18. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

Well guys, this story is officially over 100 reviews so YAY! Thank you so much for everything, really. I would not be able to write like a maniac if it wasn't for your support. Thank you. THANK YOU! :)

Here's the playlist:1) The Clash – Rock the Casbah2) Rod Stewart – Baby Jane3) Blue Oyster Cult – Don't Fear The Reaper

Okay, so one more warning: Something BIG will happen in the next chapter. I'll step away from canon a bit but… you'll see. The next two chapters are going to be so much fun, I promise you! :)

Until then, enjoy this one. You know the drill: follow, favorite, review and make me super happy! Let me know what you think. Enjoy guys! :)

Jeans, boots and a thick jacket. Comfortable and thick, just like Jonathan instructed me.

I am lucky that Steve isn't home. I'm no way near ready for the awkward conversation that's in store for us. He did win a few points for showing up to the fake funeral today. He earned even more points for actually not approaching me. That just goes to show that he didn't do it to show off or to evoke guilt in me; he did it because he wanted to be there. As for the reason why he'd want to be there, fuck if I know. But it wasn't to guilt me into starting a conversation with him, I know that one for sure.

Another reason why I'm lucky is because I am not exactly traveling light. The little I know about guns is not something that could be considered useful. Sure, I know how to load them but I never actually had a chance to shoot one. Besides, I know nothing about dad's collection. I know that some bullets can cause more damage than others; I know that some guns are more effective and I'm pretty sure that recoil can be important when it comes to shooting but yeah, I know nothing about that. I wish I was some super smart gun expert that could come up with a single bullet that could end this monster and save the day but no. The only thing I know is that I need to hide the damn guns. I can't walk around town with an actually hunting rifle. I picked out three guns, one for each of us. Well, one for me and Nancy and a spare one, since Jonathan already stole one from his dad. I take three boxes of ammo and I pray to god that dad doesn't keep a count of them because I don't know how the hell I am going to explain missing bullets to him. That is, if I live long enough to offer an explanation.

I turn the entire shed upside down, looking for something else that could be used as a weapon; Jonathan literally said anything. I look at the axe, but that one's much too obvious. If a cop stops out car on the way to the woods, we are beyond dead. Four guns are bad enough on their own, but at least we can hide those. It would be a bit harder to hide a fucking axe. I do find a pretty sharp skinning knife. As much as I hate hunting and the concept of it, today, I am beyond grateful to my dad for being an avid hunter. Finally, he did something good in his career as a father. And he doesn't even know it.

I hear the doorbell and I run back to the house, praying to god that it's not Steve. It's not. Why the hell would he ring the doorbell of his own house? Still, I breathe a sigh of relief when I see Jonathan standing on the other side of the door.

"Come on, let's go!" I pull him by the hand.

"I know where in a rush to find Will and Barb but you do know you can stop to breathe, right?"

"Hmm, I have three guns on me and a very large hunting knife. I'm not stopping to breathe, not until we're very far away from the rest of the world." I comment. He actually laughs out loud. I can't remember the last time I made him laugh like that. The last week seems like an entire fucking lifetime of ups and downs. I still can't quite realize that… two weeks ago, it was all still awkward between us.

He starts driving away from my house and I am met with the first good sign in days; he turns the stereo on. I can't quite fight a smile as 'Rock the Casbah' starts playing.

Things are far from good. We need to find Will, we need to find Barb and we need to make it out alive. But it's still a whole lot better than thinking that his 12-year-old baby brother is dead.

"Have you ever fired a gun before?" he asks me.

"No, not really," I admit. This is probably not a good time to point out my lack of knowledge when it comes to fire arms, but he might as well know the truth. I'm not going to start shooting around like Magnum PI. I'm going to suck, probably. "Dad did try to teach me how to aim but I'm not sure if any of that got stuck in my head. We will practice first, right?" I ask him.

"Yeah, we have to," he nods his head. "I fired a gun when I was nine and I missed. I'm pretty sure Nancy never fired a gun in her life. We need to try it out at first."

"What's plan B?"

"Your hunting knife?"

Oh brother. We are in way over our heads. We are so deep in shit, not even one of those lifeboat donuts could save us from drowning. But there's no going back now. It is what it is. We are just a bunch of unlucky bastards who happened to find out the ugly truth that never should have existed to begin with. We could shout it from the rooftops and they'd all call us crazy, just like they call Joyce crazy behind her back. We are three kids that know the truth and that are in over their heads. We are also three kids that are going to do their damn best to get out of it alive and to save the people we love and care for.

Jonathan did not strike me as a guy who likes gun or any kind of violence for that matter. Sure, he does like a scary movie but so do I, so that doesn't really say much about a person, does it? I never thought a day would come when I would see him in a violent situation, much less with a gun in his hand.

He's bad. Like, really bad. I'm doing my best here to play the role of a supportive girlfriend and I try to hide my reactions but he misses the damned can every single time. The only good thing about it is that the monster in the photograph is a whole lot bigger than a can of beer that he used as his target; if he has to shot, I'm pretty sure he'd be able to injure the monster at least. But we need it dead, don't we?

"This isn't going anywhere," he sighs as he lowers the gun. At least he knows that he's not good with it. "Why don't you try?" he suggests. Oh, I could think of a few reasons of why I don't want to try doing it but I know all too well that I don't really have a choice at this point. There's no going back now. I make my way over to where he was standing and I lift up the gun with both my hands. I think that's what Dad told me, when he was trying to teach me how to aim. I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure he told me to use both hands and keep both feet firm on the ground. The less I move, the better.

I don't think he knew that one day, his words might actually turn out to be useful. I know I didn't; if I knew at the time that I'd actually get a chance to shoot a gun one day, I would have paid more attention to what he was saying.

I take a deep breath, try to aim at the can and I fire. Okay, this is different. Movies never show the actors reacting to the sound of a gunshot; it's deafening. I look at the can and of course not.

"Fuck," I mumble under my breath, before taking the position again. I missed the first time, maybe I'll be luckier if I practice. I take my time this time around, I aim and when I fire, I actually manage to hit the can. I start laughing and when I turn to Jonathan, he has an impressed look on his face. "Now I just need the monster to stand still and maybe I can actually do something." I comment. We need to be realistic about this. Hitting a still can is nothing. I'm fairly relaxed. I'm not running for my life from a moving target. That will be a whole different story but hey, at least one of us got to hit the can.

"Yeah, you're better than I am." he laughs.

"Can I try?" Nancy asks. I nod, offering her my gun.

Nancy is a tiny girl. We are about the same height but she is definitely skinnier than I am. I'm so used to her wearing skirts and baby pink, being that girl that hides behind the book but I have to give it to her, she takes that gun, fires it and hits the second can. She is good, really good.

"Well, since both of you are better at it that I am, I guess I'm stuck with the bat." Jonathan jokes.

"Give it here," I tell him, reaching out my hand. He hands me the bat and I feel the weight of it in my hands before taking a swing at the air. I retreat and take a swing.

"How the hell are you doing that?" Nancy asks and I look at her in confusion. "I practiced half the day and I can barely hold it."

"That's cause you have zero upper body strength," I chuckle. "Both of you are older siblings, so you wouldn't know it, but if you have an older brother, you kind of have to be strong if you want to survive." I tell them. As protective as Steve can be nowadays, when we were younger, that wasn't the case. I wasn't exactly sheltered from my brother. Unlike most girls, I didn't grow up with tea parties and dresses. I mean, I did, I liked it too, I had my dolls and I still keep some of the stuffed animals I couldn't go to bed without, but I also had a big brother. Most of the time, we would just be wrestling or fighting over something. Jonathan and Nancy are both older siblings so they wouldn't exactly know the pain.

"You make it sound like Steve is 10 years older than you." Jonathan laughs.

"No, but have you seen him?" I roll my eyes. "I know the hair adds a couple of inches but he's a pretty big guy. I had to hold my ground somehow and I wasn't always as articulate as I am now," I actually laugh at the memory of it. Sure, it felt like some kind of war camp but it was nice. I did learn how to stick up for myself. I didn't know it at the time but I know it now. "Are we going to stay here all day or are we actually going to go and kick some monster ass?" I ask, returning back to the main topic and the very reasons that we are actually here for.

"Right," Jonathan nods his head, pulling out the map from his hands. "We will stay in the triangle that is my house, your house and the place where they found Will's bike. It showed up in these places and that's not a lot of ground to cover."

"Yeah, but what if we miss it?" Nancy asks; good point. "We'll have to walk around the whole day."

"Maybe even in the dark," I add. "Though I'm not sure how smart that'd be. But it's Will. And Barb."

"We're walking." Nancy agrees. Jonathan wouldn't be left with much of a choice, since Nancy and I do make a majority here. I don't think he'd complain, even if we could. He nods his head and reaches out to take the bat out of my hands. I might be good with it, but he's better. Besides, Nancy and I need to be the ones with the guns. And a hunting knife that I really hope I won't get a chance to use.

Three hours. We have been walking through the woods for three hours. We mostly stuck around in the triangle that Jonathan pointed out earlier: my house, his house and the place where the cops found Will's bike. We did venture a bit around those limits but mostly, we were walking around that triangle.

I didn't realize how dangerous this could be for us, not until now, when we have already been here for some time. Sure, in theory I knew about the danger. That's why I have two guns on me. But in reality, it's a bit different. My brain is only starting to comprehend that we are searching for the same thing that has Will and Barb. If it has them, why the hell wouldn't it have us? Sure, Barb and Will didn't have guns and bats on them but still. For all I know, I'm walking into a death trap. And I didn't really consider it at all, before walking in. When I said that I'd follow Jonathan wherever he goes, I didn't think he'd be willing to march into Death's hands.

"When I give my heart again, I know it's gonna last forever." I sing in a low voice; music is something I use to distract myself from reality. Seeing as I'm in the woods, this is the best I can do.

"You think the monster likes Rod Stewart?" Nancy asks me with a smile and I have to give it to her, this one is actually funny. And I can see that she's actually trying to be friendly and approachable after what had happened at the graveyard earlier. Not to mention that we didn't talk much since we started our little quest in the woods.

"If anything, he's gonna come out because he thinks someone's in grave pain." Jonathan mumbles and while Nancy starts laughing, I smack him on the shoulder. He is laughing at me to and I actually have to fight a smile. I forget just how much he gets a kick out of making fun of my singing.

"You won't be complaining so much about my singing if I actually lure it out."

"Me? Complaining? Never." He laughs. Oh god, I can feel it again. It's that thing that happens. No matter the shit we're in, I suddenly remember just how much I like him. It hits me like a wave and I turn into one of those girls, girls that blush and act all lovey dovey. And the worst part is, I can't control it. I actually have zero control over it. It manifests in the weirdest of ways; like right now, instead of minding my own business and looking for a monster, I put my arm around Jonathan's waist and I lean into him. To make matters worse, he pulls me closer and throws an arm around my shoulders, smiling down at me. This is not how you go monster hunting. We're breaking all the rules in the book.

"How did you two find each other?" Nancy asks. For a moment there, I actually forgot she was here.

"We go to the same school," I smile at her. "It's kind of hard to avoid people there."

"No, not like that," she shakes her head. "You've known each other for years. How… now?"

"Well, we actually didn't know each other for years," I tell her as I turn my head to frown at Jonathan. "This one over here doesn't really like to talk. We only started talking this year. Pretty much around the same time you and I talked for the first time. I mean, Hawkins might be a small town and all of that, but I didn't know either one of you, not until recently."

"First of all, I talked," Jonathan points out and I laugh. Yeah, he didn't talk. Maybe he talked to someone else but not to me. "Second of all… like, you and I have known each other for years," he points out to Nancy. Huh, I wasn't even aware that they were friends. "Because of Mike and Will."

"Yeah, but we never really hung out or anything," Nancy shrugs. Ah, so they weren't friends at all. It's just that Jonathan counts any form of human communication, such as 'hello', into being friendly with someone. I mean, I guess it is but that's not how you act with a friend. A good acquaintance, yes. A friend, no. "And the two of us," Nancy adds, looking at me. "We only ever started speaking when Steve and I started dating and that's just barely."

"Yeah but… if you look at it, on paper, it shouldn't be a surprise," I shrug. "I don't think we have a lot in common and even if we do, we don't know it. It's Steve and this entire mess that got us into this position. Let's face it, the three of us as a group, all three individuals, we have to be the weirdest monster hunting group there ever was."

"But maybe it'll work," Nancy shrugs. "If the two of you work together, if Steve and I work together, why the hell wouldn't the three of us make a perfect hunting party?"

"Easy there Wheeler, don't go all emotional on us," I tease her and she laughs. "Next thing, you're going to want to have Steve join us and that would be a very bad idea."

"No," she shakes her head. "I mean, Steve is a good guy but I don't think he'd understand."

She's right and she is wrong. Steve is not as good as she thinks. Did she already decide to forget how he broke Jonathan's camera? Or how he didn't take Barb's disappearance seriously? She's the one who told me about that and that is enough for me to know that she has noticed it. And she is absolutely right about him not being able to understand it. The three of us all had a difficult time wrapping our heads around this. Steve… he's not wired like that. He could never get it, not until he is faced with a monster and offered no additional explanation. And even then, he would probably go right into denial.

"Look, Nancy, I told you the other day what I think of Steve," I remind her, letting go of Jonathan; as much as I would love to walk and hug, it's not something meant for monster hunting. "And just seconds after i defended him, he did the douchiest thing ever. He can be good, he really can. But with him, you never know what you're going to get. It can go from one end to the other. He can be the best guy in the world and turn into an asshole the next minute. If you are willing to have that kind of uncertainty in the relationship, then keep it up. If he makes you happy, despite being a douche… yay."

I don't even sound semi-convincing. I could point out the good sides of Steve, praise him and promise Nancy that he'd never break her heart. But that's not the reality. He might be my brother but I'm not going to paint a pretty picture if it's not true. Also, Nancy isn't that stupid. She knows who she's with. I just hope that she isn't hoping from some kind of massive change because I doubt that'll happen.

Something huge has to happen in order to get Steve to change his ways and become a little less selfish. Maybe that's Nancy. Maybe she'll make him a better man, who knows? I know I'm not going to keep my hopes up. For now, I'm just going to stay out of it and focus on my own relationship and whether or not it will actually manage to survive all the shit that we are in at the moment.

We lost light… hours ago. The flashlights are handy but they're not taking away the uneasy feeling. Sure, we have three streaks of light before us but they don't shine a light on the entire freaking forest. I don't want to be the pessimist in the group, even if that's my natural role to play. Normally, I would be throwing out comments left and right. I wouldn't stop talking of how stupid, pointless and ridiculous our little adventure is. If Will's life isn't possibly depending on it. Knowing that we are that boy's one chance, that's what kept me going and that's what kept my mouth shut.

"Are you tired?" Jonathan asks and I turn around, surprised to see Nancy just standing there.

"Nancy, we have to keep going." I tell her. My legs started throbbing a good couple of hours ago and I didn't complain, I just kept going. If I'm doing that, she needs to do it too.

"Guys, shut up," she mumbles in a low voice. "I think I hear something."

Well, crap. I know that's a good sign, I know that'd what we were looking for but I don't feel too happy about it. I guess a part of me was hoping that we would avoid danger, despite looking for it.

Once Jonathan and I stopped talking, it was easy to hear the same noise that Nancy heard. It sounds almost like… a wail. Or a cry. But I don't think it's human. It doesn't sound like a person but it also doesn't sound like a monster that's about to eat us. We exchange looks and nods which only mean one thing; follow the noise. Slowly, with our weapons in hand, we follow the noise. It sounds as if it's coming from past the bushes on our right. I nod my head in that direction and they just follow. We can all hear it and that's definitely where it's coming from.

I wasn't looking at the ground; I was looking for an animal, a wolf or something of that size. When I hear Nancy's surprised gasp, it actually takes me a second to see what I should see; it was lying on the ground, not standing and prepared for an attack. A deer. A half dead deer.

"Ah geez," I sigh, looking down at it. It's all bloody and hurt and the wails are even worse when they can hear them in clarity. "We can't leave it like this, it's in pain." I tell them.

"We need to shoot it." Nancy nods her head and then looks at me. I can read her expression with no trouble at all. I'm thinking the exact same thing. I don't want to do it and neither does she.

I don't want to kill it. I really, really, really do not want to kill it. I hate the thought of killing something, I love animals and I am yet to recover from 'Bambi', like every other fucking child who saw that cartoon before they were ready. You are never ready for 'Bambi'. Never.

But someone needs to grow a pair and judging by the look on Nancy's face, it's not gonna be her.

I take a deep breath and raise the gun, trying to ignore the obvious shake of my hand. I jump up in surprise when Jonathan puts a hand over mine and takes the gun. "But…"

"I'm not nine anymore," he tells me. "And it's a lot closer than the cans."

As much as I would like to spare him from killing a poor deer, I don't do it. I'm going to be selfish and save myself the guilt in this round. Honestly, it's bad enough that I have to look at him doing it.

I watch and I wait and just as Jonathan was about to shoot it… I think we must have jumped a few feet backwards. My heart is racing so hard, I can't even hear anything else. All I hear is the boom-boom-boom. The deer… it just got dragged away. I didn't see what took it but something fucking took it, pulled it away and into the bushes, completely ignoring the three of us. I still can't hear a single thing but I look at Jonathan and then at Nancy; both looked as rattled as I feel. Something is here.

"What the hell was that?" I whisper as I shine my flashlight down to the ground; a trail of blood shows that the deer really was dragged away by something, not just grabbed. Slowly, we move. Nancy has the bat, despite being better with a gun, Jonathan has the gun he took from my hand and I grab another one out of my pocket. It's smaller, but it's still a gun. Slowly, we walk in the direction the deer went. And for a while, we see blood but then it just… stops. No more blood, no more deer.

I look at the two of them, look for reassurance that I'm not losing the little of what's left of my mind. Yeah, they don't have it either. It makes no sense, none of this makes any sense at all.

"Where the hell did it go?" Jonathan asks.

I keep on moving, looking around for anything. The deer god dragged away so fast… I don't get how the hell we weren't able to see what got it, it was right in front of us, we were looking at it. Slowly, I can feel that the adrenaline is letting go of me but I still look around, just waiting for something to jump out at us. This isn't going to end well. There's no way that this can end well for us.

"What the hell is this?" Nancy asks in a whisper and when I turn around, I see her on her knees in front of a tree. I walk over to her, only noticing that the tree has a pretty big hole in it. I kneel next to her and I try to take a peak in, pointing my light at it. I don't see the end. I just see… dark.

"This isn't… this isn't a regular tree." I turn around, looking to see if Jonathan can hear us.

"Jon-" Nancy starts but I smack her on the leg. She looks up at me, wide-eyed.

"Don't call him!" I snap at her in a low voice. "He's not good with a gun, he's going to get himself killed. Wait here." I say as I take off my backpack and jacket; the lighter I travel, the better.

"Tina, what the hell are you doing?" she asks. She must think I am completely insane. Well, I am.

"I'm going in," I tell her in a hushed voice. I really don't want Jonathan to stop me, nor do I want him to do this. "This isn't a tree trunk. I need to check it out. Stay here and if I'm not back soon…" I stop, not knowing what to tell her. To come after me? No. If I'm not back, I'm dead. To call for help? Who would believe her? "If I'm not back, grab Jonathan and run."

"Tina, no."

She tries to stop me but against all common sense, I do not listen to her. I take a deep breath and I try to squeeze in through the hole. I was right. It's not a hole in a tree trunk, it's something else. It's… slimey. As I try to push my way through I nearly gag as I push away the slime and… web? I don't even know what the hell it is.

Oh shit. Oh, shit, shit, shit.

I'm in the woods. I'm still in the fucking woods but I didn't go through a tree trunk and ended up in the same place I left. It's… different.

All around me, I see slime and webs. It's much darker and it's all so… blue. There's some kind of dust flying through the air. No, not flying. It's floating. It almost looks as if the air is thicker but when I take a step forward, I feel no resistance. As my eyes start getting used to this kind of dark, I realize that it… it looks exactly the same as the woods I was just in. Same but… different. Like a different color of a same dress. It takes me a moment to realize that I just walked into this through a fucking tree.

I walked into a tree. I should have been met with a tree… wall, I guess. It should not have led to this but it did. And I am here. My hands are shaking but I hold the gun and the flashlight up as I start moving forward. I wasn't expecting to hear a noise behind me. I turn, my finger already on the trigger, ready to shoot, only to be met with a wide-eyed Nancy. My look says it all. At first I am glad I didn't shoot the hell out of her and then I just… if I could strangle her with my eyes, I'd do it.

Her look says it all too. And I guess I kind of get it. I would not let her walk in here alone. I suppose I have to understand why she wasn't willing to let me go through it alone. But we are here, I have no idea what the hell is going on and we are in big trouble. The only thing I know is that we need to be quiet. I put a finger over my lips and Nancy nods her head, understanding the message I tried to send.

The moment my flashlight starts flickering, I realize two things. One, wherever the hell we are, we are in the right place. Two… we are in big trouble.

Like on command, we hear a growl. Slowly, I turn around. And there it is. The deer and the thing Nancy saw, the thing that Joyce saw coming out of the wall. Kind of looks human but it's obviously not. Kind of looks like an animal but it's not that either. And right now, it's feasting on the deer. I reach out my hand to Nancy and slowly, we start backing away. It's focused on the deer, it didn't even see us and we need it to stay that way. Please don't turn around. Please don't turn around. Please don't turn around.

Crack.

We stood on something. I turn to Nancy.

"Run." I manage to utter before that thing turned around.

Its face opened up. Its face opened up and it growled and the next thing I know, I'm running and I can no longer see Nancy.

There's no way in hell I can outrun it. I stop and hide behind the tree and I try to calm myself down; my heart is beating like crazy. The thing will hear it if I don't calm myself down. But the moment I try to do that, I notice something, whether it's the things that are floating in the air or the slime on the tree that I am currently touching. I hear a noise and I turn around, just in time to see Nancy.

I want to shout at her to run, to stop looking for me; if I hear her, so will that thing. She looks around and just… doesn't see me. To my relief, she realizes I am not close and she walks through the same whole we went through to begin with. That relief turns into panic immediately, the second I realize I am alone in here. I need to get to that hole. I need to get to it but I can't do that while that thing is around.

It saw us, it smelled us or something and it is searching for us. I can hear low grumbles and movement. At least Nancy made it out of here. I hope she listens to my order and just runs away with Jonathan.

Fuck, Jonathan.

I need to get to that hole. I need to get to it, now!

I can't run in front of it, I can't do that. It'll… I don't know what the hell it'll do to me but it will do something. I'm going to need at least a few seconds if I'm going to get to that hole.

Then I hear the noise again. Nancy and I interrupted its dinner but I can hear it munching on the poor animal. This is my chance. Now or never. I'm in this alone.

I run. I run as fast as I possibly can and I rush through the slime and do goo, not caring that it got all over my face. I rush past it and I feel cold air on my hands. It takes me a moment to realize what is going on but I'm having difficulty breathing, as if the space is closing in on me. That's when something starts yanking me. I realize that someone from the other side is pulling me out there. I try to help but the only thing I can think about is how loud this must be and how close I am to that thing grabbing me and ripping me in half as it pulls me to its side.

That's when the clean air hits me. No more slime, no more webs, just clean, cold air.

"Jonathan, pull!" I hear a yell.

I scream as I feel claws on my back, pushing on my skin as both Jonathan and Nancy are trying to pull me out. I scream in pain but as soon as they pull me out halfway, it stops. I fall face down, directly on top of Jonathan. With Nancy's help, I manage to get up from him and my eyes go directly to the hole.

It's all but gone. One inch is left of it and I watch as the tree just turns into a normal tree. It was literally closing in on me and that must have been what I felt. No claws were digging into me, it was the tree closing in on me as they were trying to pull me out.

"We need to get away from here. NOW!" Nancy yells.

Jonathan helps me get up on my feet but I keep my eyes on the tree. He pushes me toward and leans me on him but even as we walk away, I stare at the damned tree.

Where the hell were we?

I thought I knew myself pretty well. For a 16-year-old, at least. I thought I was a realist, a smart girl. I'm not the one to sing praises to myself but I know I'm not stupid. I also thought I was brave. That I could stand up for myself, defend myself and others, if need be. That was when I didn't know that monsters are real. Along with that perfect version of myself, I was sure that monsters are reserved for movies and scary novels, comics. Never, never in my wildest dreams did I expect I'd get to face one today.

I was anything but brave. Even now, sitting in my own room, in my locked house, with a gun on the night stand and Jonathan right next to me, the only thing I can do is sit in silence and just shake. I thought that a warm shower might help but even now, in my pajamas, all I can think about is that thing.

It looked… it looked like one of those plants that open up. Its head looked like an open flower on a human like body. It's not a human body, no way. But it has hands and it has legs. Long, at that. It must be superfast. I don't know how the hell I managed to get away from it. Nancy was lucky, she made a run for it and she was out in time, despite waiting to see if I was around. I am glad she didn't wait for me too long because if that thing had seen her, she would have been dead. They stuck around long enough to pull me out of there and that's good enough. But it doesn't erase my memory. Unfortunately.

"Tina?" Jonathan's voice was soft and he is sitting right next to me but I was still startled. "Tina, I need to check your back."

"Right," I nod my head, giving him the ointment I was holding. I tried to do it myself, while he was waiting for me to get out of the bathroom but I couldn't reach the whole thing. I have scratches all over me. My front too, but I already took care of that one. That tree was closing in on me and I don't even want to think what could have happened if they hadn't pulled me out of there. It's safe to say that I'll gladly take these scratches. I turn around, lie on my stomach and lift my top over my head. I have to say, when I thought about giving Jonathan the chance to touch me, this is not what I had in mind. This is as far from sexy as it could possibly be. He is literally treating my wounds. Naked back or not, there's nothing sexy about it. "Do you think Nancy is going to be okay?"

"See said she would be," he mumbles. Yeah, easier said than done. We waited for her to shower, to get ready for bed and we were willing to stay, but she reassured us that we can go. I really was willing to stay there with her, to keep her company but I'm kind of glad I get to have more privacy. Dealing with it while Jonathan is with me is doable. With Nancy around, it'll be too much. "If she needs us, she knows where we are. If she changes her mind, we'll figure something out."

"Will you stay with me?" I mumble in my pillow.

"You'd have to force me out at gunpoint."

I am glad he's not asking me questions. Nancy explained what the hell happened as we were driving away from that place. She did all the taking while I was curled up in the passenger's seat, holding a cigarette with shaking hands. I never would have thought that Nancy Wheeler is braver than I am, but she is. She's alone, she could talk. I couldn't speak and I couldn't imagine being alone right now. I need Jonathan and I am glad he knows he shouldn't ask me questions. I am not ready to talk.

He slowly pulls my top down and moves around, making himself comfortable on the bed next to him. Despite avoiding eye contact for the last… two hours, I guess, I didn't avoid it now. I can clearly recognize the worry in his kind eyes. I want to reassure him that it'll all be okay but I really can't, not after what I've seen. Hours ago, I was the strong one. And now I'm just broken.

"I'm not going anywhere." He promises as he leans over and kisses my forehead. I force myself to nod my head, seeing as I can't find the words to express my gratitude. When he opens his arms, I snuggle up to him. I am nowhere near calm but at least he's with me. I couldn't go through this alone.