ℕ𝕆𝕀𝕊𝔼

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• 𝙾𝚗𝚕𝚢 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙶𝚘𝚘𝚍 𝙳𝚒𝚎 𝚈𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚐 - 𝙱𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝙹𝚘𝚎𝚕 •

"Ow!" Beatrice yelps as Martha brushes the knots in her daughters hair.

Both of the girls in the bathroom were wearing black dresses. Their strawberry blonde hair laid beautifully on their shoulders.

"Honey, you need to hold still. I'm almost done." Her mother says, finishing up.

Bea flinches. She sighs before wondering, "Any news about Barb?"

The Holland's — besides Beatrice — think that Barbara is missing and/or ran away. Her car is missing and everything, too. Today was Will's funeral, so it was already a sad time for the town.

"No news yet, but we'll find her. She's a smart girl. Just like you." Martha kissed her on the cheek, then patted her shoulders as she looked at her youngest in the mirror.

Mrs. Holland has been nonstop crying for days on end. She wants to believe that her eldest is okay, but she can't seem to push the bad thoughts out of her mind.

Walking out of the bathroom, Bea's mom takes note of paper and colored pencils on her daughters desk. "I see you're drawing again." The woman softly smiles.

"Uh, yeah. I've been dabbling." Bea awkwardly admits as her mom walks up to the drawing of a young boy she has never seen before.

"Who's this?" She asked, picking up the picture. "I don't think any of your friends have this type of hairstyle. Wow, are his eyes blue!"

"Oh, um, I don't know. I guess I drew that for no reason. We should get going. Don't want to be late." Bea rushes her mom out of her room to meet her father. They jump in the car and drive to the funeral home.

Lately, Bea has been drawing random things. She doesn't quite know why. She doesn't know who that boy is in her drawing. She's never seen him before.

•••••

At the funeral, Beatrice couldn't pay attention to what the priest was saying. It was all irrelevant since Will isn't actually dead.

Bea was snapped out of her trance when she heard Dustin whisper, "Just wait until we tell Will that Jennifer Hayes was crying at his funeral." Mrs. Wheeler shushed the boy as Beatrice elbowed him in the ribs. "Ow!" He whisper shouted.

Why would Will care about Jennifer?

As Bea threw her flower down onto the casket, she couldn't help but cry a little. She knows that Will's not dead. She knows that. But just the thought of him actually being dead — or of any of her friends being dead, for that matter — it just makes her want to be locked in a room and cry forever.

Like how she felt about Barb.

As Lonnie Byers was saying his "thank you's" to the people leaving, Beatrice walked up to Joyce.

"Mrs. Byers—" Bea started.

Joyce looked down to the girl with a strained smile. "Sweetie, how many times have I told you to just call me Joyce."

"Right, Joyce. Um, I just wanted to say..." Bea leaned into Joyce's ear and whispered, "I know that Will is alive. I don't know how, but I know. And I promise you that we will find him alive."

Joyce pulls the girl in a hug and cries into the young girl's shoulder. "Thank you. I know how much you care about my boy."

You have no idea.