One

Chapter Five: The Flea and the Acrobat

Phina sat at her vanity, staring blankly into her own eyes. She knew that Will was alive, that they were going to save him, but the funeral still brought a pain to her chest that she couldn't push away.
She had woken up this morning before the sun had even come up, her mind on overdrive, her nightmares haunting her. For almost an hour, she just stared at her ceiling, thinking. Thinking about almost everything. Will, Jonathan, Nancy, Barb, the monster, her brother, El, and Steve. God, she wanted to smack herself every time his name came to mind.
Why was it, that, with all this crap going on, he was what drove her mad. She had excepted the monster, had believed Will and Barb were ok, and even excepted that a girl with powers was living in her basement, but Steve, she couldn't get over. His infuriating smirk drove her insane, and his arrogance made her want to scream, but he wouldn't leave her alone. He was always in the back of her mind, and when she was out of things to distract herself, he'd push his way forward, just like this morning.
When she'd finally had enough of her own mind, and manage to push Steve into a dark corner of it, she started to get ready for Will's funeral. Trying as hard as she could to make her mind go blank.
She was putting the finishing touches on her hair when her mom knocked on her door, "Phina, can I come in?"
"Yeah," Phina called out.
Karen walked in, looking at her daughter. Phina wore a black strapless dress, the front coming down to her thighs, and the back trailing down the the ground. Her long red curls were an elegant mess, flowing freely down her back.
"You look beautiful sweety," Karen smiles.
Phina gives her mom a small smile, "thanks."
"We're all almost ready to go, we'll leave in about 15 minutes," Karen said.
"Ok mom," Phina smiles, though it looks like a wince.
"Are you ok Phina? I know this is really hard for you," Karen said.
Phina sighed, "not really. A funeral, it just makes everything more real, more set in stone."
Karen nods, placing a comforting hand on Phina's shoulder, "I know sweety."
Phina gives her mom a sad smile, she wished she could tell her what was really happening, that a monster had taken Will and Barb, but, no, she'd be taken to an asylum quicker than she could blink.
Karen left her daughter to finish up, and Phina used her remaining time just staring off into space, hoping she might find Will there.

Phina hardly listened to the priest, droning on about how they lost Will to young. No, all she could to was stare at the coffin, the coffin that didn't hold Will, but something else. She glanced at Jonathan, periodically, to make sure he was ok, and each time, he would feel her gaze and give her a small nod, meeting her gaze for a moment before looking back down.
At the end of it, everyone started throwing their yellow roses into the hole, onto Will's coffin. Phina threw hers down, and with it, a silent prayer to anyone or anything that would listen, to help them bring the boy home.
Phina spotted Jonathan through the crowd, over by a grave surrounded by a short wrought iron fence. She grabbed her sister's hand and trekked over to him. The Wheeler's sat on either side of Jonathan, who pulled out a map. Little red x's marked the page.
"So this is where we now it's been, for sure right," he said.
Nancy leans over and points at an x on the map, "so that's..."
"Steve's house," Jonathan finishes, pointing to another x, "that's the woods where they found Will's bike, that's my house."
"It's all so close," Nancy says.
"So that means that, whatever it is, isn't traveling far," Phina says, making Jonathan nod in agreement.
"You want to go out there," Nancy asks, but it's more of a statement.
"We might not find anything," Jonathan states.
"We found something," she answers, gesturing towards Phina, "and if we do, see it. Then what?"
It goes silent for a second everyone thinking, then Jonathan glances between Phina and Nancy, "we kill it."
He stands up and starts going towards where all the cars are parked. Nancy and Phina scramble to stand and go after him.
"What is he doing," Nancy asks.
Phina shrugs, "I don't know."
They follow him to Lonnie's car, which he gets in the passenger side and starts to pick the lock of the glove box. Nancy still looks confused, but Phina has a good guess on what he's doing.
"What are you doing," Nancy asks, looking around, though no one was going to notice them, everyone was to busy talking.
"Just give me a second," he answers.
Jonathan gets the glove box open with a click, and then he digs through it, pulling out Lonnie's pistol. Nancy looks at him wide eyed.
"Are you serious," she asks incredulously.
"What, you want to face this thing and take another photo? Yell at it?" He shoves the bullets in his pocket and hides the gun, before getting out of the car.
"This is a terrible idea," Nancy tells him.
"Yeah," he sighs, "but it's the best we've got. Look, you can tell someone but they're not going to believe you. You know that."
Phina, who had been leaning against the side of the car, pushes off and walks over to them, "your mom would."
"She's been through enough," he sighs.
"She deserves to know," Nancy says.
"Yeah, and I'll tell her. When this thing is dead," he says.
Nancy gives up fighting with him and shakes her head. Phina gives Jonathan a look, one that wasn't to happy. She wanted to tell Joyce everything they learned, but if Jonathan didn't want to, she wouldn't.
"Jonathan," she starts to scold him lightly.
"Leave it Phina, she doesn't need anymore stress," Jonathan snaps at her.
Phina glares at him for a moment before sighing, "ok, ok, what's the damn plan?"
"Meet me out in the grass field, the one about a mile away from my house, in about an hour or two. I'll be practicing my shot, so be careful," Jonathan sighs as well, knowing he had made Phina a little mad at him, but she'd get over it.
"Ok, we'll bring a few more things, as weapons," Phina nods, her voice a little distant.
They all look at each other for a moment, the reality of what they were going to do starts to set in. Phina sighs and turns on her heel, towards her family who were still talking to some people.
God, this is a bad idea.

-1139 words-