𝐙𝐄𝐑𝐎 ✯ steve harrington¹

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄 : faceless freak

WORD COUNT : 2.3k

Gordon and Law had begged to not sit in the car again while Owen and Nancy took care of business at the funeral home. With a defeated sigh, Owen gave them the okay to come inside, just as long as they promised to keep quiet and not touch anything. With that, the four teenagers were walking up the steps and into the eerily quiet and desolate building. The air inside was cold and still, encased in beige walls and old carpet. The boys were starting to regret their decision to come inside once they saw what the place looked like. The group all shuffled along close together nonetheless, eyes peeled for Jonathan Byers.

They crept down the practically infinite hallway, peering into every open room. Just ahead of the rest of the group, Nancy came to a standstill in one of the few lit doorways. Her eyebrows knocked together, one of her hands coming up to sneak a hesitant wave. The three Webb kids came to crowd around behind her, peeking in through the door as well. There stood Jonathan Byers, surrounded by various coffins and ornate flower arrangements. Owen couldn't help but notice how out of place and lost he looked. When Jonathan's mom had said that he was at the funeral home, she hadn't assumed that he would be doing Will's funeral arrangements all alone. Her heart clenched at the thought, one of her hands raising to give him a timid wave much like Nancy's.

"C-Can you just give me a second," Jonathan stammered, turning to the funeral home director. The older man nodded gently, eyes glancing over as he noticed all of the teenagers in the hallway. Slowly, Jonathan approached the group, hands stuffed into his pockets. He eyed them all warily as he got closer, not sure why he had guests now of all times.

"Hey..." Jonathan greeted softly, his gaze mostly directed downwards at Nancy.

"Hey," Nancy breathed, speaking just as delicately as he had said it. "Your mom, um... she said you'd be here," she explained, hands pulling nervously on the strap of her bag. Jonathan visibly tensed at the comment, but kept his mouth shut. "Can we talk to you for a second," Nancy asked, motioning to both the hallway and the group of Webb kids behind her. The boy's eyes finally trailed up to Owen, Gordon, and Law, almost as if he was seeing them for the first time. His expression was skeptical, but he still nodded along anyway.

"I'll be right back," Jonathan stated, turning to the funeral director once again before he stepped out into the hallway with everyone else. Nancy led the entire group a few steps down the hallway, sitting down on a small bench placed nearby. Jonathan settled down beside her as she pulled the taped-up picture of Barb from her bag. Gordon, Owen, and Law all leaned up against the wall on the opposite side from the bench, attentively waiting for Jonathan's reaction as Nancy handed over the picture.

"So, um... In the background of this picture you took of Barb, Owen and I noticed this thing," Nancy pointed towards the figure in the corner of the picture, "Standing behind her. But, it's so hard to see because of all the shadows." The girl tore her eyes away from the picture, her focus coming up to examine Jonathan's expression instead. "Do you... have any idea what that could be?"

Gordon turned his head, making leery eye contact with Owen at this mention of this unknown, shadowy shape in the background of this picture. This was the first that the two boys were hearing about all of this, anyway. They were sure to have some confusion and doubts about it all. Unfortunately, all Owen could give him as an explanation was a slight shrug of her shoulders, lacking the words to explain everything that she knew right then and there. It was a lot and she didn't want to scare Jonathan away. He was pretty much their only hope at the moment.

"It looks like it could be some kind of perspective distortion, but I wasn't using the wide angle," Jonathan hypothesized, turning the picture every which way in order to catch different angles of light. No amount of light was making the picture any clearer, though, so he handed it back to Nancy. "I don't know. It's weird," he murmured, regretfully.