Sunflower Girl [1]

The Flea and the Acrobat

"The Vale of Shadows is a dimension that is a dark reflection of our world. It is a place of decay and death. A plane out of phase. A place of monsters. It is right next to you, and you don't even see it."

I was gone for five minutes. Five freaking minutes and now Will's in some sort of alternate world?

"An alternate dimension.",Mike muttered as if he had just read my thoughts.

"This is insane...",I mumbled to myself. "How are we supposed to save him? We can't just go somewhere and hope we step into an alternate dimension."

"You cast Shadow Walk.",Dustin answered.

I grinned. "In real life, Dust."

"We can't shadow walk, but...maybe she can.",we all turned our heads to Eleven.

"Do you know how to get there? To the Upside Down?",Mike asked the girl.

She just shook her head, destroying our hopes.

"You look nice.",Steve mumbled, standing in my room's doorframe.

"It's for a funeral.",I scoffed. "Not the best reason to look nice."

My brother rolled his eyes. "Can't you just accept a compliment? Jesus."

"That not his fault, Steve.",I grinned and rolled my eyes.

"Whatever.",he muttered. "You sure you don't need a ride?"

I shook my head. "No, I'll take my bike. I'll be fine."

He simply nodded. "Alright. Be safe, Emma."

I smiled a bit. "Always."

"Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. It's times like these that our faith is challenged. How, if He is truly benevolent, could God take from us someone so young, so innocent?",I listend to the pastors words.

I wasn't really religious or something but I've always believed that there must be some greater power. God or whatever you wanted to call it.

I was standing right at Will's casket the boys to my right and Jonathan to my left.
I was holding his hand giving him a comfort squeeze every now and then.

Even though there was the possibility that Will was still alive, this whole thing was pretty though for me.
I just hoped the boys were right and the night at Mike's basement wasn't the last time I saw him.
There was just so much I had to say to him and so much he had to experience.

I looked confused to the boys when I heard a giggle escaping their lips.

"Just wait till we tell Will that Jennifer Hayes was crying at his funeral.",Dustin exclaimed with a wide grin and looked at a blonde girl with tears on her face.

Mrs. Wheeler quickly shushed them and gave the pastor her attention again.

Yellow roses were thrown into the open grave and condolences have been said to Will's family.

I looked confused at the yellow rose in my hand.

"Who decided that the roses should be yellow? That's the color of friendship. Chrysanthemums are considered as funeral flowers.",I mumbled to myself, but still threw the flower into the pit. So weird, man.

I made my way to Joyce who was standing next to Lonnie, looking completely zoned out.

I slowly approached her with a small smile on my face. "Hey Joyce."

She lifted her head up. "Hey sweetie."

"How're you holding up?",I asked the woman and grabbed her hands.

She sighed. "I'm feeling...nothing. There's no sadness. There's no grief. I'm just looking at this empty casket and all I think is that this can't be my son's funeral."

"I understand you, Joyce. God, I- There's just so so much I want to tell you. Will he's-.",I stopped myself from talking.

I couldn't tell her. At least not until we know for sure that Will's still alive.

"Emma, what about him?",Joyce asked when I stopped talking.

I was about to make up an excuse when a voice called my name. It was Jonathan.

"Emma, can I talk to you for a second?",he asked me with a serious look on his face.

I looked at Joyce. "I'm gonna tell you later, promise."

She just nodded and watched me walk away.

"Is everything alright, Jonathan?",I asked concerned when I saw Nancy also standing at the cemetery entrance, probably waiting for me.

"We need to tell you something.",Nancy replied with a serious tone in her voice.

My eyes widened. "Did you two had sex or something?"

Nancy's cheeks turned bright red. "N-No. Why would you say that?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Just asking. So what's going on?"

"This is were we know for sure it's been.",Jonathan pointed at three red X's on a map.

"It is a...faceless men?",I asked.

Apparently a faceless creature almost attacked Nancy when she was looking for Barb at my house.
The same creature also took Barbara and was at Joyce's place.

Nancy nodded. "I saw it on a picture of Barb Jonathan took at your house. Right after that she disappeared. I went back to your house to check if she's still been there or something and saw that- that thing again. Then Jonathan told me that his mother saw it too, at her house."

"So, that's..." "Your house. And that's the woods where they found Will's bike. That's my house.",Jonathan explained to me.

"It's all so close.",Nancy muttered.

"Yeah. Exactly.",Jonathan replied. "I mean, it's all within a mile or something. Whatever this thing is, it's- it's not traveling far."

I sighed. "You wanna go out there, right?"

"We might not find anything...",the Byers boy said.

"I found something.",Nancy quickly added.

"And if you guys do see it, then what?",I asked them.

The boy next to me sighed. "We kill it."

"Okay.",I replied.

"Okay what?",they asked at the same time.

"I'm coming with you, dummies."