chapter three . . . dead or alive
WHAT FELT LIKE A SECOND OF SLEEP, Josie's alarm blared in her ear drums, signalling it was time to get up for school, to her dismay. Slapping her hand on top of the small device, silencing the sound, she lifted her smushed face off her pillow with a tired groan, wiping the drool smudged across her cheek with the back of her hand. Sitting up in her bed, Josie stretched her arms in the air, a series of cracking filled the air, the tenseness releasing itself from her back.
The sudden thought of Barb popped into her mind, causing the girl to throw her covers off her body and grab her telephone propped up on her desk. She spun the dial clockwise, putting her finger on the corresponding series of numbers of her house phone, shaking her foot up and down in anticipation waiting for an answer.
"Hello?" The sweet voice of Mrs Holland came through Josie's ear.
"Hi, Mrs Holland. It's Josie."
"Oh, hey, Josie. Why are you calling so early?"
"I just wanted to check in on Barb. To see if she got home safe last night." Josie held in a nervous breath.
"I thought she stayed with the Wheeler's last night."
Josie internally scolded herself, blurting out a response, "Oh, yeah, totally forgot about that."
"Josie, will you please have her call me as soon as she's in school?"
"Yeah. Of course. Sorry for bothering you, Mrs Holland." Josie put the phone down as she thought to herself. It was blatantly obvious that Nancy had stayed over at Steve's last night, so, where would've Barb gone other than to her own house?
Brushing the thought off, assuming to herself that she was most likely overthinking the situation, Josie grabbed the first thing she found in her closet to wear and brushed through her nest of curly tresses as she quickly left for school, on a desperate search for Barb.
By the time lunch had rolled around, Barb still hadn't shown up, making Josie now fear the worst. She reluctantly sat on a cafeteria table alone, settling for the lunch her mom had packed her as she continuously glanced over at the doors each side of the cafeteria, just hoping that Barbara Holland would walk through.
"Hey, Josie!" Carol called out her name, surprising her that she hadn't been called 'Henderson', "Come sit with us."
Josie snapped her eyes away from the doors, getting up from her spot and couldn't help but feel self conscious at the four pairs of eyes watch her plop herself down next to Nancy. "Did any of you see Barb leave last night?" She got straight to the point.
"What?" Tommy questioned through a mouthful of food, getting a confused look from Carol as well.
"Barbara." Josie raised her brows, "Red hair, glasses. She's not here today."
Nancy perked up in her seat, "She wasn't with you last night?" Clear worry settled in her voice.
The girl shook her head. "We were planning to leave so I went to get my jacket and she was just gone. So, assuming she went home last night, I called her mom and she wasn't there." Josie could no longer ignore the feeling of worry settle at the pit of her stomach.
"I seriously have no idea what you're talking about." Tommy snorted, getting a pointed look off the two girls. God, he was such a dick.
Steve caught onto the looks on each of he girls' faces and kicked Tommy in the shin under the table, "Come on, don't be an ass, man. Did you...Did you see her leave last night or?"
"No, she was gone when we left."
"Probably couldn't stand listening to all that moaning." Carol added, starting to feign moans loudly causing her boyfriend to start hunching over in laughter and join in, making the whole conversation now very uncomfortable.
Sighing in defeat, Josie noticed Jonathan lingering outside of the cafeteria, looking in through the doors. "I'll see you later, Nance." She muttered, grabbing her lunch, she moved swiftly through the students sat at their tables, catching up with the Byers boy. "Hey, Jonathan!"
"Hey, look at those two. I think the freaks are in love." Carol muttered mockingly as they all watched the duo talk to one another, a small smile decorated on Josie's face.
"Jesus, that's tragic." Tommy laughed, only being joined by Carol and gaining a small snicker from Steve as Nancy stayed silent, watching the two friends walk away from the cafeteria.
"These are awesome, Byers." Josie complimented, flipping through Jonathan's recent pictures he had taken, minus the one's he had hidden away while the two exited Hawkins High on their way to the parking lot. "Do you mind if I keep this one?"
The photo was from a week prior, they were all over at the Byers house engaging in a pillow fight, their appearances shown as disheveled with them all with bright grins on their faces, rosy cheeks as they were all breathless from laughing too hard. Josie couldn't help but smile at the photo in her hand — it was all of them together, just being kids. "This one's definitely my favorite."
Before Jonathan could respond, Josie found her smile faltering at the group huddled around his car. No surprise, it was Steve, Carol, Tommy and a new addition, Nicole, staring at the two coming closer. "Hey, man."
"What's going on?" Jonathan uneasily asked, now clutching his bag tighter to his body.
"Nicole here was, uh, telling us about your work." Steve's eyes flickered over Josie's puzzled expression, "And we'd just love to take a look. You know, as...connoisseurs of art."
"I don't know what you're talking about." Jonathon rushed out, trying to shove his way from the group only for his bag to be snatched from him by Tommy. "Please just give me my bag."
"Tommy—" Josie made a grab for the bag, now in Tommy's clutches, but it was yanked back and thrown over to Steve.
"Don't try and protect your freaky boyfriend, Henderson." Steve scowled at the girl, "Man, he is totally trembling. He must really have something to hide." Pulling out a small stack of pictures, he leaned back against the car, flicking through photos that were taken from the previous night.
"I was looking for my brother."
"No. No, this is called stalking."
Nancy had now joined the group, looking just as confused as Josie. "What's going on?"
"Here's the starring lady." Tommy grinned.
"What?"
"This creep was spying on us last night." Carol handed Nancy the picture of her just in a bra, "He was probably gonna save this one for later."
Steve clicked his tongue, stepping forward once more. "See, you can tell that he knows it was wrong, but...Man, that's the thing about perverts...It's hardwired in 'em. You know, they just can't help themselves." Steve ripped up the picture in his hand, letting the small pieces of paper flutter on the ground. "So, we'll just have to take away his toy."
"Harrington, don't be a dick for once." Josie remarked. Trying to stop the situation from going any further, knowing that if Jonathon's camera broke, he wouldn't be able to afford a new one.
"No, please, not the camera." Jonathan pleaded, trying to step forward, getting pushed back by Tommy.
"Hey, Tommy, Tommy. It's okay." Steve stopped him, holding out the camera for Jonathon to take. "Here you go man." Instead, he dropped it onto the cobble ground, pieces of it shattering.
"Come on, let's go. The games about to start." Steve ushered his group away, guiding them towards the back of the building.
Josie kneeled down to Jonathon's level as the boy scrambled to pick up the ripped up pieces of the left over pictures shortly joined by Nancy. The Wheeler girl came to a halt with her movements for a second, before scrambling to put some pieces of a photo in her bag, before standing up and running after her boyfriend.
"Assholes." Josie muttered under her breath once the group was out of ears reach.
"Look, Josie-" Jonathan whispered.
"It's okay." She dismissed his apology not because she was mad at him but it was more so because the apology wasn't supposed to be for her, it should've been towards Nancy instead.
The five of them had been searching for hours, walking along the woods with their feet thumping against the leaves on the ground and their flashlights hooked up in front of their bikes to be able to see through the dark. That afternoon, Dustin had alerted his sister that Eleven allegedly knew where Will was, which of course Josie didn't believe him at first but the Party had shared to her that El had special abilities.
The four continued to trail after Eleven with their bikes held to their hips, which had felt like a never ending path to the teenage girl as they had eventually cut through the woods up until nightfall. She walked along with Lucas and Dustin when suddenly they all came to a halt, panting as they came across the Byers' house, causing everyone match a look of confusion.
"Here."
"Yeah..." Mike trailed off, "This is where Will lives."
"Hiding." Eleven said lowly.
"No, no, this is where he lives." Mike stated, "He's missing from here. Understand?"
"What are we doing here?" Lucas wondered, dropping his bike onto the floor.
Mike sighed, "She said he's hiding here."
"Um...no!"
"I swear, if we walked all the way out here for nothing-"
Lucas interrupted the younger Henderson, "That's exactly what we did. I told you she didn't know what the hell she was talking about!"
Josie stayed silent, her eyes focused on the house in front of her. How could Will be missing all this time just to be in his house?
"Why did you bring us here?" Mike plainly asked El which caused her to stammer for an answer.
"Mike, don't waste your time with her." Lucas demanded the boy.
"What do you want to do then?"
"Call the cops, like we should have yesterday." He replied.
"We are not calling the cops." Mike fought back.
"What other choice do we have?!" Lucas exclaimed.
Amongst their bickering, Josie's eyes caught a swarm of blue and red lights passing by with sirens approaching. "Guys!" Dustin yelled for their attention, now silencing the two. They all watched as two cop cars and an ambulance had zoomed past them.
"Will..."
They all scattered to retrieve their bikes, hopping on and following after the sirens. Josie felt that her legs were about to go numb — she had never pedalled so fast in her life. By the time they had gotten there, each of their bikes thumped onto the grass as each one of them hid behind a fire truck. They silently watched as they lifted a body out of the quarry, the familiar bright red vest sticking out like a sore thumb — the same vest Will wore the night he went missing.
The older Henderson felt her stomach drop and her eyes glossing but she swallowed her tears down, clenching her jaw.
"It's not Will." Mike shook his head in denial, "It can't be."
"It's Will." Lucas's face contorted into sorrow, "It's really Will."
"Mike." Eleven tried putting her hand onto his shoulder, but it was harshly slapped away.
"Mike"? "Mike", what? You were supposed to help us find him alive. You said he was alive! Why did you lie to us? What's wrong with you? What is wrong with you?" The Wheeler boy spat angrily before turning on his heels and walking away.
"Mike, come on. Don't do this, man." Lucas choked out.
"Mike, where are you going?" Josie yelled out for the boy, watching him ignore them all and wheel away. She looked at each of their devastated faces, the fact sinking in that their best friend was dead.
A sob ripped through her throat, one she was desperately trying to hide from them to stay strong. But her chin quivered as tears uncontrollably ran down her face like a waterfall - she felt responsible for this. She could've done anything to prevent this from happening. She suddenly felt her brother practically throw his body into hers for a hug, his cries being muffled by her jacket, followed shortly by Lucas as the three were now huddled in a small group hug, grieving together that they had found their friend in an unexpected way.