Chapter Text
Nancy snuck her way to the lavish bathroom of Tommy Hagun’s massive house, making her escape after Barb had asked her shyly to give her and Tommy a little space. She had winked as she left them by the pool outside.
Truthfully, she was glad for the escape. Nancy wasn’t sure she was the party type. Everyone else around her seemed to be having a good time. Albeit, there weren’t many invited to Tommy Hagun’s, and truth be told Nancy was unsure /how/ Barb got them both to be on the exclusive list of attendee’s.
Maybe it was because she didn’t know anyone but Barb, at least not as much as the others knew themselves. Everyone knew Carol from the rumours told about her, which Nancy always thought were untrue. Jason Carver was just a douche. June Houser was nice, at least to Nancy’s face. She swore she could see the other journalist student smirking behind her hand, whispering into Carol’s ear whilst looking straight at Nancy.
She sat on the toilet let, scrubbing a hand over her face with a sigh. It was all bullshit, and she didn’t know why she cared. But when she closed her eyes, and she saw June laughing at her and Barb, not with them. And Barb’s love struck face pointed to Tommy when the boy wasn’t looking. When Tommy was staring right at Carol’s ass.
Bullshit. It was all bullshit.
Nancy didn’t think the night could get any worse.
Until she heard Barb’s deafening scream.
Nancy couldn’t feel her body as she ran, pushing past Jason Carver’s stupid face and slamming through the doors to the pool.
Where she saw Tommy, pacing anxiously, and no sign of Barb.
She searched frantically, her ears turning deaf on the other’s yelling towards Tommy, yelling if he was alright, asking what happened.
Nancy’d eyes searched frantically, blown wide as her hands gripped into fists, and her chest rose and fell drastically. She stepped closer to the edge of the pool, and the water was still, as if it had never been touched before. She knelt down by the poolside, looking up to the woods ahead, over the thin, short fence surrounding the back garden.
There was a rustle of the trees ahead of her, the surrounding trees still. The branches over the fence rustled, and moved with sign of life.
She shot up, and ran straight into Tommy.
Her body shot back into place, as if she could see her surroundings again. For a split second, her mind was distracted from Barb’s missing face.
Tommy’s own replaced hers, right in her own face as he gripped her thin shoulders tightly. His freckled face pushed right up to her nose, his eyes blown wide and afraid.
“I- I turned around. And she was gone!” He screamed at her, making her ears pop. She made no move to push him away. “I went to grab a drink! And she screamed! And I turned. And-“ He shut his eyes tightly, wrinkles forming across his face as he winced. “I saw this thing. It had her! It took her away! It had her by the neck!” Tommy screamed, his voice cracking, and Nancy felt her heard drop.
She didn’t feel the cold of the wood’s chill until she was deeply, deeply surrounded by the trees.
“Barb!” She screamed her best friend’s name, afraid of the monster that had taken her friend. “Barb! Come back!”
Her calls fell on deaf ears.
——
Eddie doesn’t sleep. He can’t. Not after what he saw last night…
That thing, that inhumane, disgustingly slimly, tall, /thing/. The way he groaned, the way its fingers stretched too far and ended at a knives tip. The shape of its face. Eddie hadn’t imagined it.
Had he?
Like, fuck, he had just wrapped his most recent D&D campaign with Gareth and the boys. It had been crazy. Most of them ended up with severed limbs, and Jeff had died in a ritual of sacrifice by an untouched colony. They had been playing it for a week before it ended, the day before Eddie was officially suspended for two weeks. Maybe the game was getting to him, and he was seeing shit like massive monsters with claws and pointed faces.
Maybe…
Maybe it was all in his head.
The front door handle creaked, the sound of keys clashing against the wood. Eddie looked up at the clock by his uncles slow-growing hat collection on the wall. Nine am.
God, Eddie hadn’t even slept yet.
As his Uncle Wayne stepped into the trailer, his boots heavy with each dirt ridden step across the carpet, Eddie sat up quickly from the sofa. He dropped the pillow he had been unknowingly gripping to his chest.
His Uncle Wayne coughed as he startled, taken aback by Eddie’s sudden appearance. “Damn, kid.” He croaked, his body haggard from working at the plant. “You scared the socks off me.” He shook his head fondly, as he passed Eddie to reach the fridge. He pulled out a beer as Eddie took a breath, and stepped a foot closer to his uncle.
“I saw a monster walking down the street after I locked up from work last night.”
His uncle stopped in his tracks, and as Eddie explained further with a rushed tone, Wayne dropped his can of beer onto the floor.
——
Martin Brenner listened. He listened intently, holding the printed evidence of Seven’s existence. It seemed Number Seven had not ran far.
“And you have the names of these children?” By a train track, a deserted place of the town his Number Seven had found refuge. Four children surrounded him, stood by bikes. Three boys, one girl.
“Mike Wheeler. Lucas Sinclair. Dustin Henderson, and Jane Hopper.”
Brenner’s heard snapped up at the little girls name. “Hopper?” He snapped, and his associate nodded.
He gripped the printed page tightly. “Find him.” He snapped, and was left alone.
He stared at the unsure, unaware Number Seven in the photo. He had always caused chaos, always found himself in situations bigger than he understood.
This time, with his escape, this situation was no different.
Hopper. That name rung a bell, and struck a cord.
——
It hit midnight, and Hopper was adamant on throwing the children out of the cabin. Steve was about to butt in and demand that Hopper take them home himself, it being unsafe for the children to bike home on their own. Jane had reassured him that Hopper would never put them in danger, and repeated that ‘friends don’t lie’. Steve trusted her, and thus trusted Hopper to keep them safe. He fretted as they drove away, Joyce taking half of the children herself as Hopper took the other.
Steve flapped his arms slightly as he watched them leave out of the window. Jane appeared beside him, and hovered her hand over his arm.
“Are you okay?” She asked, and Steve failed to respond. He couldn’t take his eyes off of the driveway, where the two cars had been parked moments prior. He could not take his eyes away, until they were back here. “They’ll be okay at home, Steve.”
Seven felt guilt and dread rise up to his chest.
He shook his head, wringing his hands as he whispered worriedly. “What if they aren’t?”
Jane’s eyes turned funny, like she was sad, but not for herself. She finally placed her hand against his arm. “They’ll be okay.” She repeated. All Seven could do, was shake his head.
What if he got those children killed? What if he caught them into a trap, set up by the bad men?
Seven held his breath stood at the window, staring at the drive until Hopper’s truck appeared once again.
——
Jonathan drove back to home with his camera held tightly between his fingers, sat on his lap with a heavy weight. Heavier than it should be.
What had he done. Why had he done it?
What had he seen…
He wouldn’t be able to confirm what he saw, until he managed to develop the photos. He could sneak to the darkroom at lunch, and develop the photos then. By the end of the school day, his pictures would be finished and he could confirm his suspicions.
God, he would have to print the others too.
He would destroy the rest. Rip them into a million pieces and burn the bits. He was a creep. Taking photos of his classmates at a party he wasn’t invited to. God, he was no better than his dad.
Pulling up to the house, he watched the lights only suddenly flick on from inside. His mom must have just gotten home, which… was alike her. He knew his mom was obsessed with Will being in the lights, and was convinced that she saw him in the walls. Could she be telling the truth?
Jonathan couldn’t humour her until he knew for /sure/. He needed to develop his photos, quickly. He needed to confirm that he had seen a disgusting monster in the woods, before he looked away to pick up his camera again, and the monster was gone, and Barb had screamed. He needed to be sure…
Entering the house, he found his mom nursing a cigarette at the table. She looked… afraid. Her knee was bouncing, her hair looked as if she had ran her hand through it continuously. Her eyes were ashen with dark circles.
“Mom?” He spoke quietly, seeming to breaking his mother out of a trance. She dropped her cigarette, and stood.
“Oh, Jonathan.” She rushed forwards, placing her arms around him. He placed his camera down gently on the side, and hugged his mom back, tightly.
“What- what is it? What’s happened?” Jonathan had the image of Will’s tiny body laid out in a coffin, his face pale and lifeless. He gripped his mom tighter. “Is it Will?”
“Yes!” She yelled, patting his back as he felt her face change against his chin. It felt like she was starting to smile. “Yes, honey. He found him! We know where Will is!”
Jonathan pulled away, stroking a hand over his camera fleetingly, just to check his evidence was there. That he hadn’t imagined everything from the night. That his mom saying that Will could be found, saved, was real.
“Who?” Jonathan’s face pulled in confusion. “Who can save him. Hopper?”
She shook her head, as she started to smile deeper. “Steve.” She gripped the front of Jonathan’s shirt with shaking, slim hands. She looked so tired, so frail. “He found him. He’s in another world. Steve- he- he’s from the lab, honey. Remember? He… somehow, he was able to connect to Will, with a blindfold and static and- Oh, Jonathan. We can find Will! In the upside-down!”
He glanced to his camera, and thought to the monster he thought he saw.
Could his mom be telling the truth?
Could he trust Steve, the random boy that his mom ran over with her car, who was from the lab and had ‘superpowers’?
He needed to get those photos developed.
——
She was high alert. She could not stop looking over her shoulder. The police had taken their statements last night. June was the one to call the cops, screaming and cursing down the phone receiver. God, was she lectured by her parents. Although they were sympathetic, offering Nancy the rest of the week off school. After trying to call who she was desperate to talk to, and receiving no answer, she decided to go into school so she had a chance to talk to him in person.
Nancy kept her head down in lesson, picturing the trees movement, hearing Barb’s scream over and over again. Listening to the silence of Barb’s missing presence throughout the day.
She found Jonathan Byers walking towards the darkroom at the back of the building. He let him enter, before charging through and slamming the door behind herself.
Jonathan gasped as he turned around, his eyes wide where he hunched over the paper submerged in the developing water. Nancy had been in the darkroom a few times, for her journaling mostly. Barb didn’t like the red light, said it freaked her out…
Right. Barb. That was what she was here for.
“Barb’s missing.” She cut to the chase, spitting it out like venom. Jonathan stayed staring at her, as Nancy descended down the steps. “She went missing last night at Tommy’s party. And I think what took her, took your little brother too.”
Jonathan’s mouth formed an ‘o’ shape. “You saw it too?” He spoke very quickly, his eyes not once leaving her face. She knew she looked a mess, and did not seem to care until Jonathan was looking at her.
She reached up and fiddled with her hair for a moment. “Yes.” She blinked, and Barb’s scream flooded her ears. Her hand snapped back down from her head. “It was a monster.” She spoke quietly, although there was determination in her tone.
“Yeah…” Jonathan whispered, and stammered as he finally broke out of his stare. He reached into the tray of water frantically, lifting the paper out of the tray and throwing the soggy, half developed image into the trash. Nancy watched with concern.
When she went to step closer, Jonathan’s hand shot up towards her. “No!” He yelled, beckoning her away with his outstretched hand. “Don’t look. Just… hold on.”
She watched his scramble around the darkroom, confused as to what he was doing. It seemed he was looking for a specific picture, and he tried developing two, which appeared to be the wrong photos he wanted, and both went into the trash still sopping wet.
“Jonathan, can I help?” She tried asking, tried stepping closer, but was once again pushed back a gentle step. It was more of a nudge, or a gentle tap, than a push.
“Please, just.” Even under the dark red-tinted light, Nancy could see the how flustered Jonathan’s face appeared. “Don’t look.”
Thankfully, the next picture he placed into the tray of water, was the correct one.
“Here!” He yelled, a stark contract to how he whispered before. Nancy was finally beckoned closer, and Nancy took space by his side as he used tongs to dip the paper until it was completely submerged by the liquid. They watched as the image slowly started to appear.
Nancy felt her breath catch in her chest.
An unclear image of Barb appeared. Her best friend sat on the edge of the pool, looking longingly to someone not captured by the camera. On the edge of the picture, appeared the claw of a large black monster reaching forwards. It took a moment for Nancy’s eyes to focus on the developed monsters face, pointed and snarling. The entire figure was black, and it nearly blended into the leaves and twigs surrounding the perspective of the camera. But Nancy knew, and so did Jonathan, that the figure on the left of the page was not just a trick of his lens.
Before them, developed photo evidence, of a monster.
Nancy opened her mouth to question how Jonathan took the photos. She did not remember seeing him at the party, and if she was being honest, if it was a shock for Nancy to be invited, there was no chance Jonathan would have been invited too. So had he-
“My mom ran over someone last week and he came from the lab and he had superpowers and somehow he contacted Will and said that a monster- this monster, took him.” Jonathan blurted.
Nancy stared.
“What?”