"Fear not, for I am with you." The voice of Charles, the town pastor, rang out through the Hawkins Cemetery that morning, over the congregation gathered to pay their respects and remember the life of William Byers. "Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."
Anna glanced around the scene before her, at the small crowd gathered of Hawkins residents, made up of a number of classmates of Will's from Hawkins Middle School, to adults that had known Will's parents, Joyce and Lonnie, and finally, where she stood gathered with Becca, Landon, and Nancy, behind Dustin and the other boys. The crowd gathered around a small casket, with Will's school picture propped up on an easel nearby for all to see.
"Wait 'til we tell Will that Jennifer Hayes was crying at his funeral." Anna could hear Dustin mutter to Mike and Lucas, gesturing towards where a younger blonde girl stood holding on tightly to a white rose, a single tear falling down her cheek.
Anna's eyebrows furrowed slightly at Dustin's words, and when her younger brother turned around and locked eyes with her, the smile soon fell off his face and his eyes widened at the realization that she had been listening. "I-I mean, we talk to him, sometimes. In case he can still hear us." he quickly corrected in a small voice, turning back towards the service and dropping his gaze to the floor, reaching up as if to wipe away a tear.
Anna's gaze remained on Dustin, who'd been acting finicky all morning, in a stark contrast to how he'd been since the night he'd come back from the quarry. When she caught him impatiently tapping his foot during breakfast, or whistling "Should I Stay or Should I Go" by The Clash while brushing his hair, he'd passed it off as simply being restless, wanting to go pay respects to his friend, but he was acting strange, even for him. The boy whose heart had been shattered at the loss of his best friend was gone, with the brother she knew seeming to resurface, even if it was cause for some alarm.
As the pastor's sermon came to a close and the casket was slowly lowered into the ground, Anna followed Becca and Landon to the front, roses held in each of their hands as they let them fall on top of the wooden box. "Goodbye, Will," Anna murmured, letting go of the yellow rose as she wiped away a tear that had managed to escape, her eyes now searching out where the Byers family still stood near their chairs. While Jonathan, Michelle, and their dad were speaking to those offering condolences, Joyce simply stood with her arms crossed, staring down at the casket.
"I couldn't imagine what she must be going through," Becca said, shaking her head softly.
"It's horrible," Landon agreed, his gaze falling down to the watch adorning his wrist. "Shit, I've gotta go. I'm gonna be late for work, but give Mrs. Byers and the others my condolences?"
"We will," Anna assured him as he nodded, tugging off his tie as he began to run back towards where he'd parked his mother's car in the parking lot.
"Hey," a voice spoke up behind them, and they turned to see Michelle standing with Jonathan and Nancy hot on her heels.
"Hi," Becca said, pulling Michelle into a hug. "I'm so sorry," she said, releasing the girl and moving on to Jonathan, who hugged her back with a small smile.
"Thank you," Michelle said, glancing around to make sure nobody else was in earshot before gesturing to a more secluded place against the gate. "Could we talk to you both for a second? It's about Barb, and maybe Will too."
"Yeah, of course," Anna said, her eyebrows furrowing together in confusion as they followed after them, ducking down in front of the gate so as not to be seen. "What's going on, did they find Barb?"
"No," Nancy said. "But we might've found something that can help." she opened her purse, pulling out a few papers, and from the pile, she pulled out a photograph, passing it to Anna. "The other night, when Jonathan was taking pictures at the party, he took this one of Barb sitting on the diving board. Do either of you recognize what, or who, might be standing behind her?"
Anna looked down at the photograph, with Becca studying it over her shoulder. The photograph depicted a blown up image of Barb on the diving board, sitting with her head down. Behind her stood a tall figure, almost like that of a man, but much taller than any man she'd ever seen before. Though it was blurry from the dark, and enlarging the picture, she could just make out what appeared to be claws where his fingers should be, and where she could just make out Barb's facial features, there was nothing to be seen on the man's, as if he didn't have a face at all.
"What the hell is that?" Becca murmured, her eyes still glued to the photograph.
"That's what we were hoping you could maybe figure out." Jonathan said. "Does that look anything at all like a bear to you?"
"This has to be what took Will that night." Michelle insisted as Anna passed her the photograph. "It doesn't make sense for Barb to go missing so soon after he did, and for the two of them to not be connected. There's no way it's a coincidence."
"Which brings us to our next point." Nancy said, holding up a map of Hawkins, where three X's were drawn in red ink, forming a triangle.
"This is where we know for sure it's been." Jonathan explained.
"That's my house," Becca spoke up, pointing to one of the X's, and Jonathan nodded.
"And over here we have the woods where they found Will's bike, and that's our house." he continued.
"It's all so close," Nancy mused.
"Exactly," Jonathan agreed. "I mean, it's all within a mile, or something. Whatever this thing is, it's not traveling far."
"And you want to go out there." Anna guessed, eyeing Jonathan suspiciously.
"We might not find anything." Jonathan said.
"But it's worth a try, right?" Michelle asked. "If we can find that thing that hurt Barb, that hurt Will, before it has a chance to go after anybody else?"
"If we do see it..." Nancy trailed off nervously, "then what?"
The group sat in silence for a moment before Jonathan spoke up. "Then we kill it," he said, turning back towards Becca. "Becca, you know those woods as well as we do, would you guys help us?"
"Yeah," Becca said, nodding. "I mean, if this thing's roaming around in my backyard, then we have to get rid of it."
"Then there's just one thing left that we still need," Jonathan said, quickly rising up into a crouching position and peering over the gate to where anyone still milling about to pay their respects to Joyce and Lonnie were standing, their attention fixed on anything but the five teenagers hiding in the grass. "I think we're in the clear, let's go."
"Go?" Anna asked as they began to follow after Jonathan. "Hold on, go where?"
"Trust me," Jonathan hissed, sneaking over to where Lonnie Byers's car sat idly in the parking lot at the edge of the grass, and pulling open the passenger side door, the girls standing behind him, shielding him from view.
Anna watched as Jonathan pulled out a small pocket knife from the front of his dress pants, unlocking the glove compartment and beginning to dig around inside. "What are you doing?" Nancy asked, watching the boy through the windshield.
"Hold on, just give me a second." Jonathan said, pulling a small pistol from the compartment and a box of bullets, which he shoved into the pocket of his jacket.
"Are you serious?" Nancy asked.
"What?" Jonathan asked. "You want to find this thing and take another photo? Yell at it?" As soon as he was satisfied, he closed the compartment door and climbed back out of the car, shutting the door behind him.
"This is a terrible idea," Nancy insisted, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Well, it's the best idea we've got." Jonathan pointed out.
"He's right," Michelle agreed. "For Will's sake, and for Barb's, I don't think we have another option, Nance."
"You can tell someone, but they're not going to believe you." Jonathan added. "You know that."
"Your mom would." Nancy pointed out.
"She's been through enough." Jonathan protested.
"He's right." Michelle agreed. "As much as she would love to get a chance to take care of this thing, we can't put that on her right now. It's our turn to protect her, after everything that's happened this week."
"She deserves to know." Nancy said.
"We'll tell her," Jonathan said, "when this thing is dead."
Anna watched them go back and forth, knowing that they were both right. On the one hand, Nancy was right that Mrs. Byers deserved to know that whatever killed her son might still be lurking nearby, practically in her own backyard. Though, on the other hand, after everything she'd been through the past week, knowing it was close by might not be helpful in the way Nancy thought it would be, and that they all owed it to her to try and get that closure.
"How can we help?" Anna asked.
"We'll all meet out there tonight, once it's dark." Jonathan suggested. "Form a search party of our own to see if we can find it, or anything that'll tell us where it lives. We might find something, we might not, but if we do, then we kill it. For Will and Barb."