CARLA HADN'T BEEN TO MANY FUNERALS IN HER LIFE.

There'd been her paternal grandma's when she was four, but, then, she didn't really understand the concept of death. She was four years old after all—she didn't know what had happened, or why she had to dress up nicely in black just to stand for a few hours.

Then there had been her great uncles when she was seven, and, while understanding what death meant—her great uncle wasn't apart of the world as she knew it anymore, and was instead in heaven to stay enteral forever—she wasn't close enough to him to get emotional, and stood silently the whole time.

But today was Will's funeral. The funeral of a boy she'd watched grow up, of a boy who was nothing but sweet and caring, who liked to draw and play fictional games with his friends. Of a boy gone too soon.....so everyone else thought.

After the previous day, Carla was sure that Will was indeed alive somewhere. He was with the monster and the body was nothing but a phony placed by someone—okay, they didn't have full information yet, but they had a theory. A theory that Will was alive and that he'd been taken on November 6th by the faceless creature.

But, that didn't mean Carla wasn't going to show up for the funeral knowing it was a fake body. That would just be cruel—especially if their theory was wrong, and Will was indeed being laid to rest today. She was going to dress in black and support Mrs. Byers and Jonathan through this, paying her respects to their boy whom she held close to her own heart too.

Currently, the attendees of the funeral stood in a clump at the graveyard, solemnly listening as a pastor quoted and recited the Bible. Everyone was dressed in an array of blacks and whites and grays, blending in to the gloomy atmosphere the graveyard held.

Carla was standing next to her sister, toying around with the fabric of her skirt. It was a decent day, but the air still nipped at your skin, so she'd brought one of her black church coats to stay warm, yet look decent and respectable.

The pastor stood in front of the coffin, which Jonathan had picked out as Joyce wanted nothing to do with her son being dead—according to her oldest, she too believed that Will was still out there. Honestly, Carla was surprised she was staying so calm.

The Wheeler's were situated close to the coffin, being closer to Will than some of the guests but not on the bench directly in front of where Will's final resting place would be—that was reserved for Will's immediate family, which included Joyce, Jonathan, some other relatives and Lonnie, though his girlfriend wasn't here.

Some guests were crying over the fact that a boy so young had been taken from the word, while most held saddened and solemnly expressions to show their sorrow over the occasion. Carla was sure that if yesterday had never happened, she would be crying too.

The Wheeler hears some muttering happening from below her—for some reason, Lucas, Dustin and Mike seemed to be chatting during the service—and then, her mother bends down to shush them, because it was a funeral. They shouldn't be talking.

The funeral then ends, and Carla follows her family past Will's coffin, which had been lowered into the ground, though it had yet to be buried. While her mother and the rest of her family passed the coffin to give her condolences to Lonnie and Joyce—though the absent father seemed to be doing more talking than the present mother, who stared numbly into space—Carla instead stood a moment near the coffin, looking down at it.

She fiddled with the white rose in her fingers before tossing it upon the casket, praying that Will was alive—that this wasn't her final goodbye to him.

"Hey, Carla. Let's go." Nancy's voice takes Carla away from the casket and back to the task on hand. The girl gives a nod before following, walking as fast as she could in her mother's heels—she wasn't sure why she decided to wear heels. She'd feel much more comfy in flats.

Yesterday, the two Wheelers and the Byers had agreed to meet up after the funeral to discuss what the next step was. They knew this monster was behind the disappearances of Will and Barb, but everything else was in the air.

The two Wheelers spot Jonathan sitting on the ground behind from gravestones, and they approach, taking a seat beside him, backs leaning against a metal gate. In his hands is a map with three X's.

"This is where we know it's been for sure, right?" Jonathan explains the three red X's.

Nancy pointed to one, "So that's...."

"Steve's house." Jonathan confirmed with a nod. He pointed to one of the other X's, "And that's the woods where they found Will's bike and—" he pointed to the left-over X, "—that's my house."

There was little space between the three X's—the woods where Will's bike could be walked through to get to Steve's, which was only a mile or so away from the Byers residence. It was easy to see, but Carla still states, "All these spots are so...close."

"Yeah. Exactly." the Byers nods, Carla having stated his point to the group. This creature only roamed so far. "I mean, it's all within a mile or something. Whatever this thing is—"

"It's not traveling far." the Wheeler girl finished, pleased that they'd figured something out. This creature only stayed within a mile radius, which was good for her but......she couldn't help but slightly worry for Steve's safety. His house was through the woods, and Barb had been taken there. Was he at risk of being next—

Stop, Carla had to stop herself from worrying. Steve was the least of her problems right now, and besides, she was mad at him. Steve means nothing to you, stop worrying about him.

So, instead she continued talking. "It's like how a lion has its own hunting land. It stays within that land and captures what comes....." She trailed off, because she didn't want to think of what happened after getting captured.

It was silent for a few moments before Nancy looked at the two teens, "You want to go out there?"

"We might not find anything." Jonathan stated, briefly.

"I found something." the Wheeler reminded, speaking of when she went to Steve's in search of Barb, "And if we do see it—"

Carla added, "Which is very likely, given that predators usually don't leave their land often."

".....then what?" Nancy finished.

Without hesitation, Jonathan concluded. "We kill it."

Carla would have been surprised at the seriousness he had—this was the kid who cried over shooting a rabbit when he was nine—if it wasn't for the situation. This creature had taken his little brother away, had caused him and his mother so much pain and guilt that it deserved nothing but death. If that thing took Mike, Nancy or Holly away....she'd feel the exact same.

"Maybe we should make a plan, first?" Carla voices her concern. She wanted this thing out of her life, but it wouldn't be wise to go monster hunting without some kind of plan. "Don't get me wrong, I want this thing gone for taking Barb and Will.....but we should probably have a plan, or at least some weapons, if we're talking about a real monster. This isn't like hunting for a bear—we don't know what to expect."

"Carla's right; we need some kind of protection." Nancy agrees, looking between her sister and new-found friend. If they were going to search, they needed some kind of protection, which the Wheeler's were bare of. With a toddler in the house, they weren't allowed guns of any kind. Jonathan was their only hope.

Looking at the Byers, Nancy questioned, "Do you have anything?"

Jonathan was silent for a moment before he nodded.

The trio—Carla felt odd calling them that, as it's always just been her and Jonathan—then traveled to Lonnie Byers' car. The Wheeler assumed that the older man had something useful in his car, and stood beside the passenger side door as Jonathan pulled a pocket knife out of no where.

"Where did you even find that?" Carla muttered, watching as the boy tried to pick the locked glove compartment with the item. It would be better if they didn't have to talk to Lonnie about this—he wouldn't believe them, nor would he let them use whatever was inside of the compartment.

With how long it was taking, Nancy leaned forward. "What are you doing?"

"Just give me a second." Jonathan said as he struggled. The boy jiggled the lock a few times before it finally unlocked. As the boy rummaged inside of it, Carla turned around, making sure no one was watching what they were doing.

But her attention is brought back to her friend when she hears the click of a gun. The girl is quick to turn back towards Jonathan, watching as he examines a hand-gun. Beside her, Nancy's eyes are wide, her mouth agape.

"Are you serious?" Nancy exclaims, the Byers boy rummaging the compartment again for bullets.

Jonathan tucks the bullets he'd found into his coat, sarcastically remarking, "What? You want to find this thing and take another photo? Yell at it?" He shuts the glove compartment and exits the car, joining the two Wheelers.

"I'm not usually for violence, but he has a point." Carla looks at her sister knowingly. If they found the monster, they weren't just going to stare at it. They were going to kill it off before anyone else was taken. "We're going to find this thing to kill it—not to stare."

Skeptic, Nancy crosses her arms over her chest. "This is a terrible idea."

"Yeah, well, it's the best we got." Jonathan replied, gun hidden away behind his back. His words didn't give any confidence towards the Wheeler so he added, "What? You can tell someone, but they're not gonna believe you. You know that."

Carla agrees, "Yeah, Nance. I mean, do you really think Hopper would believe us? Is it something he'd tell the military, or the president?"

Nancy sighs before stating, "Your mom would."

"She's been through enough—" Jonathan argues.

"She deserves to know."

Carla saw both of their points, and didn't comment. Jonathan had a point because Joyce was already hysterical and didn't need anymore weight to her shoulders. But, Nancy was right. If anyone deserved to know, it was Joyce Byers. She deserved to know that this creature wasn't just a figment of her mind, and that she wasn't losing her mind like everyone said. She deserved to know that she was right, and that her boy was still alive and out there.

"Yeah, and I'll tell her...." Jonathan states, ".....when this thing is dead."

"Fine."

"Now that we've cleared that up, what's next?" Carla looks between the two other teens, rocking back and forth on her heels.

Nancy thinks for a moment before replying, "You and I try and find whatever weapons we can without Mom asking any questions and then we meet up in the woods?" The end was more of a question than a statement.

Jonathan nods. "And then we search."

With a smile, Carla states, "Plan; Monster Hunting is a go."

"I can't believe we have no weapons in the house." Nancy sighed as she aimlessly walked through the Wheeler's garage.

After returning home from the funeral lunch-in—to which Dustin and Lucas had also shown up for some reason, but they were always here so it really wasn't surprising—the two Wheeler's had changed into something more comfortable, more monster hunting apparel, before meeting back up in the garage to search.

Unlike Jonathan, the Wheeler family didn't have any sort of guns or real weapons at all—not counting the kitchen knives. And while normally, that didn't bother Carla too much because they didn't really need weapons in a safe town like Hawkins, it was rather annoying now when they needed something dangerous to fight against this creature.

Something a croquet mallet wouldn't quite do the job of.

"I mean, with Holly in the house, I couldn't imagine Mom letting a gun on the premises, let alone anything dangerous." Carla kicked her shoe against the garage pavement.

"I know, but seriously?" Nancy exclaimed. She walked over to an old baseball bat that everyone but Holly had played with at some point, "We have no real weapons. Just this......baseball bat."

Carla nodded in agreement before her eyes came across the old croquet set her and Nance used to play with as kids and she lightly chuckled, "And the croquet set. Don't forget about that." Beside the set was her dad's old golfing materials from when and the girl sarcastically adds, "Do you think Dad'll mind if I borrow his golfing shit? Maybe if I pair the two up...."

"Please." Nancy laughs, grabbing the baseball bat she'd been eyeing up, "When was the last time you saw Dad get out of his chair to play golf."

Carla smiled, "When was the last time you saw Dad get out his chair, period. And don't say today."

Nancy gave another chuckle before slightly walking away as to not hit her sister in the head with the bat. The girl shifted it in her hands, trying to see how heavy it was, before beginning to swing the item.

Carla eyed up her dad's golf clubs before snatching one out of its case. She then started hitting it against the case with force. The two girls continued to swing their weapons of choice, only stopping when they heard a familiar voice enter the garage.

"Whoa, whoa, hey!"

Both Wheeler sisters snapped towards the familiar voice, Nancy quickly lowered the bat in her grasp—she'd almost nailed the boy in the side with it. Carla felt her jaw tense at the sight of Steve Harrington standing in their garage.

Alarmed at his appearance, Nancy asked, "What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing?" Steve countered, looking between the weapons in the girls' hands with confusion.

Carla looked up at him and remarked, "Are we not allowed to be in our own garage?"

"No, I mean with those." the Harrington sent his ex-girlfriend a displeased expression, before turning back to his current one. "I hope that's not meant for me."

"What? No. Oh no...." Nancy trailed off, twirling the bat around on the garage floor as she tried to make up an excuse as to why she was aimlessly swinging a bat around her garage.

Carla wasn't sure what was getting into her, but any remorse for Steve from the funeral—where she'd been slightly worried he could be next—as well as any of her usual niceties were gone. Now, all that left her lips when she talked to her ex was sarcastic remarks, or crude comments.

Carla sent a very fake smile the Harrington's way, "The bat might not be, but my golf-club will."

Her sister sent her a small glare before she finally gave her boyfriend an answer, "I was just thinking about joining softball." She paused before adding, "And Carla's golf club is not meant for you, either. She's on her period and is in a bad mood."

"Oh."

The other Wheeler shook her head, "Don't lie, Nance. Steve is well aware I'm just not in the mood to be nice to him after the other day at school."

"Well, Carla, I hope you know I'm not in the mood to be nice to you either." the brunette boy spat back, sending her a small look.

"Guys, stop." Nancy sighed, done with whatever vendetta the two suddenly held against each other. At the party they'd been fine, what had changed? She turned back to her boyfriend with raised brows, "Steve, why are you here?"

"I, uh, wanted to talk to you, Nance." He answered softly, before his gaze slid towards Carla, who watched the interaction, "Alone."

Carla set down the golf club with an un-amused expression, "Believe me, I wouldn't want to stay even if you hadn't said that." She sent a look towards her sister before exiting their garage, sliding down to sit against the outside wall of it instead.

Once Steve was sure his ex-girlfriend was gone, he started talking. "Well, uh, look I'm really sorry. I mean, even before you threatened me with the baseball bat."

Carla listened in—she couldn't help it, she was nosy and Steve wasn't being all too quiet knowing she was nearby—confused on why he was apologizing to Nancy of all people. Clearly it wasn't about the fact that he'd kissed her sister, because Nancy would definitely not be teaming up with Carla in that case. And why would he be apologizing to her about Jonathan's camera?

Nancy dryly replied, "Okay."

"I panicked and....I mean, I was a total dick."

"Yeah, you were." Nancy continued. She paused a moment before adding, "Did you get in trouble with your parents?"

Oh. This was about the party.

Carla assumed the couple had shared a conversation about the party, and Nancy probably brought up Barbara's disappearance. Instead of acting like a genuinely concerned boyfriend, Steve probably started rambling about how she shouldn't bring up the alcohol when the police came to her. He'd probably been a self-centered dick instead of caring for his girlfriend's valid concerns for her best friend.

But, Carla doubted Nancy brought up the alcohol anyway. If Steve got in trouble, it was probably because of her—she'd let it slip at the coroner's office, not having thought about the consequences on the Harrington's end, having been pissed off at the time. And, while still pissed about the whole Jonathan situation, about the kiss, about everything......Carla felt bad about letting it spill.

Steve's folks were more so legal guardians than they ever were parents. His dad was a grade-A asshole, who only cared about his son because he had too. He didn't look out for Steve, more so harshly reprimanded him when he didn't meet his expectations. And while Mrs. Harrington was slightly better......she still followed after her husband and neglected her boy. Both left Steve to raise himself, absent every week on some business trip.

Carla remembers when she'd slept over at Steve's and had to listen to an argument between him and his dad for bringing another whore around the house, and how it wasn't how he raised him to be only for Steve to clap back with how his dad didn't raise him to be anything because he wasn't there for the majority of his life.

She remembers holding an emotional Steve that night, promising herself that one day she'd get him out of his situation and show him what love was supposed to look like.

And even if she wasn't his girlfriend anymore—she couldn't get him out of his home situation anymore—she knew she'd made his father lash out with what she'd spilled and felt horrible.

"Totally, but...." Steve sighed, and Carla couldn't help the frown that appeared on her face. ".....you know, who cares? Screw 'em." He pushed away the topic of his parents and brought it to Barb, as he should have when talking with Nancy originally, "Any news about Barbara? Parents heard from her, or—"

"No."

There was a moment of silence before the Harrington popped back up. "Hey, listen. Why don't we, uh, why don't we catch a movie tonight, y'know? Just kinda pretend everything's normal for a few hours."

Carla was quick to tune out Steve's words, not wanting to hear about this date that she knew Nancy was going to have to cancel. If Nancy dropped trying to find this creature for a movie date—very unoriginal, by the way, Steve. That had been her first date with him—the Wheeler was going to actually hit Steve with the golf club, and maybe her sister too.

The conversation was signaled to be over when Steve walked out of the garage, slightly defeated face—though he was singing some song off-key, so he didn't seem too unhappy or confused by Nancy's excuse as to why she couldn't go to the movies.

Carla knew she should just let her ex walk away without making a comment, but knowing that she was the reason Steve probably had an argument with his father made her feel terrible, and she couldn't help herself as she started speaking.

"Hey, Steve." the brunette watched as he turned towards her, confused expression.

"What happened to us not talking?" Steve stopped, brow raised.

"Stop acting like you didn't talk to me earlier, asshole." the Wheeler countered before getting to the point of why she'd spoken up in the first place, "Yesterday, I was with Jonathan at the coroner's office and Hopper was asking me about Barb. I accidentally let it slip that we were drinking, and I wanted to say I'm sorry. It's just....I know how your dad is—"

Steve spat out a sour, "Thanks, Carla. Out of all people, it had to be you."

"Hey, I said I was sorry." the Wheeler defended, unappreciative of his attitude. She understood that he was pissed he'd been ratted out, but it wasn't like she'd purposefully done it, "I know how your dad gets—"

"You're not my girlfriend anymore. Why are you even worrying about it?" the Harrington boy fired.

Because I care. "You're right. Forget I even tried to apologize."

The Harrington let out a sigh and got in his BMW, leaving Carla sitting against her garage without another word.

mara's misc!

first fully new chapter!!

in the og, i cut out the funeral and honestly i'm so annoyed that i did bc it was for no reason. i also added the scene where nancy is swinging the bat around (sister bonding) + little argument between starla for shits and giggles.

carla would def feel bad about accidentally telling hopper about the drinks once she remembers the consequences he'd probably be facing—steve's dad needs to leave please. we need more talk about how his parents are legit neglectful. we need more talk on steve's trauma period.

anyway, i really liked this chapter!

i hope you enjoyed <3 see you back with chapter 11 (sadly, 11 will not have el in it anymore.....)