5. The Fake Body

She soon found out that Barb had not come home and informed her parents that she had not seen her since she had disappeared. Of course, Barb's parents called the police straight away, but she feigned having some amnesia, which was believable due to her head wound. She went back to the school at the end of the day and spotted Nancy and the others.

"Hey…what's going on?" Karmen queried, seeing that they were grouped around Jonathan's car.

"This creep was spying on us last night" Carol informed her.

"What?" Karmen frowned, as Steve handed her a group of pictures.

She was in most of them, there was even one of Nancy undressing upstairs. She looked at the last picture and saw it was one of Barb on her own.

"What the hell?! You were spying on us?" Karmen shouted, throwing the pictures in his face.

"I…I was looking for my brother" Jonathan retorted.

"Bullshit! Did you do something to Barb?" Karmen inquired.

"What?! No. Of course not" Jonathan told her.

"Really? Cause these pictures show you were the last person to see her. I think the police better see this" Karmen stated.

"Wait, the police know about Barb?" Nancy questioned.

"They know she's missing, but don't worry I didn't say anything else. Faked amnesia. So, your secret party is safe" Karmen explained, as she saw they all sighed in relief.

"Look, I swear I didn't-" Jonathan started, reaching out to touch Karmen's arm.

"Don't touch me!" She shouted, as she shoved him back so hard that he fell over.

"See you can tell he knows that it was wrong, but that's the thing about perverts. It's hardwired into them, they just can't help themselves. So…we'll just have to take away his toy" Steve exclaimed, as he stood in between Karmen and Jonathan.

"No, please not the camera!" Jonathan cried.

"Hold up, wait" Tommy laughed, holding him back.

"Hey, it's okay Tommy" Steve smiled, as he held out the camera to Jonathan.

"Here you go, man" Steve stated, as he then dropped the camera inches from Jonathan's hand.

Karmen bit her lip, feeling bad for Jonathan, but at the same time he deserved it.

"Come on, let's go. The game's about to start" Steve insisted, feeling guilty.

"I thought you were my friend" Karmen scoffed, as Jonathan looked away from her.

She walked away with the others, as she spotted Nancy picking up one of the photos, guessing it might have been the one of her undressing.

"Hey Nance, come on!" Steve called over to her.

"I'll meet you in a sec…I…I just want to destroy this photo" She answered, as he nodded.

"That was kind of a dick move, Steve" She informed him, as they walked away.

"He was taking pictures of us! He had a photo of Nancy naked…its gross" Steve grumbled.

"God, I'm such an idiot. I even saw him last night, but I didn't think he'd…you know" She sighed.

"I don't think he had anything to do with Barb, Karmen" Steve told her.

"I know. I'm just angry" Karmen replied.

"Shit. I feel sort of bad for destroying his camera. Do you think it was a present or something?" Steve questioned.

"You're angry too" She shrugged.

"Thanks, by the way. For not getting us in trouble with the police" Steve smiled at her, as she nodded.

Karmen got a phone call that night from Nancy. Will Byers body had been found. She felt responsible in a way, she had seen that thing following him around before he was taken and now he was dead. And after what had happened with Jonathan…she was feeling guilty. She had found out he was at the coronary office and had walked straight there.

"Hey" She announced, as she approached him.

"Uh, hey. What are you doing here?" Jonathan asked.

"I heard about Will…and well, I wanted to see you" Karmen confessed.

"I'm sorry about yesterday, and the pictures and-" Jonathan was cut off, as she came to sit down next to him.

"Hey, don't even worry about that, okay? It's not important" Karmen shook her head.

"I just…I don't even know why I did it. I really did go out there just looking for Will" Jonathan insisted.

"It's fine. Really" Karmen told him, as she placed her hand over his.

"Is your mum still in there?" Karmen asked.

"Yeah…she's having a hard time accepting it" Jonathan admitted.

"She's lost her son…I can't even imagine" Karmen sighed.

"I can't believe he's gone" Jonathan cried.

"Hey, it's okay" Karmen said, as she pulled him into a hug.

"I should have protected him" Jonathan insisted, as he wrapped his arms around her.

"There's nothing you could have done, Jonathan. It was an accident" Karmen replied.

"I don't know what I'm going to do…" He trailed off.

"Stop, okay? Look at me. You're gonna be okay. So is your mum. You're both going to get through this" Karmen explained.

"How do you know?" Jonathan couldn't help but scoff.

"I lost my brother…when I was younger" Karmen confessed.

"I…I'm sorry, I didn't know" Jonathan sniffed, as she nodded.

"Who's this?" A gruff voice questioned, from behind them.

"Oh, this is my friend" Jonathan told the police officer.

"Karmen, right? You reported Barbara Holland missing?" He queried.

"Yeah. Is there any news?" She asked, as he shook his head.

"I'll go see how your mum is doing" Karmen offered, as she walked away.

"So, uh, 'friend' right?" Hopper said, doing quotations marks with his fingers.

"What?" Jonathan frowned.

"Oh, nothing. I just never hugged any of my friends that way" Hopper replied.

"Ms Byers?" Karmen called out, as she saw Joyce staring through the window into the morgue.

"Oh, Karmen. It's…it's good to see you" She smiled at her.

"I'm so sorry about Will. I shouldn't have given you false hope…I guess I got it wrong" Karmen sighed.

"No, you didn't. Will's alive!" Joyce insisted.

"But…his body…" Karmen trailed off.

"It's not his. No birthmark" Joyce explained.

"What do you mean?" Karmen questioned.

"He has a birthmark on his right arm. That thing doesn't" Joyce went on, as Karmen looked into the morgue to see Will's body.

"Where's the coroner?" Karmen queried.

"He's gone to get some paper work" Joyce informed her.

"You're not going to believe it's him unless you have proof, are you?" Karmen suggested, as she shook her head.

"…I'm so going to regret this" Karmen sighed, as she took out her pocket knife.

She then used it to help jack open the locked door and entered the morgue.

"What are you doing?" Joyce whispered.

"Finding out for sure" Karmen stated, as she stepped closer.

She took a deep breath as she approached the body, finding her stomach churned as she looked at the boy's face. But one thing hit her. No smell. Nothing at all. She slowly moved closer and pulled the sheet lower and touched his arm. She frowned when she found his arm wasn't stiff. She held his arm up and found that she could move it. There was no rigor mortis, it was some sort of dummy, not a human body. It wasn't Will.

"Who the hell are you?" The coroner shouted, as she turned around.

"Oh, no one. I just wanted to pay my respects" She told them, as she rushed out.

"So?" Joyce asked, as she approached.

"It's not Will. It's not even human. It's like rubber or something. It's a fake" Karmen explained.

"I knew it" Joyce cried.

"You need to be smart about this, okay? No one is going to believe you. They're just going to think you're crazy" Karmen went on.

"I don't care. Jonathan! Jonathan!" Joyce called out, as she rushed to find her son.

Karmen bit her lip, worried that she might have just made things worse. However, something was definitely going on and she didn't know how yet, but Eleven was involved.

Author's Notes: I hope you enjoyed this chapter! While Karmen felt violated and angry about the pictures that Jonathan had taken, she thought his brother had just died, so she didn't feel like it mattered anymore, if that makes sense. Just thought I'd clear that up. Please leave a review:)

musicnlyrics: You're welcome:) Yeah, I love showing Steve's protectiveness which is going to show more and more as he and Karmen grow closer.

Micky-Moo: Yeah, Steve was definitely on Karmen's side, especially as he felt responsible for her getting hurt. I hope you liked this chapter:)

SSJGamerYT: Aw, thank you so much:)