Smoothing down my black dress, I slip on a pair of black flats as I make my way into the living room, seeing Dustin try to put on his tie.
Grabbing his shoulder, I gesture for the tie and place it around his neck, straightening it out for him.
Once our mom walked in, her keys in hand as we made our way to the graveyard.
Standing behind Dustin and next to my mom, the pastor reads as I look around, the three boys in front of me obviously not in the headspace to be at this funeral.
Nudging Lucas and Mike, Dustin tilts his head over to a small blonde girl, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Just wait until we tell Will that Jennifer Hayes was crying at his funeral." Dustin snickered, causing the boys to silently laugh.
"Shh." I say, smacking Dustin upside the head lightly so he could stop talking.
Placing my white rose in the casket, I make my way over to the Byers family, tightly hugging Joyce as Jonathan tilted his head over at the back of the graveyard, already seeing Nancy as her dress poked out from behind the gravestone she sat at.
"I'm so sorry, Joyce." I say as I subtly nod to Jonathan, indicating i'd be there soon. "If there's anything Dustin and I can do to help, please call and let us know."
Nodding, she thanks me, wrapping her arms tightly across her chest as I see Dustin and my mom making their way into the funeral hall.
Checking my surroundings, I make my way to Jonathan and Nancy, ready to come up with a plan.
Leaning against the gravestone next to Jonathan and Nancy, we look at a piece of paper with three red x's, shaped in a circle, indicating where the monster we were looking for was.
"This is where we know for sure it's been, right?"Jonathan says, pointing to the piece of paper.
"So that's..." Nancy whispers.
"Steve's house." Jonathan says, concluding Nancy's sentence. "That's the woods where they found Will's bike, That's my house."
"It's all so close." I breathe out, blighting my nail.
"Yeah, exactly." Jonathan nods. "I mean, it's all within a mile or something. "Whatever this thing is, it's not traveling far."
"You want to go out there?" Nancy asks.
"We might not find anything this time." I say.
"We found something last time." She retorts with a pointed look.
Jonathan and I look at Nancy before she continues. "And if we do see it, then what?"
"We kill it." Jonathan sighs, looking over at Nancy.
Jonathan looks over at his car, getting up and rushing over to it. He unlocks his glovebox and starts to quickly rummage through it.
"What are you doing?" Nancy asks, arms crossed over her chest.
"Just give him a second, Nance." I say, shivering from the crisp fall air.
Jonathan comes out of the car holding two hand guns and a big box of bullets.
"Are you serious?" Nancy sighs.
"What?" Jonathan quips, preparing the gun. "You want to find this thing and take another photo? Yell at it?"
"This is a terrible idea." She says.
"Yeah, well," Jonathan sighs. "It's the best we've got."
Nancy rolls her eyes and stares at the ground.
"What?" Jonathan says, shoving the bullets in his coat pocket. "You can tell someone, but they're not going to believe you. You know that."
"Your mom would." Nancy says, tightening her jacket.
"She's been through enough, Nance." I sigh.
"She deserves to know." Nance sighs, making a point.
"Yeah, and i'll tell her." Jonathan snaps. "Once this thing is dead."
===
I aim my gun, shooting the beer can right in the center. Jonathan looks over at me and lets out a small smile with a chuckle while checking the watch on his wrist every few minutes.
"She'll be here soon." I say, reassuring the boy.
He raises up his gun in his hands and aims at the beer cans, shooting the bullet right in between them.
"You're supposed to hit the cans, right?" Nancy asks, walking through the tall grass.
"Actually," Jonathan smirks. "I'm aiming for the spaces between the cans. I'm aiming for those."
"Ah." Nancy said, dropping her bag on the ground next to mine.
"You ever shot a gun before?" Jonathan asks.
"Have you met my parents?" Nancy scoffed.
I let out a laugh before handing her my gun.
"I haven't shot one since I was ten." Jonathan says, switching out the bullets. "My dad took me hunting on my birthday. He made me kill a rabbit."
"A rabbit?" I ask, raising a brow.
"Yeah," Jonathan sighs. "I guess he thought, it would make me into more of a man or something. I cried for a week."
"Jesus." Nancy whispers.
"I'm a fan of thumper." He chuckles.
I sniffle a laugh and look over at Jonathan, who was smiling down at Nancy.
"I meant your dad." She says, a small smile growing on her face.
"Yeah," Jonathan sighs. "I guess he and my mother loved each other at some point, but I wasn't around for that part."
"I know the feeling," I quip, pursing my lips. "My mom and dad never really loved each other, maybe before Dustin and I were born but that wasn't a long time ago, but since then it was all arguing and arguing between the two, until one day my father just decided to break off and leave. Leaving my mom alone with Dustin and I."
"Jesus," Nancy muttered as she looks down at gun I had given her. "that's horrible. I don't think my parents ever loved each other either."
"Must have married for some reason." Jonathan says, shoving his hands into his pocket.
"My mom was young," Nancy says, raising the gun and cocking it. "My dad was older, he had a cushy job, money, came from a good family. So, he bought a nice house at the end of the cul-de-sac, and started their nuclear family."
"Screw that" I say.
"Yeah," Nancy whispers. "Screw that."
===
The leaves had crunched below us as Jonathan, Nancy and I trudged through the empty and creepy forest, my surroundings reminding me of a scary movie. Leaves were blowing all over to the ground from the windy breeze, replacing the ones we squashed with our feet.
"You never said what I was saying." Nancy piped up after our hour of walking in silence.
"What?" Jonathan asks.
"Yesterday. You said I was saying something and that's why you took my picture."
"Oh, uh..." Jonathan stammers, looking at the leaves on the ground. "I don't know. My guess... I saw this girl, you know, trying to be someone else." Staying silent, I looked at the ground, knowing he was talking about Nancy and her relationship with Steve. "But for that moment... it was like you were alone, or you thought you were. And, you know, you could just be yourself."
"That," Nancy chuckled softly before shaking her head. "is such bullshit."
"What?" Jonathan stuttered, stoping in his tracks.
"I am not trying to be someone else." She said, making her way in front of him. "Just because i'm dating Steve and you don't like him—"
"You know what?" Jonathan brushed passed Nancy. "Forget it. I just thought it was a good picture."
"Guys now's not the ti—" I pipe in trying to get them to quit their arguing.
"He's actually a good guy." Nancy defends as Jonathan walks next to me.
"Okay." Jonathan stutters, his bat moving back and fourth with each step.
"Yesterday with the camera... he's not like that at all."
"Nancy's right." I butt in, defending my best friend. "I've been friends with him my whole life. He's not usually like that."
"Yeah." Nancy sighs. "He was just being protective."
"Yeah," Jonathan scoffs, leaves crunching i get his step. "That's one word for it."
"Oh, and I guess what you did was okay?" Nancy raises her brow as we continue to follow him.
"No, I..." Jonathan sighs. "I never said that."
"He had every right to be pissed—"
"Okay, all right." Jonathan interrupts, stopping Nancy's rambling. "Does that mean I have to like him?"
"No."
"Don't take it so personally, okay? I don't like most people. He's in the vast majority."
"You know," Nancy says loudly, catching Jonathan's attention. "I was actually starting to think you were okay."
"Yeah?" Jonathan asked, raising his eyebrows at the girl.
"Yeah. Yeah, I was thinking, 'Jonathan Byers, maybe he's not the pretentious creep everyone says he is.'"
"Well," Jonathan retorts, making his way over to us as I stood silently, knowing if I say anything it wouldn't help. "I was starting to think you were okay."
"Oh." Nancy whispers, raising her eyebrows at the boy in front of her.
"I was thinking, 'Nancy Wheeler, she's not just another suburban girl who thinks she's rebelling by doing exactly what every other suburban girl does... until that phase passes and they marry some boring one-time jock who now works sales and they live out a perfectly boring little life at the end of a cul-de-sac. Exactly like their parents, who they thought were so depressing, but now, hey, they get it."
Jonathan scoffs when there was no response from Nancy, making his way further into the forest, Nancy following directly behind, leaving me alone, a shocked look on my face before rushing further into the woods, catching up with them.
===
The sun had set and the three of us were still wandering around the dark forest, weapons and flashlights in hand as we went deeper through our trail.
Ever since the fight between Nancy and Jonathan, the walk had been silent, the only noise came from the owls in the trees hooting.
Jonathan and I make our way ahead, not noticing that Nancy had paused her walking. Turning around we see her with a perplexed look on her face.
"What?" Jonathan asked, removing the bat from his shoulder. "You tired?"
"Shut up." She mumbled, rolling my eyes, I knew the fighting was going to start up again.
"What?" I asked, looking around for a potential threat.
"I heard something." She whispered, looking past Jonathan's shoulder.
The three of us exchange a look, hearing the same noise Nancy had.
Making our way further into the forest and closer to the source of the noise, we see a deer, laying on the ground and whimpering in pain.
"Oh, god." I said, aiming my flashlight on the almost lifeless creature.
Jonathan sighs as the three of us kneel in front of it, Nancy's eyes welling up with tears.
"It's been hit by a car." I whisper, reaching over to touch it.
"We can't just leave it." Nancy says as we both turn to Jonathan.
Looking at the gun in her hand, Nancy raised it up, knowing it was better to shoot it than to let it suffer any longer.
"I'll do it." Jonathan said, holding out his hand noticing the scared look on the girls face.
"I thought you said—"
"I'm not nine anymore."
Standing up, The three of us took a good look at the deer before Jonathan cocked the gun and Nancy leaning her head closer to Jonathan's shoulder.
The deer whimpered before it was snatched out of thin air and pulled into the tree behind it.
The three of us jumped back, grabbing ahold of Nancy's arm I let out a gasp at what had just happened.
"What was that?" I whispered.
Following the trail of blood, we cautiously creep our way over to the tree, shining the light on the bloody trail in front of us.
Jonathan had his flashlight and shot gun at the ready, in case something decided to made their way towards us.
Jonathan and I made our way further into the forest, not noticing that Nancy had drifted further and further away from us.
"Where's Nancy?" I ask Jonathan, noticing she wasn't standing by us any more.
Hearing a scream, Jonathan and I were pulled out of our thoughts, noticing it sounded familiar.
"Nancy!" Jonathan screamed, running to the tree where the bat and Nancy's backpack lay.
"Nancy!" I shouted, making my way next to Jonathan. "Where are you?"
"Nancy!" We shouted, not knowing the tree behind us had closed, Nancy previously crawling into it.
"Where are you?"
===