Chapter Text
‘Three hundred and twenty-three days, and no longer counting, I stopped, isn’t that what all of you wanted me to do? ‘Stop counting Mike, she isn’t coming back.’, ‘Why do you keep on counting, it’s almost been a year, if she’s coming back, she would’ve done it by now’. Mom, Dad, you two thought I was acting out, and that I had changed, and need to get my grades back up, you didn’t even bother to ask me why, or what was wrong, you two just took away the few things I looked forward to, my stuff, my games, and even my friends. Nancy, I’d like to say you’ve been more of a sister to me since elementary school, but you haven’t. You’re always out, you never try to talk to me when you are home, you usually just bring Steve back with you and ignore me, when it comes to sisters, Holly has been a better one than you could ever be.
Dustin, Lucas, you two have been the best friends I could ever ask for, you two tried to help even when you didn’t know how, you helped me sneak out of the house to go to the arcade when I was grounded, and I’m grateful for that, but there’s only so much you can do, and too much I can’t. Will, I want you to know, I don’t blame you, it’s not your fault, she gave herself up so that you could come back to us, and I need you to know that you are not to blame.
Ms. Byers, I want you to know that you were more of a mother to me than my parents have ever been, and I want to thank you for that. Mr. Clarke, you were the best teacher any student can ask for, and I learned more from you than every other teacher in school combined.
To everyone else that reads this letter, I lived great first twelve years, but this past year has been a living hell that I only see one escape from, and I don’t want anyone to look at my friends and label them the friends of that kid because they don’t deserve that. I know that this is considered ‘selfish’ or ‘the cowards way out’, but it isn’t, this is the hardest decision I’ve ever made in my life, and I don’t care if I get labeled as a coward, this is my choice to make, and I made it.
Goodbye, this is Michael Wheeler, former president of Hawkins middle AV club, over and out.’
That was the one thing that he had on him when we found him at the bottom of the quarry, one piece of paper, in an envelope, addressed to Hawkins. We didn’t even know he had it until we got to the morgue. On the way there we didn’t even know who it was, all we got a report of was a body floating in the water. Once I got there, I was horrified, I needed answers, I needed to know that it wasn’t my fault. I searched for answers, and once I found that piece of paper, I got all the wrong answers to all the wrong problems.
Once I read it, I got in my truck, and I started driving. I didn’t know where I was driving to, I just knew I needed to drive. As chief, I needed to tell the Wheelers, as the person harboring the kid that he had just committed suicide over, I couldn’t tell them, I couldn’t tell them that their kid is dead and that it was my fault. Then I thought about how she would react, how she would blame herself, how I knew that if I didn’t tell her, I was just delaying the inevitable.
I, Jim Hopper, killed Michael Wheeler.