One

Chapter Five - part three

Phina and Nancy make their way to the field, hearing Jonathan's gun going off. Once they get to the grassy area, they see him shooting at some cans set up on tree stumps.
Phina smiles at her friend as he misses every single shot. Nancy also smiles in amusement.
"You're supposed to hit the cans, right," Nancy asks as they get closer.
Jonathan looks at the girls and smiles, "no actually, you see the spaces between the cans? I'm aiming for those."
"Well then you're a perfect shot Jonathan," Phina smirks sarcastically.
He does a little fake bow, making Phina snort. She loved when he was sarcastic, he learned it all from her.
Nancy sets her things down, Phina following suit. Jonathan starts to reload the gun.
"You ever shot a gun before," he asks Nancy.
Nancy laughs, "have you met my parents."
Jonathan snorts, "yeah, I haven't shot one since I was ten. My dad took me hunting on my birthday, he made me kill a rabbit."
"A rabbit," Nancy asks.
"Yeah," he shrugs, "guess he thought it would make me into more of a man or something. I cried for a week."
"I remember that, I went over and had to take all of your meals to your room cause you wouldn't leave," Phina says.
"Jesus," Nancy whispers.
Jonathan looks at her, "I'm a fan of thumper."
"I meant your dad," she says, sighing a little.
"Yeah. Lonnie's a real PoS," Phina laughs, "doesn't care about anyone but himself."
Jonathan nods, "yeah, I guess he and my mother loved each other at some point. But I wasn't around for that part."
Nancy gestures for him to hand her the gun and he looks down awkwardly, "yeah, just uh, point and shoot."
Nancy nods and takes the gun, "I don't think my parents ever loved each other."
"Must of married for some reason," Jonathan says.
Nancy raises the gun up, "my mom was young, my dad was older, but he had a cushy job, money, came from a good family. So, they bought a nice house at the end of a cul-de-sac, and they started their nuclear family."
Jonathan shakes his head, taking a glance at Phina who just nods, "screw that."
"Yeah." Nancy closes one eye to aim. "Screw that."
She shoots, the bullet hitting one of the cans. She smiles and looks at Jonathan, who smiles back. Phina looks in between the two of them with a wide smile. Perfect.

The three teens walked through the forest, Phina leading about twenty feet ahead. Nancy and Jonathan hung back, together, and Phina didn't mind one bit. She looked around the forest ahead of her, admiring its beauty. By now, almost every single tree had lost all of their leaves, which now crunched beneath Phina's boots.
Phina sighed, she loved being in the forest, it brought her a comfort that couldn't be found anywhere else, it even soothed her ever on going headache. Something about the way the trees reached for the sky, as if grasping for heaven, with its claws out. The roots of the tree shielding her from the damned below.
Not to mention the colors. Her artists soul yearned for any and all color she could find, the forest bloomed with it. Even this deep into fall, the fiery oranges and reds calling out to her fiery heart. She wish she had her sketchbook and her colored pencils. She'd capture the essence of its beauty on a page.
She was brought out of her mind by the sound of Nancy's voice, "you never said what I was saying."
"What," Jonathan asks her, confused.
"Yesterday, you said I was saying something, and that's why you took my picture," she explains.
"Oh, I don't know," he says, flustered, "I guess I saw this girl, you know, trying to be someone else. But in that moment, it was like you were alone, or, you thought you were. You know, you could just be yourself."
Silence, and then Nancy speaks, "that is such bullshit!"
Phina turns around as Jonathan says, "what?"
They had all stopped, and Nancy turned to Jonathan, "I am not trying to be someone else. Just because I'm dating Steve and you don't like him."
Jonathan shakes his head and starts walking again, "you know what, forget it. I just thought it was a good picture."
Nancy walks after him, "he is actually a good guy."
"Ok," Jonathan says sarcastically.
"Yesterday, with the camera." They both stop again. "He's not like that, at all. He was just being protective."
"Yeah, that one word for it," Jonathan says, waking away again.
Phina rolls her eyes as Nancy says, "oh and I guess what you did was ok?"
"No, I never said that," he defends himself.
"He has every right to be pissed," Nancy shouts at him.
Jonathan stops again and turns around, "ok, alright, does that mean I have to like him?"
Nancy stops, "no."
"Listen, don't take it so personally ok," he says and steps towards her, "I don't like most people. He's in the vast majority."
He turns and walks away, again. How long are they gonna play this stupid game? Phina groans to herself.
Nancy looks around, "you know, I was actually starting to think you were ok."
Jonathan stops, again, "yeah?"
"Yeah," Nancy answers, "yeah. I was thinking, Jonathan Byers, maybe he's not the pretentious creep everyone says he is."
"Guys," Phina groans, trying to stop their stupid bickering, she was getting irritated now.
Jonathan starts to walk back towards Nancy, "oh I was just staring to think you were ok. I was thinking, Nancy Wheeler, maybe she's not just another suburban girl, that thinks she rebelling by doing exactly what every other suburban girl does, until that phase passes and they marry some boring one time jock who now works sales, who lives out her perfectly boring life at the end of a cul-de-sac, exactly like their parents who they thought were so depressing."
"Would both of you shut the hell up! Right now, you both suck, and I couldn't give a damn about who's wrong or right. I'm out here to find whatever took Will and Barb, so save your petty bullshit for the high school where all these stupid little arguments belong. Got it! Good," Phina yells at them fed up with their crap.
They look at her like scolded children, both of them nodding.
"Now shut the hell up and look for this gods damned thing," she growls and turns on her heel in the direction they were previously walking.
They follow her with their heads down, not noticing the shift in the trees. Not noticing how the branches coiled and uncoiled, copying the motion of Phina's clenching and unclenching fist.

Night time had fallen, and Phina had slowed down to be next to her sister and Jonathan, for safety. They pointed their flashlights ahead, walking and listening to the forest around them.
Phina stopped, listening to a noise she had heard. Nancy stops to, also hearing the noise.
Jonathan turns to the girls, more so towards Nancy, "what, are you tired?"
"Shut your sarcastic ass up Byers," Phina whispers, listening harder.
"What," Jonathan asks, a little shocked at her words.
Nancy sushes him, "I heard something."
Phina nods, pointing her light in the direction the noise is coming from. She walks towards it and the other two follow.
The noise becomes clearer, a distressed and painful whimper. As they got closer, Phina felt her heart painfully lurch.
A deer lays on its side, injured, bleeding everywhere. Phina covers her mouth, to keep a small cry from escaping. She kneels down next to the doe, reaching a hand out to stroke her.
Nancy kneels besides her, "it's been hit by a car."
Phina nods, tears building in her eyes.
Nancy looks back at Jonathan, "we can't just leave it."
Nancy grabs the gun she had sat down and looks at it, Phina shifts back a little as her sister aims.
"I'll do it," Jonathan says, noting Nancy's distraught face.
"I," she starts to protest, remembering his story from earlier.
He grabs the gun, "I'm not nine anymore."
Phina looks into the animals eyes, you'll be ok. The animal stares back, an almost thankful look in its eyes. Then it's being pulled back, almost to quickly for Phina's eyes to process. She falls backwards and into her sister, who helps her up from the ground.
They all breathe heavily, "what was that?"
"I'm willing to bet that's what we came here for. Come on," Phina waves, tracking the trail of blood the deer left behind.
The other two hesitate, glancing at each other before following. The blood on the leaves glisten in Phina's light. Jonathan and Nancy shine their lights around, Jonathan holding the gun up as well.
The trail suddenly stops, making Phina stop and look around.
"Where did it go," Nancy asks shakily.
"I don't know," Jonathan breathes, "Do you see any more blood."
"The trails gone, like it vanished into thin air," Phina answers.
Phina turns and walks away from the two, Nancy almost doesn't notice, but when she does, she follows. Jonathan, unfortunately, doesn't notice.
Phina shines her light on a tree, for some reason, it calls to her. At the base of to tree is a hole, which emits a low noise that sounds more like a growl than anything.
"Phina, what are you..."
Nancy looks at the tree and then at her sister. They creep slowly over to the tree, bending down to look at it. A gooy substance is all over it, and blood. The girls look at each other, the same question on there mind, should we go in?
"Jonathan," Nancy shouts, but they had gone to far, he couldn't hear them.
"What could go wrong," Phina shrugs, she's read enough horror novels to know those where the most fatal words she could've said, but, she didn't give a damn.
She starts to climb into the whole, a sputtering Nancy going after her. They climb through the tunnel, coming out on the other side. Phina helped Nancy up and looked around.
It looked like the forest they were just in, but different, more sinister. Particles float around them in the air, the color of the forest void. It felt utterly wrong to Phina, yet familiar, like she had seen it before. No, she shakes her head, that's crazy.
The girls look around and start to walk away from the tree, their flashlights beginning to flicker. Phina hits hers a few times and it stops.
They jump as a noise comes from their right. They whirl their lights on it, and are met with the monster feeding on the deer.
Phina grips Nancy's hand, so tightly that she'd probably leave a bruise, but Nancy squeezes back just as hard. They slowly back away, one step at a time, staring at the monster. Nancy steps back and a strange vine thing crunches under her foot.
The monster turns towards them and roars loudly, it's mouth opening up just like the drawing Phina did of it. The girls bolt.
"Jonathan!"

-1868 words-