I Know The End ✸ Steve Harrington

v. click, click, click

chapter five .  .  . click, click, click

      JOSIE DIDN'T THINK TWICE BEFORE SPILLING the information she had found out the previous day to the boys, helping the Party come to an overall theory to their search. The Upside Down they called it — the possibility of an alternate dimension being located right underneath Hawkins, the place they believed Will Byers had ended up lost in. It might've been utterly mental to think that this was even a real thing, especially in their lonesome town, but to the small group it now didn't seem surprising.

Today was the day of Will Byers's funeral, which ultimately felt like a joke to Josie as nothing but black adorned her body, her curls pinned away from her face with the help of her mother, knowing the boy was still alive, only in another dimension. They watched as Will's casket lowered into the ground, not shedding a single tear, only putting on the best gloomy face they could muster, not wanting to attract attention for their odd behavior. However, the three boys in front of the teenager had managed to laugh through the ceremony.

After shifting in their spots in anticipation throughout the whole service, Nancy, Jonathan and Josie hid out of view from everyone, looking at the map Jonathan had prepared the night before. The map showed three bold red x's on spots the monster had been seen: Steve's backyard, the Byers residence and the woods where Will had disappeared.

"It's all so close." Nancy pointed out, the three x's too close for her liking.

"Yeah. Exactly. I mean, it's all within a mile or something. Whatever this thing is, it's...it's not traveling far." Josie took the paper away from Jonathan's hands, her eyes not leaving the piece of paper, her dainty fingers grazing the marked spots.

"It can't be a coincidence." She mumbled, mostly to herself.

"You want to go out there." Nancy pointed out, seeing the look on Jonathan's face.

He softly nodded, "We might not find anything."

"I found something." The older Wheeler paused, "And if we do see it...then what?" There was no doubt that this adventure would be dangerous as the monster was engraved into their brains. If the monster was so close then there was a chance it could've been lurking around anywhere.

"We kill it."

After planning to meet amongst the woods, Josie biked her way over to Jonathan, holding a baseball she used in freshmen year of high school for the softball team. She felt better carrying around a weapon — it wasn't exactly a gun but it was better than nothing.

"You brought a baseball bat?" Jonathan raised his brows amused as Josie perched her bike up onto the side of a tree.

Josie gave him a look of offence, "My mother won't even let me and Dustin go near knives, let alone guns." She inspected her bat, "I had to improvise somehow...besides we can try and stick nails in it later." Jonathan grunted besides the girl when missing his target, reloading the weapon in his hand.

"You're supposed to be hitting the cans, right?" The voice of Nancy drew the duos attention to her as she dropped her possessions next to Josie's, trying to contain her laughter seeing the cans still untouched.

"No, actually, you see the spaces in between the cans? I'm aiming at those." Jonathan shot back sarcastically, "You ever shot a gun before?"

Nancy scoffed, "Have to met my parents?" Holding her hand out for the gun, Jonathan reluctantly passed it to her before instructing her where to shoot. The girl raised her arms, holding the gun out in front of her, squinting her eyes in concentration and taking the shot, knocking the can down with a clatter.

Josie breathed out a laugh, patting Jonathan on the back to heal his probably hurt ego as Nancy was clearly the person who should take possession of the gun for their monster hunting.

It was only a matter of time until the sun had set and the only source of light the three had were their flashlights held into their palms as they steadily looked around the woods for any unusual movement.

Josie tuned out of Nancy and Jonathon's bickering on the topic of Steve Harrington, not wanting to get in the middle of their quarrel. Her head whipped around at a sudden sound of the series of clicking, pointing her flashlight into the direction only to see nothing in sight, her heart racing in sudden fear. "Guys..." The two beside her didn't hear her, continuing with their harsh words towards one another, "Guys!" They fell silent. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

Josie halted her breathing, trying to listen out to the familiar sound being met with mocking silence, "I just thought I heard..." Before the girl could finish her sentence, indistinctive whimpering was heard in the distance with her and Nancy meeting eyes — she'd heard it too.

Nancy began walking into the direction, followed after Josie and a very confused Jonathan as they all listened to the noise get closer with each step, subconsciously gripping their weapons tighter in their grasp. Coming closer to the sound, frowns mixed with a slight look of relief came across their faces, knowing it wasn't the monster but a deer that had a chunk taken out of it.

"Oh, God." Nancy whispered, her mouth agape in pity, crouching down to softly touch the injured animal, "It's been hit by a car. We can't just leave it." Silence passed between the three as the Wheeler girl looked down at the gun in her hand reluctantly.

Jonathan could sense the girl's hesitation, taking it into his own hands to take her place. "I'll do it." The three stood to their feet as he cocked the gun, pointing it at the deer, breathing heavily. Josie closed her eyes, expecting the loud noise of a bullet to go off in the air but instead she was jumping back, gasping as the deer was dragged away out of view.

She swallowed down her fear, now being tired of being scared all the time with determination filling her veins as her eyes scattered along her surroundings — she felt responsible for two people that she cared about deeply for going missing, it was only a matter of time that more people were going to end up the same if they didn't find this monster.

Suddenly hearing the same clicking get louder and louder, Josie immediately started following the noise, unknowingly breaking off from Nancy and Jonathan, her eyes catching something strange agape in one of the many oak trees around her. It was a hole, held together by a horrifying goo, the nasty substance swallowing up the entrance. Cowering back from the nauseating scent crawling up her nostrils, she took a deep breath and decided to make her way into the tree.

authors note!
a little bit of a shorter chapter but next chapter is where things get...wilder