I was staring at my closet trying to pick out something to wear when I heard a knock at my door. "Yeah?" I called.
Dustin walked in, defeated. "You don't happen to know how to tie a tie do you?"
"Zero clue, kid."
He sighed and looked me up and down, noticing I was still wearing my pajamas. "Y/N why aren't you dressed yet?"
"I didn't know what to wear!"
"Just something black stupid! God, it's like the least complicated event to dress for."
"Shut the hell up, alright? Now leave so that I can get dressed," I said, pointing to the door. Dustin shrugged and walked out.
I grabbed a pair of dark dress pants and a black button down and pulled them on quickly. Would this be too casual if I wore my Doc Martins with it? I look at my outfit in the mirror. Screw it I'll just wear them it's fine. I seriously doubt Will is going to mind. I pulled on my boots and stared at my hair for a moment, and having no clue what to do with it, I left it down.
"Y/N are you almost ready yet?" Mom called from the living room.
"Yeah I'm coming right now!" I ran out into the living room.
"Honey, your hair is getting so long, do you want me to help you style it really quickly?" She was tying Dustin's tie as she looked my outfit up and down.
"I'll just tie it up I guess," I said quickly grabbing a hair tie from the bathroom and putting it up in a loose ponytail.
"Alright, are we ready?" I asked.
"Yeah I think so," Dustin said, giving me a small smile.
The car ride was silent, mom having no clue how to comfort Dustin and I. Little did she know though, we had no reason to be sad today. Will was still out there. And we were going to find him.
The three of us walked together to the cemetery, but once we saw other people, we went out separate ways. Mom went to go stand with Mrs. Wheeler and Mrs. Byers, and Dustin ran off to meet Mike and Lucas.
I hovered though, not sure where to go, or who to talk to. The service was outdoors, so there wasn't really a corner where I could just stand by myself. Crossing my arms over my chest, I resigned myself to standing with the boys.
"Fear not, For I am with you," Pastor Charles began, reading from the bible in his hands. "Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes I will help you. I will uphold you within my righteous right hand."
I took a deep breath and looked at the people around me. Mrs. Byers looked disheveled as hell, and standing next to her with his hand around her waist was her ex husband. Johnathan looked extremely solemn, more than he has since Will had gone missing in the first place.
All around me was mourning. Young kids burying their faces into their parents. Mothers wiping their tears with tissues. Fathers with their heads bowed sorrowfully. And I felt nothing. I knew there was a good reason. I had no purpose in mourning someone who was alive. And yet, seeing all of these people in pain, imagining their own children in this exact situation, I couldn't feel anything but completely detached. It was haunting.
"Wait 'till we tell Will Jennifer Hayes was crying at his funeral," Dustin whispered to Mike and Lucas. The two looked over to see a blonde girl near the front, sniffling as the pastor spoke.
I hit Dustin lightly on the arm. "Dude shut up, not the time," I whispered. Shaking my head I tried to focus back in on what Pastor Charles was saying.
"It would be easy to turn away from God, but we must remember that nothing, not even tragedy, can separate us from his love..."
The time came to toss the roses on the casket holding not-Will, and I didn't wait up for the boys as they paid their respects. I, instead, looked around for Nancy and Johnathan, who disappeared together after the service was over. I walked away from the group a bit, but not before my mom came up to me. "Y/N where are you going?"
"I'm just looking for Nancy and Johnathan. We were... going to hang out afterwards. You know, get our minds off things."
"That sounds like a great idea, honey," she said giving me a tight squeeze before starting to walk away. "Stay safe alright?"
"Of course mama."
I came across Nancy and Johnathan huddled on the ground up against a fence. "What ever you guys are doing, I want in." They looked up at me, completely astonished.
"We aren't-"
"Nancy, you're an awful liar." I crossed my arms. "Please just trust me, I want to help... I can't just sit still anymore. Barb and Will are out there, and we need to help them."
Nancy and Johnathan shared a look. "We... Came across something in one of the photos."
"Oh you mean the ones taken of us without consent?" I narrowed my eyes at them.
"Y/N, it's not the time," Nancy warned. I knew she was right. I wanted them to trust me and picking a fight was not the way to go about it. Nancy continued, "The picture had this figure, the one I tried to warn you and Steve about."
"The one without a face?" I asked skeptically, sitting down on the ground across from the two.
She sighed, "Yes the one without the face. The point is-"
"My mom has seen it too," Johnathan said, cutting in. "It attacked her while she was looking for Will."
"And what's your guy's plan exactly? To go after it?"
Johnathan pulled out a map. "Look, this is where we know it has been." He pointed to three points. "Here's Steve's house, and that's the woods where they found Will's bike, and here's my house."
"They're all so close," Nancy said.
"Yeah exactly, I mean it's all within a mile or something. Whatever this thing is, it's not traveling far."
"So let's go out there!" I said.
"There's a huge chance that we won't even find anything," Johnathan warned.
"I mean, I found something. And if we do see it..."
"We kill it."
"Yeah? With what?" I asked sarcastically.
"I've got a gun in my glove compartment," He offered.
"Are you serious? That's crazy!" Nancy said, echoing my thoughts exactly.
"What would you rather we do?" he asked looking at us seriously. "Take another photo? Maybe yell at it?"
I hate to admit it but we don't really have any other options.
"So what, one person holds the gun, leaving the other two defenseless?" I asked.
"I don't know can you think of any other weapons you have just lying around waiting to be used?" Johnathan argued.
"I've got like... an axe?" I thought aloud. "Would that work?"
"I feel like it'd be suspicious if people saw you carrying around an axe."
"Oh, but not as suspicious as a gun in your glove compartment?" I spat back.
"Would you two just shut up?" Nancy interrupted. "They're both valid ideas, alright? I don't think anyone should be going unarmed."
—
After changing out of my funeral attire and grabbing the axe from the shed, mom dropped me off at the Wheeler's house.
Jesus I feel like I'm here every day.
As mom pulled into the driveway, I saw Steve leaving, singing some song to himself.
"Harrington, when's the concert?" I asked, getting out of the car, taking my duffel bag with the axe in it with me.
"In your sweetest of dreams, Henderson!" He called back, smiling.
"More like my most frightening of nightmares!"
"Since when are you two friends?" Nancy asked, walking up to my car.
"Oh no, I wouldn't call it friends," I laughed.
"What would you call it then?"
"The co-presidents of the 'close with Nancy Wheeler so we have to get along' club." I grinned, hoping to make her smile.
"You're such a dork Y/N," Nancy said, rolling her eyes and laughing.
Soon Johnathan pulled up, and the three of us headed out to the woods, right in the center point between all three placed marked on our map. Johnathan set up some targets to shoot at, while Nancy and I practiced swinging our weapons. She had finally decided on a bat.
Six shots rang out, but to my amusement, none of them sounded like they hit anything. Nancy and I lowered our weapons and walked over to where Johnathan was standing.
"I think you missed a few, Byers!" I called.
"Yeah, you're supposed to be hitting the cans, right?" Nancy teased.
"No, actually I was aiming for the area around them." He chuckled.
"Have either of you shot a gun before?" He asked us.
"Not at all," I replied.
"Yeah, have you met my parents? They'd shit themselves."
"I haven't since I was like 10," Johnathan said, reloading it. "My dad took me hunting for my birthday. He made me shoot a rabbit."
"I really never liked your dad," I said honestly. He was really intimidating when we were younger.
"Yeah, I guess he thought hunting would make me more of a man or something.I cried for a week over it."
"Jesus," Nancy whispered.
"What? I'm a fan of Thumper!"
Nancy and I laughed.
"I meant your dad," she corrected.
"I guess he and my mother loved each other at some point. I just wasn't around for that part." He finished reloading his gun and Nancy held out her hand to take it.
"Uh, yeah, just point and shoot, alright?"
"I don't think my parents ever loved each other," Nancy stated.
What, are we all just complaining about our parents now?
"I mean they still got married?" I said aloud.
"My mom was young. My dad was older. He had a good job, money, came from a good family. So they got a house at the end of the cul-de-sac, and started their nuclear family," She pulled the gun up to eye-level and aimed.
"Screw that," Johnathan said.
"Yeah. Screw that." Nancy closed one eye, and pulled the trigger. She hit the can in her first try.
"Holy shit," I said under my breath.
Nancy passed the gun to me. "I've never held a gun in my life," I said pushing it away.
"Oh come on it's not hard." She put the gun in my hands.
Nancy Wheeler: Queen of Peer Pressure.
"Alright, how do I do this?"
"You literally just aim and then pull the trigger."
"Ok smartass," I rolled my eyes. "So does complaining about your parents help you aim better orrrr..." I dragged out, teasing the other two.
"I mean maybe, you should try it and see what happens."
"I'd depress you all. I'm good," I laughed. This was not a conversation I wanted to get into. Johnathan was already aware of the story about my dad. Mrs. Byers would make dinners for us some nights, for a while after it happened and he would help deliver them. He and I were both only seven at the time, so I doubt he remembers, but Nancy had zero clue. I intended on keeping it that way. Usually it lead to unwanted pity. I was too strong to need their pity.
I raised the gun up, aiming for the can on the tree stump and pulled the trigger.
Missed.
I took a deep breath and pulled the trigger again, this time knocking it down.
"At least you're better than Johnathan!" Nancy nudged him with her shoulder. Suspiciously flirty for someone with a boyfriend.
"I think we've done enough stalling," Johnathan said with a sigh. "Come on, before we lose light."
We trudged through the woods in silence for a short while before Nancy spoke up. "So you never said what I was saying."
"Pardon?" I asked, having no clue where this came from.
Nancy turned to me. "Yesterday, Johnathan said that the reason he likes photography is because.. Wait how did you put it?"
Johnathan sighed. "Sometimes the camera can capture things about a person that the naked eye couldn't. If you get the right shot, it says a lot about a person. I guess."
"Sooo, what was I saying?" she asked again.
"I don't know. I guess, I saw this girl. Trying to be someone else, but for that moment, it was like you were alone, or at least thought you were."
"Did it possibly go through your mind that maybe the reason she seemed like she thought she was alone was because she was having a vulnerable, intimate moment with someone and you creeped in on it?"
"Y/N-" Nancy started.
"No no it's ok Nancy. Look I've already apologized to Nancy, and I'll apologize to you too. I don't know what went through me when I took those pictures, and I've regretted them ever since. I realize now that I completely crossed an insane boundary and for that, I'm so sorry Y/N."
I nodded. The three of us kept walking in silence.
"So what was I saying in my picture then?" I asked after a moment.
"Well, yours was easy. From the way you were acting all night I could tell, all you wanted were these other people's approval. You were doing things you swore you wouldn't do. And in that moment, staring out the window, you seemed to realize how bad of a decision you were making you know?"
"You pulled that right out of your ass Byers." I couldn't ignore the churning guilt in my stomach though.
"Wait, what bad decision were you making?"
"Y/N was drinking even after what happened to their dad."
"You literally have no right to talk about what I do and don't do at a party. It was just one drink how can nobody understand this!" I threw my arms up in the air.
"But it meant more than that and you know it. What? Did you think that just because you chugged a beer or two you thought Harrington and the others would like you?"
"I can't believe you right now," I scoffed.
"Can someone please explain what's going on? What happened to Y/N's dad?"
"He died," I said, fed up with the both of them. "He kept drinking, and drinking, and then one night he got severe alcohol poisoning and didn't survive. There. Are you happy now?"
"Y/N, I'm so sorry I had no idea," Nancy started, her voice full of sympathy. The one thing I definitely didn't want.
"Yeah, well it's not something I go telling a lot of people."
"Johnathan, how did you know?" She asked, turning to him.
"We... were closer when we were younger."
"Well now you're a perv and I'm an alcoholic apparently."
"Listen, those pictures-"
"Just... stop talking. I'll forgive you when we find Barb and Will, alright?"
I walked ahead of the two, trying to put as much space between the two of us as possible.
An hour passed.
The sun was completely down by now, and I was starting to lose all hope when Nancy stopped.
"What, are you tired?" Johnathan asked, annoyed.
"Shut up," Nancy said, brow furrowed. "Do you hear that?" she asked after a moment of silence.
I strained my ears to listen. From far away, I heard a whimpering. "Oh shit, yeah."
We started walking towards the noise. Then we saw it. A bloodied, beaten deer, laying on the ground. "Oh, god," Nancy grimaced. We bent down to look closer and Johnathan sighed. "It's been hit by a car," she said, reaching out, almost touching it. "we can't just leave it here." The three of us looked down to the gun in Nancy's hand. With a pained look on her face, she raised it.
"I can do it." Johnathan held out his hand.
"I thought you said-"
"I'm not nine anymore."
She reluctantly passed the gun to Johnathan. We stood up and backed away a bit, and I closed my eyes, not wanting to watch what happened next.
Then in a roar, the deer was yanked away. I yelped grabbing on to Nancy's arm.
"What was that?" Nancy asked, panicked. All three of us slowly walked towards the direction the deer was taken, following a trail of blood. Farther along the path were bones. I brought a hand to my mouth and fought back the nausea in my stomach.
"Where did it go?"
"I don't know."
"Do you think the monster took it?" I asked in a shaky voice.
Nancy seemed to spot something in the distance and walked towards it. Not wanting to be left behind, I followed her. She dropped to her knees near the base of a tree.
"Nance, what the hell?" I asked as she put her hand on the trunk. Then her hand sank through. "Oh my god, what the hell?" I asked again. I got closer and could see a hole inside the tree, full of some sort of fleshy goo.
"I'm going in."
"What?!"
"If I'm not back in 5 minutes, get help," and before I could reject, she crawled in.
"Nancy you're an idiot!"
I stood up as the last of her disappeared through the hole. I ran my hand through my hair, re-adjusting the axe in my grip.
Then I heard her scream.
"Nancy!" Johnathan and I both yelled. He quickly ran up to me. "Where did she go?" he asked.
"She's in there!" I said tearfully. I pointed to the hole in which she crawled in.
"Y/N! Johnathan!" her voice echoed.
"I'm gonna go in after her." My mind was made up as I dropped to my hands and knees and crawled to the entrance.
"Y/N are you crazy?"
"Listen, you need to stay out here and help us back out. We have no clue how long this thing will stay open."
"There has to be another way-"
"There isn't. I will be back." With that, I crawled in after Nancy.