┌─────── •✧• ───────┐
CHAPTER SEVEN
the boy with the camera
└─────── •✧• ───────┘

( the body, pt. ii )

• °:.☆ . ₊°• ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆

NANCY SPRINTS OUT of her house as soon as she sees Laura's mother's car pull into the driveway. Laura says she'll follow her inside once she sees what Nancy wants, though judging by how frantic her friend's movements are, it's nothing good.

"I didn't say anything about—" Laura starts as soon as she's within earshot, but Nancy interrupts her.

"Look at this, Laur. Look."

She shoves something into Laura's hands with a sniffle. Her eyes are red-rimmed like she'd been crying, and Laura wonders how her talk with Callahan and Powell had gone. Evidently, they'd already spoken to her, and she'd also chosen to go home afterward. Had her mother been upset about their lies? That her daughter had been keeping the secret about Steve from her?

"Are you okay?" Laura asks, examining the prominence of the veins and smudged mascara under Nancy's eyes. She'd run outside so fast that she hadn't even bothered to put on a coat— she stands shivering against the cold in the Fairer's driveway.

Nancy disregards her question and points to the thing she'd given her. "Look."

Laura does. It's a photo, ripped into several pieces but haphazardly taped back together to form the original, full image. What she sees makes her suck in a breath. There, in the lower right corner, is Barb, sitting on the diving board with her feet dangling over the shimmering water of Steve's pool. This must have been taken while she was waiting for Laura. Her head is down, her shoulders slumped. She looks dejected.

Laura should have been there. She should have been sitting right there with her.

"Do you see it?" Nancy asks, her voice a whisper. She points a trembling finger at the bit of forest just behind Barb's image. It's a spot not illuminated by the pool lights, so Laura has to squint to make out a few branches, a shadow, and—

The thing. The something she'd told the deputies about. The not-person, not-animal. It's fuzzy, its dark edges blending into the background, but she's certain it's the creature they saw yesterday.

"Who took this?" Laura asks.

"Jonathan Byers," Nancy replies. "We have to go talk to him."

Why Jonathan Byers was there that night, Laura cannot fathom, nor does she know why he was taking photos, but she will now kiss the ground that he walks on for capturing this. It confirms their fears. She never thought that would be a good thing.

She pops her head inside the house to yell to her mom that she's going for a walk with Nancy. After a reminder that she has to be back before her shift tonight so her dad can drive her, she's allowed to leave.

Laura has never been afraid to walk around Hawkins before. Even at night, when the moon was shrouded by dense clouds and animals in the nearby woods made twigs snap, she never felt genuine fear like she does now. Their little town has always been covered by a security blanket. Nothing strange happens here and people go about living tedious lives. But now, in the blink of an eye, all of that has changed.

Now the girls walk in broad daylight, constantly checking over their shoulders. Every sound makes them tense. The scraping of dead leaves against the pavement sounds sinister instead of an expected occurrence in late autumn. Laura's thermal-lined jacket, a deep green color with an embroidered Coca-Cola logo on the breast, protects her from the wind. Even so, she shudders from a chill that exists deep in her bones.

Nancy shivers as well, hugging her arms close to her chest. The breeze shifts as they walk closer to the woods. Instead of the towering evergreens on either side of the road blocking them from the cold, they seem to have made it worse.

"You want my jacket?" Laura asks.

"Hm?" Nancy asks, looking up at her, a sign she'd been lost in thought. "Oh... no, I'm good."

"We should've stopped back in your house to grab your coat."

"I'm fine, Laur."

Something tells her that, even with a coat, Nancy would still be hunched into herself like that, suffering from the same inner cold that Laura is. She decides to drop it.

Having recently visited Steve's house, it makes the difference between it and the Byers residence all the more apparent. They live surrounded by the forest as well, but in a small, one-story home, and with barely any neighbors.

They climb the rickety steps to the front porch. Even with Joyce's car in the front, it seems lifeless, darkness greeting them through the few windows not covered by curtains. Another place that would probably seem normal if not for the harrowing situations at hand.

Nancy hesitates a moment before gathering her resolve and rapping her knuckles on the door. Then she steps back and fiddles anxiously with the strap of her messenger bag.

There's a small window to the left of the door. The drawn curtains flash for a moment as they're drawn aside, then covered again just as quickly. The door opens to reveal Joyce Byers. As soon as Laura sees her, she wonders if now is a bad time to be dropping by unannounced. She appears frazzled, her short hair slightly unruly like it's only half-brushed, and her brown eyes wide.

"Hi," Nancy greets her. "I'm Nancy... Mike's sister? And this is my friend, Laura. We were wondering if Jonathan was home."

Joyce blinks as if wondering whether she'd heard them correctly. Jonathan is quiet, choosing to keep to himself most times, and would probably choose to physically turn invisible if he could. It's uncommon for two teenage girls to show up asking about him.

"I'm sorry, he's not home," Joyce replies. She doesn't open the door more than a crack, and Laura has to fight to keep her eyes from rudely wandering past her head. "He's probably still downtown at the funeral parlor."

The funeral parlor. The words hit Laura like a punch to the gut, making her take a step back from the house. She hasn't heard anything about them finding a body, but Jonathan would only have one reason to be there. It's not exactly a place one goes for fun.

"Oh," Nancy says, blinking. Then, softer, "Oh, Ms. Byers, I'm so sorry, we didn't know—"

"It's fine," Joyce interrupts dismissively. "It's okay."

Nancy nods, knowing that means she should stop talking about it. "We'll go ... um, we'll go over there, then. Thanks."

The girls turn around, head down the steps, and begin the trek back in the direction they'd come. Gravel crunches under their sneakers. It's the only sound until they hear the door swing shut.

"Did you think that was... I dunno... a little weird?" Nancy questions, her voice hushed.

"She's a grieving mother, Nance," Laura reminds her. "There's no one right way to act."

As if that had reminded Nancy where they're headed next, she says, "You don't have to come. I can talk to him."

Laura shakes her head. "No way. We're in this together."

Nancy offers her a small, closed-lipped smile that doesn't reach her eyes.

The funeral home is exactly how Laura remembers it. As soon as they walk in, they're greeted by the unbearable scents of flowers and stale air. Unwelcome memories in these stuffy halls threaten to flood her brain, but she pushes them away before she can get whisked back in time.

Nancy gives her hand a supportive squeeze before letting go. They peer into the first room on the right to see Jonathan speaking with the director, a child-sized casket displayed in front of them. The sight of it makes Laura flinch. The last time she was here, it was her sister in one of those, clothed in her favorite purple dress. Her dad had blinked away tears as he'd said to Laura, "See? Her eyes are closed. She could be sleeping."

She shakes off the phantom image and squares her shoulders. Jonathan excuses himself and walks toward them, his hands fidgeting at his sides until he shoves them into his pockets. His brunet hair is slightly windblown with strands of it falling messily over his forehead. Laura notices lines under his eyes that could be from lack of sleep, or maybe part of the permanent look of exhaustion that he's been sporting since junior high.

"Hey," he says, his voice half-confused by their appearance.

"Hey," Nancy replies.

"Hi." Laura offers a half-hearted wave that's more a raise of her hand. "Laura."

He nods, which surprises her. The town is small, sure, but they've never had any real reason to talk to each other despite existing in the same grade since kindergarten. She hadn't expected him to know who she was.

"Your mom, um... she said you'd be here," Nancy explains. "I just..." She seems about to say more, about to repeat the same apologies she'd expressed to Joyce, but instead she draws in a breath. "Can we talk for a second?"

Out in the hallway, the three teenagers cram themselves onto the most uncomfortable bench in the world. Laura passes the reconstructed photo to Jonathan, who takes it with the kind of care you'd expect from a photographer. He holds it gingerly by the edges so he doesn't leave any fingerprints behind.

"There's something weird. Behind Barb," Laura says, pointing to the blurry image in the darkness. Her words are choppy with apprehension.

Jonathan studies the photo for a moment, his brow furrowed as he tilts the picture this way and that. "I mean, It looks like it could be some kind of perspective distortion, but I wasn't using the wide angle. I don't know," he replies. His eyes flicker up to Laura as he hands it back to her, agreeing, "It's weird."

"And you're sure you didn't see anyone else out there?" Nancy asks.

"No. She was there one second and then, um... gone. I figured she bolted."

Barb doesn't run, and she certainly wouldn't have if she were waiting for Laura. But if she had glanced over her shoulder and seen the thing lurking behind her, then maybe... But to get off the wobbly diving board that fast? It seems not only out of Barb's skill set, but also physically impossible.

"The cops think that she ran away, but they don't know Barb like we do," Nancy says. "And we went back to Steve's... and we thought we saw something. Some... weird man or... I don't know what it was."

She glances at Jonathan, who's staring at her wordlessly, and quickly grabs her bag, stammering, "I'm sorry. I... We shouldn't have come here today. I'm... I'm so sorry."

Laura is about to get up to follow her out, eager to escape the ghosts that linger in this God-forsaken place, but Jonathan stops them both with a single question that fires out of his mouth.

"What'd he look like?"

"Huh?" Laura asks.

"This man you saw in the woods," Jonathan says. "What'd he look like?"

Nancy shakes her head, reluctant to divulge the information that has given them nothing but trouble for the past eighteen hours. "I don't know. It was almost like he... he didn't have—

"Didn't have a face?" he finishes.

Nancy and Laura share a bewildered glance before the former asks, "How did you know that?"

—°• ☆ . °—

There's a reason why Joyce had been so frazzled and jumpy earlier that day, and it doesn't have to do with her son's death. On their way back to Hawkins High School, he explains that his mother had been scared half to death by something... something without a face, when it had crawled out of their wall. Right there in their home.

No wonder it had given Laura the heebie-jeebies just to stand on the porch.

The school's darkroom is a sensory hell. The only available lighting is dim and blood red, making her wince and rub her eyes, straining to see.

Jonathan moves with the practiced effortlessness of someone who has done this a thousand times. He stands in front of a machine, sliding things into place and flicking switches that boggle Laura's mind. She's used to him moving almost timidly. Now, faced with an area he excels in, surrounded by his element, he's confident. Even his posture is straighter; he's no longer trying to curl into himself.

Nancy watches with her elbow resting on the table, her face propped up by her hand. "And you're..."

"Brightening," Jonathan replies almost distractedly as he twists a knob. "Enlarging."

Nancy hums. Laura, meanwhile, questions in fascination, "You can do that?"

Jonathan turns to look at her in perplexity. Something like a smile pulls up his lip, clearly amused by her obliviousness, before it's gone. "You can do a lot of things with photos."

"Did your mom say anything else?" Nancy asks, back to business as always. "Like, um, where it might have gone to, or..."

"No, just that it came out of the wall," he replies.

The machine dings. He reaches up to flick a switch again, then carefully picks up the photo paper and lies it in a container of clear liquid.

"How long does this take?" Nancy asks.

Laura's mouth twists to the side, a laugh huffing out of her nose. Leave it to Nancy to be pushy and impatient. She knows it's only anxiety that's making her act this way, as if bored by the process of photo development, but it's so typical that Laura can't help but chuckle.

Jonathan gently moves the container back and forth to coat the paper. "Not long."

He's a boy of few words, reminding Laura of herself with his clipped responses and lack of small talk. If Nancy weren't here, the two would probably be standing in complete silence for the entire process.

Nancy, however, is not one to linger in the quiet. "Have you been... doing this a while?"

"What?"

"Photography?"

"Yeah." He shrugs. "I guess I'd rather observe people than, you know..."

"Talk to them," Nancy finishes with a playful smirk.

"I know. It's weird."

"No!"

"No, it is," Jonathan insists with a chuckle. This is the most Laura has seen him talk, like, ever, and also the most animated she's seen him behave. Maybe, like her, he just needs the right people to crack him out of his shell. "It's just, sometimes... people don't really say what they're really thinking. But you capture the right moment, it says more."

Laura freezes, stiffening to the point of rigidity, forcing her eyes not to skip over Jonathan and land on Nancy. If he was there at Steve's, unseen, snapping photos without them being aware of it... how much did he catch? Did he capture a moment where Laura had forgotten to hide the longing in her expression? Did he freeze a split second in time when she'd looked at Nancy for a moment too long?

She searches his face for any sign of a double meaning behind his words, but he doesn't give her a pointed look like he knows something. He merely continues moving the thick liquid around. His words had been a general fact, not a jab.

Laura relaxes, resisting the urge to release a sigh of relief. He doesn't know anything. She's still in the clear.

(As long as Steve keeps her secret.)

"What was I saying?" Nancy questions.

"What?" Jonathan asks.

"When you took my picture."

He looks down, closing his eyes with a cringe. "I shouldn't have taken that. I'm, uh... I'm sorry. It's just—"

"That's it," Nancy interrupts him. Her gaze is trained on the paper. "That's what we saw."

Laura glances down at the enhanced photo, zoomed in to the area where the potential-distortion, potential-faceless-creature had been. Now, it's clearly a figure standing upright on two legs. Skeletal limbs extend from a strangely thin body that's dark and abnormal. And... it has no face.

She and Nancy share a look, relief shining in both of their eyes, visible even in the dim lighting. They're not crazy. They hadn't been seeing things. Here is proof, undeniable proof, that such a horrid thing exists.

Laura doesn't know whether to be thrilled that their sighting has been validated or terrified that this monster is lurking out there.

Even Jonathan gasps at the sight of it. "My mom... I thought she was crazy 'cause she said that's not Will's body. That he's alive."

"And if he's alive—" Nancy begins.

"—Then Barbara."

Laura almost plunges her hand straight into the liquid to retrieve the photo, but Jonathan quickly slaps it away. The two of them stare at each other for a moment in surprise at his action.

"S-Sorry," he stammers, clearly not expecting that from himself either, and holds up a pair of tongs. "You can't just grab it with your hand— you'll ruin the picture. It has to dry."

He hangs it up on a string. From there, the mysterious creature stares at them from above, and the three teenagers stare at it as if worried it will leap out from the photograph and lunge at them. Nancy peers at it with apprehension. Jonathan, with resolve. And Laura...

Laura feels something new spreading inside of her chest, a sensation she hasn't felt in a while. They haven't found a body yet, or a body double, or whatever it is that looks like Will in place of Barb.

Both of them are out there. For once, she feels hope.

______

a/n:

HAPPY STRANGER THINGS DAY. on this day in 1983, laura had a terrible shift at george's family diner and will byers was taken into the upside down. FORTY. YEARS. AGO. bye.

i honestly did not expect jonathan and laura to be as close to my heart as they have already become. i can imagine them hanging out in absolute silence for 5 hours and then being like "ok see ya tomorrow" LMFAO.

i can imagine him instinctively slapping her hand away from the developing photo and then they both stare at each other like

and into the deep we go... things are heating up !!! it's time for things to get INTENSE. it will be fun to write, but not fun for laura to live through :/

also it's crazy to think that i'm already halfway through season 1 ??? what the HECK !!! i'm planning on including more original scenes which i think will add to the immersion of laura in the universe.

thank you for reading !!!

— kristyn

( word count: 3.1k )