Strange Things Are Happening. (Jonathan Byers x OC) Wattys 2017

12.

After a short and rather awkward phonecall with Joyce, Samantha and Nancy found themselves standing outside the funeral home.

"This is wrong." the blonde whispered, following her across the street to peer into the window, "So wrong. Nancy, he is in there picking out his brother's casket for crying out loud! Are your really going to go in there and ask him about this now?"

"Of course not," Nancy mumbled, "You are."

"What? No! I'm not doing that to him. Nancy, his brother has just been found dead."

"I know," she whispered, "And I feel for him. Really, I do but what if whatever did that to Will, has Barb."

"We don't know that something happened to him," Samantha hissed, "We don't even know if that thing, is real."

"Okay, listen." Nancy began, placing her hands on her shoulders, "How about this. Go in, ask him if you can ask a couple of questions about the photo. If he tells you no and tells you to go away, then fine. But if you never ask, we'll never know."

Huffing, Samantha tore the photo from her grasp, "You owe me."

Pushing the heavy door open, she frowned at the unsettling feeling creeping into her stomach.

Her footsteps echoed in the silence as she walked further into the building and she could he the faint sound of voices so she followed them.

The man who ran the place was talking to Jonathan and since they hadn't noticed that she was there, she stood under the archway.

Soon, the man noticed that she was there and cleared his throat, making Jonathan turn.

She gave him a shy wave before ducking back behind the wall, hoping he'd follow.

This was wrong.

Jonathan did follow a couple of seconds later, eyes flitting to the photograph that she was clutching to her chest before looking at her, "What are you doing here? Wait, how'd you know I was here?"

"Your mom told me," she admitted sheepishly, shaking her head, "You know what? I shouldn't be here. It was stupid of me to come. I'm sorry, I'll talk to you later."

"Samantha," he said quietly, catching hold of her arm as she passed by, "It's okay. What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"I just wanted to talk to you about this photo..." she said quietly, "But listen, it doesn't matter. We can do it some other time."

"Samantha," he said again, moving his hand to take hers, which had her looking down, "Come on. Let's sit down."

He led her to two chairs which were in the empty hallway and she held the photo where they could both see it.

"It's one from the pile Steve took," she whispered and he recognised it instantly, wanting to do nothing more than to tear it up himself.

"What about it?"

"When you were taking it, did you see anyone else around? Behind Barb?"

"No." he answered, "I mean, I took the photo, looked down and when I looked up again, she was gone. I figured she bolted."

Samantha sighed and placed her head in her hands, making Jonathan frown. Something was wrong.

"Okay," she then said, pointing to the side of photo, "What about that? Did you see that? Do you know what it is?"

Jonathan peered closer, shaking his head when he came up with no explanation. "It looks like it could be some kind of perspective distortion, but I wasn't using a wide angle..." he trailed off when he saw that she was staring at him, "What?"

"Nothing," she whispered, "I just love the way you look when you get into anything to do with photography. You get this look on your face..." She let out a small laugh, "I'm sorry, that's weird. Listen though, I'm going to go. Again, I shouldn't have come."

"Wait," he said quietly, "Why are you asking about it? What's happened?"

Samantha wanted to tell someone about Barb. No, she wanted to tell Jonathan about Barb but she didn't want to put that weight on his shoulders. With everything else going on, she couldn't.

"Why are you asking about that thing in the photo?"

She was snapped out of her thoughts by him asking another question and he was soon right in front of her.

"Tell me what's going on," he whispered, pushing some of her hair away from her face, "You're worried about something."

Sighing, she let her forehead rest against his, taking a shaky breath, "Nancy. She went back to Steve's and went into the woods. She was looking for Barb. She's missing. She said that she saw something. Something that looked like that. Except..."

"Except what?" Jonathan asked, looking at the photo again. It looked like the thing his mom described, what she saw. But why would he tell her that? Most of the folks around here already thought his mom was crazy. Why would he tell someone else something that could potentially add another person to that list.

"Nancy said that it didn't have a face."

Now that, that caught his attention and his eyes met hers again, "What?"

She didn't reply, she couldn't because he moved past her so he could go outside.

Nancy, who was leant up against the side of building anxiously waiting, looked up when Jonathan burst out the door, Samantha in tow.

"You saw this thing?" he demanded, startling her slightly and Samantha placed her hand on his arm, feeling his body relax almost immediately.

"I told him," she said, looking at Nancy, "That you said it looked like it didn't have a face."

Nancy nodded, "Yeah. In the woods."

"Jonathan," Samantha said softly as she suddenly got an idea and he looked down at her, "We can go to the school."

"The school?" Nancy asked.

"Yeah," she replied, not looking away from the boy beside her, "We can go to the dark room. Make the photo, I don't know, bigger?"

Jonathan realised that she was right. They had the school's dark room at their total use.

He nodded, "Yeah. I'll be able to brighten it too so we can see it more clearly."

The two Wheelers exchanged hesitant glances and Samantha cleared her throat, "Jonathan, you should stay here."

"No," he protested, "I'm coming with you."

Taking his hand, Samantha led him to the small alleyway between buildings where she leant up against the wall and he put his arm above her head, "Jonathan-"

"I'm not letting you do this without me," he said firmly, leaning down slightly so he was in her eyeline, "You could get hurt. Nancy too."

"We're going to the school," she said quietly, placing her hand on his waist, where he could feel the warmth of her skin seeping through his shirt, "Nothing is going to happen to us there."

He sighed, looking over his shoulder at Nancy. He didn't want anything happen to the two of them, especially not the blonde in front of him.

"You go to the school," he whispered right by Samantha's ear, "And you wait for me, yeah? Don't do anything till I get there. I need to see it for myself."

"Deal," she replied, just as quietly and she stood on her tiptoes to press the lightest of kisses to his lips, making him smile, "We'll see you at the school."