Chapter Twenty-Six: Monster Hunting

(The Monster, Pt. 4)

***

If you told Rowan she'd be spending her Saturday morning shopping for stuff to trap and kill a monster from another world after barely escaping from it and said world last night with Nancy Wheeler and Jonathan Byers, she'd probably laugh in your face and call you insane.

But that was exactly what she was doing, shopping in a hunting store with Nancy and Jonathan to get stuff to trap and kill that monster while a country song played tinnily overhead. Nails, gasoline, hammers, chains, matches—anything that could kill the bastard.

At least there's no one else here, Rowan thought. In the rare times she'd come to this store to stock up on bullets with her aunt, there would be some rednecks who would give her and her aunt judging looks, as if two women who knew how to handle guns and could shoot was unbelievable to their shallow, sexist minds, and she had to resist the urge to show off her middle finger—or show just how well she could handle a gun. She preferred the quiet, felt relaxed and calm without feeling judged just because of her gender.

As Rowan grabbed another set of brass knuckles, she heard clanking, the noise resonating in the quiet store. Confused, she put the knuckles into her basket along with chains, matches and an extra lighter and headed over to the noise, seeing Jonathan and Nancy putting bear traps in their baskets, and struggling a bit.

Rowan smiled. "Need some help?"

The two looked over to her, and nodded.

Together, they got a couple traps each in their baskets before moving to the counter, Rowan and Nancy unpacking everything from their baskets wordlessly, ignoring the slightly bemused look the person behind the counter was giving them.

Once done, Jonathan said, "And I'll have four boxes of the .38s."

"Make that five boxes of the .38s, and a box of the Glock 22 semi-automatics," Rowan interjected—her gun was the same type as the gun Jonathan had borrowed from his dad.

The man gave them another look, but did so, sliding them across. Rowan gave them a rattle, making sure there were enough.

"What you kids doin' with all this?" the man asked, obviously unable to contain his confusion.

Rowan's eyes widened and she looked at Jonathan and Nancy, her mind blanking for a reason. Could they say they were hunting a monster? They couldn't. They'd sound insane.

"Uh..." Jonathan stammered, and Rowan was equally giving a lacklustre response with her wide eyes and slightly open mouth, but leave it to Nancy to be surprisingly truthful.

"Monster hunting."

Rowan gave Nancy a look, then looked to the man, who looked perplexed, but just shrugged.

"Huh."

He asked no more questions, just rang up the price and asked for them to pay. That surprised Rowan, but maybe she shouldn't have been; truth was stranger than fiction, after all.

And who would believe that three teens with all this stuff were actually going to use it for monster hunting, anyway?

After their stuff had been paid for, the teens carried it out to Jonathan's car, where the boy in question asked with an incredulous smile, "'Monster hunting'?"

Nancy paused in packing their monster hunting gear away in the trunk of the car, saying in an also incredulous tone, "You know, last week... I was shopping for a new top I thought Steve might like. It took me and Barb all weekend. It seemed like life or death, you know? And... and now—"

"You're shopping for bear traps with Jonathan Byers and Rowan Graveswood," Jonathan finished with a smile, Rowan giving her own matching smile.

"Yeah," Nancy confirmed with a smile.

"What's the weirdest part? Me and Rowan or the bear trap?" Jonathan questioned as he slammed the lid down.

"You and Rowan. It's definitely you two," Nancy answered.

Jonathan chuckled and Rowan grinned, slinging an arm around Nancy's shoulders. "Can say the feeling's mutual, Nance. Never expected to spend my Saturday morning doing this with you guys, but it's been nice. You're both not too bad."

"Now I can say the feeling's mutual," Nancy responded, Jonathan nodding as he replied, "Yeah, it is."

Rowan only grinned. "Great. Now, let's go and test that theory of yours and see if it works, Nance."

But before the teens could do anything, they heard the honk of a horn, turning to see a car driving by, a guy from their school grinning.

"Hey, Nance! Can't wait to see your movie," he called out before driving away, laughing.

Rowan frowned in confusion and slight anger due to the implications of what that guy had meant as Jonathan turned to Nancy with his own frown. "What the hell was that?"

"I don't know," the brunette murmured, but she was frowning, thinking over what the guy had said, turning around in the direction of where the car had come from.

"What?" Jonathan asked, after he and Rowan had given each other a puzzled look. When he didn't get a response from Nancy, he asked again, "What?"

"What's going on, Nance?" Rowan questioned to her friend. Again, she didn't answer, just staring in that direction.

And then Nancy was running, heading toward where the car had driven from—toward the movie theatre.

Rowan and Jonathan followed immediately after despite their confusion, Jonathan shouting, "Hey! Where are you going? Nancy, wait!"

"Nance, slow down! Shit, slow down!" Rowan yelled as well.

Neither prepared for what they would see—and the fallout of it.

***

Short chapter, I know. But not a lot happened here except for relationship building

I loved this scene. I love how Nancy was just... completely honest with the truth and the cashier didn't even blink an eye. Just proves to show the truth is stranger than fiction XD

I loved writing that moment when Nancy and Jonathan talked; even though Rowan was involved, it was still nice to show Rowan growing closer to both Jonathan and Nancy when before they'd just been acquaintances

And now... *sighs* Now my least favourite moment of s1 Steve is coming. Don't worry, it's gonna be as cathartic as you would expect (and may or may not involve Rowan finally snapping and punching Steve...)

Next chapter will be soon!

Please read, comment and vote!

GhostWriterGirl out!