I leaned against a tree, smoking a cigarette, watching Jonathan try to shoot the cans he set up on stumps. He wasn't doing very good so far; he hadn't hit a single can.
I dragged in a lungful of smoke, swallowing and blowing it back out.
"You're supposed to hit the cans, right?"
I flicked off the ash and looked towards where Nancy walked into the clearing.
"No, actually, you see the spaces in between the cans? I'm aiming for those," Jonathan chuckled.
"Ah," Nancy said, looking around before finding me and sending an awkward wave my way. I waved back and took another drag, enjoying the feeling of the nicotine traveling down to my fingers, making my headache go away.
"You ever shot a gun before?" Jon asked her as she stepped up next to him.
Nancy scoffed, a wry smile on her face. "Have you met my parents?"
I smiled, flicking off ash again. "Yeah, I haven't shot one since I was ten. My dad took my hunting on my birthday. He made me kill a rabbit," Jon said. I remembered that day; it was awful for my poor brother. I had been stuck in the house, not allowed to do 'men things,' while my shit excuse for a father forced Jon to kill a rabbit. He cried for a week, half of it spent in my arms. Which he continued to explain to Nancy.
"Jesus," she replied, looking surprised.
"What? I'm a fan of Thumper." Jon smiled at Nancy, and I frowned. I knew he had a crush on Nancy, how could I not? I was worried for him- I felt like this was only going to end badly; maybe for all of us.
If we were wrong... We actually just buried our baby brother. And Nancy, she'd have no leads on Barbara anymore. And even if we weren't wrong, Nancy would leave and stop talking to us again- or more accurately, stop talking to Jonathan- and then Jon would be possibly heartbroken. And honestly, I didn't know how to handle that.
I look back and Nancy's aiming the gun. To my utter surprise, she knocked the can right off the stump. Even the laugh they share afterwards shocks me.
What the hell had my life become?
I walked behind Nancy and Jon that night in the forest, listening to them argue over what she was saying in her picture. And then Nancy brought up Steve, and Jonathan of course got defensive and just a little jealous.
"You know what? Forget it. I just thought it was a good picture."
I rolled my eyes, flicking ash off my second cigarette of the day. Jesus, at this rate I was going to turn into my mother by Christmas.
"He's actually a good guy," Nancy tried to defend.
Jonathan didn't seem to buy it- good man- and stammered, "Okay."
"Yesterday, with the camera... He's not like that at all. He was just being protective." Nancy continued.
I took a deep inhale as Jonathan replied. "Yeah, that's one word for it."
"Oh, and I guess what you did was okay?" Nancy shot back. I would have gotten into it, but I figured the two of them needed their little argument to work shit out, like two grown ass adults. So instead I just kept smoking my cig.
"No, I... I never said that."
"He had every right to be pissed," Nancy continued. This was turning into a right drama show right here in front of me.
"Okay, all right. Does that mean I have to like him?"
"I don't like him either," I threw in with a puff of smoke. They ignored me.
"Listen, don't take it so personally, okay? I don't like most people. He's in the vast majority." Jonathan shrugged.
"You know, I was actually starting to think that you were okay," Nancy said, her tone stiff. I got the feeling that things were about to go downhill, so I tuned them out as best I could and actually focused on what we were there for in the first place. Looking for this bitch who took my brother and Barbara.
The sun was getting lower in the sky, casting pretty shadows on the floor. Since Barbara went missing the other night at Steve's house, and Dustin had last seen Will after dark, I assumed that meant we'd be looking at night for this thing. Which wasn't a comforting thought in the least- I mean, fighting a monster in the daytime was one thing, but...
The two in front of me fell silent and I quickly looked at them to see if something was wrong. Everything was fine, except for maybe their teenage hormones and tempers. Fragile feelings, and all that shit.
"Are you two done with your pissing contest? I'd like to get back to the problem at hand here. Yeah, yeah, Steve's kinda a dick to some people, not to others, blah blah, big deal. Let's put that aside for tonight though, yeah? We need to find this thing, and end it."
Nancy and Jonathan had stopped to turn and look at me as I spoke, and now they shared a tense look before nodding.
"Okay. Let's do this then."
It was dark now. Like, really dark. And my feet were starting to hurt. My shoes were worn too thin for this crap. Suddenly Nancy stopped in front of me, and I almost ran right into her.
"What, are you tired?"
"Shut up," Nancy said.
"I'm tired," I said, looking at Jon.
"I heard something."
The three of us immediately started looking around, trying to hear what Nancy heard. I could feel my heart speed up in my chest but I tried to keep my breathing low and even so I could focus on the sounds around me. A whimper broke through the usual noises of the forest at night, causing a chill to run across my skin.
Jonathan lead us closer to the noise as it continued until we came across a bleeding deer.
"Oh, God," Nancy sighed as I cringed and covered my mouth, looking away.
"It's been hit by a car," Nancy said softly, "We can't just leave it."
She lifted the gun towards the animal, but hesitated, causing Jon to put a hand on her wrist.
"I'll do it."
I watched in shock as Jonathan took the gun from her and aimed it at the deer, breathing heavily.
"Jon-" I started, but cut off in a shriek as the deer was ripped away into the darkness. "OH MY GOD!" I screamed.
"What was that?" Nancy gasped. "Where'd it go?!"
"I don't know," Jonathan said. "Do you see anymore blood?"
"Are you kidding? The thing was just ripped away from under our noses! Why isn't anyone else freaking out about this?!" I yelled.
"No, I don't!" Nancy said, searching the ground.
Jonathan and Nancy started walking in different directions, ignoring me as I yelled at them to wait. Nancy, being the one still in sight, is who I decided to follow. Unfortunately.
We walked for maybe a minute before Nancy stopped. "Do you see that?"
Following the line of her finger, I noticed the weird, slightly glowing, opening at the bottom of the tree.
"No. Nu uh, Nancy-"
"Jonathan?" She called, looking around. When she got no answer she shrugged off her bag and threw that at the ground. "Here, take this."
She handed me the bat and my eyes grew wide. "You're insane! You're not going in there? Wheeler, tell me- Oh my God, you're going in there." I ran the hand not holding the bat through my hair. "She's going in. Oh God, this is how we die." I knelt down on the ground and crawled in behind Nancy.
The second I stood up on the other side of the tree, I knew everything was wrong. It was dark, cold, empty... Little white flakes floated through the air.
"Is that... Snow?" I whispered, spinning around to take in our surroundings. i caught sight of Nancy, standing stock still, and then the monster a few yards in front of her. Eating that poor bastard deer.
And then fucking Nancy Wheeler stepped on that damn twig.
The monster turned towards us and let out the most terrifying noise I had ever heard, and we screamed. Screamed, and took off running.
"OH MY GOD I TOLD YOU WE SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE THIS! HOLY SHIT! HOLY SHIT! WE'RE DEAD!"
"Just keep running!" Nancy yelled back, grasping my hand and pulling me along.
"Nancy? Jo!"
My head swiveled around at the distorted sound of my brother. "JON!?"
"JO!"
"JONATHAN!" Nancy yelled, looking all over, but he was nowhere here. "Jonathan! I'm right here! I'm right... I'm right here! Where are you?"
"I'm right here!" We heard back.
"Jonathan!" I yelled.
"I'm right here! Follow my voice! Jo!"
We stopped and spun around in circles, screaming our heads off to each other.
"What the hell is this place?" I demanded.
Nancy gasped suddenly, paired with a growl I never wanted to hear again, and took my hand once more. "Come on!"
"Nancy! Follow my voice!"
We ran until we found the tree from earlier, and Nancy practically threw herself to the ground, shoving her hand through. "HURRY!" I yelled, turning around and watching the monster come towards us. Raising the bat over my shoulder, I yelled once more. "Nancy!"
"Come on!" A hand grabbed my ankle and I spun around, throwing myself towards the hole just as the monster reached where I had been standing. I was halfway through when I felt sharp claws grasp my ankle and sink in. Shrieking, I pulled myself farther through, seeing Jonathan grabbing my arms and tugging.
"It's got me!" I cried. "Help! It's got my leg!"
Nancy scrambled over and grabbed my other arm, pulling so hard she was practically horizontal. "Pull harder!" She yelled at Jon.
"I am!"
I felt as the claws tore through my skin and finally lost their grasp, and the three of us went flying to the ground in a heap. I shot up and turned around to watch as the hole literally stitched itself back together.
"What... The fuck..." I said, gasping for air, "Was that?"