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― season one, episode four;
I BELIEVE YOU

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2795 words

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*.✧ 𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐋𝐄𝐘 ✧.*

I don't know when I fell asleep last night, or how I managed to, after everything that Mom and I had seen.

But I must have at some point because next thing I knew, I was waking up in my bed with the sun shining through the curtains. I rolled over and realized that I was still in my jeans and t-shirt. I got out of bed and started taking off my clothes to change into new ones.

I found myself staring at the corner of my wall, right where the wallpaper had warped in Will's last night.

I wanted to just tell myself that it was a nightmare, but it just felt too real.

I heard my mom's voice coming from the other room, and I hurriedly finished putting on the fresh sweater. I opened my door and saw that Jonathan was coming out of his room as well. We exchanged a worried glance before the both of us walked down the hall, towards Will's room, where the voice was coming from.

Jonathan opened the door and I peered over his shoulder and saw Mom sitting on Will's bed, surrounded by lamps, rocking back and forth, whispering to herself.

"Mom?" Jonathan spoke first. Mom turned to face us, her face lighting up. "Jonathan, Ashley! Come here. Come here." She motioned to her lamps.

"What is all this?" I asked. Jonathan and I entered the room.

"Just come here."

I sat down on the bed next to her while Jonathan remained standing next to me.

"Mom, what's going on?" He asked.

"It's Will. He...he's in the lights. He's trying to talk to me." Mom's voice trembled and I grabbed her hand to comfort her.

"He's trying to talk to you?" Jonathan questioned.

"Yes, through the lights." Mom replied, squeezing my hand back.

"Mom." Jonathan said, his tone indicating that he did not believe her in the slightest. I, on the other hand, did believe her. How could I not, after what I saw? Maybe Will really was trying to talk to us...through the lights....

Okay, now I sound crazy.

"I know, I know!" Mom said. "But just watch."

She faced the lamps, leaning in close to them. "Will...your brother and sister are here. Can you show them what you showed me, baby?"

Briefly, one of the lightbulbs flickered. Mom gasped and jumped to point. "Did you see that?"

"It's the electricity, Mom." Jonathan snapped. "It's acting up, it's the same thing that fried the phone."

"No! It is not the electricity, Jonathan!" Mom defended, looking at me. "Tell him what we saw last night, Ashley!"

I opened my mouth to speak but Jonathan cut in. "Don't drag her into this! Ash, tell her that it's just the electricity."

I shrugged, dropping my gaze to the floor. "I don't know." Was all I said.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Jonathan countered.

"Something is definitely going on." I added.

Mom nodded her head frantically. "Yes, yes! Thank you honey! Listen, Jonathan, yesterday, the wall-"

"What? What about the wall?" Jonathan cut her off.

"I don't know, I don't know-"

"First the lights, then the wall? Mom, are you hearing yourself!?"

"I just know that Will is here."

"No, Mom." Jonathan shook his head sadly.

"Maybe if I get more lamps-" Mom started to get up but Jonathan reached over and grabbed her hand.

"No, Mom, you don't need more lamps! You need to stop this, okay? He is just lost. People are looking for him, and they are going to find him." Jonathan put a hand on both Mom's arms, holding her still.

"Okay," Mom whispered, defeated, sitting back down on the bed.

"Jonathan, I saw it too!" I spoke up. "I saw the lights, and the wall, and the music-"

"There's music now too!?" Jonathan threw his hands in the air. "What is going on with you guys?"

"Are you saying that I'm crazy?" I snapped, standing up angrily.

"Not crazy, just upset. You're both upset, I get it!" His voice broke. "I really do okay!? Will is my brother too and I really, really want him back but...you guys are making stuff up to comfort yourselves...I mean-"

"Oh so you think that the women are being too emotional, huh? Is that it?" I cut him off, my blood boiling.

"I never said that!" Jonathan defended himself.

"Yeah, well, you implied it." I barked.

"Don't twist my words." Jonathan snapped. "I just think you guys need to accept the reality of the situation. Which is that Will is gone, and he will be found and brought back to us. He's not in the lights or in the damn wall."

He walked over to the door, turning to look at me from over my shoulder. "We're leaving in five minutes, be ready." With this he walked down the hall and slammed his bedroom door.

I scoffed and then sat back down on the bed. Mom was silently crying while staring at the lamps. I took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"I believe you, Mom." I whispered.

She looked up at me with teary eyes. I nodded, affirming my words,  "I believe you."

*.✧ 𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐄 ✧.*

I came downstairs that morning to find an empty house. There was a note on the counter from Dad, saying that he and Mom went to go visit a friend and for Barb and I to have a good day at school.

Speaking of Barb, she was nowhere to be found. She wasn't waiting for me by the door like always, and she wasn't even in her room.

I guess she must've stayed over at whoever's house she snuck out to last night. Hopefully the dick was worth making me walk to school for.

As I made my way down the street, I remembered how I felt walking home after the night with Gabe. I remember the wind, I remember the rushing of the tree leaves, and I remember the cold air against my bare legs.

My legs.

The same ones that Gabe dug his nails into, trying to take my underwear off. They didn't even feel like my legs anymore, it felt like they belonged to somebody else. To Gabe.

I suddenly felt very exposed in my jean shorts, and I wished that I had chosen to wear pants instead. I rubbed my hands up and down my thighs to try and erase the odd feeling, but it didn't really work.

All day at school I looked for Barb, but didn't see her anywhere. It was completely possible that we were just missing each other, but at the same time, it was also highly unlikely.

I walked into the cafeteria for lunch and that's when I spotted Nancy. She was sitting at a table with Steve, Tommy and Carol. She didn't look too happy about it.

My heart sank when I saw that Barb wasn't with her. We made eye contact and Nancy gave me a worried look so I made my way over to her. I stood behind her, everybody at the table looking up at me.

"Where's Barb?" I asked.

"Who?" Tommy said, and I shot him an angry look which shut him right up.

"I was going to ask you the same thing." Nancy said, the worry on her face growing. "She didn't come home?"

I shook my head. "I saw her leave the house last night but no, she wasn't there this morning."

Nancy turned to Tommy and Carol. "Did you guys see her leave last night?"

"I still have no idea who you're talking about." Tommy laughed at his own joke.

"Come on man, don't be an ass. Did you see her leave last night or not?" Steve snapped.

Tommy gave Steve a threatening look before he said, "No, she was gone when we left."

My heart sank impossibly deeper into my chest. I saw Nancy tense up as well.

"Probably couldn't stand to listen to all that moaning." Carol said.

As Carol went on to imitate a girl, who I prayed wasn't Nancy, but had a bad feeling she was, moaning Steve's name. Really loudly, I might add.

I rolled my eyes at her immature outburst and then noticed that Nancy was staring at me, the concerned look in her eyes really scaring me. Carol and Tommy started laughing at themselves and Steve looked over at me and Nancy.

"Listen, guys, I'm sure she's fine. She's probably just skipping or something." He suggested.

"Yeah, probably." Nancy muttered. She turned back to her tray, trying to seem nonchalant about this whole thing. Her reaction made mt blood boil.

"Oh yeah, Barbara Holland is skipping class. Get over yourself, Nancy." I spat out before stomping away from the table.

I heard Nancy's flats clicking against the ground as she chased after me.

"Belle, wait!"

I kept walking until I was in the cafeteria entrance, then I stopped abruptly and whipped around to face her. "You don't care about my sister, or what happened to her. You just want to impress some douchebag!"

"Of course I care about Barb! She's my best friend!" Nancy exclaimed, looking offended that I would even suggest such a thing. "And Steve is not a douchebag."

"Yeah? Well, I'll believe that when I see it." I snapped. I felt tears pooling in my eyes and I needed to get out of here before anybody saw me cry. Nancy grabbed my arm and spun me around to face her again.

"Belle, call me tonight if you still don't hear from or see Barb? Okay?" She gave me her classic Nancy Wheeler puppy dog eyes and I sighed, feeling my anger subside.

"I will. I'm sorry for getting mad, Nance. I'm just worried." I admitted.

Nancy flung her arms around my neck, burying her face in my shoulder. Shocked by this sudden outburst of affection, I slowly put my hands around her lower back.

"Me too." Nancy murmured into my shoulder. At this moment I realized that she really was as concerned as I was, and was really scared.

Like I was.

Yeah, yeah, Belle Holland admits to being scared. Throw a damn party cause it won't happen again.

Nancy and I just stood in the middle of the cafeteria and hugged, and I have to say, for the first time in a few days, I felt like everything might turn out okay.

*.✧ 𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐋𝐄𝐘 ✧.*

The ride to school had been a tense one. I was glad to get out of the car and go off to class, which is something that I wouldn't normally say. I tried to focus my mind on my schoolwork but I couldn't seem to shake the memories of last night, with the lights and the wall.

School was finally out and I thought that it might do me some good to get some fresh air to clear my head, while I wait for Jonathan to be ready to leave. I pushed open the heavy double exit doors and stepped into the crisp fall air. The breeze blew my hair away from my face as I walked along the school building.

I found a nice spot under a tree, a few feet away from the school and I sat down on the grass beneath it. I pulled out my sketchbook from my backpack and started working on a doodle. I heard some commotion coming from the parking lot and I looked over.

Oh shit.

It was Jonathan. He was being pushed around by some popular kids.

I closed my sketchbook and scrambled to my feet. I put a hand on the tree for some balance, watching as Jonathan's bag was roughly taken from him and dug through. One of the guys pulled out a stack of photographs from the bag and I squinted.

Why did Jonathan have photographs in his backpack? I know that he gets them processed here, at the school. But when did he take pictures? I would say we've been pretty busy lately, preoccupied with some pretty important things.

I saw Nancy approach and she seemed to ask what was going on. I could tell by everybody's faces that some harsh words were shared. Then they started to rip the pictures into small pieces, laughing as they did it. The shreds were tossed in the air, scattered by the wind.

Then one of the guys took out Jonathan's camera from his bag and that's when my heart sunk. I watched as he dropped it onto the ground, the camera shattering into a bunch of broken peices.

The teens pushed past Jonathan, taunting him as they left. Nancy continued to stand there though. Jonathan got on his knees and started to pick up the pieces. Nancy bent down slowly and started to help him. But then she stuffed the pictures she had grabbed into her bag and walked away.

I scoffed and marched up the hill, up to Jonathan. I bent down and started to help him collect the rest of the shreds. That was before I saw what the pictures were of.

What the hell?

"Who's house is that?" I asked, holding up a piece that showed a window. I looked closer, then gasped. "Is that Nancy?"

Jonathan didn't answer me. At this moment I felt my anger rising inside me, and I threw the pictures back down onto the ground and rose to my feet.

"You took pictures of somebody's house, into their windows and of a girl in her bra. That is a total invasion of privacy!" I scolded him. "Not to mention extremely creepy!"

Jonathan continued to stare at the ground. I stomped my foot down onto the pictures and ground them into the pavement. Jonathan lunged forward and tried to save them but I kicked his hands away.

"Sorry, did you want to keep those pictures of Nancy? So you can have them for later use?" I taunted him, absolutely fuming.

"Ashley, you're being ridiculous." Jonathan sighed.

"No, I'm not! Who do you think you are? You think because you're older than me you can say and do whatever you want? I have had enough of you, Jonathan. I'm walking home. It'll be your fault if I get taken, just like it's your fault about Will." I spat, knowing that those words would sting him, storming off and starting the long walk home.

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The gravel crunched beneath my feet as I hiked down our long driveway. That's right, I had walked all the way home. I meant what I said to Jonathan, and if I was anything, I was stubborn.

I stomped up to the front door and swung it open, still fuming. I stepped inside. Before I knew what was happening, Mom had flung her arms around me and was sobbing into my shoulder. I hesitantly brought my hands up and rubbed circles in her back.

I heard Jonathan's car roll up behind me, but I didn't even turn around.

"What happened? Are you guys okay?" Jonathan ran up to us, and I felt his hands on my shoulders.

Right as I was about to angrily shove him off, Hopper stepped out of the kitchen, holding his hat in front of him. He was staring at the ground, and he looked almost sad.

And that worried me.

I peeled Mom off of me and she quickly latched onto Jonathan instead, who held her as she continued to cry. I stepped further into the house and towards Hopper.

"W-what's going on?" I felt my voice tremble.

Hopper didn't say anything at first but then he opened his mouth very slowly. "It's your brother."

My heart started to sink but I tried to ignore my mom's weeping and the police chief's somber expression. "Did you find him? Is he okay?" I asked, forcing myself to remain hopeful.

There was a long pause, too long for my liking before Hopper spoke again.

"We found his body."

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ೃ༄ author's note!

heyy! thanks for reading this chapter! sorry that it was short, i just couldn't think of anything else to add lol

the ending :((( ugh this scene in the show was so sad

belle can't seem to catch a break, can she?

aww nancy and belle's friendship making me melt inside. i love them so much.

also i love ashley standing up to jonathan, i mean, i get where they're both coming from, but i'm proud of her for standing up for herself! what an icon

anyways thanks for reading!! i would love if you would vote for this chapter and follow me to be notified when i update.

love ya,
catie ♡