BREAKFAST WAS A TUMULTUOUS AFFAIR the following morning, something the Reid family was well-acquainted with. It typically consisted of Eurydice's complaints concerning their aging coffee maker or faulty microwave, Scott (who after twenty-three years of marriage knew not to cross his wife during her moods) distracting himself from the family with the newspaper or the radio, Kevin hurriedly wolfing down a blueberry muffin before commencing his hour-and-a-half commute to Indianapolis, and Amara quietly eating a bowl of cereal – usually fruit loops or cocoa puffs – and occupying herself with anything that wasn't her family. Today was no different, at least from a distance.

        Amara struggled enough at reading social cues, but she didn't think even any normal person could find a way to say, it's such a beautiful day today, oh, by the way, I saw a weird man without a face last night! amid a typical conversation. During dinner last night her family was far too focused on Benny Hammond's supposed suicide, and when Eurydice finally noticed Amara's quietness she had claimed she was nervous about her English essay. Even if she could somehow get the words out, her family would likely dismiss what she saw as a figment of her imagination, not unlike the imaginary friends she had surrounded herself with during her youth in Cleveland, where every real person knew to avoid her at all costs. That didn't make sense though, because all of her past imaginary friends had been sparkly and encouraging and 100% perfect.

        The figure she'd come across had been beyond anything her mind could create.

        "Everything alright?" Scott interrupted Amara from her thoughts, concernedly looking at her from over his reading glasses.

        "Me?" Amara cleared her throat, composing herself. "Oh, yeah. I'm fine." She was certain he didn't believe her, but she refrained from saying anything else, refocusing her attention on her breakfast.

        As she biked to school, she realized the only way to be completely certain that what she saw wasn't simply a person distorted by her bike handle was to go back to the woods near Steve Harrington's house. Sure, it was risky, but Amara was impulsive and often made decisions without thinking them through completely. It didn't help that the figure occupied most of her mind, blocking out everything else. Any other person would have brushed it aside, but not her.

        "Hey dingus, are you alright there?"

        Amara snapped herself out of her mind and back into the school's hallway, turning to face Robin. "Yeah, I'm fine," she said for the second time that morning. Robin didn't seem convinced, for she could read Amara better than anyone else, even her own family. However, she didn't question it, believing her best friend's nerves were likely a result of their upcoming history test on World War I.

        "Glad to hear," Robin beamed, playfully nudging Amara's arm with her own. "So Beth Wildfire told me earlier that there's a last-minute soccer practice scheduled for after school. You know, while everyone is watching that stupid basketball game. So you're gonna have to stick around for an extra hour."

        "That's perfect!" Amara exclaimed without thinking, and Robin turned to look at her, one eyebrow raised in confusion. The aforementioned girl ran a shaky hand through her hair, thinking quickly. "I mean – I'm actually busy this afternoon, so it's great that your soccer practice is also taking place after school today," she tried, hoping Robin wouldn't challenge her further. Amara was a decent enough liar, but the people who knew her best could usually pick up on the change in her eye movements and hand gestures.

        Robin nodded slowly, taking in the news. "Well, then I'm glad whatever is going on is happening today of all days. I'd miss my chance of finally learning how chemical bonding works," she said, smiling.

        As soon as they reached their adjacent lockers, Amara buried her face inside the cubicle and heaved a sigh of relief. She'd only just managed to get away again.

IT WAS AS IF TIME ITSELF was bewitched to move at half its usual pace. Amara wrote down the answer to a geometric equation, glancing at the clock and wondering why the universe had to make her last hour of school go on for an eternity. Robin was making no effort to hide that she was relying on Amara's proficiency in the subject to complete her work, her sandy hair hanging around her freckled face as she peered over her friend's shoulder. But Robin invading her personal space wasn't what was bothering Amara; she always provided her work, knowing that their relationship was reciprocal.

        The more time passed, the blurrier the image of the man without a face grew in her head. The more she doubted whether what she saw was dangerous, or if it had even been there at all. To her, knowledge meant nothing if she didn't have proof to back it up. Simply put, Amara was her own worst enemy.

        Again and again, ten minutes passed. 2:20. 2:30. 2:40. Over and over, never-ending. The classroom felt too small. Or was her mind too big? All she knew was that every minute she spent inside was a moment where the distance between the sun and the horizon grew smaller, the stars became easier to discern, the visibility in front of her decreased, and the figure became harder to make out, and possibly more lethal. She had to get outside.

        Acknowledging that there were now only fifteen minutes left to go, Amara redirected her energy into completing her classwork. Distracting herself when her mind was glued to something else was no easy feat, but some things, like time and her academic schedule, were beyond her control. At least if she finished her math problems in class, she'd have one fewer homework assignment to complete later.

        When the bell finally rang, Amara was the first to leave the room. As Robin watched her rush out the door, she was slightly curious about what was making her friend move so quickly, for she usually acted this way when she was determined to acquire more information. However, it was such a frequent occurrence that Robin felt no need to go after her, deciding to get ready for her soccer practice.

        Meanwhile, in the parking lot, the stage was set for Nancy Wheeler and Amara's paths to converge.

THE FIRST THING AMARA NOTICED when she reached the woods masking Steve Harrington's house was a car.

        It was fairly small, and recent enough that it hadn't begun to rust. Upon further inspection, she found that there was nobody inside. She idly wondered if it was there last night, but that it had been too dark for her to see.

        Not questioning the safety of the forest or if her plan was strategic enough, she walked downhill. Her converse lightly padded against the dried leaves that blanketed the forest floor, and the trees rocked as the wind sped up slightly. Amara might have basked in the serenity of the woods if she wasn't hellbent on searching for the creature without a face.

        She wasn't sure where or how to begin. Where exactly would that thing hide when it wasn't standing in the middle of a road? But then she recalled how her bicycle headlight had flickered right before she had spotted it. While acknowledging that it could have been purely coincidental, she chose to test out that theory and reached into her backpack for a spare flashlight she carried around. Turning it on, she began to maneuver between the thick trees, keeping her eyes open for any sudden movement.

        The leaves behind her rustled.

        She jumped in surprise, turning around. But standing there wasn't the figure but Nancy Wheeler, who looked just as surprised to see her as Amara felt.

        "Umm, hi?" Nancy's statement came out as more of a question. "I didn't expect to find anyone here."

        "Me neither, honestly," Amara breathed, her heart rate speeding up as it typically did when she interacted with people who were unaware of her diagnosis. After struggling with how to respond, she eventually decided on, "So, what brings you here?"

        "My friend Barb's missing." clearly Nancy had no intention of hiding the way Amara was; her emotions told a similar story. And then something clicked in Amara's brain: both of them, two very different girls, had united in the middle of the woods because of two unusual circumstances; one had lost a friend and the other had seen a bizarre creature. Both in the same place, on the same night.

        Perhaps she didn't have to hide what she knew.

        "I saw something weird last night," she said. "I was pedaling home, right past this section of woods, and my headlight flickered. It might've been a distortion through my bike handle, but I think I saw a man without a face. I don't know for sure – "

        "What time was this?" Nancy interrupted, frantic. Amara mentally sighed in relief, grateful that Nancy hadn't dismissed her sighting as a figment of her imagination. That's what fear does, it makes you question the impossible in the hope that you could be right, even if nobody believes you. Nancy and Amara had never spoken properly before, but fear also has a way of creating unlikely alliances. They both knew information that when connected, forged a new path for them to attempt.

        "It was around 7:20, I think?" Amara questioned out loud. "It had to be sometime then, that's when I left Robin's."

        "And I last spoke to Barb at 7:15," Nancy realized, blaming herself for how badly she'd treated her friend before she went missing. "She might have been kidnapped by that thing."

        Or worse, Amara thought, but she pushed that scenario out of her mind for the time being.

        "So, how do we find it?" Nancy asked. Her worry had vanished, determination in its place.

        "Well, my bike's light went out right before I found it, so if this flashlight," Amara held up said light, "flickers, then we'll have found it."

        "Perfect," Nancy declared, beginning to circle various trees. Amara was both shocked and marveled: after communicating with only a select group of individuals for a year and a half, she was surprised by how easy it was for her to talk to others, but that wasn't the difficult part. She often failed at reading social cues and letting go of certain topics, elements of herself she preferred not to unleash upon people. But in this case, her determination had helped someone else uncover a mystery.

        "You never told me your name," Nancy called from ten feet away, where she was peering into a hollow tree.

        "Amara," she responded, glancing at her flashlight. It still shone clearly, with no sign of damage.

        "I'm Nancy," she said as she continued to search the trees for camouflaged animals. "But you probably already knew that."

        Amara was no longer paying attention; her flashlight had flickered off. Several yards away, Nancy picked up on movement nearby.

        They silently inched towards one another until they were almost back-to-back. Amara cursed herself for not bringing a knife or some other weapon of self-defense with her. This creature, whatever it was, had possibly kidnapped Barb – their odds of surviving it were slim.

        Nancy gasped as something streaked behind them. When she turned to look, she fell to the ground in shock. Amara snapped her head around just in time to realize that what she had seen wasn't fake, nor a distortion. She had been right.

        They both ended up going their separate ways for the evening. A traumatized Nancy ran home to inform her mother what she had seen, and Amara silently pedaled home, surprising her mother with her early appearance. Both girls confined themselves to their rooms. While Nancy feared for Barb's safety, Amara wondered how many more individuals the creature without a face had affected. Until this week, Hawkins was one of the safest cities in the nation. Was this thing also responsible for Will's disappearance? How many more would it attack?

        Amara only knew one thing for certain: she wouldn't be going back to her normal routine any time soon.

published to quotev: 11/3/20
published to wattpad: 6/9/24