"YOU LIED TO THE POLICE!" KAREN WHEELER YELLS.

Carla—who'd been lying on the living room couch—quickly perks her head up, brows drawn together at her mothers tone. She looks at the front door to see Nancy storming into the kitchen, Karen hot on her heels, face full of anger.

Nancy's eyes were trained on the floor as she sped away from her mother, "I didn't lie!"

"How naive do you think I am?" Karen shouted, throwing her purse upon the kitchen counter with a loud thud. She chased her daughter over to the stairs, Nancy still not threatening to look back. "You and Steve were just talking?"

"We slept together!" Nancy turned around, throwing a hand in the air, "Is that what you wanna know? It doesn't matter!"

"It does matter!"

"No! It is all bullshit!" the younger girl came face to face with Karen, lip trembling as if she was mere seconds away from crying. "It has nothing to do with Barb and she's missing. And something terrible happened to her and I know it! I know it! And no one is listening to me!"

Nancy turned away to storm up the stairs, Karen grabbing her daughter, her attitude shifting into a more motherly one. "Sweetie, sweetie, I'm listening. I'm listening to you—"

"No! You're not!" Nancy's voice broke as she yelled, the yell a bit more quieter then before. The brunette girl then ran up the stairs, Karen trying to get her back again.

"No! You're not!" the Wheeler girl's voice was quiet, but still sharp. She turned around to storm up the stairs, her mother chasing after her in a softer tone.

"Nancy...Nancy!"

"Just leave me alone!"

Karen sighed, putting her face in her hands. At the sight of her distraught mother, Carla got up from the couch and went over to her mother to try and see what the argument was fully about—though by the two's screams, she got the picture. Karen found out Nancy slept with Steve and was upset, ignoring the fact that her daughter was clearly going through something over Barb's disappearance.

"Mom? What was that about?" Carla approaches the brunette woman, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Are you alright?"

Karen was surprised at the sight of her other daughter, "Oh, Carla, I'm sorry you had to hear all of that. I-I thought you were out with the Byers' for the day."

"I was, but I decided it would be best if he got some alone time. He wanted to start planning for funeral, and I didn't want to intrude."

Karen nodded before walking towards the kitchen, Carla stopping her yet again, "Mom, you didn't answer my question? Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine, honey."

The Wheeler girl decided not to peer into it anymore, and instead headed upstairs to check on her sister. Whether or not there was tension—whether or not she wanted to speak to the girl after kissing Steve, after the possibility of Nancy seeing the photo—Carla wasn't going to ignore her if she was upset.

Soft sniffles were heard, as well as the sound of tape being ripped, and Carla peeked into the girls room. "Nance, you alright? I heard about Barb—"

"Where's Jonathan." Nancy cut off her sister, voice as firm as it possibly could be.

"Uh, the funeral home? Why?"

"Get in the car."

And, surprisingly, Carla listened without another word.

A few minutes later, the two Wheeler siblings were rushing into the funeral home.

The car ride had involved nothing of an explanation as to why Nancy needed to see Jonathan, so Carla was still confused as she followed her sister inside.

Said boy was looking at coffins, as Carla expected him to be. His face looked sunken and saddened, because, well, he had never been expecting to pick out his little brother's coffin. It was supposed to be the other way around.

Carla felt bad interrupting—she couldn't imagine picking out a coffin for Mike, or Holly or even Nancy at this age and would want to be alone for the ordeal—but whatever Nancy had to say seemed important.

Jonathan caught the two girls in his gaze, and turned towards the funeral home owner. Quietly, he asked. "Can you just give me a second?"

The man backed away, "Of course."

Once gone, Jonathan walked away from the coffins and towards the two Wheeler's with a weary expression. "Hey."

"Hey." Nancy greeted, though there wasn't much of a welcome look on her face, instead looking just as distraught as Jonathan. "Carla, um....told me you'd be here." The boy spared a glance at his best friend before looking back at her sister, "I just......Can we talk for a second?"

The Byers complied, and the three teens exited the main room and instead sat in a small waiting area, squeezing together on a bench. With Nancy in the middle, she pulled out a taped up photo, showing it off to the two.

Carla's eyes scanned over the image—it was a picture of Barb sitting on the diving board of Steve's pool, having been taken by Jonathan the previous night—seeing nothing wrong with it and at first, she's sure Nancy's going to ask about the Holland girl. That is until her sister pointed to something standing—looming—over Barb. Something that didn't look normal.

The Wheeler's brows furrowed, and she looked towards Jonathan for an explanation. He was the one who'd captured the moment—maybe he'd seen whatever was there. "Holy shit, what is that?"

"I mean, it looks like it could be some kind of perspective distortion, but I wasn't using the wide angle." Jonathan put his input in, before lighting shrugging. "I don't know. It's weird."

Carla grabbed the photo from her sister, examining it. "I mean, I guess it could be a distortion. You would have seen something if it was actually someone or something, right?"

Nancy quietly added, "Yeah, are you sure you didn't see anyone else out there?"

"No." Jonathan replied, sure of himself. "And she was there one second and then, um....gone." The two girls furrowed their brows and the Byers added, "I figured she bolted."

"The cops think that she ran away." Nancy started, glumly. She didn't believe a word they said. Barbara was a good girl—straight A's, virgin, always showing up when and where she needed to be—and would never run away like this, especially without mentioning something to Nancy or her parents. "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."

Jonathan's face was furrowed up, and the Wheeler girl quickly apologized for showing up, for interrupting his grief with her own silly little theory—which was just stupid. Why would there be a man in the woods?

"I'm sorry." Nancy bends down to grab her bag, apology's spilling from her lips. "I—I shouldn't have come here today. I'm so sorry." The girl walked towards the exit, getting stopped by her sister on the way.

"Nance, wait." Carla thought of the photo. She'd seen that creature—or whatever the hell it was before. She'd seen it. The girl stopped in her tracks, causing the Wheeler to continue speaking, "What did he look like?"

"What?"

Jonathan spoke next, also recalling something about this weird man. "This man you saw in the woods. What'd he look like?"

"I-I don't know." Nancy admitted, almost embarrassed to say what she thought because it sounded dumb. "It was almost like he....he didn't have a—"

Both Jonathan and Carla finished in unison, "Didn't have a face?"

With narrowed eyes, the standing girl looked at the other two, confused. "How did you know that?"

"My mom." Jonathan explained, continuing with a vague expression, "Last night, I—she said a monster came through the walls, a monster with no face." He then sent a quizzical look towards his best friend beside him, "How did you know about this faceless thing?"

"The night Will went missing, I had this weird nightmare." the brunette stated, thinking back to the creature within the dream, the creature that had stolen Will away and had then come for her. "I had to save Will, and he was getting chased by something. Something with no face." She then shook her head, "It's just a stupid nightmare though....I doubt it means anything."

"No, Carla. The more information, the better." Jonathan nodded, before standing up from the bench.

Nancy looked at him, "Hey, uh.....do you know somewhere that we could maybe get a better look at this thing?"

"I think I do."

Without another word, the three teens left the funeral home to figure out what the hell was in the photo.

Carla now found herself within the dark room of Hawkins High, watching as Jonathan worked on brightening and enlarging their photo.

Now, Carla didn't know much when it came to photography. Sure, she'd learned some things over the years because of Jonathan, and sure she thought the art of it was lovely—she loved getting candid photos taken of herself, or just photos in general—but truly, the Wheeler was just as inexperienced as her sister, whom watched Jonathan work, unsure on what was happening.

"And you're....." Nancy trailed off from the Byers' side.

"Brightening." Jonathan stated, not taking his eyes off of his work, "Enlarging."

"Hmm." the Wheeler trailed off before slightly backing away, watching as Jonathan pulled down a microscope like item and began looking through it. Then, thoughts taking over her mind, she asked, "Did your mom say anything else? Like, um, where it might have gone too, or...."

"No. Just that it came out of the wall."

Nancy then turned to her sister, hopeful that maybe Carla's nightmare could hold something useful. "What about you, Carla? Was your nightmare in a certain place?"

"No, it—" Carla started to explain, getting interrupted by the small ding! of a machine. She let out a breath before continuing, "It took place in our house. But, there was vines everywhere and dust particles flying in the air."

"Okay..." the other Wheeler trailed off yet again. The Byers boy set the photo in a bin of water, and the two sisters watched at his side. "How long does this take?"

Jonathan simply said, "Not long."

"Have you been....doing this a while?"

"What?"

"Photography?"

Carla lightly added, "Have you seen my photo board? 99% of those were taken by him."

"Yeah." Jonathan lightly smiled, "I guess I'd rather observe people then, you know..."

"Talk to them?" Nancy finished.

"I know. It's weird."

"No!"

"No, it is." the Byers confirmed, not denying that the fact he'd rather watch people interact than do so was slightly odd behavior. And sure, Carla could admit that it was the most normal behavior—most people aren't afraid to spark up conversation with others, the Wheeler included—but she wasn't an extrovert by any means, and definitely found herself in that position before.

Jonathan continued to explain himself, "It's just, sometimes, people don't really say what they're really thinking. But you capture the right moment...it says more."

The Wheeler lightly smiled thinking of the many photos Jonathan had snapped of her in which she was nothing more than herself. She completely agreed with what he had to say—anyone could fake a smile or words, but photos didn't fake a thing. It was the real you in the real moment.

"What was I saying?" Nancy asked.

"What?"

"When you took my picture."

Carla turned away with a thin lipped expression. Despite her sister being in a relationship with Steve, there was definitely some sort of tension between the two. Something that wasn't there with Jonathan and herself.

"That's it."

The conversation between Jonathan and Nancy had drowned out, and Carla quickly spun around at her sister's words. She couldn't help her curiosity—this thing could have done something to Barb, and it was in her nightmares. She wanted to know what it was.

"That's what I saw." Nancy continued, and Carla examined the photo to see the very creature of her nightmares standing near Barbara, basking in the red light of the room. It was a confusing moment because this thing was not a man by a long shot, more of a creature. A creature that Carla had never seen anywhere else other than her nightmares.

Which begs the question—how was it even real? This creature was something of Carla's mind. Were her nightmares more than just nightmares? More than just fantasy?

"My mom....I thought she was crazy." Jonathan looked at the photo with wide eyes, clearly surprised that this wasn't a bear, or a distortion. That there was indeed a faceless creature. "'Cause she said.....that's not Will's body. That he's alive."

Carla's breath hitched, "And if your mom's right and he's alive—"

"Then Barbara."

The three stared at one another, minds on the same track. This creature had taken the Will and Barb, and was hiding them somewhere. Somewhere only it knew how to get too.

Challenge accepted, creature, Carla thought to herself. Because, well, they weren't just going to let their friends rot away.

They were going to get Will and Barb back whether the monster liked it or not.

mara's misc!

sorry for the short chapter!

not much was changed, i just added the dark room scene in!! i also am adding another chapter in, because originally these scenes + half of the funeral + nancy in the upside down were all cramped together for no reason. idk what i was doing.

so, the next chapter will be what was originally in this and maybe the steve/jonathan fight? i might have to add another chapter with that in it because everything in this book is so squeezed together :/

also fun fact, i'm pretty sure this chapter was named off of this musical i did back in 5th grade 💀 i legit remember having the song in my head and then realizing the title fit this chapter when i originally wrote this.  (yeah, don't ask about the little musical. 5th grade was different....)

anyway, hope you enjoyed <3 see you back with chapter 010!!