Dotson and Harrington |Steve Harrington|

Monster |chapter 16|

As the orange sun started to rise beyond the horizon, Jackylen wasted no time getting ready. Wearing a plain lavender crop top, blue jean shorts, and a partially button up blue flannel. She slipped on her black converse and headed out the door with her things, rushing over to Nancy's house.

But instead of knocking on the door like a normal person, she climbed on the side of the house, and knocked on Nancy's window. As Nancy came over, she opened the window and put up a finger to her mouth.

Jackylen quietly stepped on the floor, placing her bag near the window. Nancy and Jonathan were still in their pajamas, but Jonathan was sleeping on Nancy's bed beside her.

"You slept on the floor," she whispered, gesturing over to the pillow and sheet on the floor.

"Uhm... yeah about that," Nancy whispered, trying not to wake Jonathan. "We slept in the bed... together." A sparkle started to form in her eyes, hearing the words of her friend's mouth. "No no no. Not like that."

"So, you too just slept together. In one bed. And nothing happened?" Jonathan started to shift around in his sleep. The room went silent, making sure he wasn't awake.

"I couldn't sleep so I just laid there... anyways I got started on trying to figure out what this thing is but nothings adding up."

"Okay let's start from the basics," Jackylen suggested, sitting on the bed, trying not to fall off the edge.

"This thing walks like a human but doesn't have a face."

"And Barb cut herself and the deer had blood on it. So it's clearly attracted to blood even if it's far away."

"And it's really large, so it must be strong." The two girls started to flip through several books about animals, trying to piece together. After a while they realized the parts of what the creature was, the Byers boy awoke from his slumber. As he sat up, his hair frizzed slightly as he sat up next to Nancy.

"Oh... hey," he said, surprised the two girls were up so early.

"Hey," Nancy and Jackylen both said, not looking up from their books.

"Couldn't sleep?" The boy asked, rubbing his eyes.

"Hardly," Jackylen replied, still flipping through the pages. Nancy nodded then spoke.

"Every time I close my eyes I just... keep seeing that... thing. Wherever I was that place... I think that it lives there. It was feeding there," she explained.

"Feeding on that deer," Jackylen quietly said, looking up at the Wheeler girl.

"That means," Nancy started. "That if... if Will and Barbara..." her voice started to crack, thinking about her friend.

"Hey," Jonathan said, sitting up to face the girl. "My mom said she talked to Will. If he's alive there's a chance Barbara is too."

"That's means she trapp... in that place," she pointed.

"We have to find it again," Jackylen interjected, flipping her hair to one side.

"You really want to go back out there?" Jonathan asked, looking at Jackylen.

"Maybe we don't have to," Nancy pointed out. "When I saw it, it was feeding on that deer. Meaning it's... it's a predator, right?" Both of the teens nodded. "And it seems to hunt at night like a... a lion or a coyote. But it doesn't hunt in packs like them. It's always alone like... like a bear. And remember at Steve's house when Barb cut herself? And then last night the deer..."

"It was bleeding too," Jackylen said, flipping through the book beside her, finding the page with the shark. She flipped the book so it was facing her friends as she pointed at the picture of the shark in the water, hunting.

"Sharks can detect blood in one part per million," Jackylen informed her friends, looking into their curious eyes. "That's one drop of blood in a million and they can smell it from a quarter mile away."

"So you're both saying it can detect blood?" Jonathan tried to clarify.

"It's just a theory."

"We can test it. But if it works..."

"At least we'll know it's coming," Nancy replied. For a second, silence flowed through the room. But then a loud banging broke it causing the teens to jump and Jonathan and Nancy holding hands.

Nancy's mom's voice talked through the door, trying to get into the lock room. As Nancy answered her mom, Jackylen noted the two holding hands, gripping onto each other so tight they could cut off each other's circulation. When Jonathan and Nancy followed Jackylen's gaze, they quickly let go.

"Your mom doesn't knock?" Jonathan chuckled slightly.

"Yeah sorry about her," Nancy apologized.

"Okay," Jackylen said, getting up from the bed and brushing herself off. "We shouldn't get going. We don't want to lose daylight."

Jonathan and Nancy quickly got dressed and devised a plan to go get supplies. The three teens jumped out of the window Jackylen came from and all piled into Jonathan's car. Jonathan driving, of course, Nancy in the passenger seat, and Jackylen in the back seat, taking up the rest of the space with her legs.

"So Nance, have you thought about a way to kill this thing?" She asked, taking out a cigarette and lit it with her favorite lighter. She rolled down the window behind her and puffed out some smoke as she put the cigarette between her fingers and held it out the window.

"Can we chop its head off?" Jonathan suggested.

"It's not a zombie Jonathan," Nancy said. "We can light it on fire?"

"That's good," Jackylen said, puffing out more smoke. "That guarantees it won't be alive when we're done with it."

"So is chopping off its head," the boy defended.

"What head Jonathan," Nancy said, not wanting to recall the monster she saw. "It doesn't have a face, even if we chop off its head it's going to take awhile." A silence flooded the car. A cold shiver went down Jonathan and Jackylen's spine, hearing the words of they're friend.

"Plus wherever we're doing this, we're pretty sure you don't want brain mush everywhere," Jackylen pointed out, breaking the tension between her friends.

"If it has one," Nancy scoffed. After a while of many stop lights, and intersections, they finally made it to the store. Jackylen got out of the car, and stared at the store in awe. She could feel a flame ignited in her like nothing before.

"Yeah. This will do," she smirked, throwing her cigarette on the ground and putting it out my stomping on it. "This will do just fine." She looked over at her friends, giving them a devilish look. "Let's go monster hunting bitches."