The Ghost-Spider & The Queen Of The Newspaper

I’m standing outside Tom Holloway’s office. I want to suggest a great idea for the newspaper I’ve had since the inauguration of the Starcourt Mall. It’s not only interesting but also important information we could spread, and if I’m right we could do something good out of it.

I knock, waiting for an answer. I look at the ceiling. I think about how I’ve never actually made a real article, even after working here all summer. After that, I hear a ‘Come in’, and I do.

There he is, the owner of the newspaper and my boss. He looks up from the work he is doing. “Nancy,” he says as he sees me. “What can I do for you?” He asks, with what looks like a half smile on his face.

I smile politely. “I have a suggestion for the paper.” His calm features turn slightly agitated, but I continue. “Do you remember the Hawkins National Laboratory that closed after several demands and odd accusations?” I ask, he looks a little confused, but he nods.

“People were accusing the workers of being related with the cases of the missing kids around Hawkins. The Dr. Martin Brenner, who was the former head of the lab, had already been accused of illicit activities being operated there.

I have suspicions that indicate the same people who were at charge of the laboratory and the energy apartment are working in the mall, continuing the activities.” Tom raises his hand and I stop talking.

“You want this to be in the paper?” He asks.
I am stunned. I nod. I can’t hide the smile that curls up in my face.
“I could work on it immediately.” I say, a little to exited. “I can-“

He shakes his head, and interrupts me. “Nancy, listen, this is a serious paper, not your school paper where you can use all your imagination and fill the local news with gossip.” I open my mouth to argue but he continues, ignoring me.

“You should be thankful for your job here.” I fight the urge to laugh. My job? My job is to be the little quiet assistant who has nothing to say or do but smile and do what is ordered. “We would be the town clowns if we posted this article.” He says and takes this conversation as finished. He looks down to continue his work and ignores me.

I look at him with disbelief and then leave. How could I ever believe they would take me seriously? Really, how stupid had I been. I’m sure I could be as successful as the men who work here or maybe even more if only I was allowed to do something.

He doesn’t want my article? Fine, I’ll investigate it myself and then let’s see who has the most important and successful news in town.

I’m on my way out when I catch a glimpse of the photographer of the newspaper, Jonathan Byers.

Jonathan Byers.

His brother was one of the first people to go missing. He disappeared years ago and he was never found.

My best friend, Barbara Holland, went missing that same year. Her disappearance wasn’t as known or mourned as Will’s, but I don’t think I’ve ever recovered from her absence. She was one of the reasons why I started making this research.

I feel sorry for him, I really do, I don’t think anyone could be able to forget how the disappearance of Will Byers affected the people of Hawkins.

He is on his way to the dark room, probably to go for the pictures he took, and I follow him.

Maybe he can help me with my investigation. “Byers,” I say, almost as loud as a whisper. He continues his way, not slowing down.“Jonathan,” I say a little more loudly. He is almost in the room. I walk faster. I grab his shoulder as gently as I can to stop him from entering the room.

“Jonathan! I need your help with an investigation.” I tell him almost without breath. I didn’t know what to say, but I think that sounds better than ‘Your brother’s disappearance was something that changed this town for good, but I think I know who took him. Mind if I ask a few questions for the paper?’.

He frowns. “Mine?” He asks kind of shyly. “You need me to take pictures? Or something?” He asks.
I nod maybe too hard, grateful for the excuse. Maybe I could start asking about his brother later, step by step.

“Yes, I’m doing a report on the Starcourt Mall, and I need pictures.” I inform him.
“Okay. When do you need them?” He questions naturally.

I hadn’t thought of that.

“Well…,” I start feeling trapped in my own lies. “As soon as you can it’s okay.” I finally decide to say.
He nods. And goes to the exit door. “Wait! Where are you going?” I nearly yell as I follow him.
“I’m free. I’ll reveal my photos later. I could go now and give you your pictures soon.”

“Great!” I say as I grab my bag. “Can I go with you?”

He looks at me with a frown.

I just realized what I said. “No, no, no, sorry…” How could I say that? Inviting myself, rude and weird. He’ll never let me know anything about his brother if I go on like this. He’ll probably think I’m so nosy and that I’m so obsessed, and that I can’t leave him alone and in peace to take his pictures. “I’m… I’m sorry.” I say deeply concerned I’ve scared him off.

“It’s okay.” He says. “I was just surprised. That’s all.” He assures.

“Of course you could come.” He says at the end. And he continues his way to his car. I go along with him now, a little calmer.

On the way to the mall I thought about asking him about Will. I am wondering what could I ask first and how to ask him, but it’s Jonathan the one who breaks the silence. “What are you investigating?” He asks, looking at me genuinely curious.

“I’m writing about the people who owned the National Laboratory,” I start. “I believe they were doing some experiments that weren’t totally legal, and after demands they had to close, but actually moved the whole center to some part of the mall.”

“And what were this experiments?” He asks.

I hesitate. Not knowing if the information will make him trust me or hate me. “They are experimenting with the DNA of species, maybe testing people.” He waits for more information. I continue. “I think they’re taking people and using them as lab rats.”

I look at him and I see him tense the moment I say ‘taking people’. I’m sure he is thinking about Will.

“What?” He whispers. “Taking people?” He asks. “You mean?..” He stops.

“The missing people?” I’m still not sure how to continue. This is a delicate subject, I don’t want him to be angry or sad. “Yes.” I say. Everything seems to have turned more tense after I assured it.

“Who put you in the investigation for the article?” He asks with an annoyed look.

“Tom denied the idea of this article, actually.” I finally confess. “I’m doing this by myself and I thought I could use your help.” I tell him while I look at the window, not being able to look at him.

“You don’t need me for the pictures, do you?” He asks a little hurt and cautious. I finally grab the courage to look at him. His expression is now neutral, maybe still a little sad. “You think information about Will can be useful.” He says surely.

I can feel my cheeks burning. I’m endlessly embarrassed. It didn’t felt like this before. I never meant to use him to get information and make him relive the memories of losing his brother. “I think we can help him.” I begin, trying to keep my voice steady. “If we-“ I continue, but he cuts me out.

“I’m sorry to disappoint, but Will is dead.” As he speaks, I can hear his voice crack. “And all the other people who went missing after him had nothing to do with him.”

I couldn’t help but hear the pain in his voice and I felt like an intruder, but I have to remember why I started investigating. To help people who went missing and the ones who are still looking for them. “I don’t think Will is dead!” I fight back. “And if you really want to help, we can actually do something.” He looked sad but I could the the spark of hope in his eyes, I took this as a sign to keep talking.

“If you don’t want to do this for the people of Hawkins, then do it for Will.” I felt awful about using his brother for him to help me but I think it’ll be worth the try.

We stay quiet for a while. He stays concentrated as he drives. I can almost see his thoughts fighting each other. I don’t know what I would do in his place. I loved Barb, I really did, but I have younger siblings. A brother and a sister. I would go nuts if they went missing. And I would be furious if someone came after years, saying that the mall was kidnapping people, including the ones I care about. I tried to be in his situation and try to understand what he feels, not quite successfully.

He finally talked. “Okay. I’ll help you investigate.” He said calmly. Okay? I sit confused. I imagined many different things he would say, but okay? That was unexpected. I nodded. “But,” He warned. “Not more questions about Will, okay?” He said softly. I wanted more, I wanted to push,but I understood. I nodded.

“Okay.” I said. We were in silence for the rest of the ride. But I felt a little lighter now that he knew the truth and didn’t chose to leave.

When we arrived to the mall’s parking lot we stayed in the car.
“What is the plan?” He asked.
I wasn’t so sure, but still I replied. “The mall was closed for a couple of days a few weeks ago with supposedly no reason at all, right?” He nodded, remembering. “Let’s start interviewing people who work here about that. What they’ve seen, anything suspicious, maybe they’ll know something.” It wasn’t the best plan, but it was something.

Jonathan and I got out of the car and we started our way to the mall.
I really hope we can find something.

The first people who we interview are basically teenagers who wanted a summer job, adults who really needed the job or people who didn’t care at all and just ended up there, so when we started asking about why they think the mall closed temporarily they simply didn’t bother answering something valid.

We were about to give up. It was useless. Maybe we could find another way to investigate, we decided to take a last try interrogating a worker of ‘scoops ahoy’, it looked mostly empty so it would be easy asking him.

As we approached we were able to take a good look at the worker. He was looking down, probably counting the money on the cashier.

He didn’t look up at us, when he asked ‘What can I get for you?’, in a bored tone. After he spoke, the recognition finally came to us. This worker wasn’t a stranger. We were surprised of who we found at the other side of the counter.

“Steve?” We asked Jonathan and I at unison. After that he did looked up and he stood completely in shock.

“Nancy?” He asked looking at me as if I was a really hard math problem. “Jonathan?” He asked more to me than to him.

I cross my arms and look aside. I don’t know how to feel, half of me feels ashamed and the other part angry.

Steve and I used to go out years ago. I don’t think I ever liked him the way I was supposed to, and I know I never deserved him. We understood each other really well, and I’m sure we could’ve stayed as friends just fine, but after Barb went missing I cut everyone out. I was a shitty friend, mean to my family, and a bad person in general. I felt like I couldn’t be friends with anyone and I felt like having fun with people when the person who knew me best wasn’t there with me was a hideous sin.

I fought the urge to roll my eyes at the look he is currently giving me and Jonathan. “We are interviewing the workers of starcourt mall for our newspaper article.” I explain. He was still looking at us expectantly.

“Oh. Right. Okay.” He speaks as he straightens his back, and tries his best to act normal. “You want me to answer some questions?” He asked in a slight sheepish tone.

“Yes.” I said thankful. Maybe he was willing to help us after all.

“Well, I can easily answer all the questions you want, but not until my co-worker finally gets here.” He spoke in a bitterly way. Looking behind our backs for someone. He probably looked at our baffled faces because after he said.

“She never used to arrive this late before.” He begins explaining. “Ever since the mall reopened, she rarely comes here anymore or in time, I’m basically doing both of our jobs. But of course she gets no complaints.” He barks as he moves his hands angrily while he explains and shakes his head.

This information sounds interesting. Jonathan and I exchange a knowing look. Steve looks at us and stops complaining. He now stands still, looking confused.

“What is it?” He asks, knowing there is something he is missing.

“When do you think your co-worker will arrive, Steve?” I ask.

Steve stays silent, sticks out his fingers and starts counting, probably calculating the time.

“There is no way to be sure.” He finally concludes.

I let out an exasperated sigh. “Well, when’s your next break so we can start asking you our questions?” I question desperately.

He doesn’t answer immediately. He looks unsure about what to answer but after a few moments he looks up and says. “You know what?, ” Steve asks with a decided look. “I’m gonna take a break right now.” He claps his hands and looks at us with a smile. “Yeah. I will take my break right now! This place is empty as hell anyway.” He tells us as he takes off his sailor hat.

“Lets go to the back.” He orders as he leads us to the back of the shop. We follow him in silence.

He sits in a chair and looks up at us. “Okay, start your questions.” He indicates us in an excited voice.

“Steve,” I start. “The starcourt mall closed for 3 days, almost 2 weeks ago, right?”

“Right.” He confirms.

“Do you have any idea why?” Jonathan inquires, joining the interrogation.

“Uhh. I think it was some safety protocol or something. Robin said no one who wasn’t authorized could get in.” He explains thinking hard.

“Robin?”

“Who’s Robin?” I ask.

“She is my co-worker. The one who’s always late.” Steve explained.

“Right.” I write in my notebook the information, this could be useful later. “So, Robin. She is the one who told you you wouldn’t be going to work that day because of the protocol, right?”

“No.” Steve shakes his head. “We weren’t expecting it. We both were ready for our shifts, she arrived earlier than me and some guards were explaining to her we wouldn’t be going to work for some time.”

I stand there, making up theories with all the information, maybe Robin saw something she wasn’t supposed to see. Maybe she is scared to come to work and she was threatened. I annotate everything Steve just told me and then ask. “You don’t happen to know what kind of protocol they were doing, do you?”

“I think they were looking for something.” He slowly says.

“Why would you think that?” What could they possibly be looking for?

“I don’t know!” He shrugged. “It’s just that…” He trailed off.

“It’s just that what?” I asked maybe a little too aggressive.

“They look preoccupied.”

“Preoccupied?”

“Preoccupied in what way?” Jonathan confers.

“I don’t know! From what I could see they were pretty shaken up and then the doctors-“

I interrupted him. “Doctors? You didn’t mentioned any doctors.”

“There were some guys in lab coats and they where running from one side of the mall to another, and I don’t think even the police knew what was really happening.” Steve concluded.

“What’s Robin’s full name?” Jonathan asks Steve.

Steve assures to know but he tries to remember on a long amount of time and starts mumbling random last names so I’m not sure it’ll be right in the end.

“Buckley!” He screams. “Her name is Robin Buckley!” He looks quite proud of himself for remembering. I write down that name and then it hits me.

“Wait. I know her. She’s in my year right? I think I may have some classes with her.” Steve nods.

“Yeah, I think so.” He looks lost in his thoughts, but then he speaks again. “Was this any useful?”

I look at him fondly. “Yes, Steve. Thank you, really.”

I look at Jonathan and then at my notebook with the information we collected, with no emotion but pride.

This is the first interrogation who actually gave us something to work with.

“Well I guess that was it.” Steve says.

“Yeah, I guess so.” I confirm.

Jonathan heads to the door and I’m about to follow, but before I turn back to Steve.

“Steve,” I’m not sure what I will say, but I’ll just have to trust that I’ll say something that won’t be so bad. “I’m sorry, I was a really bad friend and I know we haven’t talked a lot lately or before or in a really long time but, you were the closest thing I had to a best friend besides Barb, and when she went missing I stopped talking to you and you weren’t the one to blame, but I assure you, you deserve the world, Steve. You really do, and…”

I look at him and he gives me a reassuring smile, and I know that I’ll say the right thing. “I really want us to try to be friends again.” I finish.

He smiles and gets up. He comes closer and grabs my hand. “I think that’ll be worth a try.” He squeezes my hand and then let’s go. I smile and nod.

Now I’m the one who heads for the exit too but I turn again. “We will be back with questions for Robin.” I tell Steve, still smiling.

“I’ll wait with her.” He replies.

I leave. He really deserves the best. Maybe I just gained a friend back.

Jonathan and I resume our walk with the same silence we had in our ride here. We were about to leave the mall in our new comfort quiet when we heard someone scream.

We looked at each other with fear and started running to get to the door.

We couldn’t leave the mall because a big piece of wall smashed the door leaving us with no way out.

We ran for a safe place. We hid in the safety behind of a table in the food court. We tried to see our aggressor but what we saw left us speechless.

There was in the middle of the room a giant repulsive spider. It wasn’t just a regular spider, it moved like a human but looked more like a monster out of a horror movie.

The giant spider threw something at the wall and made a hole with potential to be our escape door. I grabbed Jonathan’s shoulder and pointed the hole. He simply nodded, looking terrified.

We were waiting for a moment where the spider looked somewhere else so we could runaway. The spider finally turned chasing at a poor woman who unluckily had been wearing an ugly outfit that made her look like an insect, she looked like the perfect prey to it.

The spider grabbed the woman and then spit some spider silk to the woman. The woman started screaming as her skin turned red and started to bleed nonstop.

I couldn’t believe what was happening. A giant spider is about to kill us all. I’ve never been so scared in my whole entire life. That thing spits burning silk. The unfortunate woman is lying dead on the floor.

I needed to think with clarity if we wanted to escape. I just needed to think.

In that moment a man dressed in black and a ski mask enters to the rescue. He wasn’t as muscular or as tall as a superhero you could see in stories but he started doing things I wouldn’t believe if I didn’t saw them myself.

He started fighting the spider and doing acrobatics, and then he shot some spider-webs back at it. Do they have the same powers? How is this scene even possible? Is this man going to save us? I had so many questions but my desire to live was not gonna let me sit and think about them. I grabbed Jonathan’s arm and started to run.

There were a lot of people so we had to split up, both of us running in the same direction hoping to get out.

We were almost out, I was just a little behind Jonathan, but then I saw it, a part of the ceiling falling out. I was so sure I was gonna die. I braced myself and waited for the collapse but it never came. Instead I could feel a pair of arms around me. I held back and took a look at my savior.

The man who was fighting the spider was swinging with me using his spider-webs. I wrapped my arms around his neck and prayed that he wouldn’t drop me. I didn’t mean to scream, but I wasn’t a fan of heights, as little as the may be.

“Please don’t drop me!” I screamed out. He didn’t said anything in return, but I was so scared I didn’t care.

He finally set me up on the ground and I’ve never been so happy to be there. I was so close to the exit I ran out. I saw Jonathan and I jumped into his arms. We separated shortly after the awkward hug. We weren’t friends but I was so glad he was alive. Oh no. How could we forgot?

Steve.

He WAS my friend again, and he was still in there.

“We have to go back!” I screamed.

“What?! No!” Jonathan seemed really confused, but then he seemed to remember. “Steve!” He yelled worried. I nodded. We ran back in.
We were yelling as loud as we could.

“Steve!”

“Steve! Where are you?!”

The spider and the man were still fighting and we took advantage of the distraction and looked for Steve.

I caught sight of him running around with a little blonde girl in his arms. We follow them into a little toys shop.

When we enter the little store we see the lights are out. We call for Steve, and he comes with the little girl, hand in hand. “Steve! We were so scared!” I say as I hug him. “Who is this?” I ask him. “She was lost!” He says shrugging. “She said she was here with her mom, but we can’t find her anywhere.”

He was looking truly sad. I give them an empathic look. I can understand why he did is helping this little girl, but I don’t think Jonathan does because he scolds him. “This is not exactly the right moment to become a babysitter, Steve!” I hit him in his arm. “Ouch?” He was looking me as if I was crazy.

I sighted. “He is helping her. As any normal person would do.” I say and then I turn to the little girl. “What’s your name?” I ask in a soft tone. She couldn’t be older than 7, that’s for sure. “My name is Emma.” She said looking at me with her big brown eyes. I looked at her and couldn’t help but be reminded of Holly, my little sister.

We decided it would be better if we went out to somewhere safe in case her mom was already outside. We were waiting for the spider and the man in black to be fighting far from our way out.

The girl was about to cry when she saw the giant spider but Steve placed his hand covering her eyes and started saying comforting words. He was carrying her again.

The next thing I knew is that we were running and we were almost out. But then I heard a terrifying cry. It was weird. It sounded human but at the same time something you could only hear in your wildest dreams. It took me a time to realize that the spider had done it and that it was just behind us. We were running but I tripped and couldn’t get up. I heard Jonathan and Steve call my name but they were way too far.

The spider was closer to me and as it opened its mouth I was able to see its multiple teeth, all covered in blood.

The man in black reappeared, and started to fight back again. His clothes were now dirty, covered in dust and blood.

He was so close I finally took a good look at him. The only thing I could see were his beautiful ocean blue eyes and his long eyelashes. He looked so young this close. He was just some scrawny guy who happened to have superpowers.

They kept fighting and everything was going right, he webbed the spider at the floor and then came closer to me, offering me his hand. I tried to get up but my ankle hurt and I realized I couldn’t walk. “I fractured my ankle!” I screamed. The man simply nodded and carried me to the way out. I told him to drop me with Jonathan and Steve, who were with the little girl and her mom.

“Guys!” I screamed as I got out of the man’s arms as I mumbled a ‘Thank you’.

They held me steady and helped me walk to Jonathan’s car. “Are you okay?” Jonathan asked. I nodded. “I think I should go home, my parents must be worried if they know what happened and I don’t show up.”

Steve said goodbye as we were getting into the car.

I was calmer now but in that moment, I saw the spider get out of the mall and run to god knows where. We saw the man in black chase it closely behind.

Jonathan and I gasped. The thing has escaped.

We waited a few minutes and then decided it was safe enough. As we left the parking lot we rolled down the car windows, to listen to some reporters who were there.

“We do not know who the man dressed in black is, but some people have starting to refer to him as ‘Spider-man’” said a woman looking straight at the camera.

Spider-man. Spider-monsters. This town has just gotten weirder.