories that unfortunately all linked perfectly together. It all went back to the faceless man and the disappearance of Will Byers.

『••☀︎••』

THE THREE WANTED A CLOSER LOOK AT THIS FACELESS MAN CAUGHT ON CAMERA. In the darkroom, the three were huddled up with one another as Jonathan went to work. Nancy was quiet as she watched him move quickly, wishing that the process could go a little faster. "What are you doing?"

"Brightening and enlarging the picture," Alex mumbled with her chin resting in her hands. "It'll get us a better look at what's in the picture."

"Oh, right," Nancy smiled. Focusing on Jonathan, she felt she had many more questions about his story. Joyce Byers had been known around Hawkins as strange and with her son now missing, her behavior now had only confirmed it. Nancy recalled plenty of things her mom had said, but she knew she always liked Joyce so she wasn't sure what to believe. "Did your mom say anything else? Like, um, where it might have gone to, or..."

"No, just that it came out of the wall," he whispered.

Lifting her head, Alex had managed a forced laugh. "Out of the wall? Like from another room or outside?"

Glancing her way, Jonathan had seen the look in Alex's eyes. Often he had spotted this in his mom. "I don't know. There was nothing there when I looked. She made it sound like it came from somewhere else, but you know how my mom is lately with the lights..."

"Right," Alex whispered, but her curiosity about finding out more had gotten the best of her. "But, like, would she say this thing came from... I don't know, another world?"

"This isn't like the game the boys play," Jonathan whispered, as he ushered them over to watch the picture develop. Coming to his side, Alex had turned to him with her mouth open. So many things she had wanted to tell him. One is that she thinks she may have heard his brother from the little girl from Hawkins Lab. Before she could, he turned to her with a deep frown. "I already hear enough from my mom, Alex."

Nancy watched as Alex closed her mouth and turned away from Jonathan in embarrassment, but his eyes had still been locked on her. Wanting to save her, Nancy shuffled around in her spot. "So, how long does this take?"

Taking his eyes off his friend, Jonathan looked back to the picture. "Not long."

"Have you two been doing this a while?"

Jonathan had sensed the small talk that was used as a distraction. "Yeah, I guess," he shrugged. "I guess I'd rather observe people than, you know..."

"Talk to them," Nancy finished for him.

"I know. It's weird. It's just sometimes people don't really say what they're really thinking. But you capture the right moment..." Jonathan felt his eyes look over to Alex. She had been deep in thought and her face said it all. She had a lot more on her mind and he had shut her down. Right now, Jonathan wished he had his camera with him, thinking maybe that could get him to understand her more. "... it says more," he finished in a quiet whisper.

"What was I saying?" Nancy asked, causing him to look towards her. "When you took my picture."

He had looked away in shame, wishing everyone had forgotten it. "I shouldn't have taken that. I'm, uh, I'm sorry. It's just..."

Catching sight of the picture coming together, Nancy's eyes grew wide as she had cut him off. "That's it. That's what I saw."

Guilt had washed over Jonathan as he leaned in to see the monster before them. "My mom... I thought she was crazy cause she said that's not Will's body. That he's alive."

Coming out of her thoughts from Jonathan's words, Alex looked at the monster she had seen as well. The boys had called it a Demogorgon, but they had not seen it. Only Eleven had. "She said it wasn't his body?" Alex whispered with a shaky breath, unable to take her eyes off the picture.

"Yeah, we went to confirm it was him. Now she hears him in the lights... She's probably not lying about that either."

"She's not," Alex stated. Everything Joyce Byers had believed in was the truth. "Will's alive."

"Then Barb, she must be too," Nancy whispered. A smile had come to her face, knowing she had given them an answer to figure out what had truly been happening. Only, Jonathan seemed to share that kind of relief. Alex, on the other hand, had felt confused and wished she could find the boys and tell them all that she knew.