WORD COUNT : 2.3k

Gordon and Law had begged to not sit in the car again while Owen and Nancy took care of business at the funeral home. With a defeated sigh, Owen gave them the okay to come inside, just as long as they promised to keep quiet and not touch anything. With that, the four teenagers were walking up the steps and into the eerily quiet and desolate building. The air inside was cold and still, encased in beige walls and old carpet. The boys were starting to regret their decision to come inside once they saw what the place looked like. The group all shuffled along close together nonetheless, eyes peeled for Jonathan Byers.

They crept down the practically infinite hallway, peering into every open room. Just ahead of the rest of the group, Nancy came to a standstill in one of the few lit doorways. Her eyebrows knocked together, one of her hands coming up to sneak a hesitant wave. The three Webb kids came to crowd around behind her, peeking in through the door as well. There stood Jonathan Byers, surrounded by various coffins and ornate flower arrangements. Owen couldn't help but notice how out of place and lost he looked. When Jonathan's mom had said that he was at the funeral home, she hadn't assumed that he would be doing Will's funeral arrangements all alone. Her heart clenched at the thought, one of her hands raising to give him a timid wave much like Nancy's.

"C-Can you just give me a second," Jonathan stammered, turning to the funeral home director. The older man nodded gently, eyes glancing over as he noticed all of the teenagers in the hallway. Slowly, Jonathan approached the group, hands stuffed into his pockets. He eyed them all warily as he got closer, not sure why he had guests now of all times.

"Hey..." Jonathan greeted softly, his gaze mostly directed downwards at Nancy.

"Hey," Nancy breathed, speaking just as delicately as he had said it. "Your mom, um... she said you'd be here," she explained, hands pulling nervously on the strap of her bag. Jonathan visibly tensed at the comment, but kept his mouth shut. "Can we talk to you for a second," Nancy asked, motioning to both the hallway and the group of Webb kids behind her. The boy's eyes finally trailed up to Owen, Gordon, and Law, almost as if he was seeing them for the first time. His expression was skeptical, but he still nodded along anyway.

"I'll be right back," Jonathan stated, turning to the funeral director once again before he stepped out into the hallway with everyone else. Nancy led the entire group a few steps down the hallway, sitting down on a small bench placed nearby. Jonathan settled down beside her as she pulled the taped-up picture of Barb from her bag. Gordon, Owen, and Law all leaned up against the wall on the opposite side from the bench, attentively waiting for Jonathan's reaction as Nancy handed over the picture.

"So, um... In the background of this picture you took of Barb, Owen and I noticed this thing," Nancy pointed towards the figure in the corner of the picture, "Standing behind her. But, it's so hard to see because of all the shadows." The girl tore her eyes away from the picture, her focus coming up to examine Jonathan's expression instead. "Do you... have any idea what that could be?"

Gordon turned his head, making leery eye contact with Owen at this mention of this unknown, shadowy shape in the background of this picture. This was the first that the two boys were hearing about all of this, anyway. They were sure to have some confusion and doubts about it all. Unfortunately, all Owen could give him as an explanation was a slight shrug of her shoulders, lacking the words to explain everything that she knew right then and there. It was a lot and she didn't want to scare Jonathan away. He was pretty much their only hope at the moment.

"It looks like it could be some kind of perspective distortion, but I wasn't using the wide angle," Jonathan hypothesized, turning the picture every which way in order to catch different angles of light. No amount of light was making the picture any clearer, though, so he handed it back to Nancy. "I don't know. It's weird," he murmured, regretfully.

"And you're sure you didn't see anyone else out there," Nancy double-checked.

"No," he confirmed quickly, sounding confident. "I mean, she was there for one second and then, um... gone," he reported, still not sure what could have happened that quickly.

"The cops think that she ran away," Nancy told him, shaking her head at the absurdity of the theory. "But they don't know Barb," she stated, eyes flickering up to meet Owen's. Nowadays, it felt like they were the only two people who did.

The hallway was quiet for a moment, but Owen could see all of the thoughts running behind Nancy's eyes. There was some hesitancy that Owen could see in the other girl's face as she debated continuing with the rest of the story. Explaining what she saw in the woods behind Steve's house to Owen was hard enough. It hadn't occurred to her how difficult it would be to try and convince Jonathan Byers to believe in this thing that she saw.

"Look, Nancy saw something pretty weird in Steve Harrington's backyard the other night. We're just trying to figure out if whatever's in that picture is the same thing she saw," Owen disclosed, hoping that it made the other girl feel less alone in her story. The pink-haired girl didn't know a damn thing about this faceless man other than what Nancy had told her. But, Nancy was the only other person that she trusted to help find Barb. Owen was just trying to do all that she could to make Nancy trust her in the same way.

"I... I went back to Steve's while everyone was at the basketball game... and I thought I saw something. Some weird man or..." Nancy stammered. She glanced up to meet Jonathan's eyes and something in her cracked. Suddenly, she remembered where she was and who she was talking to. He was here alone, just trying to mourn the death of his little brother. And yet, here she was, at the funeral home with him, trying to convince him of her absolutely insane theory. "I'm sorry. We... we shouldn't have come here today. I'm... I'm so sorry," Nancy choked, quickly gathering her things and standing up. She cut her eyes at the rest of the group as she walked past, causing all of them to hurriedly push off of the wall in order to follow her out.

"What'd he look like," Jonathan blurted, causing all of them to slowly turn back around. He looked more energized than Owen had ever seen him, his eyes wide and round.

"What?" Nancy was sure she hadn't heard him right.

"This man you saw in the woods. What'd he look like," he asked breathlessly. The level of interest he was showing made Nancy wish that she had more information than she actually did. Her face scrunched up in thought, her eyes looking elsewhere for a moment.

"I don't know. It was almost like he... he didn't have-"

"Didn't have a face?" Jonathan finished the sentence for her. Both Owen and Nancy's eyes widened, their interest piqued. Gordon and Law just looked more concerned than interested, not expecting to be involved in a conversation about some faceless man who may have stalked everyone at that party and kidnapped Barbara Holland.

"How did you know that," Nancy quavered, her gaze fixed on Jonathan cautiously. The worn out looking boy chewed his lower lip for a moment, perhaps regretting blurting out that bit of information.

"Have you seen it too," Owen wondered aloud, shocked that he too knew about this faceless freak. Nancy's theory about Barb's disappearance was just continuing to solidify the more they looked into it.

"No, not me. But my... my mom may have seen the same thing recently," Jonathan said quietly, eyes darting up and down the hallway skittishly. Finally, he stood to his full height, eyes remaining on Nancy. "I think I know how to get you a better look at whatever's in that picture," he announced. He cast one final, thoughtful look down towards the room where he left the funeral director before he looked back at the group decisively. "C'mon, let's go," he nodded, walking towards the exit with the rest of the group not far behind.

✯

"Sitting outside, missing out on the action yet again," Law grumbled, staring down the door to the darkroom. Nancy and Jonathan were just inside, performing some sort of magic to get a better look at the thing behind Barb. But Gordon, Owen, and Law were all outside on door-watching duty. They couldn't risk someone bursting into the darkroom, letting even an ounce of light in, and ruining all the work they had done. Then, they would probably never know what that thing was over Barb's shoulder.

"Maybe standing guard outside of the school's darkroom was the action all along, Law," Owen pointed out, arms crossed tightly in front of her chest.

"What are they looking for in that picture anyway?" Gordon blurted, disregarding Owen's comment completely. "I mean... a faceless man? Who may have taken Barb? I mean, come on. Do you guys hear yourselves," he ranted, hands waving around animatedly. He was clearly still trying to process this information, not understanding one bit.

"I know it sounds insane, but I mean... Nancy saw what she saw out in those woods behind Steve Harrington's house. And what are the odds that Jonathan's mom saw the exact same thing? You have to admit, that's weird," Owen insisted, pointedly arching an eyebrow. Her older brother just sputtered for a moment, hands still flinging about.

"I mean, yeah! It's definitely weird, but not worth looking into like this," he argued, voice getting all squeaky and stressed out. Owen's lips pursed at his behavior, deadpanning. As much as Gordon tried to act like a cool guy who didn't let shit get to him, he was still her older brother at the end of the day. He was trying to bring as much logic to this conversation as possible and keep his younger brother and sister out of harm's way – and a child-snatching, faceless man lurking in the woods definitely sounded harmful.

"Nancy's smart too, Gordon. She wouldn't be following through with this if it didn't seem like it was worth it," Owen replied, shrugging. "But look, if it would make you feel better, you can supervise this whole investigation. If anything seems weird at any point, I give you full permission to drag me and Law back home as soon as you want," she offered. Her comment still made Gordon's eyes nearly bug out of his skull, though.

"Investigation?" The older boy gasped dramatically. "There will be no investigation. It's probably just some trick of the lights, Owen. And once they get done in there, you'll see that-" The door cracking open and Nancy's head poking out put a halt to Gordon's reprimanding.

"You guys need to see this," Nancy murmured, her head ducking back inside of the room.

Cautious looks were exchanged between the three siblings before they all nearly piled up on one another trying to get into the room quickly. The door shut behind them, bathing everyone in that distinct, vivid red light. Jonathan was holding a container, eyes still fixated on whatever he was seeing within it. Each of the Webb kids came to peek around him, curious as to what would have both of them so shaken up.

"God, w-what the hell is that thing," Gordon breathed, being the first of the three to lay eyes on the picture from over Jonathan's shoulder. It was definitely not a trick of the light, as he had assumed just moments prior. Even worse, it looked so real and unlike anything he had ever seen before.

Whatever Jonathan had done to enhance the picture had certainly worked. Even in the dreadful red lighting flooding the dark room, Owen could see the sinewy ridges of the creature on full display. It stood tall behind Barb, making her look so small and helpless as it loomed behind her. And just as Nancy had described, the same wet-looking muscles wrapped around where the face would be. That increasingly familiar chill crawled up the back of Owen's neck, one of her hands reaching up to feel the goosebumps that had risen there.

"That's what I saw behind Steve's house," Nancy confirmed, speaking just above a whisper. The brunette looked back at the rest of the group, eyes darting between the three Webb siblings. "Jonathan thinks that that thing may have taken Will. A-and... it may have taken Barb, too," she added, her voice wobbly.

"Taken Will? But that state trooper just found-" Law started, speaking up for the first time since stepping into the darkroom.

"I know, but my mom is convinced that she can... feel him. She said that she can feel that he's alive and s-so close to us," Jonathan said with a raspy tone. "She doesn't think that it was Will's body that that state trooper found," he continued, looking back down at the picture.

"And if there's a chance that Will's alive, then..." Nancy trailed off, looking up and noticing Owen's eyes already on her, "Barb may be alive, too."

The two girls shared a look of hesitant optimism, feeling as though they may have just stumbled upon the best explanation for their friend's disappearance yet. However, both of them were fully aware that it was now going to be on them to get Barb back.