Chapter Text
Lucas and Jane held their breath as Max kept twitching.
Jane looked up to see Joyce and Mike surrounded by Will. “Is something wrong?” She softly spoke.
Silence.
”Uh.. Will’s eye is kinda a different color than the other.” Mike stuttered.
”Really? Will, let me see.” Jane got up.
Now Lucas had been distracted with all that was going on. He looked at them and then looked down at Max. “You can do it.” He whispered.
Max broke the door down and shoved herself inside the red, blood soaked area that smelt like copper.
She had her eyes locked on the portal. Her chance to go.
She ran faster than she ever did. She knew Vecna was behind her but she wasn’t going to let that stop her.
Debris fell down every way she ran, barely dodging it. She didn’t care.
She took one final shaky breath and closed her eyes. She did it.
Lucas noticed that Will, Mike, Jane and Joyce all left the room. He was going to follow them just to see what’s happening but then saw Max flutter her eye lids.
Her eyes struggled to stay open. She was breathing hard. All Max saw was bright blobs moving in the distance. Her eyes wouldn’t focus.
”Max! Are you hurting anywhere? Can you feel my hand?” Lucas rushed, hugging and holding her hand.
”I c-can’t see. I feel your hand a little.” Max stuttered.
”I’ll call a nurse!” Lucas pressed the emergency button at least six times.
The nurse came in and saw that Max had awoken.
”Excuse me, miss? Max said she can’t see. Can you help?” Lucas asked.
”Well, let’s see.” The nurse shinned a light in Max’s eyes, held up three fingers and spoke, “How many fingers do you see?”
Max sighed a little and tried to make out the what appeared to look like fingers. However, Max mistook the wrong thing as fingers. Max was looking at the bulletin board instead of the nurse.
”Yep. Her vision is gone. I’m not sure when she’ll regain vision but I’ll go find a doctor that can give you a definite answer.”
”Thank you ma’am.” Lucas spoke. He turned to Max and spoke softly, “Did you hear that? They’re not sure on when you’ll see again but I promise you, you will see again. Trust me.”
A tear rolled down Max’s cheek. She asked, “Is Jane and Will okay?”
”Oh.”
Max began to think to herself, ‘What happened.’
Suddenly her thought was cut off as Joyce and the others walked in.
”Max! Oh Max, I missed you so much!” Jane screamed, running up and hugging her.
“Me too!” She moved her head. Max attempt to push her arms up to hug Jane but couldn’t. She barely felt the hug, the only thing she felt was Jane’s cheek pushed up against hers.
“Took you long enough, Max.” Mike’s voice spoke up.
”Screw you, Wheeler.” Max laughed.
Will was silent the whole interaction. He only looked up at her once. His face showed nothing. Just one green eye and a straight face.
”Will, honey?” Joyce whispered in his ear.
He had no reaction whatsoever.
Mike looked over at Will. His stomach dropped. ‘Why isn’t Will looking up? Is he upset? He can’t be.’ Mike thought to himself.
Joyce shook Will’s shoulder once. No reaction. The whole room was silent.
”What’s going on?” Max spoke up, cutting the silence.
”Will? Will?” Mike walked over and nudged him.
Jane stepped close to Will and nelt down to where Will was. She closed her eyes and began looking around for any signs of Will, once again, nothing.
Will gasped out of some sort of trance. He looked up and saw Max awake. “Max!”
”Will? What just happened?” Joyce asked concerned.
”What are you talking about?”
“You-“ Joyce was cut off by Mike who spoke up quickly. “You basically just turned off! We were calling your name but you weren’t answering. So what happened Will?”
”I don’t know what you’re talking about, Mike.” Will’s voice was lifeless and cold.
”Will? Are you feeling alright?” Jane looked at Will.
”Yes, why wouldn’t I?”
”Your eye is green and you just blacked out!” Mike screamed.
Will didn’t flinch like he usually did whenever people would raise their voice at him. His skin was pale, like a corpse, and he stood up straight. He didn’t show any emotion. Instead, his eye just changed back to brown. He stuttered a little as he spoke, “I don’t know what you guys are talking about. Let’s just focus on Max!”
Everyone looked at Will, well almost everyone. Max turned her head to the wrong side. Lucas glanced at Max and moved her head to where they were all facing, looking at Will.
”Will. Talk to us, seriously, “ Mike spoke while approaching Will.
Mike was about to touch Will’s shoulders but suddenly he got up and brushed against Mike while walking away.
”Will, honey, where are you going?” Joyce asked while grabbing his wrist to hold him back.
”I’m going to the bathroom. I’ll be back.” Will mumbled.
Will left the room and Joyce turned her head to look at Mike, “Can you go after him? I want him to be safe.”
“Yeah no, I will.”
While Lucas and the others went to the hospital, the rest stayed at Hopper’s cabin, where they were originally.
Jonathan muttered something under his breath that caught Nancy’s attention.
”What was that?” Nancy spoke, cutting the silence.
”What was what?” Jonathan looked at her.
”The thing you just said.”
”I didn’t say anything. Just…find it crazy.”
”Yeah. You should’ve came to the hospital with them.”
”Mhm. I really hope Will is okay.”
Dustin looked up from his hand that he was fidgeting with and turned to Steve who was already speaking loudly, “Can you believe? I mean, baby Byers has powers now.”
“His powers are innate.”
”What was that, Henderson?”
”It’s not his powers. He’s siphoning them from Vecna.”
”Okay but he still has powers.”
”You’re pushing it, but alright.”
”What’s with your attitude, Dustin.” Steve looked at him.
Dustin opened his mouth and closed it. He closed his eyes and put his hand on them, sighing loudly.
Steve was going to say something but was cut off by the walkie-talkie, “Hopper, are you there?”
Hopper snatched the walkie-talkie off the table and spoke into it, “Yes, Joyce I’m here. What happened?”
”Well.. Max is awake!” Everyone looked up and was happy by that news, “But she’s blind.”
The similes faded from everyone. Before anyone could say anything, the walkie-talkie went off again.
”And Will, his eye… it changed colors. And he went into a trance I think!” Joyce’s voice became unstable, like she was going to cry any moment now.
”Will said he had to go to the bathroom so I sent Mike with him. I’m just worried about him, Hop.”
”Yeah, I know how you feel. How is Jane?” Hop’s went quiet.
”She’s fine! Do you want me to put her on?’
”Sure,”
”Hi, Hopper!” Jane’s voice was loud and clear.
”Hey kid, how are things at the hospital?”
”Everything is alright besides Will. I too am also worried about him.”
Will came back from the bathroom and in the background of the walkie, everyone could here Joyce ask him questions.
Silence filled the room as no one was talking. They were all waiting for Joyce or Jane to speak again.
Joyce spoke into it and stated, “We’re going back home now! We are going to try to get Max to come along with us. We might have to sneak her out. Signing out now!”
Static.
Jonathan sighed a sigh of relief, he just wanted to see his siblings alright with nothing weird or dangerous going on with them, knowing that is a hard chance of happening right now. He thought hard while staring at the floor. ‘Wait a second.’ He thought to himself.
Before he could even get another thought out, Robin spoke up. “Did she say Will’s eye was a different color?”
Dustin’s eyes widened slightly and he tilted his head like he was trying to solve a hard puzzle.
“That’s a- that’s cool,” Steve spoke. Robin elbowed him, “Ow! What. It is somewhat cool. Thats all I said, you don’t have to beat me!”
”Well, Harrington. Now is really not the time to say stuff is cool, especially if it could affect people.” Robin stated.
”Gosh, can we wait for them to come back in silence? I need you guys to stop talking!” Hopper demanded, he seemed already irritated and annoyed for some reason.
He rested his head in his hands. ‘How long are they going to take to come back?’ He understands that they need to sneak Jane out without getting caught by the military, and that they were probably finding somewhere to sneak Max out as well but did it have to take this long?
They finally returned to Hoppers cabin.
Lucas rolled Max in a wheelchair and everyone turned to look. Dustin jumped up and ran to hug her, Steve just awkwardly stood there. The time he saw her was in the RV when he dropped off a few kids at the Creel house. He saw her a couple times in the hospital but it was half-ass. He didn’t think that he’ll see her awake again, and that scared him. She was one of his little nuggets, who was Venca’d. Very gruesome.
Max let her hands wander around Dustin’s face, trying to map out who was hugging her.
”Dude, you can’t see?” Dustin asked concerned.
”No, remember? Vecna used his long claw and broke all my bones and made me bleed out of my eyes.” Max attempted to roll her eyes.
”Jeez, you don’t have to be sarcastic.” Dustin muttered.
”Sorry, not being able to see has been wearing me down. The doctor said she doesn’t know when I’m supposed to get my vision back, so I’m stuck like this for now.”
The room was silent.
Robin quietly walked to Will and looked at him. “Will, your mom said one of your eyes were a different color? How did that happen?”
A long second passed and she just stood there waiting for him to reply, “Uh hello? Will can you come back to earth?” She shook her hand in front of his face, that snapped him back to reality.
He widened his eyes and looked at her, the green color in his eye going back to brown. “Oh sorry, what were you saying Robin?”
Everyone was staring at Will. Will lifted his eyebrows up confused. “What happened guys? Why are all of you looking at me?”
Dustin opened his mouth to say something but before he could, Mike had cut him off. “Will, this happened twice now, something is going on with your eye and you keep zoning out! Clearly something is wrong.”
There was once again a moment of silence which led Dustin to think hard, then he blurted out, “Could it be Vecna?”
”Vecna? You could be right, Dustin. I mean, when Will was fighting Vecna he could’ve slipped in his head.” El spoke with confidence.
”Wait so does that mean that Vecna could be using Will to spy again?” Mike looked around.
Will had his mouth open as a couple of people were looking at him. “You guys, Vecna is not using me to spy. I swear!”
“How do we know that?” Lucas spoke up.
“They’re catching on, William. Tell them the truth, I dare you.”
”I-I don’t know what to tell you. I’m not a spy.” Will said, monotoned.
He backed up a little, trying to get some space from the party. He had a lump in his throat and was twitching his eye.
”They wont trust you anymore if they find out you’re a spy again. You’ll lose all your friends and family. Do you see what happens when you tried to take me down. William, my boy. Watch.”
“Will, honey. I know what you are,” Joyce’s voice snapped “A spy.” Will was looked up at his seemly real mother.
Mike spoke as well, “You’ve been spying? Why didn’t you tell us. Do you hate us.?”
”No! Mike come on, you know I don’t hate you. I don’t hate any of you. I’m sorry, I was just too scared to say anything. Vecna keeps telling me that I’ll lose you guys if i say the truth. Please. You guys mean so much to me.” Will spoke quickly, trying to get his point out.
”Lies. You would’ve at least told me,” Jane’s voice broke through, “We’ve trusted you all this time and you lied to us. Obviously you’re sick. A disgrace to the family. You should’ve stayed in the upside down, where all the freaks live.”
That sentence shook Will to his core. He couldn’t believe his own sister said that to him. Will didn’t know what was real or fake any more. He shook his head and started to hyperventilate.
“Will, are you alright? What’s happening?” Joyce rushed over, holding Will’s shoulder.
A single tear rolled down his cheek as he turned around to run outside the cabin. He didn’t want to be there because he was to afraid of them finding out. ‘Leave me alone. I get it.’ He thought to himself.
Before he could open the door his mother grabbed him from the shoulders to prevent him from leaving. “No, let me go. Please I’m sorry!” He sobbed hard.
Jonathan and Jane got closer to him while the rest stood there, wondering what was going on.
“Hey buddy, It’s okay.” Jonathan tried to calm him down.
”William, I told you to watch. That is what will exactly happen if you tell them.”
Vecna kept repeating in his head that he eventually collapsed on the floor and backed himself in the corner. Will closed his eyes and put his hands over his ears, trying to quiet the noise down.
Joyce, Jonathan, and Jane all looked at Will, crying in the corner, hyperventilating.
They were out of answers at this point.