WORD COUNT : 3.1k

Owen had been standing in front of the mirror in her room much longer than she ever had. She had tugged and twisted the black dress every which way, just trying to make it look even a little acceptable. Owen didn't own many dresses that would be suitable for a funeral, much less one that would be suitable for a funeral. So, she had found one of their mother's dresses that was tucked away in a box in the back of a closet. Unfortunately, the dress stopped around the ankle and hung in that unflattering, shapeless way that all dresses did back in the 70s. But it had to work. It was all she had. Finally giving up and concluding that the dress was a lost cause, Owen stepped away from the mirror and looked through her closet for a pair of shoes to wear.

"Gordon said you've gotta get your ass in the car or we'll all be late," Law announced, standing in the doorway to his sister's room. Owen knew that those had to have been Gordon's exact words, making her roll her eyes despite having her head stuck in the closet.

"Yeah well, tell Gordon to come in here and find a pair of shoes for me to wear, then," she quipped, making a mental note to organize her closet at some point. Owen heard Law's footsteps retreating from her room, likely on his way to wait for her in the car too.

Finally, her eyes landed on a pair of black flats that had been tossed towards the back. When the family had moved in a month ago, none of them were prioritizing funeral clothing, that's for sure. Owen slipped her feet into the shoes, noticing that they just barely fit. They were probably some shoes that she had picked out in middle school and never gotten rid of – thankfully. She took one final, unimpressed look in the mirror, releasing a deep sigh before grabbing the dark cardigan that was hanging off of her bed frame and heading out the door.

The passenger seat of Gordon's car was waiting for her when she walked out, doing her best to ignore the looks on her brothers' faces through the windshield. When Owen swung the door to the car open, she could hear both of the boys doing a terrible job at stifling their laughter. She slid into her seat with a grimace on her face, buckling herself in.

"Shut the hell up, would you? We're headed to a funeral. It's not exactly comedy hour," Owen grumbled, choosing to look out of her window rather than at either of the boys. But her point did nothing to stop the giggles resonating from the front and back of the car.

"Yeah, you're right. We're headed to a funeral. Not a middle school chorus concert," Gordon retorted, chuckling at his own joke. Owen delivering a solid whack to his chest quickly put an end to his laughter. Law's fist came to cover the upturned corners of his lips, just trying to make sure that Owen didn't reach back and smack him too.

✯

The bright, early morning sun was doing nothing to keep the funeral attendants warm. Owen's fingers were practically frozen around the single white rose in her hand, regretting not grabbing a pair of mittens or something on the way out the door. The entire group was huddled together around Will Byers' grave, listening attentively to the words of the pastor standing in front of them. However, Owen couldn't stop herself from peeking around at everyone who had showed up, curiosity getting the best of her.

As expected, Jonathan was sitting up front between who Owen could only assume were his mother and father. Jonathan's mom looked like she hadn't been processing this well at all, her eyes staring blankly at the casket in front of the group. Nancy was standing a few paces away with her family – including her younger brother, whom Owen had only heard about till then. He was standing next to two other boys who looked to be about the same age. Owen's heart clenched when she remembered Nancy mentioning that her younger brother was best friends with Jonathan's younger brother. If she had to guess, that whole group had probably been best friends with Will. Owen tore her eyes away from the group of boys, feeling horrible about them going through a loss like that at such a young age.

Once the funeral came to an end, everyone began making their rounds to speak to the Byers. Law peeked at Owen, his fingers fidgeting with the buttons on his nicest shirt.

"Should we go talk to them," Law asked nervously.

"Um, maybe not his parents but..." Owen replied, trailing off as her eyes searched for Jonathan through the crowd. Her eyes caught Nancy's through all of the dark coats and dresses. The small brunette was already standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Jonathan, much deeper within the graveyard. Both of them tried to subtly wave the Webb kids over, not wanting to draw any unnecessary attention. "There they are. C'mon," Owen murmured, leading her brothers towards Nancy and Jonathan. The three of them pushed upstream through the families that were filing out of the graveyard in search of warmth.

By the time Gordon, Owen, and Law made it over, Jonathan and Nancy were already settled on the ground against a fence-enclosed grave. The fence provided some level of privacy from anyone else who may be looking to talk to Will's older brother.

"So, what're we looking at," Owen inquired. The siblings took a seat on the cold grass, suddenly very intrigued by the map in Jonathan's hand. He handed it over, a determined look on his face. Owen turned the piece of paper around so that Gordon and Law could see, examining everything closely.

"So, this is everywhere that we know for sure it has been," Jonathan explained, making sense of the three red x's placed along the map. They were all within a pretty short distance of one another, in the shape of a triangle.

"I see Steve's house, but what about the other two," Owen wondered, looking up at Jonathan and Nancy.

"One is in the woods where they found Will's bike and the other one is at my house," he replied.

"They're all really close together," Nancy pointed out, eyebrows furrowed in thought.

"Yeah, within a mile of each other," Jonathan nodded in agreement, "Whatever this thing is... it's not traveling far."

Gordon had taken the map into his own hands, studying it pretty closely. "So, you guys wanna do something before it moves too far out of this triangle," he concluded, light eyes peering up to look between Jonathan and Nancy.

"We might not find anything," Jonathan reminded all of them, not wanting anyone to get their hopes up about locating this thing.

"I found something," Nancy made sure to point out, though. "And if we do see it..." her voice trailed off, getting small. Her eyebrows knocked together, a worried look on her face. "Then what?" Nancy glanced up, searching for an answer from the group. None of them even knew what they were up against, struggling to give an answer that seemed worthwhile.

Jonathan looked around, remembering where they were and what brought them here in the first place. If his mom was right, then this thing is what took Will. This creature with no face could have just forced him and his mom to have a funeral for their little boy who may still be out there. Knowing that Will could be out there, lost and afraid, caused anger to burn up Jonathan's throat and nearly spill out in the form of hot tears.

"Then we kill it," Jonathan gritted out, lips twisting tightly to hold those tears back. Nobody in the group knew what to say to that, but they all knew that he was right. Clearly, this thing was dangerous and needed to be stopped in order to prevent terrible things from happening to more kids in Hawkins. But even Gordon was a little freaked out by the prospect of having to take this thing down.

"Kill it how," Law wondered aloud, not really believing that any of them had what it takes to really kill something like this. He too had seen the picture in the dark room and that faceless creature was huge. It would take more than a simple fist fight to take it down. The youngest member of the group certainly had made a point. His question had everyone considering their options.

"Here, I have an idea," Jonathan spoke up, standing to his feet. He outstretched a hand to help Nancy to her feet as well. Then, he began zigzagging through the graveyard, heading towards the small gravel parking lot nearby. The rest of the group followed behind, checking to make sure that nobody was paying close enough attention to ask any questions. Jonathan led everyone towards an unfamiliar dark car that was tucked away in the shade of the trees overhead.

"This is my dad's car," Jonathan revealed, tugging the passenger door open once they got close enough. The boy slid into the passenger seat, pulling a Swiss Army knife from his pocket. "He's a total asshole, so don't feel too bad," he mumbled without further explanation. But he didn't need to go much further with the story once he began picking the lock on the glove box.

"What are you doing," Nancy pressed, concern written all over her face.

"Just give me a second," Jonathan insisted quickly, remaining focused on the task at hand. It wasn't long before the door popped open and Jonathan reached inside, pulling out a revolver. Owen and Law's eyes turned to saucers, immediately snapped to Gordon in order to see his response. However, his reaction was nothing compared to the way that Nancy stared, slack-jawed with her eyebrows bunched together.

"Are you serious?" The small brunette all but gasped, arms tightening across her chest. The way that she bristled at the sight of the gun had no effect on Jonathan, however, as he shoved some extra bullets into the pocket of his jacket.

"What? You want to find this thing and take another photo? Yell at it?" Jonathan argued, impatiently. He was moving quickly now, grabbing all that he could fit into his pockets before slamming the glove box shut again.

"This is a terrible idea," Nancy muttered while Jonathan stood from the car and shut the door behind him.

"She's right. You're gonna need more than a little gun like that to stop something of that size," Gordon sighed, always the voice of reason. "I mean, would you wanna go bear hunting with a handgun?" But Jonathan just grew annoyed at the points that Gordon was making, releasing a big huff and whipping around to face him.

"Yeah, well, it's the best we've got," Jonathan retorted, shrugging.

"Maybe we should tell someone and get some extra help," Law offered, still believing that they were going to be able to do this with a revolver and some spite.

"Nobody would believe us," Owen sighed, shocked that she was actually taking Jonathan's side on this.

"Your mom would," Nancy blurted, knowing that Jonathan's mom had seen the exact same thing that she had. If any adult would believe them and be willing to help, it would certainly be Ms. Byers.

"She's been through enough, though. I mean, with Will's funeral..." Jonathan said sympathetically, arm waving towards the graveyard behind them.

"She deserves to know," Nancy stated stubbornly. But she wasn't just acting like this to be difficult. She was acutely aware of how lonely it felt when she felt like the only one who knew this faceless thing existed. Everyone that she had mentioned it to dismissed her claims or made her think that she may have been incorrect about what she saw. Nancy was certain that Joyce Byers had been having the same issue and didn't want her to go through another moment of thinking she was crazy for seeing that thing.

"Yeah, and I'll tell her... when this thing is dead," Jonathan compromised, not wanting to put his mother through any kind of false hope in case they didn't find and kill that thing. The boy turned to look at the rest of the group before he spoke again. "We need to do this tonight. Like you said, we gotta move fast before this thing gets too far," he nodded.

Owen and Gordon peeked at each other warily from the corner of their eyes, lips pursing. The two of them looked back at Nancy and Jonathan with nearly identical sheepish expressions. Law had been having a tough time with all of this new information recently – everything from the disappearances, to Owen's story about getting questioned by the police, Will Byers' death and his following funeral, and now a faceless creature on the loose. He had begged for a trip to the movies last night after they got home from the dark room, still very shaken up from what he had seen in that developed photo. Neither of his older siblings could decline, wanting nothing more than a simple evening for him.

"We already had plans to go see All the Right Moves tonight," Owen confessed, eyes snapping towards Law in hopes that they would pick up on the subtle explanation. "Everything's just been so weird lately, I think I may just need to sit in the dark and drool over Tom Cruise for a few hours," she continued, taking the fall for their absence. Nancy and Jonathan gave her a dubious look, not sure how to feel about having to suddenly take on this huge job when it was just the two of them.

"But what about-" Nancy started.

"We're really sorry, guys. Owen's just a huge Tom Cruise fan and would hate to miss seeing this one in theaters," Gordon lied, giving a lopsided smile. "Like Jonathan said, there probably won't even be a monster out there to fight. Nothing to worry about," the oldest of the Webb kids reassured, giving a thumbs up.

"We'll see you guys tomorrow okay?" Owen nodded, giving an encouraging smile. The siblings all turned to leave, desperately in need of some warmth. "I'm so sorry," Owen mouthed over Law's shoulder. Nancy and Jonathan let out a couple of troubled sighs and waved dejectedly, watching the three others walk back to their car.

"We've got this," Nancy breathed, trying to convince herself and Jonathan that that was true.

✯

"Look, I'm not saying that he didn't deserve that scholarship, but-" Owen sighed, walking into the movie theater lobby alongside Gordon and Law.

"That's exactly what you said, though! In fact, I'm pretty sure the word you used was 'nepotism'," Gordon playfully fired back. Owen chuckled, knowing that he was absolutely right. She had called Stef 'a literal product of nepotism' as soon as the credits began to roll. Gordon and Law began to laugh along with her, knowing that she had no choice but to abandon her argument.

"Look, Steve! It's your best friend!" A familiar, but agitating, grating voice called out from behind, followed by that dreadful cackle. Owen stopped in her tracks, any sign of laughter dropping from her face. Slowly, she turned, dreading who she was going to see standing behind her. 

Sure enough, it was Tommy Hagan who she had heard, accompanied by Carol and Steve, as usual. Owen gave Gordon a quick look, letting him know they could just wait for her in the car. The older boy nodded, wrapping an arm around Law's shoulders and pushing through the doors and onto the streets of downtown Hawkins. Owen whirled back around, giving Steve and the others a stony expression.

"Do you three not bother me enough while we're at school? We're working overtime now?" Owen sighed, hands placed on her hips.

"Where's Nancy? Seems like you two have been attached at the hip lately," Carol smirked, still smacking that gum in her mouth. God, hasn't anyone taught her to chew with her mouth shut, Owen wondered.

"Figured Steve would know where she is," Owen replied, her jaw jutting out. There was no way Nancy would have told Steve where exactly she was that evening. He probably would have lost his damn mind if he knew that his girlfriend was out monster hunting in the woods with Jonathan Byers, of all people.

"Nancy blew him off," Tommy divulged, grinning from ear to ear.

"She didn't blow me off," Steve corrected, scoffing at the idea that someone would even do something like that.

"She totally blew him off," Carol nodded, a brow arching and framing that knowing look in her eye. Owen's lips tightened into a lackluster smile, arms coming up to cross over her chest. Her hands tucked away into the warm pits of her huge patterned sweatshirt.

"Well, sounds like Nancy is finally coming to her senses," Owen quipped, fixing her gaze on Steve. The comment had Tommy chortling and clutching at Steve's shoulder as he laughed. However, that wasn't what Owen was focused on. She watched as insecurity flashed across Steve's eyes for just a moment before dissipating completely. It was once again replaced by blind confidence and pure annoyance, pointed directly at Owen.

"And now that you've all noticed that my girlfriend tracking abilities are out of order, my brothers are waiting for me in the car," she shrugged, already beginning to walk backwards out of the conversation. Finally, Owen just spun around and headed out through the doors in order to reunite with Gordon and Law. The air outside was brutally cold now, with night having fallen while they were in the movie.

Footsteps approached so quickly behind her that she didn't even have time to react before someone's hand was wrapping around her wrist. The grip on her was used as leverage to swiftly spin her around, a gasp erupting from her lips in the process. Suddenly, she was standing nearly chest-to-chest with Steve, his breath coming out in visible huffs due to the chilly weather. He had apparently ran to catch up with her before she got to the car, leaving Carol and Tommy still inside the theater.

"I'm not just some good for nothing asshole like you think," Steve murmured. He had that same unreadable look in his eye that Owen had seen on that night of the party. But the unknown behind his dark eyes didn't cause her to falter one bit.

"Oh yeah? Then prove it," Owen hissed, yanking her arm away from his grip. She turned her back on him yet again, finishing the rest of her walk to Gordon's car. She slipped inside the car, not casting another look Steve's way as he watched her leave.