Love Is A Battlefield (A Stranger Things/Steve Harrington Fanfiction)

Chapter Ten: Here Goes Nothing

"Joyce, wait a second-" Dad started.

"Mom!"

"No!" She stormed out the door.

"Mom!"

"Ma'am, I-Ma'am!" Jonathan ran out, following after her.  I turned to look at Dad.

"You think you can do some investigating without drawing unwanted attention?" I asked. He sighed, looking slightly skeptical. "You know that's not his body, Dad. You can't deny it, I told you what she said was true, and now they have some sketchy, unnamed state employee doing the autopsy?" He sighed. "Just ask around, please. And do it carefully, or else you might bring them down on top of you-"

"Do you have nay idea how crazy this all sounds?" He asked. My eyes widened and I took a step back. "No, Riley I didn't mean-"

"Crazy?" I asked.

"I didn't say that you're crazy, I'm just saying it sounds crazy. It does." I shook my head. 

"Just do it...please, Dad, for me, just...look into it." He sighed, nodding.

"Ok." I nodded, walking towards the door."What are you gonna do?"

"I'm gonna stick with the Byers'. I think they could use a support system right now." He nodded.

"Riley?" I stopped, turning back to look at him. "I don't think you're crazy, I just...be patient with me, ok?" 

"Ok."

~~~

I headed to the funeral home first, where I found Jonathan looking at caskets with a nauseous look on his face.

"Its made out of soft wood with a crepe interior. Uh, now I...I don't know what your budget is, but over here we-"

"Um, excuse me?" Both Jonathan and the funeral director looked up at me. "I'm sorry um...can we have a minute?"

"Yes, of course. Take your time." He said gently. I nodded, waiting for him to leave the room before walking over to stand beside Jonathan. He continued to stare blankly at the casket.

"You looked like you were going to puke." I said quietly, putting a hand on his arm.

"I felt like I was going to puke." He clarified. I nodded.

"The preparations...those are always the worst." 

"Your sister?" He asked. I nodded.

"You always think you're only ever gonna have to do this for your parents...never your younger sibling. Its really hard." He nodded, looking down at the ground. I heard footsteps and looked up, furrowing my eyebrows when I saw Nancy standing in the doorway.

"Nancy?" I asked.

"Riley? Where have you been?!" She replied. "So much has happened in the past couple of days." She tore her eyes away from me, looking at Jonathan. "Can we talk for a second? The three of us?" She pointed out towards the hallway and we followed her out, sitting down on the benches that resided there.

"What's going on?" I asked, tucking my hair behind my ear. She sighed.

"First thing's first...Barb is missing." My eyes widened and I stood up.

"What?!" I asked. "What happened?!"

"She came to Steve's party," She said quietly. "She didn't want to be there, and I was with Steve, so I told her to go home and...I haven't seen her since." I shook my head.

"I told him...I told that moron that it was too dangerous but did he listen!? Of course not!" I exclaimed.

"Anyway," She continued, "I went back the next day, and found that her car was still parked down the street, even though the cops say it wasn't this morning, and...I saw something. I saw...this." She reached into her bag, pulling out a torn up photograph. I walked over, leaning over Jonathan's shoulder so that I could look at it. I saw Barb sitting on a diving board, looking into the water and behind her, barely visible...was the Demogorgan. I put a hand over my mouth. Nancy pointed to it.

"It looks like it could be some kind of perspective distortion, but I wasn't using the wide angle. I don't know...its weird."

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

"No. And then she was there one second and-"

"Gone the next...yeah." I finished, moving away from them and biting my lip.

"How did you know that?" Jonathan asked. I shook my head.

"Nancy, when you say you saw it, do you just mean the picture, or..."

"I thought I saw something." She said. "Some weird man or...I don't know what it was."

"Long arms?" I asked, causing her to look up at me. "No face?" 

Jonathan shook his head.

"What are you insinuating, Riley-"

"I'm not insinuating anything." I told him. 

"How did you know that?" Nancy asked.

"Because his Mom saw it," I said, "And its not just her, I...I've seen it too."

"What?" Jonathan asked. "Why didn't you say anything-"

"I told your Mom, my Dad too." I said. "Look, this whole thing is just...its really complicated, and I've already told way too many people about this, but if I tell you guys, you can't say anything about it, is that clear?"

"Yeah, of course." Nancy said. I raised my eyebrows at Jonathan, who nodded in agreement. I sighed.

"Ok...here goes nothing."