Stare.

Chapter Four: The Body

Mom, Jonathan and I stood outside our house as Officer Callahan told us what happened. I felt sick to my stomach. How was this even possible? I had only seen Will just a few days ago and now he was...

Police were inside our house, looking around and taking evidence. As I walked inside, it was quite hard to miss the crazy amount of Christmas lights strung up all around the house. Mom had been busy since this morning. 

We stood in the living room as Hopper was explaining how Will ended up in the quarry and how they had found him. 

"A trooper found something in the, uh...water that's at the quarry. Our working theory right now is that Will...crashed his bike, he...made his way over the quarry and, uh...accidentally fell in. The earth must have given way...Joyce? Joyce? Do you understand what I'm saying?" He read from his notepad, looking over at Mom as he went on. Mom was staring motionlessly at the wall, her brow furrowed. She must be in shock since she wasn't crying like my brother and me were. 

"No. Whoever you found...is not my boy." Her voice was trembling as she denied Hopper's claims. 

Jonathan and I stood together behind them, hugging each other. 

"It's not Will." She continued. 

"Joyce." 

"No, you don't understand. I talked to him...a half hour ago." Mom tried to explain and walked over to the small cabinet in the wall and pulled out a mess of Christmas lights. "He was...he was here. He was...he was talking with these." That explained the many Christmas lights that were around the house.

"Talking?" 

"Uh-huh. One blink for yes, two for no." she told Hopper before walking over to the couch. "And...and, uh...and then I made this so he could talk to me. Cause he was hiding...from that...that thing." She said, as she pointed to the Christmas lights that were hung on the wall above letters that were under them.

"The thing that came out of the wall? That thing that chased you?" 

"Yeah." 

Jonanthan pulled away from me, walking over to stand next to Hopper. "Mom, come on, please. You've gotta stop this." he pleaded with her and grabbed her arms.

"No, maybe he's...it's after him! He's in danger. We have to find him! We-"

"What exactly was this thing? It was some kind of animal, you said?" Hopper stopped her.

"Uh, no, it was...it was almost...human, but it wasn't. It...it had these long arms and...it didn't have a face." As she was explaining what the 'creature' looked like, Jonathan walked away, but I had walked over and sat down on the couch to listen. 

"It didn't have a face? Joyce." 

"It didn't have a face..." Hopper had moved Mom towards the couch, and he sat her down next to me. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders. 

"Joyce, listen to me. Listen to me. After Sarah...I saw her, too. And I heard her. I don't know what was real. And then I figured out that it was in my head. And I had to pack all that away. Otherwise, I was gonna fall down a hole...that I couldn't get out of." He kneeled in front of Mom, trying to plead with her, too.

"No, you're...you're talking about grief. This is different." Her chin wobbled.

"I'm just saying to you-" 

"No, I know what you're saying, Hop. I swear to you, I know what I saw. And I'm not crazy." 

"I'm not saying that you're crazy."