A Stranger Thing

Chapter 2: With Friends Like These...

The house was mostly quiet, aside from the sound of the mourning doves outside. Streams of sunlight peeked through the window, the only thing lighting up the bleak atmosphere of the Byers house on this Monday morning

Johnathan was making breakfast as Joyce and I sat at the table. The air had a general feeling of melancholy. Lately, that was a perfect description of the mood of the house.

I had already gotten ready for school, reluctantly. School was really the last thing on my mind, since just the previous day my little cousin had gone missing. But I knew it would make Joyce happy if I went, and honestly I wanted to do anything I could to make it easier on her during that time. Luckily she had Johnathan to stay home with her, and he had promised me to come get me from school if anything happened or they got any new information.

"Alright, breakfast is ready," said Johnathan as he carried over the plates. I looked to him and mustered up a small smile to show my appreciation. Joyce seemed very out of it.

"Be careful of the poster," she said, moving one of the missing posters we had made out of the way on the kitchen table, before Johnathan set down the plates. I took my plate from Johnathan and set it in front of myself, and looked down at it.

It was toast with scrambled eggs. Johnathan was a decent cook; he definitely wasn't bad. Plus it'd be pretty difficult to mess up something like that. But it was hard to have an appetite when everything felt so... depressing.

Joyce and Johnathan spoke a bit, I tuned it out. It was hard to listen when Joyce was so anxious and spiraling, and Johnathan just seemed so distant and numb. It made me feel nauseous how different things were now than just the day before.

Their conversation and my thoughts were interrupted by a sharp knock at the door. Joyce got up quickly and rushed over to it. When she opened the door, Hopper was standing there and let himself in.

"We've been waiting six hours," Joyce sighed with a twinge of annoyance directed towards the cop.

"I know, I came as soon as I could," muttered Hopper.

I got up from the table and cleaned off my plate, then joined Johnathan and Joyce by the door with Hopper. No use in just sitting there if I knew I wasn't gonna eat much more anyway. 

"Six. Hours." Joyce emphasized each word.

"A little bit of trust here, alright?" said Hopper. "We've been searching all night, went all the way to Cartersville."

"And?" Joyce questioned, her voice breaking slightly.

"Nothing," Hopper said solemnly. Joyce sobbed slightly at that. I looked down to my feet as I stood beside Johnathan. It was hard to see Joyce like this. She was always sort of high strung, I supposed, but this was a new level. And I couldn't blame her at all, her baby was missing.

"Flo says you got a phone call?" Hopper asked.

"Oh, yeah," said Joyce, leading him to where the burnt phone still was. Johnathan, Joyce, and I stood and watched as Hopper picked up the phone and inspected it. Both ends were blackened, and it was completely broken.

"Storm barbecued this pretty good," remarked Hopper.

"The storm?" Joyce repeated in slight disbelief.

"What else?" Hopper asked.

"You're saying that that's not... weird?" Joyce raised her tone a bit.

"No, it's weird," said Hopper putting the phone back.

"Can we like, trace who made the call?" Johnathan spoke up.

"No, it doesn't work like that," said Hopper. If i was being honest, I was getting pretty fed up with his dismissive attitude. "Now uh, you're sure it was Will? Because Flo said you just heard some breathing."