The Haunting - Stranger Things [UNDER CONSTRUCTION]

13 - Developing

After we stopped by Jonathan's house, Mrs. Byers' told us that he was funeral home in town to pick everything out for Will's funeral. I didn't want to believe that all of this was really happening. Will was a smart kid. How could all of this happen to him? Mrs. Byers seemed kind of out of it when we visited. I guess having to see the body of your dead son would affect you in that way.

I step into the doorway of the room that Jonathan and the owner are in. My lips press together in a thin line as my eyes land on Jonathan. He looks miserable having to choose which coffin would be best for his younger brother. 

Nancy and I didn't say anything. We just stare back at him, letting him decide if he wants to talk to us or not. 

Jonathan peers at the owner of the funeral home. "Can you just give me a second?"

The man nods, understandingly, "Of course."

My eyes fall to the floor when Jonathan begins to reach us. I gingerly lift them back up once he is standing in front of me. "Hey."

"Hey." Jonathan responds in his usual quiet voice. He side glances at Nancy, probably curious to know what we are both doing here. 

I share a thin lipped smile with my sister, "Um, your mom- she said you'd be here." I tell him. 

I didn't know how to act in this situation. It wasn't the fact that I didn't know how to act around Jonathan. No, it was more along the lines of I didn't know how to act, considering the fact that Jonathan is here looking at coffins for his dead brother. I was never good at comforting others when they were upset. I just never knew what to say or do. What could you possibly say to someone that lost their younger brother? 

"I just-" I struggle to find the right words. 

Nancy sets her hand on my arm, softly. "Can we talk for a second?" She finishes what I was going to say. 

Jonathan examines the photo that we taped back together in his hands. His eyes squint in concentration at the odd figure we noticed in the photo. "It looks like it could be some kind of perspective distortion, but I wasn't using the wide angle." He shakes his head and hands the photo back to me. "I don't know. It's weird."

That's not what Nancy and I wanted to hear. We were hoping that Jonathan was going to say that he saw this weird figure in the woods or something that would help us not seem so crazy. Anything that would help us find Barb.

"And you're sure you didn't see anyone else out there?" I ask Jonathan for what seemed to be the hundredth time. 

"No." Jonathan answers, calmly. "When I was on my way back from making sure you got home okay, I figured I'd just cut through Steve's yard again. That's when I took the photo of Barbara. And she was there one second and then, um, gone." His gaze is set on the carpet until he glances at me with a shrug of his shoulders. "I figured she bolted."

I fiddle with my hands in my lap, focused on the carpeted floor. "The cops think that she ran away because her car is gone now." 

"But they don't know Barb." Nancy says from where she stands beside the bench that Jonathan and I are sitting on. "She wouldn't do something like that. No one is listening to us."

My brows furrow as I think about the other day. "We went back to Steve's and-" I inhale, deeply. "We thought we saw something. Some-" I glance at my sister, trying to figure out how to describe what we saw that day. "weird man or-" I sigh. "I don't know what it was."

Hesitantly, I glimpse at Jonathan to see him already looking at me. There's not an easy way for Nancy and I to explain what we saw. What we saw didn't make sense. Things like that shouldn't exist. Perhaps, I would consider that I was actually going crazy, except my sister saw it, too.