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CHAPTER NINE
aaahh!!! real monsters
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( the flea and the acrobat, pt. ii )

• °:.☆ . ₊°• ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆

THE TIME SPENT between the three teenagers is surprisingly amicable. Even with the gravity of their situation pressing onto their shoulders, jokes pass easily among them, probably as a side effect of trying to get their minds off the reason they're in the woods in the first place.

Dead leaves coat the ground in a thick blanket that crunches under their feet with every step. It will make sneaking up on the monster impossible — especially with Nancy and Jonathan, who have all the silent grace of two boars traipsing through the forest, managing to trample every twig in existence. Laura has never known two people to walk so loudly in her life.

But it's okay. In fact, she prefers it like this. She can pretend that they're going for an innocent walk instead of trying to locate a horrifying beast that may have abducted their loved ones. The less they act like they're hunting, the less anxiety she feels clawing up her throat.

"You never said what I was saying," Nancy pipes up.

"What?" Jonathan asks.

"Yesterday. You thought I was saying something and that's why you took my picture."

Nancy hadn't told Laura how she'd found out about Jonathan's photos or what picture she's referring to. Curiosity gets the better of her.

"What picture?" she asks.

She'd thought it was an innocent enough inquiry, but the tips of Jonathan's ears go red, and not from the cold breeze that turns their extremities numb. He avoids answering and focuses on Nancy's words instead.

"Oh, uh... I don't know. My guess... I saw this girl, you know, trying to be someone else. But for that moment... it was like you were alone, or you thought you were. And, you know, you could just be yourself."

Laura doesn't remember a time when Nancy was alone that night. It must have been after she'd started drinking. She winces, hoping that Jonathan hadn't gotten a photo of that. With the lights on in the house and the curtains open, it would have been like a fish bowl— visible for anyone to see from the outside.

When did she get so dependent on other people to keep her secrets?

Nancy stares at the ground in front of her for a few steps before shaking her head. "That is such bullshit."

Jonathan pauses in surprise. "Wh — What?"

Nancy stops and spins around, her face taut with indignation. Laura grimaces. Their time together had been going so well, but she can already sense the sharp turn it's about to take due to Jonathan's hard-hitting truth.

"I am not trying to be someone else. Just because I'm dating Steve and you don't like him—"

"You know what? Forget it," Jonathan says dismissively, taking deliberate steps forward as if physically leaving the conversation behind him. Laura joins him. "I just thought it was a good picture."

"He's actually a good guy!" Nancy calls after them.

Laura aims her eyes at the overcast sky above and holds them there for a few seconds. Jonathan glances at her to read her reaction to that statement, and a moment of agreement passes between them. Laura does not like Steve, but she would've masked her annoyance better if Nancy could see her face.

Jonathan does not sound convinced. "Okay."

"Yesterday, with the camera..." Nancy says, causing him to stop again. "He's not like that at all. He was just being protective."

"Yeah, that's one word for it," he says bitterly, continuing on his way.

What happened with the camera? Laura's eyes bounce between the two of them as their conversation barrels on, unsure of when to stop and go. The monster surely isn't going to come around while they're arguing like this.

"Oh, and I guess what you did was okay?"

"No, I — I never said that."

What did Jonathan do? The question is on the tip of her lips, but Nancy plows through with another response, her cheeks flushed carmine, the bright color matching her coat.

"He had every right to be pissed—"

"Okay, all right!" Jonathan exclaims, whirling around in exasperation. "Does that mean I have to like him?"

Nancy stops. She blinks. "No."

"Listen, don't take it so personally, okay? I don't like most people. He's in the vast majority."

Laura thinks that is a fair statement, especially given how Steve and his friends have spoken about Jonathan. Their words are always cruel. They've called him pathetic, a loser, and other words too homophobic for her to even think about. Steve probably isn't at the top of anyone's favorite list of people. It doesn't surprise her that Jonathan doesn't like him.

She starts looking around at the leaves for any signs of a disturbance that might mean footprints. The layer is thick from the hundreds of trees surrounding them, though, making it impossible to discern tracks from the typical chaos. Not to mention that her partners' constant stop-and-go pattern doesn't give her enough time to properly analyze the area.

The conversation doesn't concern her, and Jonathan hadn't been keen on answering her questions, so she may as well try to get something useful.

Nancy huffs a sardonic laugh. "You know, I was actually starting to think that you were okay."

"Yeah?" Jonathan asks.

"Yeah. Yeah, I was thinking, 'Jonathan Byers, maybe he's not the pretentious creep everyone says he is.'"

"Guys," Laura cuts in, standing on the half-rotted log that serves as a bridge across the frozen creek. "Monster hunting?"

"Well, I was just starting to think you were okay," Jonathan shoots back, his brain too clouded by anger to listen to Laura's reminder of what they came here to do.

Laura heaves a resigned sigh and removes a granola bar from her bag, peels off the wrapper, and accepts that things are going south whether she likes it or not.

"I was thinking, 'Nancy Wheeler, she's not just another suburban girl who thinks she's 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, and they live out a perfectly boring little life at the end of a cul-de-sac. Exactly like their parents, who they thought were so depressing, but now, hey, they get it.'"

Laura raises her eyebrows, the impact of his delivery hitting even her, though she wasn't the intended target. He continues on with rigid movements fueled by frustration. Nancy's enormous blue eyes blink in surprise at his raw words, and for a moment, Laura wonders if they had hit some deep spot inside of her she hadn't wanted to acknowledge.

An aching silence stretches on, pressing into them on all sides like walls that are closing in. The biting breeze is synonymous with the bitter words they'd thrown at each other. Physically, Laura is warm from the protection of her layered clothing, but she still feels chilled by the coldness in their voices.

"Are we gonna go now?" she asks.

Nancy schools her expression into one of indifference, scoffs at Jonathan's taunt, and falls alongside Laura as they walk. She does a double take when she hears the crinkling of the wrapper in her hand.

"Are you eating a granola bar?" she asks, bewildered.

Laura shrugs. "I brought snacks in case we got hungry. And I got hungry. And bored."

Nancy shakes her head. Then, sheepishly, she holds her hand out, her palm facing upward in a silent question. Laura breaks off a piece and gives it to her.

—°• ☆ . °—

By the time darkness creeps in, things haven't gotten better between Jonathan and Nancy, but on the bright side, they also haven't gotten worse.

Laura finally gets the silence she's been hoping for... kind of. The two still kick the leaves around, almost like they're deliberately trying to annoy each other without speaking, but at least they're not arguing anymore.

She's never been in the woods at night before. The skeletal trees, though mostly bare, still block most of the moonlight until only slivers peek through the branches and reach the ground in scattered fragments of silver. Their flashlights slice through the darkness wherever their beams strike. Laura sweeps her from side to side with the methodological attentiveness of someone who's actively searching for something. The other two carry their lights limply in their hands as they trudge along.

A cry pierces through the constant song of cicadas. Both girls stop mid-step. Jonathan keeps walking, then realizes they aren't on either side of him anymore and turns to face them.

"What, you tired?" he asks, his sarcasm aimed toward Nancy.

"Shut up," she fires back in a whisper.

"What?"

"I heard something."

The cry sounds again, causing Laura's head to jerk toward the source. She aims her light and sees nothing but pitch-black woods beyond. A swallow gets caught in her throat, which has gone suddenly dry.

"It's a deer," she says. "Probably injured."

"Deer... make noise?" Jonathan questions.

Now it's Laura's turn to give him a half-amused look as she passes by, stepping carefully around rocks and large branches so as not to frighten the animal as she approaches. Nancy and Jonathan try to follow her lead. Intermittent repetitions of the sound lead them to the wounded beast, lying on its side near a tree with blood oozing in thick, ruby rivulets from its neck.

"Oh, God," Nancy whispers, her face pinched in horror as she kneels in front of the animal. "It's been hit by a car."

Laura's flashlight trails across the deer. Seeing ones who have been hit by cars on the side of the road is a common occurrence, and something about this one isn't right. She's used to snapped necks or limbs twisted at grotesque angles. Plus, this deer must have walked quite a long way after being struck— they aren't near a road.

"We can't just leave it," Nancy says.

The deer cries again.

She picks up the gun. It wobbles in her hand, reluctant to rise and point at the whimpering animal. Nancy's face pinches in sorrow as she braces herself. But then, Jonathan surges forward and offers his hand, saying, "I'll do it."

"I thought you said—" she starts.

"I'm not nine anymore."

"But you also didn't hit any of the targets," Laura points out. "Maybe I should do it."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," he says sarcastically, "but I've got this."

Laura shrugs. She hadn't meant any offense by her words— they'd been merely factual.

They stand, and Laura loops her arm through Nancy's to comfort her. Nancy sniffles, tilting her head to the side so it's almost resting against Laura's shoulder, but not quite.

Jonathan cocks the gun. But even he's trying not to look as he prepares himself to shoot.

Laura notices something that she couldn't tell from up close, her position now allowing her to see the bigger picture. The spot where the blood oozes from its neck...

"Guys," she whispers, "doesn't that almost look like—"

Before she can finish her sentence, the deer slides backward as if something had yanked it by the hind legs, causing the trio to leap in fright. It disappears into the brush beyond in a flash.

Hearts pounding, their breath coming out in rapid pants, they stare at the empty spot where the animal had just been a heartbeat ago.

"What was that?" Nancy asks.

Laura quickly swings her rifle off her back and loads it, her hands shaking. She tenses her muscles in an attempt to steady her fingers lest she accidentally pulls the trigger in her jumpy state.

Nancy's flashlight reveals pools of blood nearby, splattered bright crimson against the brown foliage. The silence that follows is eerie instead of serene. Before, the dear had been crying out every few seconds. Now... nothing except the constant hum of insects.

"Where'd it go?" Nancy questions, her voice trembling.

"I don't know," Jonathan answers. "Do you see any more blood?"

"No."

Since Nancy isn't utilizing her bat, and Laura doesn't trust that it will fair well against something unless she gets too close, she sticks close to her side. The imminent need for her rifle seems to have passed. She flicks the safety back on and holds it looser in her grip, her eyes following Nancy's beam as it flashes along the ground.

"What...?" Nancy whispers.

"Huh?" Laura asks. "Do you see something?"

She follows her toward a tree, where the sound of liquid dripping pulls her closer. What they see causes Laura to scramble for her own flashlight. But when she clicks it on, not even additional light helps her make sense of it.

The base of the trunk is hollow, almost as if it had been carved out or something had busted out of it from within. Red liquid is smeared on the drenched leaves. The interior of the bark is coated with something that's... pulsing. Something that looks almost like flesh. Like it's alive.

Laura's stomach turns. She places her hand over her mouth, resisting the urge to vomit at the gruesome sight. It's like if someone had sliced open a wound right down to the bone.

"Jonathan?" Nancy calls. They wait a second.

No answer.

Shit.

"Where did he go?" Laura asks, standing and aiming her light outward, looking between gaps in the trees for any sign of his lanky figure. He couldn't have gone far. Or, at least, he should have had the common sense not to.

When she looks back at the tree, she sees Nancy's foot disappearing into the trunk.

"Nance!" she cries.

Her light falls from her hands and clatters to the ground, followed by her backpack as she shrugs it off next to Nancy's discarded bag. She drops to her knees to peer into the disgusting abomination. Whatever it was, Nancy seems to have crawled inside of it, and she'd be damned if she let her go into a gruesome tree wound alone.

Laura holds her rifle close to her chest and takes a deep breath. Then, she squeezes her eyes shut. Puts one hand forward. And ducks her head into the tree.

_________

a/n:

i feel like the title of this chapter is gonna age me. today's kids won't understand 90s nickelodeon😔

anyways, stan laura for literally just snacking on granola while nancy and jonathan are arguing. she is so unbothered. people should take notes from her.

also !!! i forgot to mention this before, but in light of noah schnapp's hideous promotion of zionism, i hereby declare that i do not imagine my version of will byers to appear as him. i know i didn't outright cast the canon characters because i think their appearances can be interpreted by the audience, but i wanted to put this out there anyway. zionism is NOT sexy !!!!!!

— kristyn

( word count: 2.4k )