Sunflower Girl [1]

The Monster

I never thought monsters were a real thing.

Hawkins, Indiana was a place full of people who were judging you all the time, teenagers who think they have it all figured out and the constant fear of actually never making it out of town.
Not monsters or little girls with jedi powers.

It was all so much I had to deal with.

What if that thing took Will and Barb?
Are they okay? Are they still alive?
What if that wasn't Will on the radio?
What if he was really dead?

All these questions went through my head and made me crazy.

I was sitting on Nancy's bedroom floor, lost in my thoughts when Jonathan suddenly spoke up. "I'm worried about Nancy..."

I looked at him confused.

"She was so quite earlier in the car. I'm afraid she won't talk about what happened to you two.",he explained. "What if she shuts down?"

"She will talk to you when she's ready, Jonathan. You can't force her to do anything if she doesn't want to. Just give her time.",I sighed.

"How are you, Emma? You look pale.",the boy asked.

I laughed. "Well sorry, I haven't been on the Bahamas lately. I'm dealing with a lot of traumatic shit right now."

"Right, stupid question.",the Byers mumbled.

"I should check on Nancy. She's been in the shower for quite some time. Not that she drowned or something.",I exclaimed.

I walked to the bathroom and knocked on the door a few times. "Nance, everything okay in there?"

"Yeah-, I'm...I'm coming, sorry. Lost track of time.",she yelled through the door.

"Don't worry. Just wanted to make sure you're okay.",I answered.

The door opened after a few minutes and Nancy stepped out. "The bath's free now."

I nodded and entered the bathroom to wash away the slime and dirt off my body and hair.

I undressed myself and stepped into the shower where I scrubbed everything off me until there was nothing left except my skin that was now bright red.

I got out of the shower and entered Nancy's bedroom.

"You can sleep with me in my bed, Emmy. Jonathan will sleep on the floor.",my best friend informed me.

I nodded and laid down in her bed next to her.

"Good night.",I mumbled tired.

"Night.",the two teenagers replied in union.

I was almost asleep when I suddenly felt Nancy's hand in mine, holding it firmly.

I turned around to her and smiled softly at her. "It's okay Nance. No one's gonna hurt us in here."

"We don't know that.",she mumbled with fear in her eyes.

I quickly pulled her up to me and hugged her tightly.

"I'm not gonna let anything bad happen to you, Nancy. I promise.",I mumbled into her shoulder.

"Thank you, Emmy...for everything.",she replied.

I carefully let go of her and brushed a strand of hair out of her face. "I will always watch out for you, Nance. In case you haven't noticed, you Wheelers are practically lost without me."

She giggled. "You're so right about that."

I smiled at her. It was good to see her at least a bit happy.

"We have to find this- this thing again, Emma. If there's a chance that Barb's still alive, we can't leave her in that place.",Nancy suddenly said.

"You wanna go back there?",I asked her.

"It's our only chance to get her and maybe even Will back. We need to at least try it.",she replied.

I sighed. "Well, if you really want to do this, than I'm in. But we won't come far with Jonathan's little accessory. That thing would kill us in a second. We need some real weapons."

"We can get them downtown.",my best friend answered.

"Alright.",I agreed. "But we should get some sleep. We need to be focused for that."

"Okay."

"Good night, Nance."

"Good night, Emmy."

I watched how her breathing got slower and how her facial expressions relaxed.
Nancy looked really peaceful like that.

I smiled softly and closed my eyes as well.

I was so exhausted and fell immediately asleep.