Chapter Text
The hospital and its chaos had gone just about as good as he imagined. Of course, it had to be Vecna- not someone who could actually help, just some wrinkled freak who’s hellbent on destroying Mike’s and everyone else's lives. He baited Holly. He’s manipulating her.. All for what, to kill her? To do whatever it was he wanted to do to Will in the Upside Down?
It scared him, and he knew it scared Nancy too. But he didn’t know how to talk about it. Not yet, at least.
The ride to the Squawk was silent, with only the hum of the engine filling the atmosphere. It was thick with tension. Neither of them knew what to think of this new revelation they’ve found. When they entered the Squawk, it was empty. No Will, no Robin, no Joyce. That should scare him, really, but his mind was so exhausted that he just decided to sleep on the couch in the basement. Nancy told him to, actually, claiming that he “looked too pale”. Whatever that meant.
And he dreamt. He dreamt that maybe, he had a normal life. If he had a normal life, he’d be having a school day today, probably learning about physics. Maybe he’d be popular, maybe he’d have someone who actually loves him. But he found that he didn’t want any of that. He liked his current friends, and he liked not being popular, and he especially hated physics. His dream shifted, suddenly, to a memory.
It was that night, that they had slept over at Mike’s house- Lucas, Will, and him- after El had dumped him the first time. He remembers waking up to the sound of trumpets and fanfare. Will had wanted to play DND, he wanted to be a kid, and he and Lucas had just.. Totally disregarded him. Not a day goes by that he doesn’t regret doing that to Will. But now, he had to watch from the sidelines as Will slowly and gradually got more upset, until he ran out of the house. He watched, as he and Will argued with the rain in the background.
“It’s not my fault you don’t like girls!” He had yelled at Will, that day, without any regard. Why is this memory so important? He didn’t know what Will liked and disliked. But he knew that he shouldn’t have said that, because Will had immediately gone on defense. He had biked off, in the rain, and he had just watched him leave, getting soaking wet, and-
No. He wasn’t going to let that happen this time.
“WILL!” He shouted, running out into the rain himself, leaving his older and more arrogant 13 year old self behind. He ran after the bike, his hair getting soaked, his sweater clinging to his body. And then, Will just stopped biking.
He ran into the bike now, colliding with it and falling onto the cement. Everything hurt. He looked up, expecting to see Will’s bright eyes, maybe helping him up or even thought would be better than whatever he was staring out now, because this was not Will. He watched as Will stared down at him, mumbling, “It’s your fault, it’s your fault, it’s your fault. It’s your fault I got taken. It’s your fault Holly got taken.” The voice transformed into something deeper- more guttural, more inhuman. “..And now, it will be your fault when I take everything from you, Mike.”
His eyes widened as Vecna, sure and alive, came into his vision, only for him to wake up with a sharp breath, eyes wide and skin clammy, breathing heavily as he clutched the couch beneath him. He was dry. He was alive. He wasn’t in the streets, he was in the Squawk.
He swallowed thickly, looking around. It was dark. He had a blanket on. Someone had tucked him in, ironically enough.
And as he got up.. he vowed never to say a word about this nightmare, or any of the other ones he’s had recently, to anybody.
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After trying to pull himself together in the bathroom, splashing his face with cold water so people wouldn’t see the tear streaks on his face and doing the good old smiling trick, where you smile so hard until your face is hurting (he read somewhere that it lessens the reddening that happens when you cry), he walked out of the Squawk to see cars pulling up.
First, it was Steve, Jonathan, and Dustin- who had been MIA, but he guessed Steve found him. Next, it was Lucas riding his bike up the hill. He had been visiting Max, trying to update her on everything even if she couldn’t respond. And lastly, it was Will, Robin, and Joyce- who he thought were supposed to be waiting for them at the Squawk, but he could tell something happened. Joyce looked upset, Robin looked wary, and Will looked downright pissed off and also concerned.
They had little time to socialize before Steve was ushering them into the basement. Will was first to speak, explaining how he could “tap into the hivemind”. How he had seen everything from Holly’s point-of-view before she was taken. How he could now see, if close enough, Derek Turnbow’s point-of-view. It made sense, really, to Mike. They all knew Vecna, or the Mind Flayer, had never really left Will’s body, no matter how much they wanted to deny it.
Now, they had an inside source though. He could tap into the hivemind. He could spy! And although it gave Mike some serious deja vu, of when Will was used as a spy for the Mind Flayer’s bidding, he figured Will had more of a control on it now, right? He had to have some sort of.. control.
So, a plan was made.
The morals of this plan were.. completely twisted, if Mike had to admit. But then again, you had to do whatever it took to stop a shitty monster, right? Even if it meant kidnapping a child. A child none of them knew. As Will described the plan, with surprisingly few people objecting to it, Dustin brought up holes in it- things that could go wrong.
Mike was zoning out again- trying to find the solution. Everyone’s voices blurred into one cacophony of protests, of “what ifs”, of bated breathing- confirmation that they were going with this plan, that they were insane enough to do this.
And then, he heard Dustin. “There’s another.” He heard him say, and he assumed he was talking about holes still. “But the third and most gaping hole is even if by some miracle this plan even works.. Holly’s still missing. Hopper and El, MIA. This doesn’t bring us any closer to finding Vecna, it just buys us and Derek some time. That’s it.”
And like a fluorescent lightbulb turning on, it came to Mike. “Not necessarily.” He mumbled, under his breath, but now more sure and clearly, “There might be a way. A way.. To save Derek and to find Holly.” He brought them all over to a wooden table. They all gathered around it, and he dug in his backpack, trying to find the DND figurines he kept on him for moments like this, when he needs a visual.
“This is Derek.” He set down a figurine, and then a few more, “And this is the rest of the Turnbow family. We’re gonna need to recruit someone the family trusts, someone that can gain access to the house.” He said, furrowing his eyebrows. “This said person will knock the family out, and we’ll extract them.” Somebody asked, he thinks Joyce, “Knock them out?” He sputtered, “Well- safely, with.. Sleeping pills or something!” He said, looking up at them.
“I might know where we could get some benzos.” Robin said, a grin on her face, “Those things could knock an elephant on its ass.” Mike ignored the way his chest burned with jealousy as Will looked at Robin in slight disbelief and slight amusement. He had to force the words out. “Perfect. That way, if Vecna spies, he’ll just assume Derek is fast asleep in bed. He’ll send his Demos to grab him. Only, he won’t find Derek. He’ll find us.”
He explained now, how they can get traps from Murray. How they’ll burn the Demo, how they’ll stick him with a tracker. His plan was foolproof. No holes. And truly, he had made it up on the fly. He looked at Will last, his eyes slightly wide with approval blooming in his chest as Will nodded at him, determined. Clearly liking his plan..
And that’s all that mattered, right?
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Things moved fast, as well did the time. Him and Lucas went to Hawkins Middle School to pull Erica from her class, so they could tell her about the plan. How she would get into the Turnbow home. Thankfully, she agreed with the promise that Tina wouldn’t talk to her at all after.
As they filled up water balloons with gasoline, and they prepared weapons, he let his mind wander. When Will had come back from wherever he and Robin went, not only had the hivemind thing happened, but his relationship with Robin had also changed. He didn’t want to be jealous. He wasn’t trying to be a jealous guy, and besides, this was his best friend he was talking about here. Still..
The way that Will looked at Robin now, with amusement. Like Robin.. Amazed him or something. Like she was a lifeline, or something sappy, something shitty like that. Even worse, they had gone together to the hospital. It could’ve been Steve to go with her! Why did it have to be Will!? It made him want to scream, to pull his hair out. To go up to Steve and tell him to reel his little friend in by the reigns. He assumed Steve and Robin were dating already anyways, so it probably wouldn’t be hard. But then Will would be mad, and that’s even worse than Mike being a whiny, jealous guy.
He didn’t know why this was making him stress out so much. He had much bigger things to stress about, like the literal plan he had conjured up. The Demo that he was going to catch tonight or fail to catch. The fact that El is MIA, and could be hurt. Or maybe even the thing he wanted to ignore the most- the pounding of his consistent headaches, the way he swears he can hear a ticking of a grandfather’s clock in the background of every conversation.
He knew having nightmares like this wasn’t normal. In fact, he really hadn’t had any nightmares since before the mall was built. He remembers having nightmares about losing Will again. Except now, they were tuned up to 100 percent. They were more real. Like he was standing and witnessing everything through an outsider’s view. He could see his fuck-up’s in real time, in his dreams, and it hurt him. And honestly? He’s deserving of it. He’s made Will upset so many times, and he’s fucked up their friendship so many times, that he thinks maybe this is punishment.
Again, he really shouldn’t be stressing too much about things like this.
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Later that night, he was waiting in the van with basically everyone who was going to be apart of the Turnbow Trap, waiting for Erica to get inside and give the Turnbow’s their drugged pie. That way, they could get started.
“How long before the drugs kick in?” Someone asked. Robin answered, “Depends on how much pie they eat. And how fast they eat it, and what they had for lunch.” She said, certainly not helping anything. He furrowed his eyebrows, rolling his eyes. “Caffeine intake, alcohol intake. It’s a lot of variables. Yeah.. what could go wrong, right? Aside from everything..” He said, sarcastically.
Thankfully, it all went okay. Erica drugged them, successfully. They loaded them up into the van, and Mike caught one last glance at Will for good measure before he drove off with Joyce.
Then, they transformed the house into a complete trap. He figured that if anybody found out they did this, they’d have to be paid so much money to rebuild it, because they were literally cutting a hole in the floor now, and.. the floor it fell into the basement.
He cringed at the shattering of the bottles.
And now, he was waiting behind a wall for the Demo. It should be coming. Anyday now. He was silent in thought, and also, he was scared. Who wouldn’t be? A Demo was going to be coming full force at him soon enough!
And it did.
Lucas successfully was the bait, and then Mike hit it with the axe he had in his hands. He let out a shout as he hit the Demo into the hole, only for it to try and scramble back up. Mike’s eyes widened, and he yelled as he tried to hit the Demo back into the hole.
He let out a cry of pain, falling onto the floor now, as the Demo striked his arm- but adrenaline consumed him, as he got back up and hit the Demo just right- it fell into the hole, being set ablaze by Nancy. His eyes widened, as he looked down at his arm. Blood was seeping through his coat, and he looked around in pain and shock as the adrenaline slowly left his body, and once again, he swears he hears a deep voice calling out his name, if only he could reach it..
Hand out, he tried to reach for.. wherever the voice was coming from.. only to fall flat on the ground, his vision going black as he passed out to the sound of ticking.