Chapter Fifteen: Teaming Up

(The Body, Pt. 4)

***

Rowan knocked on the door of the Wheelers' house.

"Hello? Mrs. Wheeler?"  Rowan asked. When there was no response, she knocked louder. "Hello?! Anyone home?"

Again, nobody answered.

Rowan sighed, and turned to leave when the door opened, revealing Mrs. Wheeler on the other side.

The woman looked Rowan up and down, before recognition dawned in her eyes.

"Oh! Your Alistair's sister" she said. She looked at Rowan again, sympathy in her gaze. "God, how is he doing? It's been hard for Mike, can't imagine what it's been like for your brother."

"He's... coping as well as you'd expect," Rowan said, more curtly than intended. Mrs. Wheeler arched a brow and the teen sighed. "Look, I... I wanted to check up on Mike and see how he's going. Nancy as well, since Barb's gone missing, too."

Mrs. Wheeler's gaze softened. "That's very sweet. Mike's in his room, and Nancy's in hers."

Rowan smiled. "Great. Thanks, Mrs. Wheeler."

Rowan walked in, bounding up the stairs—which was weird, since she usually went down the stairs into the Wheelers' basement to drag Alistair up and away from the campaign so he could be taken home and into a shower. She went to Mike's room first, and frowned at seeing it empty.

"Weird," she muttered, closing the door; if Mike was gone and didn't want his mom to notice, then Rowan wasn't going to betray that.

She moved on to Nancy's room, about to open the door when it swung open, revealing Nancy on the other side.

She frowned. "Uh, hey, Rowan."

"Hey, Nancy,"  Rowan replied. Fiddling with her shirt's hem, she said, "I just wanted to say, I'm sorry, about Barb. I... I hope she's found soon, and that it won't be how they found Will."

Something crossed Nancy's face, and she said in a thready voice, "Thanks."

The two girls stood in awkward silence. Rowan looked at Nancy, saw the look on her face, the uncertainty of where Barb was, the worry on her face, the fear she could be dead. The want to know where she was and find her.

Rowan bit her lip. It isn't fair to keep her in the dark like this.

Rowan cleared her throat and began, "Nance, I—"

"You noticed Barb was missing, too, right?" Nancy asked abruptly.

"Uh, yeah. I even asked Eddie and his friends if they saw her yesterday. They hadn't, by the way," Rowan answered.

"And yesterday, you looked really worried when you saw the picture of Barb Jonathan took."

"... Yeah," Rowan admitted. She frowned. "Nance, what are you getting at?"

Nancy didn't say anything, only grabbed her hand and started walking down the hallway.

"Nancy, what are you doing?" Rowan asked, pulling her hand out of Nancy's hand just as they were about to descend the stairs.

Nancy looked at her, and finally gave her an answer.

"Following up on a hunch."

"Yeah, but why are you taking me with you?" she pressed, crossing her arms. "Barb's my Chemistry partner and I'm worried about her, but I'm... I'm not her friend."

"No," Nancy conceded, then added on, "But... do you want to find her as well?"

"Yes." No hesitation.

"Then we're going to find her."

"How, Nance? With a ripped up photograph?" Rowan asked, unable to keep the sarcasm out.

Nancy shook her head. "I told you. We're following up on a hunch."

Rowan frowned, but decided to follow after Nancy, to see if this hunch could have them find Barb.

She hoped they would.

***

One drive and a detour to the Byers' later, Rowan was in the place where Nancy's hunch was.

Said hunch was looking at coffins, looking visibly distraught. Rowan's heart twisted. She couldn't imagine looking at coffins for Alistair.

Jonathan looked up, noticing them. He looked at the funeral home owner and asked, "Can you give me a sec?"

The funeral home owner nodded. "Of course."

He then left to give them some privacy as Jonathan walked up to them, not meeting their eyes. He looked briefly at Rowan, then looked away, as if expecting Rowan's anger. She wasn't, not anymore.

"Hey," Nancy said.

"Hey," Jonathan replied.

Rowan only waved and gave a thin smile.

"Your mom, um... she said you'd be here," Nancy said. She looked at Rowan, then back at Jonathan as she added, "I just..."

She inhaled and asked, "Can we talk for a second?"

Jonathan shrugged. "Sure."

Together, the trio went to a bench and sat down as Nancy showed Jonathan the photo, now pieced together with tape. She pointed to a figure in the photo, a figure that wasn't Barb, that loomed above her.

Rowan felt her heart stutter in her chest.

No.

It couldn't be the monster. Because the monster was something she'd only seen in her dreams, a creature conjured from the depths of her mind, that only lurked in her darkest nightmares. It couldn't be real.

And yet here it was, in a photo, standing above Barb, it's face-mouth closed tight.

Rowan felt the electricity simmer underneath her skin, the whirring of her cells itching to disperse and form back together somewhere else, somewhere safer. She tamped it down, focusing on the cool, uncomfortable wooden bench beneath her instead.

"What do you think it is?" Nancy asked, snapping Rowan out of her thoughts.

"I mean, it could be some kind of perspective distortion," Jonathan theorised, squinting at the photo. "I wasn't using the wide angle. I don't know. It's weird."

He looked at Rowan. "What do you think?"

Rowan blinked. "Why're you asking me? I'm not a photographer."

"I know, but another set of eyes can see things differently," Jonathan reasoned. Rowan sighed and took the photo, squinting.

"I agree with Jonathan; looks like it could be some distorted perspective of a bear or something," Rowan said.

Nancy frowned. "You're sure?"

"I don't know, Nance, I'm not a photographer. It looks weird as shit, okay?" Rowan said, frustration and fear making her snappish as she handed the photo back, looking down as she sighed. God, she needed a smoke.

Nancy looked at her oddly, then back at Jonathan. "And you're sure you didn't see anyone else out there?"

"No," he answered. "She was there one second, and then, um... gone. I figured she bolted."

Rowan pressed her lips together, looking away.

"The cops think she ran away," Nancy spoke, drawing Rowan's attention back to the brunette. "But they don't know Barb. And I went back to Steve's, and I thought I saw... something."

Rowan frowned. "What? What did you see?'

"Some weird man, or... I don't know what I saw," Nancy answered, making Rowan's frown deepen, and Jonathan's own brows to pinch together.

The brunette then got an apologetic look on her face and she stood up.

"I'm sorry," she apologised. "I...I shouldn't have come here today, and I shouldn't have dragged you along with me, Rowan. I'm so sorry."

She turned to walk away when Jonathan questioned, "What'd he look like?"

Nancy looked back, frowning. "What?"

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

Nancy looked down, and stammered, "I-I don't know. It was almost like he... he didn't have—"

"Didn't have a face," Rowan and Jonathan finished in unison.

Nancy frowned, looking at them both quizzically. "How did you both know that?"

"My mom, she... last night, she said she saw a monster come through the wall. That it didn't have a face," Jonathan explained. He then looked at Rowan curiously. "How did you know?"

Rowan thinned her lips, then said vaguely, "I thought I saw something like it... in a dream. I... I didn't think it was real."

Nancy and Jonathan looked at her suspiciously, while Rowan resolutely looked ahead, praying that they wouldn't ask more questions.

As the silence stretched, she looked at Jonathan and asked, "Do you... do you think you could do something that might show it more clearly?"

Jonathan frowned, then nodded. "Yeah, I think I do."

"Okay. So... what do we do and where do we do it, Byers?" Rowan questioned.

Jonathan furrowed his brows, then said, "I know where."

Standing up, he walked to the entrance. Rowan stood and followed after Jonathan, ignoring the look Nancy was giving her. Rowan hoped that looking for Barb would overtake any questions and suspicions Nancy had.

Especially since it now seemed something... not natural had been behind her disappearance, and maybe behind Will's. Something that connected with El and her dreams.

Something that involved a monster with a toothy flower petal mouth for a face.

Now, they only needed to make the figure in clearer Jonathan's photo to figure that out.

***

Rowan leaned against the wall, looking around the dark room in Hawkins High as Jonathan worked on "brightening and enlarging" the photo while Nancy hovered by his side, eyeing the red light in the supposed "dark" room.

"Hey, Jonathan," she asked, drawing his and Nancy's attention and stopping their conversation.

"Yeah?"

"I have a question," she went on. Pointing to the light, she asked, "Why do they call it the dark room, if there's red light? Wouldn't it make more sense to just call it the red light room?"

Now Jonathan was the one frowning. "Uh, it's because natural light is bad, and you need it to be dark as possible to develop the photos. The red light is a kinda safe light."

Rowan stared, then looked away and shrugged. "Makes more sense to call it the red light room."

The other two teens looked away, resuming their conversation.

"So... did your mom say anything else about it? Like um, where it might have gone to, or..." Nancy began, but Jonathan shook his head.

"No, just that it came out of the wall."

A couple of machines dinged, startling Rowan. "Jesus! I thought photography was a quiet hobby!"

Jonathan wore a wry grin. "Yeah, it's often not."

Rowan sighed. "Myth debunked, then. Myth debunked!"

Jonathan was still smiling as he returned back to his work, as Nancy asked, "How long does this take?"

"Not long," Jonathan answered.

Nancy bit her lip and questioned, "Have you been doing this a while?"

"What?"

"Photography?"

"Yeah," Jonathan answered. "I guess I'd rather observe people, than, you know..."

"Talk to them," Nancy finished.

Jonathan ducked his head, and muttered, "I know. It's weird."

"No!"

Rowan rolled her eyes, sensing the obvious chemistry happening right then and there, almost tempted to leave right then and there. Being the third wheel to a romantic connection happening was not fun.

Nancy and Jonathan continued their painfully awkward flirting, Rowan weighing up whether she should listen to her music and put herself out of her misery, when Nancy said, "That's it."

Rowan's head snapped to the brunette as Nancy went on, "That's what I saw."

Rowan leaned off from the wall and walked over.

When she saw the photo, her throat dried up and everyone inside her froze,

Unlike before, the monster was clear to see now. It looked exactly like the monster Rowan had seen in her nightmares, which meant it was real.

Which meant that her dreams, that Barb, and Will...

"My mom," Jonathan began, staring at the photo with wide eyes. "I thought she was crazy, 'cause she said... that's not Will's body. That he's alive."

"And if he's alive..."

"Then Barbara."

The three teens looked at each other, thinking the same thing.

This monster had taken Will and Barb.

They were now both hiding in wherever the monster had taken them.

And that to find them...

They had to find the monster.

If they could.

***

And here it is, finally! The Rowan, Nancy and Jonathan team-up!!! I love their dynamic—and I love Rowan being an exasperated third wheel to Nancy and Jonathan flirting 😂

(Also, Rowan, you are NOT subtle with what you said about dreams)

And yeah, Rowan's starting to realise that, maybe, her dreams aren't really dreams... 

Next chapter we're back with Alistair, El and the Party! And that will be coming soon!

Please read, comment and vote!

GhostWriterGirl out!