Jon and I went home that night, the unsettling feeling of what we had discovered earlier that day hanging on our shoulders. Unfortunately for us, the shocking discoveries were only starting.
"Hey, kids." Lonnie fucking Byers said as we walked in.
"What's going on?" The malice in Jonathan's voice felt pretty fitting for the mood, I couldn't lie.
Mom shuffled uncomfortably on the couch. "Your dad's, uh, gonna stay here tonight. On the couch."
I scoffed. Damn straight, on the couch.
"Yeah, I'm here as long as you need me, ok? How are you two holding up?" Lonnie asked. As if he fucking cared.
Jon turned to look at something else, and I followed his gaze, noticing a giant hole in the wall all covered up. Something heavy sank in my gut.
"What happened?" He asked.
"Don't worry about that," Lonnie said. As if we'd listen to him. Which, of course, Jonathan didn't.
"Mom... That thing you saw before, did it come back?"
I turned my attention to my mother's haggard face, waiting for her answer.
"Jonathan, that's enough."
"Don't tell us what's enough and what's not. You have no idea what's going on here." My father who had never acted like it a day in his life turned a glare on me as my brother cut in.
"Can we talk? Alone?"
At first, I thought he was talking to Mom. I was ready to tell her everything, even though Jon didn't seem too inclined. Which made no sense, she needed to know. To know she wasn't crazy- that her son might really still be alive...
But then Lonnie stood up, and I watched as he and my twin left the room.
Mom put her face in her hands, rubbing her temples. It had been a hell of a long day for her, I was sure. So I went and sat next to her on the couch, rubbing her back and wrapping an arm around her shoulder.
"Everything's going to be fine," I said, instead of all the things I was mentally screaming at her. I believe you! I wanted to scream. We saw it! We're going to find it! We're going to find Will!
But instead, I just repeated it again. "Everything's fine."
I stared at myself in the mirror, decked in black. I hated black.
The stockings were itchy, and the high collared dress was too tight around my throat. I felt like I couldn't breathe; like it was choking the life from me. And my awful black boots- the only black shoes I owned- were too old and too tight as well. I couldn't feel my pinkie toes, and I had only put them on five minutes ago.
Somehow, despite the new hope I was trying not to cling to like a small child to her mother, I still felt like this was it. That this was the end to an era.
Like I was saying goodbye to my baby brother for the last time.
My shoulders shuddered with the sudden urge to cry and scream and vomit. I didn't want to say goodbye! I never wanted to! It wasn't fair; where the fuck was my brother? I wanted him back. Right. Now.
A knock sounded on my door and I whipped around to look at it as Jon peeked his head in.
"You ready?" He asked, looking about as ready as I felt.
"Fuck no," I responded, but threw my purse strap over my head anyways. "Let's get this over with."
The car ride to the cemetery was torture. We took Lonnie's car, since Mom didn't seem in the headspace to drive. I mean, how could she be? She was about to watch as someone buried her baby. Or at least... looked like him. Hopefully.
I didn't pay much attention to what Pastor Charles was saying, staring down at my scuffed boots to avoid looking at the casket we had quickly picked out before rushing to the dark room at the school. Jonathan stood just beside me, holding my hand tight just like the day before. We tried to ignore our father.
Even though I was hardly listening, and the words were just flowing through one ear and out the other, I hoped he was right. That there was a God, and that He would help bring Will home safely. I hadn't ever been much one for religion before, but neither had I been one to lean so heavily on such little hope as I was now.
I guess people really do change.
Nancy, Jonathan, and I sat against the cemetery fence after the ceremony, going over the facts and next steps.
"This is where we know for sure it's been, right? So, that's-"
"Steve's house," Nancy cut in as Jon pointed at a spot circled on his map.
Jon pointed to another red circle. "And that's the woods where they found Will's bike, and... That's my house."
"It's all so close," I said quietly, feeling more than a little freaked out. And also like a third wheel. I mean, honestly, did they have to lean so close and talk like that? Finishing each other's sentences and crap?
"Yeah," Jon said. "Exactly. I mean, it's all with a mile or something. Whatever this thing is, it's... It's not traveling far."
Now, they usually say that twins have a mind link, or some bullshit. Well, apparently, the only person Jon has a mind link with, is Nancy fucking Wheeler. And he's only talked to her for like, two days.
"You want to go out there," she says.
"What?" I asked, incredulous. "No way!"
"We might not find anything," he reassures me.
"I found something," Nancy replies. "And if we do see it... then what?"
My brother breathed a huge sigh before answering. "We kill it."
"With what?"
"No. No way." I said, arms crossed as we stood at my father's car.
"What are you doing?" Nancy asked as Jon riffles through it.
"Just give me a second." Nancy seems to notice the gun in his hands now, and gasps.
"Are you serious?"
"What? You want to find this thing and take another photo? Yell at it?"
With a sigh of my own, I agree. "He's got a point."
"This is a terrible idea," Nancy counters.
"Then go home," I mutter, unable to keep my temper from showing. God, what I would do for a cigarette right now.
"Yeah, well," Jon says as if he hadn't heard me, but I know he did. "It's the best we've got." At Nancy's eyeroll, he continues. "What? You can tell someone, but they're not gonna believe you. You know that."
"Your mom would," Nancy snapped.
"She's been through enough," Jon answered.
"I don't know, Jon... What if something happens? She'd never know. Maybe it'd be good for her; to know someone else believes her."
"She deserves to know," Nancy added.
"Yeah, and I'll tell her. When this thing is dead."