Six days ago, I was sprawled on the kitchen floor with Will, paper and crayons spread out all around us.

Now I was picking out his casket.

I hadn't let go of Jonathan's hand since we got out of the car ten minutes ago, afraid I would fall apart without the support. I couldn't wrap my mind around it; Mom had been so sure he'd come home… The funeral director brought us into a room full of those God awful boxes that they'd seal little Will up in forever, motioning towards the first one.

A tear ran down my face as he started to explain the materials, and I swiped it away quickly. Jonathan squeezed my hand, but it provided little comfort. I let him pull me along as he followed the director to the next box, running a hand along the edge of it as he began to explain that one.

"It's made of soft wood and a crepe interior. Uh, now, I… I don't know what your budget is, but over here, we… We have copper and bronze."

Jonathan sighed and I looked away. We definitely couldn't afford a casket that was deserving of my poor baby brother.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed someone appear in the doorway, and felt Jonathan stiffen.

"Can you just give us a second?"

Confused, I looked to see Nancy Wheeler standing awkwardly in the hallway.

"Of course," the man replied, and Jon dragged me out into the hall. Why he was putting this on hold for Nancy Wheeler of all people, I couldn't say.

"Hey." Jonathan spoke quietly, the same grief I felt weighing me down echoed on his face.

"Hey. Your mom, um… She said you'd be here. I just…" She took a deep breath. "Can we talk for a second?"

I looked to my twin, to see how he'd respond. Sure, Nancy seemed very… Tense. Maybe a little distraught. And obviously it was something big for her to come talk to us of all people, but we were in the middle of planning a funeral. I shuddered at the thought, and decided maybe it'd be ok to take a quick second to hear her out.

We all took a seat on one of the long benches against the wall, waiting for Nancy to spill what was wrong.

After a moment, she pulled a battered photo from her pocket.

"Uhm. S-so I saw this piece of Barb in your pictures from the other day," she started, not looking at either of us, her hands shaking. I remembered the pictures she was talking about. I also remembered her shitty boyfriend smashing my brother's camera. "And I grabbed a few of the other pieces and was able to piece it back together and… Well there's this- I don't really know, but I thought, maybe, it was from the camera? That maybe I was just… seeing things?"

Jon reached out slowly and Nancy passed the picture to him, which he held in between us so I could see what Nancy was talking about, too.

I frowned at noticing the looming shadow-like shape behind Barbara. That definitely didn't look like something that came from a camera or development.

"It looks like it could be some kind of perspective distortion, but I wasn't using the wide angle," Jonathan said, confirming my own thoughts. "I don't know. It's weird."

"And you're sure you didn't see anyone else out there?" Nancy asked. I felt bad suddenly for having felt such animosity towards her before. She really had done nothing to deserve it, and with the news of what happened… She was probably just even more worried about her missing friend. I know I would be.

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

"The cops think that she ran away. But they don't know Barb. And I went back to Steve's… And I thought I… Saw something. Some… Weird man, or- I don't know what it was." Nancy suddenly straightened and looked horribly embarrassed. "I'm sorry. I- I shouldn't have come here today. I'm… I'm so sorry." She stood to leave, when I called out.

"What'd he look like?" I remembered my mother stammering and yelling not long before about a horrible monster that was after Will and hiding in our walls. If that was the same thing Nancy saw, I wanted to know. I had to, for Mom and for Will.

"What?" She asked, turning back.

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

Nancy shook her head and took a deep breath. "I don't know. It was almost like he… he didn't have-"

"Didn't have a face?" Jonathan finished for her, sharing a meaningful look with me.

Nancy looked ashen as she spoke again. "How did you know that?"

That was how I found myself in the high school's dark room with my brother and Nancy frigging Wheeler. God, I was smoking a cigarette after this. First last night, and now… I couldn't even tell what my life had become.

"And you're…" Nancy trailed off, peering over Jon's shoulder.

"Brightening. Enlarging," he responded. As if there was nothing wrong with this God forsaken situation. For fuck's sake, they were supposed to be picking out Will's casket!

"Hmm. Did your mom say anything else? Like, uhm, where it might have gone to, or…"

"No, just that it came out of the wall," her brother responded. She watched him work silently, as she used to so often. But now she couldn't remember the last time they had just sat quietly in a dark room together. Work and school had just… Gotten in the way. And now Will…

A ding rang out, followed by a masculine sigh.

"How long does this take?" Nancy asked.

"Not long," Jon responded.

"Have you been… Doing this a while?"

Jo thought it was kinda funny how easily she slipped into the background when Nancy Wheeler was around.

"What?"

"Photography?" Nancy clarified.

Jonathan nodded as he stared down at the image that was soaking in chemicals. "Yeah. I guess I'd rather observe people than, you know… Talk to them. I know. It's weird."

"No! No, it isn't." Nancy wasn't fooling anyone, though, and Jonathan continued.

"It's just, sometimes… People don't really say what they're really thinking. But you capture the right moment… It says more."

Johanna smiled softly as she listened to their conversation. She was happy her brother had something so relaxing and easy to enjoy.

"What was I saying?"

"What?" She didn't know why he asked; her meaning was pretty obvious.

"When you took my picture."

A sigh broke past Jo's lips unwillingly. That… Had not been a fun day. She felt awful for her twin, and was super upset he lost his camera to that dick-face Steve Harrington, but at the same time… She had totally bitched him out for treating a woman so disrespectfully. No brother of hers was ever going to be a womanizing man-whore peeping Tom.

"I shouldn't have taken that," Jonathan said, verbalizing Jo's thoughts. "I'm, uh… I'm sorry. It's just-"

"That's it," Nancy said, cutting him off. Jo pushed off against the wall she was leaning against to creep closer and take a look. "That's what I saw."

Jo's line of sight finally broke the edge of the basin and landed on the creature in the picture, her blood going cold.

"My mom… I thought she was crazy 'cause she said… that's not Will's body. That he's alive."

Johanna could hardly hear anything at all, it was as if all the blood was rushing around in her head, trying to drown out the picture that was already permanently etched into her brain.

"And if he's alive-" Nancy started.

"Then Barbara-"

"Holy fucking shit."