I think that was the first time in a while; feels more like in forever, that I've actually slept through the night. No nightmares, no panic attacks, nothing. I woke to the feeling of a feather-light touch, if I hadn't already been half-awake, I would've missed the feeling as they brushed the hair out of my face.

   Slowly opening my eyes, I found Steve staring down at me. It looked like he had just woken up, his hair was a mess and his eyelids still looked heavy. "Morning... Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you." He whispered softly, speaking as if I had caught him doing something wrong.

   Smiling slightly to myself, I shrugged off the comment as I rubbed away the remaining sleep from my eyes. I was still trying to wrap my head around everything that had led up to this point when it all suddenly came rushing back to me; more like crashing down on me. The event that led me to escape to Harrington's... and what a major mistake that would be.

   What was I thinking? Spending the night with Steve Harrington? That was wrong on so many levels... and I knew that. How was I going to explain any of this to Mom? To Jonathan? How do I explain this to Nancy? "Shit..." I mumbled under my breath, squinting my eyes closed at the thought of my friend. I need to get out of here...

    "I- I should probably get going... Thanks for everything." Pushing myself off the bed, I hurriedly pulled on my shoes, messily lacing them with the hope of getting out of there as quickly as I could. "See you at school." I called out over my shoulder as I moved towards the bedroom door.

   But none of that could stop Steve from following after me. "Woah, slow down. What's the rush? Come on, I'll take you home." I don't think I've ever heard Steve Harrington so unsure of himself. Lacking the false confidence he always seemed to radiate as he stumbled out of bed and rushed to throw on a shirt. 

   "No, it's okay. Really, you've done enough." Throwing on my jacket, I offered him an anxious smile as I reached for the doorknob. "Nellie, please. It's nothing-" "Look, you can't. So just stop, please." I pleaded, cutting him off before he could continue.

    His face shifted from one of confusion to realization. "Is it because of what happened yesterday with Jonathan?"  Shaking my head at the question, I furrowed my brow as I tried to form an appropriate answer.

   I mean, yes? No? Maybe... There is no simple answer when the problem is everywhere and every little thing.

   But of course, I didn't say that. I just stood there in my place silent while he looked down at me sadly. "I really am sorry about everything that happened... What I said, what I did. I was in the heat of the moment... I didn't think some things through, I know that."

   "No, no..." I shook my head in an attempt to stop him before offering him a small smile, "It's not about that, not right now at least...  But I'm not the one you should be apologizing to anyways." I mumbled the last part before continuing towards the door. "Thank you for your generosity last night. And you don't have to worry about me telling Nancy about... whatever that was last night. It was nothing."

   Deciding to not give him the chance to stop me from leaving again, I quickly opened the door before rushing down the stairs and out of the house. Moving down the driveway, I jumped on Will's bike and pedaled towards my house, not bothering to look behind me as I left Steve's.

~~~

   Quietly, I placed the bike on the side of the house and slowly opened the front door of my home to find that the Christmas lights still hung all around the interior. Decorating the walls and ceiling, leading in different paths down the halls. The wall behind the couch was painted wildly with the letters of the alphabet connected to separate bulbs.

   And the couch sat Mom. Sleeping peacefully; utterly passed out, snoring quietly and clutching tightly onto an ax. Sighing I quietly moved past Mom and made my way through the disheveled living room and down the hall until I finally made it to the door of my bedroom, only to find it already cracked open.

   Pushing against the wood of the door, I found Jonathan sitting quietly on the edge of my bed, with his head in his hands. "Hey..." I whispered, causing him to shoot his head up and reveal his puffy eyes. "Hey? That's all you have to say? Where have you been all night?" Jonathan asked, his voice sounding strained.

   "I just needed to go out and clear my head, didn't realize how long I was out for. I'm sorry." I apologized quietly, distracting myself with the ring on my finger as I awkwardly met his gaze. "I think you should sit down..." He mumbled and ran a hand through his messy hair.

   Nodding, I quietly sat down next to him and he quickly pulled my hand into his. "Last night, Chief Hopper found a body in the quarry... They- They think it's Will." Jonathan's voice cracked slightly when saying our missing brother's name, but he didn't seem to have any more tears left to cry. "We need to go down to the morgue to identify the body, so I think you should get ready." He quickly let go of my hand and began to make his way toward the door in the hopes of ending the awful conversation.

   "It was him..." I whispered more to myself than to him, stopping him in his tracks in front of the door. "Don't say that... You don't know that." I couldn't tell if he was trying to reassure himself or me but either way, he couldn't reach my gaze as he spoke. "I was there last night, at the quarry. I watched them pull out the body." He slowly turned around and stared down at me as I started to pull at the ring on my finger again.

   "It was his jacket... his hair... it was him. That's why I didn't come home last night... Because I saw his body." He shook his head and sat down next to me again. "Nellie, for all we know all kids his age wear the same jacket and get similar bowl cuts." Releasing a pained scoff at his words, I shook my head in response. "What other kids have gone missing, Jon?" I whispered.

    We both sat silently on my bed, staring off into the distance and thinking over what I had just said before he spoke again. "I know this is hard, but we have to stay strong. If not for Will, then for Mom now. You know she hasn't been handling this well." Nodding, I thought back to the current state of our home.

   "Yeah, I can tell... I mean, she did fall asleep holding an ax." I muttered with a slight smirk but the statement noticeably startled Jonathan. "What?" Jumping from his place on the bed, Jonathan quickly made his way out into the living room while I followed close behind him.

   Ignoring the mess of Christmas lights and missing posters, Jonathan and I stood in front of our sleeping mother. "Mom? Mom." Jonathan called out to her as I slowly moved to pull the ax out of her grasp.

   Jumping awaking, Mom stared between the two of us with a look of fear but that quickly melted away and turned into one of confusion. "What? What is it?" She quickly asked as she ran a hand through her wild hair. "We have to go, it's almost eight." Jonathan reminded her though she still looked lost at what he was getting. "Go where?" She mumbled, still blocking out the events of last night.

   "To see Will..." I whispered, tightly gripping her hand in mine.

~~~

   Pulling up to the Coroner's Office, the three of us awkwardly sat in silence, staring at the bland building in front of us. Hopper stood in front of the entrance to the building, a lit cigarette dangling from between his lips while a hard expression was placed over his features. I couldn't place if he was upset, or saddened by the situation. Or maybe angry? Or he was possibly just as lost as us.

   "Let's just get this over with." Mom mumbled and quickly exited the car before rushing towards the Coroner's office and through the door. "Do you think seeing his body will make her realize that he isn't still out there? In the lights?" I asked Jonathan who stayed seated in the front of the car. "I don't know honestly." Making our way out of the car and into the building, Hopper followed close behind us.

   A man in blue scrubs stood by a door that connected the main office to what I assumed was the morgue, "You must be the Byers." He greeted us with a small smile and held his hand out for Mom to shake. Awkwardly, she barely grasped his hand and shook it for a second before dropping it. "Are you ready to see him?" He asked and turned around to open the door next to him for us. "I guess." Mom mumbled, moving past the man while Jonathan and I followed behind her hesitantly. 

   Walking down the hall, the man told us to stand on one side of the glass that connected to the morgue, which showed a body covered by a thin white sheet. The three of us stood quietly in a line, waiting for the man to move the sheet. Nodding his head towards us, he moved the sheet off the figure's head and down to its shoulder to reveal Will.

   It really was him. He was pale and his hair still looked wet from being cleaned from the dirty water of the quarry. Pressing my hand against the glass to support my weight before my knees gave out from under me, Jonathan ran back down the hallway and towards the lobby looking like he was about to be sick.

   "Uh... there is a birthmark on his right arm, can you show me that please?" Mom asked, still not believing that it was Will. "Mom, just stop. Please." I turned to her but she patiently waited for the man to find the mark on his arm.

   Shaking my head, I made my way back down the hall and into the lobby to find Jonathan talking quietly with Hopper. "We'll be okay. She'll be okay. Mom and Nellie have that in common, they're tough." Jonathan said to him and I quietly took a seat in front of them.

   "Hey, everything will be okay." Hopper offered Jonathan a smile and placed a hand on his shoulder before a loud bang came from the door and Mom came rushing out from the morgue.

   "I don't know what you think that thing in there is, but it is not my son!" Mom yelled at the man, "Joyce, wait a second." Hopper tried to reason with her but she shook her head and quickly made her way out of the building.

   "Mom? Mom wait!" Jonathan exclaimed and followed her out of the building. "What happened?" I asked, turning towards the man who just gave me a shrug, "She's refusing to identify the body. Says it's a 'fake'." He rolled his eyes and turned back to Hopper. "Are we done here?"

   Shaking my head, I made my way back outside and towards the car to find Mom nowhere in sight with Jonathan fumbling with the car keys. "Where is she?" I questioned, rushing towards the other side of the car as Jonathan finally got the door unlocked. "She just took off, let's go."

~~~

    After a few minutes of driving, we found Mom rushing down a busy sidewalk, running into people and ignoring our calls. "Mom, Mom stop!" I called out the window only for her to throw a hand in my direction. "Mom, seriously just get in the car." Jonathan called after her.

   "Just go home! I need to think." She waved us off again and started to walk faster down the sidewalk. "No, that's it... Stop the car." I stated and quickly unbuckled my seatbelt as Jonathan put the car into park on the side of the road. Getting out of the car, the two of us ran to catch up with her. Jonathan pulled her back by her shoulder to stop her from continuing down the sidewalk. "Just go home, the both of you." She glared at us and shrugged Jonathan off.

   "No! No, this is not an okay time for you to just shut down!" I stated causing her to shake her head at the statement. "What do you mean? I'm not..." She couldn't even deny what was going on with her. "We need to deal with this, Mom. We have to deal with the funeral." Jonathan added causing her to scoff, "Funeral? For who? That thing back there?"

   "That thing is Will, Mom. Don't be like this." I cried softly at the way she spoke about him, he didn't deserve this, any of it, but she shook her head; still not believing that Will was dead.

   "Let me get this straight. Will, that's not his body, because he's in the lights, right? And there's a monster in the wall. Do you hear yourself these days?" Jonathan glared down at our mother as she nodded along with what he said. "I know I sound crazy. It is crazy." The two of us agreed with her but she continued on her rampage. "But I heard him. He talked to me!" She yelled at us and Jonathan started to grow tears in his eyes.

   "Will is calling to me. He is out there, and he's alone, and he's scared, and I don't care if you don't believe. I am not going to stop looking for him until I find him and bring him home!" She finally finished and turned away from the two of us, making her way back down the sidewalk.

   "You can't just avoid this!" I yelled after her as a few people on the sidewalk stopped walking to watch us. "While you're talking to the lights, the rest of us are having a funeral for Will. We are not letting him sit in that freezer another day!" Jonathan yelled after her, "Let's go..." He mumbled to me and turned around to head back to the car. "What? Shows over." I called out to the crowd of people that stopped to watch us before following after Jonathan.